1. Country office: China
2. Date of Submittion: 28-avril-2003
3. Amount Requested from the Fund: $ 25,000
4. Budget Breakdown:
Survey & Data Collection: $8,000 (national institution)
Data processing: $5,000 (national statisticians)
Data Analysis: $12,000 (international and national consultants)
5. HDR Theme/Area of focus: ICT for Human Development
6. Expected date of launch: May 2004
7. Proposed HDR Activities to be supported with the Innovation Fund:
To document in the NHDR ICT practices and examples for development at grassroots level, UNDP China will be partnering with the Ministry of Science and Technology to conduct a social impact assessment (SIA) of telecentres established in townships and villages in interior and western provinces where obvious digital divide is observed, meanwhile study viable telecentre models in these selected communities.
1. Field survey. We want this survey to be based as much as possible on statistically valid sampling of the thoughts, opinions and recommendations of households and stakeholders in communities at grassroots level. In total a sample of 1200 households will be selected to carry out the survey with well developed instruments (see Annex one). To supplement the household interviews by using household questionnaires, interviews with stakeholder groups are also to be conducted with interview protocols developed. A portion of the requested Innovation Fund (USD 8000) will be utilized to support this field exercise. In addition to this amount, the Ministry of Science and Technology will support USD 22,000. Under UNDP’s supervision, the Government will form a high quality of survey team to conduct this survey. [June - July 2003]
2. Data Processing. The survey team will deliver all completed questionnaires to a highly qualified statistician or a statistical institute from the National Bureau of Statistics for data entry and processing. Data will be processed according to the SIA Data Analysis Outline prepared by national and international ICT4D consultants. A database will be established for UNDP China and MOST. This exercise will require a budget of USD 5,000 from the Innovation Fund. [August 2003]
8. Other financial support available to complement these activities and the preparation of the above mentioned HDR:
1. The government (Ministry of Science and Technology) will contribute USD22,000 towards implementing the survey and collecting the data.
2. The office will allocate USD 40,000 from XB budget to cover the production of the NHDR.
3. Resources, predicted around USD 20,000, will be mobilized from private sector to support translation, publication and advocacy of the NHDR.
9. Indicate with a X which aspect(s) of the NHDR preparation/production process will be supported with the resources received from the Innovation Fund and write in the box next to the one selected a brief summary of what is intended:
Excellence in Quality of Analysis
Our NHDR is innovative by conducting a SIA survey in the Chinese context for the following reasons:
1.Our point of view on ICT4D is that grassroots/local communities and households are--and should be treated as—active actors in the process of ICT extension and in the cause of social and economic change. We want to introduce People-Centred concept to the use of ICT for development purpose. To better understand and analyze the social-economic impact of the ICT application on the local telecentres, an appropriate approach is to conduct a field survey on statistically valid sampling of the thoughts, opinions and recommendations of households and stakeholders in communities at grassroots level.
2.Universal service is the national e-strategy with emphasis on ICT as an enabler in multiple dimensions of social, economic, political, cultural development. Widespread usage of computers and Internet among the whole society is promoted. Such survey along with the preparation of NHDR is the first exercise in China to assess the impact meanwhile to identify the potential use of ICT in a demand-driven manner to serve the national strategy.
3.Availability and reliability of data is a key challenge in describing China, in particular in the field of ICT4D. Firstly, countrywide average per capita does not reveal the hot spots nor the critical issues; Secondly, there is a lack of comprehensive and reliable datasets covering the whole country; Thirdly, gender and social groups’ disaggregated data and grassroots information are difficult to access. In an attempt to address these issues, the proposed exercise is to collect original data and direct views from poor users of ICT and ensure more efficient use
Excellence in Policy Impact
Excellence in Participatory and Inclusive Process and Deepening National Ownership
ICT application in China has been a conventional top-down approach. The top-down approach often has difficulties in incorporating the specifics of local context of a community. Also scaling up the successes of focused grassroots’ initiatives to wider implementation is a challenge. Our proposed exercise will promote a bottom-up grassroots participatory approach to reflect the actual local and individual needs at communities. The exercise we proposed will involve the Ministry of Science and Technology, local governments, local stakeholder groups and individual households, which is a participatory and inclusive process.
Meanwhile, ICT ground tests are expected to provide valuable inputs and recommendations for the formulation of national policies and programmes, which would integrate the use of ICTs as an effective means to reduce poverty and the disparity between developed and underdeveloped regions, rural and urban, rich and poor and men and women. In partnership with Ministry of Science and Technology to conduct the exercise, it would further enhance the national ownership in particular at the later advocacy stage of the NHDR to create policy impact.
Excellence in Presentation
10. Expected Results:
With the SIA findings well incorporated, a high quality and nationally owned NHDR produced, discussed widely and disseminated.
11. Timeline for implementation of the proposed activities mentioned in item # 6:
1. The survey will be implemented in June - July, 2003;
2. Data will be tabulated and processed in August, 2003;
3. Data analysis produced and discussed in August - October, 2003.
Name of Requesting officer/focal point for this initiative: Daniel Wang and Macleod Nyirongo
Email: daniel.wang@undp.org, macleod.nyirongo@undp.org
Title: Programme Specialist
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