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July 7, 2004
Private Sector Contributions to Achieving the Millennium Development Goals
Dasho Tashi Phuntsog, Secretary Minister of ICTs for the nation of Bhutan, chaired the afternoon panel, which was dedicated to the role of the private sector in helping achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. Mashudu Ramano of African Legend Investments spoke first, giving a presentation on his company's efforts to fund South African ICT initiatives. Owned and managed by black South Africans, ALI subscribes to the Millennium Development Goals, and believes that business is the most important social institution besides government. "A business becomes successful because of the community in which it does business," he said. "Business must play a very important role in addressing the issues that society is confronted with."
"The poverty we face isn't a lack of resources," he said; instead, it is "a lack of eyes" that are able to see the opportunities around us, and the inability to mobilize community forces to take action. Despite being a large continent with many natural resources, Africa doesn't see the opportunities and can't mobilize to take advantage of them, he said.
In South Africa's Gauteng province, they are doing an ICT project in which creates Internet access for communities far from the major urban centers. Ramano says that they've partnered with leading ICT companies from around the world, which has been very beneficial for their initiatives. These partnerships have been driven largely by black-owned South African businesses. He said they've embraced Paulo Frere's philosophy, "Each one, teach one" - in other words, everyone has a role to play in improving community economic development, including those who are the beneficiaries of these efforts.
Relief for Africa will not come unless we decide to do it ourselves, he said. "No one is going to do it for us," he concluded. "If anything has to be, it is up to me. It must start with me."
Stephen Parry of Vodaphone Group then gave a presentation about the role of mobile telephony in global development. In Africa, there are more than twice as many mobile phone users than fixed-line users, he said; in some countries like Benin and Kenya, the ratio is more than three mobiles for every one fixed-line phone. "Mobile is playing a leading role in establishing communications infrastructures around the globe," he said, noting that it's a leap-frogging technology. In South Africa alone, more than 100 million minutes are used each month by people utilizing public mobile phone centers. In least developed countries, mobile phones are becoming a vital aspect of local telecommunications infrastructure, kickstarting entrepreneurship and spurring investment. "Ultimately, it leads to more jobs and higher incomes," he said.
Vodaphone has begun commissioning case studies examining the impact of mobile phones on national GDPs and bridging the digital divide, among other areas of interest. They also want to quantify how mobile telephony is impacting healthcare, particularly in LDCs. "We believe we have a good story to tell, but we also believe that we're not just another industry… We believe that the services we provide… can be extremely positive for people across the world." He said that they need to conduct research differently, such as quantifying mobile ownership versus use. In Uganda, for example, only four percent of people own phones, yet 80% of the population are users. So simply transporting business models from the developed world to the developing world are totally inappropriate, he said. Parry then warned against the over-reliance on universal service funds and other public-interest obligations, as they are barriers to the development of the mobile phone market - a point that many activists might disagree with.
Erin Walsh of Cisco Systems wrapped up the session of private sector presentations. She described Cisco CEO John Chambers' vision that the Internet and education are the two great equalizers in life - a philosophy the company has embraced as it addresses the Millennium Development Goals. She described the Cisco Networking Academy program, which now has more than 10,000 academies in 155 countries. Students are offered network certification courses - courses to which they might otherwise not have had access.
Cisco seeks to give students in LDCs the same opportunities that their peers have in developed countries - a goal that requires partnerships with institutions like the UNDP. They now have 174 academies in 37 LDCs and nine African non-LDC nations. These programs are leading to high success rates, with some of the best test scores coming from students in Madagascars, Eritrea and other LDCs - so much so that students in LDCs are scoring comparably to students in non-LDC countries.
Additionally, Cisco has launched a gender initiative so that young women are given equal opportunity in local Networking Academies. In least developed countries, nearly 31% of academy students are women - the highest ratio of women of any region in the world for this program.
Walsh noted there are still many challenges for the program, including physical infrastructure, the cost of Internet access, and a lack of political will that prevents translating rhetoric into reality. But she stated that CISCO is focused on this initiative as a long-term education strategy. "We are collectively changing mindsets," she said. "Your wealth is in your people…. Fifty percent or more of your communities are youth, and if you focus on them … they too will be able to contribute to the development of your countries."
Moderator Shondeep Banerjee of the Commonwealth Business Council offered some closing remarks. "One of the things that's come up over the years is that governments can't do it alone… I think that realization has taken a while to seep in but it's happening." These presentations, he said, demonstrate the way governments and the private sector can work hand-in-hand to bridge the digital divide and alleviate poverty. He cited mobile telephony projects in which young people get SMS text messages about AIDS education and other health messages - a small, but very practical and important use of ICTs.
At the end of the session, a government representative from Somalia reiterated the importance of public and private support of ICT programs in post-conflict nations. In Somalia, he said, more than 70 former militiamen were recently trained through various international ICT programs; now they are working as network technicians. ICTs, he said, are a tool for fostering peace and rebuilding countries that have only known war for many years.
Posted by acarvin at July 7, 2004 7:52 AM
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