I. Introduction: Poverty Alleviation - Challenges and
Opportunities
1. Despite phenomenal technological development and economic
prosperity worldwide, there remain a large number of people
living in deep poverty. Besides being a tragedy for the
poor themselves, it is also a lost opportunity for their
countries as well as for global society. Poverty alleviation
is not just raising aggregate incomes – it is also
about empowerment and basic human entitlements, such as
those described in the United Nations Universal Declaration
of Human Rights: education and access to information for
bettering one’s life, health, social and economic
opportunities, and the opportunity to express opinions and
participate in public decision-making. Poverty alleviation,
therefore, lies in the convergence of economic growth, human
entitlements, economic and social opportunities and environmental
ethics. The Millennium Summit and the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) have re-focused concern on poverty alleviation
worldwide, and have motivated a comprehensive commitment
through a multi-pronged approach. The World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) is dedicated to bridging the
digital divide between the information-rich and the information-poor,
which are generally connected with the financially and physically
poor. ESCAP, with its strategic priority of poverty alleviation,
has been promoting this “Convergence Hypothesis”
by addressing multiple dimensions of poverty in Asia and
the Pacific.
2. Asia and the Pacific are presently home to about 750
million people, who exist on less than the United Nations
Millennium Declaration indicator of poverty – less
than US$1 per day, while the total number of poor globally
is 1,151 million. This figure for the ESCAP region was about
950 million in 1990, from the global total of about 1,276
million. For 2015, the forecast is for 340 million, out
of 753 million globally. In percentage terms, the Asia-Pacific
region had about 74% of the global total in 1990, 65% in
1999, and a forecast 45% in 2015. These figures show heartening
progress until we see that, if we raise the number to $2
per day, still very poor in the eyes of most people, 2015
may still see 1,400 million people living on less than this
amount in Asia and the Pacific. In addition, the forecasts
for 2015 are based on a certain amount of progress, not
merely letting progress take its own course.
Figures (in millions) are
from the World Bank Web site <www.developmentgoals.org>
as of August 2003.
Number of people making less than US$1/$2
per day
3. Many sets of statistics indicate that poverty was reduced
rapidly in the 1950s to 1980s, when the incidence of poverty
was high in numerous countries of the region. The rate of
poverty reduction subsequently slowed down in several countries.
This may be due to the fact that the incidence of poverty
continues to fall, the remaining poor are likely to belong
to a group of “hard-core poor” who continue
to be unaffected by the developments. Geographically, the
bulk of hard-core poor have been found in isolated mountainous
regions, dry lands and desert, perennially disaster prone
areas and the regions with low investments and inadequate
infrastructure. On the other hand, hard-core poverty is
also seen to be associated with illiteracy, ill health,
deprivation and powerlessness. In this context, it is important
that economic and social development be made more broad-based
so that it also benefits the hard-core poor through explicit
targeting. When considering poverty in broader terms of
a person’s ability to influence his/her own future,
it is clear that education, medical care, and access to
basic information and other resources will help the poor
to perform a better job and improve their living environment.
4. The information and communications technologies (ICTs)
embody a convergence of technologies that involve all segments
related to information acquisition and production, processing,
transforming, analysis, expression, transmission, exchange,
storage, archive, network, and so forth, to bring countless
applications to users in various sectors and communities.
The convergent environment with both wired and wireless
delivery channels is facilitated by terrestrial and space-based
systems. In the context of poverty alleviation, what ICTs
offer is an unprecedented set of tools; an opportunity for
a win-win situation that make the provision of services
and the opening of opportunities for the poor less costly,
more effective, participatory and transparent. The role
of ICTs in combating poverty and fostering sustainable development
is now being recognized by the national governments, international
agencies as well as by the donors. However, the contrast
between the complexity and expense of some of these technologies
and the urgent, basic needs of the poor has led to some
doubt whether ICTs should be a priority for poverty alleviation
in developing countries. The lessons drawn from best practices
have hailed these technologies as holding great hope for
developing countries, and have warned of a growing “digital
divide” between rich and poor, if ICTs are not put
to use. The digital divide is likely to perpetuate and widen
other social divides, such as income, knowledge, health
and other empowerments, especially in the globalized economy.
The lessons also conclude that access to ICTs should not
be seen as an end in itself; the measure of success remains
progress towards building an equitable knowledge society,
rather than the spread of technology or bridging the digital
divide. With such perspectives, it is, nevertheless, an
opportunity that needs to be seized and built upon.
5. Space technology (here referring primarily
to satellite communications (SatCom), remote sensing and
geographic information system (GIS)) besides being an integral
part of the technologically convergent regime, of which
ICT is a product, plays both complementary and supplementary
roles to conventional technologies in the different types
of applications. It has indeed been instrumental in providing
the means to extend the reach of ICT services to even the
most remote and isolated regions:
A vision that drives space applications
towards poverty alleviation lies in its specific advantages.
Space addresses the widest of the divides – whether
digital, knowledge or health – that marginalize
the poor, deprive them of their basic entitlements, and
lead to their powerlessness in society. Poverty is often
seen on the margins of degraded ecosystems; in the extremes
of vulnerability to hazards. Through targeted policies
and actions, space provides unique opportunities for connecting
underserved peoples with markets, resources and opportunity.
It therefore provides a powerful means addressing
“hard-core poverty” hitherto unreached and unattended-to.
6. Recognizing the significant benefits that space technology
brings to various aspects of poverty alleviation, UNISPACE
III and the regional Ministerial Conferences on space applications
have already begun to mobilize global opinion in this context.
The second phase of the Regional Space Applications Programme
(RESAP-II) places its focus on core developmental issues,
including poverty alleviation. The agenda for RESAP II implementations
have covered most outstanding issues confronting the region
that might be addressable through space applications. Mandated
for implementing RESAP II in the region, ESCAP has been
pursuing the various work programmes focused on poverty
alleviation.
7. There is no globally uniform prescription for using
space technology operationally for poverty alleviation.
Yet there are many approaches that can be assembled to make
such a prescription and adapt it to local situations. Initial
conditions must be considered, such as context, existing
and proposed institutional environments, and political and
community leadership. It is important to chart out those
issues, examine various perspectives, sensitize policy makers
in the region, and evolve regional/sub-regional cooperative
mechanisms. The approach to space and poverty alleviation
can be important: one can let poverty alleviation be a desirable
but somewhat incidental outcome of information, communication
and space technology, or one can emphatically design poverty
alleviation into the original strategy. In a world that
has room for multiple approaches, one can imagine either
of these approaches being successful. However, there appears
to be room for additional implementations with pro-active
approaches to poverty alleviation.
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