ct and human development: towards building a composite index for asia
TRANSCRIPT
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ICT and HumanDevelopment: TowardsBuilding a CompositeIndex for AsiaReali sing the Mi llennium
Development Goals
Published for the
United Nati ons
Development
Programme
ELSEVIER
A Division of Reed Elsevier
India Pvt. Ltd.
2004
2004
Technical Paper
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Published By:
ELSEVIER
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Telephone: 91-11-26447160
Fascimile: 91-11-26447156
Website: ww w.elsevierhealth.com
ISBN:81-8147-328-0
© United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - 2004
All righ ts reserved.No part of this publication may b e reproduced, stored in a retrieval system o r
transmitted in any form without written permission of the publisher.
Mosby, Churchill Livingstone, Saunders, Butterw orth Heinemann and Hanley &Belfus are the
Health Science Imprints of Elsevier.
Printed and bound in India by Rakmo Press Pvt. Ltd.
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8/12/2019 CT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
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Abbreviations
ALA- Arab and Lat in America
DM-Division by Mean
EDC-Educa tiona l Development Centre
FDI-Foreign Direct Investments
GCR-Globa l Compe titiveness Report
GDP- Gross Domestic Product
HDI-Human Development Index
HDR-Human Development Report
ICT- Informat ion Communication Technology
IDRC- Interna tiona l Development Research Centre
MDG-Millennium Development Goa l
ODA- Overseas Development Assistance
OECD-Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
PPP-Purchasing Power Parity
RE-Rang e Eq ualisat ion
SIBIS-Stat istical Indicato rs Benchma rking the Information Society
UN-United Nat ions
UNDP-United Nations Development Programme
UNIFEM-United Nations Development Fund for Women
WDR-World Development Repo rt
WHO-World Health Orga nisat ion
WSIS-World Summit on Informa tion Society
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ContentsPrologue iiiAbbreviations iv
Sections1
1 Int ro duct io n
2 Pattern of interdependence between development of ICTand attainment of the MDGs:A cross-country analysis 22.1. Relationships betw een ICTand MDG-linked indicators:175 countries of the world 32.2. Interrelationships betw een ICTand MDG-linked indicators across the four
regions of the world 4
3 Impact of ICTon socio-economic development as observed in developing countries 5
4 Anchoring ICTin Millennium Development Goals 94.1. Overview of recent initiatives and limitations of existing data sources 94.2. A framework for identification of indicators for construction of a
compo site index 10
4.3. Identification of different dimensions of development and theirconstituent ICTindicators 11
4.4 Rat ionale for selection of indicators 12
5 Working out component indices pertaining to different aspects of ICTdevelopmentand the aggregate index 135.1. The methodology 135.2. Indices obtained through range equalisation method5.3. Indices obtained through division by mean method 165.4. Comparison of the alternate sets of indices 17
6 In Brief 19
List of Tables
Table 1. Five component indices and the a gg regate index as obtained by range eq ualisationmethod for nine Asian countries 15
Table 2. Five component Indices and the ag grega te index obta ined by division by meanmethod for nine Asian countries 17
List of Figures
Figure 1. Availab ility-linked compo nent indices by RE methodfor nine Asian countries 15
Figure 2. Efficiency and speed component indices by RE methodfor nine Asian countries 15
Figure 3. Social sector targeting component indices by RE method
for nine Asian countries 15Figure 4. Vulnerable group ta rgeting compo nent indices by RE method
for nine Asian countries 16Figure 5. Agg regate index of ICTcomponent indices by RE method
for nine Asian countries 16Figure 6. Availab ility-linked component indices by DM method
for nine Asian countries 16
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Figure 7. Efficiency and speed component indices by DM methodfor nine Asian countries 17
Figure 8. Social sector target ing component indices by DM methodfor nine Asian countries 17
Figure 9. Vulnerable group targeting compo nent indices by DM methodfor nine Asian countries 17
Figure 10. Agg rega te index of ICTcompo nent indices by DM methodfor nine Asian countries 18
Appendices
Appendix I : List of indicators used for correlation analysis 22Appendix II : Indicators of ICTdevelopment under different Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), as per the guidelines of the UN ICTTask Force 24Appendix III: Indicators used for construction of indices pertaining to ICTdevelopment 26Appendix IV: Methodology for construction of composite indices 27Appendix V : Mean and coefficient of variation of the indicators pertaining to d ifferent
aspects of ICTdevelopment 28
References 29
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Introduction
Planners, policy makers and researchers hold
highly polarised and equivocal views on the dif-
fusion of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT), its role in promoting ob jectives
such as poverty a lleviat ion, universal education,reduction in mortality and health hazards, and
sustainable development, and in bridging t he
digital as well as socio-economic divides in the
world. Many consider ICTto b e the o nly possible
means of achieving the above-mentioned goals
within a reasonable time frame,through techno-
logical leapfrogg ing. An equally vociferous view,
on the other hand , is tha t ICTis of no g reat value
and could even be detrimental to the less-
developed world,particularly for populations that
are economically and socially underprivileged.
Notw ithstanding the controversy, most po licystatements, research reports and overview docu-
ments at both international and national levels,
have regarded positive impact of ICTon socio-
economic development to be self-evident.1 These
have applied standard measures like the share of
ICTin income or investment and the number of
consumer units relat ive to population, for cross-
country compa risons.Such measures would hard-
ly reveal whether or how the grow th o f ICTs or
their diffusion in different countries lead to reduc-
tion in poverty or to o ther socio-economic goa ls.
Understanda bly, opinions of planners andresearchers on choice of indicators vary widely,
often depending on their own experience.
Indeed, the impact of ICTin a country or a region
depends on its nature, the purpose of its deploy-
ment and its spatial spread, besides the econom-
ic, administrative and social environment backing
up the strateg y of its diffusion. In this context,
assembling empirical evidence on the impact of
ICTon human development is of key importance.
It would,therefore,be useful to begin by ana lysingthe nature of interdependencies between the
indicators of ICTdevelopment and those reflect-
ing human development concerns for the
achievement of the Millennium Development
Goa ls (MDGs),that were adopted by 191 countries
at the historic UN Millennium Summit in
September 2000.2 This should be done sepa rately
for the developed and less-developed countries.
In the present report,a n attempt is made to map
the pace and pattern of development of ICTin
less-developed countries, ba sed on in-dept h
empirical studies conducted in recent years,
focusing on t he Asian region. A critical review ofthe UNDP-sponsored country studies on the pro-
mot ion of ICT tow ards achieving the MDGs is
extremely useful in this regard, as these stud ies
specifically look into the g rowth of ICTin the con-
text o f at ta inment of the MDGs. This will help in
the ident ification of indicators tha t reflect the lev-
els of development of ICTin terms of t he capacity
of the countries to promote economic and social
well-being of t he people. This, however, is a far
more complicated and challenging task than
measurement of the level of ICTdevelopment.
The present st udy a ims at exam ining the devel-opment o f ICT-linked se rvices in ha rnessing
critical concerns of human development and
contributing towards the achievement of the
1
ICT and Human Development:
Towards Building a CompositeIndex for Asia
1 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
1 The World Bank in its World Develop ment Report for t he year 1998, ent itled ‘Know ledg e for Development ’, stressesthe increasing role of ICTin social and economic development .2 Emanat ing from the Millennium Declaration Summit held in Septemb er 2000, the Millennium Development Go als
constitute a global set of human development objectives ranging from eradication of poverty and hunger to devel-oping g lobal partne rship, to b e achieved by 2015. Eight specific goals have been set, clearly structured into 18 spe-cific target s which are t o b e monitored through 48 specific indicators.The b ase yea r for these g oals is 1990.
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2 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
3 The correlation mat rices are availab le a t the UNDP w ebsite:http://hdrc.undp.org .in/initiatives/apri/ict.html4 It may be me ntioned t hat t his cate go risation is in line with t he UNDP scheme of grouping the less-developed coun-tries and,further,identifying tw o specific categ ories (c &d) with regard to t heir prog ress towards a tta inment of MDGs(UNDP 2003,pp 1-13). It also sug gest s tha t the impact of ICTdiffers a cross different regions.5 The OECD countries with low or middle per capita income, i.e., Korea ,Turkey and Mexico, have no t been included inthis categ ory, following the UNDP classification in HDR for the yea r 2003.
MDGs. The st udy focuses on nine count ries in
Asia:China,India,Indonesia,Malaysia,Mongolia,
Pakistan , Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam. The
broad objectives of the study are as follows:
i. Examining the interdependency between
ICTand human development;
ii. Identifying ICT indicators reflecting
human development concerns inachieving the eight MDGs;
iii. Construction o f composite indices for
capt uring the ICT-linked p rog ress in
abo ve-mentioned nine countries, in the
context of a tta inment of the MDGs.
At the outset, the present paper provides an
overview of the controversy concerning the meas-
urement of development of ICTacross countries
and identification of ma jor components and objec-
tives of the analysis. The second section examines
the pattern of interrelationship between the ICT
indicators and those of human development and
MDGs.This has been done at two points of time
and for the changes registered in between. The
empirical analyses and country studies conducted
in less-developed countries, perta ining to the role
of the ICTsector in national or regional develop-
ment, are the subject of the third section, with
special emphasis on the experiences of Asian coun-
tries.The fourth sect ion makes an at tempt to devel-
op a framework for identification of appropriate
indicators and their composition, on the b asis of
initiatives launched by various UN and intergovern-
mental organisations. Further, it presents a list of
indicators and provides the rationa le for their inclu-
sion in the present study covering nine Asian coun-
tries. The next section presents the methodology
for composition and gives the ranking of the coun-
tries, using the data for the latest year. The last
section summarises the conclusions and provides a
perspective for future exercises in assessing the
development of the ICTsector in Asia.
