The use of the Internet in facilitating policy discussions
presented on the occasion of the
3rd PACT Global Workshop on Financial Accountability & Transparency
 Siam City Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
2-3 July 1998
Richard Labelle (rlabelle@web.net)
Consultant, UNDP SDNP
Information technology and knowledge management for development
980702
Also see: Report on the proceedings of the 3rd Annual Pact Global Workshop on Financial Accountability and Transparency
  

Contents
  1. Introduction
  2. The Internet for facilitating policy discussions and much more
  3. What is the Internet?
  4. Why is the Internet important in the development process?
  5. What is required for using the Internet as a tool for communications among decision makers in developing countries?
  6. What limits Internet use in developing countries?
  7. UNDP SDNP
  8. What has the SDNP taught us about using the Internet for development communications
 Annexes  

Introduction

 I wish to thank the organizers of this conference, and colleagues at UNDP in New York for inviting me to address you today. For me, this is an opportunity to speak about recent experiences of using the Internet for sustainable human development in over 44 of the poorer countries of the developing world as part of UNDP’s SDNP, a networking activity in support of sustainable human development. 

The Internet for facilitating policy discussions and much more

 Policy discussions are but one very specific, albeit important aspect of the development process. To do justice to the topic of how the Internet has and continues to facilitate policy discussions in the international development community, let us look at the decision making process in general and consider policy discussions a special application. Where appropriate, this presentation will focus on those Internet based communication activities, behaviours, applications or examples that are relevant to policy formulation.

How does access to the Internet and related technologies affect communications?:

  • Faster, better quality communications and data manipulations
  • Extended reach around the world at very low costs
Versatile applications for exchanging information, including options for:
  • Exchanging data in different formats: text, graphics, images, animation, and now voice, video and multimedia
  • Point to point exchanges: email, Internet phone, CuSee-Me (video)
  • Live group discussions: chat spaces; text, voice and video conferencing
  • Broadcast dissemination: newsgroups, mailing lists, push technologies and Internet ‘channels’
  • Data exchange: ftp, the Web (http)
  • Gathering statistics and obtaining feedback: online counters, cookies, online forms, interactive forms and databases, etc.
  • Publishing in a variety of formats and with different tools, including online databases: the Web
  • Options for privacy (PGP), 128 bit encryption (where legal!), and private corporate TCP/IP networks (intranets) linked to the Internet
  • Videoconferencing, video on demand, interactive video (choose your own ending)
  • 3D rendering of architectural and related plans (virtual tours, entertainment / gaming)
  • Richer and more diverse knowledge resources available online: users have the means for being better informed as a result of increased access to these resources
  • Professional and business / work networks of colleagues, associates, business resources and support services (intranets and knowledge networks)
  • Online news services, including information gathering services (EIU, etc.)
  • Online newspapers
  • Online commercial databases
  • Online job marts
A variety of different applications are emerging for transaction processing:
  • GroupWare: for business collaboration
  • e-commerce (electronic commerce), including online shopping
  • Distance learning
  • Telemedicine
  • Online contract bidding (World Bank, ADB, CIDA, UNOPS …)
 The availability of versatile and powerful applications for managing information, resources, ideas, knowledge and people:
  • Organizing, searching for, retrieving, sharing and presenting information on and off line
  • Managing the information obtained, on and off line: textual databases and indexing engines: search engines, etc.
  • Online automated translation (Systran: www.systransoft.com/)
  • OCR and document management, data mining
  • Business / professional collaboration (GroupWare: Lotus Notes; conferencing; intranets, etc.)
 Let us consider the features of the Internet that have contributed and that are continuing to contribute to its ever increasing popularity.

