Brief Project Background

OBJECTIVES

Utilize solar energy, together with wireless information and communications technologies (ICT), as innovative resources to launch a process towards building local sustainable development, contributing to revitalize poor rural and remote communities, while also having a demonstrative example of sustainable development through creativity, as a starting point for a national level program.

RESULTS

Buried deep into a mountainous jungle, San Ramón Centro is a community located 39 kms. to the North of Choluteca, the main town of Southern Honduras. While Choluteca has a population of nearly 200,000, San Ramón has only 843 inhabitants, distributed in 150 houses. It has a dry tropical climate, with an average annual temperature of 29°C. All Honduras has natural conditions for year-round energy from our ever-present sun. Thus, it is a perfect place for a massive nation-wide solar energy program.

For San Ramón particularly, given its very rough topographical characteristics and the lack of adequate transportation and accessibility, it would have been very costly and almost close to impossible, at least in the short-run, to extend the distribution system from Choluteca and install conventional energy in such a tiny town.

Nevertheless, now this remote village works with solar energy in its school, its health center, its new cultural center, church and streetlights. The local school and cultural center were also provided with 12 computers, all run by solar power. The project has helped organize the community and has given them more "power" to face and transform their lives.

All the idea of creating a full solar energy village goes back to 1996, when gathered in Harare, Zimbabwe, the declaration of world authorities starts as follows: "We, Heads of State and Government, gathered or officially represented in occasion of the World Solar Summit, celebrated by invitation of the Government of Zimbabwe and as an initiative of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO), in collaboration with other international organizations and institutions, in order to initiate the implementation of a world activities solar program, known with the denomination of 1996-2005 World Solar Program ………"

That summit was the culmination of a preparatory process of three years, started by UNESCO in 1993 to help promote results in education, marketing and creation of employment opportunities in areas related to renewable energy. The Harare Declaration on solar energy and Sustainable Development was signed and approved by more than 100 leaders and representatives of governments. The World Solar Program was approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 16, 1998.

Less than two months before that, Honduras and other countries in Central America were being badly battered by hurricane Mitch. On February 1999, a delegation of UNESCO visited Honduras. Meetings with the Honduran Council of Science and Technology (COHCIT) ended up in commitments from both institutions to implement in Honduras, as an emergency project, the provision of solar energy to a selected village with the objective of serving as a demonstrative model of how an organized community, when given the adequate opportunities, can really develop a transformation process. It would actually be the first experience in Latin America of a full village to be run completely by solar energy.

UNESCO and COHCIT took the challenge very seriously. San Ramón was selected after several discussions with the Mayor of the Municipal Government of Choluteca. It was the poorest and less accessible village of the southern region, which was also the worst hit by hurricane Mitch. On March 1999, San Ramón was visited for the first time by authorities of UNESCO, COHCIT and the Municipal Government of Choluteca. On April 1999, the Director General of UNESCO visited Honduras.

On July 8, 1999, the President of Honduras inaugurated San Ramón, Choluteca, as the first “solar energy village” of Latin America. It turned out to be a very successful experience. Although it takes a slightly larger initial investment than most conventional power sources, the cost afterwards is limited to minor maintenance and occasional battery and panel replacements. Solar power is completely environmentally friendly. It is worthwhile, now that we are entering the new millennium, to have such technologies applied in countries like Honduras. If it already exists, why not use innovative capacities to enhance production and improve the quality of life for the population?

It should be mentioned that the most amazing result from such an experience has not been the installation of solar energy. The doors were opened in San Ramón for a profound transformation process, which has taken place in just a few months. It was shown that solar power in remote areas is both feasible and efficient. If the village community generates local sustainable development responses, with the support of the Government and other sectors, there would be enormous possibilities of extending to the rest of the country the solar energy experience of San Ramón. It is an alternative with vision towards the future.

