UNDP Chief Warns G8 Leaders of Digital Divide

This is text from a statement on the United National Development Programme (UNDP) web site in the year 2000. You can see an archived version of the original on archive.org

United National Development Programme
Communications Office
newsfront

UNDP Chief Warns G-8 Leaders of a Widening “Digital Divide”

The Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Mark Malloch Brown, called on G-8 leaders gathered in Japan this week to help the developing world take full advantage of the Information Revolution.

Speaking at a meeting of developing country leaders and development agency heads with G-8 leaders in Tokyo, Malloch Brown stressed that the world has an historic opportunity and obligation to reach out and help the poor take advantage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Malloch Brown said that while it was true that the Information Gap - -or digital divide - between rich and poor was vast and growing, ICT and the Internet offer new hope in areas ranging from health, to education to business development. "If we fail to act now the Information Gap risks being widened into an uncrossable gulf that increases global inequality and leaves the poor further behind," he said. "But if we approach the matter with the same kind of urgency and application as the commercial "dot-com" sector, then we have every chance of building a strong, new wired future that not only includes the world's poor but gives them an unprecedented opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty."

Malloch Brown lauded Prime Minister Mori for the announcement last Friday that the Japanese government would pledge $15 billion over five years in aid as part of a "Comprehensive Co-operation Package to Address the International Digital Divide." He also thanked Mori for highlighting the ICT for development issue during the G-8 summit which Japan is hosting this week. And he singled out UNDP's cooperation with the Government of Japan in providing technical support for Pacific Island and African countries.

At a meeting with G-8 leaders in Tokyo this week, UN Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown announced that UNDP is launching a series of project activities that will boost internet connectivity and access in some of the poorest countries in the world.

UNDP is already helping countries gain access to the digital economy in places ranging from Estonia to East Timor. The organization supports the launching of new networks and helps construct policy frameworks for Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

"At a time when Tokyo has more telephones than all of Africa and Finland has more Internet hosts than Latin America, the challenge is huge," Malloch Brown said. "But the fact is the revolution has only just begun, and if we can work together, we can work to ensure the end result provides the world's poor with a stake and a voice in the global economy."

UNDP is helping undertake a new effort to determine the extent of "e-readiness" in individual developing countries. Drawing on UNDP's network of 136 country offices and long-standing, trusted relationship with governments, it will identify concrete steps needed to foster and ensure the broader development of domestic ICT sectors. Recommendations will focus on providing resource support and technical assistance in removing regulatory bottlenecks and creating an enabling environment for new public-private partnerships that encourage the rapid growth of a domestic sector providing portal, content, local cellular operations and other ICT services.

UNDP is working on a wide range of innovative applications of ICT in promoting poverty alleviation and human development. One particular priority is exploring the potential of using the dramatic cuts in transactions costs offered by ICT to find new ways of expanding micro-finance initiatives for the poor, ranging from credit for small and medium business development.

Through UN Volunteers, a subsidiary organization, UNDP is developing Secretary-General Kofi Annan's new United Nations Information Technology Service ('UNITeS') to train groups in developing countries in the uses and opportunities of the Internet and information technology. UNDP will also be taking a lead in working with the World Health Organisation and other agencies to establish the Health InterNetwork, linking 10,000 on-line sites in hospitals and clinics in developing countries to cutting edge medical information and assistance.

Another example of country-based initiatives is the work that UNDP is doing with John Chambers, another attendee at the Okinawa meeting, and his company CISCO Systems in setting up networking academies in developing countries, especially in Africa. In addition, NetAid.org, the innovative website run jointly by UNDP and Cisco systems, is pioneering new ways to support development initiatives across the world.

Mr Malloch Brown stressed that the key to moving forward in applying ICT for development was through strategic partnerships. He noted UNDP's support of the World Bank's initiatives to build a Global Development Gateway and move forward on distance learning. And also stressed that there was enormous scope for new private sector involvement along the model of UNDP's links with Cisco.

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You can see an archived version of the UNITeS web site here.

You can read more about NetAid here.

I also have a list of Initiatives to Related to Bridging the Digital Divide or Building Digital Literacy in the Developing World or Globally in 2002.

Also see:

The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook

available for purchase as a paperback & an ebook

Completely revised and updated, & includes lots more advice about microvolunteering!
Published January 2014.