Pattern of interdependence
between development of ICT
and attainment of the MDGs:
A cross-country analysis
In the present study, the impact of the develop-
ment of ICTon huma n development for achieving
2
the MDGs has been examined by constructing cor-
relation matrices3 between the indicators of ICT
and tho se of t he MDGs across 175 countries at
tw o po ints of time, viz., years 1991 and 2001. A
set o f indicato rs (See Appen dix I) pert aining to
the eight MDGs are taken from the Human
Development Report (HDR) for the year 2003
(UNDP 2003). A few ad ditional indicat ors such
as level and g rowth of Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) per capita, flow of Foreign Direct
Investm ent s (FDIs), flow o f Overseas Develop -
ment Assista nce (ODA), numb er of rad ios and
televisions in use have been compiled from
World Development Reports (WDRs) for the
yea rs 1990 and 2000. All the indicat ors could
not be obtained for these two specific years
and a few p ertain to either the previous or sub-
seq uent year. The reference years, 1991 and
2001, may be seen as the mid years around
wh ich information ha s been o rgan ised. Further,
the number of indicators for the early 1990s is
less than that for 2001 because of non-avail-
ab ility of data . The indicato rs of ICT are the
numb er of (a) telephone ma inlines, (b) cellular
subscribers, (c) televisions in use, (d) rad ios in
use, (e) personal computers, (f ) internet users
and (g) internet ho sts, all represented relat ive
to the population of the country. (See
Appendix I for complete list o f indicat ors).
In view o f the wide disparity in terms of levels of
economic growth as well as progress towards
MDGs,besides other factors,the countries of the
world have been grouped into four regions.4
These a re (a) Europe a nd the Orga nisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD), (henceforth referred to as Europe), (b)
Arab and Latin America (henceforth referred to
as ALA), (c) Sub-Saha ran Africa (hen cefort h
referred to as Africa) and (d) the Asia-Pacific
region (hencefort h referred t o as Asia). This
grouping has been obtained by combining the
categ ories reported in HDR 2003, for the pur-
pose of the present study. Most of t he countries
in the Europe group (52 in all) have high levels
of income as well as human development.5 The
other three regions (comprising 51, 44 and 28
countries in ALA, Africa and Asia, respect ively)
are differentiated, in terms of both level and pat-
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3 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
6 The correlations discussed in the text a re those that are significant at 5 percent level.
tern of economic and human d evelopment .The
ana lysis in this study is focused o n Asia, in order
to assess whether the pattern of interdepen-
dencies here is different from tha t no ticed in the
other regions or in the world as a who le.
In addition to the two-point analysis (1991 and
2001), a study of cha ng es in ICTindicato rs dur-
ing the intervening period and their relation to
changes in MDG indicators has also been
att empted to understand the dyna mics of inter-
relationships exhibited in the process of devel-
opment. This wo uld be necessary, as ICT is a
recent phenomenon and one has to examine
the impact on t he process of development, of its
growt h rather than of the levels it ha s reached.
Correlat ion coefficients6 between indicators, at
the tw o points of time studied, as well as those
reflecting change during the study period,
therefore, provide interesting insight s into the
patt ern of interdependency bet ween ICT and
development, in terms of atta ining t he MDGs,
across the countries of the world.
2.1.Relati onships between ICT and MDG-
linked indicators: 175 countr ies of t he world
2.1.1. Interrelat ionships in the early 1990s
For the year 1991, the indicato rs of ICTsho w
positive and strong relationship with per capita
income and Human Development Index (HDI).
Most of t he indicators pertaining to t he at tain-
ment o f different MDGs too ha ve significant a nd
desired patterns of interdependency with ICT
indicators. For example, the correlations
between ICTindicators and the indicators relat-
ed to universal primary education, such as net
primary school enrollment ratio, children reach-
ing grade 5 and youth literacy rate, are all posi-
tive and sta tistically significant . The same is the
case with the indicators reflecting empower-
ment o f women.There also appea rs to be sign if-
icant reduction in child mortality and improve-
ment in maternal health with t he development
of ICT, across the co untries of the w orld. This is
evident from the strong negative correlation
between television users,telephone and cellular
mobile subscribers, etc. and rates of infant mor-
tality, child mortality and maternal mortality.
Further,percentages of people with sustainable
access to water sources and urbanites having
improved sanitation facilities show strong posi-
tive correlat ion with all the ICT indicators, the
coefficients being stat istically significant .
2.1.2. Interrelat ionships in the early years of the 21st century
The pat tern o f relationship bet ween ICTindica-
tors and indicators pertaining to income and
HDI values has strengthened during the early
years of 21st century, as may b e inferred from
the correlat ions in 2001.Of particular note is the
impressive increase in the value of correlation
coefficients between the use of personal com-
puters and per capita income and HDI.The same
is the case w ith respect t o MDG indicato rs. The
relationship of ICTindicators with the percent-
age of the non-poor is positive and improved
over the years. It ma y not b e possible to sugg est
a unidirectional causality and argue t hat eradi-
cation of poverty has been possible due to the
development o f ICT, since the impact could be
the other wa y round. Indeed, developed coun-
tries that have low levels of poverty would have
bet ter access to ICT. ICTseems to have p layed a
significant role in improving health standards
across count ries over time. Almost a ll the MDG
indicators pertaining to health standards,
including life expectancy a t birth, exhibit
strong er correlations w ith ICTin 2001, as com-
pared to 1991.Even prevalence of HIV cases and
other diseases shows a stronger nega tive corre-
lation with the development and diffusion of
ICT. The o nly tw o indicators that report w eaker
correlations in 2001 than in 1991 are access to
improved sanitation and water in urban areas.
This implies tha t ICThas not been used a s a t ool
in improving urba n facilities. The role of ICTin
attracting foreign direct investment and over-
seas development assistance appears to be
inconseq uential as the correlation in the case of
the former has become wea ker,w hile tha t of t he
latter has turned nega tive. Understandably,
mere increase in ICTis unlikely to improve the
foreign investment situation as other socio-
political factors play an important role here.
2.1.3.Changes in indicators during the 1990s and their interrelations
For the purpose o f understanding t he d ynamics
of the relationship of ICTindicators with MDGs
and huma n development indicators, a correla-
tion matrix has been constructed, based on t he
differences between the values of the indicators
in years 2001 and 1991. It ha s been observed
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4 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
that the progress in ICT contributes to t he
enhancement of human development across
the countries of the wo rld, as the correlation
betw een them turns out to b e highly significant.
Interestingly, such correlation does not exist
betw een the growth of ICTand income growt h,
which could be due to the fact that break-
throug h in ICTis a recent phenome non and has
not yet made an impact on the economic
growth in all the countries of the world.
Especially in the case of the developing coun-
tries,there is a time lag betw een the ad option of
ICT and registering th e growt h in income.
Further, progress in ICTdoes not seem to ma ke
a significant impact in the progress towards
achievement of universal primary education or
reducing infant/child morta lity.
2.2. Interrelat ionships between ICT and
MDG-linked indi cators across the fou r
regions of t he world
2.2.1. Interrelat ionships in the early 1990s
The analysis of interdepend encies across coun-
tries belonging to the four categories (Europe,
ALA, Asia and Africa) brings out certa in striking
features. In Europe, ICTmade a n impact o n the
process of economic development even in the
early 1990s.This is evident from the highly posi-
tive correlation between the indicators of ICT
and the indicators of per capita income a nd HDI.
In the case of less-developed countries belong-
ing to t he ALA, Asia and Africa reg ions, ICTis
mostly restricted to t he use of radios, televisions
and telephones. The diffusion of new forms of
ICT too k off since the mid-1990s only.
Notw ithstanding the time lag factor, the pat tern
of relationship of ICTindicato rs with t hose o f per
capita income and HDI wo rk out to be similar to
those noted in Europe.The coefficients ob ta ined
for the Asian region seem to be stronger than
those obt ained for the other catego ries. The
strong pattern observed here implies that many
low-income countries within Asia have not got
very far in developing ICT; on the ot her hand, ICT
initiatives are well taken by the high income
countries. One may a lso note t he presence of
various socio-cultural factors inhibiting technol-
ogy diffusion across countries in Asia.
The relationships between indicat ors of ICTand
those of educat ion-linked MDGs reveal contrast-
ing patterns across the four categories of coun-
tries. Primary schoo l enrollment ratio show s sig-
nificant positive correlation with the develop-
ment o f ICTin Europe a nd Africa, but not in ALA
and Asia. Further,t here exists a strong correlation
bet ween indicato rs of ICTand children reaching
grad e 5 in the African count ries, which is not
there in any other region. Furthermore, there
seems to be no interrelationship between ICT
and youth literacy, as the correlation coefficients
turn out statistically insignificant across all the
regions. Given this pattern,o ne w ould infer that
the impact of ICTin achieving universal literacy
is not very sign ificant .
Indicators pertaining to gend er equa lity a rticu-
lated through the enrollment ratio of girls to
boys in primary schools and female to male
ratio among literates have weak correlations
with indicat ors of ICTin European co untries dur-
ing the ea rly 1990s as there is no g ender-ba sed
discriminat ion in accessing the technolog y. But
in Africa, the relationship appea rs to be strong.
On the other hand, the coefficients are weak in
the ca se of Asia, possibly beca use of low levels
of ICTin ma ny of these countries.
An inverse relationship betw een ICTand child/
maternal mortality rate is observed in all the
four categories of countries in the early 1990s.
Indeed, infant mo rtality rate shows strong a nd
negative correlation with ICTin Asia as well as
ALA and Africa. One would infer tha t the devel-
opment of ICTprovides better access to health
facilities. In cont rast, the indicators of environ-
mental sustainability, such as access to
improved wa ter sources and san itation fa cilities,
part icularly in urban areas, do no t exhibit corre-
lation with ICTin all four regions.
2.2.2. Interrelat ionships in the early yearsof 21st century
The relat ionships of ICTindicators with t hose of
the MDGs have not, unfortunately, improved
significant ly across the reg ions in 2001, except
in the case o f per capita income and HDI. In the
case of indicators linked with eradication of
poverty and hunger, such as percentag e of
undernourished people and of underweight
children a ged below 5, the correlations turn out
to be high and statistically significant only for
ALA and Africa. In Asia, the interdepend encies
are insignificant. One w ould,therefore,infer tha t
deployment o f ICTin improving a griculture a nd
food distribution systems and thereby impact-
ing poverty a nd ma lnutrition, is not significant
in Asia in 2001.
