USAID/EGAT Information and Communications Technology
Cooperative Agreement (ICT@USAID→dot-ORG)

SUMMARY OVERVIEW

dot-ORG is a Leader-with-Associates Cooperative Agreement which works with USAID Missions to develop ICT for Development initiatives. dot-ORG was established in 2001 and its activities support:

• Improve ICT policy and regulatory environments to enable rapid ICT deployment and effective utilization, including telecommunications policy and e-legislation, encompassing security, privacy, and cybercrime issues; and increase awareness of ICT policy, legal and regulatory issues among policy-makers, the judiciary, and other stakeholders responsible for policy development and implementation.

• Increase access to ICT by deploying sustainable public access solutions in underserved semi-urban and rural areas, such as telecenters and broadband wireless networks, thereby opening up opportunities for larger segments of the population to benefit from ICT.

• Design and implement innovative applications to support sector growth, including mobile applications such as m-banking, supply chain management, leveraging mobile technologies and sector specific technologies to develop high-impact applications.

• Enhance learning and information dissemination by developing knowledge products and organizing knowledge sharing and capacity building events, as well as developing relevant web content.

dot-ORG is implemented by the Academy for Educational Development (AED) – http://www.aed.org. Additional information can be found on the DOT-COM Alliance website – http://www.dot-com-alliance.org. For information on the activities of dot-ORG and its partners, please contact the Program Director, Michael Tetelman, at mtetelma@aed.org or (202) 884-8856.

Illustrative Activities

	Enhancing Smaller U.S. IT Company Involvement in LAC Managing Organization: USAID/EGAT/I&E/ICT Implementing Organization: Academy for Educational Development (AED) dot-ORG is working with NewMarket Technology, Inc. to identify smaller U.S. IT companies and help them take advantage of market opportunities in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.
	Kenya - eLegislation Managing Organization: USAID/EGAT/I&E/ICT Implementing Organization: Academy for Educational Development (AED) This activity sought to design and create comprehensive e-Legislation model laws for Kenya that would provide a more conducive environment for supporting the implementation of Government-to-Business and Government-to-Citizen services.
	Kyrgyzstan LMI eCenter Project Managing Organization: USAID/EGAT/I&E/ICT Implementing Organization: Academy for Educational Development (AED) In this project, five pilot eCenters were established in rural Kyrgyzstan through a competitive tender process. The eCenters aim to stimulate access to ICTs, improve economic growth, bolster efforts toward conflict mitigation, and lead to non-traditional employment training and job creation. Beyond offering traditional telecenter services, a special emphasis has been placed on skills training related to 21st century job creation in computer literacy, digital image management, online transcription services, web-based English language training, and digital security monitoring services.
	Macedonia (MK) Connects Managing Organization: USAID/E&E/Macedonia Implementing Organization: Academy for Educational Development (AED) MK Connects catalyzed the development of a sustainable wireless network covering the entire country of Macedonia - "the first wireless country." It is a partnership between the government of Macedonia, USAID, the People's Republic of China (PRC), and Microsoft. The LMI implementing partner, AED, selected a company (On.Net) in a competitive tender process to provide Internet connectivity to all of the country's 460 schools (plus 85 additional sites) for 2 years.

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