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Harnessing ICTs for Development
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Event Description
New information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become critical enablers for sustained human development. There are now numerous examples as to how ICTs have contributed to eradicate poverty and bring to the most vulnerable and marginalized populations basic services for the rst time in history. In addition, ICTs have also fostered the dissemination of knowledge for development and promoted good governance by enhancing transparency and accountability. For many areas of development, it has become almost unthinkable not to use these new technologies and deploy innovative solutions on the ground.
We should not assume that LDCs have been excluded of this process. On the contrary. in Haiti, the radio plays an important role in community outreach, including raising awareness about speci c problems faced by women, such as sexual health, childcare, education and gender issues. In Bangladesh, the national Access to Information programme is in the midst of deploying over 4,000 common service centers to bring public services closer to local and rural populations. And in many LDCs, farmers, shermen and micro-entrepreneurs are quickly adopting mobile phones to access vital information and to stay in touch with suppliers, customers, friends and family.
In terms of the availability and use of Information and Communication Technologies, data suggest that by the end of 2009, the LDCs accounted for 4.6 per cent of the world’s mobile cellular subscriptions but only 0.7 per cent of all xed telephone lines. Their Internet users represent 1.1 per cent of the world’s total, compared to 0.2 per cent and 0.4 per cent of all xed and mobile broadband subscriptions respectively.
With this in mind, the United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS) is inviting policy makers, practitioners and donors to share experiences and highlight the opportunities that ICTs o er in fostering development agendas and the challenges that LDCs and poor countries must confront for successful implementation. Representatives from LDCs that are currently undertaking large scale ICT for Development programmes and projects will share experiences in a panel, where donor countries and international experts will also provide inputs and expertise.
By the end of the session it is expected that meeting participants have captured the critical potential that ICTs can have in fostering development agendas. In addition, it is expected that LDC representatives can network among themselves and continue to learn from those who are already in the way to furnish ICT-enabled solutions to traditional development gaps.
The length of the meeting is one and a half hours.
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ICTs and LDCs: Opportunities and Challenges
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Introduction
More than ten years after the onset of the UN Millennium Declaration, the least developed countries (LDCs) have, on average, made substantial progress towards the achievement of Internationally Agreed Development Goals (IADGs). Governments, in partnership with the private sector and civil society, have redirected strategic resources to tackle poverty and inequality, improve education and health systems and foster greater transparency and accountability of public institutions.
At the same time, LDCs have encountered unexpected challenges that have threatened to set back key development gains and put at risk the large e orts that have been made to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs.) Climate change, food prices, natural disasters, and the recent global economic crisis, to name a few, have taken a toll not only in past investments but also put in jeopardy future e orts as the number of priorities that LDCs and other developing countries need to address multiplies - while basic development goals are not yet reached.
Simultaneously, the last decade has experienced a dramatic change when it comes to information and communication technologies (ICTs). Against all expectation, the accelerated growth of mobile telephony has touched virtually all parts of the globe. In fact, this is the rst tine in history that a new technology, of any sort, di uses so fast among so many countries and so many people. Recent estimates from the International Telecommunication Union suggest that there are now more than 5 billion mobile subscriptions in the world – most of which in developing countries. This means that there are now better possibilities than ever for people in the LDCs to bene t from ICTs.
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ICTs and Development
It is important to note that there is no room for complacency. In order to bring out greater development gains from the evolving ICT landscape, policymakers must shift to a higher gear in terms of leveraging the technologies.
ICTs have been used for development purposes since the 1990s when many UN agencies, donors and governments jumped on the so-called “Internet revolution”. The focus back then was on access and connectivity where ICT infrastructure was the main, if not the only goal. Stock-taking studies from that time strongly suggest that most ICT investments did not really have the anticipated positive impact on development targets.
This perspective of ICTs in Development made its way into the Millennium Declaration. So while, for example, the MDGs do include speci c targets related to access to the new technologies, there is no explicit link between, say, investments
in education or health and the use of ICT solutions and applications to deliver such services to those who – still today – do not enjoy access to them. It is thus not uncommon that large scale e orts in LDCs aimed at achieving some of the MDG targets are paying little or no attention to the use of ICTs. By the same token, many ICT for Development programmes and projects still run as standalone initiatives and do not explicitly factor in national and local
development priorities.
The disconnect between ICT policies and development policies is a critical divide -- a policy and implementation “divide” – that can bring forward duplication and resource waste that will only end up delaying the achievement of IADGs, particularly in LDCs where resources are scarce and local capacities need to be substantially strengthened.
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ICTs and LDCs
LDCs have not been excluded from the explosive growth of mobile technologies and its bene ts for social and economic developments. Although there are still challenges in terms of adaptation and absorption of the technologies, the potential to capitalize on them is at the tip of our ngers. Better mobile access can also enable better access to other kinds of ICTs.
New ICTs have become critical enablers for sustained human development. There are now numerous examples as to how ICTs have contributed to eradicate poverty and bring to the most vulnerable and marginalized populations basic information, communication and other services for the rst time. Several LDCs, in turn, have now established long-term plans to develop an ICT sector geared towards catering to global knowledge societies and economies.
In order to make more strategic use of ICTs and have greater impact on development goals and targets, there is a need to address explicitly the “policy divide” mentioned above. For many areas of development, it has become almost unthinkable not to use the new technologies and deploy new and innovative solutions on the ground. But at the same time, it is also unthinkable to have ICT initiatives that are oblivious to the needs and priorities that the poorest segments of LDC populations face.
The goal of the UNGIS session on ICTs and Development is to start building the bridge that can close the policy divide and ensure that policy makers and ICT experts work together towards one goal: assisting countries in quickly moving above the LDC status. The session will highlight the role technologies and particularly ICTs can play, when systematically integrated in development strategies.
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