Digital Poverty: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives

This book represents the first publication of the Regional Dialogue on the Information Society (DIRSI), a regional network of leading researchers concerned with the creation and dissemination of knowledge that supports effective participation in the Information Society by the poor and marginalized communities of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Over the past two decades, market reforms in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector have served as a powerful engine for infrastructure investments and service expansion in developing nations. More people have gained access to ICT services since market reforms started in the early 1990s than in the many decades that preceded these reforms. The economic and social benefits have been manifold. As the telephone, the Internet, and even older ICT such as broadcasting became more accessible and generally more affordable, more people began using them to access new markets and be more productive, to seek better health-care, to take advantage of lifelong educational opportunities, to strengthen family and community bonds, and to demand better services and more accountability from their governments.

Nonetheless there continue to be large numbers of people and communities without adequate access to ICT in the developing world. This book examines the different dimensions of this problem from the vantage point of the experience in Latin America and the Caribbean. As the chapters that follow reveal, further market reforms are clearly needed in many cases. However, these chapters also reveal the limitations of market reforms to ensure that the benefits of the Information Society penetrate across the multiple social and economic divides that characterize the region. In the rush to attract private investments, privatize inefficient operators and establish new industry regulators, the adequate supply of ICT services to the more vulnerable sectors of the population and the more isolated communities was, for much of the 1990s, relegated to the policy backburner.

The chapters that follow reflect a diverse set of studies undertaken by DIRSI members under the common theme of pro-poor, pro-market ICT policies. This theme seeks to support next-generation policy reforms that build on the achievements of market liberalization efforts but at the same time address the realities of what we call digital poverty - a concept that seeks to grasp the multiple dimensions of inadequate levels of access to ICT services by people and organizations, as well as the barriers to their productive use.

To be sure, some Latin American and Caribbean countries have been pioneers in the implementation of universal access programs, and have attained impressive results in the provision of ICT access to underserved segments of the population. However, we believe the time is right to make a leap forward towards an effective ICT adoption in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as other developing regions of the world. Towards this end we must seize the opportunity offered by the lessons learned from the first and second generation of reforms, by the technological innovations that are taking place in the sector, and by the increased visibility of ICT access inequalities.

We now know that access is a necessary step towards ICT adoption but it is not sufficient in itself. ICTs are technological tools that require training; human capacity is a prerequisite for adoption. Internet access is useful only if content is meaningful; if local actors participate in its implementation making sure it addresses local needs. The aim of this book is to initiate the leap towards a new perspective on ICT access, and to develop an analytical framework that examines the critical variables involved in effective ICT adoption in developing regions of the world.

The full report can be downloaded here: http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/342-3/