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Smart Villages and Smart Islands - Asia Pacific

	ITU Smart Villages and Smart Islands initiative transforms remote villages into Smart villages through the power of connectivity, digital services, and digital skills

About Smart Villages and Smart Islands Initiative
ITU's Smart Villages and Smart Islands (SVSI) Initiative is a digital transformation project designed to provide affordable connectivity and sustainable digital services to remote communities in developing countries. It aims to improve the well-being and livelihoods of people by empowering them with digitally-enabled solutions and skills that address their daily needs. The Smart Villages and Smart Islands initiative in the Asia Pacific is based on the ITU-ANSI Smart Villages model which was first piloted in Niger and is part of a broader ITU-led global initiative to create Smart Villages and Smart Islands. This program seeks to provide affordable and accessible digital solutions to improve the quality of life and economic opportunities of rural and island communities.: The SVSI initiative is currently being implemented in various countries in Asia and the Pacific, including Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The work on Smart Islands is supported by the following Joint SDG Fund projects:
"Accelerating SDG achievement through digital transformation to strengthen community resilience in Micronesia"
UN Partners: ITU (Lead), FAO, ILO, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNOPS
Technical partner: UNODC
Countries: Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, and Kiribati
Project duration: 2 years (Fall 2022 - 2024)

"Advancing the SDGs by Improving livelihoods and resilience via economic diversification and digital transformation"
UN Partners: ILO (Lead), ITU, UNESCO, UNODC, UNOPS, OHCHR
Countries: Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Tuvalu
Project duration: 2 years

"Smart Islands in the Pacific"
UN Cooperating agency: International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Cooperating agency: Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Project duration: 2 years from October 2022 – December 2024
Countries: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu

The Smart Village project in Pakistan is implemented under the following partnership:
"Smart Village Pakistan"
UN cooperating agency: International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Government cooperating agency: Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication and Universal Service Fund of Pakistan
Contributing partner: Huawei Inc.
Project duration: December 2022 – March 2024.
Countries: Pakistan

How does the initiative benefit people?
Rural communities in developing countries encounter numerous obstacles, such as geographic isolation, limited availability of skilled workers, inadequate infrastructure, and increased susceptibility to external shocks. In remote regions and outer islands, there is a pressing need to prioritize access to information, government services, transportation, healthcare, finance, commerce, and education, especially in light of the urgent requirement to hasten post-COVID-19 recovery and advance towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).: As per the 2022 estimates, there is a significant gap between internet usage rates in rural and urban areas in Asia-Pacific, with only 47% of individuals in rural areas using the internet compared to 82% in urban areas. This disparity underscores the urgent need to bridge the digital divide in remote communities and ensure that people in rural areas have access to the digital tools and services necessary to improve their livelihoods and well-being.

At the same time, rural communities in the Asia-Pacific region continue to face persistent disparities in accessing many essential social services:

Health: Rural populations are twice as likely to lack social health insurance coverage, and there is a significant shortage of healthcare professionals, leading to lower-quality healthcare services in these areas. This gap in healthcare services is particularly concerning, as it contributes to much higher maternal mortality rates in rural communities when compared to urban areas (ILO, World Social Protection Report 2017-19).

Financial protection: Global data indicates that the incidence of poverty in rural areas is more than three times higher than in the cities (United Nations, The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019).

Employment: According to available estimates from ILOSTAT, workers in rural areas in Asia-Pacific receive on average 1.4 times less nominal monthly remuneration than their urban counterparts (ILOSTAT).

Education: Global data indicates that low proficiency in reading and mathematics is more proliferate in remote rural villages and school attendance rates are lower than in towns (United Nations, The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019).

What makes a village or an island "smart"? Smart villages and smart islands are rural and remote communities that are empowered by digitally-enabled solutions and tools that help them address their unique challenges. They leverage common digital infrastructure to improve their local economy and social conditions, building on their strengths and opportunities and creating an enabling ecosystem for community-led innovation and skills development.: The Smart Villages and Smart Islands platforms will improve the provision of services in the following sectors:

Health: the deployment of telemedicine and mHealth services to improve access to diagnosis, while also reducing the cost to the healthcare system. For example, mHealth programmes for diabetes prevention and control could be deployed on the basis of the WHO-ITU joint ‘Be Healthy Be Mobile’ initiative.

Education: access to open and distance learning opportunities will enable capacity building for teachers and education administrators as well as providing equitable access to quality literacy, lifelong learning and skills programmes for children, youth, and adults. Local teachers could improve their qualifications and experiences of their students by using engaging education content, curated and uploaded on digital school units.

Farming: e-Agriculture services can support efficient and productive farming capabilities among farmers, making rural communities more resilient from both economic and nutritional points of view. A specialized app could be provided that would help farmers detect and treat pests in a timely manner, based on the analysis of photos taken by conventional smartphones.

Multi-hazard early warning and response: ICT systems for hazard risk monitoring, alert, and post-alert guidance and information. For example, a hurricane early warning system based on meteorological data analysis algorithms and messaging services.

