ICT and Human

Development

Dejan Mincic – UNDP Moldova

www.undp.md

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Contents

Deciphering the Human Development Agenda

Digital Divide – a concept of the past?

Lessons Learned from ICT for Development

Role of the Governments and Private Sector

Moldova and the CIS – ICT Development Index vs. Human Development Index

The way forward

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Human Development is about…

Enlarging human choices

Building human capabilities and using them fully

Ensuring equity and productivity

A participative and empowering process, relevant across the Board, but

especially in the developing countries

UNDP is a development arm of the United Nations. Supporting

countries in accelerating the progress on Human Development is at the

core of its mandate

Activities in 166 countries, 27 of which in the Europe and CIS region

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Elements of Human Development

EQUITY

SUSTAINABILITY

POLICY AND PLANNING

PRODUCTIVITY

AND EFFICIENCY

PARTICIPATION

AND

EMPOWERMENT

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“Digital Divide”

Digital divide is a reflection of existing socio-economic and

political “divides”

“Traditional divides” persist in most developing countries

Need to address them with innovative tools and integrated

solutions

New ICTs as one such tool (not the only one, not a panacea!)

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Linking ICT to Development

Four phases since 1990:

Infrastructure, connectivity and access - 1991

Local capacity building - 1997

Applications (e-government, e-commerce etc.) – 2000

Web 2.0 (bottom-up collaboration, etc.) - 2005 Each phase emerges from and builds upon the previous one

ICT for Development (Evolution)

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Lessons Learned

ICT ALONE IS INSUFFICIENT FOR SIGNIFICANT BENEFITS TO EMERGE

ICT WILL NOT TRANSFORM BAD DEVELOPMENT INTO GOOD

DEVELOPMENT, BUT IT CAN MAKE GOOD DEVELOPMENT EVEN

BETTER

EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF ICT COMPRISES BOTH TECHNOLOGICAL

AND INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURES

DIGITAL DIVIDE IS A SYMPTOM. DIVIDE IS TRADITIONAL AND IMPACTS

THE DIGITAL ASPECTS.

ICT PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT, BUT DESIRABLE

OUTCOMES ALWAYS ARISE FROM THE ACTIONS OF PEOPLE

ICT, IN ABSENCE OF A DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY TO MAKE EFFECTIVE

USE OF THEM RESULTS IN SUB-OPTIMAL OUTCOMES

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Lessons Learned (cont’d)

In 2008, over 80 billion USD were invested on e-government

In developing countries, over 65% of e-government projects failed (35%

being “total” failures)

Characterized by:

=> uncoordinated, sectorial interventions

=> technology focused (usually high-end)

=> supply driven

=> do not reach citizens/stakeholders

Traditional e-government is not delivering!

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E-governance Framework

National

e-administration e-services

e-participation

Policy and regulation

Infrastructure

Democratic

Governance

Enhanced

State

Local

Access

to

Information

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Role of the Governments and Private Sector

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIS TAILORED TO THE LOCAL CONTEXT, AND CATERED

TO A WIDER REGIONAL AND GLOBAL REALITIES

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS ENABLED AND GROOMED

GOVERNMENTS SHOULD LEAD BY EXAMPLE

EFFECTIVE REGULATORY AUTHORITY IS PARAMOUNT IN ENSURING INTERESTS

OF THE POPULATION

POLICIES (ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY, REGULATION OF ICT SERVICES COSTS,

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT, PROMOTING EMPOWERMENT AND PARTICIPATION)

MARKET LIBERALIZATION AND COMPETITION

CORPORATE AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

ENSURING SUSTAINABILITY

ICT Development Index Source: ITU (Measuring the Information Society 2009)

• High: Economies included in this group have high level

of ICT access and use and high ICT skills. The 33

economies accounted for 15 per cent of the world’s

population in 2007 and included twenty-one European

countries, ten Asia & Pacific economies, as well as

Canada, and the United States.

• Upper: Economies included in this category are those

that have achieved an elevated level of access to and

use of ICTs, and ICT skills, for a majority of their

inhabitants. In total, they accounted for almost 780

million people. The economies included in both this

group and in the “high” group accounted for more than 27

per cent of the total population in 2007.

• Medium: This group includes economies that account for

more than one-third of the total population (37 per cent or

2.4 billion inhabitants).

• Low: The remaining one-third of the world’s inhabitants

can be found in this group (36 per cent or 2.3 billion

people). Except for two countries from Latin America and

the Caribbean (Nicaragua and Haiti), most of the

Southern-Asian countries are classified under this group

along with most of the Sub-Saharan African countries.

This group reflects countries with low level of ICT

access, usage and skills.

ICT DELEVOPMENT

INDEX RANK

ICT Development Index

(IDI)

Country

Out of 154 Countries

Analyzed by ITU Group Rank

Albania 85 MEDIUM

Armenia 72 MEDIUM

Azerbaijan 86 MEDIUM

Belarus 54 UPPER

Bosnia-Herzegovina 58 UPPER

Bulgaria 45 UPPER

Croatia 43 UPPER

Cyprus 37 UPPER

Georgia 80 MEDIUM

Kazakhstan 69 MEDIUM

Kyrgyzstan 93 MEDIUM

Latvia 36 UPPER

Lithuania 33 HIGH

Macedonia 65 UPPER

Moldova 68 MEDIUM

Montenegro N.I.

Romania 46 UPPER

Russia 50 UPPER

Serbia N.I.

