TECHNOLOGY: U.N. Delegates, Companies Deplore Digital Divide

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Rachel Rivera

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 18 2002 (IPS) - Goverments, companies, and non-governmental organisations must forge stronger partnerships to promote information and communication technologies (ICT) in developing countries, a two-day U.N. General Assembly meeting concluded Tuesday.

At stake, delegates said, is peoples’ participation in the global economy.

“The digital divide still yawns as widely as ever, with billions of people still unconnected to a global society which, on its side, is more and more ‘wired’,” said U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in his opening address Monday.

Despite growing consensus on the potential of ICT to promote economic growth and integrate the world’s developing countries into the global economy, two-thirds of the world’s people remain excluded from the benefits of digital technology, according to U.N. figures.

Annan urged the United Nations ICT Task Force, which he established last year, to ensure greater participation from developing countries in carrying out ICT development initiatives. He emphasised that long-term commitment from sponsors and stakeholders would be essential for the success of future initiatives.

“The digital divide threatens to further marginalise the economies and peoples of the developing countries. Given the very dynamism of the ICT revolution, every day that passes without effective action further widens the divide, making the need for concerted effort by the international community a matter of utmost urgency,” said General Assembly President Han Seung-soo of the Republic of Korea, a major ICT manufacturing base.

Han Seung-soo called for greater cooperation between developed and developing countries in bridging the digital gap, as well as increased regional collaboration among developing countries.

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, coordinator of the New Partnership for the Development of Africa (NEPAD), said NEPAD has made ICT development a major priority in achieving its economic growth objectives.

“The struggle to harness the benefits of new technologies is well under way and signs are pointing hopefully in the direction of a digital revolution for Africa,” said Wade.

Wade cited the use of underwater fibre-optic networks as one recent technological advance that now links millions of Africans and aims to connect the African and global economies at lower cost.

Other delegates spoke of the need to bring down telecommunication costs in Africa to provide equal access to the Internet.

“It costs 12 to 20 times more to go online in Africa than it does in the United States or Europe,” noted General Assembly Vice-President Jean-David Levitte, urging deregulation of the telecommunication industry in Africa.

“A call from Geneva to the United States costs less than five U.S. cents a minute. However, a call to many parts of Africa from Geneva costs over one U.S. dollar per minute, or twenty times more. If the price came down, African citizens would be better able to join the international community,” said Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary General of the International Technology Union (ITU), a U.N. telecommunications agency.

Utsumi said ITU was working to forge greater cooperation between governments and industry to coordinate the development of global telecommunication networks.

Creating public and private sector initiatives was echoed by delegates and industry representatives as a key element in providing developing countries with greater access to digital technologies.

Microsoft used the meetings to announce its commitment to pledge at least 20 percent of its philanthropic budget to ICT for development projects, in accordance with the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Charter for Digital Development, an initiative launched by the World Economic Forum and actively supported by the U.N. ICT task force.

Microsoft joins five other corporations — Hewlett Packard (USA), Vivendi Universal (France), MIH Group (South Africa), Masreya (Egypt), and Equitable Cardnetwork (Philippines) — that have made this pledge, as called for by the CEO charter.

Microsoft representative Bruce Brooks said his company has started a programme with the South African government to make software available to all public schools and that it was looking at opportunities to expand the effort to small and mid-sized companies.

Joseph Okpaku, president and CEO of Telecom Africa Corporation, stressed that integrating Africa into the global economy was ultimately a task for Africans to undertake.

“Africans can shape their destiny and they must. It’s my future. It’s my right. It’s my responsibility,” said Okpaku. “Africans are the cutting edge of ICT. We must build our capacity to compete in the global market. The clarion call goes out to Africa. The train is at the station. You’re either on it or not on it.”