ICT in Jamaica
Where are we now?
Impact & lessons learned
IICD in Jamaica

Jamaica is a country with two sides – on the one hand, beautiful nature and countryside, an enviable climate and a long and rich culture, on the other hand poverty and violent crime.

However, in the past twenty years, Jamaica has made substantial progress in poverty reduction. Between 1989 and 2003, Jamaica’s poverty headcount ratio declined from 30.5 percent to 19.1 percent.

The country has made remarkable progress in the areas of financial sector reform and reform of the social sectors including safety nets, HIV/AIDS prevention and control, and education. For example, enrolment of children aged 3-5 from the poorest quintile rose from 80 percent in 1998 to 90 percent in 2000. The government is now working to improve the quality of education.

Jamaica is likely to achieve many of the Millennium Development Goals, including targets on poverty, child malnutrition, universal primary education, and access to safe drinking water. It is, however, unlikely that Jamaica will meet targets on infant and maternal mortality.

ICT in Jamaica

The use of ICT has grown over the years, although there is still a long way to go if the country is to fully embrace the potential of ICT, such as e-business. Lack of previous ICT investment in the past is still being felt today, and an adequate Internet infrastructure is not yet in place. However, steps to liberalise the telecoms industry in 2000 have encouraged the growth of mobile phone use – and in 2005 more than 65% of the population has access to a mobile phone. Similarly, Internet access has significantly increased (it tripled between 2000 and 2005), although still only around a quarter of the population has Internet access. One of the main barriers to further growth seems to be high costs associated with broadband subscription fees. Future options to address this include enabling operators to share overhead costs, and reducing the costs of interconnecting networks.

Despite the backlog and barriers, Jamaica is closer to implementing an ICT-enabling legal and policy environment than some European countries.

Where are we now?

The Jamaica Country Programme is now in the process of embedding its activities in wider institutional, sector and national frameworks to make ICT-enabled development activities more sustainable. First steps are also being made with leveraging; expanding ICT4D activities on a national scale to increase the impact of ICT-enable development so more people can benefit from it.

Today, local partners in Jamaica are primarily supported by through networking, knowledge sharing and ‘lessons learned’ activities. The responsibility for overseeing these activities was transferred to the National ICT for Development Network, ICT4D Jamaica, in March 2004 at a ceremoney attended by  Minister Paulwell of the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology (MCST), who pledged his support of the network. IICD's role is to facilitate and to advise on the strengthening of the ICT4D Jamaica network. As ICT4D Jamaica further develops and grows into a vibrant, sustainable network that is able to attract political and financial support from key institutions and actors, IICD's input will gradually diminish.

Impact & lessons learned

Jamaica is the only IICD focal country in the Caribbean. Despite being one of the oldest IICD Country Programmes and the first programme to move into the Shared Dialogue phase, there are no hard figures at hand to explain our impact on development in the country. This is because, unlike in our other Country Programmes, the Monitoring & Evaluation system has not been applied to Jamaica. Nevertheless, a few lessons learned can be presented by simply looking at the results in the past few years.

• In Jamaica, public-private partnerships are more eagerly initiated than in other IICD countries. This can be attributed to the concrete results produced by our pilot projects, rather than grand plans and ideas. Building on these results from on the ground, public-private partnerships have proved easier to initiate, and more likely to result in new (and bigger) initiatives. One example of a successful public-private partnership is the JCUTE project.

• As with many initiatives, the ICT for Development network in Jamaica sometimes finds it challenging to strike a balance between ad hoc issues (such as events), and more strategic issues (such as reaching out to new members). An imminent challenge for the Jamaica programme is to enlarge the support for ICT4D to a wider group of active members and stakeholders. Jamaica is a highly individual society, and personal contributions are better appreciated than in countries such as Bolivia, where organisational inputs are strongly favoured.
  

IICD in Jamaica

The Jamaican Country Programme was launched in 1998 following an invitation from the Jamaican government for assistance in the use of ICT to foster development.

Addressing the country’s most pressing needs, our emphasis in Jamaica has been on using ICT to create livelihood opportunities, particularly in Jamaica’s cultural and tourism industry, and bring educational opportunities to young people.

Between 1998 and 2004, our work on the ground included six pilot projects, which contributed to awareness of ICT for development among partners, decision-makers and the wider ICT for development community. As the Country Programme developed, our potential to add value by supporting projects diminished, and the need for exchanges of different experiences grew, alongside the need for advocacy founded on field-based experiences.

Therefore, in 2004 – and in-line with IICD’s goal of local ownership – the Jamaica Country Programme reached the Shared Dialogue phase. This reflected the fact that most of the activities (projects and capacity development interventions) were being developed and managed independently by local actors. This was also when the National ICT for Development Network, ICT4D Jamaica, was launched.

