Few international agencies deal specifically with distance education. But many have embraced distance education as a means of encouraging speedy, broad-based development-including the World Bank, the UK Department for International Development, and the Canadian International Development Agency.

And recently, two development-oriented distance education agencies were established:

• Commonwealth of Learning (COL), based in Vancouver as the distance education agency for the British Commonwealth
• Consortium international francophone de formation...distance (CIFFAD), based in Bordeaux as the distance education agency for la Francophonie.

These agencies need to consider such issues as these:

• Should they be reactive or proactive?
• Should they develop and deliver programs or serve merely as facilitators?
• Should projects be government to government, government to institution, or institution to institution and funded by an agency-or should they follow some other structure?
• What part should national governments play in regulating development projects?