III. What is the Internet?

What is the Internet: 4 things
  • People
  • Computers
  • Connections
  • Information.
 How did it come to be:
  • The microprocessor
  • Moore’s Law
  • Metcalfe’s Law
  • Digitization
  • Deregulation
  • Technological convergence
  • Knowledge management in the information society.
Significance:
  • Growth
  • Applications
  • Resources: > 20 million servers online, nature and structure of the information, indices and search engines, machine translation services, etc.
  • Distribution and inequities: the information rich and the information poor. Is access to information a fundamental human right?
  • Efficient communications at all levels of society and across all sectors of the economy around the world and across that part of the universe the Earth is proximal to (i.e. <= 5 light ‘days’ from Planet Earth)
  • Trends: much more, much faster, eventually, much easier?
  • Killer apps
 

IV. Why is the Internet important in the development process?

  Why would a developing country, including some of the poorest countries in the world, want to divert precious resources to invest in information technologies that for the great majority of their people, are and will remain largely inaccessible for the foreseeable future? How can these technologies, which require highly trained individuals, be appropriate in countries where access to potable water, a reliable food supply, primary health care and other basic needs are obvious priorities? How will the Internet and related technologies help eradicate poverty, promote sound environmental management, enhance the role of women, encourage consensus decision making and promote good governance?

 Here are a few elements of information that contribute to the answers. These are based in part on the experience of the UNDP SDNP

  • For efficiency and increased productivity. Informed decision making is better decision making.
  • Because in cases where the information gap is so great between the information rich and the information poor, a little information can go a long way.
 One of the characteristics of the Internet which makes it particularly suitable for correspondents who may not have English as their mother tongue, is the relative simplicity of textual and multimedia communications: email and the Web. We are not talking raw data, tables and cells of facts and figures, but simple text presented and /or highlighted with multimedia to enrich the unit informational value of Internet communications for the individual.
  • The Internet is now a mainstream and rapidly growing application used for communications by millions of users worldwide. It is cost effective and ubiquitous, (see the figures on Internet growth and distribution.), with only a handful of countries without full Internet access (in Africa, only the Congo Republic will not have full Internet access shortly - For data on the state of the Internet in Africa, visit: http://demiurge.wn.apc.org/africa/).
 For governance
  • The ability to communicate and link freely with counterparts around the corner and around the world using email and the Web has empowered stakeholders for sustainable development in ways that could not have been possible before the late 1980s. We shall consider some examples of how the Internet has been used with great effect to influence and change policies.
  • For accountability and transparency: for those with access, the Internet is perceived to be a fair and equitable communications vehicle, in part because it is not readily controlled by any one interested party and participation in the Internet is not restricted by membership, although in developing countries, access is limited by availability of expertise and by the cost of equipment and connection fees.
  • Governments and other organizations concerned with managing the development process and mobilizing citizens can use the Internet to enhance the delivery of government or other services, as well as information and data that governments and other stakeholders may not be able to share readily with their citizens and other stakeholders for a variety of reasons.
  • The concept of access to information as a fundamental human right has been recognized and this becomes meaningful with the advent of the Internet as we know it today. Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, in a speech on the occasion of the GK97 conference that took place in Toronto in 1997, underlined the importance attached to information and access to information.
  • For opening countries up to their own citizens and stakeholders, and for presenting a national view of the country to those outside national borders
  • So decision makers can acquire a basis for comparing their situation with that existing in other countries, locations, etc., in order to better appreciate what, if any advantages or disadvantages they have, and to act on these accordingly
  • So that actors within country can have better access to information and resources wherever these may be located
  • So that countries and stakeholders can have their say, and share knowledge, experiences and information with stakeholders near and far
  • To encourage and even permit greater access to local knowledge resources, and, to encourage local sources of knowledge and expertise to make this information available via the Internet
  • To inform and attract potential collaborators and potential investors
  • For sound management: informed and networked decision makers make better decisions and are more visible and therefore, more accountable. Getting them to use the Internet is probably the first step in securing this belief
  • For standardization / normalization: to share information on standards
  • To increase participation in negotiations, including treaties and conventions, in commercial and other contracts and bids, etc.
  • For transaction processing.
 

