Who is online where?

The United Nations Development Programmes Agenda for Action 2000-2001 points out that information and communication technology has become one of the most important tools to tackle poverty.

However, most commentators would agree that the last couple of decades have seen a growing gap between developed and developing countries; with developing countries lagging far behind in telecommunications and information through the internet.

At the moment, knowledge of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is limited, although growing.

Much of the debate surrounding the new ICTs is clearly hype. Travel 25 miles from most African capitals and check out the ICT infrastructure because this is pretty revealing. But we need to be careful not to let the hype blind us to real opportunities for poverty reduction.   Andrew Skuse, Social Development Department - DfID

The BBC World Service Trust, with support from DFID and in association with BBC Science, has developed a series of programmes for Go Digital and two language versions in French for Africa and Bengali to raise awareness of developments in ICT and to help listeners and governments take advantage of the digital age.

The project

The Trust has developed a series of programmes for Go Digital, plus two language versions in French for Africa and Bengali, which began broadcasting in October 2002.

A training video for DFID staff and other NGOs plus a major website, Digital Destinations, accompany the programmes.

The Bengali series consists of six ten-minute episodes, with three underlying themes. The first theme is Communicating. Here the programme explores the role of ICT in improving rural people's access to information.

The second theme is Making a Living, where the programme examines how ICT is contributing to the income generating capacity of rural people.

The third theme is Infrastructure. Here the programme takes a look at the overall development of ICT in Bangladesh and where it has to go if it is to make a real contribution in the country's development.

These series is targeted at decision-makers in the target countries as well as aspirational audiences who wish to improve their standard of living and take advantage of new technology.

As the use of ICT for development grows, there is a need for people in a position of influence to understand its potential and to recognise that its impact at local and national level is increasing.

Purpose

The overall aim of the series and the subsequent language versions is to raise awareness among key decision-makers, professionals and field workers of policy priorities and good practice in the use of ICT for the reduction of poverty; in particular in helping to meet the UK Government's Millennium Targets (or International Development Goals).

Through visits to grassroots projects in two developing countries, Senegal and Bangladesh, the programmes explore the uses of Information Communication Technology in alleviating poverty, but also look at the political, economic and technical obstacles.

Projects range from schemes to teach homeless people and street children, to programming computers, to setting up rural telecentres where local doctors can learn about new medical ideas, and farmers can access the latest market prices.

The programmes not only look at the effect of these projects on the lives of the people using them, but also examine the broader political issues associated with giving wider access to Information and Communications Technology.

Why a radio series on ICT?

The Digital Divide is one of the main challenges facing the developing world today. Information and Communications Technology have become an indispensable tool in tackling world poverty.

The Internet has grown rapidly over the last few years: at the end of 1996, only 11 countries in Africa had Internet access. By the end of 2000, all 54 countries had achieved permanent connectivity and the presence of local, full service, dial-up ISPs.

However, access is still very limited and in many developing world countries there is very little awareness of the power of the Internet and little understanding of how it works. Even Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, has questioned whether computers are a priority in the hierarchy of Africa's needs.

Many politicians and decision-makers with the power to create an enabling environment do not understand either how ICT technologies work or what needs to be done to help make appropriate progress in their countries.

Many intelligent listeners are baffled by the terminology of text messaging, the World Wide Web, e-mails, analogue and/or digital radios.

Significantly, radio remains the best means of informing large numbers of people, including key decision-makers, about the possibilities of the Internet in many different areas of life.

The website

This ground breaking project also includes a major BBC News online website:

The Go-Digital radio series was web-cast live on the site as well as being transmitted on the World Service.

The site was launched at the beginning of October 2002 and has already proved a large success. In the first month alone the site received 243,602 page views.