World Telecommunications Day

May 17, 2007

A girl learns computer skills at a Free The Children vocational centre in Sri Lanka.

The benefits of technology are not equally distributed worldwide. In an effort to resolve the inequalities, the United Nations (UN) will be celebrating World Telecommunications Day on May 17. The purpose of this day is to examine and begin to close the widening gap between people who receive social and economic benefits from information and communication technology and those who do not.

The digital divide refers to the widening gap between people who have access to digital technologies, such as the Internet or cell phones, and those who do not. The world’s technological capabilities are improving steadily each year; however, many people do not have this advantage.

The gap in technology-use is influenced by gender, income and educational level, but above all, location. Rural areas generally do not have access to these technologies, nor the training to use them, only exacerbating existing inequalities.[1]

In addition to reducing poverty, improving health, protecting the environment and promoting education, the UN Millennium Declaration seeks to reduce the impact of being without technology on rural and impoverished people. One Millennium Development Goal calls for improving access to "the benefits of new technologies—especially information and communication technologies.”[2]

Remaining on the wrong side of the digital divide may result in getting stuck in the cycle of poverty. Without using digital technologies, a person is unlikely to find a higher-paying job, meaning they won’t be able to pay for a secondary or university education for their kids. Without proper training in school, their kids will not be digitally literate, meaning it will be difficult to get a higher-paying job, limiting the possibilities for their children—and so on.

Boys in Sri Lanka learn computer skills and bridge the digital divide.

By promoting education and economic development, technology has the power to improve the situations of underprivileged people in the world. Each minute that these opportunities are not available, people in developing countries will fall further behind their counterparts in developed nations, technologically and thus economically.

Did You Know That...

• There are more Internet users in the city of London than in the whole country of Pakistan.
• The entire continent of Africa has fewer Internet users than France.
• Asia has the widest digital divide. Cell phone use ranges from one per cent in countries like Bhutan and Nepal to over 90 per cent in Hong Kong and Singapore.
• In China, only 600,000 of the total 60 million Internet users are from rural areas. [3]

How do we bridge the digital divide? The UN has created the Information and Communication Technologies Task Force to deal with this question. The task force has identified education as the key to equal opportunities for technology. However, for this to succeed there must also be an improvement in peoples’ ability to meet basic needs. Technology can help in meeting the basic need of education through e-learning—a tool with particular usefulness in remote locations.[4]

What Can You Do To Help?

Education is the first step to making technology available to people in developing nations. Promote education by participating in the Brick by Brick: Schoolbuilding project. By providing children with a quality education, including basic reading skills, you will give them the fundamental tools for becoming technologically literate.

Useful Links

Free The Children is the largest network of children helping children through education in the world, with more than one million youth involved in our innovative education and development programs in 45 countries. Founded by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, Free The Children has an established track-record of success, with three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and partnerships with the United Nations and Oprah’s Angel Network.