Driving Caribbean Innovation: CTU brings CARCIP Innovation workshop to Saint Vincent

“One of the greatest challenges facing the Caribbean is getting people to believe in the value of ideas,” said Bernadette Lewis, Secretary General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU).

Lewis was speaking at the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines leg of a series of workshops to encourage greater technology-enabled innovation in the Caribbean.

“Unless we can change mindsets, the returns on ICT investment will be small,” she said.

The workshop series is part of a broader World Bank-funded initiative called CARCIP, the Caribbean Communications Infrastructure Program, which is coordinated by the CTU.

The thrust by CTU to accelerate Caribbean entrepreneurship through technology-driven innovation builds on the work of their Caribbean ICT Roadshow, which encourages Caribbean citizens to harness the power of innovation as the engine for ICT-enabled development. The Caribbean ICT Roadshow has been held 21 times in 18 Caribbean countries.

Moderated by local CARCIP coordinator Roxanne John and regional coordinator Junior Mc Intyre, the two-day workshop in Saint Vincent brought together local professionals in the field of telecommunications and regional experts in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), entrepreneurship, leadership development and innovation.

The government of St Vincent and the Grenadines, host for the event, was represented by Camillo Gonsalves, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade, Commerce and Information Technology.

“The ICT revolution in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is happening now,” said the minister. “In the current environment of rapid technological development and opportunity, our private and public sector shortcomings can be met, solved and eradicated quickly by the innovative application of ICT to our unique Caribbean particularity.”

Gonsalves explained that the CARCIP workshop was part of an ongoing thrust by his Ministry to develop the country’s ICT sector through updating its laws, establishing knowledge parks, setting up an e-government system and continuing to liberalise its telecommunications sector.

“The true measure of the usefulness of Government’s large investments in these programs will not be in our improved rankings in various development indices but in tangible benefits to Vincentians,” he said.

His message was underscored by the lead facilitator for the event, Bevil Wooding, Internet Strategist with U.S.-based non-profit, Packet Clearing House.  In identifying the challenges that confront the region, such as its outmoded physical and institutional infrastructure, diminishing global competitiveness and the hemorrhaging of its qualified human resource, Wooding pointed to the need for Caribbean innovators to respond by using and creating technology to design relevant solutions.

“Caribbean problems are real, but the problems all have real solutions,” Wooding said.

Other presenters were Norman Gibson, an expert in science and technology for rural development and environmental management in the Caribbean region; and Ramlochan Ragoonanan, CEO, National Entrepreneurship Development Company, Trinidad and Tobago; Ayodele Pompey, CEO, Digital Spark Global; and Petrus Gumbs, Head of IT, St Martin Secondary School.

CARCIP is a partnership between the World Bank and the governments of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia and Grenada, alongside regional organizations such as the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) and the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network, CKLN, all under the coordination of the CTU. The programme aims to improve the efficiency of telecommunications infrastructure development in the Eastern Caribbean and ultimately, throughout the wider region. Through the World Bank’s International Development Association, CARCIP was allocated a total disbursement of US$25 million, including loans to the three countries and a grant to the CTU.

Building on the foundation of upgraded critical Internet and telecommunications infrastructure, CARCIP aims to clear the path for local innovators and entrepreneurs to develop world-class, locally-driven, technology-enabled services that address the needs of Saint Vincent and the wider Caribbean.

The St Vincent event was held at the Buccament Bay resort on February 26 and 27. The next CARCIP Innovation workshop will take place in Grenada in March 24 and 25.

CARCIP calls for more regional innovation: Eastern Caribbean governments harnessing technology for enterpreneurship

Three Eastern Caribbean countries are benefitting from an infrastructure development thrust that could usher in a new era of technology-based innovation and entrepreneurship for the region.

The initiative is part of the World Bank-funded Caribbean Communications Infrastructure Program (CARCIP), coordinated by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU). A series of workshops rolling out in Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenada are intended to ensure that citizens can take full advantage of the telecommunications infrastructure upgrades. The series aims to encourage greater innovation in the public and private sector across the region.

The inaugural workshop, which took place on February 10th  and 11th at Gros Islet, Saint Lucia, brought together some of the region’s leading minds in the fields of entrepreneurship, information and communications technology, leadership development and innovation.

Hosted by the Saint Lucian Ministry of the Public Service, Information and Broadcasting, the workshop set out to stimulate new approaches to national through the application of modern technology and new ways of thinking.

Bevil Wooding, one of the leading technology experts in the region and an Internet Strategist with US-based Packet Clearing House, delivered the keynote. In his wide-ranging address, Wooding highlighted the challenges behind the region’s chronic lack of innovation. But his emphasis was on solutions and opportunities.

“In reality, the potential exists today to overcome the many challenges in the region. What we face is more a challenge of leadership paradigm than of technical possibility.”

He added, “The opportunity before us is to define and articulate a clear set of actionable priorities. These must be based on our native strengths and shaped to match a properly resourced vision for development.”

Building on Wooding’s address was Dr. Farid Youssef, a neuroscience expert from The University of the West Indies, St Augustine. His presentation focused on the brain science and psychology behind innovative thinking.

Citing a blend of recent academic research and familiar examples of great innovators, Dr. Youssef showed that meaningful change was not produced by spasms of creative genius, but came as the result of consistently applied effort. He called on educators and policy makers to change the common approaches to education development in the region. He described current practices as “outmoded”, “obsolete” and “damaging to creativity and innovation.”

“We’re talking about innovation, but are we prepared to put in the hard work required to produce meaningful change?” he asked.

Other workshop presenters included Shearvon Devenish, Information Systems Manager at Sugar Beach Resorts, Saint Lucia; Norman Gibson, an expert in science and technology for rural development and environmental management in the Caribbean region; Dr. Cletus Bertin, Director of Public Sector Modernisation, Saint Lucia; and Ramesh Lalla, Director of National Entrepreneurship Development Company Ltd (NEDCO) in Trinidad and Tobago.

The CARCIP Innovation series rolls into Saint Vincent on February 26th  and 27th, with a third installment scheduled for Grenada at the end of March 2014.