National E-development Strategies as a Catalyst for ICT Applications in Developing Countries

E-development and its part, the application on information communication technologies (ICT), in is an amazing process. Developing countries quickly absorb new achievements of technological revolution and apply them in various sectors of economy.
Some countries are very successful in this process. However, others need more support and expertise.
The design and step-by-step application of national e-development/ICT-strategies is considered as one of the ways to make transition to the new information age smooth. The importance and necessity of these strategies was underlined during World Summit on Information Society (2003). Various international structures – the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Telecommunications Union and others -- provide expertise as well as financial help to developing countries in working out an effective strategy and implementing it.
National E-development/ICT-strategies (further – ICT-strategies) are initiatives created by the countries aimed to promote various aspects of information society and apply ICT in various sectors of economy, political and social life.
The essay prepared as final project for JOMC 223, focuses on the importance of ICT-strategies for developing countries, challenges and opportunities they bring, and provides case study from Ireland as a successful example of ICT-strategy creation and implementation.
the full version of the final essay is here.

ICT and Developing Countries: some interesting scholarly articles

I have not been updating my blog for a while.
Here are some links to scholarly discussion of ICT impact in developing countries:

1. ICT in developing countries: A cross-sectoral snapshot. By Alexander Osterwalder. Here the author argues the importance of cross-sectoral approach in ICT for developing countries and givers a big picture of ICT developments for these countries.
2. Bridging the digital divide in Southeast Asia: pilot agencies and policy implementation in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. By Frank B. Tipton. The author looks at agences created to speed the implementation of information and communications technology (ICT) and to address digital divide issues and analyzes the case studies of some Southern Asian countries.

EOTO Project Overview: Michelle Klemens

Michelle Klemens uncovers an interesting problem in her EOTO project -- non-profit organizations and digital divide.

Digital Divide interests me while I am researching ICT applicatons for developing countries.
My favorite resource on digital divide is Development Gateway website.
Also, I have a special attachment to the topic Michelle draws our attention to, because for more than six years I have been working for youth non-profit organizations back to my home country, Belarus, doing public relations for them. I know how tough it was to buy a new computer to the office, to establish internet connection and raise money to support internet access and technical maintainance. Even designing and maintaining the web-sites was a kind of problem. We had to look for volunteers, talented young people who could create a nice web-pages for us.
Look at these web-sites now: they all are created by volunteers of these organizations:
Belarusian Youth Council RADA
Youth Organization NEW FACES
Different-Equal

For many non-profits especially in developing countries and those with authoritarian regimes, information tecnologies is the only bridge to communication with the target groups, reaching out colleagues in other parts of the world and realization of the community projects.
For example, Belarusian Gay and Lesbian Association Lambda was banned by Belarusian Governemt, but it is still reaching its target groups, still in contact with colleagues from toehr countries like Germany, Sweden,the Netherlands and issues online magazine.

EOTO Project Overview: Tracy Shwarz

Tracy Swartz is loooking at the problems of thievery and accuracy on the internet.
She refers to multiple examples of covering the news from all over the world, referring to different sources and even fabricating the news like in the case with USA Today Correspondent.
Also, the problem of stealing news is very topical these days.
Many countries have their copyright legislation. It is very important to initiate and make work the international laws protecting journalists all over the world especially of online media.

At the end of her eesay Tracy posts a question: "How do we know what we're reading on the Web is accurate?" Rhetoric question. I consider the online media with already with years earned reputation can be trustworthy. Also, it is a question of experience, when hunting for the truthful information and... god luck.

EOTO Project Overview: Julie Rains

Julie Rains is looking at use of IT in education. She shares with us her fears when IT invasion is too much for the school system. agree with her arguments. In particular, I support, that the problem of digital divide is very urgent in Eastern European countries and many developing countries in the world. The kids are especially sensitive regarding access to the IT and its availability at home and school. Better schools have better technical equipment, more wealthy families can afford more for their kids. Digital Divide is a psyhological problem too, and it is even more serious when it affects kids.
US Department of Education on Digital Divide
World Bank: Eduation and Technology
UNESCO: Bridging the Within-Country Digital Divide in Education


Also, I was impressed by diverse and useful list of resources on the EOTO research topic that Julie provided.

EOTO Project Overview: Dean Smith

War for Waves: Media ownership rules and why they matter

My colleague Dean Smith raised an interesting issue in his EOTO project -- media ownership and its consequences for journalism.
Dean ‘s essay has examples from broadcasting journalism.
Dean mentioned the problem of using airwaves for political propaganda before the presidential elections.
When reading that, I made a kind of parallel with the newspaper’s endorsements to Presidential candidates. It was shocking for us, international students.
Here are a couple of articles about it from:
Editor & Publisher
Newsday
Boston Press Herald
Cato institution

My friend and college Silvana from Croatia even made a research on this topic.