V. What is required for using the Internet as a tool for communications among decision makers in developing countries?

 At the very least, a basic understanding of the nature, structure and potential of the Internet and of related technologies and management practices that allows planners and other decision makers to network among themselves and with an ever increasing number of like minded people.

Unfortunately, in many developing countries, when an Internet connection is available, linking via the Internet to resources around the world is more readily achieved than accessing local knowledge bases, and this is a priority issue for projects such as the UNDP SDNP described below. For example, during a recent mission to Chad in the Sahel, government decision makers were surprised to learn of over 4900 Internet sites dealing with their country, of which less than 4 were produced in the country itself!;

  1. Some technical skills to achieve a basic level of implementation, even on a pilot project basis; and,
  2. Eventually, the means to manage and maintain and/or upgrade or improve the technology and related applications while ensuring the long term sustainability of the service. Business management skills along with technical skills are especially needed.
These are rare commodities in many developing countries, especially in smaller countries that occupy the lower tiers of the Human Development Index (HDI). Furthermore, in nearly all countries, developing or otherwise, many sectors of society and of the economy do not have access to the Internet. The same is true in general for people and groups in rural environments who are generally not connected. Solutions exist to help overcome this situation, and technological innovations, including satellite and wireless technologies, are appearing that will permit users to connect wherever they may be at reasonable costs.

Several initiatives aim to foster greater use of networking tools and of the Internet for development. In Africa alone, there are over 70 such initiatives ongoing (see http://demiurge.wn.apc.org/africa/projects). In general, there is as great a need to network the initiatives and efforts of the donor countries as there is to help recipients in developing countries (see the BellaNet Web site for more details: http://www.bellanet.org). We shall consider one such initiative, UNDP’s Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP).

VI. What limits Internet use in developing countries?

  In the poorest of the poor countries, there are economic activities. Governments operate and civil society also exists, although they have far fewer resources than in other countries. People communicate and transact business, albeit, under sometimes difficult circumstances and at a much reduced scale when compared to other countries. Access to the Internet can be useful for these countries, as long as there is a basic capacity to use the technology. And in some of the poorer countries especially, and in rural regions in general, as well as for many sectors of society in developing countries, the capacity does not exist to exploit the Internet and NICTs. Several initiatives are ongoing to help bridge this gap and to help users, especially key decision makers, connect and become consumers as well as providers of information.

A lack of trained personnel is the greatest limitation to diffusion of the Internet in many developing countries. There is a threshold of ‘technological know how’ that countries need to reach to ‘grow’ the Internet sustainably. In some countries of Africa South of the Sahara, there are insufficient technical and business management skills to operate an Internet service provider (ISP). Even finding a technician trained in TCP/IP, Unix and/or Windows NT, the operating systems of the Internet, can be nearly impossible, although this is changing rapidly.

VII. UNDP SDNP

Since 1992, UNDP has supported the Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP). The objectives of the SDNP are to help developing countries achieve sustainable human development by facilitating access to information for decision making and by encouraging greater participation by all stakeholders and especially by elements of civil society in the decision making process itself.

 The SDNP was initiated by Maurice Strong as part of UNDP’s efforts to enact the recommendations of the Brundtland Commission. In 1992, as a result of the Earth Summit, UNDP launched the SDNP to help implement Agenda 21, the action plan on sustainable development. Agenda 21 recognizes the importance of access to information in order to achieve the objectives agreed by the international community on the occasion of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

 The SDNP adopts a participatory approach and is based on a roundtable type of consultative mechanism to guide its operation. SDNP initiatives try to achieve this by helping countries develop the capacity to use networking technologies, and in particular the Internet and NICTs in general. The technology is a means only, not an end.

 SDNP operates in 40 developing countries. Negotiations are ongoing between the SDNP and another 50 countries. A similar initiative, SIDSNet links over 30 small islands developing states.

