Mobile Technologies and Empowerment:

Enhancing human development through participation and innovation

UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy, New York
United Nations Development Programme UNDP 2012 

“……….Mobile technologies are opening new channels of communication
between people and governments, potentially offering greater access to
public information and basic services to all. No other technology has been
in the hands of so many people in so many countries in such a short period
of time.

Recent estimates indicate that Information Communication Technologies
ICTs could be accessible to everyone by 2015 and bring internationally agreed
development targets ever closer to achievement Indeed, we are witnessing a
new wave of democratization of access to innovative ICT channels, propelled
by state-of-the-art technologies and diminishing barriers to entry.

…..In a global population of nearly seven billion people, the total number of
mobile phone subscriptions globally is an astonishing 5.4 billion — and
counting.1 Given that individual subscribers may have multiple and/or inactive
SIM cards, the actual number of individual mobile subscribers worldwide is
estimated at around 3.9 billion. Latest figures indicate that mobile phone
penetration rates stand at almost 45 percent in low-income countries and 76
percent in lower middle-income countries …

….Given that entire villages in poor and/or rural communities will often share
one or two cell phones, it is also estimated that 80 to 90 percent of people in
some poor countries have at least minimal access to a cell phone . Furthermore,
close to 80 million mobile subscribers, most of them in developing countries,
have no access to the electrical grid — and yet use a mobile phone.

…..That is in part because mobile technologies offer portable, real-time
communication and information access for people who previously had little to
no access to affordable communication channels. Mobiles have relatively low
physical infrastructure requirements and can reach remote areas in a more
cost-effective fashion than other ICTs such as the Internet or fixed phone lines.

In some places, mobile devices are simply the only option available. And mobile
phones require only basic literacy, making the barriers to entry much lower than
with other modern ICTs. Yet, mobile services for people at the bottom of the
pyramid remain high: the price basket for mobile services can amount to 15.75
percent of monthly average per capita income in countries with low human
development (compared with 4.86 percent in medium human development
contexts). And coverage in remote or marginalized areas is often nonexistent.

There are indications that at least ten percent of the global population and 40
percent of people in least developed countries are not covered by a mobile
network, entrenching divisions between populations in urban centres and
poorer populations in the periphery.

“….However, mobile phone subscriptions in the developing world are rapidly
outpacing those in the developed world and costs are coming down. Moreover,
public investment and public-private partnerships are becoming essential tools
for extending connectivity, services and information.

As a result, mobile technologies are starting to have an indelible impact on
human development, enhancing democratic governance and other development
areas such as health, education, agriculture, employment, crisis prevention
and the environment…..”

“….By themselves, mobile phones will neither pull people out of poverty, nor
propel democratic governance. Instead they are catalytic tools for enhancing
and broadening development programming if deployed strategically. They
open new channels for connecting the poor to services, new ways for citizens 
to have their voices heard, and new opportunities for civic engagement in larger
governance processes…..”

Disponible online en: http://bit.ly/Hh2Q6E

Imagen obtenida de: newspano.com