e-ForAll: A Poverty Reduction Strategy for the Information Age

Pervasive poverty and inequality amidst plenty is the major threat to prosperity, stability and peace at the dawn of the 21st Century. Notwithstanding extensive discourse about the digital divide, most information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives start by encouraging nations to become e-ready: to boost economic growth and increase e-commerce. These initiatives will help countries grow and contribute to poverty alleviation. But globalization and ICT development tend to increase inequality. Countries that seek widespread prosperity and social stability would do well to focus instead on e-ForAll; i.e. on making the OPPORTUNITIES that ICTs open up for individual and social improvement accessible to all its citizens; and on applying ICTs to EMPOWER common folk and engage their participation in national and local development initiatives, and to increase personal and societal SECURITY.

ICTs are no magic wand. Reducing poverty requires leadership, a national consensus that acknowledges poverty as a major problem to be overcome, and the will of nations to invest and make concerted long term sustained efforts to achieve equitable growth. The solutions to poverty are generally known and often require action in matters that have little to do with technology. What ICTs offer is an unprecedented set of tools; an opportunity for a win-win situation that make the provision of services and the opening of opportunities for the poor less costly to achieve than ever before. It is, nevertheless, an opportunity that needs to be seized and built upon.

e-ForAll is a strategic public policy guide to the application of ICTs in the fight against poverty. The guide's recommendations are grouped in 5 main themes, and may be summarized as follows.

Widespread Access to Networks

Are there widespread low-cost means for the majority of the population to access reliable ICT networks, services and equipment? Are there specific programs directed at securing full access by low-income people and enhancing development impact of ICT use?

Democratic Networked Learning

Do the public systems of formal and vocational education integrate ICTs into its processes to improve learning by the majority of the population? Does it train and prepare a workforce that is computer and Internet literate and is capable of upgrading its skills frequently?

Networked Competitive Development For All

Are small firms, microentrepreneurs, small farmers and wageworkers being incorporated into the network economy?

Networked Social Development

Are national institutions that support social development and security making effective use of ICTs and social participation in their delivery of services targeted to low-income members of society?

ICTs and Poverty Reduction in National Development Policy

Is poverty reduction a centerpiece of national policy? Is the application of ICTs to reduce poverty encouraged? Are ICT development and poverty reduction policies affordable, institutionally viable, transparent, sustainable, participatory and subject to review and adjustment?

Additional details on the scope and significance of these 5 main themes are given in the document.

e-ForAll is work in progress. Its application is being tested on a trial basis in Peru, with funding from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and in collaboration with the College of Communication of the University of Texas. With adjustments for context, e-ForAll should be amenable for application in other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and elsewhere.

Above summary submitted by the author to the GKD list serve July 19, 2002. Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: Global Learning Group site.