TECHNOLOGY: ICT Not the Backbone of Development Says EU Official

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ramesh Jaura

BONN, Jun 12 2001 (IPS) - The European Union Commissioner responsible for development and humanitarian aid, Poul Nielson, has cautioned against exaggerating the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in alleviating poverty.

“Use of ICT doesn’t make a bad project a good project. A good project is one that makes a tangible contribution to the fight against poverty – not one, which is designed to promote ICT,” he told a meeting of experts in Bonn this week.

The meeting was organised by ‘Europe’s Forum for International Co-operation’ (EUFORIC) in conjunction with the ‘European Association of Development Institutes’ (EADI), with funding from the state government of North-Rhine Westphalia.

The state government, the city of Bonn and the German Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development are promoting Bonn, the former capital of West Germany, as a Centre for International Co- operation (CIC).

Nielson said: “ICT are not to be considered in isolation, but as part of an overall development strategy.” The Third UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries, hosted by the EU in Brussels May 14-20, was “a stark reminder that after five decades of development co-operation, the challenge of under-development and poverty is still with us.”

Poverty is not an abstract concept, nor a macro-economic notion. It hurts human beings all over the world, physically and also their dignity. “This is why the Commission is reshaping its development co-operation policy, giving it a stronger poverty focus,” Nielson explained.

The Commission intends to concentrate on a limited number of areas and crosscutting themes, where it can offer value added, he told representatives of non-governmental organisations and ICT experts from across Europe in Bonn on Jun 11.

The discussion on ICT and development has a tendency to focus on the potential role of the Internet. The EU definition is, however, much broader and includes telephone. “The telephone is also IT (information technology), and in many developing countries, it is IT to which the vast majority has not yet gained access,” Nielson pointed out.

The EU Commissioner’s argument is underpinned by the fact that, while roughly 4 billion people live more than two hours away from the next telephone, a small proportion of high-income countries is using most of the telecom services ranging from Internet to basic telephony.

They form 82 per cent of the total Internet users, 69 per cent of the mobile users, and 58 per cent of telephone line users. Tokyo and New York have the same amount of telephone connections as the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Nielson, the digital divide, caused by the unequal access to ICT among and within countries, is a reflection of existing social and economic inequalities in both industrialised and developing countries.

However, the developing countries are worse off. Many African countries and Pacific Islands pay the price of international long- distance calls to access the net. Using traditional telephone lines where available, they are at best limited to e-mail traffic.

Against this backdrop, enjoying the World Wide Web is likely to turn into the World Wide Wait!” said the EU Commissioner, who was recently criticised by Anders Wijkman, a European Parliament member and rapporteur for 2002 budget in the development co- operation committee.

Wijkman wrote in the ‘European Voice’ newspaper:” _ given its great potential as an important tool for development _ the lack of attention to ICT in the Commission’s development co-operation blueprint is puzzling, to say the least.”

The Commission approach, said Nielson, is inspired by the work other institutions do in community development co-operation. “In fact, what we are doing closely corresponds with the conclusions from the Global Forum on Exploiting the Digital Opportunities for Poverty Reduction organised in Mar 2001 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and UN Development Programme (UNDP),” he added.

The Forum concluded that ICT should be seen as “a tool to help meet existing development objectives in particular the international development goals, not as a separate sector”.

However, the EU Commissioner said he was open to use ICT “whenever and wherever there is a well-founded demand and within the normal decision-making procedure”. A recent Commission review provides examples where the use of ICT adds real value to EU development programmes.

The Commission recently approved a project on pan-African, satellite-based meteorological surveillance in co-operation with EuMetSat and the World Meteorological Organisation. The project will provide weather information and allow effective monitoring of desertification and drought warning.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in natural resource management will have a possibility to be associated to the project, so as to provide timely data to the grass-root communities they assist.

The European Commission is also supporting a livestock project in Nepal to strengthen veterinary services. The quality of the programme’s administration and results depend on Personal Computers (PCs), software and management information systems, with attendant improvements for livestock farmers.

Another Commission supported project relates to improving satellite-based systems to improve security for civil aviation in West and Central Africa.

In the area of governance and human rights, EU Commission is supporting TV and radio transmission and programme production in Namibia. Another project in the realm of governance relates to the collection of statistics such as population censuses, voter registration and other proven tools for ensuring the transparent and credible organisation of national elections.