Human Resources Development Section

Sharing information for human development

ASA JONSSON

Since 1990, an annual International Youth Forum has been held in the Republic of Korea to promote international awareness and friendship among young people. The theme of this year's Forum was "Information-Oriented Society and Youth", and was organized by the National Council of Youth Organizations in Korea (NCYOK), in cooperation with the Asian Youth Council (AYC) and the World Assembly of Youth (WAY) and sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Republic of Korea. ESCAP was invited to deliver a presentation on the topic of "Sharing Information for Human Development". Below is an extract from the presentation:

The challenge: the 'digital divide'

In March 2000, an estimated 276 million persons worldwide were using the Internet, with a growth rate of roughly 150,000 persons per day. Web pages totalled 1.5 billion with almost 2 million pages added each day (United Nations, 2000). Shrinking space, shrinking time, and shrinking borders are linking people's lives more intensely and more immediately than ever before. How is this linked to human development?

The figures mentioned reflect activity by less than 5 per cent of the world's population. The gross disparity in the spread of the Internet and, consequently the social and economic benefits from it, are a matter of concern. The growth of information and communication technologies (ICT) is raising important issues of access and exclusion, showing large differences by geography, education, income, gender, age and language. (UNDP, 1999) The table below shows the large disparities in the usage of the Internet between regions.

The number of people 'online' as of March 2000

Total number (million) Estimated population (million) Share of population (per cent)

Africa 2.5 805.2 0.3

Asia and the Pacific 54.9 3,517.4 1.6

Europe 72.0 728.9 9.9

South America 8.8 346.5 2.5

Middle East 1.3 170.7
0.8

North America 136.1 307.0 44.3

Source: Nua Ltd (2000) for people on line; US Bureau of Census (2000) for the population estimates, cited in United Nations, Economic and Social Council (2000).

This divide is increasingly creating parallel worlds: those with income, education and information infrastructure are receiving cheaper and quicker information, while those without it are marginalized further.

Important to note is that the provision of technology itself has little impact on economic productivity or welfare. The spread of information and communications technologies, and their universal usage, requires basic infrastructure and human resources development to support them. Although the need for physical infrastructure might to some degree be solved by technology, people ultimately need to be literate, and have possibilities to learn how to use the new technologies. If people and communities cannot use and share their knowledge, technology has little if any benefit.

It is also important to bear in mind that information is only one of many needs. E-mail cannot substitute vaccines or produce clean water. In order to have human development, and for everyone including youth to be able to benefit from the ICT, we have to work on many issues simultaneously including education, health and employment.

The opportunity

What can we do to avoid the large exclusion (including that of many young people) of the benefits of the rapid information advances? There are many ways in which sharing information through information technology can promote human development, and the potential of the new technologies must be tapped. To make communication and information technologies available for everyone to share, UNDP lists seven goals (UNDP, 1999):

Connectivity - involving access to the global information structure and services. Technologies that allow 'leapfrogging' over the lack of basic physical infrastructure (including telephones and electricity), such as wireless access to the Internet through digital mobile phones, need to be further utilised.
Community - focusing on group access rather than individual ownership. Multi-media community centres need to be established in places accessible to all, including poor communities, women and youth, and include skills training and capacity building to enable usage of the Internet.
Capacity - building human skills for the knowledge society, including training in schools and of teachers.
Content - putting local views, news and culture and commerce on the web. Websites need to be created locally and bear relevance for local communities, including the development of local language character sets for keyboards software interfaces as successfully done in China.
Creativity - adopting technology to local needs and constraints, such as freestanding, solar-powered computers.
Collaboration - devising Internet governance for diverse needs around the world.
Cash - finding innovative ways to fund the knowledge society.

At a meeting of high-level experts on information and communications technologies (New York, 17-20 April 2000) it was concluded that the international community, working together with national government, private business and civil society, can reverse the trend of the 'digital divide'. It called on the international community to provide access to the Internet, especially through community access points, for the world's population presently without such access by the end of the year 2004 (United Nations, 2000).

The panel also proposed that the United Nations, at the Millennium Summit in September 2000, should proclaim the right of universal access to information and communications such as the Internet as an important component of the United Nations principles and conventions on human rights and development.

If the international community can successfully implement these proposals, the results could be immense for human development. Already today, we have many examples of the large benefits that ICT can have for development (UNDP, 1999):

Information and communications technologies open new opportunities for small players to enter and make use of the global arena.
ICT can help empower children and youth, provide vital information (such as health education), and a forum for them to participate in local, national and global events.
The Internet has large potential to achieve and reinforce educational goals, including a better gender balance in access to education.
ICT can provide important improvements in the delivery of health care delivery, research and training.
ICT provides new employment -generation opportunities.
ICT can help individuals and organizations share information on best practices and lessons learned.
Information technologies can empower at a government level.

The United Nations is giving serious attention to the topic of sharing information for human development, and the large benefits that information and communication technologies can have for all including youth. In this light, it is very timely that the 11th International Youth Forum has selected as its theme 'The Information-Oriented Society and Youth' to enable you to share your views on this very important topic.

References:

United Nations (2000). Report of the meeting of the high-level panel of experts on infor-mation and communication technology, A/55/75-E/2000/55.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (1999). Human Development Report 1999.
United Nations Economic and Social Council (2000). Development and international cooperation in the twenty-first century: the role of information technology in the -context of a knowledge-based global economy. Report of the Secretary-General.