Tag Archives: World Bank
CPRafrica 2012/CPRsouth7: call for abstracts and young scholar applications. Click here for details.
Crowdsourced, accurate maps
The World Bank – Google collaboration seems a brilliant idea; key to its success is how national government react. But if even some cooperate . . . . Lack of knowledge of social infrastructure like schools and hospitals makes it more costly when natural disasters strike, setting back recovery efforts, sometimes by months. And lack [...]
Engagement with Burma begins
LIRNEasia has always believed in the efficacy of engagement and in the futility of boycott. Even when the conditions of our funding prevented us from spending money on citizens of Burma, we spent from our meager overhead funds to maintain engagement. We are continuing this practice at CPRsouth6 in Bangkok this month. Thus we are [...]
Pacific ICT Regulatory Resource Center launched
The office of the Pacific ICT Regulatory Resource Centre (PIRRC) was officially opened for business on 10 November 2011 on the campus of the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Suva by Ms. Elizabeth Powell, Permanent Secretary for Public Enterprises, Communications, Civil Aviation and Tourism, Government of Fiji. Earlier this year, LIRNEasia won the [...]
Poor served better by sector reform than by subsidy programs: World Bank evaluation
It’s always a challenge to decipher the special language of evaluation reports, but this para in the recent evaluation report on the ICT activities of the World Bank does seem like an indictment of universal service programs. 4.28 Equity and integration of marginalized groups have been more effectively supported by Bank support for ICT policy [...]
Pacific ICT Regulatory Resource Center
LIRNEasia has won the contract to establish the Pacific ICT Regulatory Resource Center, based at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji. This assignment from the World Bank will see M. Aslam Hayat, Senior Policy Fellow, relocate to Suva (actually he should land in Suva today) to establish the center as its founder [...]
Sri Lanka post: The sickly child atrophies further
When one only reforms only a part of an interconnected sector, the unreformed parts start to atrophy. Because of union resistance and the perception that the post was not that much of a money maker to start with, the hitherto conjoined posts and telecom were bifurcated and reform efforts focused on telecom. So 30 years [...]
An antidote to development fatigue
We work with data, so we see the evidence: more people have phones, more houses have permanent roofs, more homes have refrigerators, and so on. Yet, the everyday conversations harp on the failures. We too talk about them, because we must, but we do so in the form of “what could have been better” rather [...]
Breached irrigation works:Not letting the crisis go to waste
In 2005, we were approached by citizens and professionals to help raise awareness about the dangers of “an inland tsunami,” dam breaches. With the help of committed professionals, a small grant of around LKR 700,000 (around USD 7000) from the local initiatives fund of CIDA, an extremely generous partner in Vanguard Management, and the active [...]
A multi-polar world requires multi-polar knowledge
LIRNEasia has always been about more than ICTs; it has been about hope in the heart and money in the pocket. Our current focus on the role of knowledge in agriculture value chains will further remove the ICT veil. In this light, I was pleased to read an affirmation of our thinking and approach by [...]
How to measure success/failure of Brazil’s broadband policy
I was invited to conduct a discussion at the Cabinet Office in Brasilia with senior government officials driving the Brazilian Broadband Policy that will shortly be announced. Representatives of the relevant ministries, ANATEL the regulatory agency, the public telecom operator and a local think tank participated in what proved to be a lively discussion. Given [...]
Somalia calling
Amid rapid technological development, the competition to supply telecom services in war-torn Somalia proves that some complex businesses can thrive even in one of Africa’s dangerous markets. One of the largest telecom companies in Somalia, Hormuud Telecom, has annual sales of as much as US$40 million. Even “Mobile 2.0″ is making inroads here. But the success of Somalia’s telecom sector shouldn’t [...]
Farmer profits increase by 33% because of availability of agri-market price information, another research study confirms
We documented the research done by Jensen and Aker on the benefits of mobiles to producers and consumers. Now we have a third good piece of research, this time not of decentralized information provision, but of centralized provision in India with the e Choupals. ITC Limited, an Indian company that is one of the largest [...]
Sri Lanka Telecentre connectivity story 3: The 128 kpbs umbilical cord is not too bad…
The looks may deceive, but this is a radio station. Prabhavi Community Radio - the first Internet community radio in Sri Lanka comes from Prabhavi Resources Center, Weranketagoda, Ampara – the post-conflict district in Eastern province (8 hours travel from Colombo). It operates from a Nenasala, one of the 500 odd telecenters funded by the World [...]
Sri Lanka telecenter connectivity story 1: Not an infrastructure issue always…
Ambuluwawa, about 1,100 m above sea level, is probably the highest point in the vicinity of Gampola. Not surprisingly, all telecom operators exploit the geography. Transmission stations/towers encircle the summit. (See above) That is what one calls infrastructure. Just 10 km away, Sirimalwatte Ananda thero, a young and energetic Buddhist monk, runs a Nenasala, a [...]
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