Building bridges to the digital age

The International Telecommunication Union is not just talking about bridging the digital divide, but is actually doing something about it. This section discusses, under several themes, some of ITU activities and projects that are building bridges for all to cross the digital divide:

• Countries in special need

• Assistance to least developed countries

• E-Strategy

• E-health

• Facilitating wireless access

• Enabling connectivity

• Minding the gender gap

Countries in Special Need

A recent workshop to launch the project for countries in special need was upbeat in mood and outcomes. Held in the “city in the sun”, as Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, is often called, the workshop (28 January to 2 February 2002) was co-hosted by ITU, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Leland Initiative and the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Participants left with viable ideas and a large appetite to make a difference in their countries. They were a diverse group with one common denominator: low teledensities and a war-ridden past. The most underprivileged was the Democratic Republic of Congo with the lowest fixed line teledensity of 0.04 and Internet penetration of 0.10. Next was Somalia, whose teledensity stands at 0.15 and Internet penetration at 0.21. These two countries are bettered by Rwanda with a teledensity of 0.23 and Internet penetration of 6.47 and Burundi whose teledensity stands at 0.30 and Internet penetration of 4.48. Leading the group was Sierra Leone, with a teledensity of 0.47 and an Internet penetration of 14.37. The feeble fixed main line teledensity is somew hat propped up by robust growth of the cellular networks, which are in dire need of regulation, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.

The project for countries in special need is being implemented following the adoption of Resolution 34 by the 1998 Minneapolis Plenipotentiary Conference, which calls for assistance and support to be given to countries whose telecommunication facilities and infrastructure have been severely damaged and destroyed by war and civil strife. Although no budgetary allocation was made at the time, two key partners have lent their support to the project. USAID/Leland Initiative and FCC have teamed with ITU in supporting the development of a modern regulatory framework through the design and development of fundamental technical plans and basic technical norms for an efficient national telecommunication system. ITU has made a financial injection of CHF 1 242 000 into the project using funds from its TELECOM Surplus Fund.

In addition, a total of USD 2 million was approved on 11 March 2002 by ITU’s TELECOM Surplus Programme Steering Committee to finance projects in two equal parts in Burundi and Rwanda.

The ITU TELECOM Surplus Programme provides a vital source of seed funding for projects that are helping bring the benefits of information and communication technologies to those most in need. In the early days of the Programme, ITU assisted Bosnia and Herzegovina through a specially developed Plan of Action. Within the scope of this Plan, and in partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the country’s Telecommunication Law was drafted and its Telecommunication Regulatory Agency (TRA) established. During 2000, ITU provided USD 460 000 of assistance to TRA through the Programme. One important result of this assistance was the purchase of a Mobile Frequency Monitoring Unit to bolster effective spectrum management in that country.

Assistance to least developed countries

The Special Programme for the least developed countries (LDC) will be valued for its service aimed at integrating LDCs into the world economy through telecommunication development. LDCs are defined as low-income countries that are suffering from long-term handicaps to growth, in particular low levels of human resource development and/or severe structural weaknesses. They are listed as such by the United Nations General Assembly which reviews the list every three years. The next review is in the year 2003.

There are 49 LDCs in the world today. And ITU is helping them to meet the demand for telecommunication services. This means virtually eliminating the waiting list for services in urban areas by the year 2005 — which translates into an average urban main line (ML) density of 10 per 100 inhabitants — and achieving a rural ML density of 2 per 10 000 inhabitants.

The second World Telecommunication Development Conference held in Valletta (Malta) in 1998 decided that ITU assistance should be concentrated on a small number of countries at a time in order to achieve greater impact with the limited funds available. This focused and concentrated assistance was provided to four countries in 1999, six countries in both 2000 and 2001

Eight countries have been selected to benefit from concentrated assistance in 2002: Haiti, Djibouti, Bhutan, Kiribati, Central African Republic, Mali, Malawi and Zambia.

In 2001, Nepal received assistance to migrate from its public switched telephone network (PSTN) to an Internet protocol-based project. Guinea-Bissau benefited from a comprehensive study on sector restructuring. Mozambique received assistance in the development of its universal access policy. Niger got assistance in rural telecommunication development, allowing it to modernize seven of its provincial towns. Eritrea received assistance to develop a business plan aimed at the establishment of a telecommunication development college. Yemen was a beneficiary of a teletraffic engineering consultancy.

In 2000, ITU directed its concentrated assistance to Cambodia, Chad, Comoros, Ethiopia, Sudan and the United Republic of Tanzania. In the area of sector restructuring, Cambodia, Comoros and Ethiopia expressed profound appreciation for ITU assistance. Haiti was dropped from the list due to political instability in the country. Sudan benefited from consultancies on planning and tariffs, while Tanzania had a mixed bag of consultancies for policy on universal access/service, spectrum management and interconnection mechanisms.

Results to date

Looking at the teledensities of 1999 and 2000, there has already been some progress made by the countries that benefited from ITU assistance. The average teledensity has increased by 0.16 rising from an average of 0.42 teledensity in 1998 (i.e. before the implementation of the Valletta Action Plan adopted in March 1998) to 0.58 in 2000. Sudan and Uganda performed best in the group with teledensity increasing from 0.57 and 0.3 in 1998 to 1.24 and 1.3, respectively, in 2000. Assistance to Sudan in 2000 in the area of human resources development/management accounts for the country’s improved performance.

According to statistics for 2001, 26 of the 49 LDCs have a combined (fixed and mobile) teledensity above 1 compared to the average ML of 0.3 in 1994. Judging from the current rate of growth in the telecommunication sector, and level of assistance flowing from ITU to LDCs, however, it is unlikely to achieve the targets set in the Valletta Action Plan within the stated time frame of 2005. Nevertheless, if the level of assistance is stepped up, it is possible to increase the average telephone density to 5 main lines per 100 inhabitants and Internet connections to 10 users per 100 inhabitants by the year 2010 — a new goal enshrined in the Programme of Action for LDCs for the decade 2001–2010. This new goal was set at the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries held in Brussels in May 2001.

Taking all LDCs as a group, some 10 of them are doing extremely well and have already exceeded the 2005 target, while another 10 to 20 will meet the target, but the whole group will be pulled down by the counter performance of those dozen States that were afflicted by civil strife.

The main constraint in the implementation of the LDC programme is the insufficient financing. There is need for a high initial cash outlay to be directed at assisting selected countries jump-start their telecommunication sector throughout the year. Standby funds should be available to continue ad-hoc work in “weaned” countries so as to maintain momentum on initiated projects. Future funding of projects will most likely come from the private sector. The two partnership round-tables held in Geneva in November 2000, and in Johannesburg (South Africa) in November 2001 for the beneficiaries of the concentrated assistance during both years were telling. It became apparent, from both events, that the interest of development banks in financing such projects had waned.

For more information, contact: Cosmas L. Zavazava, Special Unit for LDCs and International Organizations. Tel.: +41 22 730 5447 Email: zavazava@itu.int U 950040) (ITU 990086) (ITU 910095)