World Bank unveils new ambitious 2012-2015 ICT plan for developing nations
The World Bank Group on July 25, 2012 released its ambitious new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategy aimed at helping developing countries use ICT to transform delivery of basic services, drive innovations and productivity gains, and improve competitiveness.
The new strategy spanning from 2012-2015, according to the Washington-based lender, reflects rapid changes in the ICT sector over the last decade, including a dramatic increase in use of mobile phones and the Internet, plunging prices of computing and mobile internet devices, and the increasing prevalence of social media.
The strategy is focused on three priority areas – Transformation, Connectivity and Innovation, and it emphasizes the transformative potential of ICT – in areas such as accountability, energy, and health – while maintaining a steady focus on ICT-enabled innovation and ICT infrastructure.
“Information and communication technologies can help reduce poverty, boost economic growth, and improve accountability and governance,” said World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development Rachel Kyte.
“The World Bank Group’s new strategy will help our client countries take advantage of the opportunities that ICT offers across all sectors of the economy, drawing on our unique expertise in public-private partnerships in the ICT sector,” Kyte added.
According to the World Bank, the ICT strategy will adopt a new approach to implementation, including country diagnostics to help prioritize the Bank Group interventions at the country level and leverage more partnerships with external sources of expertise.
A results-based framework will be used to track progress, it stated.
The plan will be used by all members of the World Bank Group which includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the World Bank.
By Ekow Quandzie
What is the catch? why now, because Africa leaders cannot find better solution to current and future problems facing their young employable youth as well as abundant resources still playing in the hands of the few. With China flooding the market with their manufactured products less or no manufacturing at all in Ghana and Africa as whole.