Takeshi Utsumi Ph.D.
Chair, GLOSAS/USA

Dr.Utsumi:

This is to offer our strong support for your InfoDev grant application. The work the grant will help sustain is absolutely critical. Now more than ever it is crucial to make clear the role global education must play in a world increasing inclined to war and violent resolutions of social and economic problems.

Bruno Lanvin
Executive Secretary of DOT Force
infoDev Work Program Administrator
The World Bank
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20433

8 February 2002

Dear Sir,

This letter is to express my personal commitment and institutional support to the Grant application "Community Development with E-Learning and E-Healthcare in Amazon, Brazil" submitted to the World Bank (1/25/02). This Grant would make it possible to continue our 1999 Tampere Workshop and promote the creation of Global University System (GUS) as drafted in our 1999 workshop on "Emerging global electronic distance learning" conference in Tampere and proposed to be the basis of our UNESCO-TWIN programme.

Tapio Varis
Unesco Chair on Global E-Learning, University of Tampere, Finland
Acting President of Global University System

Concerning the "Community Development with E-Learning and E-Healthcare in Amazon, Brazil" Grant application being submitted to the InfoDev, rest assured that this is a labor of love for Global University System volunteers. So please give this humanitarian project your utmost consideration.

Tak:

I have sent a letter of support and commitment by FAX to Bruno Lanvin per your request. As I am not connected and this is being sent from a Cybercafe, I cannot send a copy herewith to you. Please be assured, though, that it strongly supports the project. I do hope the application will be successful.

Regards,

Dave Johnson
Bangalore, India

David A. Johnson, Ph.D., AICP
Professor Emeritus of Planning
University of Tennessee
e-mail address: daj@utk.edu
web page: http://web.utk.edu/~djohnutk/

mailing address: 8 Hilltop Road
Asheville, NC 28803
telephone: 828 277 5792

13 February 2002

To Bruno Lanvin
Executive Secretary of DOT Force
Infodev Work Program Administrator
The World Bank
1818 H Street. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20433

Dear Sir,

This message is to manifestate my personal commitment and support to the Grant application "Community Development with E-learning and E-Healthcare in Amazon, Brazil, submitted to the World Bank (1/25/02).

As you know, the idea for this project was raised in Tampere during a conference organized in 1999, in Tampere, Finland, by a group of experts, under the leadership of drs. Tak Utsumi and Tapio Varis.

At this occasion, the basis were launched for the creation of a network of institutions dealing with e-learning, in particular in the field of health. The network was called GUS -Global University System- and, among its aim, we can find the idea of giving more relevance to higher education institutions trough the utilization of new technologies for contributing to the solution of pressing problems of societies, in particular in developping countries.

This particular project in Amazon raised the enthousiasm of the academic community in the Brazilian Amazonia. All public universities in the region decided to follow the proposals made by dr. Alexandre Rivas from the Federal University of Amazonia in Brazil to work together in this field, helping to find solution to a serious problem of a population not well served in the field of health.

This project, if correctly implemented, will increase the relevance of higher education institutions, will stimulate a social utilization of new technologies and will deserve the interest of thousands of citizens not well covered by health systems. In addition, it will be instrumental in consolidating a good idea: the Global University System, now having a solid basis in the University of Tampere trough the UNESCO's chair on e-learning recently created.

My best wishes

Marco Antonio R. Dias
United Nations University Consultant
Former Director of the Division of Higher Education of UNESCO (1981-1999)
Former Vice-Rector of the Univesity of Brasilia (1976-1980)

> Mr. Bruno Lanvin
> Executive Secretary of DOT Force
> infoDev Work Program Administrator
> The World Bank
> 1818 H Street, N.W.
> Washington, D.C. 20433
>
>
> February 11, 2002
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> This letter is to express EsLaRed institutional support to the Grant
> application "Community Development with E-Learning and E-Healthcare in
> Amazon, Brazil" submitted to the World Bank (1/25/02).
>
> For the last 10 years, the Latin American Networking School (EsLaRed) > has organized training activities directed to reap the benefits of
> networking technologies mainly in the fields of education, health and
> community networks. We grateful recognize the economic support of
> InfoDev to several of these efforts.
> The proposed activity in Brazil is directed to the same aims.
> Furthermore, we have been using wireless long range networking since
> 1992 with excellent results (it is part of the curriculum of our
> training as well), and believe that is particularly well suited to the
> needs of many areas where the communications infrastructure is
> limited.
>
> So, we think that the resources that InfoDev might apply to this
> program will have a profound impact on the lives of the amazonian
> people.
>
Yours Truly,
Ermanno Pietrosemoli
President
Latin American Networking School (Fundacion Escuela Latinoamericana de Redes)
Merida, Venezuela
www.eslared.org