Slovakia 38 UPPER

Tajikistan 106 MEDIUM

Turkey 59 UPPER

Turkmenistan 104 MEDIUM

Ukraine 51 UPPER

Uzbekistan 110 MEDIUM

ICT access indicators (Source: ITU)

Fixed telephone line penetration

Mobile cellular penetration

International Internet bandwidth per Internet user

Proportion of households with computer

Proportion of households with Internet

ICT use indicators

Internet user per 100 inhabitants

Fixed broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants

Mobile broad subscriptions per 100 inhabitants

ICT skills indicators

Adult literacy rate

Secondary gross enrolment ratio

Tertiary gross enrolment ratio

% of

Populatio

n

(penetrati

on rate)

Broadban

d

Subscrib

ers

ICT

DELEVOP

MENT

INDEX

RANK

ICT

Developm

ent Index

(IDI)

Broadban

d Sub-

Basket (%

of GNI

per

capita)

Broadban

d Cost

USD

UNDP's

Connecti

vity

UNDP's

Connecti

vity2

Human Development

Index and Illiteracy

Rate

Country

(users

per 100

inhabitan

ts)

Per 100

inhab.

Out of

154

Countries

Analyzed

by ITU

Group

Rank

Rank (out

of 150

countries

) USA = 1 USA = 15 Type

Speed

(Down)

HDI

RANK

(out of

182)

Adult

illiteracy

rate (% of

population

aged 15

and above)

Albania 13% 1.27 85 MEDIUM 82 31.4 DSN 512 70 1

Armenia 7% 0.06 72 MEDIUM 96 39.2 T1/T3 > 4096 84 0.5

Azerbaijan 18% 0.69 86 MEDIUM 110 84.5 Wireless 2048 86 0.5

Belarus 29% 4.94 54 UPPER n.i. n.i. T1/T3 > 4096 68 0.3

Bosnia-

Herzegovina

28% 4.99

58 UPPER 55 14.8

Leased

line 1024

76 3.3

Bulgaria 37% 10.82 45 UPPER 52 15.6 ISDN 1024 61 1.7

Croatia 50% 11.86 43 UPPER 39 20.9 ISDN 4096 45 1.3

Cyprus 42% 15.66 37 UPPER 7 16.5 ISDN 2048 32 2.3

Georgia 22% 2.23 80 MEDIUM 104 47.6 T1/T3 512 40 0

Kazakhstan 15% 4.26 69 MEDIUM n.i. n.i. ISDN 4096 89 0.4

Kyrgystan 16% 0.05 93 MEDIUM n.i. n.i. VSAT 1024 120 0.7

Latvia 56% 6.44 36 UPPER 44 26 ISDN > 4096 48 0.2

Lithuania 50% 17.77 33 HIGH 36 15.9 DSN 2048 46 0.3

Macedonia 42% 8.77 65 UPPER 59 14.7 T1/T3 2048 72 3

Moldova 18% 3.17 68 MEDIUM 99 23.2 T1/T3 4096 117 0.8

Montenegro 43% 4.16 N.I. 58 21.3 T1/T3 1024 65 3.6

Romania 28% 11.75 46 UPPER 53 22.7 T1/T3 4096 63 2.4

Russia 32% 6.56 50 UPPER 37 13.9 T1/T3 2048 71 0.5

Serbia 29% 4.59 N.I. 38 9 ISDN 2048 67 3.6

Slovakia 51% 11.46 38 UPPER 42 28.5 T1/T3 4096 42 ..

Tajikistan 8% - 106 MEDIUM n.i. n.i. VSAT 2048 127 0.4

Turkey 32% 7.78 59 UPPER n.i. n.i. T1/T3 2048 79 11.3

Turkmenista

n

2% ...

104 MEDIUM n.i. n.i. VSAT 1024

109 0.5

Ukraine 23% 3.48 51 UPPER 79 20.8 T1/T3 > 4096 85 0.3

Uzbekistan 9% 0.24 110 MEDIUM n.i. n.i. VSAT 1024 119 3.1

TOTAL

Europe CIS 28%

WORLD

TOTAL 23.80%

Correlations (a coincidence?)

IDI and HDI

There is a notable correlation between the ICT

Development Index and Human Development

Index. Four bottom Countries (Kyrgyzstan,

Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) are

ranked low in both IDI and HDI terms. Their

Internet penetration rate is consistently low, cost

is high relative to the GNI %, and even UN in

those countries is so far dependent on the VSAT

technologies for Internet access. Small,

scattered ISPs are available in the market, but

data security, confidentiality and privacy issues

are insufficiently regulated.

The literacy rate and digital divide

Adult literacy rate is already covered by the IDI.

However, even though some of the bottom-

ranked countries have relatively low literacy rate

compared to the others, they are facing the

danger of computer illiteracy, digital divide and

loss of competitive skills in the future.

These correlations are no coincidence.

OECD estimates that Broadband penetration

and use may be one of the main drivers of the

knowledge-based economies and internet

societies in the future. Looking at the IDI and

HDI rankings, the low-ranked societies are

facing a complex challenge in the changing

world economy.

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The Way Forward

Development-based policies

European Integration Agenda (EU2020 and Digital Agenda)

Broadband

Security and Infrastructure

Digital TV and information services

E-Governance

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Thank You!

Dejan Mincic

UNDP Moldova

dejan.mincic@undp.org

www.undp.md