The relationship betw een d evelopment of ICT
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5 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
7The reasonsfor low correlation coefficients obtained inEuropean countries can be attributed to the randomnessof the dis-
tributionof indicators across the countries,as most of the countries have higher female to male participation inschooling.
and education also has not improved signifi-
cantly in 2001 in any of the fo ur reg ions. In Asian
countries, the relationships were w eak in 1991
and ha ve remained so even after a decade. It is
only in the case of the youth literacy rate that
the relationship w ith ICT has improved an d
become significant. One would,therefore, argue
that the progress of ICTmay not have had a sig-
nificant impact on the level of primary educa-
tion across Asian countries.
Regarding the environmental sustainability
indicators in terms of per capita emissions of
carbon d ioxide and CFC consumpt ion, the t rend
unfortunately is of secular increase and shows
strong positive relationship with economic
development in all the four regions. Growth o f
ICTdoes not seem to help reduce air pollution.
However, it has impacted po sitively on availab il-
ity of drinking water and sanitation facilities in
Europe, and to some extent in ALA as w ell as
Africa. This unfortuna tely is not the case in Asia.
Further, the correlations betw een indicators of
ICTand flow of FDI are weak and have gone
dow n over the years in Asia. The correlation o f
the flow of ODA (as percent of GNP) has
remained negative and statistically insignificant
in 2001, which confirms the marginal role
played by ICTin development of a globa l part-
nership in t his region.
2.2.3.Changes in indicators during the 1990sand their interrelations
The ‘chang e indicato rs’built by ta king the differ-
ence in the values of ICTand MDG indicators
and HDI reveal an interesting pat tern of interde-
pendency. Highly significant correlations are
observed between HDI and ICTindicators in all
the regions, excepting Asia. Apart from indica-
tors of ICTpertaining to use of television and
telephones, no indicato r is sign ificant ly correlat -
ed w ith HDI in Asia. The g rowt h in per capita
income show s strong correlation w ith growt h of
ICT only in Europe. These correlat ions are
insignificant for ALA, Asia and Africa. Further,
progress in ICT bea rs no relat ionship w ith
change s in primary enrollment rate, gend er dis-
parity in education or representation in parlia-
ment. This is observed in Asia a s well as ALA and
Africa. However, it is encourag ing t hat correla-
tions bet ween progress in ICTand improvement
in life expectancy rate and maternal mortality
rate are significant in Europe, ALA and Africa.
Further, the indicators of child morta lity, mat er-
nal morta lity, incidence of ma laria and other dis-
eases exhibit strong negative relations with ICT
indicators and t his, in general, has strengthened
over time. Unfortunately, this is not t he case in
Asia, as the relevant correlations are sta tistically
insignificant and have not improved over the
decade. Here, infant mortality rate and urban
households with no access to drinking water
and sanitation, exhibit no d ecline with progress
in ICT. The incidence o f HIV/AIDS, to o, do es not
seem to decrease w ith the development o f ICT,
contrary to the pattern observed in other
regions. One wo uld, therefore, infer that g rowth
of ICTin Asia has not been a critical factor in
achieving t he MDGs.
Correlations with indicators pertaining to gen-
der equality follow a similar pattern.
Improvements in interdependencies during the
1990s are noted as marginal and statistically
insignificant.7 Interestingly, in this context, the
situation do es not seem to b e very distressing in
Asian countries. Not o nly have female to ma le
ratios go ne up in enrollment rates a t various lev-
els of education and among literates, but even
their correlations w ith ICTincreased during the
1990s.This should be ha iled a s a po sitive devel-
opment in gender relations,t he credit for w hich
may be part ially a tt ributed t o ICT. The impa ct,
however, remains at tha t level and d oes not g o
beyo nd.The sha re of females in non -ag ricultural
wage employment has remained low and its
correlation with ICT has we akened over the
decade. Furthermore, no positive correlation
exists betw een ICTand the share of seats held
by wo men in the parliament.
Impact of ICT on socio-
economic development as
observed in developing
countries
The literat ure on t he role of ICTin promot ing
socio-economic development is rich in terms
of empirical rigour and diversity of opinions,
despite having a short history. Most of the
stud ies [Brynjolfsson and Hitt 1996; Lehr and
Lichtenbe rg 1999; Oliner and Sichel 2000;
Jalava and Pohjola 2002; and Dewan and
Kraemer (in press)]pertain to developed coun-
3
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6 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
8 The first few rigorously empirical studies on this subject are those und erta ken in the United St ates using firm leveldat a on ICTinvestment a nd econo mic performance.9 The study has g enerated valuable information on d igital literacy and use of ICTfor various social and economic pur-
poses for d ifferent OECD countries, using survey d ata .
tries8 and suggested the positive impact of ICT
on income and employment g rowth. However,
it has been noted that this relationship is
absent in several OECD countries. Also, in
developing count ries where non -ICT invest-
ments tend to have a higher payoff than ICT
investment s, a positive relat ionship is either
weak or absent. In view o f this, scholars have
argued tha t g rowt h of ICTshould not become
a ‘techno-q uick-fix’ for solving development
problems. It ha s unacceptable tradeoffs with
MDGs in less-develo ped coun tries (Wilde
2003). These scholars be lieve tha t w e are only
beg inning to understand how the a pplication
of ICT relates to t he achievement o f social
goa ls and econo mic growt h and there are seri-
ous doubts whether the benefits truly out-
weig h the cost s (Kenny 2003,Wilde 2003).
The most pow erful argument ma de a ga inst ICT
is tha t it has resulted in sharp differentiat ion not
only among countries but a cross groups of pop-
ulations, and such differentiat ion is likely to be
further accentuated.Existing inequalities,partic-
ularly in less-developed countries, in terms of
access of households to natural and capital
resources,ha ve intensified with the launching o f
the prog ramme of liberalisation. The lega l and
administrative structures that are considered
important for providing eq uitab le access to a ll
sections of the population are yet to be institu-
tiona lised (de Soto 2000). Given these fact ors, it
is understandable that introduction of a new
technology strengthens the position of eco-
nomic and political elites vis-a-vis others. They
have larger resources at t heir command to o wn
or access the technology,can acq uire the neces-
sary skills easily due to their higher levels of
education and can establish links with other
production a nd social sectors throug h ICT, for
appropriating new facilities and opportunities.
ICThas a requirement of specific skill and that
comes in the way of its adoption by underprivi-
leged g roups/regions, even with general
improvement of literacy in a country.
This proposition finds empirical substan tia tion
in a study sponsored by the European
Commission under its ‘Information Society
Program’ (SIBIS Report 2001).9 It identifies the
absence of appropriate skills as a critical factor,
constraining t he access to ICTand resulting in a
digita l divide.What is more disturbing is tha t the
divide ha s sharpened over the 1990s. Income
emerges as yet another important factor
responsible for the d ivide. It is only with regard
to gender that the gap seems to be declining
over the years. Although similar data have not
been g enerated for Asian count ries, impact of
education and income disparity on access to
information technolog y is likely to be eq ually, if
not more,serious.
Scholars have also demonstrated empirically
tha t d iffusion o f ICTin developing count ries do
not b enefit the social sector in the same wa y as
in industrial count ries. This is beca use of t he
existence of ba rriers to know ledge a nd informa-
tion asymm etry in the former. The ab sence of
skilled huma n cap ital,lack of funds for moderni-
sation, etc. in the social sectors becomes an
impediment to the a doption of ICTand the dis-
semination o f benefits throughout t he country.
These factors pose a serious q uestion ma rk on
the role of ICTin a chieving the MDGs.
Those scholars who d isag ree with the a bove
propositions have argued that harnessing the
pow er of ICTand ushering in the ‘digita l revolu-
tion’ can transform production processes, com-
merce, government and education a nd create
new forms of economic growt h tha t w ill benefit
all sections of the population. Furthermore, ICT
can cont ribute t o t he realisation of social goa ls
through greater dissemination of health and
reproductive information, training of medical
personnel and teachers, equitable access to
education an d training facilities, opening up of
opportunities for women a nd expanding scope
for citizen pa rticipat ion. Taking a sample o f 37
developing countries,Baliamo une (2002) estab-
lished that ICThas a strong positive effect on
the process of socio-economic development,
provided a liberal po litical environme nt is main-
tained.
The proposition t ha t specific skills and human
capita l are prerequisites for disseminat ion of
ICTha s been refuted, citing the ca se of Arab
States which, despite low literacy, have regis-
tered high g rowth in ICT. Here, uneducated
persons as well as the poor have been able to
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7 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
10Households having no addressin a city,forexample,can have an e-mailadd ress and accessinformationor receive letters.11They have sho wn this to b e the ca se in Turkey.12 It is possible to a rgue tha t the process of awareness building ca n be used for political purposes. An overview ofrecent experience in Asian countries, however,reveals that the sta te ha s found it more convenient to d eny access toinformation to peo ple than provide th em with w rong information.Once the channels of communication are opened,
ensuring selectivity in information has g enerally bee n beyo nd t he control of t he public machinery.
access the technology as costs are relat ively lower
than those for accessing quality knowledge and
formal information.Understandably,ICThas led to
reduction in information asymmetry bet ween the
rich and the poor and between the educated and
the uneducated. Indeed,people located in a given
geographical area can access the technology
(available as public facilities or in commercial
joints) and benefit through spillover effects, irre-
spective of their socio-economic status.10 There is
no reason why ICT in Asian countries cannot
reduce the existing barriers to knowledge and
bring down the inequality in accessing the infor-
mation base,which currently is extremely high as
it is linked to income ineq uality.
For assessing the progress of Asian countries
tow ards different MDGs, the country studies
sponsored by UNDP are particularly useful.
Nonetheless, q uantitative assessment of the
multiplier effect of ICTdiffusion on poverty, illit-
eracy, ailment, gender divide, environmental
deg radation, etc. is extremely difficult and has
not b een a ttempted in any study. The difficulty
lies in the multifarious and informal nature of
linkages of ICTwith the rest of the economy on
which no data can be obtained from official
sources.
