UNDP/IT for Development A collective approach to the digital divide In addition to income, goods or services, information is today predominantly the property of the rich world and a thin slice of that world is rich Up to half of the world has never used a telephone Over 40% of the US now uses the Internet - but just 1.6% of Asians and 0.3% of Africans do so.80% of web pages and 90% of documents on the web are in English despite the fact that the vast majority of the world does not speak it. The scale of ICT challenge is immense. Today 96 per cent of Internet host computers reside in the highest income nations. There are more Internet hosts in Finland than the whole of Latin American and the Caribbean, more in NY. City than in Africa. UNDP

UNDP/IT for Development UNDP’s Role At the global level Over the course of the past year, UNDP has begun the process of setting up three big initiatives: –The Digital Opportunity Task Force or “dot force” in which UNDP and the World Bank serve as the joint Secretariat –The digital opportunITy initiative with Andersen Consulting, the Markle Foundation and the World Bank and The Global Network Readiness and Resource Initiative with UN Foundation

UNDP/IT for Development UNDP’s Role At the country level, –UNDP will undertake the Global Network Readiness and Resource Initiative which will offer country-level assistance to build national information infrastructure strategies –In addition, UNDP has joined a strategic partnership with Cisco Systems, the UN Volunteers to train students in 24 of the least developed countries. –UNDP today has connected more than 15 countries to the Internet, deployed (IP) networks in more than 40 countries –trained more than 25,000 organisations/institutions and created more than 5,000websites in local content

UNDP/IT for Development UNDP’s Global initiatives UNDP launched a Sustainable Development Networking programme (SDNP) in 1993 aiming at addressing global connectivity and networking issues, capacity building for national stakeholders and national content development The programme currently operates in 45 countries UNDP launched an IT for development programme in 1997 aiming at increasing awareness and generating IT strategies at the national level, building national capacity and deploying Technology access Community Centres

UNDP/IT for Development Pilot community centres in Egypt A case study The Egyptian Government supported by the UNDP, has set up three Internet access centres to put people in touch with each other and the information they need Located some 100 Km northeast of Cairo, Zagazig is a historical city with export oriented textile and carpet industries. Its population over 4 million. The number of users has grown steadily, 4000 people received training in the last 18 months Today the site has over 1,000 pages, most of which are in Arabic

UNDP/IT for Development Pilot community centres in Egypt In Egypt, the Government has already decided that community centers will be established in all of the country’s 26 Govern. Due to a latent demand, three staff left the centres to open a cyber café providing similar services to the community. access to new information technology skills for members of rural communities utilizing non traditional learning approaches which may also be suitable for illiterates.

UNDP/IT for Development Beyond access The community access centres are becoming incubation centres. Small business in rural areas are renting usage time at these sites Delivery of Government Information and Services Access to interactive training modules on a variety of health issues Telework Flexible networking Electronic conferencing and tech support services

UNDP/IT for Development Policy Formulation at the national level the project is contributing to policy formulation at the national level in the following areas: Modalities for community based access to new information technologies Modalities for awareness raising and capacity building Modalities for development-oriented usage of new information technologies modalities for generating income and strategic partnerships

UNDP/IT for Development The model replicated in Jordan Based on the pilot experience in Egypt and at the request of the Government of Jordan, UNDP established the first community access technology centre in Safawi, the Northern Badia in Jordan The Badia region faces a variety of socio-economic challenges, including a rapidly growing population, inadequate employment opportunities and scarce resources Youth, women, illiterate groups, small and medium scale entrepreneurs are the beneficiaries of the pilot The model will be also replicated in Lebanon and Morocco

UNDP/IT for Development The model replicated The fundamental development challenge for the centre will be to provide knowledge Knowledge will contribute to the enhancement of the quality of life of the residents through the development of income-generating opportunities. Specific areas to be addressed in the Badia: –Education –Health –Women/gender related issue –Tourism

UNDP/IT for Development The role of the UN  Ensuring universal access is a task beyond the scope of any one institution - governments, United Nations agencies, private sector, civil societies and non-governmental organizations.  The United Nations continues to involve civil societies and non-governmental organizations, in forwarding the universal access agenda  The United Nations role lies in building consensus and partnerships among all stakeholders.

UNDP/IT for Development