INTA policy forum investigates global technologies

Globalization seems to be front and center in the news these past years via the flux of jobs and the proliferation of terrorism, but what does this mean to people all over the world, and where does it all end? The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs aimed to answer part of this question in its recent policy forum titled “The Impact of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) on Economic Development, National Competitiveness and Social Justice.”

In defining the broad focus of the forum, former Senator and professor of International Affairs, Sam Nunn, said, “The world of technology carries both promise and peril. The challenge... is how do we continue our relentless drive for dynamic technology which increases productivity, disseminates information and gives us the capacity to raise millions of people into the middle class while avoiding the grave global instability that will come as technology highlights global inequities for all the world to see.”

In his keynote address entitled “ICTs and Development: Promise and Perils,” Charles Kenny, a senior economist at the World Bank, highlighted the potential for global economic growth held by technologies such as mobile phones and the internet, particularly in developing countries.

He also went on to identify the limitations to economic growth that can be directly affected by these technologies.

Kenny cited macroeconomic as well as microeconomic evidence from his work that correlates the rise of incomes in the developing world to the spread of ICTs, with a disclaimer that this growth may have had causes other than the proliferation of ICTs.

One microeconomic example of an important ICT is mobile phone service, which has contributed to economic growth in Bangladesh, where individual rural women entrepreneurs can borrow credit to invest in mobile phones and sell airtime to customers in their villages. Such entrepreneurship has increased operators’ incomes to $700 per year, a figure that is twice that country’s income per capita.

Already recognized worldwide as an example of how ICTs can work to alleviate poverty as well as existing social barriers (against women, for example), the Bangladeshi model would not have been possible without the existence of local mobile footprints (areas with signal) in these remote areas.

Such limitations in infrastructure might suggest a digital divide where infrastructure-rich, high-income countries are far better placed to make use of ICTs to improve businesses and lives than low-income countries, but the trend actually seems to be in reverse when placed in a more accurate perspective.

Indeed, there is mounting evidence, according to Kenny, that businesses in lower income countries are making use of ICTs more in proportion to their economic output than their compatriots in higher income countries. ICTs, such as internet and email, act as the great equalizer between workers across national boundaries.

Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist, outlines how the ongoing spread of ICTs is leveling the playing field for millions of citizens in India and China who now compete on relatively equal terms with citizens of developing countries, in his latest book, The World is Flat.

However, there are limits to the influence these technologies have on growth, implying that an unabashed investment in technology alone is not a panacea.

Even in India, home to the IT revolution, investment in these technologies contributed only 0.03% of all recent economic growth, according to Kenny. Even with improved access and broader language-specific content, growth sparked by ICTs will be limited.

Furthermore, various studies of individual projects involving ICTs suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach to projects does not work, and many low-tech ICT solutions will work far better within local scenarios than relatively high-tech ones like choosing radio-supported instruction over computer-aided instruction in schools catering to low income students.

A case-in-point is the recently announced decision (April 4, 2006) by the Rwandan government to invest $1 billion in “e-government” services by establishing telecenters to provide the rural poor with information critical to their livelihoods.

Since close to 80% of such e-government services have failed in various countries, the odds of success are tilted against the success of this venture, and its fate remains to be seen.

In fact, ICTs can even have the negative effect of creating disaffection in lower income populations as they highlight disparities between their own lives and the lives of well-to-do citizens of high income countries.

According to Nunn, these disaffections can quickly morph into resentment or full-fledged hatred towards businesses and citizens of higher income countries when exacerbated by fundamentalist and nationalist groups with vested interests.

A case-in-point would be the recent riots in the Middle East that were inflamed by derogatory cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that spread over the internet.

Joseph Okpaku, president of the Telecom Africa Corporation, seemed to echo Nunn’s concern for the potential “grave global instability” which would ultimately be caused by the spread of ICTs. In citing the case for economic disaffection leading to a “knowledge war,” he questioned the possibility of creating an equitable global environment—one in which certain developed countries are willing to buy as well as sell “knowledge products and services” from what are considered to be developing countries.

Globalizing Mobile Technologies

• In recent years, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have impacted the world economy in a major way.
• Mobile phone services have resulted in economic growth in Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest nations. Operators’ wages have risen to $700 per year, twice the country’s income per capita.
• The Rwandan government announced Tuesday that it would invest $1 billion in “e-government” services by establishing telecenters to provide the rural poor with critical information.