ICT in developing countries

Poverty, inequity and social exclusion are the most severeproblems that affect the democracy and the governancein Bolivia. Consequently, the country focus it’s work findingways to reduce them. One of the solutions can be relatedto the possibility of generating development in a mediumterm using ICT (understanding ICT to the old and new ICTs;radio, TV, Internet, and others). Nevertheless, the “revolution of the information” in Boliviahas not reached a great percentage of the rural andsuburban population. The internal Digital Gap isdemonstrated with much strength, while the general useof the new technologies has grown quickly in the urbancenters, the use of traditional and new ICTs was unableto introduce nor develop in the rural and deprived areas. Among the factors that prevent an effective use of ICTare; the low alphabetization rates; the lack of suitableinfrastructure; the low education levels; the language andcultural barriers; and the generalized lack of relevant contentthat could improve the life conditions.
In order to accelerate the reduction of the digital gap inBolivia and to increase the levels of the Information andKnowledge Society, it is necessary to have a nationalstrategy for the opportune and effective developmentof ICT in the country. This strategy should include realisticand flexible solutions appropriated to the local conditions.Furthermore, according to the political and social contextof Bolivia, these solutions must count with a strong supportand institutional endorsement of all sectors of the economy.According to the 2004 UNDP Human Development Report,the 84 percent of the population agreed that the country must have an ample access to the ICT (especially to the Internet). The 71 percent of the people, who did not have access to the net, expressed their desire to have it. However, the greater problem is based on the 52 percentof the population that do not use Internet because they do not know how it works or do not have who can teach them. On the other hand, only the 16 percent of the survey indicated that the price has more weight at the time of accessing to information.
The access to infocommunicational goods and services is one of the critical topics in the analysis of thetransformations in the country. The framework of theseprocesses in the country are; the Universal Declaration ofthe Human rights of 1948; the American Convention onHuman rights, the Bolivian Law No 1430 of 11 of Februaryof 1993; the Millennium Development Goals; theDeclaration of Bavaro; the Plan of Action of the WorldSummit of the Information Society; and the Rio declaration,among others.The Supreme Decree No. 26553 of April 9, 2002 establishedthe legal and institutional frame for the construction ofthe Information Society in Bolivia. The same year theNational Committee for the Information Society (CNSI)was proposed. Its main attribute was to define PublicPolicies in the subject. The CNSI has not suitably activateddue to the political and social surroundings of the country.Nevertheless, in order to implement the strategies and tocoordinate actions oriented to reduce the digital gap,an agency to impulse ICT in all scopes was created. TheBolivian Agency for the Development of InformationSociety (ADSIB) was established as a decentralizedorganization under the Vice-presidency of the Republic.As of that date, the efforts of the government to developand to continue with the process of inclusion to theInformation Society were few and weak. The constant changes in the government were the main obstacle todraft a national strategy. On 2004, the Bolivian governmentand UNDP started the discussion to develop a nationalstrategy. UNDP offered to cooperate in the elaborationand development of an ICT for Development strategythat could be the point of reference of the sector.Consequently, the Vice-presidency of the Republic throughits technical arm - ADSIB, the Viceministry ofTelecommunications and the Superintendence ofTelecommunications (SITTEL), with the support of the UnitedNations Programme for Development (UNDP), started tocoordinate and elaborate the National Strategy ofInformation and Communications Technologies forDevelopment (ETIC).