World Telecommunication Day 1999 |
A recent newspaper ad announced that while it took 100 years to put telephones in the hands of a billion people, it is taking only five years to reach the next billion. This is a good example of how fast the world is changing and how quickly the telecommunications industry is moving.
It is also a good example of how much still needs to be done, because 5 billion people in the world are still without telephones. Three billion live on less than $2 a day, 2.4 billion suffer from iron deficiencies, 1.3 billion lack clean water, 5 million children go blind each year because of an easily remedied vitamin A deficiency and 40,000 youngsters die every day of malnutrition.
Further troubling news is that the economic gap between rich and poor has increased in recent decades. Clare Short, British secretary of state for international development, observed in the Aug. 16, 1999 issue of the New Statesman that ''in 1960, 20 percent of the world's population living in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20 percent. By 1995, they had 82 times as much income.... Latest estimates suggest that the world's 225 richest people have a combined wealth of over $1 trillion, equal to the annual income of the poorest 47 percent of the world's people.''
The International Telecommunication Union has warned that ''the global information society will be global in name only, that the world will be divided into the 'information rich' and the 'information poor.''' In other words, the glaring inequities that exist in health, education and other basic human necessities will exist in the emerging knowledge society as well.
Moreover, the rapid pace of change made possible by new telecommunications technologies threatens to accelerate that difference, with consequences felt by rich and poor alike: global destabilization caused by conflict, disease, poverty, regional immigration and diminished trade and investment opportunities.
''It is pretty clear that our development policies have failed so far,'' says Donald Johnston, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. ''We have to get away from tied aid'' - aid linked to specific political objectives.
He adds: ''The poverty gap is unsustainable. A development agenda is central to our work. It is not charity.''
The OECD countries give $50 billion annually for education and health programs in the developing world. ''Some of this money should be channeled into new technology and capacity building,'' says Mr. Johnston.
The development of a telecommunications infrastructure has become equally, if not more, important than the building of roads, offices and airports for a country's economic growth. It has the ability to improve not only a country's commercial viability but also its health and educational levels.
''Telecommunications is not a luxury - it is a tool for economic development,'' says Hamadoun Touré, director of the ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau. ''Everybody knows that by developing international telecommunications, you can have a real impact on the rest of the economy. Even the World Bank has come back to that idea now.''
A World Bank executive, James Bond, director of the energy, mining and telecommunications department, points out: ''The Internet has become a tool for development, with its ability to facilitate the delivery of social services, disaster mitigation and poverty relief.''
The Development Bureau of the ITU is responsible for cooperating with national authorities in establishing the kind of environment that will be conducive to private development. It does this through policy advice, advice on the financing of telecommunications and on low-cost technology options, assistance in human resource management and the development of initiatives targeting rural development and universal access. It also promotes the benefits of new technology applications in health, education and environmental protection, among others. An important element of its mission is information-sharing - the latter the very essence of the networked economy.
Primary funding comes from the private sector, says Mr. Touré, ''because they have a direct interest. It does not have to be direct investment; it can also come through partnerships.'' The OECD's Mr. Johnston agrees. ''Aid is not the answer,'' he says. ''Development stems from trade and investment.''
Mr. Touré says: ''There is a lot of money out there today for investment in telecommunications. If you want to invest in telecommunications, it is a profitable business. There will be money available for it.''Adds Bill Poulos, director of electronic commerce policy for Electronic Data Systems: ''The money is there [to fund telecommunications development] through the World Bank and cooperative arrangements. It is in industry's best interest to develop future markets so the 'have nots' are of genuine concern.''
A secondary source of funds is international donors and the international development agencies, such as the World Bank and the United Nations. Robert Hawkins, an education technology specialist at the bank, notes that his organization had not been involved in the direct financing of telecommunications until the industry began to move from circuit to packet switching and the Internet phenomenon exploded. ''Then we saw a great opportunity to invest in micro-projects: health, agriculture, education - to dedicate small components to specific goals,'' he says.
The U.S. State Department created a program to link developing nations to global communications networks, starting with $20 million to get African countries on-line
But funding availability is not enough, analysts say. Programs need to be designed to overcome the formidable obstacles that can derail even the best of intentions. On the African continent, for example, only one of every 5,000 inhabitants outside of South Africa has access to the Internet today, and the continent's population of 650 million (again, excluding South Africa) has about as many Internet sites as Croatia, a country of 5 million, reports the World Bank.
How do you connect schools to the Internet when there is no electricity in their villages? How can students learn from the Web when they are completely illiterate? How do you protect a school's computer from the rain and dust when it sits on a dirt floor under a leaky straw roof?
Even if these issues are resolved - through mobile or satellite communications and programs focused on basic training, building and hygiene - who pays the access charges and the per-minute connection costs? Outside the United States, the latter can be surprisingly expensive even in advanced economies and prohibitive in the developing world.
The emerging markets of Eastern Europe, for example, are facing their share of major obstacles in the form of high access costs, small home markets, security issues and other telecommunications problems, points out Steven Frantzen, managing director for International Data Corporation Central Europe.
Advances in technology should eventually address some of these problems, such as security issues. Others should diminish with the introduction of competition and the liberalization of domestic markets.
''The approach is from both top and bottom,'' says Mr. Hawkins. ''Micro-projects must be launched and ministries must be won over.''
Says Mr. Touré: ''Telecommunications is not just an issue for the telecommunications minister of a country, but for the minister of education, the minister of finance, the minister of health - everybody.''
Claudia Flisi