Overview of issues & potential responses

Computers in CoRICs

Driving Information and Communications Technology for Development to help transform the growing digital divide into a digital opportunity. A unique willingness exists among all partners and stake-holders, including governments, companies, foundations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multilateral organizations to work together to eradicate digital inequity among rich and poor, young and old, men and women.

At the global level, the Digital Opportunities Task Force, or dot force, is an historic collaboration of the G8 Group of Nations, the developing countries, the private sector and NGOs. It will provide a vital coordinating mechanism for efforts to bridge the global digital divide. UNDP and the World Bank have offered to act as joint hosts of the dot force secretariat. UNDP will play a pivotal role in representing the interests of developing nations in this initiative. Through the dot force, new and existing programmes and partnerships will be scaled up to meet the ICT challenge. The Digital Opportunity Initiative (a partnership with Andersen Consulting, Markle Foundation, the World Bank and UNDP) will provide a major strategic input to the dot force. It will deliver a global assessment of the extent and implications of new information and the knowledge gap, propose a  concrete plan of action for closing that gap in the next 10 years, and develop innovative and  breakthrough exemplar projects spanning the globe.

At the country level, UNDP will undertake the GlobalNetwork Readiness and Resource Initiative (in partnership with the UN Foundation, IBM, the Markle Foundation, the World Economic Forum, the Center for International Development at Harvard University and others), which will offer information and communications technology. It (ICT) has become an indispensable tool in the fight against world poverty. ICT provides developing nations with an unprecedented opportunity to meet vital development goals such as poverty reduction, basic healthcare, and education far more effectively than before.

Those nations that succeed in harnessing the potential of ICT can look forward to greatly expanded economic growth, dramatically improved human welfare, and stronger forms of democratic government. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will be at the vanguard of this effort. Based on its broad experience in the field and unrivalled network of country offices in 131 developing nations, UNDP will stimulate the enabling environment, catalyze the applications and innovate projects on the ground necessary to help bridge the information gap and bring everyone into the global economy.

The scale of the ICT challenge is immense. Despite the forces of market liberalization and globalization and efforts at public policy reform, the goal of achieving universal access to ICT and the Global Information Infrastructure has remained elusive, and the disparity in access to ICT is growing. Today 96 per cent of Internet host  computers reside in the highest income nations with only 16 per cent of the world's population.

There are more Internet hosts in Finland than the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean, more in New York City than on the entire continent of Africa. Yet there has never been a better time for collective action to connect all regions of the world. UNDP, in close partner-ship with key public and private sector players, is working to design a comprehensive strategy and  implementation package.