With the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit +5 coming up in September and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in November, it is timely for developmental agencies to revisit some of the key issues and developments that have taken place in the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) within the larger scheme of national developmental policies.
This note examines the treatment of ICT in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) of Asia-Pacific countries. PRSPs serve as a good starting point because they direct the focus of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) concessional
lending. Countries have more incentive to prioritize their development needs rather than produce a laundry list of reforms. Although only eight countries in the region have
completed PRSPs (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Vietnam), the results in relation to the use on ICT were revealing and
insightful.
There is a clear demonstration by governments that ICT can effectively help alleviate poverty, although the manner in which it is used varies. All eight countries have plans to develop ICT as a sector and use ICT as tools to achieve other PRSP goals in education, health, employment, monitoring poverty, disseminating information,facilitating government services, and disaster management. Across the board,countries are planning to develop management information systems to improve public sector governance and service delivery.
Many governments also used ICT to disseminate information on health, government programs, employment opportunities,and disaster relief efforts. Efforts that incorporate ICT on the ground generally fall into the categories of education and increasing market access. Mongolia has the most comprehensive program to integrate ICT into the education system. Overall, Mongolia,Cambodia, and Lao PDR have outlined the most concrete actions of using ICT in their poverty alleviation strategies.
While examining PRSPs was a useful starting point, it is important to keep in mind that PRSPs by themselves do not translate policy into concrete action. Countries need a
combination of national strategy, political will, financial resources, and technical capacity to properly use ICT as tools for poverty alleviation. PRSPs are a good indicator of the direction the government hopes to progress. The next step would be to look at substantive indicators to evaluate actual progress.
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