AT&T and UNDP Execs Discuss Global IT Gap

By Todd Neff (MALD ’00)

The United Nations Development Programme and U.S. telecoms giant AT&T are rarely mentioned in the same breath. However, on Feb. 1, Fletcher adjunct professor Crocker Snow, Jr. brought executives from these disparate organizations to the Fletcher School. Hans d'Orville, Director, UNDP IT for Development Programme, and Burt Wolder, Public Relations Vice President, AT&T Labs and Network Services, spoke on "IT as a Tool for Development" at an event sponsored by the Fletcher Ledger, the International Communications Group, and the Edward R. Murrow Center.

In his opening remarks, Snow, who is also editor-in-chief of The World Paper, framed the discussion by stating, "The connection between the level of development in a society and its IT infrastructure is ever more clear." At the same time, however, there is evidence of a widening gulf in technological capabilities at the opposite poles of development. "There is a tremendous gap between north and south," warned d'Orville, "and if we let this continue, this gap will be huge within three years."

Professor Crocker Snow and AT&T's Burt Wolder

The event was billed as a meeting of the minds between the diverse worlds of high-tech business and development agencies. It played out as two distinct presentations on technology in development. Combined, they painted a broad picture of IT in the development context.

Wolder began by describing the advances in communication technology made by developed countries and their developing counterparts. During a well-honed data show directed by wireless mouse, Wolder offered a number of statistics showing the enormous technological changes in the United States compared to other nations. To illustrate, he said that optical fiber capacity is doubling every year; data transmission is rising at a 300 percent annual clip; Internet backbone capacity is skyrocketing 1000 percent annually; venture capital funding is doubling every year; and more venture capital was invested in Silicon Valley in the third quarter of 1999 than in all of 1998.

The AT&T executive also introduced emergent technologies his employer views as "disruptive," and revolutionary technologies where "the failure to recognize them can sink an otherwise healthy industry." AT&T, according to Wolder, realizes that its core long-distance business is becoming increasingly commoditized. The company is therefore embracing a slew of technologies it views as fundamental to the coming networked economy such as broadband consumer access (in particular cable-modem access, AT&T's mode of choice), photonics, and wireless Web access.

D'Orville, speaking with a mild German accent from handwritten notes, put all this technology in a different perspective: "It's not about technology," he said, "it's about keeping up or staying ahead in the global rat race. Technology is only a tool."

The technologies that we use today—led by the Internet—have created a new economy that only exists in a few countries, according to d'Orville, who said that IT is driving "a dramatic structural revolution of the global economy in a way we have never before seen."

Hans D'Orville, Director of the UNDP IT for Development Programme

D'Orville introduced the idea of technological "leapfrogging" as one of the great hopes for the developing world. He cited Bangladesh’s grass roots Grameen Phone project as an example of how a country with scant communications infrastructure can call overseas without the enormous fixed costs traditionally required. "In the knowledge economy,” said d'Orville, “you can jump from zero to the state of the art." For example, advances in low-cost digital devices may render PCs themselves unnecessary for Web access.

Were such development this simple, d'Orville would be out of a job. To illustrate the challenges the leaders of developing countries face, he presented the elements of a solution using a broad taxonomy whose name--"One 'A' and Six 'C's"-- belies the complexities of its execution (see sidebar).

D'Orville discussed a number of ways in which technology is currently being used in developing world. While farmers in the Philippines check the Web for crop prices, development agencies are using the Internet to ensure that aid-worker skills are well matched to the remote villages that are to receive their assistance. Telecenters in South Africa are enhancing political participation by women. There are six times more small business owners than spots available in UNDP-sponsored e-commerce training sessions.

But d'Orville also sees a lack of effort on the part of leading corporations of the developed world. "When will we have a computer with a solar [power] strip?" he asked. He also proposed meatier development initiatives. These included IT-for-debt swaps, in which developing-country debt would be written off in exchange for gains in IT infrastructure, and the creation of a consortium of leading firms like AT&T and Microsoft that would finance and support initiatives to help narrow the spectrum of the world's technological haves and have-nots.

Hans d'Orville's "One 'A' and Six 'C's" for Leveraging IT in Developing Countries

Awareness
Understanding what this new economy is and what it means to local governments.

Connectivity
Equipment and connections between them.

Capacity
Not just hardware and software, but the capacity of people to harness new technologies must be developed. This includes computer literacy and requisite regulatory institutions.

Content
Content must be local as well as global.

Communications and Networking
Not just equipment, but people must be ready for indirect, immediate communications.

Creativity
Lacking fundamental elements of developed-country IT and legal infrastructure (universal telephone service, reliable electricity grids, consumer protection laws, etc.), developing countries and those wishing to do business in them need to be inventive to succeed.

Cash
IT and training costs money.

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