Promoting ICT for Human Development in Asia 2004: Realising the Millennium Development Goals

"Promoting ICT for Human Development in Asia 2004: Realising the Millennium Development Goals" was written in an attempt to go beyond the hype surrounding the potential and promise of ICT for developing countries. The research across nine Asian countries -- China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Viet Nam -- systematically explores the potential of ICT applications towards achieving human development goals. It uses the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a benchmark to assess the extent to which this is possible.

The diversity of the nine countries presents a rich canvas for the research. The varied socio-economic, political, geographic and cultural circumstances in which ICT for human development has been explored, could provide useful insights on not only other Asian countries but also, more generally, the developing world.

The final report of almost 500 pages will be made available late in the first quarter of 2004. In the meantime, a 29-page Executive Summary is currently available for download. This Summary encompasses:

• Exploration of the potential and promise of ICT;
• Mapping of the status of ICT use and diffusion in Asia;
• Identification of challenges of ICT application, including the issue of digital divide, both between and within Asian countries;
• Selection of ICT indicators of relevance for human development;
• Construction of a composite aggregate index that ranks the nine countries on their ICT use for achieving human development goals. This ICTforHD index is the first such exercise for Asia;
• Documentation of case studies and best practices of ICT applications from the nine countries across each of the MDGs.

The Summary concludes that in spite of the limitations of these technologies, the issue of digital divide and the experimental nature of many of the applications for human development, the way forward is to support the growth and spread of ICT, steering it in the direction of human development applications. Towards this end the state, the NGOs, and the private sector have complementary roles. The Asian region is particularly well placed to harness and strategically deploy ICT for human development as it not only constitutes one of the fastest growing ICT markets, but also a region of burgeoning ICT industry.

Click here to download the executive summary report in PDF format.

Click here to download the full technical paper in PDF format.