In recognising that ICT is a key driver of global economic growth, the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID) has taken a step towards creating a matrix of ICT solutions. This in efforts to advance the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs), which is the principal focus of the Global Alliance's work in 2010.
UN GAID plans to create a Web-based knowledge repository to link the vast mass of information and experience accumulated over recent years on the actual and potential uses of ICT to boost development.
UN GAID chairman, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, says: “It is only logical that a Web-based knowledge source is the optimal vehicle for such a repository of knowledge. This portal will present, in a comprehensive, user-friendly and dynamic manner, proven tools, solutions, resources, references and best practices in using ICT to assist governments in achieving the MDGs.”
He says UN GAID's intention is not to duplicate numerous Web-based repositories of information about ICT4D or compete with them. “Our intention is to build, with the public's collaboration and input, a Web-based e-MDGs portal that will add value to existing resources and serve as a practical, usable tool for development practitioners around the globe.”
Hindering progress
Abu-Ghazaleh says if executed correctly, ICT can bring tangible results in fighting poverty, hunger and disease, promoting gender equity, and in other priority development areas.
He goes on to say: “We all witness the overall paradox of the current state of development - a glaring and persistent gap between existing potential and resources (technological, financial, intellectual) on the one hand, and the reality on the ground, on the other.”
Technological solutions now exist for most development problems - from increasing crop yields to renewable sources of energy to treatment of most diseases - yet, poverty, hunger, disease and inequity persist, Abu-Ghazaleh adds.
Similarly, he notes, in the ICT for development area, technology has matured to the extent where there is an app for most development challenges and needs. “The basic guidelines for making effective use of ICT have been mostly defined based on accumulated experience, both positive and negative.”
He says the reason why people have not actually harnessed the potential of ICT for promoting development and reaching the MDGs is because there are many factors that hinder progress in this area.
However, one major factor contributing to the inadequate overall impact of the use of ICT is a disconnect between relevant knowledge available in principle, and knowledge that can be used by practitioners, says Abu-Ghazaleh.
“There exists a massive amount of information that needs to be processed, packaged and presented to those who need it, and thus become usable knowledge,” he explains. To be effective, such provision of knowledge must not be a static one-shot presentation, but a dynamic, systematically updated source, he advises.
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