Re: Human Development Report 1999

["Sean Kline [Mostar, Bosnia]" <skline@igc.org>]

Thanks for your additions Kate. 

Clearly to expect the internet (or IT generally) to serve disenfranchised people
throughout the world is unrealistic, particularly given that we already have
plenty of important proxies of well-being before us (literacy, health, telephone
usage, etc.). What about other agents of change such as governments (those that
have made a fiscal commitment to improving the condition of their people), NGOs
and international agencies? I wouldn't necessarily suggest that these actors
should be the focal point for yet more finite funding, but wouldn't it be fair
to say there are ripple and/or indirect effects of information flows and
technological development that do in fact benefit marginalized people? Just a thought...

Peaceably,
Sean Kline
-- 
ICMC Project Enterprise 

Kate Raworth wrote:
> 
> United Nations Development Programme has launched the Human Development
> Report 1999 on Globalisation today, 12th July.
> 
> A highlight of the Report is a chapter focused on globalisation and the
> new technologies - especially the internet. It is full of data, analysis
> and policy suggestions for how access to the internet could  be better
> spread to developing countries and to marginalised people everywhere.
> 
> Did you know...
> 
> only the top 2% of the world's people have access to the internet - and
> over half of them live in the US
> one in three internet users has at least one university degree.
> 80% of websites are in English yet only one in ten people worldwide
> speaks the language.
> 99% of IT spending is concentrated in just 55 countries.
> There are more internet hosts in Bulgaria than there are in Sub Saharan
> Africa
> In South East Asia, with almost 9% of the world's population, less than
> 0.5% of people are internet users.
> A bit tax of one US cent on every 100 emails would have raised US$ 70
> billion in 1996 - and this could have helped to make the internet truly
> global.
> 
> For further information, see www.undp.org/hdro
> 
> --
> *******************************
> Kate Raworth
> Economist
> Human Development Report Office
> UNDP
> 
> email  kate.raworth@undp.org
> tel  212 906 3668
> fax  212 906 3677
> *******************************