Society | DOI: 10.1145/1378704.1378710
challenging Poverty
Information and communication technologies are an important component
in the generation of wealth. How can they help reduce poverty?

AS THE DEBATE on whether poverty is best challenged by money or knowledge continues, efforts to improve individual lives and kick-start economies in developing countries are escalating. As in wealthy countries, where technology has transformed many lives, information and communication technologies (ICT) are part of development programs in poor countries. However, their application is very different and the implementation constraints can be overwhelming.

The World Bank, which cites its mission as “working for a world free of poverty,” is a supporter of ICT for development (ICT4D). The bank has a global ICT department with three organizational groups: one offers loans and assistance for ICT projects to developing world governments; another promotes sustainable private-sector investment in developing countries; and the last acts as an ICT think tank, bringing together and disseminating best practices.

This year, the World Bank will spend approximately $7.3 billion on projects with an ICT component. Typical examples include an $8 million grant to a private sector program in Bhutan that is establishing an IT park and a $40 million loan to the government of Ghana for an e-Ghana project.

“We offer loans, grants, and technical assistance,” says Randeep Sudan, lead ICT policy specialist in the World Bank’s ICT department, “and we have a formal mechanism for deciding assistance strategies and working with governments to define projects and relationships. Inclusiveness and sustainability are key issues.”

PHO TOGRAPH BY DIPANKER DUT TA

The World Bank collaborates with many organizations, bringing together multidisciplinary teams including academics, consultants, anthropologists, computer scientists, and economists. Projects focusing on ICT consider how technology can impact poverty through

its application in areas such as education, health, agriculture, e-government, and public-sector reform.

With projects and people in place, the challenge is to overcome local constraints including a lack of ICT infrastructure, inadequate and unreliable power supplies, and a paucity of skilled, and sometimes literate, local people. Also, mind-sets need to be challenged and visionary plans created, particularly in developing countries that are lim-

 

ited by their own political or economic constraints.

Despite the difficulties of implementing technology, the World Bank sees ICT as an important element of transformation. “ICT has an impact in nearly every intervention we make to reduce poverty,” says Sudan. “It enhances employment, pushes up incomes, increases the employment of women, creates efficiency in government services, and reduces corruption.”

The European Commission also provides funds to sustain ITC4D initiatives and works in partnership with developing countries to build infrastructure. The Infrastructure Partnership with Africa, which the Commission supports,

is partially funding the EASSy submarine cable that will link the countries of East Africa to the rest of the world and is due to be in place before South Africa hosts the World Cup in 2010. As well as easing the lack of connectivity in Africa, the EASSy cable will provide lower communication costs than satellite systems.

Harry De Backer, a principal administrator working in the new technologies remit of the Commission’s European Development Fund, explains: “The EASSy cable will give Africa an opportunity to become part of the world economy through better communications, which will improve the export of locally produced products. EASSy will also provide backhauls into poorly connected areas of Africa, such as Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, and Rwanda. Ultimately, the backhaul will reach rural areas.”

With some 278 million mobile phones in Africa—one in three people has a mobile phone according to the GSM Association (GSMA), a global trade group of mobile phone operators—and GSMA operators poised to invest $50 billion over the next five years, the prospect of creating a strong commercial environment is promising.

De Backer believes those living on just a few dollars a day will be included in the mobile phone community, stemming migration to congested cities and improving the lives of poor people through communication. One example of a mobile phone project is farmers who receive an SMS service telling them the consumer prices of vegetables. Armed with this information, the farmers can better negotiate prices with the middlemen who buy from the farmers and sell to consumers.

While connecting Africa is a major task, many smaller ICT projects are challenging poverty. Some have the potential to scale regionally, others could cross continents. Their proponents are experts with a desire to use ICT