THE HUMAN Development Index (HDI) measures life expectancy, adult literacy and income sufficiency.
Roughly translated, healthcare is the means towards longer life expectancy, public education is the means towards broader adult literacy and small enterprises are the means towards higher income sufficiency.
Generally speaking, small enterprises could be lumped under the overall category of livelihood.
Electronic commerce or e-Commerce is the general term that applies to the use of electronic technologies for online transactions. In particular however, e-Commerce is specifically used to refer to the selling or goods and services via online means. There are other variations or translations of e-Commerce such as e-Healthcare (also known as telemedicine), e-Learning, e-Justice, e-Governance and e-Services.
For purposes of this discussion, I will try to argue that e-Healthcare, e-Learning and e-Commerce could be used to improve or fast track all human development oriented programs in healthcare, education and livelihood, in order to increase the HDI rating of our country in general, and of our provinces in particular.
In a previous column, I suggested that the HDI method should be used to measure the progress of human development efforts at the provincial level.
Just to put this discussion in its proper perspective, I would like to make it clear that information and communications technology (ICT) is only a tool for people to use, meaning to say that human resources are still more important than ICT. As a matter of fact, human development has progressed in all those years that ICT was not yet available as a tool. That said however, there is no argument that ICT could improve and fast track human development more than ever before.
I also would like to make it clear that the government is only one of the players or contributors to the overall process of human development. In theory, it is possible for human development to progress even without the government. Even if private industry operates mainly for profit, it is a natural consequence that their products and services would ultimately benefit human development, with or without the help of the government.
The civil society is the third player or contributor to human development, after the government and private industry. Even if the term civil society has been corrupted over the years, there is a need to revive its positive image, in much the same way that we also have to repair our damaged institutions.
Generally speaking, the civil society should include all Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), People’s Organizations (POs) and Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs).
One way or the other, all of the players and contributors in the tripod of human development are users of ICT. It is in ICT where they all find their common ground, more so now with the advent of internet and mobile means.
That said however, I would venture to add that there is still a digital divide that separates the three parts of this tripod, so much so that we could say that they are not really interconnected in physical and figurative terms.
Suffice it to say that among the three, private industry is the one that should not have a problem in acquiring ICT resources. Government agencies should supposedly not have a problem either, but more often than not, budget constraints would affect their capabilities to acquire the right ICT resources. The Local Government Units (LGUs) would also have budget constraints, more so those at the municipal and barangay levels.
Online Barter Exchanges (OBEs), Tax Credit Refunds (TCR) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs are the three existing mechanisms through which private industry could contribute to human development. In theory, private industry is not supposed to get anything back when they give something through their CSR programs. In practice however, they could actually get tax credits if and when they want to, and that should be up to them.
As part of my own advocacy work, I am organizing a project that would enable private industry to donate their surplus hardware, software and manpower resources in order to support human development, by way of an information superhighway that could interconnect the tripod of players and contributors. Just like a physical highway, anyone could ride in any of the transports to get from where they are, to their points of destinations.
In exchange for their contributions, private industry could get barter points from the OBEs, tax credits from the TCR system and free publicity for their CSR programs. They could get one or more of these exchange offers, depending on what they would want, and they could also get it in whatever combination that they want.
For purposes of transparent accounting and auditing procedures, everything will be recorded and accounted for. As an extra assurance, the managers and directors of these programs would all be credible and respectable people.
Once the information superhighway is in place, it would become possible to deliver e-Healthcare, e-Learning and e-Commerce to any point in the Philippines, for as long as there is a signal. That should not be a problem either, because any point that could not be reached by any of the wireless and terrestrial means could still be reached via satellite means. In other words, there is no point in the Philippines that could not be reached by this information superhighway./PN
