Interview with Dennis Gilhoody, IT Expert of the UN Development Program ANDP
Kofi Annan has the fight against poverty on the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York as one of the main objectives of the UN in 21. Century designated and the information technologies (IT) attributed a special role. What role does the IT sector actually play in development aid? Gilhoody: A fundamental problem in the use of IT in underdeveloped countries is the lack of infrastructure. That makes it difficult to allow the economies to benefit from the new technologies. But it is clear, especially if you look at economic growth in Europe and the United States that one of the large drives behind this development was the information technology and is. This applies above all the educational sector, health care, agriculture and, above all, the e-commerce. In developing courses, information technologies play a role in the networking of economic centers, they now have city or rural areas that otherwise expanded. This strategy allows many developing courses to jump "Middle-Income Countries "(Earlylanders) to create. In fact, we can already observe such developments over the past five years within much of the Latin American Continent. There, above all, wireless telecommunications played an important role, because many rural centers are far away from the city and surrounded by mountains or rough countries. Your comment is very confident, but Latin America has already found connection to the global economy in many parts. What about the rest of the world? Gilhoody: We have a rough problem in fact on the African continent, because these countries are very far back in the development in international comparison. Of the "Digital divide" Increases the gap between developing policies and the second and third world. The emerging markers will make it difficult to keep up with the enormous pace of economic development and the countries of the Third World is the danger that they never receive this opportunity. But is not that an old problem that has existed since colonialism? Gilhoody: Yes, with the difference that both the pace, as well as the complexity has increased. Former colonial states was still possible in recent decades, over the "Classical "way to record economic contacts. However, if you do not even have the foundations of the modern economy, this opportunity will be denied them. An example of this difference is already the relationship between the United States and Europe. This is especially true because I come from Ireland and only recently work in New York. The United States is ahead of Europe in IT development by at least five years. The role of the internet in the economy, in state institutions and in the social sector is uneven rough here. If we can monitor this gap between industrial nations in clarity, then it becomes clear how serely the problem for the question of development programs and development aid is generally. You have mentioned the problems in Africa. In the regions of Saharan’s Sahara, almost ten percent of the world’s volcanism live, during this part of the earth, only 0.1 percent of Internet connections can be found. The IT really plays a rough role in this region for your work? Gilhoody: Of course, more important problems exist in this region. Nevertheless, it is amazing what development information technologies can also play in such underdeveloped regions. Take India: Within years, IT has become one of the most dynamic industries. However, the most important aspect is that the internet distances override that previously represented a serious problem. At the ANDP we try to explore how far the internet can use. We are also in cooperation with private companies, such as the company Anderson Consulting. Also, the concept of Digital Divide has so far still very unclear. In the coming year, a discussion at the G-8 will take place, in whose framework should be reduced, what makes this technology jig and with which strategies it is to narrow. Already at the G-8 summit in Okinawa became an initiative with the name "Dot-Force "started, in which we will integrate our work.(The Dot Force comes …) Kofi Annan has a program for discussion aimed at stronger cooperation between state institutions, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. Who from these participants has been the cost of infrastructure? Gilhoody: This is actually a key problem. When looking at the World Bank’s statistics of recent years, no loans have been granted for telecommunications networks. In this institution, the idea of which the private sector is already thereby. This is a mistake. We have to work at this point because the cost is still very expensive for the construction of telecommunications networks. One connection currently costs about 1000 US dollars. If we were able to reduce this price to 200 or 300 dollars, then many countries have previously unimaginable opportunities. We therefore try to establish cooperation between the public and the private sector to achieve progress here. (Harald NeuberTo)