Priorities Criteria for Selecting Priorities T he Government acknowledges that the successful development of modern ICTs needs to involve all interconnected elements of the ICT ecosystem, including infrastructure, content and applications, devices and users. Many potentially useful policy interventions could be identified. However, in light of limited financial and human resources, it is important to choose priorities by identifying areas where policy interventions would: 1 Give impetus to the socio-economic development that would not be achieved otherwise. The Government believes that it shall only intervene, where and to the extent it adds a significant value. If favourable outcomes are or can be achieved by the private sector, communities, civil society, citizens or other stakeholders, without a need of action from the Government, such development should be left to the respective stakeholders. 2 Produce a significant impact in terms of both the matters addressed, but also for the broader socio-economic development as sought by the Priorities and Action Agenda (i.e., have strong positive externalities). Attention should be first paid to matters that have a potential to kick-start a virtuous circle of ICT development, which could later be taken over and continued by activities of non-Government actors, or integrated into standard day-to-day Government operations or sector-specific policies. 3 Have relatively lower complexity and reliance on inputs from multiple stakeholders. Higher programme and project management complexity decreases the probability of successfully realizing planned outcomes of policy interventions—especially in light of rather limited programme and project capacity, as well as wide-ranging levels of capacity and preparedness of various stakeholders. This takes into consideration that the cost of failure for such initiatives should be kept low and is tailored to Vanuatu’s unique needs. 4 Rely, as much as possible, on the ready demand as well as existing models of ICT development and readily available implementation capacity. In a number of areas awareness of potential benefits of ICTs in Vanuatu is very high. Furthermore, private sector players and other stakeholders have already employed various models of extending benefits of ICTs to various communities in Vanuatu (such as providing schools with computers and Internet facilities, as well as setting up Internet Cafes). Building on such awareness, existing models and capacity significantly increases stakeholder buy-in (and reduces Priorities 23