As top-ranking delegates meet in Doha under the theme 'Build-ing the Infor-mation Society Together', we are reminded again of the challenges faced in bridging the digital divide. In the last quarter of 2005, the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia was closely followed by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta, which had as its theme 'Networking the Commonwealth for Development'.
The fact that three high-level meetings on similar themes have been scheduled, and so well supported, within the space of just a few months signals the importance our leaders and decision makers place on increasing accessibility to the information society to promote development and to assist in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
The purpose of the World Telecommunication Development Conference is to agree on development priorities in view of the high-level recognition of the digital divide between developing and developed nations created by the rapid but uneven expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs).
ICTs, and the digital divide, encompass a multitude of aspects, and many complex and interrelated factors must be successfully addressed before the inequalities between all of the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' will be completely removed. This is an ambitious, long-term target.
However, of the various dimensions of the digital divide: information rich versus info-poor countries, age and gender disparities in access, public versus private sector differences, the aspect whose bridging could most quickly lead to the creation of a true global village is the urban-rural divide, especially in developing countries.
Roughly 65 per cent of the world's population and 85 per cent of the world's poor people live in villages. Some 60 per cent of the world's population have never used a telephone, and 80 per cent has never used the Internet.
Of the global population that is employed, less than one per cent work for a corporate entity, and an overwhelming number of employed people are self-employed, or work for small, micro or medium enterprises (SMME), mostly in rural areas.
While urban areas, large public institutions and major corporations are relatively well served by communications, rural communities and small rural enterprises, even in many developed countries, are not. The problems of the rural poor are often further exacerbated in small landlocked developing countries, and small island states.
In the development sector, where the global focus is on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (notwithstanding the language out of the September 2005 Summit in New York of world leaders), there is consensus that rural poverty must be alleviated if the MDGs are to be achieved.
To the commercial sector, particularly from the developed countries where the communications hardware market is already saturated, rural populations represent the last almost untapped market segment.
To governments, the disproportionate level of poverty among rural populations, which causes a drain on scarce resources, is a continual headache. To the rural poor populations themselves, connectivity with the developed world represents an opportunity to keep in contact with family and friends, to engage in business on more equal terms, and enables them to exercise their right to play an active role in the global community.
A virtuous cycle of development
While overall national economic growth is one of the primary objectives of developing countries, that growth will comprise an accumulation of economic development at every level of society. Rural communities are still predominantly primary producers who sell their raw produce.
Most are not able to generate more revenue by processing, or adding value, to their produce, often because infrastructure is inadequate to support all but the most simple of industries, and adequately skilled human resources are not available locally.
ICTs can contribute to creating an environment at the village level, which is both conducive to investment, better health and better education. This, in turn, enables economic diversification.
Coupled with this, an educated and healthy workforce living in rural communities can provide labour to the new industries, and, eventually, to bring prosperity. It is this virtuous cycle of development that we believe ICTs should be able to induce.
Viewed from whichever perspective, rural connectivity remains both a challenge and an opportunity. Indeed, using ICTs to empower rural people, enabling them to have greater access to literacy, knowledge, better health, income generating activities, participation in democratic governance and protecting their human rights and the environment remains one of the most thrilling outcomes of our time.
This has been made possible by a unique historical confluence of policy initiatives, regulatory best practices, technological innovation and convergence, and good business opportunities in the ICT world. As an example of this confluence, some governments have established Universal Access Funds.
These funds are used as a means to collect funds from the higher-demand, more profitable, predominantly urban markets to offset the additional costs of rural service provision. Wireless technologies, which are faster to deploy and incur lower through-life costs are often used to connect communities for the first time.
Involvement of the user community
One of the stated objectives of the WDTC is to promote international co-operation and partnerships that can sustain and strengthen telecommunication infrastructure and institutions in developing countries. Of course, this is necessary, laudable and wholeheartedly encouraged.
However, arguably, even more than with some other forms of infrastructure development, rural ICT projects require participation of, and buy-in from, the end-users of the ICTs.
Many of us with a telecommunications pedigree in the ICT sector are familiar with a supply-led distribution model. This is even the case with the rapid roll-out and uptake of mobile telephones, for which the majority of customers are still predominantly in urban areas.
Educated, well-travelled people in these areas, many of whom have discretionary spending power to support early adoption of new technologies, provide role models and examples for others to follow.
In rural settings, where very poor people do not have such discretionary resources, education and literacy levels may be much lower, and most of the people with whom an individual comes into contact are others with similar lifestyles and experiences, this supply-led model is much less likely to work.