Dear colleagues,

This is to offer our strong support for the InfoDev grant application by GLOSAS/USA. The grant is to sustain the founding steps for a network to support critical work for Amazonia - its people and its rich but dwindling nature.

In my global, extensive work in eHealth, TeleHealth and TeleMedicine, I have seen ample proof of the great value of Information and Communication technologies, to meet challenges such as those in Amazonia and which the project seeks to address. And, I have also known quite well how absolutely critical, indeed a requisite, is "education" for such work. Hence, our commitment and support for the Project.

Our present world of spectacular conflicts, and inhumanity, needs projects and work such as this Amazonia project aims to do, so that we purposely divert those frustrations and energies to address the socio-economic challenges.

Salah MANDIL
Geneva
Salah Mandil, PhD
Previously:
Director,
Health Informatics & Telematics,
World Health Organisation,
1211 Geneva
Switzerland.
and,
at present:
Vice President eStrategies,
WiseKey S.A.,
29, Route de Prés-Bois,
1215 Geneva,
Switzerland.
tel: +41.22 929 5757
fax: +41.22 929 5702
eMail: salah@wisekey.ch

Bruno Lanvin
infoDev Work Program Administrator
The World Bank
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20433
10 February 2002

Dear Sir

I am writing on behalf of ATCnet to express our support for the Grant application "Community Development with E-Learning and E-Healthcare in Amazon, Brazil" recently submitted to the World Bank (1/25/02). This Grant makes it possible for the Global University System (GUS) as drafted in a 1999 workshop on "Emerging global electronic distance learning" to move further forward. ATCnet sees considerable value in what this next step will facilitate, not only with reference to the specific area and country (Amazon / Brazil), but also in the broader international context. ATCnet anticipates being able to take advantage of the lessons learned to accelerate its own program of E-Learning and E-Healthcare in Africa in collaboration with the GUS and its global collaborators.

Sincerely
Peter Burgess
______________

T. Peter Burgess
VP and CFO ATCnet
New York USA
Tel 212 772 6918
----------------------------

ATCnet Project for Universal Accountability
ATCnet Community Cyber Networks
ATCnet Database on African Development and Enterprise
ATCnet Database on the African Health and HIV-AIDS Crisis
----------------------------

Bruno Lanvin
Executive Secretary of DOT Force
InfoDev Work Program Administrator
The World Bank
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C.   20433

Dear Dr. Lanvin

I am expressing my personal commitment and institutional support to the grant application "Community Development with E-Learning and E-Healthcare in Amazon, Brazil" submitted to the World Bank (1/25/02).  It is important to continue our 1999 Tampere Workshop and promote the creation of Global University System (GUS) as drafted in the 1999 workshop on "Emerging global electronic distance learning".  It is proposed to be the basis of our UNESCO-TWIN program.

This initiative has a strong linkage with an award winning Global Seminar project that I direct.

Sincerely,

H. Dean Sutphin
Associate Dean and Director of Academic Programs
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York   14853

7 February 2002

infoDev Work Program Administrator
The World Bank
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20433

Ref:    Community Development with E-Learning and E-Healthcare in Amazon, Brazil
Grant application submitted to the InfoDev of the World Bank

Dear Sir/Madam,

    This is to confirm our interest in participating as a partner in the development and implementation of the component "E-healthcare Education" of the Community Development with E-Leaming and E-Healthcare in Amazon Project, presently being submitted to the World Bank InfoDev Program by the Center for Environmental Sciences (CCA) of the Universidade Federal do Amazonas and the Global University System (GUS) and GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A. (GLOSAS/USA).

    We hereby declare our commitment to work, in collaboration with the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, on the health, educational, and technological aspects related to: (a) Project 1 - Education of Health Professionals in Informatics and (b) Project 2 - Application Software for Public Health Nursing Practice, as detailed in the APPENDIX IX-6 of the grant application.

