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Call for Papers: Infrastructure Regulation: What works, Why, and How do we know?
Deadline: 05 December 2008.




Webhamuva: Tsunami Voices Final Report

by
Divakar Goswami
on October 23, 2006
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LIRNEasia and Sarvodaya initiated the Webhamuva program with assistance from the World Bank’s Small Grants Program to give voice to the people whose opinions go unheard in the post-tsunami reconstruction work.

The final report is available here (PDF):

Webhamuva.jpg
WEBHAMUVA: Report on People’s Consultations on Post Tsunami Relief, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation in Sri Lanka

The findings from the report indicate that people are dissatisfied with the pace of reconstruction and rehabilitation. Most of the tsunami-affected spoken to have yet to recover their normal lives in terms of livelihood, permanent housing and their sense of safety and security. The feeling of helplessness and despair is quite prevalent especially when people do not have the capital or means to engage in sustainable livelihoods. Needs assessment from the donors has not been very effective because…

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Forward movement on dam safety in Sri Lanka

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on August 8, 2006
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LIRNEasia was invited to a meeting by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Mahaveli Development to discuss dam safety, based on the concept paper we developed last year in collaboration with a large number of partners.

Work is underway to develop a project for World Bank funding that includes dam safety and the upgrading of hydrological and metereological information systems connected to the Sri Lanka’s water resources. The World Bank task managers present emphasized that the project development as well as its implementation must be done in adherence to the principles of consultation, participation, ownership of the project by all parties, and transparency.

LIRNEasia was the only non-governmental entity at the meeting that had 30-40 attendees. In my comments, I expressed our appreciation of the invitation and offered…

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Webhamuva showcased at Small Grants Launch, World Bank

by
Divakar Goswami
on April 16, 2006
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The Webhamuva Project was showcased at the World Bank’s launch of the Small Grants Program (SGP) 2006 in Sri Lanka on April 6, 2006, as an example of the previous year’s funding under the same program. www.webhamuva.org was launched last year to ensure that the voices of the tsunami affected were heard widely and their interests and input were taken into consideration during the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase. Divakar Goswami, Director of Organizational Development and Projects at LIRNEasia made a presentation on the project and highlighted some of the findings. The presentation is available for download as a PDF document.

This project was partly funded by the World Bank’s Small Grants from 2005 and was implemented by LIRNEasia in partnership with Sarvodaya. It will run until June 2006.
Peter Harold, the…

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Webhamuva yields bicycles

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on January 12, 2006
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As part of our partnership with Sarvodaya on using ICTs for disaster management, LIRNEasia is managing www.webhamuva.org.  The excerpt below is from the Daily Mirror of 10th January 2006(www.dailymirror.lk).  We understand that a reader has offered to donate some bicycles to one of the families featured on the blog

"Sarvodaya has initiated and activated its development programs at the grassroots level, taking the ideas and suggestions of benefiting people as the foundation of the schemes and their active participation as the main component of the projects. However, the movement recognized that this might not be the way that all organizations conducting post-Tsunami work coordinate their activities. So in a bid to give voice to the people whose opinions go unheard in the reconstruction work, it set…

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LIRNEasia at WSIS, Tunis, Nov 17

by
Divakar Goswami
on December 6, 2005
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Pro-Poor, Pro-Market ICT Policy and Regulation
World Summit on the information Society, Matmata Room, Kram Centre Tunis, November 17, 2005, 9:00 – 16:45
LIRNE.NET and the World Dialogue on Regulation (WDR), LIRNEasia, Research ICT Africa (RIA), Diálogo regional sobre la sociedad de la información (DIRSI)
Sponsored by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and
The Information for Development Program of the World Bank (infoDev)
9:00-9:15 Welcome Randy Spence
9:15 - 10.15 ICT Demand, access and usage by the poor
Chair: Heloise Emdon, IDRC

Telecom Strategies on a Shoestring (Household Income Below USD 100/Month)(PDF download) (LIRNEasia) Ayesha Zainudeen, LIRNEasia team
Digital Poverty in LAC (DIRSI) Roxana Barrantes
Measuring ICT Access and Usage in Africa (RIA) Alison Gillwald, Christoph Stork
10:30-12:00 Core Networks and Policy Issues
Chair: Olivier Nana Nzepa, RIA

Having a Backbone; Making Best Use of What You’ve Got (LIRNEasia) Harsha Vardhana Singh, Rohan Samarajiva
SADC…

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LIRNEasia’s Executive Director moderates panel discussion on offshoring

by
Sriganesh Lokanathan
on November 11, 2005
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Sri Lanka aims to be paradise for high-end outsourcing

By Poornima Weerasekara
 The need to position Sri Lanka as a provider of top-end, high value adding outsourcing destination was highlighted yesterday at a CEO’s conference, titled “Offshore to Sri Lanka.”
The conference organised by the ICT sub-committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the World Bank in partnership with the Board of Investment (BOI) and the Information and Telecommunications Agency (ICTA) comprised of industry experts, venture capitalists and over 150 public and private sector CEOs. It aimed to create awareness about Sri Lanka’s potential as an off-shoring destination and to galvanize CEO’s into collectively realizing this potential.
“Sri Lanka has the largest number of UK qualified accountants outside of UK. This itself is a unique differentiator…

