US-Philippines Partnership Wins International Award for Advancing Innovation to Promote Sustainable Fishing and Save Lives

US-Philippines Partnership Wins International Award for Advancing Innovation to Promote Sustainable Fishing and Save Lives
The TV White Space team from USAID/Philippines, USAID ECOFISH Project, Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, as well as the Information and Communications Technology Office gather at the Concordia Summit to accept the 2015 P3 Impact Award.
Concordia

For Immediate Release

Friday, October 16, 2015

The TV White Space partnership won this year’s Public-Private Partnership (P3) Impact Award. The TV White Space partnership is an innovative collaboration between the Philippine Department of Agriculture through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the U.S. Embassy Manila’s United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Microsoft Philippines in New York.

The TV White Space Partnership improves the lives of fisherfolk and coastal fisheries management in the Philippines by extending internet access to remote and underserved coastal communities. The partnership deploys Microsoft’s TV White Space technology, which generates long range wireless internet connectivity by utilizing empty television UHF and VHF broadcast channels. Together, USAID, Microsoft and the Government of the Philippines connect schools and community centers in six remote municipalities to the internet via TV White Space, benefitting more than 250,000 people. This is the first time this technology has been piloted in the Philippines.

“Leveraging public-private partnerships is a critical pillar of how USAID operates,” remarked Dr. Susan Brems, USAID Philippines’ Mission Director. “Our work with Microsoft and the Philippine Government demonstrates how innovative partnerships can provide targeted assistance, in this case, to the environment and fisheries sector, as we pursue our shared vision of inclusive and sustainable growth for Filipinos."

The TV White Space partnership also supports a new mobile online system to register fisherfolk in hundreds of rural communities. This system enables the government to better understand where fishing is taking place. This helps officials better manage precious and threatened fish stocks.

The institutional development impacts extend far beyond the fisheries sector. This is why the Government of the Philippines has incorporated TV White Space as a key element of its universal broadband access strategy. TV White Space hubs also help to save lives. When a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Bohol Province in October 2013, TV White Space was the only means of communication when mobile phone service went down, helping relief workers coordinate their work and survivors to contact loved ones.

The partnership was forged out of USAID’s five-year Ecosystems Improved for Sustainable Fisheries (ECOFISH) project. Launched in 2012, USAID’s ECOFISH project protects biological diversity and boosts livelihoods in eight key marine biodiversity areas throughout the Philippines, including Lingayen Gulf, Verde Island Passage, Calamianes Island Group, Ticao-San Bernardino-Lagonoy Gulf, Danajon Reef, South Negros Island, Surigao del Sur and del Norte, and Sulu Archipelago.

Concordia, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business Institute for Business in Society, and the U.S. Department of State Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships created the P3 Impact Award to recognize public-private partnerships that are changing our world in innovative and impactful ways.

The P3 Award was announced at the Concordia Summit in New York City on October 2. Vice President Joe Biden attended the Summit, and Secretary of State John Kerry offered his congratulations to the Government of the Philippines, USAID, and Microsoft for their tremendous impact in improving livelihoods and supporting sustainable fisheries management in the Philippines.