UNESCO and COHCIT have made several monitoring visits to San Ramón, after the July 8, 1999 inauguration. Besides the improvement of the health and education centers, plus the creation of a new community cultural centers, there has been intensive training in use of computers. The main tool has been Microworlds, developed by Logo Computer Systems Inc. (LCSI, Canada) and the MIT Media Lab. Such software is oriented to teach children to explore new ways of learning. With only three days of training, before the July 8 inauguration, several children of the community were able to demonstrate to the President of the Republic the potential they had in the use of computers. And they were rural children, who had never worked with nor seen computers before. Some of them hadn’t even seen energy used in real life. Since then, as requested directly by the President of Honduras, more than 40 schools have obtained benefit from this innovative education tool.

Two months after San Ramón was inaugurated, on September 8, 1999, a meeting was held in Tegucigalpa, capital city of Honduras, between several Cabinet Ministers and Leaders from San Ramón. An evaluation was made, which showed how they had been able to advance in several training programs, including agriculture, infrastructure, handcrafts, tailoring and electrical repairs. They were already organizing micro-enterprises, to generate productive jobs and improve their income levels. People from neighboring communities now come to San Ramón to be trained in several productive activities, including the use of computers. For this last activity, the children of San Ramón are the best teachers, even when the students are adults from other communities!

A new Government - San Ramón Leaders meeting took place on October 1999. The idea of UNESCO and COHCIT is to generate more interest of the Government, to extend the idea to more rural areas of Honduras. The successful experience so far calls for a structured multi-institutional effort.

After such a beautiful and successful experience, again UNESCO and COHCIT, this time with the financial support from the Organization of American States (OAS) and other Honduran governmental and private institutions, implemented a second solar energy village, also in a remote rural community, though this time in Western Honduras. The village is called San Francisco, in the region of Lempira. On May 4, 2000, again the President of Honduras inaugurated San Francisco, Lempira, as the second “solar energy village” of Latin America, another successful experience such as the San Ramón original project.


Everything is now getting ready to include Internet in the full training package and install antennas, run by solar energy, to enable the necessary telecommunications. For that, high speed Internet, through wireless technology, is being installed, initially only in San Ramón. It is expected that everything will be in place by the end of September 2000, so there’s a transition period, from “solar villages” to “solar-net villages”. The Honduran Council of Science and Technology (COHCIT) is being supported in those efforts by a well-known international corporation, OnSat Network Communications (OnSat), based in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, and with offices also in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Besides this being a way to reduce the digital divide, especially between cities and very remote and poor rural communities, there are very obvious short-run benefits. The installation of satellite earth stations and Wireless Ethernet Connections (Last-Mile Connections), in Honduras, will provide connectivity infrastructure to really enhance the on-going “Solar Villages Program”. These communication systems will be used to provide “Distance Learning” materials to students throughout all of Honduras. Additionally, the connectivity will provide access to high-speed Internet and the wealth of educational, medical support services (tele-medicine), communication and other services available on the Internet, including news broadcasting to and from the entire world. The network will support Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) and streaming video, with which videoconferences will be easily realized. San Ramón and eventually San Francisco will not be isolated villages anymore, as they have been through the passage of time, so far. They will even be able to begin e-commerce practices. In general, this communication Network will be an enabling technology and capability to help transform the Honduran Economy.

Led by COHCIT, UNESCO and now OAS, the goal is to build between 1,000 - 2,000 additional solar-net villages, in Honduras, during the next 2 - 3 years. It is firmly believed that this is an ideal way to stimulate real development in Honduras, a country that was badly battered in October 1998 by Hurricane Mitch.


UNESCO´S 1996 – 2005 WORLD SOLAR PROGRAM

By the end of the 70´s, a decade that had shown the world the great dependency of many countries on petroleum (also known as the black gold), the quest for new energy alternatives had become a high priority, given the constant price rise and uncertainty on the future of traditional oil and energy sources. It was under such premises that the United Nations organized a Conference and presented the “New and Renewable Energy Sources” Action Plan. The event was held in Nairobi, Kenya, during August 10 – 21, 1981. It was conceived as an important international cooperation initiative to support national activities, aiming to contribute towards assuring that the transition form traditional sources to renewable energy sources would be realized in function of every country’s own needs, within the most equitable, economic, technically sound and environmentally sustainable processes. Nevertheless, right before the mid 80’s petroleum prices went down again. This led several governments to believe that the Nairobi Action Plan had lost its urgency, though the objectives were still valid in a longer run timing. To worsen that, in most countries the efforts done to support financially the execution of the Nairobi Action Plan proved to be insufficient.