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LIRNEasia at WSIS, Tunis

by
Divakar Goswami
on September 7, 2005
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Pro-Poor Pro-Market Regulation Reform (PPPM)

From IDRC’s website
World Summit on the information Society, Kram Centre, Tunis, November 17, 2005
Conference Organisers: the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Information for Development Program of the World Bank (infoDev)

LIRNE.NET and the World Dialogue on Regulation (WDR)
LIRNEasia Research ICT Africa (RIA)
Diálogo regional sobre la sociedad de la información (DIRSI)

November 17, 2005 - Morning Program

Time Activity
8:30-8:45

Welcome - Richard Fuchs

8:45-9:45
ICT Demand, access and usage by the poor
Chair: Laurent Elder, IDRC
 
ICT Uses on a Shoestring in Asia (LIRNEasia)- Ayesha Zainudeen
Digital Poverty in LAC (DIRSI) - Roxana Barrantes
Towards an African e-index (RIA) - Alison Gillwald, Christoph Stork
 
Discussion
9:45-10:00
Coffee break
10:00-11:15
Core Networks and Policy Issues
Chair: F F Tusubira, RIA
 
Asia Backbone Study (LIRNEasia) - Rohan Samarajiva
Telecoms Funds and Regulatory Challenges - Judith Mariscal
South Asia ADCs, USFs and Subsidy Auctions (LIRNEasia) - Harsha da…
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Colloquium: Virtual Organizations

by
Ayesha Zainudeen
on February 18, 2005
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The Virtual Organisation: How do we get there?

Divakar:
How can we get researchers and participants to engage in LIRNEasia activitites? And sustain these relationships?

Money?
-this is tough, since we have limited funds

Professional development?

Look at Shared values.
LIRNEasia has a set of values, that can we abstract from these values that will get people to participate in our activities?

Open Source community is a good example
Highly capable ppl who work across the globe to develop code that is shared freely with anyone. It is very unstructured, but very successful. The participants don’t get paid fro it, but they get the advantage of its use, and its participatory development. How do we resonate from that?

Rohan:
Property right imposed on you in Open Source (according to the Success of Open Source) where you…

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World Bank President urges Tsunami reconstruction be driven by the affected

by
Divakar Goswami
on January 13, 2005
.

The press conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Washington DC of the World Bank President, Mr. Wolfensohn is available in its entirety via Audio and Video streaming.

More details on post-Tsunami reconstruction effort can be found on World Bank’s website.

Detailed damage assessments will follow initial estimates

WASHINGTON, January 12th, 2005-World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn said Wednesday that reconstruction in the tsunami-hit countries of Asia and Africa must be driven by the local communities affected by the disaster, adding that the process of rebuilding should be transparent and ensure accountability for
the funds pledged.

Mr. Wolfensohn returned this week from a visit to the disaster-affected areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, three of the twelve countries in Asia and Africa that were battered by the effects of…

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$53 Million for Wiring Sri Lanka

by
Indi Samarajiva
on September 23, 2004
.

From Lanka Business Online:

The World Bank late Tue approved US$ 53 mn to roll out the e-Sri Lanka project, which aims to bridge the digital divide in Sri Lanka.

Rolled out through the Information Communication Technologies Agency (ICTA) over a five-year period starting Nov., the project aims to improve public service delivery, increase private sector competitiveness, promote new sources of growth, accelerate social development, bridge the digital divide, and support peace.

ICT diffusion across the country will be the enabler for development throughout the key sectors of the economy.

The funds will come through the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending affiliate, with 40 years maturity and a ten-year grace period.

“This is an exciting program and we are delighted to be able to provide support…

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Rohan Samarajiva

by
Indi Samarajiva
on September 19, 2004
.

We’ve basically followed the cookbook in terms of having regulation .. but we still have problems.

SL is a country where we’ve given licences, but there hasn’t been much transparency. The model we’ve set out it individual licenses where scarce resources are involved, but only authorizations otherwise. In other words, you don’t need to come with the Minister’s brother-in-law to operate.

Also, license without access to scarce resources is not meaningful. Abu Saeed Khan spoke of licenses being issued without frequencies, and I think that is a fraud. The legislation has been drafted. Once it goes through we can deregulate the pricing for mobile operators, etc. In a way Mr. Morogoda and myself worked very hard against the World Bank’s policy of not supporting infrastructure.

Unless the reforms…

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Why LIRNEasia?

by
Indi Samarajiva
on September 2, 2004
.

Provisional Mission Statement: Improving the lives the people of Asia - by making it easier to use the information and communication technologies they need; by changing the laws, policies and regulations to enable those uses; by building Asia-based human capacity through research, training, consulting and advocacy.

Why LIRNEasia?
Enormous amounts of money are invested annually in ICTs. The potential of information and communication technologies, or ICTs for economic and social progress is substantial. ICTs aren’t necessarily the answer to higher incomes and development in itself; but together with other factors, they provide a means to improve people’s capabilities and knowledge so that they may better their lives. ‘Asia’ is the collective name for the countries roughly encircled by Russia, Turkey, Egypt and the Indian and Pacific Oceans.…

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