The most important g oa l is poverty reduction,
the impact of ICTin this context has generally
been t aken as positive because of its capa city t o
generate employment at a reasonable level of
productivity and its growing share in incremen-ta l GDP. Althoug h the volume of employment in
the sector is not very high in most Asian coun-
tries,its grow th rate over the past deca de holds
forth a promise. Despite occasional slumps in
the market and pessimistic projections of
growt h w ithin the formal sector,t he expectation
is tha t ICT will reduce poverty by creat ing
numerous informal jobs. It is the semi-skilled
and unskilled workers in the assembly lines
(producing computers and linked ga dg ets),d ata
processors,a nd operators in call centres,not the
engineers and softw are programmers despite a
likely increase in the ir number,who hold t he keyto poverty alleviation.
Despite the difficulties of capturing the direct
and indirect impact o f ICT, there is no doubt tha t
it has given a boost t o income and employment
growth at macro level by improving productivi-
ty and competitiveness in non-ICT sectors as
well. The resultant reduction in cost of produc-
tion in the latter has resulted in higher demand
for the products and services in the domestic as
well as international markets, giving an impetus
to growth and leading to substantial poverty
reduction. Indeed, the jobs created d irectly in
the ICTsector are of less significance (since com-
puters to some extent are replacing labour) as
compared to the multiplier effect created by it,
throug h up-scaling a ctivity levels in user sector
pushing up the earnings o f wo rkers. Taking all
the direct and indirect impacts into considera-
tion, it can be assumed that ICThas a positive
effect o n poverty reduction in Asian countries.
ICTis expected t o cont ribute tow ards the o bjec-
tive of poverty alleviation through appropriatedesigning,management and implementation of
anti-poverty programmes. Irrespective of the
composition, there is little doubt tha t growt h
and spread o f ICTsector has increased the level
of awareness about rights and responsibilities
and a lso enhanced ‘information’ availab ility
among the masses. As a consequence, the level
of ICTcan be taken as an indicator of progress
tow ards poverty alleviation.
In the cont ext of universal primary educa tion, a
few studies reveal tha t introduction of comput-
ers may not help improve the school system orreduce illiteracy in a country (Schware and
Jaramillo 1998).11 The co untry stud y for India
shows that introduction of computers in
schools has resulted in misallocation of
resources and neglect of infrastructural facilities
which should be a higher priority. Not-
withstand ing the specific examples, the tota l
impact of ICTin eradicating illiteracy is signifi-
cantly positive, as has been a rgued in the case
of povert y alleviat ion. This is part icularly so
whe n its impact on non -formal education, like
creating the awareness among people about
society, government, market, etc., is taken intoconsideration.12 Asian countries with low levels
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8 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
of literacy and aw areness of rights and respon-
sibilities have certainly benefited through
increasing use of radio, television, internet, etc.,
which have helped in awareness building and
strengt hening the formal education system. Of
course, the impact w ould be higher if certain
kinds of ICTapplication or their use by certain
target groups in the po pulation a re encourag ed,
but it is hard to get reliable information on this
subject.
Regarding the MDGs pertaining to t he improve-
ment in health situation, identification of indi-
cators is extremely difficult because there are
many factors other than communication tech-
nology that are relevant. Although temporal
data on child mortality, maternal health a nd
diag nosis and treat ment of HIV/AIDS, malaria
and other major diseases a re availab le,it is diffi-
cult to apportion a part of the improvement
observed during a certain period, to ICT. In com-
ba ting HIV/AIDS and erad icat ing malaria a nd
other diseases, how ever,most of the count ries in
Asia a re in w hat may b e termed a s the first stag e
applicat ion of ICT. What is import ant at this
stag e is dissemination o f information ab out t he
seriousness of the problem, causes, preventive
measures and facilities for treatment. This is
valid in the context of the programmes for
reduction in child mo rtality or improving mat er-
nal hea lth. With levels of literacy being very low
in the region, ICThas a major role to p lay in the
dissemination o f informat ion. While creat ing
awareness in rural areas and distant towns
should be a priority, the grow th of media and
communication systems at the national level is
desirab le,a s aw areness level is low even in large
urban centers.
The role of ICTin promo ting gend er eq uality is
perceived as positive through deductive rea-
soning as empirical data on this are not avail-
ab le at t he na tiona l level (UNDP 2003a). Given
the fact that women in Asia continue to be
linked to family and household activities and
face numerous social and cultural constraints
restricting their mob ility, their access to public
places is limited a s compared t o men. Not o nly
are cultural barriers far more binding on
women in accessing health and education
facilities, even geo graph ical distance is rela-
tively more restrictive. The a bility to access a
facility without being physically present at a
fixed location would,t herefore,be a big ad van-
ta ge for them . The studies reveal that the t ech-
nology has indeed enabled women to access
education and medical facilities much more
effectively than b efore.Further, they a re able to
take up contract job work out of factory or
office premises, sitting a t their homes through
this technology.
It may be argued that adopting ICTwould be
useful in monitoring the natural resources and
handling of the stress and strain generated
through the development process. The new
technology is of help in adopt ing modern meth-
ods of environmenta l sanitation, and p ollution
control,et c. Unfortunately,d ata on these indica-
tors are not available for Asian countries.
A strong relationship has been no ted betw een
ICTinvestment and the degree of openness to
the wo rld market. Scholars have argued that
countries having an open-trade policy benefit
more from development of ICTthan those with
a closed-door po licy.Higher levels of ICTlead to
greater international linkag e and higher trade.
However, there is not enoug h empirical evi-
dence to confirm or to indicate how the ICT
investment will help the less-developed coun-
tries achieve the MDG related to global partner-
ship. Consequently, this aspect has not been
brought within the framework for identification
of the indicators.
This overview of t he earlier studies sug gests
that determination of the impact of ICTin terms
of MDGs is extremely difficult. The d irect ion of
relationship stipulated in these studies is often
based on deductive reasoning, observance of
such a patt ern in some developed countries, or
the sta ted objectives or claims made by certain
ICTprojects.
The o ther po int emerging from t he overview is
that spatial inequality is a constraint in achiev-
ing social go als in Asian count ries, as ICTis con-
centrated in a few large cities and regions. Lack
of skills and affordability is another obstacle on
the w ay of peo ple in small towns and rural areas,
restricting the generation o f demand for knowl-
edg e-ba sed products a nd b enefiting from ICT.
This assessment prompts us to consider alter-
nate sets of indicators. For example, location-
specific indica tors like ‘ICTfacilities in rural a reas
and small tow ns’ma y be included for capturing
its spatial spread. Similarly, choosing user-
specific indicators like ‘adoption of ICTin social
sectors or ICTfor defined purposes’wo uld reflect
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9 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
13 See wb ln0018.wo rldba nk.org/ict/projects.nsf/14 http ://cyb er.law.ha rvard .edu/itg /projects/15 As part o f the UN ICTTask Force Action P lan, WHO has initiat ed a literat ure review on ICT/hea lth pro jects (carriedout by CIDA).16 See http://ww w.uneca .org/aisi/scanict .htm and htt p://ww w.connect ivitya frica.ca
greater success in moving towards the MDGs.
Bringing in the nature and purpose of ICT
would, thus, be important in the context of the
MDGs.
Anchoring ICT in Millennium
Development Goals
4.1.Overview of recent init iati ves and limi ta-
ti ons of existing dat a sources
The emerging need to assessthe progress of ICTin
achieving a set of socio-economic goals for the
purpose of policy formulation has prompted a
number of regional and international organisa-
tions to undertake studies and propose frame-
works,despite serious methodo logical difficulties.
These studies have the basic objective to opera-
tionalise a mechanism to monitor the progress of
ICTand propose broad policy guidelines as and
when required.An important contribution in this
context is Orbicom’s ‘Monitoring the Digita l
Divide,13whicha ssesses the magnitudeof the dig-
ital divide,or more specifically,t he progress of dif-
ferent countries toward the ‘infostate’ by building
thematic clusters of indicators related to info-
density and info-use.The other important study is
‘Global Information Technology Report’ brought
out by the Global Economic Forum (2001), which
a g ain g ives a fra me wo rk fo r m onit oring t he
progress of countries in adoption of ICT.This pro-
vides an index which comprises three elements:
(a)environment for ICT;(b)readiness of stakehold-
ers;and (c)usage of ICTamongst the stakeholders.
But,they are not of great help in developing coun-
tries despite their claims to the contrary, due to
enormous data requirements and the huge costs
involved in bridging the data gaps through survey.
In education, progress in the development o f
indicators for cross-country comparison seems
promising. The World Bank Institute tog ether
with the Educational Development Centre
(EDC), Informa tion Techno logies Group at
Harvard University has developed a survey-
based informat ion system. This will help deter-
mine the progress of developing countries in
the integration of ICTinto their education sys-
tem. Further, ‘Globa l Survey and Guide t o ICT
4
Planning in Education’ is an important instru-
ment in assessing ICTprogress in the field of
education.14 Similarly, the World Health
Organisation is working on a set o f ICT-related
indicators for the health sector.15 Data o n Asian
countries from this source have not yet become
available to researchers and po licy ma kers.
The study b y the Europea n Commission dis-
cussed in the previous section has built Statistical
Indicators Benchmarking t he Informat ion Society
(SIBIS) for a large number of OECD countries. It
provides the information on access of ICT by
households for various purposes like business,
educat ion, health-care and the location of such
access. Unfortunately, a similar exercise has not
been carried out for Asian count ries.
Scan-ICT project b y Internation Development
Research Centre (IDRC), Canada 16 gives, besides
the supply indicators,the informat ion on users and
usages. The country reports brought out under
this project provide user-based information con-
tent d isseminated throug h ICT.They provide stat is-
tics on telemedicine, research, information
systems, software application, distance learning,
health promotion,etc. These sta tistics are very use-
ful for building up indicators for cross-country
comparison of the role of ICTin promoting human
development for the achievement of the MDGs.