During the years following the Nairobi Conference, besides a relative stability in petroleum prices worldwide, more and more the emphasis was directed towards the environment and its place in development. Therefore, during the Earth’s Summit realized in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, it was clearly highlighted that the most fundamental and important challenges of humanity lay on the conservation of the natural environment around the human species. It was declared that while energy is essential for economic and social development, as well as for the improvement of quality of life, it is well known that most commonly used energy sources in the world was being produced and consumed in ways against the conservation of the environment. There was an urgent need to control atmospheric emissions and avoid the generation of toxic gases, searching for technologies more efficient for the production, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy. In summary, three basic concepts needed to be emphasized: energy saving, less polluting technologies for traditional energy sources and a greater utilization of alternative renewable energy sources.

The ever-increasing consciousness concerning environmental and social issues, from the public opinion and among people responsible for decision-making, regained renewable energy a place as a valid option, in the long-run, and as a useful and practical complementary source of traditional energy sources, in the short and medium run. This position was confirmed in a high-level experts meeting, held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, from July 5 – 9, 1993, where the resulting proposal would be summarized as “The Sun at the Service of Humanity”. One of the main recommendations of the participants was to begin a preparatory process, which would eventually last three years, and would end up with a World Solar Summit. During the three-year period, several studies and research would be made to demonstrate that a broader use of renewable energy sources could be a more profitable and rapid means of reducing energy costs in several countries, leading to foreign currency savings and increasing the energy supply infrastructure, without the need to incur in heavy investments.

Two years later, important events contributed to confirm the validity of those proposals oriented towards the short run convenience to complement traditional energy sources in practical ways: first, the “World Summit on Social Development”, celebrated in Copenhagen, Denmark, during March 6 –12, 1995, and then the “Fourth World Conference on Women”, which took place in Beijing, China, during September 4 – 15, 1995. Special attention was brought to the contribution that renewable energy can give to improve life conditions of women in rural areas. Traditionally, women have dedicated very much time and work to collect water and wood in remote places and to cook in rooms full of smoke. The solar pumps, solar kitchens, electricity produced by equipment fed through renewable energy, including solar, eolic (wind), biogas and mini-hydraulic systems, could provide women a better way of performing their tasks.

Finally, under the organization of UNESCO, the “World Solar Summit” took place during 1996 in Harare, Zimbabwe. An important result was the “Harare Declaration on Solar Energy and Sustainable Development”. It lays out the framework for an effective utilization of renewable energy sources, protective to the environment and as an essential contribution towards sustainable development. The Declaration was submitted to the “World Solar Commission”, a high level group including representatives from 16 Heads of State and Government, led by His Excellency Mr. Robert Mugabe, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. The World Solar Commission, in its second meeting celebrated in New York on June 23, 1997, approved the “1996 – 2005 World Solar Program”. Eventually, it was also approved (Resolution 53/7) by the United Nations General Assembly on October 16, 1998.

Lessons

BASIC PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION IN SAN RAMÓN CENTRO, CHOLUTECA, HONDURAS:
FIRST SOLAR VILLAGE IN LATIN AMERICA

The first UNESCO visit to Honduras, oriented to begin the “1996 – 2005 World Solar Program”, took place in February 1999. On February 19, there was a meeting between UNESCO and the Honduran Council of Science and Technology (COHCIT), which marked the starting point for the entire process. It took less than five months to implement the bulk of the project’s planning, promotion and infrastructure installation, until the inauguration on July 8, 1999. It was a demonstrative Pilot Project, executed with a UNESCO grant of approximately US$150,000. The project, within the framework of UNESCO’s World Solar Program, has enabled the validation of objectives, perspectives, goals and appropriate execution methodologies for the success of these kinds of projects. Moreover, it has provided evidences and results that allow the evaluation, even in a very short period of time, of the extraordinary impact of the activities implemented within a community development process. Therefore, it has become the main layout for the establishment of a national level “Solar Energy Program”.

