Who are the winners and losers in the ICT revolution? What are the likely consequences of the slow development of ICT infrastructure in many developing countries? As globalisation deepens, what have we learnt about the economic growth and poverty reduction potential of new information technologies?
This background report commissioned by DFID for the 2000 White Paper on globalisation reviews current thinking and evidence on the relationship between the global information revolution and empowerment of poor people. It suggests how new forms of development cooperation could strengthen grass roots channels of bottom-up and horizontal communication. It dispels the myth of the Internet as a panacea certain to inform the disadvantaged. Newspapers, radio and television, communicating with the poor about their concerns in their own language, are just as much in need of donor support.
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