Creative Governance in Poverty Eradication

I would like to reproduce here an article written by Colin Pridham, a volunteer for STLI , Scientific Technology Linguistic Institute (USA) who played a key role in establishing Talastronics (NGO) in Kyrgysztan to spearhead a poverty eradication initiative by teaching the poor villagers on how to program microchips. What an amazing project!

Even more amazing is that a Malaysian student studying in Australia has set up a blog ( http://villagersprogrammingmicrochips.blogspot.com/2008/03/keep-comments-coming_24.html) to collect donations to sponsor the these villagers to participate at the WCIT ( World Congress on Information Technology ) to be held in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia from May 18-22, 2008.

Both these initiatives are good illustrations of the concept of Creative Public Governance which in its broadest sense is to enhance the quality of life of the people through technology, social, economic and political innovations.

The article by Colin is repoduced below:

Revolutionary CoreChart microchip programming empowers under-privileged villagers in Kyrgyzstan to enable businesses that enrich their economy

With the help of a proven microchip programming technology, CoreChart from South Australia, and a well established, government supported and respected local NGO, ‘STLI ‘, we have implemented a program to train, equip and empower a group of local village people to be the fore-runners in developing their dream of reaching out to their local communities and neighbouring countries.

Underprivileged villagers from the regional Village of Talas, in Kyrgyzstan, are using CoreChart to offer control solutions to local businesses. For example our village team has learned to program microchips, through a sponsorship program, to optimize the timing and temperature control and data logging of a Candle Production facility. The aim is to dramatically improve efficiency and hence the profitability of the business.

Another project is to optimise the control of timing, temperature and ground soil conditions in glass houses to plant and maintain cash crops. It will create a tremendous business and economic impact as market gardeners all over Kyrgyzstan use glass houses for growing vegetables.

Other projects being planned include BioGas production and Wind Power Electricity generation in isolated villages. Wind Power generation is very important in villages because local people cannot afford to pay for electric heating. Most people in isolated villages live on $30USD or less.

We are keen to share this experience of how underprivileged village people form their own micro-businesses to realize their dream of empowering their own people to become more self sufficient through training and start up of ICT enterprises.

The pilot projects implemented to-date have demonstrated CoreChart’s ability to reach out and empower the under-privileged in the least developed countries (LDC). It has the potential to narrow the Great Digital Divide and a unique opportunity to eradicate poverty prevalent among the villagers. We believe our project can be scaled up through Professor CK Pralahad's vision of "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid". Through this Vision, major businesses such as Visy, Pfizer, ANZ Bank, Macquarie bank, IBM, World Vision etc have recently formed the Business for Poverty Relief Alliance (BPRA). ). If Professor CK Pralahad is correct about eradication of poverty through profits, BPRAs around the world now have the opportunity to profit from a sustainable CoreChart Sponsorship for Poverty Relief project. It is only a matter of time when the under-privileged villagers from Kyrgysztan or Malaysia develop applications that require millions of microchips and financing to be supplied by BPRA in Malaysia.

The Kyrgysztan pilot project is now being expanded as CoreChart Sponsorship For Poverty Relief CCSPR in some of the least developed countries. It is promoted through NGOs and major global ICT events to provide a sustainable platform to relieve poverty. We believe it will have a profound impact on global poverty eradication.


Source:
Colin Pridham, volunteer for STLI , Scientific Technology Linguistic Institute (USA) who played a key role in establishing Talastronics (NGO) in Kyrgysztan,


Talk on Creative Governance

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