Information and communications technology is key to ending global poverty – but only with universal access to digital skills and platforms, warns leading economist Jeffrey Sachs.
“Advanced digital technologies will play a breakthrough role in raising productivity in every sector of the economy, and hence can be key in accelerating the end of poverty,” claims Prof. Sachs in an interview published in the latest edition of Transform, Huawei’s thought leadership magazine.
Noted economist Prof. Jeffrey Sachs and Dr. Christina Yan Zhang on the cover of Transform #14
“Of course,” Sachs cautions, “If the digital divide widens, ICT can also exacerbate inequalities…¬The key is to ensure universal access to the skills and digital platforms needed across the society.”
In just six years, the United Nations aims to eradicate extreme poverty worldwide and reduce by half the proportion of people living in poverty. Yet more than 700 million people remain stuck at incomes of less than the International Poverty Line of US$2.15 a day, a threshold set by the World Bank.
Information and communications technology (ICT) is recognized as a key factor in helping individuals escape poverty or mitigate its most damaging effects. ICT also helps countries raise living standards by fueling economic growth.
For those and other reasons, the new edition of Transform presents a decidedly optimistic perspective hidden amidst the cautionary tales.
Otaviano Canuto, a former World Bank vice-president and deputy finance minister in Brazil, says that, ideally, ICT will deliver knowledge and enhance people’s capabilities.
“A major function of the World Bank is to play a hummingbird role,” Canuto says. “Hummingbirds pollinate flowers, and these multilateral institutions can also pollinate with knowledge.”
This pollination is especially crucial for people living in cities, where 80% of the world’s population will live by 2050. Christina Yan Zhang, CEO of the Metaverse Institute, says technology will be vital in delivering services to citizens through what she calls the “CitiVerse.”
“That term is a combination of ‘citizen’ and ‘Metaverse,’ she says. “We’re looking at how we can develop future cities where we put the needs of the citizens at the center. In the past, smart city developments haven’t always achieved the best outcomes…Sometimes there is a focus on technology for its own sake, rather than on how technology can be used to improve the lives of people.”
The latest interviews in the magazine and other thought leadership content can be found on the Transform web site.
Note:
Published every two months, Transform is an online and print magazine that runs video interviews, newsmaker profiles, and feature articles that examine the relationship between technology, business, and society. A PDF of the magazine can be downloaded from the web site, and a hard-copy edition is available in some geographic locations and upon request.
Each edition is about one topic. Recent examples include cyber security, healthcare, and finance.
Seven hundred million people globally live in extreme poverty, subsisting on less than US$2.15 a day. More than half live in sub-Saharan Africa and children are twice as likely as adults to be victims.
By 2030, according to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 1, we’ll have stamped out extreme poverty. In reality, says The World Bank, progress has stalled badly and about 600 million will still be caught in the extreme poverty trap.
Little wonder that guests for this edition of Transform, which looks at the impact of digital technology in tackling global poverty and inequity, are united in their skepticism of SDG1’s chances of meeting its own deadline.
But ICT at least offers hope, they say… if it’s delivered universally.
“Advanced digital technologies will play a breakthrough role in raising productivity in every sector of the economy, and hence can be key in accelerating the end of poverty,” claims the celebrated economist Professor Jeffrey Sachs.
But he adds a note of caution: “If the digital divide widens, ICT can also exacerbate inequalities and leave the weaker, poorer, less educated parts of society even further behind.”
That double-edged sword is also highlighted by Otaviano Canuto, a former vice-president of The World Bank and deputy finance minister in Brazil. ICT, he says, has the potential to increase productivity, but – without the right regulatory framework – the potential to misinform and exclude, too.
Acting in harmony will be key: “A major function of the World Bank is to play a hummingbird role. Hummingbirds pollinate flowers, and these multilateral institutions can also pollinate with knowledge,” he says.
For the CEO of the Metaverse Institute, Christina Yan Zhang, the stumbling block is as much about adoption as universality: if people lack the skills to understand the tech, then they can’t reap its benefits.
“Everything needs to be more personalized, regionalized, to cater to the needs of different countries and different industries,” she says. “Rather than trying to build everything from scratch, it all needs to be incorporated properly.”
Also in this edition:
Huawei’s rotating chairman highlights the role of private companies, global cooperation and pooled experience in “making the whole greater than the sum of its parts” and accelerating progress.
UNESCO’s chair in science and education for African food systems reveals why poor people experience more shocks and are less able to protect themselves from them.
An Indian telecoms entrepreneur points to the limitations of government intervention and the role that individuals must play in helping themselves.
A professor and data economist flags the pivotal importance of “informational capabilities” in making people, not tech, the primary focus of policies.
And the founder of the Digital Poverty Alliance explains why connecting the 3 billion unconnected makes economic as well as moral sense: “The more you can enable customers to engage with you, the better your business will be.”
Hummingbirds, swords, shocks and skills: the challenges in solving global poverty are plenty. But the prize is a great one – not just for the sake of the poorest in the world, but in the long-term interests of all of us.
