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HILARY BENN, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT,
UK GOVERNMENT, UK PRESIDENCY OF THE EU
The year 2005 has been one of development. The Commission for Africa report, the G8 Summit, the Millennium Review
Summit and the World Summit on the Information Society all highlight the important role that information and
communication technology (ICT) plays in development.
The European Union (EU) is the world’s largest donor. EU overseas development funding has been increasing since 2000
and it has committed to doubling its aid budget by 2010. A growing proportion of this aid goes to developing country
governments directly to support their own development plans and budgets. They choose how much to allocate to ICT.
Priorities are set locally and EU donors respond to these priorities.
Most developing countries see ICT not as an end in itself, but as a means to an end. So they include ICT as an increasingly
important and integral part of development activities in areas such as governance and public administration, health,
economic growth, education, natural resource management and disaster prevention. For example, ICT is playing a major role
in the fight against HIV and Aids through activities like the popular South African educational soap opera
Soul City
. Most EU
donors share this approach and consequently ICT forms an integral part of many EU-funded programmes.
Both traditional ICT (telephone, radio, TV and print media) and new ICT (mobile phones, Internet) are increasingly
recognized as crucial in many ways for development and poverty reduction. The benefits of ICT are far-reaching: connecting
schools to the Internet; enabling remote rural communities to get urgent medical advice by phone; giving farmers access to
market price information; and potentially halving the costs of sending remittances. Mobile phones are already being used in
developing countries to transfer cash virtually, bringing micro-credit and banking services to previously excluded poorer
communities. ICT can enable people to discuss issues, to make their concerns known, to hold their governments
accountable and to participate more effectively in political processes. Thus ICT is an essential component of the
participation, transparency, and good governance that are increasingly seen (for instance by the Africa Commission) as the
crucial basis for development and poverty reduction.
Many developing countries have seen the private sector play a major role in increasing access to ICT, not least through the
explosive growth of mobile phones. But governments, with donor support, still have an important role to play: in creating an
environment to attract investors; ensuring that the communication needs of the poorest and most marginalised people are
met, often through innovative public-private partnerships; and introducing ICT into government functions and services.
The Africa Regional ICT Infrastructure Plan prepared by Africa Union and The New Partnership for African Development is
a good example of what could be achieved if governments, the development community and the private sector each play their
part – a good litmus test, perhaps, of whether all the positive words spoken at summits such as this actually translate into real
action on the ground. The EU will play its part under the new Infrastructure Partnership with Africa. Let’s make it happen.
Hilary Benn
Secretary of State for International Development
UK Government, UK Presidency of the EU