Statistics on schools having computer and internet
connectivity, and student/computer ratios can be
obta ined from this source. However, the da taba se
is restricted for the use by African countries only.
The most important initiat ive in this context is
tha t o f the United Nations ICT Task Force
(referred t o as the Task Force herea fter), esta b-
lished in March 2001 at the request of the
Economic and Social Council to the UN
Secretary-General. It ha s att empted to place the
initiatives and research studies which analyse
the development of ICTin the context of larger
socio-economic go als, within a coherent policy
framework.This is helpful in assessing t he role of
ICTto meet the MDGs. It provides an overview,
largely in qua lita tive terms, of current applica-
tions o f ICTin different countries and offers a set
of indicato rs to cha rt prog ress. This promises to
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10 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
17 These problems are igno red in the present ana lysis, in view of the enormous costs involved in checking and ensur-ing comparability of the data generated through the national statistical system.18
Besides, the role of ICTin these countries would depend on the institutional and policy safeguards tha t they a reable t o evolve and it is hard to predict t heir capability, a priori. In this sense,a chievement of socio-political objectivesdepend not merely on sector, region or gend er-specific use of the t echnology b ut on the overall system of go ver-nance. It is,t herefore,n ot po ssible to d etermine the appropriate indicators of ICTwithout bringing into consideration
larger issues of g overnance.19 Countries like India a nd Pakistan are new comers in the field and one w ould expect t he impact of ICTto mate rialiseon the ground only with a certain time lag.20 Given this perspective, the g rowth o f ICTper se can be taken as desirable for achieving t he MDGs,a s it has been
done in existing literature for developed countries, unless there is evidence to the contrary.This implies that impor-tance of supply-side indicators of ICTmay not be underplayed in the developing countries.
be o f help in setting up ta rgets for ICT,commen-
surate with t he a chievement of larger go als.
The Task Force has co me up w ith a matrix tha t
maps ICTw ith MDGs in eight key spheres. This
matrix basically sugg ests a path, translating the
MDGs into a set o f indicators and then working
out corresponding ICT goa ls. It then proposes
construct ion of a set of compatible ICTindicators.
Following the guidelines propo sed by the Task
Force, a list of t he indicators under different
MDGs has been worked out (Appendix II). The
Task Force sugg ests that the views expressed and
experiences documented in various international
reports such as the UN Millennium Project and
WSIS (World Summit o n Informa tion Society)
should be taken into consideration in opera-
tionalisation of t he indicato rs. Unfortunately, it is
not possible to obtain information about Asian
countries for many of these indicators,from inter-
nationa l websites.Besides, fulfilling the da ta defi-
ciencies through cross-country surveys, as
proposed by the Task Force, would b e highly
expensive.
4.2.A framework for identif ication of indica-
tors for construction of a composite index
The critical prob lem in anchoring ICT within
MDGs is the choice of appropriate indicators and
assigning weightages to these for composition.
The earlier studies on this subject are largely
restricted to industrialised countries. Since the
problems involved in diffusion of technology
across sectors, regions and populations are less
serious here, there was no t much of controversy.
The indicato rs selected were mostly on the sup-
ply side, pertaining to usag e of personal comput-
ers, internet facility, density of telephones,use of
electronic g oods, ratios of enrollment in, or of
passing out from,technical institutions and so on.
These data are easy to obtain and, in fact, are
available for all the countries in international
publications and worldw ide websites.These indi-
cators can, therefore, be easily constructed for
Asian countries,althoug h there a re problems17 of
comparability of da ta in case of a few of them.
However,t he a bove o verview o f interdependen-
cies and country studies makes it amply clear
that there is a strong case to go beyond supply-
linked indicators in order to assess whether the
technology is promoting the development
process in the d esired direction. One would
have to collect information on ICTapplication,
purpose of use, ag encies involved and legal
framew ork rega rding a doption o f ICT. It is only
through such user-specific indicators that it is
possible to a ssess whet her the development of
ICTis in harmony w ith promot ing huma n devel-
opment for achieving the eight MDGs.
In the case of Asian countries, the existing data
sources do not permit building up of user-specific
indicators for cross-country compa rison. Further,
generat ion of fresh da ta on ICT,classified by users
and applications, would ma ke difficult financial
and a dministrative demands on the international
statistical system. In add ition, one can put for-
ward analytical reasoning against use of
extremely specific indicators.These countries a re
so very diverse in terms of levels of economic
development, deg rees of openness to the wo rld
market and socio-cultural specificities that it is
difficult to draw generalisations and reach con-
sensus o n user-specific indicat ors.18 Further, one
may a rgue tha t a review of literature and a nalysis
of interdependencies of ICTindicators in devel-
oping countries,a re not enoug h for taking a posi-
tion w ith regard t o its role in future, particularly
because ICTis still in its infancy.19
4.3. Identification of dif ferent dimensions of deve-
lopment and t heir constit uent ICT indicators
In view of the difficulties in reaching general
ag reement on user/sector/region specific indi-
cators,20 one is constrained to use straight for-
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11 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
21 Given the a bsence of a clear policy perspective in many Asian count ries, it may be proposed tha t ea ch country
designs a system of incentives and cont rols that w ould lead to t he desired social outcome.22 The institution of hosts ha s not de veloped due to different org anisational structures and d oes not a ffect grow th ofthese te chnologies.So this indicator is not included in the construction of the ICTindex.23 These da ta are comp iled from t he Internat ional Telecommunicat ion Union (ITU), UNESCO and WITSA. Seehtt p://ww w.worldba nk.org/da ta /count ryda ta /ictg lance.htm24 Rating s range from 1 to 7; the higher the value,the bet ter is the country in terms of ICTdiffusion to ot her spheresof a ctivity.
ward indicators reflecting the degree of avail-
ab ility o f ICT21 (See the list of supply-side indica-
tors under the e ight MDGs in Append ix II).These
indicators may be combined w ith a few sector-
or user-specific indicators tha t a re easily ob ta in-
able from international do cuments or web sites
of UN ag encies and t he World Bank.The indica-
tors, thus obt ained, are classified into five cate-
gories (See Append ix III); (i) availability-or sup-
ply-linked — skill-independ ent ; (ii) ava ilab ility-
or supply-linked — skill-dependent ; (iii) efficien-
cy and speed; (iv) ta rget ing social sectors and (v)
target ing vulnerable groups.
4.3.1.Availabi lit y-linked indicators
Availab ility-linked ICT indicato rs have bee n
placed in two sub-categ ories: skill-independ-
ent ICT an d skill-depe nden t ICT. The first
includes popular ICTtools such as (i) teleph one
mainline connect ions, (ii) cellular subscribers,
(iii) television sets, and (iv) radio se ts, all being
presented per 1,000 peop le. Under skill-
dependent ICTcateg ory22 the indicators iden-
tified a re (i) internet users per 100 persons, (ii)
personal comput ers per 100 persons, and (iii)
per capita ICT expenditure. Higher expendi-
tures would imply great er use of the techno lo-
gy b y larger sections of the population as they
cover purchase of ICT products fo r business,
households, governments and educational
institutions, including telecommunication
facilities. Two sepa rate cat eg ories have been
kept on the supply side so as to increase the
importance of availability-linked indicators
in the overall ag grega tion scheme. Skill-
indepe ndent ICTs require no or very low level
of skills to use w hile using or ad opt ing the skill-
dependent ICTs call for cert ain skills.
4.3.2. Indicators of efficiency and speed
It has been possible to build up the following
efficiency indicat ors,using a vailab le official data
sources: (i) internet service provider charges; (ii)
telephone usag e charge for internet ; (iii) cost of
peak rate local call per three minutes from the
fixed line; (iv) cost of peak rate ca ll to the United
State s per three minutes; (v) internet speed a nd
access; and (vi) IT training a nd education.
Information on these indicators are compiled
from the World Bank web site on da ta and sta tis-
tics23 and the Global Competitiveness Report
(GCR), 2001-02 (World Econo mic Forum 2001).
Internet service provider charge is the monthly
dial-up access charge for 20 hours of use and
telephone usage charge is the telephone call
charge for 20 hours of access. Understand ab ly,
higher costs would imply lower efficiency and
less access.The last tw o a re positive indicators of
efficiency as they assign higher values to coun-
tries where ICTfacilities are relatively more effi-
cient, as manifest in g reater speed of access and
higher expend itures incurred in t raining of per-
sonnel.
4.3.3. Indicators of targeting social sectors
Indicators capturing coverage of social sectors
th roug h ICT(or secto ral diversificat ion o f ICT)
comp rise (i) internet a ccess in schoo ls, (ii)
computers in educational institutions per
1,000 stud ent s, (iii) prioritisation of ICTby the
g overnment , and (iv) go vernment online serv-
ices availability. In view o f the importance of
universal literacy a mong the MDGs, one can
justify inclusion o f tw o ed ucat ional indicators.
Similarly, tw o g overnment-linked indicators
have been included, as the stat e continues to
play a ma jor role in promot ing social develop-
ment in Asian countries.Da ta o n comput ers in
educational institutions are ob tained from t he
World Bank web site and all othe r indicat ors
are compiled f rom GCR 2001-02. These indica-
tors simply show t he ‘rating’ of the countries,
as assigned b y GCR. It may be pointed out tha t
these ratings, reflecting the performance of
the countries, are based on a n opinion survey
of 4,600 senior business leaders from 75
countries.24
4.3.4. Indicators of targeting vulnerable groups
Lastly, the following five indicators have been
ident ified to assess ICT’s contribut ion to socially
deprived sections of the populat ion: (i) percent-
ag e of women among professionals and technical
workers;25(ii) pub lic access to internet ; (iii) gov-
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12 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
25The informat ion on percentag e of fema le workers in ITsector is not a vailable.Hence, this indicato r is taken as a proxy.26 The Bank has a lso given a ranking t o count ries ba sed o n t he existence of a highly skilled ITjob market. However,this may not be very useful in our analysis as its impact in terms of poverty a lleviation or meet ing ot her MDGs wouldbe marginal.27 See ww w.nua.ie28 These da ta a re available from Women’s Indicato rs and Stat istical Databa se, Wistat , Version 4,United Nat ions.
ernment ’s success in ICTpromo tion; (iv) compe-
tition in provision o f internet services; and (v)
efficacy of laws relating to ICT use. Data on
women professionals and technical workers
have been taken from Human Development
Report, 2003 and the informat ion on ot her indi-
cators, showing the ‘rating’ of the countries, is
from GCR 2001-02. Public a ccess to internet
facilities and high competition among serviceproviders are expected to lead to g reater diffu-
sion of technology, lowering o f the price and
improvement in accessibility, resulting ulti-
mately in the increased access by the poor.