Sincerely,

Roberto J. Rodrigues

Roberto J. Rodrigues
Regional Advisor, Health Services Information Technology
Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization
525 Twenty-third Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20037
Telephone: (202) 974-3000
Fax: (202) 974-3663

Dear Mr. Lanvin:

I am attaching herewith a letter of support for the very worthwhile project "Community Development with E-Learning and E-Health care in Amazon, Brazil" submitted to you early February.

Many thanks for your thoughtful consideration,

Yours truly,

Pablo Pulido MD, FACP
Executive Director PAFAMS and
Former Minister of Health and Social Welfare of Venezuela

March 05, 2002

Mr. Bruno Lanvin
Executive Secretary of DOT Force
infoDev Work Program Administrator
The World Bank
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20433

Dear Sir,

During the past years we have been keenly following the e-health, teleinformatics and Telemedicine educational projects being prepared and oriented by a group of outstanding and dedicated health professionals based in Manaos, in the heart of the Amazonian basin in Brazil.

We learned of the presentation made to you early this year in order to obtain support for a very worthwhile project geared to benefit the Amazonian populations through professional and community education, and indeed we strongly support this important and timely endeavour as it would enhance the participation of Medical Education Institutions from Latin America in the much needed social contract to benefit our populations through better education and quality based health care.

The Pan American Federation of Association of Medical Schools, PAFAMS, is structured to work with its constituency, i.e., 388 Medical Schools in the American Continent, of which some 247 are located south of the Rio Grande including the Caribbean region. The 95 Brazilian Medical Schools are an important building block in our activities.

The area covered by the project "Community Development with E-learning and E-Health Care in Amazon, Brazil" is one that deserves most urgent attention, because of the inherent dispersion of the population and the need to provide basic educational infrastructures.

As we support the proposed actions of the project please let us know in whatever way we could be of help once the grant is geared into practical work.

Looking forward to hear about the progress of this very important project, please accept our sincere regards,

Yours truly,

Pablo A. Pulido M., MD., FACP
PAFAMS Executive Director
Former Minister of Health and Social Welfare of Venezuela

cc. Mr.James D. Wolfensohn, President WB
     Mr. Xavier Coll,/ Bari Rabin WB
     Dr. Tak Utsumi,,  Global University System

Dear Mr. Utsumi,

I had the honor to meet Mr. Takeshi Utsumi, your relative, in Havana, Cuba, last week. I took the liberty to forward to you a copy of the attached message which can give you an idea of his current activities.

In my opinion, a project like the one he describes as "Community Development with E-Learning and E-Healthcare in Amazon, Brazil" is very much related to WSIS and could become an interesting case study...

Regards from ETSI/France,

Fabio Leite
Project Manager, IMT-2000
International Telecommunication Union

Dear Mr. Utsumi,
 
Thanks for the msg.
 
Re the funds available in ITU contributed by the Japanese Government, I confess that it is totally outside my means to assist you. I only know that it (or part of it) is supposed to be used to finance the New Initiatives Program (see http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/ni/index.html). But you'd have to check directly with Mr. Y. Utsumi.
 
WSIS stands for "World Summit  on the Information Society" (see http://www.itu.int/wsis/).
 
Regards,
 
Fabio

February 10, 2002

Mr. Bruno Lanvin
Executive Secretary of DOT Force
InfoDev Work Program Administration
The World Bank
1818 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20433

Re: "Community Development with E-Learning and E-Healthcare-Amazonas, Brazil"

Dear Mr. Lanvin:

As a Board Member of the Global University System, I wish to convey to you my personal commitment and institutional supprot for the application referenced above that we have submitted to the InfoDev Program of the World Bank. I am especially pleased to add my endorsement to this proposal as it is the result, in part, of the linkage association of the University of Tennessee and the University of Amazonas, which I helped institute more than a decade ago. The proposal as developed by Dr. Tak Utsumi, Dr. Tapio Varis, and Dr. Alexander Rivas is well-conceived and could have significat multiplier effects throughout the Amazon basin and across national boundaries. It may also serve as a demonstration model for other areas in the developing world where distances are great and landline connectivity is limited. I am currently working in Central India, where similar problems and opportunities exist.

I do hope that the initial approval of our Infodev submission will be granted.