Current SDNP activities

  • Meeting place for National Stakeholders in SHD
  • Affordable Internet access
  • Develop a community with skills to utilize it
  • Participatory Approach
  • Content Development and Capacity Building
The SDNP is based on several principles (see www.sdnp.undp.org for details) including the need to involve governments in the process of setting up an SDNP activity as well as the concept of fair and equitable access to information for all stakeholders for sustainable development.

SDNPs do the following things:

  • Promote and strengthen the consultative process through the use of networking tools and technologies, especially the Internet, and by bringing key decision makers together in a Steering Committee that will be responsible for getting the project off the ground;
  • Support UNDP country programmes and national plans for sustainable development;
  • Promote awareness through the consultative process, conferences, seminars, etc. Again, these consultations involve key decision makers at all levels;
  • Train users, including especially decision makers and technical experts to exploit and manage the Internet and related resources. Training trainers is the objective of technical training;
  • Help develop networking solutions for users, so they too can be more than just passive users or consumers of mostly foreign information, but so they can also contribute information directly to the Internet. Priority is to work with users that may not have the financial and human resources to exploit the Internet. The project installs PC based servers and links these to the Internet;
  • Develop local content on the Internet. Specifically, to develop local Web servers and sites, as well as related applications;
  • Develop management and business plans to exploit the project and extend it;
  • In some cases, deal with Internet and telecommunications policy issues, and make proposals for enhancing Internet use. In some countries, the SDNP lays then groundwork for the creation of a national Internet Society to promote the Internet;
  • Work closely with existing initiatives, such as those undertaken by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), other donors (USAID’s Leland Initiative in Africa), the World Bank, IDRC, etc., in order to avoid duplication and to build on existing achievements.

VIII. What has the SDNP and like initiatives taught us about using the Internet for development communications

Some observations and reactions recorded by SDNP concerning the Internet
  • While understanding of the Internet is superficial in many of the poorest developing countries, interest is very high among nearly all of the key decision makers we have met
  • Many developing countries, especially the poorest, need technical assistance to help them develop and implement appropriate strategies for national telecommunications services, including the development of Internet services. Very few countries have developed national information strategies and plans
  • Only a very few nationals in some of the poorer countries have the skills to manage Internet servers and sites
  • The Internet is shockingly ‘public’ and much too open for some
  • Who controls the Internet?
  • Many (most) national telecommunications operators have limited understanding on the Internet, and are in some cases completely surpassed by the capacity of the private sector to market and develop Internet products and services
  • Fear of loss of basic revenues, i.e. international telephone calls, by national telecommunications operators is a factor of resistance that impedes the development of the Internet in some developing countries
  • Tariffs for Internet use in many developing countries are not based on sound market analysis, and are arbitrary at best
  • Nearly all countries want to be present of the Internet. Priority applications are:
  • Developing a Web site to provide basic information reflecting the view of the government , the goods and services the country wishes to trade, etc.
  • Developing government intranets
  • Developing Web sites with information about investment opportunities, government policies and tourism information
  • Email continues to be the most important and accessible application for users in developing countries
  • Cybercafes are now appearing, but are still relatively high priced by developing country standards
  • Concern about the ramifications of the information contained on the Internet raises ire and fear in some national interlocutors
  • Rural access to the Internet is very limited, but community access services are gaining precedence as a model for the delivery of a variety of value added telecommunications services, including Internet services
  • Distance learning is emerging as a priority application for local and community development
  • The concept of the telecentre is receiving attention from development agencies as a way of delivering value added telecommunications services on a community basis.

a) Some examples how the Internet has been used to influence policy formulation and decision making in general as it relates to sustainable human development

Examples of how the Internet has been used to affect key governance and/or development policies:

    • The UNCED Process: PrepComs, NGO consultations, preparation of Agenda 21, the Earth Negotiations Bulletin that published proceedings as and when they occurred
    • The Earth Negotiations Bulletin coverage of post UNCED conferences on the United Nations: sustainable development news reporting at UN development conferences!
    • WTO and the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI)
    • UNDP SDNP in general, and specifically:
    • Chad
    • Pakistan
    • BellaNet: to encourage greater collaboration and thus better governance in international development planning and programming