Further,g reater compe tition is likely to g enerate
greater employment in the informal sector,
which ag ain would benefit the poo r and vulner-
ab le groups like wo men. Government ’s success
in ICTpromotion as also the greater sensitivity
in the legal system to e-commerce, consumer
protection, etc., would reflect the outreach of
techno logy.This too ,one may argue, will benefit
the vulnerable sections of the population thattend to get marginalised under the free func-
tioning of the market, without adeq uate protec-
tion from state or legal institutions.
4.4 Rational e for selection of indicators
It is important to discuss the extent to which
selected indicators can map the attainment of
MDGs. In the co ntext o f go als like eradicat ion of
poverty, the important q uestion is whet her the
income and employment e ffect of ICThas a b ias
in favour of the poor that could help them rise
abo ve the poverty line. Despite o pinions on the
matter being equivocal, there is adequateempirical evidence to suggest that the overall
impact of the availability of ICThas been posi-
tive for the poor. This would justify inclusion of
availability-linked and efficiency indicators of
ICT development. Besides, the state playing a
role in providing public access to internet a nd in
ensuring competition among service providers,
and the legal system promoting ICTdevelop-
ment will contribute to better penetration of
technology a mong the masses26 and lead to a
reduction in poverty.It w ould be useful to con-
struct other indicators articulating whether i)
the technology being a dopte d is poor-friendly
or accessible to the poor; ii) it is reaching the
backward areas and economically underprivi-
leged g roups. But this is not possible using the
existing official as well as non-official da ta sets.
The role of ICTin improving education has been
noted as positive and justifies inclusion of the
availability-linked a nd efficiency indicato rs, in
the context of meeting the education-related
MDG.In addition,internet access in schools and
computer use in educational institutions have
been considered as extremely useful sectoral
indicators in articulating the progress of coun-
tries in a chieving universal primary educa tion.
Statistics on women’s access and usage of ICT
relat ive to that of men are useful in under-
standing t he gender divide. These are available
in ‘The World’s Women 2000’, by United Nations
with citat ions from Cyber Atlas.27 Unfortunately,
there are serious information ga ps and prob-
lems of reliab ility, as the da ta sources are of dif-
ferent quality for Asian countries (UNIFEM
2000).There a re also anom alies and inconsisten-
cies with regard to data collection procedures
ado pted by different countries, particularly for
temp oral compa rison (Hafkin, 2003). One alter-
native is to ta ke percentag e of wo men with ter-
tiary level of education like university degree,
teachers’training, professional deg ree, or enroll-
ment of women in science and engineering,28
as the indicato rs, but this would be a bit remote
for capturing gend er sensitivity in ICT.It is,t here-
fore, proposed to capture this dimension
through the percentag e of females among pro-
fessiona ls and technical workers.
In the context of maternal and child health,
access to basic amenities including sanitation
facilities and ot her social sectors, indicators per-
taining to the role of government, such as pub-
lic access to internet, success of the state in
internet promotion and efficacy of laws in ICT
use, etc., have been considered useful as the
state plays a key role in social development in
Asian co untries. These indicato rs may be
included here to indirectly reflect the coverage
of social sectors, as disag grega ted dat a on use
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13 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
29 The role of the g overnment is likely to be significant in the context of a chieving other MDGs as well.30 It is hoped tha t t he Theory of Large Numbers will tend t o minimise the b ias implicit in the method ology, over a
large number o f such applications.
of ICT in these sectors are not ava ilab le.29
Besides,one would have to depend on availability-
linked indicators since the g rowt h of ICTper se
can help in achieving these goals through the
functioning of the ma rket. This indeed is possi-
ble if countries follow certain kinds of ICTpolicy
which as our overview sugg ests, is still in the
formative stag e in most o f the Asian countries.
It ma y be pointed out tha t t he Task Force con-
cedes the point that selection of indicators at
any point o f time wo uld b e g uided by availabili-
ty of da ta. It argues in favour of maintaining a
certain amo unt of flexibility in the methodology
so that experiences gained over the years can
be brought in to improve and refine indicators
over time. Further, it recog nises its ow n limita-
tion of not being able to put together hard
empirical evidence to justify the selection of
indicators or determine their relative impor-
tance. It, therefore,a rgues that assembling a nec-
dotal evidence and success stories would be
useful and complementa ry in the direction of
developing an analytical framework for the
exercise. It is in line with this perspective tha t a n
att empt has been ma de in the following section
to work out a few composite indices reflecting
various dimensions of ICTdevelopment as well
as its o verall progress.
Working out component indices
pertaining to different aspects
of ICT development and the
aggregate index
5.1.The methodol ogy
In view of t he g rowing popularity o f composite
indices and the possible usage of ranking of
countries in national and international policy
deba tes, it is proposed not to use complex mul-
tivariat e tools in the composition exercise. The
methodology attempts aggregation of the indi-
cators at several stag es, as has been done by
UNDP in working out the Human Development
Index (HDI). The metho d o f assigning weigh-
tag es on the b asis of a correlation mat rix, such
as Principal Compo nent Analysis, has not been
considered appropriate here since the pattern
of interdependencies is likely to change as the
technology takes firm root in the region.As one
5
has no other empirical ba sis to w ork out t he rel-
ative importance of indicators, it ha s been
decided to assign the equal weights to all the
indicators. 30
The other important problem to be sorted out is
the elimination of the b ias of scale that charac-
terises each indicator. In comput ing HDI, UNDP
adopts the Range Equalisation (RE) method
wherein each indicator is divided by the range
(after subtraction of the lowest value) so that
scale-free values vary betw een 0 and 1.In recent
years UNDP has changed its methodology
sligh tly as it uses a fixed rang e computed on the
basis of predetermined ‘goalposts’reflecting the
feasible upper and lower limits to the values.
This enables one to m ake tempo ral compar-
isons, not only of the rank scores of countries
but also of t heir HDIs. The disadvantag e in this
method is that the three constituent indices
pertaining to life expectancy, education and
GDP have lost the feature of having a fixed
rang e of unity. The highest value in each index
falls short of unity as the value for the top-
ranking co untry is below the g oa lpost.The same
explanat ion holds for the minimum value being
higher than zero. In view of t he familiarity and
popularity of this method among practitioners
and policy makers,it has been the first choice for
constructing composite indices in the present
analysis.
It may nonetheless be pointed out that fixing
the range of the constituent indices through
division by range discriminates against indica-
tors that have g reater disparity. Moreover, as
inequalities in different indicators show differ-
ent trends, it would be inappropriate t o force
these to ha ve uniform and constant rang e over
time. Indeed, with the introduction of the con-
cept of goalposts to compute the range, the
(scale-free) values of t he indices no longer have
the constant range of unity (and thereby have
lost their uniq ue property). However, the maxi-
mum and minimum values have been specified,
based on the possible values over recent years
and division by rang e is expected to ensure tha t
the difference in disparity of the constituent
indicators does not get reflected in HDI.
Furthermore, there can b e disagreements in fix-
ing the goalposts for indicators like GDP per
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14 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
31 The mean for each indicator has been ob tained b y add ing up the values of all the countries and dividing t he tot alby nine.The new or scale-free value of each co untry,ob tained through t he division by mean, shows its relative posi-
tion vis-à-vis the average of the nine countries, on t hat indicator.See Appendix IV.
capita and life expectancy as the issues involved
here are empirical. The two bounds for literacy
and gross enrollment, on the other hand, are
mat hema tical.While inequa lity in the lat ter two
indicators would decline over time as the maxi-
mum value is fixed, the same may no t be t he
case with per capita income (Kundu 2003).
Nota bly, the RE method ology treats the two
types of indices in a n ident ical manner.The po p-
ularity and acceptability of the HDI among poli-
cy makers seems to have come in the way of
these issues being investigated adequately in
the literature. It is therefore proposed to use an
alternate method that permits the coefficients
of variation of d ifferent indicato rs to remain dif-
ferent even after making t hem scale free, and
lets these differences be reflected in the com-
posite index and ranking. To a chieve this, all the
indicators have been made scale free (See
Appendix IV) through division by their own
mean which may be ca lled t he Division by Mean
(DM) method.31 The coefficients of variat ion of
the original indicators, thus, become the stan-
dard deviations of the scale-free indicators,
which then are carried into the composite
indices.
Another important point is temporal compara-
bility of the indices. As the present exercise is
undertaken to make comparison only across
countries, elimination of scale effect ha s been
done by dividing each indicator by range or
mean, computed for the chosen year. In case
such comparisons are to be ma de over time, it
wo uld be necessary to fix the va lues of the divi-
sors, as is now being d one in computing HDI in
Human Development Report s. Indee d for com-
puting ICT compo site indices for any future
year, it would make sense to use the same
means as in the base year in the denominator
for each indicator. However, in case the base
year is not considered representative of the
early years of the 21st century, it should be pos-
sible to work out the mean of the first three
years, say 2001, 2002 and 2003, and fix these as
the denominators for eliminating the scale b ias
for all subsequent exercises.
