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Few people have ever died because they did not have
access to the Internet or could not make a telephone
call. Among the necessities of life, ICTs come well
down the scale. But it is much easier to deliver the
real necessities of life-such as clean water,
nourishing food, shelter, education, healthcare, and
employment-with good access to information and
communications. The Millennium Declaration contains
commitments to halve, by the year 2015, the
proportion of the world's population living on less
than one US dollar per day, suffering from hunger or
having no access to drinking water. It also contains
commitments on achieving universal primary education
for both boys and girls, reducing maternal and child
mortality, improving healthcare and achieving
significant improvements in the life of slum
dwellers. ICTs can help in achieving all of these
goals.
Click
here
for an overview of how ICTS can help achieve broader
development objectives, such as the Millennium
Declaration Goals.
Relevant documents and links:
·
Homepage of the International Day for the
Eradication of Poverty, Asia-Pacific Development
Information Programme,
UNDP
(United Nations Development Programme).
·
Creating A Development Dynamic: Final Report of the
Digital Opportunity Taskforce
·
The Global Internet Policy Initiative
·
The Okinawa Charter on the Global Information
Society, from the
Digital Opportunity Task Force (Dot Force).
·
The Final Report of the Digital Opportunity Task
Force (11 May 2001)
·
"The
significance of information and communication
technologies for reducing poverty"  (Jan
2002), a publication by
DFID
(the United Kingdom's Department for International
Development).
·
"ICT, poverty and empowerment" (July
2001), a publication by
DFID
(UK Department for International Development).
·
The Digital Opportunity Channel, a joint
initiative of
OneWorld
and
Digital Divide Network.
·
The European Commission
PRISMA
Project, which aims to provide a systematic analysis
and synthesis of the current and future impacts of
new information and communication technologies on
government services in Europe, including health, environment, transport and tourism.
-
PRISMA Health Pages
·
ICT Development Agenda from the Commonwealth
Telecommunications Organization (CTO).
· United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
ICTs for Development, Info 21.
·
“Getting Better all the Time: A Survey of Technology
and Development", The Economist, 10 November
2001.
·
e-ForAll:
A Poverty Reduction Strategy for the Information Age,
Francisco J. Proenza, FAO
·
Reaching the Unreached: How can we Use ICTs to
Empower the Rural Poor in the Developing World
Through the Enhanced Access to Relevant Information,
Subbiah Arunachalam, MS
Swaminathan Research Foundation, India
·
ICT in Five African Countries,
Olof Hesselmark, SIDA
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