Region to benefit from Digital Development Strategy

THE development of a CARICOM Single Information Communication and Technologies (ICT) space will bring real benefits for consumers and businesses in our Community.

CARICOM Secretary General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, has told the 48th Special Meeting for the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) that a Regional Digital Development Strategy will fully establish modern regional regulatory, while opening telecommunications infrastructures with affordable networks using converged technologies, to provide affordable and universal access.

According to him, this would lead to a positive effect on such issues as roaming rates and provide for a single area code as well as address copyright, spectrum and broadband matters.

He pointed out that the strategy would also look at areas such as capacity-building; regional policy direction, leadership and governance; innovation and efficiency; all of which lead to a CARICOM Information and Knowledge Society.

Touching specifically on the development of a human resource capacity in the sector, he outlined that a step in this direction would be the Caribbean Research and Education Network (C@ribNET).

The initiative was launched last February and is operated and managed by the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network Agency.

“A successful digital economy hinges on our ability to harness Research, Innovation and Education, and C@ribNET, if utilised fully, can facilitate advancement in these areas and other sectors such as health. Mechanisms must be put in place to take advantage at the national level of the possibilities offered via C@ribNET. Thus, C@ribNET should be celebrated as a regional ‘win’ and a public good,” he added.

LaRocque also noted that there was a role for all the relevant regional institutions and the private sector, relating to implementing the strategy.

“Some of these institutions such as the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, CARICAD, and CXC along with the regional universities are already engaged in initiatives which, with proper coordination, would greatly assist the achievement of the objectives of the strategy,” he stated. (JMB)

CXC, Macmillan Publishers enter agreement

THE Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and Macmillan Publishers Limited have signed a publishing contract for the publication and distribution of learning support material for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).

Under the terms and conditions of the agreement, CXC has granted Macmillan exclusive publishing rights, in respect of syllabuses and past examination question papers for all CAPE and CSEC subjects.

Registrar of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC),
Dr. Didacus Jules, signing the publishing contract between
CXC and Macmillan Publishers Limited. Looking on is
Anderson Marshall, Director of Corporate Services, and Director
of Regional Sales Macmillan Publishers, Daniel Wilson.

The agreement also grants non-exclusive rights in respect of subject reports, related specimen papers and mark schemes for CAPE and CSEC subjects.

During the signing at Alexandra Court, Britton’s Cross Road, Director of Corporate Services at CXC, Anderson Marshall, acknowledged that since the start of CXC in 1972, it has contributed significantly to education in the region.

However, he stated that CXC is not satisfied with the level of attainment, and will continue to advance strategies for improving performance.

“Among these are Notesmaster, which is a web base for teachers and students to assist in the preparing of exams. We also do teacher training and we have also developed study guides for the use of students.

“In addition, we are publishing past examination papers, and that is what the Macmillan contract is about,” he highlighted.

Marshall disclosed that Macmillan was selected for the publishing of the past papers as a result of a tender process, opened to both Caribbean and British publishers.

“The publication of the past papers booklets and schools reports by Macmillan increases student and teacher access to these important resource materials. We expect that if these resources are used appropriately, they will go a long way to improving the performance of students,” Marshall noted.

He added that one of the important dimensions in the distribution of this new series of past papers is the facility to access copies online through the introduction of the CXC store.

Director of Regional Sales at Macmillan Publishers, Daniel Wilson, said that his company is delighted to enter into this exciting partnership with CXC.

“Having formerly printed and distributed CXC past papers, Macmillan is very aware of the value of these resources to students and teachers throughout the Caribbean as they prepare for exams,” Wilson stated.

He further indicated that the collaboration will increase access to essential examination resources – print and digital – for students, parents, teachers and schools across the region.

“This is an opportunity to work with CXC to develop, in addition to the printed past papers, an e-mail channel for these resources, which is particularly exciting for us.

“Digital offers a flexibility that print cannot, and Macmillan, with this partnership, will deliver an outstanding digital platform to house CXC’s resources,” Wilson assured. (TL)Ą

Producing critical thinkers vital

Registrar of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Dr. Didacus Jules, is appealing to the Ministries of Education across the region to pay particular attention to the learning support materials being produced, particularly by private sources.

“What we see happening in the region today is a proliferation of products that are all focused on ‘drill for examination approaches’, and that I want to emphasise runs totally counter to what we are trying to do in CXC,” he stated during the signing of an agreement, which will see CXC granting Macmillan exclusive publishing rights in respect of syllabuses and past examination question papers for all CAPE and CSEC subjects.

Dr. Didacus Jules, Registrar of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC).

