Q&A: ''ICT Can Flatten Hierarchies''

GENEVA, Jul 1 (IPS) - Information and Communication Technology (ICT) offers the best hope of rapidly empowering the poor and involving civil society in the development process.

But the hitch, according to Sarbuland Khan, executive coordinator of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) under the United Nations, is that bureaucracies and governments are too reluctant to share either information or power.

Khan told IPS correspondent Zofeen Ebrahim, on the sidelines of the Jun. 28-30 meet of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), here, that information is a public good in the same way as water, health, food and sanitation are.

IPS - What is the relevance of ICT to development?

Sarbuland Khan (SK) - The problem is that no one knows his/her real rights. For far too long governments and international systems have been reluctant to recognise that citizens have a right to demand and access information and that every public authority must share information. And if they fail to do so, they have to be persuaded.

IPS - In many South Asian countries where literacy is low and where infrastructure is not optimally developed, how do we inform the people of their rights through the ICT?

SK - There are many ways of using the media, both the traditional and the new, to disseminate information about people’s rights and to make them aware of the various opportunities and choices available. This will not only help protect their rights but empower them in a way that is more self-respecting. I also see ICT as a great leveller, it can flatten hierarchies and shift the power base which may not be possible otherwise.

IPS - What is the role of the private sector in providing ICT to developing countries?

SK - Governments alone cannot achieve the developmental goals. The involvement of civil society and the private sector is crucial. Macro-economic policies need to be designed such as to generate economic growth in which poor can participate, rather than become dependents. That will happen only if government policies engage with the private sector and encourage it to invest. To my mind the engine for change is specifically the private-public partnership.

For its part, the private sector can also act as a catalyst for the governments of developing countries to further their commitments to ICT. Governments can ensure that the private sector develops business models targeted to integrate the poor into the market as opposed to what is generally done - models that target the middle- and upper-classes. These should be such as to create jobs and products for the poor, which forms a teeming majority in most of South Asia. Similarly, through innovative approaches and technology, solutions should be found to people’s problems. These models can both be profitable to the private investor and at the same time participatory for the poor. Take for example the mobile telephony that has caught on like wild fire all across South Asia. Of late one can see rapid advances in the electronic media like the FM channels and even the Internet enterprise development.

IPS - How do governments benefit from sharing information?

SK - By investing in the ICT, the governments can break the vicious cycle of poverty and turn it into a virtuous one of growth. An informed citizenry is important in the fight to end poverty and meet the Millennium Development Goals. It helps in the maintenance of transparency, hold governments accountable… in other words it helps put governance systems in place to run efficiently.

IPS - What is the situation of ICT in Pakistan?

SK - Unfortunately there are some pockets at both the governmental and the public level that are still resisting and holding on to the old mind-set approach of guarding the right to information. The change towards ICT for development remains underemphasised and is thus not as rapid. Part of the problem lies in the education system being mired in an antiquated order. There is an urgent need to develop outstanding IT centres of excellence like there are in India, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, China etc. It’s an investment worth making and U.N. can help. Highest priority must be given to this to transform the country.

IPS - In a country that has been unable to provide clean drinking water to its citizens, where villages still do not have electricity and where even the urban infrastructure is near collapse, the task of putting in place the IT system seems superfluous. Please comment.

SK - There has to be a longer term vision to development. Infrastructure problems will remain for another couple of decades, but to participate on equal terms with other world economies, there is an urgent need to pay attention to this otherwise it will miss the boat. And for this, as I said before, Pakistan needs to pay attention to its higher education and developing IT institutes, especially when it has a pool of human resources of the highest quality comparable across the world.

(END/2007)

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