A partnership between the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute (PSRTI) was formalised to better guide the government’s ICT agenda.
According to a recent press release, the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed by the two parties in order to conduct two flagship projects on ICT statistics.
For more cost-effective ICT projects
The two statistics projects, National ICT Household Survey (NICTHS) and the Pipol Konek User Feedback Analysis, will allow the Philippine government to design more cost-effective plans for their ICT projects.
The goal of the NICTHS is to gather baseline data on household access and use of ICT services and equipment.
It will aid in measuring key indicators of household ICT use in selected barangays for evidence-based planning and policy formulation.
On the other hand, the second survey covers the Pipol Konek project of the Department that seeks to establish free hotspots across the country.
OpenGov Asia earlier reported on the expansion of the provision of the Free Wi-Fi Internet Access in Public Places to the town of Camarines Sur.
Since Pipol Konek have connected over 3.5 million unique users from the last six months through over 2,300 hotspots as of March 2019, the Pipol Konek User Feedback Analysis seeks to examine the outcomes of the project on people’s access to social services and economic opportunities.
The Institute have already begun work by listing down the field supervisors for the nationwide survey. They have also been engaged in extensive planning and preparation since last year.
The partnership, according to the Institute’s Executive Director, will provide the foundation for more responsive ICT plans and policies to benefit the nation for the years to come.
Since this is a breakthrough initiative in ICT statistics, hopes are high that this partnership will stimulate more opportunities for the development of programs and activities that will cater to the emerging needs of the public.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will also take part in the project. It will be providing the clearance review and technical inputs of the projects, particularly for the NICTHS.
Schedule of activities
Conducting the NICTHS, in fact, has already been a proposal since 2015 but it was only in 2018 that the project was granted a budget allocation for its nationwide implementation.
The project will be led by the Plans and Policy Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the National ICT Planning, Policy and Standards Bureau (NIPPSB.
Since the pre-tests of both surveys are finished, the next step is to conduct a Training of Trainers for the NICTHS.
The press release states that the training is scheduled on May 2019 and will be followed by the nationwide rollout of enumerators for the survey proper.