The Global University System consists of some of the leading educators and technical resource people in the area of broadband wirelesss applications to community and regional development. I have every confidence that the proposal will have significant payoffs and wide applicability. Please be assured of my strong personal commitment to and support for the project.

Sincerely,

David A. Johnson, Ph.D., AICP
Professor Emeritus of Planning
The University of Tenness, Knoxville
Lead Faculty Member,
International Honors Program on Globalization, 2002

David A. Johnson, Ph.D., AICP
Professor Emeritus of Planning
University of Tennessee
e-mail address: daj@utk.edu
web page: http://web.utk.edu/~djohnutk/

mailing address: 8 Hilltop Road
Asheville, NC 28803
telephone: 828 277 5792

The World Bank
Washington, D.C. 20433
U.S.A.

JAMES D. WOLFENSOHN
President

April 2, 2002


Dr. Pablo A. Pulido M.
Executive Director
PanAmerican Federation of Associations of Medical Schools
Apartado de Correo 60411
Caracas 1060-A
VENEZUELA


Dear Dr. Pulido,

Thank you so much for you recent letter, and especially for your generous words of encouragement on everything we are trying to do here in the fight against poverty. In case you have not yet seen it, I am sending with this letter a copy of the statement I made at the recent "Financing for Development" meeting in Monterrey, Mexico. Although we did not obtain everything we were hoping for in Monterrey, I do believe the event helped to concentrate thinking at leadership levels, and produced some genuine and important advances.

Thank you also for sharing the information you sent about your own efforts in the field of medical informatics and telemedicine in Latin America. I am firmly convinced that new technologies of these kinds, appropriately applied, have much to offer the developing countries where the Bank is active.

You were also kind enough to copy me on your letter of support to the infoDev program concerning a proposal to look into possible use of broadband internet for education and health purposes in the Amazon region. I have enquired with the staff dealing with infoDev, and understand that, in spite of the attractive features of this application, it faced exceptionally strong competition this year from a large field of applications for a strictly limited volume of funds. That the application was, in the event, not selected should certainly not be seen as implying any lack of merit, and I trust you will reinforce this message with its sponsors.

I do appreciate hearing from you in this way.

Sincerely yours,

James D. Wolfensohn

Attachment

James D. Wolfensohn
President
The World Bank Group

Monterrey, Mexico, March 21, 2002
Remarks prepared for delivery

Distinguished Excellencies, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen: please allow me to thank both our host, President Vicente Fox of Mexico and Secretary-General Kofi Annan, for organizing this Conference on Financing for Development.

As most of you know, the World Bank has been very closely involved in the FfD process. We believe this is a great opportunity to reinforce our collective commitment to expand the opportunities and resources necessary to halve world poverty by 2015 and meet the other Millennium Development Goals.

It is apt that we meet here in Monterrey, Mexico. For Mexico today exemplifies much of what can be achieved from open markets, capacity building, the creation of an investment climate, good fiscal and monetary policies, an attack on corruption, and a commitment to democracy. Mexicans should be proud of their progress. But Mexico also shows how resilient inequality and exclusion can be. Development is a long road. We must not underestimate the challenge ahead.

This conference brings together Heads of State and Government; foreign, finance, development and trade ministers; civil society, business leaders and international institutions for perhaps the first time in an international meeting. And for perhaps the first time in an international meeting there is greater consensus than ever before about what needs to be done.

We must not squander that opportunity.

Nor must we forget why we are here. All people have a right to human dignity. That is why we are here.

All people have a right to control their own lives. Yet for billions poverty snatches that right away. That is why we are here.

People have a right to opportunity - in education, in trade, in building a better future for their children. That is why we are here.

We must not fail them

I have spoken before of an imaginary wall that separates the rich world from the poor. For too long belief in that wall, and in those separate and separated worlds, has allowed us to view as normal a world where less than 20% of the population - the rich countries - dominates the world's wealth and resources and takes 80% of its income.

There is no wall. There are not two worlds there is only one. Here at Monterrey we must rid ourselves of that wall once and for all. Here at Monterrey we must recognize the link between progress in development and progress in peace. So that generations to come will point to Monterrey and say "something new began at Monterrey. A new global partnership was born at Monterrey." And we will remember, and we will tell our children - we were there and we did not fail.

For the opportunity is ours to seize.

