RIS, is a project of digitalPH which is an initiative under the ICT Capability Development and Management Program that aims to expand economic opportunities by making them more inclusive. The Program aims to provide access to economic opportunities to Filipinos in rural communities by introducing them to ICT-enabled jobs, and help them participate in high-value economic activities by providing them with inclusive lifelong learning opportunities. These individuals are typically people who lack access to traditional employment.

For its part, the RIS Project aims to enable citizens in socio-economically disadvantaged areas to participate in the digital economy by promoting ICT-enabled jobs in communities not yet ready to host Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) operations by providing citizens with technical training that develops/improves their ICT skills and capabilities and use what they learned to find employment. Specifically, the project aims to:

- Increase the ICT technical skills of talents in the countryside and enable them to hired;
- Improve the ICT technical skills of in-house participants (DICT personnel, Tech4ED Center Managers) for them to become potential trainers;
- Help RIS scholars, and people that directly and indirectly benefit from the initiative to find economic opportunities; and
- Promote local talent and local businesses.

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• Philippines

• Youth
• Women
• People with disabilities
• The unemployed
• Remote and rural communities

Individually, RIS scholars are encouraged to share what they learned in their own communities and conduct their own trainings. This is part of the 'pay-it-forward' culture of the RIS Project. They are also encouraged to become part of the local pool of trainers and be deployed in future RIS trainings.

At the municipal/city/provincial level, the LGUs will be able to organize their own RIS trainings outside of the DICT. The LGU staff will have been briefed by the DICT focals regarding the conduct of the trainings. The LGU staff will also be able to coordinate with DICT focals regarding available facilitators for the training, especially those that are members of the local trainers pool.

Tech4ED Center Managers may also organize their RIS trainings in their own Centers. The Tech4ED Center is a DICT Program that provides public access to ICT venues to people throughout the Philippines.

Non-government organizations/civil society organizations may also approach the DICT regarding the implementation of RIS in their areas.

The DICT has allocated a budget to conduct at least 65 RIS trainings throughout the Philippines for 2019.

In order to make the RIS project more sustainable, the ICT Industry Development Bureau (IIDB), the project implementer, is working with the IT-BPM industry and LGUs through the digitalcitiesPH. It is engaging LGUs through the formation of ICT councils and to make the city a business innovation hub. Through these efforts, it aims to create an enabling ICT/startup ecosystem in areas outside the identified digital cities within the Philippines. The IIDB recognizes that an engaged industry and LGUs would appreciate a local talent pool that is capacitated based on the needs of the industry. This environment would be supportive to the continuous implementation of RIS in these areas.

The Tech4ED Centers becoming venues for RIS trainings will also help make the RIS project sustainable. The Tech4ED Centers, public access to ICT venues located throughout the Philippines, are sustained by the LGUs hosting them. The IIDB is working towards familiarizing and capacitating the Center Managers regarding RIS activities so they may be encouraged to organize their own RIS capacity building trainings within the Tech4ED Centers.

There are also plans of partnering with local state universities and colleges about building RIS Hubs within the campuses in order to further expand the trainings not just for the people in the countryside but for students that need to be prepared to enter the workforce.

The RIS Project is part of the ongoing efforts of the DICT to create an inclusive information society in the Philippines, as such the RIS trainings are implemented in areas far from highly-developed areas throughout the country. The project promotes and expands economic inclusivity by providing them with the skills they need to find online or ICT-based work. These efforts would also positively affect the families and communities of the scholars . It also enables people in the countryside, to participate in the digital economy by providing ICT-related trainings that also increase their chances of getting online work. The trainings provided by RIS empower the scholars to find their own job, start their own businesses, and/or work with other scholars to form a company that would work to find and provide them with jobs, effectively expanding the reach of their economic activities.