The lessons learnt by the UNDP SDNP:

  • Government decision makers in developing countries want to know. They are extremely curious and eventually, very keen on the Internet, especially as it applies to education and research, business promotion and trade development, and to promoting their national interests and points of view
    • Decision makers in developing countries see the development benefits of the Internet. Some are prepared to commit their own funds and to ask for outside help
    • Decision makers in developing countries want the Internet for a variety of reasons
    • For professional reasons: to stay in touch with colleagues, researchers, etc. by email (especially for recent graduates used to using the Internet)
    • For personal reasons: to stay in touch with friends and relatives
    • For increased communications with donors and other development actors
    • For trade promotion, to attract investors, to develop information ‘windows’ or kiosks on their country, etc.
    • For specific applications: distance learning, local and community development through telecentres, etc.
    • For public relations, and to communicate their policies and to counter unfavorable ‘press’ or influences
    • For reasons of prestige, to save face, not to be left behind, especially in the light of competing and/or neighbouring countries that are using the Internet to affirm their presence and promote their countries
    • For intelligence gathering using the Internet, especially regarding what certain organisations such as The Economist Intelligence Unit, Amnesty International and others may be saying about these countries.
    • When informed about the importance of the Internet, decision makers want to be part of the action and want to influence or control the development of the Internet in their countries
    • Government leaders want to save face and have an opportunity to tell their side of the story and counter unwelcome / unauthorized publicity about national policies
    • Trends: Countries are becoming more aware of the need for developing policies to deal with the Internet.
    • Killer apps: an Internet wish list as expressed by policy makers in developing countries
    • Distance learning: wiring all university campuses and research institutes or centres across a country, and linking them together and to the Internet
    • Government intranets with leased line access to the Internet for key ministries: Office of the President / Prime Minister, Planning, Finances, Foreign Affairs (linking with embassies)
    • Local and governmental Web servers, containing locally produced information and knowledge resources, contacts, directories, etc.
    • Tele-medicine applications linking local universities to medical centres of excellence around the world
    • Community access centres or telecentres for value added telecommunications, especially in remote locations. How to build on existing ‘tele-boutiques’. Community access centres for local and community development, for business incubators, for job creation, for distance learning, for training and lifelong learning, etc.
    • Remote transaction processing for job creation
    • More support for the UNDP SDNP and like activities
    1. To this we would add:
    • A national information strategy
    • Policies to encourage the purchase of the hardware and software required for people to use the Internet and related technologies
    • Internet access fees that correspond to the realities of the market, and not just to the rates arbitrarily applied by ISPs elsewhere
    • Greater collaboration between donors
  b) Some pioneering organizations first active in using the Internet to influence opinion and decision making in the realm of international development

Organizations that used the Internet (mostly email, newsgroups and electronic mailing lists) to mobilize resources and to lobby over issues of common concern
  • The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and related networks (GreenNet, Web, Esanet, HealthNet, Mango, etc.)
  • TCN
  • Poptel / GeoNet
  • The Third World Network (TWN), with HQ is Malaysia
  • Associacao para Projetos de Combate a Fome: Brazilian Institute of Economic and Social Analysis (IBASE)
  • NGONet
  • FOE International
  • The Environment Liaison Centre International (ELCI)
  • National NGOs using FidoNet and uucp to exchange email

Organizations that used and/or promoted the use of the Internet (originally mostly email, newsgroups and electronic mailing lists) to network for scientific and educational reasons:

  • The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada
  • Unesco
  • CGNet - initially supported by IDRC - and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
  • Universities in the North and some in the South as well (BitNet, EARN, etc.)
  • As well as users of uucp (a computer to computer communications protocol), and to a lesser extent, research and academic networks.

