• Money laundering has been estimated by the IMF to represent 2-5 % of global GDP and is made  easy because of the Internet’s capacity to hide transactions.
• The Internet had more than 140 million users in mid-1998, a number expected to pass 700 million by 2001.
• Women make up just 17% of the Internet users in Japan, only 7% in China. Most users in China and the UK are under 30.
• English prevails in almost 80% of all websites, yet less than one in 10 people.
• To purchase a computer would cost the average Bangladeshi more than eight year’s of income, the average American just one month’s wage.

Background

The United Nations Development Programme has been involved since the early 1990’s in efforts to increase the capacity of developing countries to participate in the global knowledge based-economy. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been identified as revolutionary tools for this endeavor. As early as 1993, the organization funded projects aimed at providing countries such as East Timor and Mongolia connections to the Internet. UNDP`s Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown (appointed in June 1999), considers ICTs to be critical to the capacity for development and poverty alleviation in developing nations and countries in transition.

While the organization has developed a strong rationale for making information technology and the reduction of the digital divide their foremost priority, the present investment in ICTs is believed, will reap unforeseen rewards. According to UNDP’s Administrator, it is the still untapped potential of ICTs for development that will make investments in these technologies now, transformational for developing countries and their participation in the global market.

ICT for Development – A UN Focus

Within the United Nations system, Information and Communication Technologies are receiving increasing attention. The Secretary-General has given significant consideration to ICTs for development in two important reports produced in the year 2000, The Millennium Report, in which three of the four new initiatives proposed to leaders at the Millennium Summit are directly related to ICTs, and the substantive report to the High Level Segment of the Economic and Social Council Session, held in July 2000. A seventeen High-level Panel of Experts on Information and Communication technology was set-up in April 2000 to study and recommend a plan of action regarding ICTs for development. In the panel`s report and plan of action, 2004 is identified as the target year by which global connectivity could be reached.

Information Technologies – the Cause and Solution to the Divide Between Nations

The process of globalization has resulted in severe social costs translated, among other things, into the marginalization of the poor and the exacerbation of the disparity between the haves and have-nots. As witnesses to the unfulfilled promises of globalization, many people, from the North and South alike, are questioning its legitimacy and its capacity to contribute to the objectives of a more equitable and sustainable world. The unprecedented growth in information technologies has been identified both as a key cause of the growing divide between North and South and the key tool that will bridge that divide. According to the Human Development Report 1999, globalization is not a blind and uncontrollable force of change, it can be “shaped” to meet social objectives, enable the protection of the environment and benefit the poor by providing them with opportunities for economic development and access to the global markets. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are believed to be revolutionary tools capable of providing a human face to the process of globalization. UNDP, as the main UN organization working towards the eradication of poverty and the overall coordinator of development initiatives, has taken the lead role within the UN System to spread the use of and capacity for ICTs in developing countries.

Nothing Less Than A Revolution - The Promise of Information Technology for Sustainable Human Development

Understanding the incredible momentum behind UNDP’s new key focus on Information Technology for Development requires some understanding of the organization’s view of globalization and the assumptions that have been made regarding the relationship between globalization, information technology, knowledge, development, and poverty alleviation.

Underlying UNDP’s orientation and rationale is the belief that poverty alleviation and sustainable human development are rooted in the capacity to provide developing countries access to the mainstream global economy. Acceding to greater economic wealth is essential to reverse the cycle of poverty. The lack of access and competitive edge of developing countries in global economic activities leads to increased poverty. The speed and strength of globalization also creates a positive feedback loop of marginalization of the poor, which results in an increasing divide between the haves and have-nots. Growing poverty reduces the capacity of the poor to access education, health care, and make longer term decisions that take into consideration the protection of the environment. The knowledge gap, particularly in this global information age, can exacerbate this divide if the cycle is not broken. The cycle of extreme poverty that affects over 2 billion of the world’s 6 billion inhabitants must be broken. Information and Communication technologies (ICT), act as a revolutionary force affecting everything they touch – education, health, politics, culture and business – and promise to play an unprecedented role in breaking the cycle of poverty and closing the divide.