What is this new partnership? It is an understanding that leaders of the developing and developed world are united by a global responsibility based on ethics, experience and self interest. It is a recognition that opportunity and empowerment - not charity - can benefit us all. It is an acknowledgement that we will not create long-term peace and stability until we acknowledge that we are a common humanity with a common destiny. Our futures are indivisible.

And we have the makings of just such a new partnership before us.

A new generation of leaders is taking responsibility in developing countries. Many of these leaders are tackling corruption, putting in place good governance, giving priority to investing in their people, and establishing an investment climate to attract private capital. They are doing it in the private sector, in civil society, in government and in communities. They are doing it not because they have been told to. But because they know it is right. We must support more and more countries to take this path.

And in rich countries growing numbers of people are beginning to understand that poverty anywhere is poverty everywhere; that imaginary walls will not protect us. And their leaders are listening.

I very much welcome - as should we all - the recent decisions by President Bush and the European Union to boost aid spending. There is no debate that our efforts need to be focused and effective. On this we are all agreed. Too much money has been squandered in the past by decisions borne of politics not development. I look forward to the forthcoming discussions on increasing the effectiveness of the development community as a whole.

Your Excellencies: We have come a long way in just a week.

But we must not stop there.

This is not just about resources.

It is about scaling up - moving from individual projects to programs, building on and then replicating, for example, microcredit for women or community driven development, where the poor are at the center of the solution not the end of a handout.

It is about recognizing that any effort to fight poverty must be comprehensive. We know there is no simple formula that alone will defeat poverty; but we know too that there are conditions that foster successful development: Education and health programs to build the human capacity of the country; good and clean government; well-functioning infrastructure; an effective legal and justice system; and a well-organized and supervised financial system.

It is about recognizing that debt-reduction for the most highly indebted poor countries is a crucial element in putting countries back on their feet, and that the funds freed up by debt relief can and must be used effectively for poverty programs. And we must push ahead with this program.

We know that in countries with good governance and strong policies aid can make an enormous difference. Yet we know too that corruption, bad policies, and weak governance will make financial aid ineffective - even counterproductive.

We must support nations to build capacity so that they can create an investment climate and invest in their people. So that they can create jobs, so that they can increase productivity and boost investment in health and education. This is not about rich countries telling developing countries what to do. This is about creating a chance for developing countries to put in place policies that will enable their economies to grow. Policies that are home grown and home owned. For the surest foundation for long-term change is not development by fiat, but social consensus.

But even if developing countries do all this, we estimate that it will take somewhere between $40-60 billion in additional resources a year to meet the Millennium Development Goals. We have made a fine start. But we must not stop here. Let us work together for results and build the pressure for additional funds as we succeed in using effectively the funds now promised.

Nor can we shrink from taking action on trade. We must keep urging rich countries to tear down trade barriers that harm the world's poorest workers, depriving them of markets for their products. Yes there will be powerful lobbies ranged against any such action. But it is the task of leaders to remind electorates that lowering of trade barriers will not cost the rich countries anything in the aggregate; they gain from freer trade in these areas, far in excess of any short term costs of adjustment. There is little sacrifice required, no excuse for failing to take action that would leave all countries better off.

Rich nations must also take action to cut agricultural subsidies - subsidies that rob poor countries of markets for their products; subsidies that are six times what the rich countries provide in foreign aid to the developing world. Trade and agriculture must be a crucial part of the new global deal.

Your Excellencies: In one week alone we have seen new commitments on resources, we have heard new words on interdependence. In recent months we have seen the launch of a promising new Trade Round. We have had a taste of what is possible.

But we do not have much time. In 25 years 2 billion more people will join our planet - the challenge will be greater, the pressure on resources will be more acute, the chances of success may be slimmer.

Let us not have come this far to stop now. Let us build on this momentum as we move forward to Johannesburg. Let us tell our children, "We seized the moment. We did not fail."

Takeshi Utsumi Ph.D.
Chair, GLOSAS/USA

Dr. Utsumi:

This letter serves as our commitment to the GLOSAS application to the Tinker Foundation for the Amazonias networking and community development project. The proposed project would further LASPAU’s mission of enhancing the human capacities of Latin American and Caribbean societies by means of educational development.

Sincerely,
Ned Strong
Executive Director
LASPAU: Academic and Professional Programs for the Americas