Also, I found a good the opportunity of checking who owns media in a particular region (via Media Tracker) as a kind of “treat” for blog visitors.

Overall, I read Dean’s blog with a special interest, while I am taking JOMC 264 Mass Communication Law, this semester at UNC-CH.

More Resources on Belarus: Political Situation

Here are some links to the articles in internatonal media regarding the current political situation in Belarus and referendum of October 17, 2004, in particular. It is serve as a supplement to the EOTO essay:

1. The Dark Heart of Europe. The Economist, October 21, 2004
2. Luka the Bad.The Economist, October 14, 2004
3. Voices of Freedom are stilled by Europe's Last Dictator New York Times, October 27, 2004
4. What They Say About... Belarus. The Guardian, October 20, 2004
5. The Rape of Belarus. The Washington Post, October 20, 2004

Web-site Blocking: Blessing or Evil?

On October 17, 2004, I tried to access the websites of Belarusian independent media to check the Referendum[1] results. The Internet Explorer browser went blank: the government of Belarus had blocked internet access to these websites to prevent Belarusian citizens and the international community from obtaining truthful information about the way the Referendum and parliamentary elections were held in Belarus. The wheel of history turns back. On the eve of the September 21, 2001 presidential election, the government of Belarus blocked access to the websites of the country’s main independent newspapers and human rights groups supposedly because of a technical problem. The sites became accessible again after the election results were announced.
Many experts in modern communication technologies argue about blocking websites: is it acceptable or not-acceptable, when the governments of some countries block the access to a particular type of information. Most agree, the internet should be regulated. At the same time, national policies and legislature on internet regulation differ from country to country. John McGuire (1999) compared two countries – the United States and Germany -- in his research on internet content regulation. He says, that these countries, while having similar approach to the free speech, have different views on what content they wish to control on the internet. The United States has a focus on pornography; Germany has a focus on extremist political speech. McGuire suggests the adoption of a standardized ratings template, along with the screening software “can help decentralize regulation, empower users to make their own choices about content, and perhaps most importantly, avid more drastic attempts by government to impose internet control through censorship.” (McGuire, 1999).
S. Kalathil and Taylor C. Boas (2001) explored the state control of the internet in authoritarian regimes using case studies of China and Cuba and demonstrating different combinations of reactive and proactive strategies. The case of Belarus is similar: a developing country with a strong autocratic president and a strong regulation of the internet by the government.
I agree, it is important to regulate the internet content using various methods, including blocking, when it concerns sexually explicit content or extremist groups like Nazis. But what about freedom of speech and access the citizens to truthful information?
When the citizens of the country cannot get access to breaking news and news stories criticizing current government, we cannot talk about democracy in this society.
The issue of internet content regulation has both sides and all depends on WHAT should be regulated, HOW and in what are the MEASUREMENTS of regulation a particular content protecting the citizens but not limiting their right on the access to the information.
[1] The Referendum aimed to amend the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus (1994, with amendments adopted in 1996) to eliminate the limitation for the President to be elected only for 2 terms, and accordingly, to allow the current President Alexander Lukashenko to run for the President again in 2006.

My five biggest fears about the issue:

1. The overregulating of the internet content will limit rights of the citizens to the free information access.
2. The governments of different countries have their own vision of regulating internet content that tends to the different understanding of the issue (unified approach needed).
3. The authoritarian regime will use the power of internet regulation to keep the citizens under even more strict control than before.
4. The work of many people (journalists, web-designers, photographers, etc.) will be in vain because the citizens of some countries will simply not get access to the news.
5. Blocked or not blocked? This fear I have every time when access the websites of my favorite Belarusian independent media.

Note: My essay is concentrated on the issues of freedom of political speech on the internet and blocking the websites in regard to this. I do not eliminate importance of blocking sexually explicit content. I just do not stress my attention on this problem right now.

My recommendations:

1. To allow countries to make international agreements aiming to unify the blocking rules without suppressing freedom of political speech
2. To address the issue of blocking independent news websites by authoritarian regimes internationally; in other words, to raise awarenes about this issue in international community.
3. To provide technical and moral support to independent news online media being suppressed in authoritarian regimes from the side of international community.

Web-resources addressing the problem being discussed:

1. Belarus: Instuments of Control. International organization Article 19 published a research analysing a collection of legal analysis of freedom of expression legislation in Belarus. This organization was named after Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and is based in the United Kingdom. It is aimed to combat censorship by promoting freedom of expression and access to the information. Article 19 does a lot of work on analyzing freedom of expression in Belarus. It has produced several detailed reports on abuses of freedom of the media which appear to be a reliable source of information.
2. Amnesty International. This organization works to protect human right worldwide including freedom of expression. The website of this organization has a great library where one can find much information on the problem being discussed. For example, I have found State Control of the Internet in China
3. Internet blocking prompts concern about what's not seen. By Mike Nixon. This article has been retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database (Lega News section). It describes both -- positive and negative -- sides of blocking the internet sites.
4. Freedom House is a non-profit organization that promotes democracy and freedom around the world. Freedom House pays much attention to the countries like Belarus, China and other and their human rights problems. It is a good sources of information containing reports, statistics and other data on the problem being discussed.
5. Reporters Without Borders is an international organization protecting the rights of journalists. It provides the latest information on the media suppression, violation of journalists' rights and valuable reports. For example, the latest report Internet Under Surveillance is valuable for the given research.
6. Belarusian Associaton of Journalists is an organization protecting rights of journalists in Belarus. The website contains the latest news, reports and describes the situation with freedom of expression in this country in an objective way.