Nevertheless, in recent years the irrefutable positive correlation between access to communications and economic growth in the fastest developing countries leads immediately to the conclusion that availability of accessible communications technologies is a pre-requisite for economic progress in the poorest communities too - which are predominantly in rural areas.
So, assisting rural people to harness the benefits that ICTs could offer has to be as much a development priority as provision of infrastructure is.
Telecentres, or community ICT kiosks, are the most commonly found implementation of rural communications. The most successful projects include an element of entrepreneurship, involving some income-generation for sustainability, which offers incentives to the telecentre operator to offer high-quality services matched to the specific demands of the local community.
For this reason, the involvement of the user community in the planning and implementation, and the flexibility to adapt to the local context, is essential. This is the app-roach that the CTO has taken in implementing its Tele-Co-op rural communications concept.
Furthermore, given the critical importance of connectivity, just as for other essential public utilities, it is also crucial that acceptable and consistent service levels are assured by an overall government-led framework, which also ensures that ICTs are systematically mainstreamed into national-level planning.
Business best practice and investment capital can establish and sustain robust and efficient businesses. Development agencies also have a role to play by judicious allocation of critical re-sources to catalyse a fertile environment for improved governance, investment and growth.
This concept of public-private partnerships is not new to development. However, as described above, the inclusion of the end-users (the people) is critically important for rural ICT projects, and has led the CTO to add a fourth "P" to give birth to the concept of "Public-Private-People's Partnerships".
Civil society organisations and NGOs often have the best developed community mobilisation skills and understand the intricate dynamics that are often unique to a particular community. The inclusion of such organisations is critical to effectively represent "people" in this dynamic.
While all stakeholders share common objectives, and have valuable resources to contribute, they are often constrained by their own dominant logic, and often lack common paradigms and language with which to work together effectively.
To maximise the benefits, which working in a PPPP can deliver, all stakeholders must persist to find ways to understand, and work in synergy with, each other.
Thanks to the generosity of donations from the government and people of Malta, the CTO is working with partners in a PPPP project to develop community telecentres in the tsunami-affected areas of southern Sri Lanka.
High-level commitment
The 'Tunis Declaration' and the 'Tunis Agenda for the Information Society' from WSIS II, and the 'Malta Declaration' from the CHOGM reinforce and support each other, and affirm world leaders' commitment to use ICTs to help tackle poverty - this includes the allocation of funds through the WSIS Digital Solidarity Fund, and the Commonwealth's Special Fund.
All seek to contribute to achieving Millennium Development Goals through collaboration between the public and private partnerships addressing what the CTO has labelled the five pillars of ICT: e-government, e-agriculture, e-health, e-commerce and e-education.
Additionally, the Commonwealth Action Programme for the Digital Divide (CAPDD) has been proposed as the roadmap to ensure ICTs play a prominent, effective role to bring prosperity to all of the Common-wealth's 53 countries, many of which are among the least developed countries, islands or small landlocked developing countries.
Through the Commonwealth ITU group, of which it is a member, the CTO will be promoting the prioritisation of rural communications projects in national and international ICT planning.
The next steps
The current popularity of rural communications is well founded. ICTs offer real opportunities for rural communities to compete more equally in the global world.
The rural poor in developing countries stand to gain tremendously from the benefits of participating in the information society; similar benefits to those that have driven the economies of the most developed countries in recent years.
ICTs should be leveraged to induce a virtuous cycle of development in rural areas, which could improve health and education, encourage investment in industry, create jobs and bring additional revenue to rural communities.
When economic growth in rural areas is accelerated, it will contribute to national economic growth, and bring prosperity to the developing countries.
Enabling rural people to benefit from the information society is not simply a case of providing infrastructure, although infrastructure is essential.
Moreover, a supply-led model is unlikely to work as effectively as an approach that encourages the active participation of the end users, and civil society organisations, which can help them to articulate their specific needs, and to participate effectively.
All stakeholders can, and need to, make valuable contributions to public-private-people partnerships to create appropriate solutions, within a sustainable business framework that will continue to contribute to the prosperity of the community and the country after the initial capital injection and intensive support has ended.
Leaders at the WSIS, and the CHOGM have pledged commitment and begun to mobilise funds to use ICTs to bridge the digital divide to alleviate poverty and achieve Millennium Development Goals. The WTDC offers an opportunity to take the next steps, and to develop an action plan to turn the vision of the inclusive information society into reality.
Assisting rural communities to join the information society would make a significant difference to more than half of the world's population, and accelerate progress towards the Millennium Develop-ment Goals. This step is critical; for unless this significant stakeholder group is engaged, we cannot truly claim to be building the information society together.
The CTO thus urges delegates at WTDC to make "inclusion of rural communities in the information society through ICT" the central priority of the envisaged Doha Action Plan.