REACH2020

Challenges facing the countries and communities in the Global South include achieving sustained socioeconomic development, providing reliable and extensive infrastructure, and operating effective political institutions. Remote populations and rugged terrain make ground-based solutions to development challenges difficult. Tele-reach allows people and organizations to complete tasks and activities at a distance through a synergy of space-based and ground-based Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Numerous tele-reach applications provide solutions for a variety of needs specific to the Global South. However, many infrastructural, economic, and political factors must be considered if these applications are to be sustainably employed.

Reach2020: Tele-reach for the Global South explores the potential for tele-reach solutions to dramatically facilitate answers to these tough problems faced by the Global South and provides a practical way forward for the region to collaborate on tele-reach. Through a web-based portal, collaborators can share their tele-reach experience and network with each other in discussion forums. This portal will enable the Global South to develop its own tele-reach "system of systems" (TSS) to identify duplication of effort , gaps in current infrastructure and applications, ensure better use of resources, and identify future opportunities.