Tackling the digital divide

["Irfan Khan" <khania@super.net.pk>]

February 1, 2001 

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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