Benefits of ICT for Development

The potential benefits of ICTs are manifold. ICTs for development can:

• Transform how aid money is donated (by governments and individuals) and where it is directed. With the Internet, the concept is that the poor themselves will have direct influence on where aid money will be directed. The success of netaid.org is a first indication of that potential.
• Transform the measures of accountability since the Internet acts as an interface between the donors and those in the field (the recipient of aid or field personnel).
• Provide an unprecedented capacity for knowledge sharing including long-distance education and access to books and articles otherwise impossible to find in many developing countries.
• Facilitate the advertising of products and provide businesses with information otherwise unavailable to entrepreneurs in rural and even urban areas.
• Provide remote communities with access to critical information in the fields of health, education, and others.
• Provide unlimited applications for businesses including access to financial markets.
• Lead to new developments in the field of micro-finance initiatives.
• Generate employment.
• Increase the accountability of governments as a result of citizens’ increased understanding of their rights.
• Improve agricultural and manufacturing productivity.
• Improve management and help prevent disasters.
• Enable the creation of multipurpose networks.

Challenges and Limitations of ICT for Sustainable Human Development

Some of the challenges to the capacity if ICT to address development problems include:

• Dealing with the absence of infrastructure or the inadequacy of those in place in developing countries limits their participation in the ICT revolution.
• Access to the technology, the costs of the technology, and the difficulty in reaching clients in developing countries poses a problem to the development of a solid national ICT industry.
• The use of the Internet requires a capacity to read and write. The barrier for an individual with limited education is higher with the Internet interface than the barrier of voice communication for example. Literacy must be a national goal if ICT is to penetrate and be of relevance in many countries and communities.
• The “mental barrier” has been identified as one of the key obstacles. Computers and the Internet remain, even to a large segment of the population in developed countries, an unfamiliar and intimidating tool. For the illiterate this obstacle will take generations to overcome.
• If ICT is to fulfill its promise of sustainable human development, national ownership of the ICT industry in developing countries will be central. In addition to the need for infrastructure, building capacity and entrepreneurship in this field is required.
• Ensuring that developing countries are involved in the ICT revolution is important since the goal is to address issues affecting their lives and their country. Their full participation is particularly important considering that developing countries are expected to contribute around half of the resources needed to bring ICT to these countries.

Advocacy, Advice, Pilot Programmes and Partnerships “A2 P2” – UNDP’s Strategic Approach to ICT Development

UNDP has developed a strategic approach to the work it will be undertaking in the years to come to build the capacity of developing nations to participate in the benefits of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for development. UNDP’s strategic formula is “A2 P2”. In short, the approach is to Advocate to all groups (government, NGOs, local communities and the business community) the benefits of ICT for development and to provide sound Advice for the elaboration of policies, for reform and the development of regulations, the assessment of e-readiness, infrastructure development, etc. The formula (or approach) also considers the selection of Pilot programmes and the establishment of solid Partnerships and collaborations with multilateral development institutions, the private sector, bilateral donors, NGOs, and other relevant stakeholders.

Hence the goal of the “A2 P2” strategic approach can be summed up by this second formula “C2 E2” – Connectivity and Competition combined with Education and Entrepreneurship. As identified in the challenge section above, providing e-connections is necessary for ICT to impact development. The increase in connections can be achieved through measures that can facilitate competition. Such measures include the elimination of regulatory obstacles, encouraging public-private partnerships, controls against anti-competitive behavior and the motivation of political will.

The field of ICT is rooted in the idea of constant innovation. Ensuring its long-term contribution to poverty alleviation in developing countries necessitates a national capacity to innovate. Investment in education and digital literacy is therefore fundamental to the success of ICT in developing countries. ICTs are a key purveyor of education opportunities because of the wealth of information accessible on the Internet and the other tools it offers to gain knowledge such as long-distance education.

Educational information on the Internet, particularly local content and services tailored to the needs of small businesses, can provide a positive feedback loop for enhanced national ownership. Hence, ICTs themselves are the answer to the long-term success of ICT as a key tool for the participation of the developing countries and those in transition in the global economy.

This strategic approach aims at building a solid enabling environment upon which the revolutionary potential of ICT for development can further expand. This enabling environment rests on the elaboration of a strong and viable National Information Infrastructure Policy. This infrastructure will enable the stimulation of national and local entrepreneurship that is also needed for ICT to contribute, in the longer term, to sustainable human development.

