A new World Economic Forum report titled Scaling Opportunity: Information and Communications Technology for Social Inclusion analyzes how ICT is evolving to address the social and economic needs of the poor. The study notes that, as 4 billion people have access to the global communications infrastructure, the opportunity to create innovative and inclusively tailored solutions for connecting the unconnected is extraordinary.
The report notes that a primary catalyst of change in closing the connectivity gap is the accelerated adoption of mobile phones within emerging economies. Robust market competition, affordable pricing, liberalized regulation and bottom-up innovation have coalesced to create a vibrant multistakeholder ecosystem.
Along with highlighting the rapid adoption rate of mobile phone usage within emerging economies, the report focuses on the question: “What’s next?” While the adoption of baseline voice and data services has been shown to have a material economic and social impact in emerging economies, it is essential that the evolution of communication services remains economically sustainable, innovative and socially inclusive.
Within the context of rural and remote regions of emerging economies, the report highlights some of the key factors shaping the evolution of ICT. In particular, it focuses on the opportunity to move beyond small-scale pilots to unlock the efficiencies of global scale. Along with noting key requirements for scaling the communications infrastructure in a low-carbon and economically viable manner, the report also addresses the need for appropriately tailoring value-added services to meet the complex and changing needs of the poor.
In this context, it is also worth highlighting that “The Economist” wrote an interesting piece in early January on how the internet can make agricultural markets in the developing world more efficient. It cites a World Bank study that quantifies the correlation between ICT adoption and economic growth as follows:
- an increase of 10 percentage points in mobile-phone adoption increases growth in GDP per person by 0.8% in a developing country, and by 0.6% points in a developed one
- for dial-up internet access, the figures amount to 1.1% GDP growth per person in a developing country and 0.75% in a developed one
- for broadband internet, 1.4% GDP growth per person in a developing country and 1.2% in a developed one
The Economist argues that empirical data “supports the anecdotal evidence that the internet can indeed make agricultural markets more efficient, just as mobile phones can”. However, it also warns that unlike the expansion of access to mobile phones, which is now rapid and commercially self-sustaining, the same does not apply to the internet. “Its use requires a higher degree of literacy, for one thing, and computers cost more than handsets. (...) In the long run, the internet could have an even greater impact on economic growth than mobile phones did. But that will depend upon finding sustainable business models to encourage its spread in the poorest parts of the world.”
See also our previous posts on this topic:
The economic and social impact of mobile communications in developing countries
The Role of the Information and Communications Technology Sector in Expanding Economic Opportunity
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