UN Chief Calls for Urgent Action on “Digital Divide”

Glen Tarman, OneWorld

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is urging businesses, governments and nongovernmental organizations to create more opportunities that will enable disadvantaged groups around the world to exploit new communications technologies.

Ahead of World Telecommunication Day, Annan said that information and communications technologies (ICTs)—including the Internet, computers, and cellular phones—held great promise for economic development, healthcare, and education as well as for strengthening civil society, promoting democracy, and making governments more open and accountable.

“Unfortunately, those countries and communities that most need the boost that ICTs can provide are least able to take advantage of it. Low levels of literacy and education have contributed to an ‘access gap,’” he said.

Annan is urging both the public and private sectors to take action to “bridge the digital divide” that exists between the world’s rich and poor, stressing the need to reach out to marginalized groups, such as those in rural areas, people without reading or writing skills, and women “so that all the world’s people can benefit from the potential of the ICT revolution.”

A top priority should be involving women, who form 60 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion poor, in the use and development of the technologies, according to Annan.

“Experience has shown that when women are empowered, the benefits are felt in entire families and communities,” said Annan, adding that more women around the world should also be encouraged to train in technology fields.

Annan’s comments come prior to the release of a new report showing that women around the world believe improved access, increased literacy, and greater awareness of the potential uses of ICTs would significantly raise their ability to make the most of new technologies.

“ICTs give a voice to people who have been isolated, invisible and silent, and lets them speak out regardless of their gender and where they live,” said Utsomi Yoshio, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, which published the report, ‘Women and Communication Technology’ .

Amplifying the voices of those in developing countries who already use ICTs would also be a major step forward, according to Kanti Kumar, editor of OneWorld’s Digital Opportunity Channel (www.digitalopportunity.org/), an online community launching Friday that will focus on ways that ICTs can be used to further social and economic development.

“Information is an essential resource for social and economic development, and ICTs offer individuals and communities the potential to improve quality of life through learning and communication,” said Kumar, adding that developing countries had been largely sidelined in the global dialogue on the gains and losses of digital technologies.

“Especially for the marginalized, ICTs can be powerful tools to interact and communicate across the globe,” he said.

The issue of how communications technologies can help democracy, justice, and economic development around the world will be the focus of the UN-sponsored 2003 World Summit on the Information Society.

World Telecommunications Day celebrates the anniversary of the International Telecommunication Union, the oldest UN agency, which was established in 1865 to ensure international cooperation in the era of the telegraph.