Abstract

Reference: UNDP 2001
Title: Human Development Report 2001: Making New Technologies Work for Human Development
Authors: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), I UN Plaza, New York, 10017, USA
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York 10016.
Publishing details: 2001, 264p

The Human Development Report 2001 outlines the need for a new partnership between technology and development. It is also intended as a source of cautionary public policy advice to ensure that the potential benefits of technology are rooted in a pro-poor development strategy. That means that technology is used to empower people, allowing them to harness technology to expand the choices in their daily lives.

Emerging centres of excellence throughout the developing world are already providing hard evidence of the potential for harnessing cutting-edge science and technology to tackle centuries-old problems of human poverty. Research and development addressing specific problems facing poor people—from combating disease to developing distance education —have proved time and again how technology can be not just a reward of successful development but a critical tool for achieving it.  Many other countries are failing to keep pace. With limited resources, their governments have to be increasingly strategic and selective if they are to have any hope of bridging the technology divide and becoming full participants in the modern world. Needs, priorities and constraints inevitably vary widely by region and country—hence the importance of a strategy for every country.

A critical foundation for success includes, at a minimum, some combination of unshackled communications systems, sustained support for research and development in both the private and public sectors, education policies and investments that can help nurture a sufficiently strong skills base to meet local needs and sufficient regulatory capacity to sustain and manage all these activities. And these domestic initiatives need to be supported by far-sighted global initiatives and institutions that help provide resources and lend support to the capacity of developing countries— and that pay more attention to neglected areas, from treating tropical diseases to helping developing countries better participate in and benefit from global intellectual property regimes. In short, the challenge the world faces is to match the pace of technological innovation with real policy innovation both nationally and globally.

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