Notes

1  IMF/ OECD/ UN/ WB, 2000, A Better World For All; www.paris21.org.

2  See Appendix 1 for the United Nations Millennium goals, targets and measures.

3  This demonstrates a correlation between ICT and income, but does not indicate a causal relationship.

4  G8 Summit in Okinawa, July 2000.

5  See Appendix 4 for DOI Partner Profiles.

6  See case studies in Appendix 2 for illustration of how specific, micro-level interventions can impact, and are influenced by, the components of a wider €œdevelopment dynamic.€

7  See Appendix 1 for details of the United Nations Millennium Summit development goals.

8  See Appendix 2 for additional case evidence of ICT€™s impact on development goals.

9  See Appendix 2 for additional case evidence on ICT and education.

10  See Section 2.2.6, lesson 6, for an example of an Indian initiative that uses more optimal technology for rural areas.

11  In 1995, ninety farm organization representatives in Mexicali launched plans for an Internet-based communications system. By 1996, farmers were using email on a daily basis to submit reports on irrigation quotas and planting activities to the local irrigation boards. Farmers now use their web site to post farm newsletters, access market and weather information, and download agricultural journals. There is also a plan for the Department of Agriculture to deliver agricultural assistance services through the site.

12  See Appendix 2 for more information on Pride Africa and other case studies demonstrating how ICT can contribute to economic opportunities.

13  See Appendix 2 for more information on the Utilities Afrique Exchange.

14  The Global Technology Network (GTN) is a program of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) aimed at matching the technological needs of companies in developing countries with solutions from small and medium-sized US companies. An online database links firms with compatible interests, facilitating communication and collaboration. GTN focuses on four industry sectors: agriculture, communications and information technology, environment and energy, and health.

15  See Appendix 2 for more information about PEOPLink.

16  In another example, Chincheros, a small village in Peru, increased its income five-fold to US$1,500 per month when the village leaders formed an Internet-enabled partnership with an export company in 1996. The village vegetables are now sold daily in New York.

17  Viatru is a retail service company using the Internet to enable people in Mexico, Cost Rica, India and some African countries to globally market their traditional crafts and farm products. The company's concept of "visible commerce" allows retail customers to look beyond a product to see the positive impact their purchase can create in developing communities.

18  TARAhaat (www.tarahaat.com) is a portal designed to meet village needs. It seeks to connect local users to information services, government agencies and markets. In addition to employment opportunities, the site provides access to information about health, education, community issues, women's issues and local markets. Information is displayed in Hindi and English, in pictures and symbols, and also in voice.

19  According to the International Labour Organization, an estimated 250,000 jobs have been created for women in India over the last four years through mobile telephony centers.

20  An NGO in El Salvador is creating local job opportunities by building a national chain of cybercafes. Local businesses create the relevant content provided in the cafes, which are franchised, owned and operated by local entrepreneurs, local branches of government, churches, hospitals and other local organizations (see Appendix 2 for more information on this initiative).

21  See Appendix 2 for illustrative case evidence.

22  Also, in Brazil, citizens have been able to file their tax statements online, and pay their tax bills by credit card or electronic payment over the Internet, since 1997.

23  The Dalit and Tribal People Electronic Resource Site (DATPERS) is a non-profit organization providing electronic newsletters on the issues of low-caste peoples in India. The site has exposed the exclusion of 250 million "low" caste people and is helping to mobilize the community around coordinated human rights campaigns. See Appendix 2 for additional examples of ICT for empowerment and participation.

24  The Committee for Democracy and Information Society in Brazil created a bulletin board on the Internet to give young people from under-served communities the opportunity to debate social issues. This has evolved into a new program with community associations that run computer science and citizenship schools.

25  ICT can also help provide people with a sense of pride and self-esteem through opportunities to give information and communicate with the rest of the world. See, for example, Charity@Incubator in Appendix 2.

26  See Appendix 2 for more information about SIDSNet.

27  For example, an organization of fishermen in Honduras learned to use video to document the destruction of their mangroves by politically powerful commercial farmers. These recordings are used to lobby politicians in the Honduran Congress.

28  Precision Agriculture is an information-based initiative developed by the University of Ohio which uses sensors, digital application controllers, communication links, global positioning systems (GPS), computers and innovative software solutions to automatically match agricultural inputs and practices to variable local conditions within an agricultural field.

29  The Weather/ Pest Information Network uses weather data to make pest forecasts and reduce pesticide use and the subsequent negative environmental impact of farming on land quality. The seven existing forecast models have already generated savings of US$7.1 million to the US fruit and vegetable industry.

30  Negotiations included offering the company 400,000 square feet of space in a tax-free industrial zone in San Jose, a commitment to improve the airport and flight schedule to better accommodate shipping requirements, low electricity charges, and the cooperation of area schools and the university to train and produce the required workers and engineers. Based on these contractual terms, Intel agreed to build its factory in Costa Rica.

31  The initiatives adopted include: joining the Caribbean Basin Initiative (which allows it to export products duty-free to the United States); creating duty-free industrial parks and zones (infrastructure provision along with exemption from income and import taxes); and a general willingness to provide business incentives.