Within its “National Reconstruction and Transformation Program”, Honduras has designed a set of structured efforts oriented towards the improvement of quality of life and the conservation of the environment, as part of a developmental process that starts with education, science and technology as the backbone of a leap-forward effort. The demonstrative project of San Ramón is now being replicated in other communities of Honduras. The goal is to provide with solar energy from 1,000 – 2,000 additional communities, in order to achieve permanent beneficial results and create multiplier effects to more communities, based on a solid and dynamic educational innovative system, using information and communication technologies together with the provision of basic health needs and training of community leaders and interested population, on productive activities to generate income.

San Ramón was initially chosen for its previously existing characteristics, which include extreme poverty conditions, isolation as a population center and with inadequate or almost inexistent access communications facilities. It was not even included in the rural electrification program. The main economic activity of such communities depends on its surroundings – forests, rivers, etc. – and of subsistence agricultural practices, basically around the production of basic grains. Other problem for those kinds of communities is the lack of basic services, for which health and malnutrition are the daily problems to solve. An ideal population nucleus to start working with is between 500 – 1000 inhabitants, of which the school population ranges from 70 – 200 students, with inadequate school classrooms facilities and scarcity of teachers. San Ramón had a population of 815 inhabitants, composed of 215 families. There were 210 students in the school, with only 4 teachers for a 6-year primary school program. In the influence area of San Ramón there are a total of 15 villages, which altogether have a population of around 5,000, including San Ramón.

UNESCO and COHCIT, together with the Mayor of the Municipal Government of Choluteca, under whose jurisdiction San Ramón is included, selected the village of San Ramón, following the above-mentioned criteria. The Mayor’s office was crucial in the project implementation process, as well as in the follow-up that is very necessary. The real process to establish the basis for a sustainable human development model was pivoted in the process of community organization, participation and execution of its own destiny. Technology was only an instrument. Several stages have been identified in the process, not static but dynamic and continuous, with permanent changes. These can be summarized as follows:

1. Sensitivity of main actors. This was always handled as a concept in which the community needs to obtain a new perception and become conscious of a new reality. It is important to reach the persons in a gradual way, generating an internal awakeness and knowledge, becoming critical and responding to the reality, and being able to generate motivation to build their own dynamics of change of attitude and growth.

2. Identification of leaders and social dynamics. Simultaneously to the process of actor sensitivity, the identification of actual and potential leaders plays an extremely important role for the process, so as to guarantee the execution of strategies to be eventually implemented. The early training of actual and potential leaders is fundamental. The experience of San Ramón indicates that, once actual and future leaders are identified, training should be provided, beginning with the most elemental levels, in order to awaken the unknown capabilities. Topics to include in early trainings could incorporate the use of work materials and gradually move towards leadership training and community organization.

3. Community Planning and Organization. The process should be directed under a conception of a total participative planning, stimulated by social dynamic tools, including packages to learn better working abilities, technological alphabetization or simply the opportunity to read and study more.

4. Training. This should emerge from the community’s identified needs for the development they visualize, using the experience of learning by doing things, and oriented towards formulating a community development strategy. “If we can dream about the future, we can also build it”. That was a very motivating saying that in San Ramón was reminded to the leaders every day. The transition towards a new century and millennium also provided elements to motivate people to learn how to do the same things they did before, through improved technology and modern methodologies.









THE PROJECT COMPONENTS OF THE FIRST SOLAR VILLAGE

Electric energy is produced by different sources. The most common ones are hydroelectricity and thermal turbines activated by diesel or gasoline fuels. Less known, among others, are eolic (wind), biomass and solar energy. Of all, solar energy, a renewable technological non-conventional resource, has been proving more every time its efficiency, mostly under special circumstances in different regions of the world where high levels of poverty exist. Solar energy makes it possible to satisfy, at a lower cost in the long run, the energy requirements of a rural village.

