Pakistan

Major part of Pakistan is comprised of underdeveloped rural areas with low level of educational system. This has in turn become a main hurdle to gain, accept and to implement the new technologies in the agriculture sector as well as other rural sectors. This article proposes an ICT-Training Centre consisting of wireless networked Rural Kiosk Machines placed at every village, which will be updated through a central place of information - the ICT-Rural Development Department.

The vision of the Pakistan IT Policy is to harness the potential of Information Technology as a key contributor to development of Pakistan and the broad-based involvement of the key stakeholders is a must for its sustainable development.

Core IT policy strategies have been proposed under the following focus areas:

This publication presents and analyzes the major conclusions of research conducted in Central and West Asia in 2006 through 2011 to ascertain the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) investments on education. It presents a critical overview of the effectiveness of ICT policies and strategies in basic education in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, with shorter studies on Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, and Pakistan.

This essay on gender equity and the use of ICTs in education looks at how ICTs are being used by girls and women in the education space in the focus countries. Gender disparity is a critical issue in all focus countries, except perhaps the Maldives and Sri Lanka to an extent. Most countries in the region are characterized by low female literacy levels, lower participation in the labor force, and lower representation in the administrative and political arena.

Open and distance learning (ODL) is one of the most rapidly growing fields of higher education and training globally, thanks for advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) that contribute to the expansion of online and open delivery in education.

This article attempts to quantitatively measure the various influences on mobile phone adoption at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Thailand. Based on an existing theoretical framework, adoption is modeled by fitting a logit model to a large sixcountry dataset. The study finds evidence for the importance of social influence in mobile adoption in two modes: one that exerts pressure on individuals to adopt, and another that helps to generate benefits via social networks that are tied in with economic and business networks.

This summary document, with a foreword by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, presents the essence of a pioneering attempt to assess the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in human development in Asia. It captures the rich variety of ICT initiatives in nine Asian countries (China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam) and draws lessons for identifying policy directions.

The report’s unique approach lies in its use of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to measure and monitor the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on human development. The report examines country-specific experiences in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam, and provides cross-country comparisons on the use of ICTs to achieve the MDGs.

The paper explores several areas linked to information management systems throughout Asia Pacific, and reveals a strong general trend towards improved management systems. It also highlights the massive growth of data that governments are required to keep and the challenge of keeping up with expected future growth.

This compilation of case studies explores some of the sound practices in the Asia-Pacific region in applications of information, communication and space technology for effective and efficient disaster risk reduction and management.