Information and Communication Technology Will Not Reduce Poverty in Developing Countries

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Poverty is a major problem in developing countries. This problem could cause less education, unemployment, low quality of health and lack of information among people. There are many ways to diminish poverty such as giving subsidies, reduced tax, free education and providing information and communication technology (ICT) for the poor. There are evidences that ICT such as mobile phone, computer and internet could be the solution to decrease poverty in poor countries because it could increase knowledge and open new business opportunities. However, there are also number of obstacles to apply it in those countries for poverty reduction due to lack of funds to provide infrastructures, limit knowledge to use this technology and lack of language skill. This essay will argue that information and communication technology (ICTs) are not the best way to reduce poverty in developing countries since lack of capital to deploy it, as well as limit of technical and communication skills.

ICT has several advantages for developing countries especially for increase economic growth because it could increase knowledge and give business opportunities. The major advantage is that with technology poor counties can rapidly transform their live, doing business, access information and also communication to each other. According to Rodriguez Casal (2007) ICTs are able to increase peoples knowledge and are an effective way for poverty reduction. It is because people in poor countries especially who live in rural area they can improve their knowledge and easy to get access to education. As a result with good education they can increase their quality of life for example has opportunity to get better job. In the same article the information and communication te...

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... provide the devices. Another problem many people in rural areas lack education and are unable to speak the global language. Thus, developing countries must address their economic problems and build good infrastructure such as electricity, schools, and roads for their society, after that they could use technology to develop peoples knowledge and increase the quality of life.

References

Casal, Carlos Rodriguez "ICT for education and development", info, Vol. 9 Iss: 4 (2007)

Kenny, Charles. “Should We Try to Bridge the Global Digital Divide?” info, Vol. 4, No. 3 (2002)

Leye, V. Information and Communication Technologies for Development: A Critical Perspective. Global Governance, 15(1), 29-35. (2009, January)

Maier, Sylvia G. and Michael L. Best Gender, Culture and ICT Use in Rural South India

Gender, Technology and Development May 2007 11: 137-155

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