Nature provides the solar energy, ever-present in any place of the planet and most within the tropics. The technology exists, whereby a special photovoltaic (PV) panel or module composed of silicon cells, converts sunlight into electrical power. Inverters are used in alternating operations, depending of the load. Batteries store the generated energy. The same sunny days that dry out plants, make animals thirsty and heat up buildings, are also good days for pumping water and other uses with electricity, generated by solar photovoltaics (PV). PV use no moving parts, consumes no fuels, creates no pollution and requires almost no maintenance.

Some well-known uses of solar power are the following:

· In space on satellites
· Garden lights, watches and calculators
· Remote communications
· Village power systems for vaccine refrigeration
· Complementing utility power
· Traffic signs, lights and railroads signals
· Road-side emergency call boxes
· Remote homes
· Recreational vehicles and boats for battery charging
· Navigational aids
· Water pumping

The installed solar energy network in San Ramón has capacity to produce 20.6 KWH/hour a day, with a 5.15 KW peak power installation. Additionally, it provides 18 KWH/day or 618 KWH/month in thermal energy for water heating. When new needs arise, the existing network is flexible enough to easily enable expansion of energy capacity. Thus, in San Ramón, multiple community services are already provided, summarized as follows:

1. Public Illumination in Streetlights. Five streetlights have been installed with sodium vapor light bulbs, giving 30 watts during 6 hours daily. It provides light to the main street that gives access to the different areas in the village’s central part. Besides generating more evening social life, it provides more safety to the people.

2. School for Everyone. The school begins to be visualized as a place to learn, not only for boys and girls, but also for young people and even adults. There is adequate illumination for 6 classrooms, a kitchen and the main hall. Every classroom has its own plug, as well as the library, in order to use TV/VHS, computer, or other tools to enhance, educational, cultural or recreational practices. During the year 2000, the Ministry of Education inaugurated secondary school and Pre-scholar level (Kindergarten).

3. Community Cultural Center. It is the main gathering place for people of all ages who wish to enjoy reading, watching TV or Video, or listening to radio. Combined altogether, these constitute very valuable supports to create conditions that will allow the solar village to become a genuine learning center in various topics important for everyday life. There’s enough light to use during an average of five hours daily, plugs for computers with its ventilation equipment, which can be used simultaneously. The Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sports donated soccer balls and uniforms to form soccer teams in the community. In the short run, new cultural activities and training is being envisioned.

4. Educational Innovative Classroom. It’s the main place where informatics is applied to educational tools. It has multiple resources: 11 computers used daily during an average of five hours, with illumination and ventilation; other learning tools are also present, including TV, video and tape recorder, digital camera, scanner, laser printers. All this constitutes an excellent technological infrastructure, together with the most appropriate and innovative “software”, such that it is being used as a model for rural schools elsewhere in the country. The introduction in the near future of Internet, through wireless technologies, will expand even more the learning capabilities of the school and the community, in general

5. Health Center. Has adequate illumination for a clinic, a pre-clinic, a drugstore, a waiting room and an access hall. It also has a plug connected to a computer and electrical installations to connect ceiling ventilation systems. Has also the facilities to install a nebulizer and is provided by heating and cooling systems, to have always hot water and adequate storage for medicines and vaccines.

6. Church. Has adequate inner illumination to be used during an average of three hours daily.

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Results

CHALLENGE OF A NEW TRANSFORMATION PROCESS:
THE OAS JOINS THE PROCESS AND AN ADDITIONAL SOLAR VILLAGE IS INAUGURATED

The community leaders of San Ramón are being prepared for a gradual less intensive presence of UNESCO and COHCIT. Every time it’s becoming more to be on their own. That’s why training has also become more intensive and diversified. During the first 6 months after the July 8, 1999 inauguration, almost half of the village’s population has been trained in some topic relevant to their own interest. While children are mostly oriented to computers an the educational innovative classrooms, combining also informatics to other subjects, young leaders, women and adults are being trained in activities that have already been a starting point to create micro-enterprises. Beyond their own village, San Ramón is already taking the initiative to invite leaders from the other 14 villages nearby, in order to share their experiences, organize a larger community and prepare a joint strategy and development plan. The main productive activities that so far have begun implementation are the following:

· Garment and Tailoring Micro Enterprise. This project is conformed by 10 partners. It has begun to solve some income problems for those families, which have been trained in these manual abilities, also of great benefit for most families of San Ramón.

