ICT Can Flatten Hierarchies

In this IPS-Inter Press Service interview, Sarbuland Khan, executive coordinator of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) under the United Nations, suggests that information and communication technology (ICT) offers the best hope of rapidly empowering the economically poor and involving civil society in the development process. Mr. Khan states that bureaucracies and governments are too reluctant to share either information or power. From his perspective, information is a public good in the same way as water, health, food, and sanitation.


Mr. Khan recommends "using the media, both the traditional and the new, to disseminate information about people’s rights and to make them aware of the various opportunities and choices available. This will not only help protect their rights but empower them in a way that is more self-respecting." With this purpose in mind, he sees ICT as a "leveller, which can flatten hierarchies and shift the power base, which may not be possible otherwise." He adds that the involvement of civil society and the private sector is crucial in reaching development goals that governments cannot reach alone. Specifically, he contends that private-public partnership with participation of the economically poor is the preferable model for the way forward, rather than the current business models focused on the middle- and upper-classes. He cites examples of the increase in mobile telephony and rapid advances in the electronic media like the FM channels and even the internet enterprise development.


Mr. Khan states that governments will benefit in their efforts to end poverty and meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through informed citizenry that helps in the maintenance of transparency and in holding governments accountable. The interview concludes with his comments on Pakistan, for which he sees a need for a longer-term vision of development to solve problems in the infrastructure, go forward in higher education, and move ahead with information technology institutes for training a human resource pool to help move ITC forward.