May, 2011 From the compiler Welcome to May 2011 REEDS NEWS. Many countries have experienced significant economic growth from the start of new millennium. The progress or growth, however, is not been accompanied by commensurate poverty reduction. Studies indicate that 1.4 billion people continue to live in extreme poverty, struggling to survive on less than US$1.25 a day. More than two thirds of them reside in rural areas. Agriculture has a key role to play in stimulating the growth of the rural economy where four out of every five households farm to some degree. Promoting rural economic growth demands a focus on agriculture to develop production systems that are productive and sustainable; and requires support for the creation of new economic opportunities that rural people can grasp. It is vital to enable poor rural people to manage risk they face. It is essential to invest in developing the skills they need to take advantage of new economic opportunities. There is an ongoing need to strengthen their collective capabilities that gives them confidence for overcoming poverty. Putting in place a conducive environment for diversified rural growth is important for capturing the demographic dividend as well. In spite of international and national skill development policy reflect on the urgent need to skills and vocational training provision among rural people, access to training is still a major constraint. ILO studies reveal that, nearly 90 percent of agricultural workers in India have no formal training, and over 85 percent of rural informal sector operators in Kenya have no business or technical training at all. There is a need to formulate effective strategies to address unique challenges in extending skills supporting rural development. REEDS skill development initiative would be addressing few such challenges of skills development for poverty reduction, employment generation and social capital creation. I find our REEDS NEWS a great way to say thank you for your support and do hope you also enjoy reading it. With warmest thanks and best wishes, Ravi K Reddy, June 30, 2011 In Focus World Bank studies reveal that rural poverty in South Asia goes beyond inadequate incomes. Acute vulnerability to disease, crop failures, labor market fluctuations, domestic violence, natural disasters, floods and cyclones, which further exacerbate their sense of insecurity. Fostering rural growth and opportunities for rural households; empowering communities and the rural poor to meet their priority economic and social needs; and enhancing the capacity of rural households to overcome and manage insecurity and risks therefore are three major objectives of World Bank's regional strategy for eliminating poverty: Source: Agriculture and Rural Development Website Guest column   -  Dr. SK Hajela * ICT 4 VET Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country. They have become even more important given the increasing pace of globalization and technological changes. For the economy to grow at 8% to 9%, it is necessary that the secondary and tertiary sectors grow at 10% to 11%, assuming agriculture grows at 4%. In such a scenario, it is obvious that a large portion of the workforce would migrate from the primary sector (agriculture) to the secondary and tertiary sectors. This implies that there is and will be a large skill gap when such a migration occurs, as evidenced by a shrinking employment in the agriculture sector. This scenario necessitates skill development in the workforce. India is expected to be home to a skilled workforce of 500 million by 2022. About 12 million persons are expected to join the workforce every year. This talent pool needs to be adequately skilled. As we march towards becoming a 'Knowledge economy' it becomes increasingly important to focus on advancement of skills relevant to the digital environment. In the 21st century as science progresses towards a better understanding of the miniscule, that is, genes, nano-particles, bits and bytes and neurons, knowledge domains and skill domains also multiply and become more and more complex. Skill development on mass scale is a mammoth task. The launch of National Skill Development Mission is envisaged to bring about a paradigm shift in executing skill development programmes and initiatives. In this scheme of things, application of information and communication technologies would play an important role because of the sheer enormity of physical dimension which cannot be handled by conventional system of imparting training. Application of information and communication technology has been contemplated in the 11th plan to train ten million workers annually by establishing 50000 SDCs to train approximately 200 persons per centre, i.e., 10 million people per year to take skill development to the doorstep of rural populations. Skill development is a huge challenge but ICT 4 VET in the knowledge society is the plausible solution. *Dr. Ing. Shailendra K. Hajela is a Member of REEDS Advisory Council. He is Chairman and Founding Member of ITU-APT Foundation of India and Telecel Communications a New Delhi based communications consulting company. Formerly, Dr. Hajela was Coordinator of the ITU Regional office for Asia-Pacific; and Adviser (Technology), Telecom Commission, Government of India. Support the cause REEDS welcome support and participation in any manner. All the monitory contributions to REEDS qualify for deduction under section 80 G of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961. Forward this to a friend or if you want someone who would like to add to the REEDS NEWS readership please let us know at inforeeds@gmail.com You are receiving this newsletter because your email reflects in our database. If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, you can unsubscribe at this link Unsubscribe. 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