July 12, 1999
In the race to lay claim to knowledge, "the global gap between haves and have-nots, between knows and know-nots, is widening" warns the Human Development Report 1999, commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme.
Writing computer programmes and revealing genetic codes have replaced the search for gold, the conquest of land and the command of machinery as the path to economic power, says the Report. The Internet, the worldwide computer link-up, is "the fastest-growing tool of communication ever," with the number of users expected to grow from 150 million today to more than 700 million in 2001.
Information and communications technology are tremendous tools for development and can open a fast track to knowledge-based growth, a track followed by India's software programming, Ireland's computing services and the Caribbean's data processing. But many of those who most need access cannot obtain it. An invisible barrier has emerged that, "true to its name, is like a world wide web, embracing the connected and silently, almost imperceptibly, excluding the rest."
The United States has more computers than the rest of the world combined. Bulgaria has more Internet hosts than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa. South Asia, with 23 per cent of the world's people, has less than one per cent of the world's Internet users. Everywhere, Internet access divides educated from illiterate (60 per cent of users in China have a university degree), men from women (in Brazil, 75 per cent of users are men), rich from poor (a computer costs the average Bangladeshi more than eight years'income, compared with one month's wage for the average American), young from old (the average British user is under 30) and urban from rural.
"The typical Internet user worldwide is male, under 35 years old, with a university education and high income, urban based and English speaking-a member of a very elite minority," says the Report. English is used in almost 80 per cent of websites. Yet fewer than one in 10 people worldwide speaks the language. The literally well connected have an overpowering advantage over the unconnected poor, whose voices and concerns are being left out of the global conversation.
Market forces alone will not rectify the imbalance, the Report warns. Governance of the Internet should be widened to bring in the needs and concerns of developing countries. To ensure that the global communications revolution is truly global, funding is required. The Report suggests a "bit tax" on data sent through the Internet. A tax of one US cent on every 100 lengthy e-mails [electronic messages] would generate well over $70 billion a year.
A second race to lay claim to knowledge, particularly in biotechnology, has been sparked by the privatization of research and development, market liberalization and the tightening of intellectual property rights. As with global communications, "the risk is that poor people's and poor countries' interests are being left on the sidelines."
"In defining research agenda, money talks louder than need-cosmetic drugs and slow-ripening tomatoes come higher on the list than a vaccine against malaria or drought-resistant crops for marginal lands," says the Report. "Tighter control of innovation in the hands of multinational corporations ignores the needs of millions. From new drugs to better seeds for food crops, the best of new technologies are designed and priced for those who can pay. For poor people, the technological progress remains far out of reach."
Huge corporations are controlling ever-growing shares of the global market. The top 10 telecommunications corporations held 86 per cent of the market in 1998. In pesticides, the top 10's share was 85 per cent; computers, almost 70 per cent; veterinary medicine, 60 per cent; pharmaceuticals, 35 per cent; commercial seed, 32 per cent. Patents, too, are concentrated, with industrialized countries holding 97 per cent of all patents worldwide.
The Report calls for a shift of research towards the needs of the world, rather than just of those who pay. It recommends the establishment of a group of independent scientists to identify technological problems that, if solved, would contribute to human development, particularly of the world's poorest people, and to human security.
Every five years the group would offer money and recognition to researchers in areas such as robust new crops, malaria and HIV vaccines, solar-powered or wind-up computers, and renewable energy sources. Funding could be provided by a levy on patents or from a reallocation of research subsidies, grants and tax breaks currently given to industry.
The Report calls for a review of the intellectual property rights agreement under the World Trade Organization-first raised in world trade talks in 1986 to crack down on counterfeit goods, but now involved in the ownership of life itself.
Although trade and intellectual property laws, such as patent legislation, are increasingly determining the path of nations, the intellectual property rights agreement was negotiated with little input from many of the developing countries, which are now feeling its impact. In addition, it was negotiated before most governments and people understood the social and economic implications of patents on life.
Patent laws pay little attention to the knowledge of indigenous people, and on what can be owned: "The result: a silent theft of centuries of knowledge from developing to developed countries."
About this Report:
Every year since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme has commissioned the Human Development Report by an independent team of experts to explore major issues of global concern. The Report looks beyond per capita income as a measure of human progress by also assessing it against such factors as average life expectancy, literacy and overall well-being. It argues that human development is ultimately "a process of enlarging people's choices."
This year's Report focuses on the positive and negative aspects of globalization. It argues that while many millions of people are being further marginalized by their lack of access to new technologies, including the Internet, growing inequalities are not inevitable. It recommends, among other things, stronger social policies and actions to buffer the effects of today's "bust and boom" economy. It urges policymakers to balance their concern for profits with concern for people disenfranchised by the turmoil of the global marketplace.
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