32  ICE, a public monopoly telecommunications company, has networked the whole country with telephone lines, making Costa Rica one of the leading countries in Latin America for telephone density.

33  The Telebras infrastructure was constructed and implemented throughout Brazil. Integration of the new infrastructure included: a highly-modernized long-distance trunk network, direct distance dialing linking 200 Brazilian cities, installation of 50,000 long-distance circuits, and installation of 36,000 km of telephone cable throughout each state connecting 20,000 municipalities across the country.

34  The public utility was counted as part of the government budget and hence was affected by policies aimed at reducing government expenditures.

35  Estonia has a strong emphasis on reform that is resulting in a rapid transformation to a market economy and substantial inflows of foreign direct investment.

36  Estonia's policy reflects a recognition that an effective knowledge-based economy can occur only in an open society. It has gone so far as to declare Internet access as a right.

37  A partnership with Swedish and Finnish telecommunications operators modernized the Estonian telephone network, in exchange for which, these companies received a share of profits.

38  A "telecottage" is used to refer to a "community-based" facility that provides distance learning, access to communications, and a range of other functions for a local community.

39  Operating costs, including labor costs, are considerably lower than in the Western European countries. In 2000, the average monthly income of a software professional in Estonia was four times less than in the United States and three times less expensive than in Western Europe.

40  Tiger Leap is a reference to the "Asian Tigers" and their fast-growing economies.

41  The Open Society Foundation has also helped to train "model pensioners" in computer skills with the idea that they will be role models and encourage their contemporaries to take advantage of the public access centers.

42  The system, designed by a coalition of local software developers, at the request of the government, was expected to pay for itself in savings on paper and printing costs in 14 months.

43  These components are typically addressed in a country's ICT strategy. Brazil developed the Information Society Program in the late 1990s to guide its further development. Estonia has had a number of documents, including Principles of Estonian Information Policy and the Information Policy Action Plan. Malaysia's National Information Technology Council (NITC) developed Vision 2020 and an associated MSC plan. For India, see IT Action Plan formulated by the National Task Force on IT and Software Development. For South Africa, see SAITIS and Info.com 2025, and for Tanzania, see e-secretariat. These countries also had leaders with a strong vision for the role of ICT in development and who put in place national taskforces or councils to further develop the vision.

44  Principally, ICT is multi-purpose and cross-cutting, it can enhance productivity and lower costs, and is subject to declining marginal costs in production and replication.

45  Multiplier effects refer to effects on other components occurring with no additional intervention. Feedback effects are positive effects which come back to an initiating component from another.

46  This is the tendency for the value of membership in a network to grow exponentially as the number of members increase.

47  See, for example, the Brazil and Estonia case studies. In the latter, a partnership between the national public telecommunications companies and two Nordic telecommunications giants;Telia and Sonera;led to a rapid increase of telecommunications access and global connectivity.

48  This varies by country: in Singapore, it is a nation-wide information infrastructure that interconnects computers in nearly every home, school and workplace; in India, in the short term, it means at least one phone in every village.

49  See South Africa's SAITIS strategy and Estonia's wiring of the entire country to facilitate widespread use of ICT applications in education (Tiger Leap program), health, banking, transportation, public administration and e-government.

50  See Estonia, Costa Rica and India case studies.

51  While countries such as Estonia and Costa Rica have focused on adapting higher education curricula, India has seen the proliferation of vocational learning institutions and commercial software training companies (such as NIIT and Aptech) create 2000 institutes and produce over 70,000 trainees per annum. In Ghana and South Africa, telecommunication companies have established centers that train ICT network and application specialists.

52  The Fifth Framework Programme on Research Technology and Development, which grants up to Euro 15 billion in funding, has helped to stop the outflow of talented people from Eastern Europe, strengthening links between industry and research and between Eastern European and EU researchers (Reconnecting Europe, Accenture, 2000). The South African government has created a Human Development Fund to address the €œbrain drain€ problem, especially in ICT areas.

53  It is estimated that more than 50 percent of tertiary education students from developing countries that study abroad never return.

54  It was recently estimated that there is an unfulfilled demand in Central and Eastern European Countries of at least 10,000 senior executives and 100,000 middle managers. However, company training is improving this situation (Reconnecting Europe, Accenture, 2000).

55  See, for example, The New Global Economy and Developing Countries: Making Openness Work, Dani Rodrik, Policy Essay 24.

56  Evidence from a set of Latin American countries points to the fact that open markets in the region saw basic line rollout growth that was approximately three times as fast as that of countries with state monopolies, and twice as fast as that of countries with private monopolies (ICT and Poverty, World Bank, 2000).

57  Privatization of telecommunications in Peru resulted in a fixed-line increase of 165 percent in 5 years, a doubling of employment in the sector, and improved access among the poorest households;from zero to 20 percent.

58  Cross country studies of Internet penetration show a negative correlation between diffusion of the Internet and the monopolization of the telecommunications industry (Hargittai, 1999).

