SDG Alignment

1.1 By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day

1.2 By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions

1.4 By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance

We asked government officials in several different African countries if there was any way that we, with what we have to offer, could contribute to solving this problem.  

In every case, they replied that the most significant thing we could do its to provide technology support for teachers in the remote parts of the country. 

Giving them resources for students to learn all subjects, not just those where there is local expertise will help them become better equipped to compete in the global marketplace.

Additionally, we created a standardized configuration that can work in cities as well as remote areas, using a uniquely designed solar microgrid, long distance networking and by staging most of the data that is typically need locally at schools (significantly reducing data charges, making it affordable).

Making online libraries, online learning, video instruction and healthcare support facilities available to everyone (not just those in cities or wealthy areas) is one of the best ways that long-term poverty reduction can be achieved.

3.1 By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births.

3.2 By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births.

3.8 Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.

3.B Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and noncommunicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all.

3.C Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States.

3.D Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks.

Maternal mortality:  As we visited remote clinics and hospitals, we asked what were some of the problems that contributed to maternal mortality and if there was a way, through which we could help.

Scenario:  Many small villages may only have a medical post that is staffed with a nurse available.  Although this may provide routing medical care to the local population, if a pregnant woman has complications during delivery, the practitioner has few choices when he or she can’t be of help.  Most of the time, this ends up with the pregnant woman being told to get help at a clinic in a neighboring village.  Considering that this might be many miles away and the terrain might be hazardous, the woman either tries to endure the complications or make the trip.  Many such cases end in the death of the mother.

How we can help:  With the healthcare solution we will make available, local practitioners will have access to a large library of medical information and real-time access to doctors/experts in other locations for consultation.

We can also help through the maintenance of patient medical records electronically that can be accessed from wherever the patient is or travels to.  Patient medical records will be maintained in a cloud environment that would allow trend or incident monitoring from a central location.  Proper care would be taken to ensure the privacy of the patient records.

4.1 (FREE PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION) By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes

4.4 (INCREASE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WITH RELEVANT SKILLS FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS) By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

4.5 (ELIMINATE ALL DISCRIMINATION IN EDUCATION) By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations

4.6 (UNIVERSAL LITERACY AND NUMERACY) By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy

4.7 (EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP) By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development

4.8 (BUILD AND UPGRADE INCLUSIVE AND SAFE SCHOOLS)  Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, nonviolent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all

Our education solution is designed to bring a level of education to the places that have never been helped through technology and provide support for the teachers, both in terms of professional development but also in terms of online resources such as rich library, online learning materials and the ability to use video to reach those without personal access.

Our deployment plan for these facilities is centered around the training of local resources, allowing them to take over maintenance and support of the nationwide network and reducing or eliminating the need to depend on outside resources.  This includes bring local staff to the US for intensive training and personal mentoring in our offices, while remotely supporting their own county’s implementation.  See sustainability for more information.

In light of the impact that COVID-19 has had on the ability of children to attend school, we’ve developed a version of the our education package that adds new facilities to help schools re-open, giving them added capabilities for at-home learning, adjunct locations, and a community-wide wi-fi that provides free access to educational resources.  See COVID for more information.

5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life

5.A Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws

5.B Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women

We understand the significance of ensuring that women have equal access to healthcare, education and leadership in the way we implement technology solutions.

This begins with equal access to high-quality educational resources and continues with opportunities for women to learn how to support their country’s infrastructure and have shared ownership of the company that manages the network.  See sustainability for more information.

7.1 By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services

7.2 By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix

7.3 By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency

7.A By 2030, enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology

7.B By 2030, expand infrastructure and upgrade technology for supplying modern and sustainable energy services for all in developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States, and land-locked developing countries, in accordance with their respective programs of support

We understand that electric capacity is being added to many places in Africa, but the current reality is that there are still many people who live without access to any electricity or reliable service.

We have designed all of our solutions around the use of long-life battery-powered equipment, including notebook computers, networking equipment, lighting, etc..  We also designed a solar implementation that supports such equipment with the challenges of these environments in mind.  For example, we eliminate the need for inverters and AC adapters by using specialized recharging equipment that doesn’t generate its own heat.  By doing so, we eliminate the need for fans, thereby eliminating the dust that fans draw into equipment and thereby extending the life of the equipment considerably.

8.2 Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labor-intensive sectors

8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services

8.4 Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavor to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of programs on sustainable consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead

8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value

8.6 By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training

Not only can technology help deliver instruction on a wide variety of subjects and provide an online library, but the same technology can be used by students to learn to develop code. 

The computers we have selected for this effort are well-equipped and sufficient for both learning delivery and software development.  Roaming profiles will be used so that all student files will be stored in a central location, allowing the computers to be shared and not requiring large amounts of disk space on each machine.

On a micro level, we plan to create a company in each company that will be used to support and maintain their national network.  This will initially be run by us, but as the implementation completes, ownership of the company will be turned over to the local staff.

By giving all students (regardless of their sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status) the opportunity to learn a wide variety of subjects and the ability to “dig into” those subjects of individual interest.  Inclusion based on age is is universal for healthcare applications and for education is universal but segmented into age-appropriate levels.

Our goal is to provide these same, high-quality resources to people, regardless of their location or access to electricity or wealth.  The solution is designed to be a “set in place” and “let it run” type of solution with no remote IT support required.  The equipment is all designed to be able to run for years without maintenance (except for normal cleaning).

17.6 Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism

17.7 Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favorable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed

17.8 Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology

All of our software products are built on top of an interoperability foundation, allowing them to exchange information with other regions or other applications in real-time where needed.

This foundational software is built to use international XML standards to define how data is shared between entities.  It has been used in large, nationwide and state (in the US and Australia) implementations.

Item 17.7 is the primary reason we have moved in this direction.  In addition to developing nations, we seek to bring these facilities to least developed nations as well.