Information technologies are key to Third World aid plan, writes Jamie Smyth, Technology Reporter.

Global leaders, including the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, gathered at the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva yesterday to outline a vision of how information communication technologies (ICT) can help developing countries combat poverty.

The message was simple: ICT can provide a powerful tool to help alleviate poverty, hunger and disease as long as access to communications is universal and affordable in developing nations.

It is also essential for states undergoing the transformation from an industrial society, which marked the 20th century, to the information society that will dominate the 21st century.

Few will argue with the grandiose vision outlined in detail at the summit, but delivering ICT solutions in areas of severe poverty and weak technological infrastructure will be a difficult task.

Back in 2001 the UN estimated that 96 per cent of the computers that host the internet reside in the highest income nations with just 16 per cent of the population.

Earlier this week, the International Telecommunication Union Development Report 2003 highlighted that the digital divide persisted with six times more internet users in Japan than in the whole of Africa. The report also found that the lack of data on access and use of ICT in the developing world is a major barrier to understanding the digital divide.

For example 60 per cent of all internet-user surveys are carried out in the world's wealthiest economies, while in the five poorest countries no internet surveys have yet been conducted.

But this lack of data could hide some better news for developing nations, says the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

"The number of internet users in most developing countries is usually based on Government guesstimates or vague estimates," says Ms Vanessa Gray, the ITU's telecoms analyst and co-author of the 2003 report.

Developing nations that eventually undertake internet-user surveys often find they have vastly underestimated the use of ICTs. For example a new survey in Jamaica found 23 per cent of the public were using the internet, significantly more than the 5 per cent penetration rate that was estimated before the survey.

There are also brighter spots on the horizon such as the explosion in mobile use in Africa. The number of mobile phones has shot up from about one million in 1996 to nearly 30 million in 2002.

Increasingly, Africans are using mobile phones to run their businesses, and internet cafes are beginning to spring up in towns throughout the continent.

The Taoiseach's speech to the summit was timely, given the Government's publication this week of a new ICT for Development action plan. The strategy, much of which is outlined in the Report of the Task Force on ICT and Development, will integrate specific technology policies into its development aid action plan.

The strategy contains 21 key recommendations, including a proposal to set up an Irish technology volunteer corps staffed by ICT professionals willing to devote time to the developing world.

These volunteers could either work on the ground in developing countries or provide virtual support from Ireland.

Another key recommendation is the establishment of a register of private ICT firms based in the Republic that agree to provide support for aid projects. Firms will be encouraged to mentor and set up trading relationships with companies in developing countries, says Mr Tom Kitt, Minister of State for Development Co-operation and Human Rights.

"I see this strategy as a major part of a modernisation process for our aid strategies," he says "ICT will be crucial to help developing nations meet the millennium development goal of halving the number of people living in poverty by 2015."

The report recommends that the Government commit €15 million over three years to the new ICT strategy. Mr Kitt has yet to decide whether this will all come from his Department's €350 million budget, but he insists funding will not be a major issue.

The involvement of the private sector in the ICT development plan reflects a wider move by he Department's Development Co-operation Ireland group to tap into the resources of companies operating in Ireland.

Intel, Accenture, Vision Consulting and Microsoft all made submissions to the taskforce on ICT and Development outlining their vision for development aid.

The Irish Internet Association also pledged this week to inform its 400 member companies about the project at the strategy launch.

"There is a lot of potential for companies like ourselves or other big Irish firms such as Dell, IBM and HP to get involved," says Mr Terry Landers, head of corporate affairs at Microsoft.

"I think with our history in this country of famine there is a culture of volunteerism... There is an agreement in principle for us to get involved and we will consider proposals brought by Development Co-operation Ireland."

In fact, Irish technology volunteers are already making a difference in parts of Africa. The Dublin-based charity Suas has linked up with Gatoto primary school in Nairobi, Kenya, to introduce technology to its pupils.

MediaLab Europe is also involved in this development project, which is based in a shanty town, where the average income is less than $1 per day.

Mr Gary McDarby, head of the Mindgames group at MediaLab Europe, travelled to Nairobi this summer to help run a three-week teaching-training course. It is hoped these teachers will be able to pass on skills to their pupils.

Hospice Africa is an example of another Irish-funded project that is seeking to use ICT to provide remote diagnostics in parts of Uganda.

Development Co-operation Ireland is supporting a programme that enables nurses and community workers to use a mix of e-learning software and more traditional materials to support the deployment of morphine to people suffering from AIDS.

"This project allows people to die with dignity in their own communities when they live miles away from the nearest healthcare centre," says Mr Aidan Eames, chairman of the Government ICT and development taskforce.

This type of distance-learning programme is currently being piloted in Uganda but it is hoped that it will be extended to Mozambique and Ethiopia to help alleviate the suffering of AIDS patients.

ICT can play a major role in empowering communities in developing countries. It can also enable people to take up an advocacy role and campaign on their own behalf, says Mr Eames. He also, however, sounds a note of caution about the potential of using ICT in development work.

"ICTs in themselves are not the panacea or the silver bullet that solve development issues, but there is a clear role to integrate them into development strategies," he says. "This should be driven by the countries themselves and local people. It should also be more demand driven."

There have been examples in the past in Africa where certain development projects have provided ICT equipment to a particular scheme with little support or consideration for the situation on the ground.

In one instance, Mr Eames witnessed a whole room of computers lying idle because there were no electricity sockets to provide the necessary power.

Similarly, the Hospice Africa project was initially intended to be a purely Web-based project but it was found that a lack of basic ICT equipment and skills meant it should be delivered via a range of more traditional media, such as books and CDs, as well.

For this reason the new Irish strategy will not focus on increasing spend on technology as an objective in itself. Rather, it will be tied into the demands of the host country, says Mr Eames.