USAID/OTI BOLIVIA SUCCESS STORY
April 2007
Bridging the Digital Divide in Rural Indigenous Communities
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| U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg, Acting Permanent Representative of the U.S. Mission to the OAS J. Robert Manzanares, USAID/Bolivia Director Michael Yates, and the Governor of La Paz participate in a public inauguration of a high-speed Internet initiative in the high plains of rural La Paz. |
In the high plains of La Paz, the Catholic University of Bolivia (UCB) operates rural technical training academies (UACs) that school gifted indigenous youth in agricultural science, nursing, and business studies. Because of their remote location, the academies have, until now, paid extremely high prices for inadequate Internet connections or lacked Internet access altogether.
In partnership with the Motorola Corporation, USAID/OTI
is helping the Prefecture of La Paz and the UCB bring the latest in information technology to the cradle of the Aymara civilization. Through its Transition Initiatives Program, USAID/OTI provided $33,000 for the installation of Motorola's new ultra-high-speed WIMAX Internet service, which amplifies Internet bandwidth via a network of antennas.
The network, through antennas erected in the city of El Alto and at UACs located in the rural communities of Batallas, Pucarani, and the pre-Incan capital of Tihuanacu, reaches an area of more than 50 square miles and operates at an altitude of 4,200 meters. Local Internet service now operates 32 times faster than before, increasing transfer rates from 64 kilobytes to 2 megabytes per second and allowing UAC students to participate in remote online training courses, quickly download large texts from digital libraries, and access 2,300 television channels from 110 countries. The initiative also reduces the cost of Internet service for the three academies from $900 to $350 per month.
The project benefits more than 1,800 students currently studying at the three rural agricultural academies and provides a new incentive for these talented indigenous youth to improve agricultural and cattle production in their home communities instead of leaving the altiplano to look for work in overburdened urban centers. In addition to providing the project with logistical and institutional support, the Prefecture of La Paz has funded 40 scholarships to help secondary school graduates from rural communities attend local UACs.
USAID/OTI has also financed new antennas that will
allow the network to reach a 4th UAC in La Paz and is in discussions with UCB and the Prefecture to expand the network to other areas of the altiplano.
Bridging the Digital Divide in Rural Indigenous Communities is executed by USAID/OTI through partner Casals & Associates with the objective of strengthening linkages between local governments and rural communities.
During a public event organized in celebration of this successful endeavor, the Governor of La Paz announced that the Prefecture would purchase 4,000 new desktop computers equipped with the latest generation of Pentium processors, which will be distributed to primary and secondary public schools in rural communities located throughout the high plains. The schools will use the computers to access the Catholic University of Bolivia's high-speed Internet network free of charge, helping bridge the digital divide for 210,000 indigenous youth. By supporting this innovative information technology project, USAID/OTI is truly helping Bolivians help themselves.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Russell Porter, Regional Team Leader, 202-712-5455, rporter@usaid.gov
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