Philippine telecentre program gets funding for roadmap implementation

The Philippine Community eCenter (CeC) Program will receive funding from the country's eGovernment Fund to support the implementation of the 2008-2010 strategic roadmap.

The roadmap, which was launched in April last year after a series of consultation workshops, outlines the direction for the growth and sustainability of CeCs and embodies the overall vision of bridging the digital divide by increasing access to ICT-enabled services and relevant content via the establishment of a CeC in every municipality by 2010. The CeC roadmap was developed in partnership with telecentre.org.

The roadmap implementation project, which was proposed by the National Computer Center - Field Operations Office (NCC-FOO), seeks to realize said vision. NCC-FOO is the Commission on Information and Communications Technology's CeC Program Management Office.

The project, which will run for a period of three years, comprises four major components all geared towards making CeCs self-sustaining, relevant and potent instruments for empowering the less developed communities of the country.

The project components consist of: 1) the establishment of new CeCs; 2) the transformation of existing school laboratories and Internet cafes into CeCs; 3) capability building; and 4) content development.

The project seeks to establish at least 200 CeCs per year over a three year period. New CeCs will be established in municipalities where such facilities do not exist yet. Priority will be given to those municipalities where there is existing infrastructure support like electrical power and Internet connectivity. The package will include equipment and relevant training courtesy of the project while the recipient municipality shall put up the other resource requirements such as space, Internet connection and manpower as counterpart contribution.

For the second component, partnerships will be established with implementers of existing computerization programs in schools and universities as well as Internet cafe associations in the country. Around 200 centers are being eyed for transformation over the next three years.

The project also seeks to develop and enhance the skills of CeC knowledge workers such as the center manager and the technical and administrative support staff in the areas of planning, managing and sustaining the operation of the CeC. It shall be undertaken in partnership with the telecentre.org-Philippine CeC Academy (tPCA), the capability building arm of the Philippine CeC Network (PhilCeCNet).

Meanwhile, the content development component shall address the need for relevant content in the CeCs particularly in the areas of health, education, livelihood and agriculture. It shall be implemented following a three-tiered perspective as laid out in the roadmap: 1) mapping and linking of existing content; 2) development of new content based on content needs of target communities; and 3) building the capability of CeCs to develop local content and making it available via the Philippine CeC portal.

Knowledge exchange conferences shall also be organized during the project to facilitate coordination and networking among CeC beneficiaries, telecentre operators and key players and stakeholders in the country.

As part of advocacy efforts, an awards system recognizing the Best CeC Manager, Best CeC and Best CeC Content shall be established to give due recognition and incentives for their efforts in maintaining the CeC in their area as a valuable knowledge center.

CeC Program Director, Tess Camba, said that the PhilCeCNet and the CeC Academy shall be major partners in the overall implementation of the project.