Exclusion Inclusion Poverty
The Size of Bangladesh's economy is very small while the country has a large population. In the past, hardly anybody took notice of the existence of this country, at times it is not even spotted world map because it does not feature as a serious market for buying or selling. All these can change now. Bangladesh can become a familiar name in the world market if it takes advantage of the new technologies, particularly Information and Communication Technologies, which is changing the world dramatically. Stage is already set. In the previous decade the world has just seen the tip of these changes. Next decade will unfold scenarios, which will redefine the lives of people around the world. Detailed analysis of experience around the world reveals ample evidence that, if used in the right way and for the right purposes, ICT can have a dramatic impact on achieving specific social and economic development goals as well as play a key role in broader national development strategies.
The argument on whether ICTs result in exclusion or inclusion has been taken up by Braga (1998) and Brown (2001). According to Braga (1998) some believe that ICTs have and will contribute to even wider economic divergence between developing and developed countries. This view is consistent with Brown's (2001) argument that there is still a lot of scepticism with regard to whether ICTs can reduce poverty in the developing countries.
Issues of social inclusion and exclusion are just one dimension of the range of issues that a review of the nature of the relationship between ICTs and poverty has to highlight. Others include questions on the linkage between ICTs and the concept of human development. Given the wide scope of this concept, the review explores the connection between ICTs and the human development dimensions of agriculture, culture, governance, education, health and gender. In so doing, there is the recognition however that some of these dimensions, such as gender and governance for instance, are crosscutting in nature. From a definitional perspective, the concepts of ICTs and poverty can be assigned different senses.
Chowdhury (2000) writes that ICTs encompass technologies that can process different kinds of information (voice, video, audio, text and data) and facilitate different forms of communications among human agents, among humans and information systems, and among information systems. They are about capturing, storing, processing, sharing, displaying, protecting, and managing information. Duncombe and Heeks (1999) simplify the definition by describing ICTs as an “electronic means of capturing, processing, storing and disseminating information”.
Mansell & Wehn (1998) focus on how ICTs can be harnessed for purposes of meeting development goals. There is one chapter in the publication specifically on the uses of ICTs when poverty is pervasive.
Chowdhury (2000) presents the position taken by realists that in an increasingly global village, ICTs have the potential of helping the poor to acquire literacy, marketable skills and so on. However, Barlow (1998) believes that common perceptions of the potential of the digital age are limited by the habits of mind one develops in an industrial society. These habits are different for those who have grown up in poverty with no television sets for instance to shape their world view. Most of these people are found in Africa and the developing world in general. The basis of this argument is weak however since Barlow has no empirical evidence to support his assertion, apart from his experiences in the countryside of a developed country.
Braga (1998) builds a case that concludes that the countries that are better positioned to thrive in the new economy are those that can rely on: widespread access to communication networks; the existence of an educated labour-force and consumers; and the availability of institutions that promote knowledge creation and dissemination. This may suggest that developing countries are at a disadvantage in comparison to developed countries. Similar sentiments are shared by Mansell & Wehn (1998). Brown (2001) argues that ICTs are simply tools. Significantly, no single tool can solve a global problem, such as, poverty, which has such complex and multiple causes. The author gives examples of where ICTs can play a significant role such as in the creation of jobs and in the reduction of distance. However, the author points out that it would be preferable if the labour-force were educated in this information age.
New technologies if used innovatively can help in bridging technological, knowledge and income divides. Introduction of ICTs or any new technologies in a community should involve the active participation of the community. It involves community ownership and participation. Content creation should address the needs of the community and a bottom up approach must be followed. To be of use to rural families, the generic information should be rendered into locality-specific knowledge that the poor and marginalized rural women and men can act on. There are a number of ways ICT is enhancing rural productivity. ICT enables solution sharing between local people and communities, providing access to practical information on small business accounting, weather trends and farming best practices, for example. Timely access to market information via communications networks also helps farmers make astute decisions about what crops to plant and where to sell their produce and buy inputs Initiatives that are properly conceived and implemented can have an impact that extends beyond the individual communities they are designed to serve. The increasing use and pervasive impact of ICT can substantially enhance the ability of developing countries to address the full range of development goals.
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