Introduction: The Importance of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Development
Expanding affordable access to information communication technologies (ICTs) infrastructure has become a priority for policy makers, both in developing and developed countries, as ICTs are important enablers for social inclusion and economic development. ICT infrastructure has an impact on growth through several channels: productivity gains, enhanced innovation and new ways to market goods and services, employment, and firm creation, among others (Pepper et al., 2009). The social inclusion dimension is the potential to offer services (e.g., health, education, and e-government) to all communities, however remote.
Sustainable Development Goals and Targets Regarding ICTs
Millennium Development Goals and Post 2015 Agenda: Where Do the Targets Lie in Terms of ICTs?
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has followed up on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 8F (Develop a Global Partnership for Development), which states: “In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication technologies.” The ITU uses the following indicators to track this target: telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 inhabitants, and computers and Internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants. For example, Figure 17.1 displays mobile subscribers per 100 inhabitants (i.e., mobile voice penetration) in developed and developing regions of the world based on ITU statistics.
There has been extensive debate of what goals should be included in the Post-2015 Agenda with regard to ICTs. Although covered explicitly in Goal 9 of the June 2014 Outcome Document of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the availability of ICTs also has a bearing on other areas such as lifelong learning and gender equality. Goal 9c states: “Significantly increase access to ICT and strive to provide universal and affordable access to Internet in LDCs [least developed countries] by 2020.” The question is, what is a “significant” increase? In addition, this target seems to imply universal access to the Internet in five years’ time, which may be unrealistic.