IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015 - 28

some very specialized work will need to be contracted
to local or regional experts. The nature of the contract
work will determine the availability of contractors in
remote areas; the more technically specialized the
work, the further one will need to go from the target
location to find contractors. However, in the absence of
local or regional expertise, a main partnership is vital
in capacity creation of local actors, the creation of jobs,
and the eventual creation of more specialized entities.
For example, members of the main partner were versed
with most implementation tasks. When local contractors in a target location were not found, training and
capacity creation of a group of interested individuals
were carried out in that specific area. Following this
process, and in the context of the multi-point nature of
the project, the lack of specialized workers in one point
were able to be leveraged with already trained workers
of another point, thus building the foundation for future
eventual expansion work and maintenance.
An alternative option that is generally followed by
telecoms is nationwide procurement. This option provides the least local capacity creation, unless the agreement explicitly mandates that these components be
present in the work.

Volunteering
The participation of full-time and part-time volunteers
in humanitarian, social, and international development
projects is quite common. It is also common, in various disciplines in developed and developing nations, to
engage recent graduates as unpaid interns in order for
them to gain experience, or they might use the project
for a thesis topic or as an introduction to a new field.
An important issue in management and logistics
is to have a clear role for part-time and full-time local,
national, and foreign volunteers. With local empowerment being an important pillar of a project, focus must
be put on the local stakeholders and all tools and
resources must be focused in coaching and teaching
locals about the different aspects of the implementation. Experience has shown that, when things do not
work, learning/teaching is set aside and high priority
is put solving the problem and making it work, thus
increasing the distance between real issues and building local capacity. This situation can be improved by
having in place appropriate partnerships with organizations that have experience in the areas, thus making
the above situations a chance to train locals in real
issues that arise.
With the exception of natural disaster relief events
or when volunteers are present in projects with the
sole task of training locals and nationals (e.g., are
experts in their field), it is preferable that the ratio of
implementation volunteers favors local and national

workers and volunteers, with for example at most 1
foreign volunteer for every 10 local/national volunteers. When the percentage of foreign implementation
stakeholders overwhelms local actors, the capacitybuilding, sustainability plans, and overall goals of the
initiative needs to be readjusted. This readjustment
can be in terms of further research into links with local
and national educational and other institutions, local
and national volunteer recruitment, revising of the
main sustainability and capacity creation aspects of the
project, and refocus of funding. One big issue in some
projects has been the high costs of overseas trips. The
redirection of travel funding towards local empowerment and the utilization of ICTs for the alleviation of
such trips is highly recommended.

Technology
Perhaps one of the biggest areas of misunderstanding between some technologists and other disciplines'
experts has related to the role of technology on the
betterment of livelihoods. Engineers often equate "solution" with the design of technology. Others equate
solution with the successful implementation of their
projects. Still others equate solution with revenue. More
correctly, others equate solution with the improvement
of human conditions of those that need it most. In this
area of improvement of living conditions, technology is
just a tool utilized to facilitate and improve processes
that are generally already taking place.
In the case of remote rural communications, as in
other scenarios, telecommunication technology has
to be made appropriate to fit the current needs. Thus
the choice of using already existing, known-to-work
technology must be made as a function of the following
variables:
1) Localization and cultural characteristics.
2) National regulation compliance (current and emerging policy and regulations).
3) Bandwidth necessary and reliability.
4) Energy efficiency/availability/reliability.
5) Ease of installation, maintenance, and access.
6) Cost in the short, medium, and long term.
7) Topology.
8) Probabilities of equipment being subject to local conditions, e.g., lightning, theft.
9) Short-, medium-, and long-range prospects.
10) Effect on ecosystem and environment.
11) The prospects for future technologies appropriate to
the infrastructure.
12) Other factors.
Our experience has been that engineers willing to
help in long-distance telecommunication projects have
often suggested designing telecommunication equipment for urgent needs, without researching the market

IEEE TEchnology and SocIETy MagazInE

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MARCH 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015