e-ForAll: A Poverty Reduction Strategy for the Information Age
This paper discusses the importance of universalizing information and communication technology (ICT). Arguing that globalization and ICT development tend to increase inequality, the paper proposes that a successful ICT development strategy must focus on three aspects:
- Making the opportunities, that ICTs open up for individual and social improvement, accessible to all citizens;
- Applying ICTs to empower common folk and engage their participation in national and local development initiatives;
- Reducing personal and societal insecurity.
In order to determine a correlation between ICT development and its effect on inequality and poverty, the paper traces world trends in inequality and poverty from 1960 to 1990 and theorizes that ICT development tends to increase inequity because of three factors:
- Initial innovators developed widely used applications and thus reaped extraordinary benefits from being the first in tapping a huge world market;
- ICT development enhances requirement for skilled labor;
- ICT infrastructure is only profitable in high concentration urban areas.
Stating that ICTs are no magic wands, the paper presents a detailed policy framework for inclusive ICT development, which is not limited to growth in economy but also translates itself into social equity. The salient features of the framework are:
- Widespread access to ICT networks for the poor;
- Democratic networked learning by integrating ICT in the education system;
- Networked competitive development through promotion of microenterprises;
- Networked social development by utilizing ICT for effective social services delivery.