· Handcraft and Artisan Micro Enterprise. In handcraft and artisan there is already a group of 15 women, who have been adequately trained in basic issues concerned.

· Shoe Manufacturing Micro Enterprise. Even without adequate machinery yet, a group of men have already been trained in manufacturing shoes, totally through a manual process.

· Bakery Micro Enterprise. This project is organized with 15 persons, including men and women.

· Fresh Water Fishery Micro Enterprise. One of the main problems within the community is the high percentage of malnutrition. This led to the conformation of a 13-member group for this project.

· Corn Milling Micro Enterprise.

· Hammock Manufacturing Micro Enterprise.

· Organic Agriculture


By the end of 1999, several people also finished a training course on Community Banks, Cooperatives and Credit Management. This should enable them eventually to generate new projects and begin handling credits from special funds for micro enterprises.

In San Ramón, people are thinking big and acting big to be big. When the sun shines over San Ramón, it is a “sun of hope…. the beginning of a process”.

That success led to the continuation of the experience towards other communities in Honduras. With the financial support from the Organization of American States (OAS) and other Honduran governmental and private institutions, a second solar energy village began to be implemented in October 1999. Also in a remote rural community, though this time in Western Honduras, the village is called San Francisco, in the region of Lempira. On May 4, 2000, again the President of Honduras inaugurated San Francisco, Lempira, as the second “solar energy village” of Latin America, another very successful experience, such as the San Ramón original project.


TRANSITION FROM “SOLAR VILLAGES” TO “SOLAR-NET VILLAGES”

There’s a transition period, from “solar villages” to “solar-net villages”. Everything is now getting ready to incorporate Internet in the full training package and install antennas, run by solar energy, to enable the necessary telecommunications. For that, high speed Internet through wireless technology, is being installed, initially only in San Ramón. It is expected that everything will be in place by the end of September 2000, The Honduran Council of Science and Technology (COHCIT) is being supported in those efforts by a well-known international corporation, OnSat Network Communications (OnSat), based in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, and with offices also in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

OnSat has recently finished implementing a first phase of the “Native American Networking Project”, a new Grant Program established by the “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation”, to provide Internet access to American Indian tribes in the Southwest USA. The “Native American Access to Technology Program” is providing grants for equipment and educational assistance to help tribes bridge the digital divide. Target tribes are in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. The Gates Foundation is already working with most Pueblos and Apache tribes. Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico has already qualified for a three-year $175,000 grant that will pay for four computers, a Web server, a laser printer, internal building wiring and a network hub. The Foundation is also working on bringing grants to the Navajo Nation, USA's largest Indian tribe. The top technology need facing the tribe is infrastructure, having clear telephone communications at all community levels, as the top priority. There is a lack of ability to connect communities with other communities and communities with central agencies and government. This situation being faced by the USA Southwest Indian tribes sounds much like what is also the reality of poor remote communities in Honduras, and practically in all Third World countries.

Besides using wireless information and communication technologies (ICT) as a way to reduce the digital divide, especially between cities and very remote and poor rural communities, there are very obvious short-run benefits. The installation of satellite earth stations and Wireless Ethernet Connections (Last-Mile Connections), in Honduras, will provide connectivity infrastructure to really enhance the on-going “Solar Villages Program”. These communication systems will be used to provide “Distance Learning” materials to students throughout all of Honduras. Additionally, the connectivity will provide access to high-speed Internet and the wealth of educational, medical support services (tele-medicine), communication and other services available on the Internet, including news broadcasting to and from the entire world. The network will support Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) and streaming video, with which videoconferences will be easily realized. San Ramón and eventually San Francisco will not be isolated villages anymore, as they have been through the passage of time, so far. They will even be able to begin e-commerce practices. In general, this Communication Network will be an enabling technology and capability to help transform the Honduran Economy.