Five component indices have been constructed
by the RE method as well as the DM method of
indexing, in the first sta ge . These perta in to the
five set s of indicators discussed a bove: (i) skill-
independent ICT;(ii) skill-dependent ICT;(iii) effi-
ciency and speed of ICT(iv) social sector t arge t-
ing; and (v) vulnerable group targeting. Before
composition, all the indicators need to b e made
uni-directional within each category.Indeed,the
indicators reflecting the costs of communica-
tion, such as internet service provider charges,
telephone usage charge for internet, cost of
local call and cost o f call to U.S.,canno t b e com-
bined w ith t hose articulating internet speed or
IT training. It has, therefore, been considered
proper to reciprocate these cost figures so that
efficiency indicators get defined as (i) internet
time availab le per dollar, (ii) telephone t ime for
internet usag e per dollar, (iii) local telephone
time (at p eak period) available per dollar, and
(iv) US telepho ne t ime per dollar.This has b een
done on t he basis of the understand ing that t he
higher the accessibility of ICTtime per unit of
money, the g reater is the efficiency of the sys-
tem. This problem does no t exist in case of a ny
other categ ory of indicators. Lastly, the agg re-
gate index of development o f ICTin the context
of MDGs has been obtained by combining the
five co mposite indices.
5.2 Indices obtained through range
equalisation method
Following the RE method, the compo nent index
for a categ ory has been ob tained by first making
each indicator scale free by subtracting its mini-
mum value from each observation and then
dividing it by its range. The averag e of these val-
ues across the indicators (within the categ ory) for
each country then becomes the value of its com-
ponent index. If a country has ma ximum values
for all the indicat ors in a categ ory, it will score an
index value of 1. Similarly, a country will ob ta in a
component score of zero only when it has the
minimum value for all the indicators. The larger
the value of group-specific or aggregate index,
the higher the role played by ICTtowa rds atta in-
ment of MDGs in the country. Furthermore, an
aggregate index for ICTdevelopment has been
computed with the same methodologies used
for comput ing the categ ory-specific indices.
The ind ices of skill-de pen de nt an d skill-
independent ICTavailability measure the rela-
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16 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
The index o f vulnerable group ta rgeting measures
the efficacy of the system in extending the bene-
fits of ICTto women and o ther vulnerable sections
through lega l and g overnmental support systems.
India is placed in the top position here,followed by
Malaysia, and this is due to the high values report-
ed in (i) public access to internet , (ii) government’s
success in ICTpromotion, (iii) competition a mong
internet service providers, and (iv) a developed
legal system concerning ICTuse (Figure 4).
The ag gregate index is a summary mea sure of thefive composite indices, discussed a bove. It ma y,
therefore, be ta ken to reflect the overall progress
a country ha s made in promoting the ICTin the
context of goals of human development or mil-
lennium development.Malaysia obtains the high-
est value, followed by China and Thailand (Figure
5). India ob tains the fourth position, which is due
to its high values in categories other than avail-
ability of ICT. Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia
have values in the middle level,indicating a mod-
est role for ICT in promoting socio-econo mic
development .Mongo lia and Viet Nam have a long
wa y to go in promoting the ICT,particularly in ta r-geting social sector and vulnerable groups.
M a l a y s i a
T h a i l a n d
C h i n a
M o n g o l i a
I n d o n e s i a
I n d i a
P a k i s t a n
5.3 Indices obtained t hrough division
by mean method
In applying the DM method, the indicato rs in
each category have been divided by their
respective means. The values thus obt ained
have been ad ded for each country to ob tain the
component index for the cat ego ry. An identical
procedure has been a dopted for computing the
ag grega te index of ICTdevelopment, based on
the category-specific component indices.
The unique position of Malaysia in terms of ICT
development emerges in all categories of indica-
tors, excepting the social sector target ing index
where China seems to take the initiative (Tab le
2).The position of Malaysia is particularly impres-
sive in the case of availability of skill-dependent
ICTfor which the value works out t o be about 25
times that of the Indo-Pak averag e, the two
countries occupying the b ottom positions. In
skill-independent ICTaga in, Malaysia ha s a very
high va lue (followed by China),exhibiting a huge
gap with India and Pakistan (Figure 6).
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17 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
In the case of ICT efficiency, both India and
Pakistan show impressive performances, almost
similar to Malaysia a nd China. Interestingly SriLanka,which secures modest values in availability-
linked indicators, att aining the to p position in
terms of efficiency. This index does not show
much variation across the countries (Figure 7), as
costs are becoming similar around the world,
under the impact of g lobalisation of the technol-
ogy. In t argeting social sectors, China secures the
highest value and this is basically because of ICT
being used in a b ig way in educational institutions
and g overnment assigning it a high priority, as
noted earlier. It is only in this category tha t we see
Malaysia sinking very low (Figure 8), going below
the average of the series while India and Thailand
notch significant ly higher positions. In targeting
vulnerable sections of the population, India and
Malaysia seem to be doing well (Figure 9). In both
countries,the state seems to be playing an impor-
tant role in prioritising ICTas also creating a fair
competitive environment among the service
providers.Here ag ain, inter-country d isparity does
not show any alarming proportions because of
the na ture of the indicators.
Understandab ly, Malaysia has the highest value in
the aggregate composite index,followed by Chinaand Thailand, the countries that have been a part of
the globa lly linked rapid development process, at
least for some time during the past two decades.
India and Sri Lanka come next (Figure 10).They are
at about the same level but the latter gets past the
former by reporting significantly higher values in
availability and efficiency linked indicators.
Immediately following them are Mongolia and
Indonesia. Interestingly, these two report medium
level values in all the five categories of ICTdevelop-
ment. Pakistan and Viet Nam a re at st ill lower level
Development
Skill- Skill- Efficiency Socia l Vulnerab le
inde pende nt d ep ende nt a nd sp eed se ctor g ro up
ICT ICT index targeting targeting Aggregate
Country index index index index index Rank
China 6.18 2.20 6.40 10.14 4.81 1.37 2
India 1.64 0.71 6.58 4.36 5.59 0.79 5
Indonesia 2.65 1.12 5.06 2.75 4.79 0.71 7
Malaysia 10.12 15.24 6.86 3.84 5.61 2.17 1
Mongolia 2.91 1.42 4.90 2.50 4.82 0.72 6
Pakistan 1.50 0.51 6.24 3.14 4.88 0.67 8
Sri Lanka 2.83 1.12 8.12 2.47 4.67 0.80 4
Thailand 5.63 3.62 5.11 4.31 5.36 1.12 3
Viet Nam 2.53 1.06 4.71 2.49 4.48 0.66 9
Table 2. Five component indices and aggregate index obta ined by division by mean method for nine Asian countries
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19 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
The difference in ranking occurs even in categ ory-
specific component indices.Sri Lanka and China
get top positions in terms of efficiency and tar-
geting social sectors respectively by the DM
metho d, leaving beh ind Malaysia (which is
placed at number one position in both, by the
RE method ).It may b e ob served t hat most of t he
indicators in the two categ ories have low inter-
country variat ion. All the countries have similar
values except for telephone charge for internet
services and computers installed in educational
institutions. Both the indicators are important
within their respective categories and are
responsible for much of the variation among
countries. The advanta ge of Sri Lanka lies in
charging a low price for internet services while
that of China is in promoting computer educa-
tion in schools. The DM method, by implicitly
giving higher weighta ge t o these indicators,ha s
placed the tw o countries abo ve all the ot hers in
the cat egories mentioned ab ove. Similarly,
Malaysia is able to g et pa st India in terms of ta r-
ge ting vulnerable group index (the lat ter having
the top position by RE method) as it has a high-
er percentage of female professionals among
wo rkers and the method implicitly gives a high-
er weightage to the indicator because of its
higher d isparity.
It is not the purpose of the statistical exercise
attempted here to establish the superiority of
one method to the other as their suitability
would very much depend on the objectives of
the exercise and the empirical regularities
observed in the region under investigat ion. The
above discussion makes it clear that change in
the methodology of composition can and does
bring abo ut significant chang es in the values of
component indices and alters even the ranking
of the countries. Issues of value judg ment,
implicit in the met hodolog y cannot, therefore,
be dismissed.
It has been demonstrated that the RE method
implicitly gives lower weightages to indicators
pertaining to availability and a few other
aspects of ICTdevelopment that are observed
to have high disparity.The disparity,in the coun-
tries under consideration, has been caused
through the process of development, mediated
largely through t he ma rket, with limited control
being exercised by the government.In the earli-
er sections on the process of development, it
has b een a rgued tha t ICThere is still in the initial
stages of development and consequently,
increase in its availability itself could prompt
socio-economic development. Several econo m-
ic, social and cultural facto rs are currently
inhibiting the process of growt h and an increase
in the availability of this technology would help
in giving exposure to po licy makers,a dministra-
tors and common people to the g lobal informa-
tion system. Further, this would lead to the
establishment of better communication net-
works even within countries and facilitate deci-
sion making of public and private agencies.
Important ly, supply of ICT has been strongly
linked with economic affordability of the coun-
tries,resulting in high d isparity in the former. In
future, economic factors affecting affordability
wo uld also be important for the development
of ICT. This is a fact w hich cannot be denied at
the present time. In view of all this, giving high
importance to availability indicators does not
appea r to be misplaced.
It is indeed true that national governments in
the Asian region have tried to give a direction
to t he development o f ICTb y intervening in
the m arket, controlling prices, introducing it in
social sectors, fixing priorities, strengthening
the legal structure for ensuring access to all,
etc. The cross-country d ifferences in the ind ica-
tors are not very hig h, as may be inferred from
the low coefficients of variation of the indica-
tors (Append ix V) belonging to the third,fourth
and fifth cat eg ories. Irrespective of socio-polit-
ical structures, each country has t aken meas-
ures to give a push to the dissemination of
technology in the desired direction. Indeed,
there are specific measures adopted by indi-
vidua l government s to direct ICTtow ards MDG
objectives but it is impossible to generate
comparable cross-sectional data on this
aspect . Also, the success of such mea sures has
been limited a nd uneven across countries,d ue
to the overwhelming nature of the market
which has proved formida ble. This is reflected
in unbalanced sectoral and spatial growth of
ICT, evident from th e high dispa rity in the first
and second categories of the indicators of
availability.