Digital financial services: provide access to much needed digital financial services, and accelerate financial inclusion goals.

Tourism and commerce: support access to e-commerce and e-marketing to improve income opportunities and support livelihoods.

How does it work? The Smart Villages and Smart Islands model is based on a whole-of-government approach and is demand-driven, user-centric, flexible, and focused on sustainability, scalability, and multi-sector collaboration. It is designed to manifest digital transformation at the community level, to leave no one behind. The approarch focuses on four key pillars (i) improving broadband connectivity (ii) making broadband affordable (iii) enhancing digital skills (iv) and providing digital services, to impact people's lives based on their local priorities.: The approach is focused on creating a shared cross-sector digital infrastructure that consists of common ICT building blocks that can simultaneously support a number of applications and services (e.g. health, agriculture, education, finance, early warning and disaster prevention, etc.). Core foundational building blocks - such as registries, repositories, digital identification and authentication services, data security services, payments and messaging services, and other - are all common to many SDG-related applications and need to be designed and deployed as common assets that are usable by and accessible to all. Such strategy allows for significant cost-reduction, flexibility, and cross-sectoral partnerships which improves efficiency and facilitates the scaling of the project, both technically and financially.; Country highlights:


Vanuatu A preliminary assessment of needs and priorities has been published following a country mission and community visits in 2021.	Samoa Consultations with community and stakeholders from Manono-Tai island were conducted between December 2022 and January 2023 to inform the selection and design of the digital services.	Pakistan First Smart Village was established in Gokina. Along a rural connectivity solution, the project is delivering a suit of services, including digital health services, to support local doctors and patients.	Fiji Fiji is a multi-ethnic nation of more than 800 volcanic islands and islets located in the South Pacific Ocean, with a population of 889,953 people (World Bank, 2019)..

Federated States of Micronesia Kiribati, consisting of 32 low-lying atolls spread across 811 sq. km amidst an expansive 3.5 million sq. km of ocean, boasts a unique geography. The SVSI initiative finds its pilot ground on Tamana Island, nestled as the second southernmost island in the Gilbert group. Notably, it stands as Kiribati's smallest inhabited island, where the SVSI aims to cover critical locations with broadband connectivities, empower villagers with digital skills and vocational training, and launch e-services.	Nauru Nauru, among the world's tiniest island nations nestled in the Pacific Ocean, is home to approximately 12,581 individuals (World Bank, 2019). The country has initiated the SVSI pilot on its single island, Nauru. The initiative aims to strengthen the connectivity and provide digital skills training to Nauruans.	Papua New Guinea In partnership with ITU and international organizations, Papua New Guinea runs several ICT projects. The SVSI is starting soon in 2024.	Kiribati Kiribati is comprised of 32 low-lying atolls and the raised phosphate island of Banaba, totalling 811 sq. km of land over 3.5 million sq. km of ocean. Kiribati has three groups of islands: Gilbert, Phoenix and Line; with a population of 117,606 people (World Bank, 2019).

Rep. of Marshall Islands ITU collaborates with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on implementation of the Smart Islands initiative as part of the UN Joint Progreamme.	Palau ITU collaborates with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and Industries on implementation of the Smart Islands initiative as part of the UN Joint Progreamme.	Tuvalu ITU collaborates with the Ministry of Public Works, Infrastructure, Environment, Labour, Meteorology & Disaster on implementation of the Smart Islands initiative as part of the UN Joint Progreamme.	Tonga Tonga is a Polynesian kingdom of 176 South Pacific Islands (36 of which are inhabited) that lies to the south of Samoa, southeast of Fiji and northeast of New Zealand; with a population of 104,494 people (World Bank, 2019)

Solomon Islands ITU collaborates with the Ministry of Commerce, Industries, Labour & Immigration on implementation of the Smart Islands initiative as part of the UN Joint Progreamme.

Latest news and stories: Read latest news and stories about on Asia-Pacific countries' experience with implementing the Smart Villages and Smart Islands initiative. Learn from the insights shared by local community members, international experts, project partners, and digital innovation champions to benefit from knowledge-exchange on digital transformation of rural areas.

Transforming a small island into a Smart Island: Southern Malekula, Vanuatu (February 2023)

Recognizing how connectivity and digital technologies could enhance village life, Vanuatu’s government joined forces with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to launch the Smart Villages and Smart Islands initiative pilot in Malekula. Learn more from our news blog!

ITU and Kacific join forces to boost emergency telecoms and ICT development in Vanuatu (May 2020)

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Kacific have joined forces to boost the capacity of Vanuatu to provide a reliable communications network when disasters strike – and to improve connectivity to boost socio-economic development. Find out more about this collaboration here.

Partner with us! The smart village model is a citizen-centric initiative and a learning journey for rural development and transformation. Together we can do more! Partner with us now to deliver positive impact to remote rural communities.: E-mail: ITU-RO-AsiaPacific@itu.int
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