CONCLUSIONS

This is a real case of contribution of technology to employment generation and social wealth, such as human development with freedom and future vision. The San Ramón and San Francisco experiences, in Honduras, have proved to be successful alternatives of how to face basic social problems in public health, education, nutrition, production, ecology and sustainable development, with best use of natural resources and conservation of the environment. Being among the poorest villages in remote, inaccessible rural areas of southern and western Honduras, after being badly destroyed by Hurricane Mitch, both San Ramón and San Francisco have initiated a reconstruction and transformation process, based on a step to achieve a technological leap towards development. In just a few months, the whole perspective and attitudes of the villages have been changed. They have captured national and international attention, which could only have been successful as it was, with the organized participation of the communities and their leaders in the entire process. Very important decisions were made. Children play a very important role in such a process, so future generations have hope put into them, as they have decided to enter the new millennium with new technology and a better way of life.

At a national level, the success of these experiences, if extended to the goal of 1,000 – 2,000 additional villages, during the next 2 – 3 years, poses a very strategic element. The investment in the solar-net villages, through UNESCO and OAS grants, was estimated in US$165,000 each village, for the whole solar energy system, wireless communications system, training and the productive development process. Therefore, to build from 1,000 – 2,000 additional villages would require an investment between US$165 – 330 million, directly benefiting between 1 – 2 million inhabitants, which represents 15 – 30% of the total population of Honduras. The impact would be felt immediately and transform the country completely. Of course, even if in the very short run the investment did not reach the goal, still the impact would be of great benefit and very noticeable.

Additionally, COHCIT has begun conversations with international private suppliers of solar panels and components, in the aim of exploring the possibility of installing manufacturing, or at least assembly plants in Honduras. With a volume of demand as expected with 1,000 - 2,000 new villages, it would be clearly justified to invest in Honduras in such a venture, if the national program is effectively implemented. The market demand would even justify such an investment if fewer villages were built during the initial 2-3 years. Under the new OAS program, with which the second solar village was inaugurated on May 4, 2000, the project will also include studies and proposals for high technology manufacturing or assembling plants to be installed in Honduras, as part of the reconstruction and transformation process in which the country is engaged.

Founding new firms requires a strategy to introduce new ideas, technologies and business concepts into a society. Firm formation is also a key to economic growth, especially given the recognition that a high proportion of employment increase arises from new firms. Nevertheless, the firm-formation process is often taken for granted and is typically assumed to be the outcome of individual entrepreneurial actions. In a knowledge-based society, however, firm-formation, is increasingly based upon bringing together various businesses, technical and financial networks. Here’s where Honduras fits well into the “incubator concept”.

The premise of the “incubator concept” is that firm-formation can be improved by organizing it as an educational process, with formal and informal aspects. The objective of incubation is the creation of new firms and jobs. By bringing together various elements to improve firm formation in a common setting, the goal is to increase the chances for success of new enterprises. Connecting the incubator and its firms to a venture capital process can expand upon the basic incubation model of firm formation. Therefore, an organization based on the “incubator concept”, dedicated to linking networks, can facilitate firm formation. To attain their full value, incubators themselves require a support structure of relationships among the institutional spheres of society. When this confluence occurs, a self-reinforcing process of incubation and firm-formation ensues. There is a common thread in the creation of a systematic method of organizing new businesses, taking local circumstances into account rather than importing a model from abroad whole cloth. In July 2000, a mission led by Dr. Henry Etzkowitz (State University of New York – SUNY –, USA) and Dr. Paulo Manoel Protásio (Brazil), visited Honduras in order to elaborate a proposal of using Honduras as experimental country for an “Incubator of Incubators” model.

Many jobs were affected by hurricane Mitch, particularly in the traditional agricultural sector. Instead of taking that as a backward step, Honduras is trying to emerge as a leap forward country, through a new consciousness about the importance of technology transfer in a globalized world economy. In the process of preparing the country for a dramatic transformation, an incubator movement is being created, as universities and educational centers, industry, civil society and government join forces to support its development and participate in a concerted effort to organize new firms. This could be a worldwide example to promote and support.

Lessons

email: gzepedab@ns.hondunet.net

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