Microsoft executive spells out technology's role in cutting poverty

Keynote Address - Enhancing Sustainability through Information Technology

MODERATOR: CHRIS BROOKS, DIRECTOR, PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS, OECD

BERNARD VERGNES, CHAIRMAN EMERITUS, MICROSOFT EMEA, FRANCE

Information technology (IT) can be a useful tool for development but it is no substitute for good management and cannot in itself be a cure-all for the poorest countries, said Bernard Vergnes. IT was playing an increasingly useful role in facilitating existing efforts towards sustainable development, according to Vergnes. But he cautioned that IT was just a tool that might help solve many of the world's development problems. "Approaching this challenge we must recognise that technology itself is not a panacea," he said.

But Mr. Vergnes stressed that the socalled digital divide "really is a symptom" of existing gaps between the rich and poor, sick and healthy, fed and starving of the world and not a whole new disease. He said nonetheless there were two ways in which IT could help solve these existing problems. First in what he called IT-based development, where information technology was exploited directly as a platform to build sustainable IT industries in developing countries.

India with its $4 billion software industry, the Philippines, China and Mexico were primary examples of successful "outsourcing" of IT manufacturing from the industrialised world, he said. A skills shortage in Europe and the United States is offering enormous opportunities for those developing countries which are able to provide highly-skilled IT workers, he said. And IT skills can be nurtured outside traditional educational milieux to include the disadvantaged and disabled.

But in response to a question from Bob Middleton of the UK's East Midlands Development Agency, Mr. Vergnes said the lion's share of IT manufacturing and development would continue to come from the United States. It was, he said, only a distant hope that the balance might change in favour of the developing world.

The second way information technology is helping sustainable development is through "IT-assisted development" - the indirect application of IT to assess development problems and design solutions in countries where poverty and hunger need to be dealt with before any IT development can even be thought of Mr. Vergnes pointed to Microsoft's own experiences in using IT technology to solve concrete humanitarian problems - in Kosovo and sub-Saharan Africa. Microsoft employees suggested a computerised registration system that helped the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to respond to the desperate need of refugees in Kosovo for food, shelter and clothing. "This system was developed, tested and deployed in less than two months and facilitated everything on the field from distribution to assisting the reunification of families," he said.

Microsoft also designed a hand-held device to gather data on malaria victims in sub-Saharan Africa so that relief teams on the spot were able to relay information for rapid delivery of medical supplies to afflicted areas. It has also enabled experts to map malaria patterns across the continent for the first time.

"The critical distinction was whether the technology really helped address basic needs or just created a distraction," he said, stressing that these were examples where IT came into its own in serving practical human needs. But he said one problem was public apathy in developed countries. "The public is not very receptive to problems of north and south," he said, so disseminating information about what IT can do was difficult. Moderator Chris Brooks suggested Mr. Vergnes could talk to the Organisation's Development Assistance Committee which every year compiles a rating of how much countries give in development assistance to developing countries. "That's a very powerful tool of communication which does have financial leverage and also network contacts in developing countries," Mr. Brooks said.

Responding to another question from the floor, Mr. Vergnes said it was essential to defend intellectual property rights. "We will fight for intellectual property recognition because we believe it is the only way that innovation will keep on going," he said. "If everything is free why should people keep on inventing."

Bjorn Erikson of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions asked what the solution was for a fast-moving, young world of work where people feared finding themselves out of work once they have "worked like hell" for a few years and start getting older.

Mr. Vergnes said the real point for the future is for people to realise that "the job they want today is a job that will get them educated" because the key for the future is lifelong learning to cope with continual change, he said.

Copyright Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Jul 2001
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