59  Liberalization of the ISP market in Egypt has driven its rapid expansion. There are over 60 ISPs offering a range of services including dedicated, dial-up, pre-paid and premium services (ITU, Internet Country Case Studies, Egypt, 2000). Similarly, Brazil€™s managed deregulation of the ISP market resulted in the emergence of a large number of providers (World Bank, ICT and Poverty, 2000).

60  Restriction of the number of licenses for IAPs (Internet Access Providers serving ISPs), to three and the imposition of a fee of US$100,000 per license created a barrier to competitive Internet services in Tanzania (www.idrc.ca).

61  Reforms introduced in 1995 in Costa Rica liberalized the state monopoly in checking and savings accounts. Private commercial banks are now able to compete with state-owned banks for demand deposits upon fulfillment of several requirements, one of which is opening four branches in rural areas (www.inforesint.com/profile/crinvest.htm).

62  For example, Standard Bank of South Africa successfully operates a fast growing program (AutoBank E) that serves 2.5 million low-income customers using ATM and smart cards (www.btimes.co.za/99/1024/comp/comp09.htm).

63  See Accenture, 2000, Reconnecting Europe.

64  Enforcement of copyright legislation in Thailand resulted in a reduction in illegal sales from 33 percent of total sales to 13 percent, and in the United Arab Emirates from 33 percent to 18 percent.

65  In Central and Eastern Europe, lack of intellectual property protection has discouraged foreign investment in high-value activities. Patent laws in these countries often are not strong enough to protect new products.

66  The elimination of almost all trade barriers in Estonia has been a key factor in the country's economic growth performance. See www.ecountry.com and Accenture, 2000, Reconnecting Europe.

67  The Singaporean Government worked with a consortium of companies to develop software to speed customs and port operations (Kraemer et al., 1990; Wong, 1997).

68  In the US, federal government demand stimulus was critical to the growth of the Internet and the development of related ICT infrastructure, the market for IT services and appropriate human capacity.

69  The Hungarian government, which accounts for 30-33 percent of the total demand for ICT services in that country, centralizes procurement in order to leverage its buying power and to ensure transparency and efficient use of public funds (www. itfriend.mit.gov.in).

70  The Internet provides various low-cost IT solutions for enterprises in developing countries. Travel companies in Namibia, for instance, have started to use Web marketing. Many online tourism solutions support reservation and confirmation processes through email for developing countries (www.bellanet.org).

71  For example, Arabization is currently considered to be a critical factor in developing information systems for countries in the Gulf region. There is also an unsatisfied demand for Arabic language educational materials in electronic format (www.unesco.org/).

72  In Russia, Internet use increased exponentially with the introduction of cyrillic character sets. There was rapid growth in local content with the result that 60 percent of all Internet traffic is now within the country.

73  For examples and cases of support for multilingual publishing on the web, see www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/5199/1.html. India's Centre for Development of Advanced Computing also recently launched a multilingual webware scheme called the iLEAP-ISP scheme. A multilingual word processor with Internet and email support in Indian languages is made available free to all Internet subscribers through their respective ISPs. Also in India, the Tamil Nadu government launched a US$1.25 million Tamil local language initiative to promote online content and has given its backing to keyboard standardization drives for Tamil. See www.icimod.org.sg/focus/ict/ict_bang/online3.htm.

74  United Nations, 2000, United Nations Millennium Declaration, www.un.org/millennium/declaration.

75  Excerpted from in-depth case study prepared by the World Resources Institute.

76  Pride Africa plans an internal market and information exchange, known as Drumnet, to link its 100,000 clients.

77  Excerpted from in-depth case study prepared by the World Resources Institute.

78  As of September, 2000, Grameen Phone had 57 percent of the mobile telecommunications market in Bangladesh.

79  Grameen Bank chooses the entrepreneurs, 95 percent of whom are women; phone loans are approximately US$420, more than average annual income.

80  Roughly 88 percent of Grameen Phone's 243,000 urban phone subscriptions (as of March 2001) are for plans that restrict customers to calling other mobile phones.

81  Calls to initiate or track remittances account for 42 percent of all calls.

82  Excerpted from in-depth case study prepared by the World Resources Institute.

83  During a 1998 national consultation on the information society and the future of El Salvador, the governments agreed to use some of the revenue from privatizing its telecommunications system as a loan to civil society to help ensure widespread ICT access and facilitate rapid social and economic development. As a direct result, Asociation Infocentros was created in 1999 and received the loan in February 2000. The Association began operation with the first telecenters in October 2000.

84  At the time of this study, five telecenters were operational. The Association business plan projected 18 months for these initial telecenters to become financially self-sufficient, but this was achieved in six months. Twenty-five additional telecenters are expected to open by July 2001.

85  A dedicated 128 Kbps line costs approximately $600 per month in El Salvador

86  TRIPS refers to trade-related intellectual property rights. The agreement prescribes worldwide minimum standards for patent protection and first came into being in 1994.

87  This contribution is primarily from semi-conductors and electronic equipment.

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