The session this afternoon was organized by the Instituto del Tercer Mundo and the Third World Network and attracted approximately 50 participants. The presenters approached the idea of financing ICT4D from a Global Public Goods (GPG) perspective. Some strategies for financing included: internalizing externalities, adding a global tax, and to reach the remaining needs - sort out who is going to fund what, where.
The perspectives from Africa focused on the types of ICT investment desired. This ranged from ICT access, use and social approapriation by the poor to us of ICTs for economic growth and development. They argue that finaincing ICTs should primiarily focus on poverty eradication. They really wanted to see more research on how to make global public goods framework operational and expresed concerns that the DSF approach could perpetuate funding of small scattered pilot projects, rather than the scale-up which needs to occur.
The GPG perspective is interesting... Roberto Bissio explained how connecting a village in Peru adds value and business opportunities to the network as a whole. It's not just value for the community. But, the burden of paying for the connection is all on the poor people and/or their governments with no help from all of the others who will benefit. These other people are seen in the system as free riders. Need to think of and design mechanisms so they pay for part of the benefit - considering they have the ability to pay and the "let the market provide" isn't working. Markets have taken the cream of high density upper class urban markets but has no interest in the rest.
But how do you finance GPGs? ODA funds aren't there and increasing in the way they should have been... and they go to the flavour of the month in development. Only real long term solution is some form of taxes (with that name or another). Can be on computer appliances or micro-chips (where it's easier to gather since there are smaller number of producers). Or on domain names or other aspects. UNDP proposed a tax on email at one point... Bissio suggested that we need to fight to keep the idea of taxes on the table.
Martin Khor raised the unsolved issue of whether an additional new fund (one way or another) for ICT4D is needed. He acknowledged that many donors seem to be back at the table to discuss increasing aid flows through the MDGs or other mechanisms. But since MDGs are silent on flows of information and knowledge, we're a bit in the dark. The debate is more on the method of financing... Don't really need an international body in chanrge of it; national governments can develop and administer it.
