Digital Dividends for the Poor ICT for Poverty Reduction in Asia

Comments and suggestions made by the above panel were incorporated into the current draft of the study. The author also wishes to acknowledge with gratitude the contribution of representatives of each of the case studies included in this report, as well as the many other initiatives that responded to a preliminary questionnaire. Executive Summary Poverty in Asia is pervasive, massive, resilient and complex. Approximately 24 per cent of the population of developing countries in Asia, or about 760 million people, live in poverty. South Asia accounts for 61 per cent of Asia's poor. Even if poverty is reduced by 25 per cent in India over the next decade, there will still be more than 300 million people living in poverty in that country. A major threat to poverty reduction in Asia is a looming HIV/AIDS crisis. Poverty reduction efforts are therefore urgent and we need to do much better than we are at present. In order to give focus to the task of poverty reduction, the UN has defined eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. The goals cover areas such as income, education, gender equality, health, environmental sustainability and partnerships for development. The WSIS Asia-Pacific Regional Conference (January, 2003) endorsed the important role that ICTs can play in achieving these goals. Accordingly, the case studies presented in this paper are organised into categories corresponding to these goals. ICTs are defined as 'technologies that facilitate communication and the processing and transmission of information by electronic means' (DFID). An ICT is a tool for poverty reduction when it is applied to meet the information and communication needs of the poor. However, the specific technology that is applied is less relevant than questions about freedom of expression, social and economic impact, inclusiveness, outreach and sustainability. In statistical terms, the poorest people in Asia presently have no meaningful access to the Internet and limited prospect of gaining access in the short term. Therefore, using the Internet to target directly the information and communication needs of the poorest people is unlikely to be a successful strategy for poverty reduction. However, strategies that target community intermediaries can have significant impact. Long before 'ICT for Development / Poverty Reduction' became fashionable, 'old' technologies like radio and television have been used to disseminate information among the poor. As a medium for delivering information directly to the poor, these technologies can achieve far wider outreach at …