By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 29 2000 (IPS)

The Group of 77 (G-77), a coalition of 133 developing nations, is complaining that the huge income gap between rich and poor is now being exacerbated by a North-South “digital divide” – between those who have access to computers and the Internet and those who do not.

The Group says that although there have been tremendous advances in science and technology over the last few decades, the developing world is still lagging far behind in the technological race.

Ambassador Arthur Mbanefo of Nigeria, chairman of the G-77, says the world has seen a revolution in technological know-how during the last 30 years. This revolution in technology and informatics, he argues, has raised expectations of humankind to new levels.

Still, he admits, there are over one billion people in the world (all from developing nations) who continue to live in poverty.

“That is, one-fifth of humankind is not enjoying the fruits of the revolution in science and technology,” he complains.

Louise Frechette, the UN’s Deputy Secretary-General, told the annual conference of the UN International School last month that the average per capita income in the world’s 25 richest nations (about 25,000 dollars each) is 58 times that of the 50 poorest.

While Switzerland, for example, has a per capita income of about 43,000 dollars and Japan about 38,000 dollars, Ethiopia’s per capita income is about 150 dollars and Malawi’s 210 dollars.

And in the area critical to the social and economic development of societies – namely research and development – 85 percent of total world spending (about 400 out of 470 billion dollars) occurs in rich countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

This, Frechette said, represents an investment of 2.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in Japan and the United States, while the average in Latin America, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa is only 0.3 percent. “In other words, where research and development are most needed, they are most absent,” she added.

Perhaps the single change that would do most to reduce global inequality over the medium term, she argued, would be a closing of this “knowledge gap” – giving people in developing countries access to new technology especially information technology, and to quality education.

Meanwhile, she said, aid flows from rich to poor countries dropped more than 20 percent during the 1990s. And more importantly, investment flows remain small. “We need to reverse this trend, if we are to make our world more equal,” she asserted.

Meanwhile, at the upcoming South Summit in Havana in mid-April, the G-77 is expected to approve the creation of a new Fund to promote technological growth in Third World countries.

The proposal, which is expected to be approved by more than 60 Third World leaders, calls for “seed money” from governments, foundations, the private sector and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The Fund will also ensure the establishment, at the national level, of a network of research institutions dealing with science and technology.

Hosted by the Cuban government, the South Summit is the first high- level meeting of Third World leaders sponsored by the G-77.

One of the other recommendations before the Summit is to urge developing nations to allocate adequate budgetary resources to strengthen science and technology, and also increase the percentage of gross national product (GNP) allocated to the development of research in the field of science and technology.

The Summit will also urge the G-77 to convene in the year 2002 a South-South high-level conference “with a view to formulating a global strategy within the South, for the promotion of science and technology.”

Ambassador Mbanefo said the G-77 attaches great significance to the critical contribution of science and technology to development of the South especially in the current context of globalisation and liberalisation.

Science and technology play a catalytic role in the South’s efforts to improve the quality of life of its people, and accelerate the process of economic growth and development in developing countries, he added.

The new millennium presents a formidable challenge for the countries of the South to shape their own destinies, in a balanced and just partnership with the rest of the international community. For this purpose, he said, the G-77 has decided that the first G-77 Summit to be held in Havana should focus on the issues of knowledge and technology and South-South cooperation.

The Summit is expected to extensively address these questions, with a view to identifying measures and responses, and to define concrete initiatives and actions for their implementation.

“I would like to assert that efforts by the developing countries towards achieving sustainable development objectives can only be effective with simultaneous efforts towards promotion of science and technology in developing countries,” he added.

He also called for adequate financial resources on a continuous and predictable basis to be made available to developing countries to foster their science and technological capacities.

The developing countries should have access, among other things, to new technologies without obstacles such as export restrictions on new technology imposed under different pretexts.

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