World Bank e-Development Thematic Group/GICT & EAP Region

Present a Workshop as part of EAP ICT Learning Series

Tuesday, 26 February 2008; 9:00 am to 1:00 pm ET
Location: MC9-100, Washington DC
(Breakfast and box lunch will be provided for
registered participants, space is limited!)

Opening Remarks
(Please click on the Windows Media icon below to watch the video clips)

• Rahul Raturi, Sector Manager, EASRE 
• Philippe Dongier, Sector Manager, CITPO, GICT Department

Part 1. "Big Picture"

Moderator

• Juan Navas-Sabater, Senior ICT Policy Specialist, CITPO, GICT

Speakers

• Shobha Shetty, Senior Economist, EASRE
• Natasha Beschorner, Senior ICT Policy Specialist, CITPO, GICT (via audio)
• Darrell Owen, USAID Consultant (former Program Manager for ICT in Development, USAID)
• Stijn van der Krogt, Director, International Institute for Communication & Development (IICD)

Discussants

• Molly Tschang, Director , International Programs , Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco Systems
• Gary Garriot, Innovation Program Officer, Winrock International 

Part 2. Operationalizing ICT in the Rural Space

Moderator

Parmesh Shah, Lead Rural Development Specialist, SASDA, GICT 

Discussion

• Keith Clifford Bell, Senior Land Policy Specialist, EASRE
• Dzung The Nguyen, Operations Officer, EASVS
• Shobha Shetty, Paul Dorosh, Emily Schmidt, Soren Gigler
• Sanjay Sinha  
• Open Discussion

Program Description

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) play a key role in assisting developing countries in driving economic growth and reaching the Millennium Development Goals, by promoting a more efficient functioning of markets, creating new income-generating opportunities, making the delivery of public services more effective, transparent and efficient, connecting them to the world economy and overall contributing to the social and economic transformation of entire countries. This kind of transformation is even more necessary for rural and isolated areas, where widespread access to ICTs and effective use of these technologies for productive purposes, can make a tremendous difference in development outcomes.

Yet access to ICTs, particularly broadband Internet services, in rural areas and poor urban neighborhoods of many developing countries is still today substantially lower than in metropolitan urban areas. For instance, despite the impressive growth of cellular markets, telephone penetration in rural India today is only about 5%, whereas it is over 40% in urban areas. Even more dramatic contrasts exist in the area of access to Internet services, where the limited availability of relevant content, applications, and in some cases skills to benefit from these services, compound the problem.

Against this backdrop, there is increasing evidence that ICTs make a difference in development outcomes in rural areas, particularly when deployment of the infrastructure is accompanied by investments in provision of services that the people of the targeted communities demand. Examples abound from the farmer or fisherman who uses his cellphone to identify the market where he can get the best price for his products, to school-based rural community telecenters being used for adult literacy programs.