The Internet and poverty: real help or real hype?

Citation

Covey, M. (1998), "The Internet and poverty: real help or real hype?", Kybernetes, Vol. 27 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.1998.06727haf.002

The Internet and poverty: real help or real hype?

The Internet and poverty: real help or real hype?

Keywords Cybernetics, Internet, Poverty

A new report[1] from the Panos Institute[2] investigating the impact of the Internet on the developing world, argues that there is a danger of donors investing too much in this technology when many regions still lack safe water or even an affordable telephone service.

"This debate is essential", says James Deane, co-author of the report: Internet and Poverty: Real Help or Real Hype? "The Internet has a great deal to offer in tackling poverty. The question it raises is whether donor investment in the Internet is likely to divert funds away from more traditional forms of development assistance?"

While some health workers, for example, praise the Internet for bringing them e-mail connections and cheap access to health information, others complain that this will not pay for aspirins and syringes.

What is true is that access and use of the Internet is accelerating faster in developing countries than anywhere else. By 2001, it is estimated that the number of Internet users in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern and Central Europe will have almost quadrupled from today's 7.6 million users.

"What's driving this Internet growth is business and not donor investment. Companies worldwide are realising the potential for profit in the developing world and are seizing it. The danger that donors should perhaps be addressing is the growing information poverty gap between those who have access to this technology and those who do not", says James Deane.

Mark CoveyPanos Institute

Notes

1. 1.

   Editor's note: a copy of the report on this controversial issue has been received. It covers four important concerns and a final summary/conclusion:

   1. 1.

      Who's using the Internet in the developing world.

   2. 2.

      Constraints to Internet growth.

   3. 3.

      The Internet as a developing issue.

   4. 4.

      The Internet in action.

   5. 5.

      Conclusions (with contacts and references).

   The Panos report highlights the following "key facts" which are reproduced here without comment or implied acceptance:

   • •

     Internet growth is accelerating faster in developing countries than anywhere else.

   • •

     The number of web users will almost quadruple in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and East and Central Europe by 2001.

   • •

     More than 100 Internet Service Providers have been established in sub-Saharan Africa in the last two years ­ but South Africa accounts for well over 90 per cent of Internet growth on the continent as a whole.

   • •

     More computers than television sets were sold world-wide in 1996 and some of the fastest growth in computer sales is happening in developing countries.

   • •

     While more than 17 per cent of the population of low income countries is under the age of 14, less than half the population of low income countries has access to secondary education.

   • •

     It costs around $20 a month for a low volume Internet account in North America ­ and up to around $100 per month for a similar account in Africa.

2. 2.

   Panos London, 9 White Lion Street, London N1 9PD. Tel: 0171 278 1111; Fax: 0171 278 0345; E-mail: panoslondon@gn.apc.org; Web Site: http://www.oneworld.org/panos/