Closing the Digital Divide: A Growing Role for IT?

By Planet Work news

There appears to be a growing recognition that IT may be a prime mover in reducing poverty.

The ILO's Word Employment Report of 2001 concluded that despite the growing potential of information technology to create jobs in the industrialized world, the gap between the technology rich and technology poor world was widening.

Greater attention has begun to be given to the development of affordable technologies, such as a cheaper mobile phone, low wattage PC and increasing access to the internet. Low wattage PCs, for example, have increased the communications between coffee producers in Laos to determine prices so that they can negotiate more successfully with wholesalers. PCs can be powered by pedaling a bicycle.

The ILO provides other examples of sustainable solutions.

(ILO World of Work; no 55, December 2005)