Asia Times: Tackling the digital divide


	February 1, 2001	atimes.com

Media/Information Technology

Tackling the digital divide
By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN - While continuing to focus on poverty alleviation programs, international cooperation should assist developing countries in harnessing the potential of information and communication technologies (ICT), according to officials and experts.

Some 100 of them participated in an "international policy dialogue" at an event entitled "Digital Inclusion - impact and challenges of the networked economy for developing countries". The German Foundation for International Development (DSE) arranged the meeting in conjunction with the German federal ministries of Economic Cooperation and Development and Economic Affairs (BMZ).

Participants in the conference included representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private corporations, multilateral institutions and of the 15-nation European Union. Government officials from industrialized and developing countries also joined the event held January 23 and 24 in Berlin.

Setting the tone, DSE director-general Heinz Buehler stressed that discussions about ICT should not overlook the fact that the majority of people worldwide were struggling to survive and lead a life in dignity. State secretary Erich Stather in BMZ backed him: "Despite the undisputed potential offered by ICT, we must not forget what life really is like for the majority of the people on this planet ... The discussion on modern information and communication technologies is of no concrete relevance for many people [living in poverty]."

He welcomed international initiatives to build bridges across the digital divide between the prosperous and the poor. He pleaded for digital inclusion of all those whose access to ICT was obstructed by lack of a basic infrastructure.

In a statement read out at the conference, president of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Makarim Wibisono pointed out that only 5 percent of the world's population are connected to the Internet. "As a result, the gap between the developed and developing countries is being further aggravated and it holds ominous consequences for the developing countries including increases in poverty, unemployment and under-development levels," warned Wibisono. This adverse scenario could also lead to increased national and international tensions and instabilities, he added.

Tadao Takahashi, who chairs the federal task force for a national information society in Brazil, agreed. "Digital exclusion of the developing world is a direct consequence of other types of exclusion, because ultimate causes are the same. In the future, however, digital exclusion can become a major aggravating factor to all other types of exclusion," Takashahi pointed out.

An ICT task force is being designed to facilitate and promote collaborative initiatives involving the public and private sectors, multilateral development institutions, foundations and trusts. The task force is to be created under the leadership of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, outside the UN organizational structure. However, the United Nations is not alone in undertaking efforts to bridge the digital divide. Other initiatives, outside the United Nations, have also been launched with similar objectives. Chief among them is that of Dot Force initiated by the Group of 8 major industrial nations - Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United States, Japan and Russia - at their Okinawa summit in July 2000.

Steps have been taken to ensure synergies between the two initiatives. The ECOSOC president is a member of the G8 Dot Force. Likewise, at the UN secretariat level, the UN Development Program (UNDP) provides secretarial support for the Dot Force.

At the regional level, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has been working with African countries on ICT issues for more than 20 years now. Also the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) serves as another tool to bridging the digital divide, the chief of ECA's development information services division (DISD), Krima Bounemra Ben-Soltane, told the Berlin conference. She expects the transition of Africa to an information society as a result of the so-called Scan-ICT project, backed by Canada, the EU and Norway.

Ben-Soltane reported that thanks due to the project, secondary school students in Namibia have computerized 20,897 insect inventory records. In doing so, they have helped preserve information about the fifth largest insect collection in Africa. Most of them had no previous computer experience.

Guarding against succumbing to the digital divide, Mohammed Masud Isa, managing director of Grameen Telecom in Bangladesh, explained that Professor Muhammad Yunus had realized the potential of ICT in eliminating global poverty. Yunus founded the world-renowned Grameen Bank. By providing a small amount of loans ranging from US$100 to $500, the bank has empowered about 5 million poor villagers, most of them women, to battle against poverty.

Tim Kelly, coordinator of the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union, reported "success stories" in two least developed countries - Nepal and Uganda. Nepal has succeeded in achieving lowest IP - Internet provider - access prices in South Asia. Uganda is the first country in Africa where mobile phones outnumber fixed-line telephones.

The Berlin conference was held less that one week after the consultation organized by the donor nations' Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with the support of the government of Dubai. The gathering, joined by 20 emerging-market, transition and developing countries as well OECD member states, came to the conclusion that efforts to tackle the digital divide will succeed only if they are closely tied to the pressing needs of developing countries in such areas as health, education and transport.

(Inter Press Service)

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