United Nations ICT4D Initiatives

Various United Nations offices have launched initiatives to promote the use of computers, feature phones, smart phones and various networked devices in development and humanitarian activities, to promote digital literacy and equitable access to the "information society," and to bridge the digital divide. This web page is my effort to track UN Tech4Good / ICT4D programs, from the oldest through 2016. My goal is to primarily to help researchers, as well as to remind current UN initiatives that much work regarding ICT4D has been done by various UN employees, consultants and volunteers for more than 15 years (and perhaps longer?).

Tech Volunteer Groups / ICT4D Volunteers
A listing of organizations and groups that promoted and placed tech volunteers - both defunct initiatives and current ones.
Short-term Assignments for Tech Volunteers
There are a variety of ways for mission-based organizations to involve volunteers to help with short-term projects relating to computers and the Internet, and short-term assignments are what are sought after most by potential "tech" volunteers. But there is a disconnect: most organizations have trouble identifying such short-term projects. This is a list of short-term projects for "tech" volunteers -- assignments that might takes days, weeks or just a couple of months to complete.
One(-ish) Day "Tech" Activities for Volunteers
Volunteers are getting together for intense, one-day events, or events of just a few days, to build web pages, to write code, to edit Wikipedia pages, and more. These are gatherings of onsite volunteers, where everyone is in one location, together, to do an online-related project in one day, or a few days. It's a form of episodic volunteering, because volunteers don't have to make an ongoing commitment - they can come to the event, contribute their services, and then leave and never volunteer again. Because computers are involved, these events are sometimes called hackathons, even if coding isn't involved. This page provides advice on how to put together a one-day event, or just-a-few-days-of activity, for a group of tech volunteers onsite, working together, for a nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO), community-focused government program, school or other mission-based organization - or association of such.
Early History of Nonprofits & the Internet
The Internet has been about people and organizations networking with each other, sharing ideas and comments, and collaborating online. It has always been interactive and dynamic. And there were many nonprofit organizations who "got" it early -- earlier than many for-profit companies. So I've attempted to set the record straight: I've prepared a web page that talks about the early history of nonprofits and the Internet. It focuses on 1995 and previous years. It talks a little about what nonprofits were using the cyberspace for as well at that time and lists the names of key people and organizations who helped get nonprofit organizations using the Internet in substantial numbers in 1995 and before. Edits and additions are welcomed.
A history of the Smart Valley initiative
In 1994, perhaps earlier, an initiative called Smart Valley was launched in California. Smart Valley was a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization focused on creating an "information infrastructure" in Silicon Valley, California - Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, San José, Santa Clara and the surrounding area, creating projects to enhance the quality of life in Silicon Valley. Smart Valley's projected included SmartSchools NetDay and PC Day, Smart Voter, to help people learn about upcoming elections, Connect 96: The Global Summit on Building Electronic Communities, the Public Access Network (PAN), a Telecommuting Initiative, and the Smart Valley Webmasters Group. Smart Valley was also affiliated with the nonprofit organization Plugged In, one of the first digital divide efforts, working to bring "the tremendous technological resources available in the Silicon Valley to youth in low-income communities" in East Palo Alto and SV-PAL, the Silicon Valley Public Access Link.
Volunteering Abroad (especially for Westerners)
An in-depth look at the different kinds of volunteering abroad, with extensive information on what a person would need to do and study to become a viable candidate for long-term volunteering gigs where the volunteer does NOT have to pay his or her own travel and accommodations, such as the PeaceCorps or UNV.
Incorporating virtual volunteering into a corporate employee volunteer program (a resource for businesses / for-profit companies)
Virtual volunteering - volunteers providing service via a computer, smart phone, tablet or other networked advice - presents a great opportunity for companies to expand their employee philanthropic offerings. Through virtual volunteering, some employees will choose to help organizations online that they are already helping onsite. Other employees who are unable to volunteer onsite at a nonprofit or school will choose to volunteer online because of the convenience.
Women's Access to Public Internet Access, a resource I developed through research & experience to support the development of women-only Internet centers/technology centers/etc., or women-only hours at such public Internet access points, in developing and transitional countries.
Lessons from onlinevolunteering.org
Some key learnings from directing the UN's Online Volunteering service from February 2001 to February 2005, including support materials for those using the service to host online volunteers.

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