Information and Communication Technologies For Development - Opportunities

Opportunities

ICT is central to today's most modern economies. Many international development agencies recognize the importance of ICT4D – for example, the World Bank's GICT section has a dedicated team of approximately 200 staff members working on ICT issues. A global network hub is also promoting innovation and advancement in ICT4D. Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) is the world's first multi-stakeholder network, bringing together public sector, private sector and civil society organizations with the goal of sharing knowledge and building partnerships in ICT4D.

Developing countries far lag developed nations in computer use and internet access/usage. For example, on average only 1 in 130 people in Africa has a computer while in North America and Europe 1 in every 2 people have access to the Internet. 90% of students in Africa have never touched a computer.

However, local networks can provide significant access to software and information even without utilizing an internet connection, for example through use of the Wikipedia CD Selection or the eGranary Digital Library.

The World Bank runs the Information for Development Program (infoDev), whose Rural ICT Toolkit analyses the costs and possible profits involved in such a venture and shows that there is more potential in developing areas than many might assume. The potential for profit arises from two sources- resource sharing across large numbers of users (specifically, the publication talks about line sharing, but the principle is the same for, e.g., telecentres at which computing/Internet are shared) and remittances (specifically the publication talks about carriers making money from incoming calls, i.e., from urban to rural areas).

A good example of the impact of ICTs is that of farmers getting better market price information and thus boosting their income. The Community e-Center in the Philippines developed a website to promote its local products worldwide. Another example is the use of mobile telecommunications and radio broadcasting to fight political corruption in Burundi. This is a short video that discusses the impact of ICT4D in our society: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwxWHC7NCs8