Copyright 2000 InterPress Service, all rights reserved. Worldwide distribution via the APC networks. *** 20-Jun-0* *** Title: DEVELOPMENT: Expert Panel Addresses Growing Digital Divide By Mithre J. Sandrasagra UNITED NATIONS, Jun 20 (IPS) - A group of international experts has put together a global plan of action to narrow the growing digital divide between rich and poor nations. In a just released report, the high-level panel of experts warned that one of the most formidable challenges facing national governments and the development community is to bridge this gap and connect the remainder of the world's population whose livelihoods can be enhanced through information and communications technologies (ICT). According to the report, an estimated 276 million persons worldwide were users of the Internet as of March this year, with a growth rate of approximately 150,000 persons per day. Additionally, 220 million devices, including telephones and computers, were accessing the World Wide Web (WWW), with almost 200,000 devices being added each day. Commerce and business conducted over the Internet totalled 45 billion dollars as recently as 1998 and is expected to reach over seven trillion dollars by 2004. But these astonishing figures represent activity by less than five percent of the world's population of seven billion people, according to the experts. Furthermore, The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) shows in its 1999 report, "Internet for Development", that fewer than six percent of Internet users are to be found in developing regions of the world, which account for 84 percent of the world's population." A major indicator of Internet commerce capability is the worldwide distribution of "secure" Internet servers capable of handling encrypted payments over the Internet - only 4.3 percent of these were found to be outside the 29 top technologically advanced countries. New York, for example, is home to more of the 1.5 billion sites on WWW and the almost two million new sites being added each day, than all of Africa. Additionally, there are more hosts of WWW pages - or sites - in Finland than in Latin America and the Caribbean combined; and not withstanding the remarkable progress in the application of ICT in India, many of its villages still lack a working telephone, let alone a computer. The experts also unanimously agreed that as each day passes it becomes increasingly difficult to ensure that the information and communications technology (ICT) revolution has truly global benefits. The report and action plan was drawn up by a panel of independent experts from government, business and civil society including William Sheppard, Vice President of Intel; Taholo Kami, Manager of the Small Island Developing States Network; Wang Quiming, of China's Ministry of Science and Technology; Thomas-Hendrik Ilves, Estonia's Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Paolo Morawski, of Radiotelevisione Italiana. Convened by the UN General Assembly, the panel is sending their report to the UN Millennium Assembly, opening in September and which is expected to be attended by over 150 heads of state. The report will also be considered at the July high-level meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and representatives of the panel are taking part in preparations for the summit of the world's rich industrial nations focusing on ICT issues, which will be held in mid-July in Okinawa, Japan. The Expert Panel Organiser, Chuck Lankester told reporters Monday that this "great alignment of events will enable us to push our initiative forward." Highlighted in the report is the fact that exploding Internet commerce ties individuals and firms closer and closer together, "while those who do not try to catch the 'Internet Express' run the risk of being further and further marginalised." Developing countries have great potential to compete successfully in the new global market, but unless they actively embrace the ICT revolution promptly they will face new barriers and the risk of not just being marginalised but completely bypassed, the report stresses. The report proposes measures to heighten dramatically the priority given to ICT by countries and international agencies, and suggests means to attract and leverage funding. Drawing from their own experiences, the panelists document campaigns that have worked even in countries contending with extreme poverty or complex political situations. Cuba, for example, was in the midst of a blockade and an epidemic when it launched Infomed, a national network of the public health system on the Internet. Created when there was no information infrastructure in the country, it began as a simple approach to sharing knowledge and facilitating access to information via e- mail. It has now become a nationally accessible database of medical information on the Internet. Ghana is a leading ICT country in the West African sub-region and is in a position to provide technical support services to neighbouring countries, experts said. Ghana was also the first West African country to attain full connectivity to the Internet in 1994 through a private-sector initiative. Today the country is home to five Internet Service Providers (ISPs), two national telecommunications operators, four cellular operators, and dozens of FM and community radio stations. "The UN could potentially become a major force in promoting and fostering the application of ICT for development and in serving as a possible arbitrator with respect to certain key legal and policy issues, such as security and intellectual property rights," the report said. "Countries with certain religious and political beliefs have legitimate concerns over Western content information upsetting their citizens moral values," Lankester said Monday, "however these issues must be addressed without limiting basic access for economic and social development." Given the option, "communities with a similar need will spontaneously come together," Anuradha Vittachi, Director of One World International Foundation said at a preparatory meeting for ECOSOC's high-level meeting for 2000. Given the Internet and other emerging IT, solutions to problems can increasingly transcend borders, cultures and communities. A community in an Ecuadorian Andes village had a problem with army ants that would devastate crops, Stephen Denning, Programme Director for Knowledge Management at the World Bank said. The local government agricultural authorities had been called in and had failed to solve the problem on four separate occasions. The villagers came in contact with a foundation that connected communities via the Internet - the solution to the village's ant problem came a few days later from a village just across the border in the Peruvian Andes. The transformation of the Internet into a mass-market is now commonly compared in scope and impact to the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century. Strong returns in all sectors on relatively modest investments in electronic equipment and digital skills provide ample reason to assign priority to ICT development planning. "ICT brings easy, tangible and important benefits to the poor," the report says. The report recommends that the United Nations create, under the leadership of the Secretary-General Kofi Annan, but outside the regular UN organisational structures, an ICT Task Force "charged with bringing together international agencies, private industry and foundations and trusts to facilitate the ICT market in developing countries." Furthermore a development fund administered by the Task Force should be amassed from the millions of dollars solicited from such sources as the UN Fund for International Partnerships. Finally, private sector representatives on the panel suggested that the ICT industry be willing and able to match any contributions for development funding that will enlarge their customer base. The main theme of the 2000 ECOSOC session will be the identification of means by which countries of the South can catch up with the new information economy and the emerging global knowledge society. It is proposed that at the September Millennium Assembly that the United Nations should proclaim the right of universal access to information and communication services as an important new component of UN principles and conventions on human rights and development. (END/IPS/DV/mjs/da/00) Origin: SJAAMEX/DEVELOPMENT/ ---- [c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------