ICT for Poverty Reduction: Interesting Articles

Here is the list of articles relevant to my research topic, that I found interesting and useful:

1. The Role of ICT in Poverty Reduction by Anita Kelles-Viitanen. Does ICT create new divisions between rich and poor, or does it reduces socio-economic difference? The author provides argumentation trying to answer this question in the article.
2. IT for Poverty Reduction: Sample Cases from Thailand
3. ICT and Poverty Reduction in Latin America and the Carribean by Susana Finquelievich. The article presents level of poverty in Latin American countries, assessment on ICT in the region and lessons learned.
4. ICT and Poverty: the Indusputable Link by Alexander G. Flor. The paper outlines four paradigms used in analyzing poverty and the ways ICT can be used in poverty alleviation.

Relevant/Non-relevant Sources For My Research

There is enormous amount of resources on the internet related to my research topic – ICT for poverty reduction. It was easy to define good/best resources, but not easy to define worst, as it was requested by the assignment.
When determining the resources, I used thed rules of website evalutation I learnt in JOMC-50 class. Among them:

• the site's intended audience
• the site's purpose
• accuracy
• bias
• credibility
• currency
• loading speed
• navigation
• visual appeal
• layout and placement of elements
• readibility
• use of color

From my previous experiece, I can I trust scholarly articles,the websites of respected international organizations, like the United Nations, the Council of Europe, The World Bank, and the official websites of the country Governments.

The Impact of ICT on Poverty Reduction: Case Studies from Developing Countries

The Information Communication Technologies (ICT) develop rapidly and are applied in different spheres of human activity. Promoting ICT applications is a global issue; especially it was outlined in the Millennium Development Goals that have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress.
As Nagy Hanna (Senior Advisor, the World Bank) wrote, “the impact of ICT on poor is at an early stage, but the potential is being demonstrated at the micro, intermediate and macro levels.” (Hanna, 2003).
The World Bank appeals to developing countries to adopt a comprehensive approach to promote a wide diffusion of ICT benefits to pursue development goals; to increase productivity and incomes of the poor; to improve poor people’s access to public services.
The application of ICT in developing countries is an amazing, “live” process. That is why I find it interesting to undertake the research. Working for the World Bank this summer gave me an opportunity to “dive into” the field and learn a lot about e-Development and ICT applications. ICT open up new opportunities for small business in remote areas, health care, education, other forms of public services.
In my research I plan to answer the following questions:
How are the main ICT applications used in developing countries?
How does ICT applications impact the poverty reduction?
What are the most interesting case studies “from the field” on use of ICT in developing world?
I expect my audience to look at ICT not only as a tool for communication and entertainment, but also as a serious opportunity for poverty alleviation and Global Development. I plan to illustrate my research with examples – case studies from different countries -- to support my arguments.
The keywords for my research will be: “ICT” “developing countries”, “knowledge economy”, “ICT strategies”, “ICT for development”, ICT And Impact”, “e-development”, and others. Also, the country and region names will be used during research.
The preliminary list of Web sites for my research is the following:
Title: E-Development Services Thematic Group (The World Bank)
Web address: http://topics.developmentgateway.org/edevelopment
Brief description: The website covers the wide range of issues related e-Development and ICT promotion in developing countries: event overview, latest publications, case studies, useful links, etc.
Title: Toward e-Development in Asia and the Pacific
Web address: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Policies/ICT/ICT.pdf
Brief description: The source presents the strategic approach of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for harnessing ICT as a platform for reducing poverty in the Asia and Pacific region.
Title: PovertyNet Library
Web address: http://poverty.worldbank.org/library/topic/3439/12188/
Brief Description: The website, supported by the World Bank Group and its PREM (Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Thematic Group), summarizes a good practice and key policy findings on Economic Policy, Gender, Governance and Public Sector Reform and Poverty.
Title: United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force
Web address: http://www.unicttaskforce.org
Brief description: The UN ICT Task Force initiative on the web provides information of the UN activities on ICT promotion in order to bridge global digital divide and put ICT at the service of development.
Title: UNDP and ICT for Development Web address: http://www.sdnp.undp.org/it4dev/docs/about_undp.html
Brief Description: The website covers various issues of UNDP involvement in ICT projects, various UN initiated related to ICT promotion and success stories from developing countries.