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Global Leaders Take On The Digital Divide
This week marks President Clinton's final G-8 summit. The group's leaders will gather in Okinawa, Japan, beginning Friday for three days of intense discussion, focusing on the topic du jour: information technology.
Unprecedented global economic growth over the last few years has foreign leaders eager to discover the keys to its continued success. But equally important is the recognition that healthy economic growth is linked to the welfare of developing nations, and alleviation of the digital divide.
The United Nations Conference on Economic and Social development convened two weeks ago in New York to address these issues. Developing nations, including the Group of 77, which met in conjunction with the U.N. conference, suggested that without the proper aid, their countries would fall even further behind. In late June, a 17-member high level U.N. panel released a report on information and communication technology calling for global universal access to the Internet — reachable within at least a half a day's walk — by 2004. Once individuals are connected, they are in a better position to learn skills and knowledge necessary to compete in a rapidly globalizing and high-tech marketplace, according to the report.
But there's a growing disparity between rich and poor nations; a gap that critics charge will hinder all economic growth because of the increasingly interconnected economies. As the chief theme of Okinawa summit, it has fallen under the auspices of the term "digital divide."
To Access Or Not To Access
Unlike its domestic counterpart, the global digital economy encompasses a vast array of initiatives extending from simple computer and Internet access to educational initiatives, which can include resources such as aid for teachers, schools and local community governments. It also extends into health care initiatives.
As one Commerce Department official close to the subject explained, bridging the digital divide is "not only about e-commerce—it's about connecting folks for education, development. One of the great things about [technology] is that it can do so many things."
It's not that the digital divide is seen as a way to funnel money to other projects, rather it is seen as a way to spur economic growth and development.
We believe "if you give people the right tools that they will be able to do amazing things with them," explained Bruce Brooks, director of community affairs for Microsoft.
Attention to digital divide issues during the Okinawa meeting most likely will lead to a host of other topics, all of which are inextricably linked to the growing disparity between technology haves and have-nots. Debt relief, drawing from the 1999 summit in Cologne, France, will again take center stage as leaders discuss ways in which the savings might be used to invest in educational resources, including technology.
But most efforts to curb the digital divide and some of the most successful are the result of a number of U.S. -based corporations, which already have taken the lead in outreach to developing countries. These companies are providing vital equipment, software, educational resources, manpower and much-needed funds.
The "New, New" Corporate Charity
Microsoft committed nearly $21 million last year in technology resources internationally. "There are many thing that fall in to the basket of global digital divide—we look at the array of needs and look at the unique opportunities that Microsoft can have to bring about lasting and sustainable changes," said Brooks. "For example, we don't do wiring. Given what we do, it would not make sense for use to do that." But developing "human capital through workforce programs—that makes sense for us."
Microsoft's efforts are joined by global technology giants including Cisco, America Online, Hewlett Packard and Dell.
IT training, which is touted as huge aspect to closing the divide, has been a focus of Cisco's "new academies" program, which offers facilities and equipment in regions like Bosnia, with a goal of teaching skills and certifying individuals to perform IT administration.
But the assistance is not limited to training. Cisco recently launched an initiative in Africa using computer networks to help track AIDS growth. With the nearly 20 percent of some African populations infected with HIV, such technological aid is proving necessary.
But funding initiatives, for one thing, are expensive; mostly because companies and government or private sector agencies can never quite do enough. For each initiative that is launched, there are dozens of companion issues, relating to health, peacekeeping and education, all of which require attention to make a significant impact. The challenge, as most experts agree, is creating sustainable growth.
Critics of digital divide funding have often pointed to the private sector as the proper source for aid. Yet corporate sponsorship of such initiatives can cause problems, too. Brooks notes that most Microsoft programs occur in regions where Microsoft Office is based. Such discrimination is normal, but it could lead to a disparity in aid, leaving some of the poorest regions unaffected.
But in a press conference last week, U.S. Undersecretary of State Alan Larson noted that the push for IT and digital divide initiatives is aimed more at developing economies than subsidizing aid. "There is a very genuine feeling that there is a technology that ought to work for developing countries as well, that access to the benefits of information technology shouldn't depend on where you live, whether you're rich or poor," he said. "And that means that there needs to be a great deal of attention on how to address such questions as policy readiness: How can countries that want to take advantage of the opportunities of information technology know where they stand in terms of the policies that make that possible in the investment area, and areas like telecommunications."
The Policy Conundrum
Taking up that call to arms, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who will host the Okinawa summit, announced Saturday that Japan would pledge $15 billion to fund digital divides initiatives. But for critics of digital divide spending, any potential aid Clinton might offer under the auspices of the summit's expected communique; requires Congress' blessing.
Some economists have argued that any large-scale policy proposals set forth during the summit may negatively impact IT. Jesper Koll, chief economist at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo, argued that the best way to bridge the digital divide, or more accurately, spur economic development, is to craft an infrastructure that can support IT and e-commerce. "The new economy is not so much about the technology, but about the change in labor markets, the change in entrepreneurship and the empowerment of individuals," Koll told Reuters this week.
Catherine Mann, senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics recently noted in a speech that the whole issue of "divide" is linked much more to overall development. The real challenge, she said, is finding individuals and groups to take the lead in helping nations at a grass roots level and that large-scale government intervention can be less help, and more hindrance.
Ultimately, developing nation's economies are increasingly important as U.S.- based corporations, especially high tech firms, expand globally. The lack of high-tech workers and need for new markets will become bigger problems. With pressing issues affecting their own performance, companies are making investment into future technology by developing "human capital."
White House economic adviser Lael Brainard said in a press conference this week that the private sector is truly the leader in global digital divide initiatives, and the White House will emphasize the role of private sector partnerships to aid developing nations during Okinawa. "The private sector has led on the information technology revolution. We see them as a real key, perhaps the key element in closing the digital divide." Such assertions underscore what Mann called a new responsibility that private sector business in the market place and the ways in which they need to be more responsive to the governments and the individual.
- by Maureen Sirhal
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