Digital Poverty: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives

Abstract

An assessment of digital resources for e-governance in the region has appeared in Latin America Online: Cases, Successes and Pitfalls (2007), which elaborated on an earlier global assessment, Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide (2001). Nonetheless, the multidimensional nature of ICT poverty, in terms of the internet and wired or mobile telephony, is clearly layered: 1) lack of supply or connectivity access, 2) lack of demand based on inadequate income, and 3) lack of need or capacity due to inadequate literacy. On the one hand, the two major telephony companies in the region, Telefonica and Telmex, may have achieved economies of scale through consolidation that put them beyond regulatory reach. [...]the institutional organization of regulatory agencies without public interest group representation makes regulation more vulnerable to industry intervention.

- Digital Poverty: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives, edited by Hernan Galperin and Judith Mariscal. Rugby, Warwickshire: Practical Action Publishing; Ottawa, Ontario: International Development Research Centre, 2007.

Living in a digital environment, we can electronically go to virtual banks, stores, libraries, and even more 'places'. In contrast, however, poverty is never found in a virtual environment. Its numbing wants are a continual reality. Of the many deficiencies that characterize poverty, one that is emerging as increasingly apparent is digital poverty, a lack of adequate information and communication technologies (ICT).

Hernan Galperin and Judith Marical, respectively Mexican and Argentine scholars, have compiled this collection of articles by a group of social scientists joined in the Regional Dialogue on the Information Society (REDIS). This collaboration is an initiative of the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas of the Canadian International Research Development Centre. Their work studies the digital divide (brecha digital) between the electronically deprived and endowed in Latin America and the Caribbean. It presents several theses. The most axiomatic is that electronic and information resources comprise as necessary an element as capital in order for individuals to participate in modern society. What adequacy of resources means and how to achieve this shapes the topic of the book.

An assessment of digital resources for e-governance in the region has appeared in Latin America Online: Cases, Successes and Pitfalls (2007), which elaborated on an earlier global assessment, Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide (2001). While these two books profile deficits and assets, Digital Poverty: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives analyses meaning and causes. It begins its analysis by addressing in the first two chapters how one defines and quantifies digital or information poverty. The next set of chapters deals with issues related to relieving imbalances in teledensity due to differences between commercial market and government regulatory interests. The following chapters review successful, small-scale resolutions of these differences in rural and underserved areas. The final chapter summarizes issues of ICT adequacy and regulatory effectiveness within a policy perspective of pro-poor support.

The analytical chapters on definition and quantification, by Gover Barja with Björn-Sören Gibier and Roxana Barrantes, reflect another axiom of this work. Progrowth policies require market competitiveness, but such forces are insufficient to satisfy the ICT needs so that regulatory intervention with pro-poor policies is required. The analyses are more suggestive than conclusive and would be more relevant if more tested and detailed through case histories. Nonetheless, the multidimensional nature of ICT poverty, in terms of the internet and wired or mobile telephony, is clearly layered: 1) lack of supply or connectivity access, 2) lack of demand based on inadequate income, and 3) lack of need or capacity due to inadequate literacy. Understanding these differences is crucial to establishing appropriate public policy.

The next chapters deal with markets, by Judith Mariscal, Carla Bonina, and Julio Luna, and regulation, by Jorge Dussán Hitscherich, and Juan Manuel Roldan Perea. These articles are at the heart of the dilemma of support for competitive profit incentives that marshal efficient, economical ICT penetration and for guarantee of service to those outside these parameters, to all in society, as an essential national utility. The lessons here are twofold. On the one hand, the two major telephony companies in the region, Telefonica and Telmex, may have achieved economies of scale through consolidation that put them beyond regulatory reach. Moreover, the institutional organization of regulatory agencies without public interest group representation makes regulation more vulnerable to industry intervention.

The next chapters, by Hernan Galperin with Bruce Girard and Kim I. Mallalieu with Sean Rocke, delineate imaginative local solutions to ICT needs. Among these are microtelcos, 'small-scale telecom operators that combine local entrepreneurship, municipal efforts, and community action.' They have become cost effective due to the economical technical enabling of wireless local area networking that relies on Wi-Fi with backbone solutions or Wi-Max. Examples appear of local networks in Argentina, Brazil, and Peru. A 'percolator' theory is offered that formulates a model for creating local solutions to ICT needs. The model partitions the generic attributes and technical parameters of ICT into manageable domains, emphasizing contextualization within the framework of Sustainable Livelihood Approach practices developed by the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development.

The final chapter, by Army Mahan, comprises the mission statement of both the work and the cause to which the authors are dedicated: 1) the production of propoor strategies for achieving ICT adequacy, and 2) the conduct of research to achieve that end. It summarizes Digital Poverty as a whole and re-emphasizes the continuing role of REDIS in reducing that poverty.

This book is a modest publication in size and format. Nonetheless, it reflects a landmark in the development of the Information Age. In an earlier period, modernization extended into the economic periphery through rural postal services and electrification programmes. ICT is now advancing to incorporate the most remote interstices of the earth into the grid of globalization. The book's cover shows a boy on horseback, one arm holding a computer monitor strapped behind him as he rides into a dusty rural village. The boy is riding a white horse.