:: Vision

“A Community eCenter in every municipality”

The Community eCenter is a self sustaining shared facility providing affordable access to ICT-enabled services and relevant content. It serves as a conduit for efficient delivery of government and other services and a potent tool for empowerment and participation of unserved and underserved communities in development.

:: Mission

To promote the development and to enhance productivity of unserved and underserved communities in the Philippines thereby improving  quality of life through the provision of access, network and a stronger voice through use of affordable, appropriate, and critical ICT-enabled services.

:: Goals

In pursuit of the VISION and delivery of the MISSION, the goals of the Philippine CeC Program for 2008-2010 are:

1. To provide connectivity to ALL municipalities of the Philippines
2. To identify, develop and provide access to content responsive to knowledge needs of the target customers
3. To ensure availability of competent CeC knowledge workers
4. To institutionalize systems support for the development, scaling  and sustainable management and operation of CeCs

:: Components of the Philippine CeC Program

In order to carry out the identified goals, four component areas of the Philippine CeC Program have been identified. These are: Infrastructure, Content Development, Capability Building and CeC Development and Management.

1 - Infrastructure

The Infrastructure component of the Philippine CeC Program will deliver the requisite connectivity to CeC sites. This includes both power and internet access for all municipalities. This component addresses the first goal-- to provide affordable and reliable Internet connectivity to all CeCs.

The strategies are:

1. “Quick wins” for Year One by identifying prospective CeC sites and matching telecommunications infrastructure up to the last mile and submission of match list to CICT for prioritization and guidance on CeC rollout;

2. Coordination with Department of Energy (DOE) electrification program to provide connectivity to remote CeCs and with TELCO expansion programs in consideration of the evolution of new technologies; and

3. Public-Private Sector Partnership in the provision of adequate infrastructure to the CeC program.

2 – Content Development

The Content Development component takes care of the second goal — to ensure the delivery of relevant content to CeCs.

This requires a three-tiered perspective: 1) mapping of and linking with existing content; 2) development of “new” content per content needs of target communities; and 3) building capability of CeCs to develop local content and uploading this in the Philippine CeC portal.

This perspective will produce three critical results: 1) access to existing knowledge and services; 2) provide collaboration opportunities across public and private sectors, local and global content providers; and 2) transform CeCs into knowledge-based enterprises through the generation, organization, facilitation of access to information that the community can leverage on in enhancing individual and community productivity.

The strategies are:

1. Content development and provision of access through the Philippine CeC Portal;

2. Partnership mechanism with content developers and providers in government and private sector, local and global; and

3. Development of templates for content development in interoperable platforms.

3 – Capability Building

The Capability Building component is imperative to the success of the Philippine CeC program. To a large extent, success in the delivery of goals and targets are due to the competence of the human resource who are currently involved in and who will eventually sustain the program. The component will guarantee delivery of the third goal – to ensure availability of competent CeC knowledge workers in the Philippines.

The identified strategies are:

1. Standardize capacity building programs for CeC knowledge workers through the institutionalization of the Philippine Community eCenter Academy (PCeCA);

2. Partnership strategies to institutionalize CeC plantilla positions; and

3. Development and adoption of competency standards for CeC workers.

4 – CeC Development and Management

The CeC Development and Management component supervises, coordinates and harmonizes the various players in the implementation of the Philippine CeC Program. The functions of managing the CeC program and developing CeCs along the strategic directions set are the accountability of a Program Management Office to be organized by the CICT. The component takes care of the fourth goal – to ensure effective and efficient management of the Philippine CeC Program.

The strategies it has to implement are:

1. Resource generation for the CeC Financing Program Network
2. Adoption of national standards in the management of CeCs;
3. Installation of support systems such as legal framework, national and local policies in support of the CeC program;
4. Promotion of the “CeC fever” for social acceptability for CeCs;
5. Application of economies of scale for efficiency in CeC operations;
6. Strengthening and activation of the Philippine CeC Network; and
7. Scaling CeCs in unserved and underserved municipalities including tapping Internet Cafes’ potential to transform into CeCs (Internet Café++).