ICTlogy

Abstract:

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) encompass a set of ambitious international targets to reduce poverty and hunger, address child and maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB, increase gender equality, access to education, clean water and sanitation, and reduce environmental degradation. They also include a global partnership for development focusing on measures related to trade, aid, debt and increasing access to the benefits of information and communication technologies – among other things. While the need for increased development finance to scale-up interventions and social and physical infrastructure has been acknowledged as being essential for achieving these objectives, the important role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in facilitating a more effective and transparent use of resources, scaling-up of services, and in catalysing learning, investment and trade, have not always been factored into MDGrelated strategies. The upcoming World Summit in September 2005, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in November 2005 provide valuable opportunities to link the MDG, the ICT for Development and Connectivity agendas and to agree on priority actions for a more integrated approach to development moving forward.