[WSIS CS-Plenary] World Bank sees digital divide narrowing, 25 Feb

[Andy Carvin]

 Right now my colleagues at the Digital Divide Network and I are trying to
track down a copy of the report, which as of 10 minutes ago was still not
available (or even acknowledged) on the World Bank website. But from the
way this news report reads (and the same Reuters report has appeared in
dozens of newspapers today), it seems they're dismissing the digital divide
as merely the split between who has telephones and who doesn't. If that
turns out to be the case, it's _extraordinarily_ misguided, and it ignores
countless data that documents the terrible state of Internet access,
literacy and online, content diversity, which are generally accepted as
important indicators of the digital divide. When the US government issued a
report offering a similarly misguided dismissal of the digital divide, it
cost US NGOs hundreds of millions of dollars in resources to bridge the
digital divide, including govt funding, charitable donations and private
sector support. This happened in 2000, and the digital divide movement in
the US still hasn't recovered. I can only imagine what the impact would be
internationally on a similar report from the World Bank.

My organization plans to issue a press release as soon as we've had a
chance to review the report; we may also ask if other organizations would
like to sign onto our statement. Stay tuned... -ac


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Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org
http://www.edwebproject.org/andy/blog/
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      Subject:    [WSIS CS-Plenary] World Bank sees digital divide
narrowing, 25 Feb
Rik Panganiban <rikp at earthlink.net>
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02/25/2005 07:13 AM
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Dear friends,

Here is an interesting article on the World Bank views on the WSIS.

Rik Panganiban

========================================

ABC News
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1310673.htm

Last Update: Friday, February 25, 2005. 9:21am (AEDT)

World Bank sees digital divide narrowing

The World Bank has called into question a costly UN campaign to bring
hi-tech communications to the developing world, saying the "digital divide"
between rich and poor nations is narrowing fast.

The World Bank says in a report that telecommunications services to poor
countries are growing at an explosive rate.

"People in the developing world are getting more access at an incredible
rate - far faster than they got access to new technologies in the past,"
the report said.

It says half the world's population now enjoys access to a fixed-line
telephone and 77 per cent to a mobile network - surpassing a World Summit
on the Information Society (WSIS) goal that calls for 50 per cent access by
2015.

The report says there were 59 million fixed-line or mobile phones in Africa
in 2002 - contradicting Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade's claim last
year that there were more telephones in Manhattan than in all of Africa.

 "Unless New Yorkers and their commuter friends have 12 phones each, Africa
now has many more telephones than Manhattan," the World Bank report said.

 The UN hopes that widening access within the developing world to
technology such as mobile phones and the Internet will help eradicate
poverty and build stable democracies.

 Poorer countries, particularly from Africa, are expected to repeat calls
in Geneva for a "Digital Solidarity Fund" to help finance the
infrastructure they say is needed to close the perceived technology gap.

 To help fuel fierce demand for communications in countries which lack
fixed-line alternatives, US mobile phone equipment maker Motorola Corp
announced this month it planned to provide an ultra low-cost mobile phone
for less than $US40.

 It will be aimed at emerging markets.

 About 1,700 international experts are gathering in Switzerland to prepare
for the United Nation's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
===============================================
RIK PANGANIBAN       Communications Coordinator
Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations
(CONGO)
web: http://www.ngocongo.org
email: rik.panganiban at ngocongo.org

mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524