Dr. Jules disclosed that CXC has been told by some governments and the private sector that they need to ensure that the certification they offer not only speaks to thorough knowledge of the discipline or the subject area, but also addresses issues of critical thinking and problem solving.

“We cannot produce problem solvers and critical thinkers by drill methodology, and many of those sites that are being offered commercially, where people have to pay $30, $40 US a month, puts students through an unending drill process with a hope that they can get it right in exams,” he pointed out.

“Firstly, I want to warn those persons that CXC’s copyright has to be absolutely respected because we are vigorously going to pursue copyright infringement.

“Secondly, you cannot produce critical thinkers by drill. We need to spend less time on testing and more time on teaching and on learning. The understanding of the concepts in our syllabus is what will bring ultimately the results that we are seeking,” Dr. Jules stressed. (TL)

CPDC: More international assistance necessary

THE Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC) is calling for greater international attention and support to be given to the vulnerability of the region to natural disasters, given the implications for already fragile economies and social cohesion.

This comes in wake of the recent weather events in the Windward Islands which threaten to undermine the hard-fought development gains of these countries, and in light of predictions that climate change and environmental degradation will exacerbate the vulnerabilities of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

According to the CPDC Executive Co-ordinator, Shantal Munro-Knight, the events which occurred have deeper, longer term implications which the region must address frontally. “When people think of natural disasters, they think of typhoons and the impact of major hurricanes and earthquakes. While this is understandable given the visibility of these events, for us in the region the reality is even starker, small events can over time pose major setbacks for economies and societies already struggling with sluggish economic growth and social fragility. The long-term impact on our economies will reverberate for years to come. We must get the international community to recognise that this is our constant reality.”

While some progress has been made as a result of international commitments, much more is required. The CPDC believes that as the global community moves ahead with developing a new agreed development framework to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), very specific
attention should be given to recognising the vulnerabilities of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Moreover, the CPDC recommends that the region use the upcoming 3rd International Conference on SIDS scheduled for Apia, Samoa this year, to press the call for greater rec-ognition of SIDS vulnerability in international processes, differentiated treatment in respect of obligations and greater resources to help the region implement adaptation measures. Importantly, the region must also draw attention to the growing negative impact that climate change will continue to play on the sustainable human development across the region.

“The issue of climate change and natural disasters must be treated as issues of major national concern. They must become part of the overarching conceptual framework, within which we frame our growth and development strategies.”

Four West Indies players retained by IPL teams

Dwayne Bravo is the lone foreign player to be retained by Chennai Super Kings for the 2014 edition of the highly popular Indian Premiere League.

Bravo joins Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Suresh Raina as the players retained by CSK for this season.

Kieron Pollard has been retained by the defending champions and winners of the Champions League T20 last year, Mumbai Indians. Mumbai Indians have retained a full five players including Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga and Ambati Rayudu, who all played a key role in their double success in the previous edition.

According to an official release from the franchise, Mumbai Indians’ owner Nita Ambani said, “The formidable combination of these five players - Rohit, Pollard, Malinga, Bhajji and Rayudu – forms the nucleus of Mumbai Indians. They have exemplified the spirit of Mumbai Indians and are match-winners in their own right. With the retention of the core players, Mumbai Indians look forward to build a stronger, well-knit team and share the joy of an enthralling and entertaining performance with its ever-growing fans in the coming season.”

Kolkata Knight Riders have retained mystery spinner Sunil Narine and captain Gautam Gambhir for the 2014 season.

The three join Chris Gayle as the only other West Indian players to have been retained by their teams. Gayle has been retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore. (PG)

More action needed on cybersecurity

Two years ago I suggested in this column that few Caribbean Governments or companies were taking seriously the threat posed by cyber attack and cyber crime. This was despite evidence to suggest that the region was increasingly subject to damage by those who use the internet to breach national security, undertake criminal activity or behave maliciously.

At the time I noted that the future economic development of the region required not just a modern communications infrastructure and high speed networks, but also their regulation, appropriate legislation, and its enforcement and policing. Without this, I commented, it was hard to see how any Caribbean nation can argue that the region is a sensible location for investment.

Since then the issue has taken on all sorts of different dimensions.

At one end of the spectrum there have been the disclosure by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, that the US, and by extension most other developed nations, were mining data on an industrial scale, principally in an attempt to secure all countries against terrorism. At the other, and far more intrusively, big search engines, internet providers and companies combine data from all individual’s web searches, supermarket purchases, hotels and hundreds of other sources, and then sell on the specific interests of individuals in order to target products or services at them online or in other ways.

