Please note - this is a temporary window. id21 is joining forces with Eldis and therefore the id21 website has been suspended. Soon all id21 content will be available on the Eldis website.

ICT revolution: creating a southern info-underclass?

Who are the winners and losers in the ICT revolution? What are the likely consequences of the slow development of ICT infrastructure in many developing countries? As globalisation deepens, what have we learnt about the economic growth and poverty reduction potential of new information technologies?

This background report commissioned by DFID for the 2000 White Paper on globalisation reviews current thinking and evidence on the relationship between the global information revolution and empowerment of poor people. It suggests how new forms of development cooperation could strengthen grass roots channels of bottom-up and horizontal communication. It dispels the myth of the Internet as a panacea certain to inform the disadvantaged. Newspapers, radio and television, communicating with the poor about their concerns in their own language, are just as much in need of donor support.

The fact that four of the five most valuable companies in the world are in the communications industry highlights the power of international media conglomerates. The report highlights the extent to which these companies are crowding out local voices. Compression of time and space has created an information-excluded underclass. The globalisation of media and communications technologies has compressed time and space for many, but also created an information-excluded underclass with little or no access to such technologies.Seventy-five per cent of the world’s telephones remain concentrated in eight industrialized nations. The cost of buying batteries for radio sets is so high in some countries that for scattered rural populations listening to the radio remains a luxury.

Yet examples of innovative technology projects do exist. In Mexico the Zapatista’s use of the Internet has improved respect for human rights. In Indonesia webcasting is providing remote users with a news alternative to the state media. In Mali democratisation is being strengthened by the government’s commitment to providing Internet connections to the country’s 701 communes. In Bangladesh the Grameen Bank’s mobile phone initiative offers the world a low cost model for removing communication barriers.

Among the main concerns addressed in the paper are:

New ICTs have limited cultural and linguistic diversity. The dominance of the English language excludes vast numbers from the ICT revolution.
Given that the general flow of information via global networks is north-north or north-south, many in the developing world are questioning the role that local knowledge has to play.
As the Internet, radio and television converge in deregulated media environments, traditional public service broadcasting is losing its market share to commercial media.
The fact that new ICTs, unlike radio, require continual updating and expenditure is excluding poor people in the north and south.

Practical advice to donors includes:

The need to offer support to developing pro-poor content in indigenous languages for ICTs so that the Internet can be a key resource for local NGOs and media.
Traditional media such as radio, television or the press need support more than ever.
The importance of women having regular access to radio cannot be underestimated.
Increasing focus on developing alternative and cost effective energy sources such as solar power.
Participatory poverty assessments should include access to ICT and information as analytical criteria.

Source(s):
‘Information communication technologies, poverty and empowerment’, background paper commissioned for the DFID White Paper, ‘Eliminating World Poverty: Making globalisation work for the poor’ by Andrew Skuse, June 2000 Full document.

Funded by: DFI D

id21 Research Highlight: 20 June 2001

Further Information:
Andrew Skuse
Social Development Department
Department for International Development
94 Victoria Street
London SW1E 5JL
UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7917 7000
Fax: +44 (0)20 7917 0197
Contact the contributor: a-skuse@dfid.gov.uk

Department for International Development, UK

Views expressed on these pages are not necessarily those of DfID, IDS, id21 or other contributing institutions. Articles featured on the id21 site may be copied or quoted without restriction provided id21 and originating author(s) and institution(s) are acknowledged. Copyright © 2009 IDS. All rights reserved.

id21 is funded by the UK Department for International Development. id21 is one of a family of knowledge services at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. id21 is a www.oneworld.net partner and an affiliate of www.mediachannel.org. IDS is a charitable company, No. 877338.