CDI Brazil, the Inter-American Development Bank’s Youth Development and Outreach Program, Microsoft Corporation, and the StarMedia Foundation have presented the CDI Americas initiative to key public, private sector and philanthropic organizations that seek to bridge the "digital divide."
The initiative intends to better the future of millions of underprivileged youth in Latin America and the Caribbean through training in information technology skills, counseling, and job placement.
CDI Americas , whose full name is Committee for Democratization of Information Technology Americas, is a partnership formed by the four organizations in March 2000.
It seeks to extend to the rest of the region a successful model of CDI Brazil, which has already established more than 190 information technology and citizenship schools in the low-income areas of Brazil in the past five years.
The initiative, which operates on donations to establish the schools at a relatively low cost, is building new strategic partnerships to extend the model to all of Latin America, where more than half of the 220 million young people who are under the age of 20 live in poverty.
CDI Americas is already active in Brazil and Uruguay, and it is initiating operations in Colombia and Mexico. Its immediate goal is to create at least 100 new information technology and citizenship schools in the four countries during 2001 to reach more than 30,000 young people per year.
During a meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C., presided by IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias, with representatives of private companies, philanthropies, and international organizations, CDI Americas raised the awareness among potential new strategic partners of combining efforts aimed at connecting youth in every town and every school in the region to the Internet to enable them to participate in the challenges and benefits of the information age.
Iglesias and Muni Figueres, IDB external relations advisor, stressed the importance of youth leadership in harnessing new technology for human betterment.
The CDI Brazil Model
The CDI Brazil model, created by Brazilian young entrepreneur Rodrigo Baggio in 1994, has been very successful in low-income communities known as favelas. The initiative has already graduated more than 60,000 students from 190 schools in Brazil.
The concept of the model is to utilize initial donations to establish information technology and citizenship schools that will be self-sustainable and self-administered from the first day of classes. The schools teach basic computer skills and Internet in intensive 3-month course modules.
Opportunities offered by computer training can be attractive to youth who have dropped out of school or never attended school. It offers youth an alternative to delinquent behavior and an incentive to stay in school and finish their studies.
The CDI curriculum includes common computer programs and Internet training, such as MS, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and HTML. In addition, students are not only instructed in computer and hardware maintenance, but also civic education, which includes human rights advocacy, training in nonviolence, health, and environmental responsibility − instruction that enhances their possibilities of success vocationally and socially.
The citizenship training is closely adapted to the challenging realities of each individual community and is combined in an integrated fashion with the information technology curriculum.
The cost is relatively low given the lasting impact of the curriculum and training on youth and its powerful multiplier effect in improving the lives of the young and their communities.
This approach focuses on extensive training in professional job skills preparation, making students qualified for high-tech local internship programs.
An interesting example is a group of CDI students from the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro who first interned with StarMedia Brazil and later went on to secure positions teaching technology and Internet skills to youth with Globo.com.
Additional private sector partners can support CDI by offering more financial and technical assistance, hardware, internships and employment opportunities.
CDI in Uruguay and Other Countries
The CDI Americas model has already been successfully applied in Uruguay. Five schools have already been opened in Uruguay, reaching some of the most needy youth in and around Montevideo, and training has been completed for more than 30 instructors throughout Uruguay, where the initiative has been declared of national interest based on the new educational and economic opportunities.
The experience will soon be extended to Colombia and Mexico. Twenty schools will be inaugurated by 2001 in Colombia in the cities of Bogota, Barranquilla, Medellin and Manizales. Some schools will also be located in Bello, a high-crime district of the department of Antioquia.
In Mexico, operations are already underway to identify communities and open schools in Monterrey and Mexico City. Contacts have been made with members of Mexican public and private sectors and with community organizations with experience working in poor communities.
CDI Americas and IDB Projects
Under the CDI Americas initiative, the Inter-American Development Bank is committed to establish partnerships with international, national and local public and private organizations, according to the specific needs of the countries.
The Bank and the IDB Group’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) are preparing a series of projects to strengthen CDI Brazil and to extend the model to the rest of Latin America.
There are three IDB projects in preparation that relate to or could potentially contribute to the expansion of CDI Americas:
Rio Digital. The MIF is developing a project with CDI Brazil, the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro, and other local nongovernment organizations to scale up the CDI model in Rio. The pilot program aims to upgrade twelve of the existing centers and convert them into "model schools," and then develop a system for "franchising" this model in other countries.
This initiative includes new product development, establishment of new courses, technology upgrade, and partnership development with the private sector.
The total cost of the project is approximately $1.5 million, with a MIF contribution of $900,000.
Strengthening CDI Brazil. An IDB regional technical cooperation program now being prepared will strengthen CDI Brazil’s institutional capacity and its ability to design a strategy to expand the model to other countries in Latin America. The project is also expected to finance either the creation of at least ten new schools in each of four new countries or the strengthening of established schools in Colombia and Uruguay.
Regional Program to Promote Youth Entrepreneurship. The IDB and the MIF are designing a program to promote youth entrepreneurship and increase employment among young adults through innovative information technology programs in partnership with the International Youth Foundation.
The program will co-finance projects designed to foster business skills and promote enterprise development throughout the region with special emphasis on information technology. It will specifically foster the integration of information technology in new business ventures.
The program, whose estimated cost is $25 million, will be co-financed by the MIF and several corporate sponsors. It will provide funding for 30 to 35 different programs throughout the region, train 12,000 to 15,000 young people and help establish 500 new businesses. It is expected that the project will be presented to the MIF’s donor committee for approval early next year.
The IDB also created the Youth Development and Outreach Program in 1995 to promote active youth participation in the development process in four main areas: participation and leadership, entrepreneurship, technology and community service.