DigI:DigI demonstration Norad

= Agenda =
 * 0930 Welcome
 * 0940 Table round
 * 1000 Visiting the Hot-spot
 * 1015 Status DigI project
 * 1030 Open discussion
 * 1130 end of meeting

= Minutes =

Visiting the Hot-spot
The hot-spot has been established, and costs around USD 300, including a solar panel, the solar/battery controller, battery, USB chargers for phones/tablets and light. Given the infrastructure sharing with Telecom operators into the village, we expect to re-use the mobile tower to distribute Internet to hot-spots being as long as 7 km away. These Wifi hot-spots will be typically placed where people meet, e.g. health spots, schools, market places, governmental buildings.

In the DigI project we have established information material, and currently perform the site survey to establish the connectivity to 3 villages (Phase A) and later on 10 villages (Phase B). Please read more at: DigI:TT1.3

Due to snow and bad light conditions, the battery of the pilot installation lacks power. Thus no content could be shown at the hot-spot. However, the first version of the content is available at http://digi.futurecompetence.net Further health messages are developed, mainly by "converting paper" into video, animations and evtl games. The "games" will be limited to some cases, given the development effort.

Status DigI project
[[Media:Free access to Digital Health Information in Tanzania 9.11 JN ASW.pdf|Presentation by Christine on DigI status in Tanzania]]
 * see all Presentations in DigI, as well as white papers
 * We have an extremely engaging team with participants from 8 countries amongst the 11 partners in DigI.
 * The multi-national and multi-disciplinary team with 11 partners from 8 countries (Tanzania, Norway, Germany, Rwanda, Serbia, DR Congo, France and Spain) share knowledge in a variety of disciplines such natural sciences, mathematics, information technology, humanities, social sciences and medicine, including veterinary medicine.
 * We have good progress, and our people on the ground do a marvellous job to get the agreements for the phase A villages.
 * We currently have about 6 months delay in TZ, due to the long negotiations with NFR on the legal status (undertaking?) of the "Basic Internet Foundation", and subsequently hiring of PhD candidates. Thus, main work only started in September 2017.
 * However, the time-plan suggests that we are able to catch-up prior to Phase B, though we might want to spend good time to get decent results in the intervention studies.
 * Good support from Jon Hansen (Mfa) and Johanne Walthinsen (Norwegian Embassy TZ)

Time-plan

 * now (Nov/Dec2017): Agreements with district authorities, village authorities and mobile operators in the selected villages
 * Feb2018: Meeting at the Norwegian Embassy in Dar es Salaam with Ministry of Health, Ministry of Communications and Mobile Operators to reach agreement on pilots in business models
 * April2018: Consortium meeting in TZ with focus on roll-out and first results, incl. structure of Interim Report
 * new May2018: Meeting with shareholders (see alliances) for reporting on our achievements. Suggested to create Interim Report for this purpose.
 * Summer 2018: plans for showcase Tanzania: Connecting the Unconnected 4000 villages (with WHO, ITU-D, GSMA,...)

Content for Digital Health
The Open Discussion addressed the several topics, including content for digital health. DigI focusses solely on public health awareness, with the goal of reaching a attitude and behaviour change and through digital health an uptake of digital literacy. Given the time constraints in the project, we'll focus on knowledge uptake based on the introduction of digital health spots.

Regardless of content, most of providers, including HISP and DHIS2, assume that an infrastructure is in place. However, with 3.5 billion people being unconnected, the focus on hardware infrastructure needs to be highlighted before soft applications can play a role. Thus, one of the expected outcomes from DigI are:
 * A model for digital health coverage
 * Connectivity, the action of involving the neglected people
 * A business model for co-operation between TelCos and non-profit organisations
 * Evidence on the uptake of digital information through digital health spots.
 * The blueprint for no one left behind, attracting innovative finances

DigI is only a tiny small project when it comes to health content. We are looking forward to elaborate further on the Global Health Seminar 10-11May2018 in Oslo.

UCSAF - Connectivity funds
When looking for the value proposition for operators, we see two ways:
 * using the Universal Communication Service Access Funds (UCSAF)' or other Ministry of Communication funds to pilot for in-kind provision of bandwidth for health, education, and governmental services.
 * triggering operators with the Facebook model, acquiring new customers through 5G network slicing for free access to information for all.
 * read more on operator's vision: https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/programme/connected-society/taxing-mobile-connectivity-sub-saharan-africa-review-mobile-sector-taxation-impact-digital-inclusion

Collaborations opportunities

 * Centre for Global Health (UiO, TU München), extended with Faculties for Informatics
 * HiOA - UiO (similar to Food, Human Rights ... https://www.jus.uio.no/smr/english/research/projects/fohrc/)
 * UNOG - United Nations Geneva around #DigitalGeneva (evtl. Kate Gilmore United Nations Human Rights)
 * ITU-WHO - MoU on Africa
 * Africa Alliance on Digital Health
 * TZ focus from the Gates Foundation, Henry(?) in Dar es Salaam is managing

With respect to the foundation, Ingeborg suggested to ask for Ambassadors and Mentors.

Outbreak response
As Anthrax is an outbreak disease, a good value proposition is to use the Anthrax case for outbreak prepareness, answering outbreak detection, preparation, ... and other steps necessary to handle an outbreak. DigI is timely and can become a showcase for handling of outbreaks. Elibariki will take it up in his work. -