Catalog

1. ICT Applications for Poverty Reduction

32. A critical focus of ADB’s poverty reduction strategy is on empowering the region’s poor²¹. The strategy aims to foster inclusive social development by promoting pro-poor economic growth, good governance, and social development. Improvements in human and social capital by increasing connectivity and outreach between people and communities that result from carefully targeted ICT development-oriented interventions are important elements of inclusive social development. ICT should be applied for more effective use and timely delivery of required information and data by including well-designed ICT development interventions in ADB projects and programs. Part of this process would mean that poverty partnership agreements between ADB and its DMCs should also promote pro-poor interventions through adequate use of ICT applications where appropriate. Some of these applications, especially designed at the community level—which include creation and management of information systems and services, information sources, and location tools (databases and directories)—could be ICT enabled. ICT can also be used to develop greater social content and clearer poverty reduction focus, improve the bottom-up and horizontal focus of communication, and integrate or combine old and new ICTs to ensure global information flow to the poor.

33. ICT applications for the development of rural and disadvantaged areas can also be initiated by ADB in partnership with the private sector and/or other funding agencies. For example, multipurpose community telecenter (MCT) projects can be established in some disadvantaged or underserved communities. MCTs are important for government and nongovernment organization efforts to bring ICT and access to information into rural areas, given the inability of the poor or many rural people to afford ICT equipment or the supporting infrastructure needed. MCTs have been established in some countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia²² supported by numerous of agencies, such as the Canadian International Development Agency, International Development Research Center (Canada), UNDP, UNESCO, and ITU, in partnership with NGOs. MCTs can be used to deliver health services through telemedicine (or any of its appropriate variations depending on available infrastructure) or distance learning for local students and out-ofschool youth or unemployed rural residents with no employable livelihood skills. They can also provide business services for a fee to small businesses and entrepreneurs to facilitate development of small- and medium-sized enterprises. Properly designed and implemented, with community participation, MCTs can have a great impact on the clustered communities being serviced and the financial sustainability of MCTs can be improved. They can change residents’ attitudes to governments, both local and national, through better understanding and efficient delivery of government programs.

2. ICT Applications for Governance

34. Improving the quality and efficiency of public and private sector governance is crucial to poverty reduction. Good governance is predicated on effective institutional arrangements that promote accountability, participation, predictability, and transparency²³. Information-openness is critical to this process. ADB should foster appropriately targeted ICT applications that can facilitate stakeholders’ participation in policy formulation and ensure transparent use of public funds. Timely and wide access to relevant and reliable information and data is key to good governance. ICT can improve transparency and accountability in government and private sector operations.

35. For example, E-government is the use of ICT to promote more efficient and cost-effective government, facilitate transaction in delivery of government services, allow greater public access to information, and make government more accountable to citizens. It enables the public to give its views and comments on issues affecting their lives, and authorities or agencies concerned to provide replies and prompt government actions. If government forms, such as income tax returns, applications for passports, birth certificates, clearances from police, registration of voters, land certificates, can be made available on-line, public confidence in public administration can be increased; difficult or lack of such access is often the object of public cynicism and the reason for lack of trust in government. Such on-line services will build citizen trust and goodwill toward government. In banking systems, applications for loans, for example, could also be made available via the Internet.

36. Simultaneously, E-government initiatives should include programs for fostering ICT-literacy and lifelong learning, such as the ongoing experience in modernizing the governance systems in Andhra Pradesh. The programs will aim to enable every citizen to be adept at using ICT to reap the benefits of an enhanced E-lifestyle. ADB will promote national efforts that focus on areas, such as improving access for all (universal access), changing mindsets, promoting on-line culture, developing on-line communities, and creating multilingual/multidialect Internet content for countries with multiethnic minorities and plural societies.

37. The benefits of E-government and Internet for the poor who live in isolated and remote areas without access to electricity, telephone, Internet, or ICT facilities could be questioned. Nevertheless, for villages without those basic facilities, appropriate technologies are available, e.g., solar energy for electricity, and satellite linkups for multimedia data access. Clustering villages around strategic Internet/networks access points is a cost-effective way of providing connectivity and access at affordable cost. Community linkages to government-run educational and information sites will be useful for providing access to information on public sector operations, e.g., job opportunities, business expertise, microcredit.