The Vice President of the United States recently communicated with the Organization of American States’ (OAS) Forum on the EDSAT-Americas project, encouraging Ambassadors, Ministers and others "to further explore the dream of pursuing a viable Global Information Infrastructure (GII) initiative that builds on efforts to establish a global information society…I encourage you to remember that this dream is not fundamentally about developing technology…This dream is about communication and about increasing our ability to raise our children, to educate, to heal, to empower and to liberate. . .The reality that we must all embrace is that our interdependence will continue to forever influence our daily lives in many facets. Every day, government leaders face global, regional, and domestic challenges. But whether it is on our shores, the hemisphere or elsewhere, one thing is certain -- technology makes the unimaginable possible."[1]

In 1998, at the II Summit of the Americas, with the entire hemisphere looking on – education was identified as the most urgent of issues to be addressed. The 34 Leaders of the hemisphere were encouraged to develop multilateral initiatives, if indeed all people of the Americas are to realize a promise of access to basic quality education for 100% of the children by 2010 and to include the use of new information and communication technologies for education. The Ministers of Education were urged to harmonize their resources in concert with the private sector and other social agencies linked by a commitment for the larger good – the idea that education and training will drive sustainable development, strengthen democracy and alter inequalities.

As a follow-up effort to the II Summit of the Americas the initiative is a cooperative, concrete and manageable action plan to develop the Hemisphere’s human resources to ensure that all people are given the opportunity to contribute to the political, social and economic life of their country, community and society; with further enhancement of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Americas.

It includes 13 Latin American and Caribbean Ministers’ representatives, the North and South American private sector, educational institutions and civil society organizations in development to promote more equitable access to and use of technology to link education, health care and other public services. With special attention to open and advance these opportunities for women, youth, indigenous people and those who have been disenfranchised by illiteracy, poverty and geography.

The goal is to establish a non-government mechanism, accountable to subscriber countries in conjunction with the private sector and international organizations to connect, operate and manage satellite and land-based telecommunications infrastructure for Americas’ education and health-care institutions and other public services.

Long term benefits accrue from the rapid growth of open and affordable telecommunications infrastructure with connectivity creating an unprecedented opportunity for human resource development in education, job opportunities, health care and other social development in the Americas.

Short term benefits assure a significant, achievable and concrete implementation report for the III Summit of the Americas in Quebec, Canada, April, 2001. An action plan to assure access and use of telecommunications in education by small and large countries with commitment to inclusion and equity harmonizing their resources; to strengthen public institutions – education and health-care, and to empower all peoples to participate in knowledge-based economies to their fullest potential. There is little question that the information gap between the have and have-nots will continue to expand absent

public/private cooperative action to level the playing field for all – to close the growing gap between the have and the have-nots.

In Latin American and Caribbean countries almost 30% of the population is school age. Overall, more than 30% of this age group is without schooling and teachers. A large percentage of the countries’ children drop out of school by 2^nd and 3^rd grade or become ineligible for schooling beyond 7^th and 8^th grades. A large number of the children living in poverty, rural areas, and ethnic and indigenous communities have no access to school facilities, community buildings, or qualified teachers. Women and girls are particularly vulnerable since they are not expected to or are not eligible to enter schooling.

In the US, despite its economic boom and fewer Americans going hungry these days, 17% of US children, almost 12 million, face hunger. 21% of all black persons went hungry or lived on its edge, with almost the same number of hispanics in the same situation in 1999.[2] A few US Native American Indian reservations are offered limited telephone service for the first time, some remain without telephones.

It is self evident that we need not list the benefits of education as a tool to fight poverty and other social problems. However, it is only in very recent years that some Latin American and Caribbean leaders made education reform a priority. The potential for access to technology and its information resources emboldened some Ministers of Education and Prime Ministers to address the education reform in their countries. However, the realities of huge national debts, weak economies and high costs held back funding.

It is widely recognized that if we are going to even the playing field for all countries in the Americas with small and large populations, widely dispersed or densely populated communities, groups of countries and states must aggregate their buying power for cross-border and international common-infrastructure to bring about cost-effective access and use of these technologies and respect national sovereignty and authority.

The concept is not new. We have been encouraging multilateral agreements in the use of electric power grids and transportation authorities around the globe for years. To meet the education sector demands and needs, governments, schools and the private sector, need modern day electronic power grids governed by an authority or mechanism to bring costs down, recognize local and national governance and interests, encourage competition, and effectively and swiftly bring educational institutions, - teaching and learning - into the 21^st century.

How to address the long term financial investments to provide equitable access to education for all students and workers in the Americas, or elsewhere on the globe, which cannot be met by one company, one nation/state or one institution, is a key challenge.

How growth of private E-Learning networks impacts supply and demand for access in less affluent, poor, rural, ethnic and indigenous communities, remains an open question.

The EDSAT-Americas project addresses costs, equity, governance and other major barriers. It addresses the incompatibility of telecommunications industries and international lending institutions with education demands. The report calls for collective action with public/private partnerships to address a growing information gap between rich and poor countries and communities.