More specifically, in the Caribbean, there have been sporadic but alarming reports about security breaches by hackers at banks and companies as a result of which credit card details have been stolen, denial of service attacks have taken place on telecommunications providers and companies, government files have been electronically removed, and the suggestion has been made that offshore centres could be used remotely to facilitate such activities.

Only relatively recently has the issue been taken more seriously as the region has slowly come to understand that its fragile infrastructure makes it particularly vulnerable. Despite this, many Governments, security agencies and companies in the region have only recently begun to consider in any depth, their national financial, economic or political vulnerability, or undertaken any detailed planning on how to respond to a serious attack.

Caribbean peculiarities

Recent commentaries in the excellent, informative and thought-provoking Caribbean web blog, ICT Pulse, http://www.ict-pulse.com/, which discusses topical ICT issues from a Caribbean perspective, quotes Bevil Wooding, who heads the volunteer Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG), as saying that people mistakenly believe that emerging markets like the Caribbean, with relatively small economies, are less likely to be a target of attacks. “In reality, it is quite the opposite. Regions like the Caribbean, precisely because of their underdeveloped legal frameworks and limited capacity to detect or investigate, are now very attractive locations for hackers and cybercriminals to focus their activities”, he is quoted as saying.

This and other remarks by industry experts and international bodies such as the Organisations of American States suggest that there is an urgent need for action in a number of areas.

Firstly in relation to the law: most Caribbean nations do not yet have any modern legislation against electronic crimes. While legal redress may be talked about, all Caribbean jurisdictions need the necessary legislation, regulations or infrastructure to address cybercrimes making it punishable to violate a network. It is also far from clear whether regional law enforcement agencies have the legal cover to co-operate with external government agencies in this area, given that most cyber crimes are extraterritorial.

Secondly there needs to be a rapid growth in trusted Caribbean companies of the kind that are emerging in Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica with outreach to international expertise able to undertake vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, compliance and security awareness training.

Thirdly, it requires levels of public sector- private sector co-operation of a kind not normal in much of the Caribbean, to develop systems, secure forms of information exchange and regular consensus based dialogue as these are issues that touch on the viability of nations as well as individual enterprises and research.

Fourthly there should be programmes specifically aimed at the banking, finance and tourism sectors which are particularly vulnerable both reputationally and from a the perspective that damage caused can have an adverse reputation and economic effect for years to come on a brand or a product.

Fifthly, it requires some of the important initiatives being considered or developed by some regional governments to become the subject of inter-regional and hemispheric co-operation as, by definition, the threat crosses all boundaries.

And sixthly, it is vital that home-grown companies able to support IT security are encouraged, as it is clear that these are issues as much about national sovereignty and national interest that it is more appropriate that trusted local bodies, with capability and that understand the operating environment in the Caribbean, are engaged.

Fast-growing

The Caribbean is one of the world’s fastest growing regions for internet usage, having become over the last five to ten years reliant on maintaining digital communications for services for everything from the support required for financial services centres, to commerce and day to day communications. It is also the location of some internationally important communications hubs.

It has, according to Internet World Stats, very high internet penetration with some 28.7 per cent of the Caribbean population using the internet or some 11.9m users out of a total Caribbean population of 41.4m people; figures are exceeded by the number of cell phones in use, which some statistics suggest are now owned by 70 per cent of the population with a parallel growth in apps, some of which may eventually be linked to banking and commercial translations.

What is clear is that the level and intensity of cyber attacks is increasing and that cyber crime is not just an issue for developed countries. Experts suggest that future attacks will increasingly be directed to softer targets in locations like the Caribbean not least because they are regions through which huge sums of money flow electronically for tax efficiency or advantage and because of its infrastructure links to the United States and Europe.

It is time for more attention to be paid to cyber security.

(David Jessop is the Director of the Caribbean Council and can be contacted at david.jessop@caribbean-council.org. Previous columns can be found at www.caribbean-council.org)

Why no Commonwealth response?

In the face of the disaster that hit Dominica, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines over the Christmas holidays, a respected and popular British news commentator, Jon Snow, has taken up cudgels on their behalf in his blog on Britain’s Channel 4 television.

Snow was holidaying on a nearby island – where, coincidentally, one of the Ministers in Britain’s Department for International Development, Alan Duncan, was also on vacation. The two agreed to travel to St Vincent to see the damage that, judging from the underlying distress in his writing, affected Snow deeply.