Our long-term goal is to enable the ICT4D Jamaica network to be the national, and international, focal point for all ICT4D related issues in Jamaica. This can be achieved by developing a vibrant network, which has political and financial support from key institutions and actors.

Addressing Jamaica’s ICT needs

Our main partner, ICT4D Jamaica, continues to focus on the five development sectors that were originally defined by the government in 1998:

E-governance and community development

As other countries, Jamaica feels the need to increase citizen and private sector participation in governance issues (including policy-making and decision-making), to make governance more effective. In line with this it also strives to improve transparancy and accountability. From the government’s perspective there is also a need felt for commitment, and an increased sense of responsibility, from the society as a whole. ICT is being used to enhance two-way communications and relationships within government, and between the government and citizens (e-governance). Improved service delivery, participatory citizenship, transparency and accountability are some of the activities being focussed on.

Education & training

Improving education is a socio-economic priority for Jamaica as well as for international donors with operational projects in Jamaica. A number of initiatives have been undertaken to support this priority, often with the use of ICT. ICT helps to improve the quality of education (teacher training) and improves the career prospects of young Jamaicans. Increasing ICT skills also increases opportunities to effectively participate in the global knowledge society.

Agriculture and agri-business

In the face of the technological advances that are being used to propel the agriculture industry, and the new trading arrangements that are being imposed under the banner of globalization, the Jamaican agriculture sector faces many challenges. Inadequate communication between producers and buyers has resulted in inadequate planning, and ultimately an unstable market environment. Increased commodity import, lack of information on improved production practices, and increased competition in the market places are just some of the effects experienced. Therefore, ICT is being used to link all the relevant participants in the agricultural sector, and to structure and strengthen the agricultural sector.

Tourism & hospitality

Tourism is one of the key industries in Jamaica. Although it is an industry dominated by a few large players, there are also many small and medium entrepreneurs trying to make a living out of tourism. ICT is a tool to link these small and medium entrepreneurs to the national tourism association, enabling them to benefit from the opportunities that come from being part of the tourism infrastructure, like benefiting from marketing campaigns and tools for promotion and access to market information.

Music & entertainment

The music and entertainment sector is one of Jamaica’s key socio-economic sectors. The worldwide popularity of Caribbean music genres, such as salsa and reggae, proves that there is an enthusiastic global market for this type of music. Yet, so far the Caribbean music industry has struggled to represent, develop and promote its own music. As a result, the region has systematically failed to fully benefit from the financial rewards generated by its own music sales.

ICT is a tool that can help to bring the Caribbean music industry in line with today’s music industry standards. It can be used to better promote and facilitate deals between Caribbean music producers and others in the global music market. ICT, used to facilitate exposure to the latest technologies in music production and distribution, will stimulate diversification and improve the quality of the region's music products and services. This should result in an increased contribution of music to the economies of Caribbean countries, and improved links between tourism and the Caribbean music industry. It will also increase awareness of copyright administration, and improve the enforcement capabilities of the Caribbean music producers.

Building Coalitions

To embed various ICT4D activities in these five sectors ICT4D Jamaica is aiming on building partnerships between public, private and NGO actors to exploit synergy. In 2006 ICT4D Jamaica concentrated on identifying and linking up to key players and initiatives in the sectors Education & Training and e-Governance & Community Development. So far the results have been quite promising, particularly within the sector education (JCUTE) and the Communities Without Borders initiative.

Participating in policy process

To further embed ICT4D activities at the national level, ICT4D Jamaica has been involved in the National ICT4D Policy Process initiated by the leading agency, CITO. IICD has offered her support as a strategic advisor, both on content and processes, and shares experiences from elsewhere, whilst ICT4D Jamaica concentrates also on raising awareness and influencing national ICT policies.

From mid-2007, a Jamaica Think Tank called eNovation is supporting the National ICT4D Network. Bringing key ICT4D experts to the table, eNovation supports develop innovative strategies, and works to lobby and influence policy-makers. Their activities include action-based research. Using multi-stakeholder platforms they will further raise awareness on ICT4D-related policy issues, at the level of public sector policy and decision makers.

Results to date include the ‘Making Effective ICT4D Policy’ course for development, which was co-certified with local and internationally recognized organizations. Alongside ICT4D Jamaica, both IICD and MIND were included on participants’ certificates of achievement.

Jamaica partners

With the Jamaica Country Programme in the Shared Dialogue phase, IICD’s role has changed. Rather than working directly with local partners in projects on the ground, we now focus on providing strategic advice to the ICT4D Jamaica network, including on knowledge sharing, collaboration, networking, and policy participation. Consequently, ICT4D Jamaica is better placed to liaise directly with local ICT4D stakeholders and initiatives. To date, a number of key organisations have shown an interest in partnering with the network and its plethora of ICT4D activities.

Use the Search on the right to search for partners in Jamaica.