Key Events and Outcomes

• ICT Agenda put forth at the ECOSOC: The 2000 Substantive Session of the Economic and Social Council, held in July 2000, addressed in its High level Segment the topic of Development and international cooperation in the twenty first century: the role of information technology in the context of a knowledge-based global economy. In preparation for this important segment, regional meetings were held in the different regions:
  • the organization of the African Development Forum 1999: The challenge to Africa of globalization and the information age, held in October 1999;
  • the Latin American and Caribbean Seminar on Information Technology and Development, held in Florianopolis, Brazil, in June 2000 which lead to the Florianopolis Declaration; and
  • the Regional Round Table on Information Technology and Development for the Asia and Pacific Region, held in New Delhi, India in June 2000.
• The Secretary-General’s report and the report and plan of action of the High-Level Panel of Experts will remain key documents driving the efforts to maximize the benefits of ICT for development. The Ministerial Declaration that resulted from the High-Level Segment of the ECOSOC Session was endorsed at the Millennium Assembly in September 2000.
• The Secretary-General`s Millennium Report, offers a comprehensive account of the challenges facing humanity as we enter the twenty-first century and offers an ambitious plan of action. Three new initiatives are suggested that are directly rooted in the use of ICT for development:
  • A volunteer corps, called the United Nations Information Technology Service ('UNITeS'), to train groups in developing countries in the uses and the exploration of opportunities offered by Internet and information technologies.
  • A Health InterNetwork, to establish 10,000 on-line sites in hospitals and clinics in developing countries to provide access to cutting-edge medical information and assistance. The UNDP, WHO, WebMD Foundation, the United Nations Foundation and other partners, support this initiative.
  • A disaster response initiative, "First on the Ground", which will provide mobile and satellite telephones as well as microwave links for humanitarian relief workers in areas affected by natural disasters and emergencies. The communications company Ericsson will lead this project, with United Nations partners and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Source: ‘We the Peoples’ The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century.
• The G8 Summit held in Okinawa, Japan in July 2000 led to the production of the Okinawa Charter on the Global Information Society. Key UNDP initiatives, including the opportunITy initiative and the G-8 Opportunities Task Force will report to the next G-8 Summit in 2001.

New, Ongoing and Upcoming Initiatives

UNDP’s action plan to address ICT for Development is broad and contains initiatives addressing global as well as local level needs. A sample of these initiatives is provided in this section.

• Among the larger scale initiatives, UNDP is undertaking three significant partnership projects:
  • The Digital Opportunity Task Force or “dot.force” in partnership with the World Bank, will be working towards the development of an implementation framework with concrete timetables and set targets for bridging the digital divide before the end of the decade.
  • The opportuITty initiative, in partnership with Anderson Consulting and the Markel Foundation, has three main components; (1) setting an overall strategic approach for bridging the global digital divide before the end of the decade, (2) initiating and/or scaling up of a series of exemplar initiatives across the world, and (3) execution of a campaign to convince all stakeholders to support ICT for development. The initiative was launched at the G8 Summit in September 2000 and a first report back is planned for next year’s Summit in Canada.
  • The Global Readiness and Resource Initiative, in partnership with the UN Foundation, the Markel Foundation, IBM, the World Economic Forum and the Center for International Development at Harvard University, aims to provide developing nations seeking strategic guidance in policy, regulatory and network readiness development with leading edge resources. Through public-private partnerships, developing countries will be able to assess their e-readiness using the resources from APEC, the World Bank and others.
• The Human Development Report, UNDP`s flagship publication, will be dedicated in 2001 to a reflection on the relationship between technology and development.
• Japan will be investing 15 billion over the next five years in aid towards a comprehensive plan to address the digital divide. As part of this plan, UNDP will provide technical support to Pacific Islands and African countries.
• An Agreement was signed in July 2000 between the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and UNDP, to ensure that women take part fully in shaping the ICT movement at all levels.

Links

International Links

• Choices, UNDP`s Human Development Magazine has focused its June 2000 issue on Information Technology for Development.
• Netaid.org Foundation is a unique partnership between UNDP, Cisco Systems and the entertainment community that is transforming the relationship between donors and those in needs. The netaid website allows people to know exactly where their money will be invested when they donate and it also invites people to donate their time as an online volunteer to help eradicate poverty.
• The Secretary-General`s Report to the High-Level Segment of the Economic and Social Council Session in June 2000 offers several examples of successful initiatives aimed at increasing access to ICT in developing countries and countries in transition.
• The World Bank`s Global Gateway Initiative consists in the development of a portal website on development issues, from which users will be able to access information, resources, and tools, and into which they will be able to contribute their own knowledge and experience.
• UN Cyber School Bus is a resource for kids and teachers to learn about the UN, get curriculum ideas, tour the UN, etc.