Apart from graphically describing the wretched conditions he saw on St Vincent, Snow made two statements of particular interest. Speaking primarily to a UK audience, he said: “Not many of us any longer know or care much about the Commonwealth, until a conference or scandal hits the news. But the latest devastating storm in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent poses a question – what is this ‘family’ of former British colonies doing to help?”.

Recognising terrible conditions and the urgency to give relief to suffering people and to resume the Island’s commercial life, Snow also said: “What is really needed here are immediate technicians – forestry experts, bridge builders, people who understand water courses, so that a fast evaluation can be made as to what is needed and how far St Vincent can be protected against another such deluge. Norway, Germany, Canada, all have such experts, as do we. The Prime Minister (Dr Ralph Gonsalves) tells me 50 of them would make a massive immediate difference to sorting out this crisis”.

What is remarkable about Snow’s two observations is that two years before the disaster in St Vincent, St Lucia and Dominica, an Eminent Persons Group (EPG) of which I was a member, fearing the sort of disaster that has damaged these islands, recommended to the Heads of Government at their Meeting in Australia that the Commonwealth should set up a “rapid response team” to give assistance including “logistics, public health, food security, transportation, emergency medical care, engineering and design immediately after a national disaster”.

This particular idea of a “rapid response team” came from the Canadian member of the EPG, Senator Hugh Segal, as part of the Group’s study of the effects of Climate Change particularly on Commonwealth Small Island States. In our report to Commonwealth leaders entitled, A commonwealth of the People: Time for Urgent Reform, we devoted a large section to “Climate Change and Existential Threats” calling them “immediate Commonwealth concerns”.

Regrettably, this is one of the recommendations that received scant attention at the 2011 Commonwealth Summit and by subsequent meetings of Foreign Ministers and officials. Had the recommendation been implemented, St Vincent, St Lucia and Dominica would have had experts on the ground within a week helping to restore the country to a semblance of normalcy.

In their defence, none of the Prime Ministers of the three affected islands attended the Commonwealth Summit in Australia in 2011 (although St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines did have official representation) and they carry no personal responsibility for the non-implementation of the recommendation. Heads of Government and Ministers of other Caribbean countries, with the exception of Jamaica, were at the Australia meeting but did not raise their voices in support of the recommendation.

The relevant sub-section of the EPG report that we headlined, “Build a Commonwealth disaster management capacity”, reads as follows:

“Natural disasters now plague the world and no country is immune from them. In recent years the member states of the Commonwealth – both large and small – have had a share of natural disasters resulting in great loss of life and damage to their economies. Whereas developed Commonwealth countries normally have the means to recover and rebuild relatively quickly after such disasters, smaller and poorer Commonwealth countries have far less resilience than richer countries. Consequently, disasters set back their sustainable development, hitting the poorest communities hardest.

Technical assistance

“We recognise that there are now many mechanisms in place for assisting countries that suffer natural disasters. The Commonwealth should not attempt to replicate these in any way. However, we feel that there is now such a large body of skills and experience in Commonwealth countries for dealing with natural disasters that modest machinery could be established beneficially for a rapid Commonwealth response to requests for assistance from member states. Such assistance could include logistics, public health, food security, transportation, emergency medical care, engineering and design immediately after a national disaster.

“Commonwealth Finance Ministers in the past have given their encouragement to natural disaster insurance. There may also be a role for the Commonwealth in disaster preparation and mitigation. For example, Australia has developed a National Partnership Agreement on Natural Disaster Resilience. It may be possible, drawing upon this initiative, to provide guidance to other countries on best practices, particularly in areas of animal husbandry, water and forest management, so as to mitigate the effects of possible disasters.

“The Commonwealth Secretariat should establish a working relationship with organisations concerned with disasters throughout the Commonwealth in order to develop clarity on the specific areas where the Commonwealth can add coherence as well as value. This should include maintaining a roster of professionals upon whom it could call to provide: (i) a rapid response to a member state that requests the help of experienced personnel after a disaster; and (ii) training and guidance in disaster preparation and mitigation”.

The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Caribbean Development Bank have programmes in place to give loans to countries where disasters occur. The problem is that except for small sums, approval and disbursement of any substantial funds take longer than six months during which time suffering continues and disruption reigns, worsening an already bad situation. Rapid response does come from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency but its resources are not large enough to cope with issues in three countries simultaneously.

The hope in the midst of all this bad news is that the EPG recommendation, which is still before the Commonwealth, will now be taken up with vigour by small countries for swift implementation. Disasters will surely occur again.

(The writer is a Consultant, Senior Fellow at London University and former Caribbean Diplomat. Response and previous commentaries: www.sirronaldsanders.com)