 

C) Examples of the use of the Internet in SDNP countries in relation to policy formulation

The case of Bénin

Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 11:02:34 +0200
From: Corbin Michel GUEDEGBE <mcgued@bow.intnet.bj>
To: SDNP <sdnpmgrs@sdnp.undp.org>,
Richard Labelle <rlabelle@netserver.web.net>
Cc: Corbin Michel GUEDEGBE <mcgued@bow.intnet.bj>
Subject: Examples of the Internet / SDNP influencing policy making
Hi Richard,
 In response to your message I would like to share with you one experience which might be relevant to your paper.

As you know, SDNP-Benin aims to establish a national network for communication and information exchange on sustainable development, a national Intranet. Since we became operational in early 1998 we have focused on information and training of various categories of actors and stakeholders in order to build national awareness and capacity as regards NTIC. We’ve been doing this through seminars targeting for example journalists, Steering Committee members, Chamber of Commerce members and policymakers in various areas such as the Constitutional Court members and the Communication and Audiovisual Authority (Haute Autorité de l’Audiovisuel et de la Communication / HAAC).

 The HAAC is responsible for formulating policies concerning news media and communication in general and for licensing private Press (radio and TV stations as well as newspapers).

 The Seminar SDNP-Benin organized last February for HAAC members brought a change in the way this major institution performs its functions.

 During the practical session of the NTIC (Internet) Seminar, while participants were visiting various websites of their French counterpart institution (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audovisuel), the Chairman of the HAAC realized that some specific documents he had requested from France and was still expecting were available on the website and could be downloaded and printed .

This awareness of the usefulness of NTIC had the following impact on the work and organizational life of the HAAC:

 -The HAAC could save considerable time and become more effective. It did not have to wait for these specific documents to arrive from France before continuing its deliberations on the policy it was formulating

 -the previous resistance to NTIC of some members of the HAAC disappeared

 -the Chairman of the HAAC decided to obtain full Internet connection for his institution and this was done within less than a week. He is even now thinking of establishing an Intranet for the HAAC.

 I hope this experience will be useful to you.

 Regards

 Corbin Michel Guedegbe
National Coordinator, SDNP-Benin

The case of Pakistan

 There have been many instances where we have used the Internet to provide timely critical information and expert advice on a number of issues. The latest was an SOS (on behalf of IUCN, Pakistan) that we sent out in the wake of an oil spill that occurred off the Pasni coast (near Karachi) about 20 days ago. This was posted on about 20 mailing lists and conferences and we got some very useful feedback from a number of experts around the world.

 Here I am quoting two such examples -- am posting this on the list as well for it might be interesting to my other colleagues. The first one is a case of electronic networking for disaster management while the other recounts the use of Internet in a public litigation case.
1- The Toxic Dump Episode and E-mail

In the month of May 1993, an unscrupulous operator had dumped about 2.5 tons of a highly toxic chemical substance, meta-dinitrobenzene near a railway station in Karachi. It was picked up by an unsuspecting godown owner as probably something useful. This person and his driver died as a result of inhaling the toxic fumes from the chemical. The local police impounded the material, and not knowing what it was -- they were lead into believing that it was potassium or sodium cyanide from the toxic effects that it had caused -- dumped it into the Lyari river, which has increasingly been turned into more of a sewage channel than a river. But by then the story had been reported in a national newspaper causing great concern among the environmentally conscious public. The IUCN Pakistan played a key role from then on in highlighting the potential hazards and the need for the safe disposal, or at least the detoxification of the material. It was taken out from the river and a sample of it tested under the IUCN's auspices in a well known research institute of chemistry. It was identified as meta- dinitrobenzene, a highly toxic and potentially explosive chemical. The various government and non-government agencies that were involved in this operation had little idea about the safe handling and disposal of the substance.

 We now come to a part of the story which is both heart warming and an indicator of what can be achieved through the medium of electronic mail (e-mail). The SDN Pakistan, on receiving this information from the IUCN sent an SOS via e-mail. This appeal for information and expert advice was put in some of the conferences, like en.toxics on PeaceNet and en.alerts on EcoNet of the Association of Progressive Communications (APC). The response was nothing short of overwhelming -- both through fax and e-mail. Though it was a rather technical question needing very specialized knowledge, more than 50 Individuals and organizations responded with concrete suggestions and offers of help. There were responses from places as diverse as Brazil and Finland, Newzealand and Switzerland apart from more "expected" places like US, UK, Germany etc.. The respondents not only included US organizations like Environmental Protection Agency, American Lung Association, National Institute of Environmental Health and Sciences and experts in related fields, but also a number of students and concerned individuals, including Pakistani expatriates. Some of these concerned individuals went to the extent of searching commercial databases to retrieve useful information, while others sent comprehensive fact sheets (more than 20 pages in one instance) covering topics like the properties of the substance, how to handle it, known effects on human beings and possible ways of detoxification and disposal. This information which kept trickling in, was enough to compile a small book on the subject.

 The story had a happy ending when the toxic material was safely incinerated under expert supervision.

 This incident which took place almost immediately after the inception of SDNP, Pakistan brought into sharp relief the role for which the national SDNPs had been created under Agenda 21. Timely information for disaster management is an important component of sustainable development, and the global dimension in this episode -- the fact that this information came from diverse sources from different parts of the world -- makes it a far potent real life example of the necessity and effectiveness of SDNPs than many hypothetical ones cited in the promotion literature.
 

Ours is a network devoted to providing access and dissemination of information on sustainable development. Though such information is regularly distributed through a number of discussion lists and offline conferences, there are times when specific information is critically needed. The following 'story' is about one such instance -- one of the first ever public interest litigation cases in Pakistan. It is narrated by Mr. Mohammad Yasin of SDPI (Sustainable Development Policy Institute), Islamabad.

2- Internet Helps in Public Interest Litigation CASE


Residents of a densely populated sector of Islamabad (Pakistan), one day saw massive cutting of trees. This was being done by the relevant government agencies to construct an electric grid station within 40 feet of the houses. Threatened by the adverse effects of the electromagnetic fields on human health, particularly for children and pregnant women, the residents filed a writ petition for violation of human rights in the Supreme Court (SC). The Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) was made a party to the case.

 The SDPI sent out an appeal on the Internet through SDNP for latest research evidence and for legal advice. Within 24 hours, evidence and legal advice started coming in. This was in the shape of laws on the 'right of way' of grid stations, transmission lines and research papers. Equipped with convincing evidence SDPI and petitioners' counsel argued in the SC.

 The case goes on. However, the SC has constituted a Technical Committee, has directed the relevant government agencies and the committee to invite public debate and public hearings. The agency has been directed that while planning future grid stations, these will be publicized and public hearings will be held. The government has been directed to constitute a commission for the purpose and relevant agency will commence research on the subject.

The SC Order was made use of in a similar case in Indonesia.   This was made possible thanks to email, SDNP and the Internet.

Author: Mohammad Yasin,
Sustainable Development Policy Institute,
Islamabad, Pakistan

-- Apart from these examples, SDNP Pakistan, during its initial phase (93-94) worked in close concert with the Information and Communications Cell of the Prime Minister's Committee for Research and Analysis (CRA) to prepare a policy paper that strongly recommended opening data network operations to the private sector. This was accepted and implemented by the Government of Pakistan (GOP), which over a period of 2-3 years, dramatically changed the networking scene in the country. Cheers,
-Hasan
Sustainable Development Networking Programme, Phone: 051-270684,270691
PO Box 3099, House 12, Street 85, G-6/4, Fax: 051-270688
Islamabad 44000, Pakistan. email: rizvi@sdnpk.undp.org


Richard Labelle (rlabelle@web.net)
 


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