In view of the a bove ob servations, maintaining
the inter-country variation of indicators (by
making the standard deviation of the original
indicator the coefficient o f the sca le-free indica-
tor) and then giving equal weightage to their
variations in the aggregation scheme appears
to be more appropriate. Studies have shown
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20 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
that the indicators that play a significant role in
the development dynamics of less-developed
countries like India exhibit high disparity in
space (Kundu 1984). Undoub ted ly, this kind of
regularity observed in certain contexts cannot
become an a xiom as it cannot claim universality.
However, given the pa ttern of development
noted through correlation analysis and review
of literat ure pertaining to the Asian reg ion, one
can, with some degree of confidence, justify
retention of the variation in availability indica-
tors in the process of composition.
Understand ab ly, this implies giving implicitly
higher weightage to availability-linked indica-
tors,t he rationale for which has b een d iscussed
while analysing the development dynamics in
the region.
In brief
ICTindicators have shown strong positive rela-
tionships with per capita income and HDI across
the countries of the wo rld in 1991. The MDG
indicators related to health and education, such
as net primary school enrollment ratio, children
reaching g rade 5, youth literacy rate, reduction
in child mortality and improvement in maternal
health, have also shown a significant and
desired pattern of interdependency with ICT
indicators. Similarly, the percentag e of people
with sustainable access to w ater and sanitation
facilities (in urban areas) is highly correlated
with ICTindicators.
In 2001, the pa ttern of relationships betw een
ICT indicators and those o f income a nd HDI
across countries, has strengt hened. Further, the
correlations bet ween ICT and MDG indicato rs
related to he alth and education have improved
over time. Important ly, the positive relationship
between ICTindicators and the percentage of
the non-poor, has improved significantly. The
correlation of ICTwith MDG indicators related to
environmenta l sustainability, particularly to
wa ter and sanitation in urban a reas has, howev-
er, wea kened over the decade.
For indicators of growth or change in the level
of ICTand progress towards MDGs during the
1990s, no reg ular patt ern of relationship is dis-
cernible. One may argue t hat diffusion of ICTto
different social spheres is a recent phenomeno n
and its manifesta tions wo uld be visible only
with a certain time lag. In any case, the positive
impact o f grow th in ICTon the process of socio-
6
economic development has not yet become
statistically visible.
Classifying the countries of the world into four
categ ories such as Europe and OECD, Arab a nd
Latin America, Asia-Pacific a nd Africa, an
attempt is made to examine the the nature of
interrelationships between ICT indicators and
MDGs across regions. Expectedly, one not ices
high correlat ions of ICTindicato rs with per capi-
ta income and other manifestat ions of econom-
ic development in Europe, even in the ea rly
1990s. This is true in th e o the r three less-
developed regions as well, although ICT here
wa s restricted t o use of radios, televisions and
telephones. Importantly, the interdependency
of ICTindicators w ith MDGs emerges as positive
in the case of Europe. This, however, is not the
case in the less-developed regions of Arab and
Lat in America, Africa and Asia. MDG indicato rs
pertaining to primary education, health, gend er
eq uality and environmental sustainability, for
example, have shown strong interdependency
with ICTin Europe. These a re either weak or do
not exhibit any pattern in the other three
regions o f the wo rld in 1991.
The relat ionships of ICTindicators with t hose of
MDGs, in 2001, are similar to or strong er than
tho se of 1991 in Europe. In t he less-developed
regions, this is not the ca se. For Arab and Lat in
America, and Africa, the correlations betw een
ICTand certain social development indicators,
such as access to educat ion, child and mat ernal
health a nd a vailability of drugs, show desirable
signs and are sta tistically significant . This is not
so in Asia as most of such interdependencies
have been estimated to b e insignificant, includ-
ing tho se betw een ICT and education-linked
MDGs. Furthermore, ICT is strong ly correlated
with the availability of drinking water and sani-
ta tion fa cilities in Europe in 2001. This, to some
extent , is the case in Arab a nd Latin America a nd
Africa as well. However, the same, is not
observed in Asia.
The indicators articulating cha ng e or grow th in
the level of ICTor progress tow ards MDGs, over
the d ecad e from 1991 to 2001, exhibit no d is-
cernible pa ttern of interdependency.The indica-
tors of change in the level of ICTshow no posi-
tive correlation with change in primary school
enrollment rat e or gender disparity in educa tion
in any of the four regions. Important ly, the cor-
relations between progress in ICTand that in
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Appendix I:List of indicators used for correlation analysis
1. ICT indicators i. Internet users (per 100 people)
ii. Internet hosts (per 1,000 people)
iii. Personal computers in use (per 100 people)
iv. Telephone mainlines (per 1,000 people)
v. Televisions in use (per 1,000 people)
vi. Cellular subscribers (per 1,000 people)
vii. Radios in use (per 1,000 people)
2. Indicators of economic and human development i. GDP per capita (PPP US$)
ii. Human development index (HDI)
3. Indicators reflecting poverty (related to MDG 1)i. Undernourished people (%of total population)
ii. Population surviving on less than one dollar per day (%)iii. Poverty gap rat io (%)
iv. Share of poorest 20%in national income or consumption (%)
v. Children underweight for age (%of children under 5years of age)
4. Indicators pertaining to education (related to MDG 2 and others showing broad education- al statistics) i. Adult (age group 15–49) literacy rate
ii. Children reaching grade 5 (%)
iii. Net primary enrollment ratio (%)
iv. Net secondary enrollment ratio (%)
v. Combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (%)
vi. Tertiary level students in science,maths and engineering (as %of all tertiary level students)
vii. Youth literacy rate (%of age group15–24)
viii. Scientists and engineers in R&D (per million people)
5. Indicators promoting gender equalit y and empowerment of women (related to MDG 3) i. Ratio of literate females to males (age group 15–24)
ii. Seats in parliament held by women (%of total)
iii. Female share of non-ag ricultural wage employment (%)
iv. Ratio of girls to boys in primary education
v. Ratio of girls to boys in secondary education
vi. Ratio of girls to boys in tertiary education
6. Indicators pertaining to reduction of child mortalit y, improving maternal health and com- bat ing HIV/AIDS,malaria and other major diseases (related to MDGs 4,5 & 6) i. Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births)
ii. Life expectancy at birth (years)
iii. Births attended by skilled health personnel (%)iv. Physicians (per 100,000 people)
v. Population with sustainable access to affordable essential drugs (%)
vi. One-year-olds fully immunised ag ainst measles (%)
vii. Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births)
viii. Under five morta lity rate (per 1,000 live births)
ix. Tuberculosis-related mortality rate (per 100,000 people)
Appendices
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x. Malaria-related mortality rate (all ages)
xi. Malaria-related mortality rate (children aged 0–4)
xii. Malaria cases (per 100,000 people)
xiii. Tuberculosis cases (per 100,000 people)
xiv. Tuberculosis cases cured under direct observat ion treat ment (DOTS) (%)
xv. Tuberculosis cases detected under direct observation treatment (DOTS) (%)
xvi. Adults living w ith HIV/AIDS (%)
xvii. Women living with HIV/AIDS (%)
xviii. Children living with HIV/AIDS (%)
7. Indicators on environmental sustainabilit y (related to MDG 7) i. Consumption of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (ODP metric tons)
ii. Carbon dioxide emissions per capita (metric tons)
iii. GNP per unit of energy use (PPP US$ per kg of oil equivalent)
iv. Land area covered by forests (%)
v. Ratio of protected area to surface area
vi. Urban population with access to improved sanitation (%)
vii. Population with sustainable access to an improved wa ter source in rural areas (%)
viii. Population with sustainable access to an improved wa ter source in urban areas (%)
8. Indicators on developing a global partnership for development (related to MDG 8) i. Flow of foreign direct investment funds (FDI) (in million US dollars)
ii. Overseas development assistance (ODA) as percentage of g ross national product (GNP)
32 Developme nt of ICT, besides playing a role in achieving t he ot her MDGs,has be en conside red as a g oa l in itself.Thiswo uld enab le inclusion of a large numb er of supply-side indicators perta ining to ICT, as listed
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Appendix II:Indicators of ICT development under different Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs),as per the guidelines of the UN ICT Task Force
MDG 1:Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger i. Average income from ICTas percentage of GDP
ii. Number of ICTinitiatives related to the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger
iii. Preps (poverty reduction strateg y papers) that include development of ICT(IMF)
MDG 2:Achievement of universal primary education i. ICTaccess and usage in primary school
ii. Number of teachers trained in the usage of ICT
iii. Initiatives related to ICTuse in primary education
iv. Presence of ICT-related content in primary education, particularly in terms of availability of
learning mat erials in digital form in local lang uag es, educational web sites, e-learning
products/services, etc.
MDG 3:Promot ion of gender equalit y and empowerment of women i. Women’s ICTaccess and usage
ii. ICTliteracy among girls
iii. Sensitivity of ICTpolicy environment to gender issues assessing importance of wome n in
ICTplanning, policy or strat eg y (Hafkin 2003)iv. Role of women in ICTpolicymaking
v. Percentage of female ITworkers or female technical workers
vi. Initiatives to bring about women’s advancement through the use of ICT
MDGs 4, 5 & 6: Reduction of child mortality, improving maternal health and combating HIV/AIDS,malaria and other major diseases
i. Initiatives promoted through ICTfor sensitisation of population on health-related issues
like child mortality,ma ternal health, HIV/AIDS,ma laria and other ma jor diseases
ii. Investment,penetration, usage of ICTin health institutions and by medical professionals
and other health w orkers
iii. Importance given to health and healthcare needs in terms of allocation of resources and
sett ing perspectives,in country’s ICTplan
iv. Number and coverage o f specific programmes and campaigns related to ICTin health sector
MDG 7: ICT impact on environmental sustainabilit y i. Presence of content related to environmental protection and sustainability including cli-
mate chang e biodiversity, etc. in education and information, disseminated t hrough ICT
ii. Indicators pertaining to prevention/monitoring of environmental disasters
iii. Initiatives related to reduction in consumption of energy, water and other essential
resources throug h introduct ion of ICT
MDG 8:Developing a global partnership for development 32
i. Number o f telephone connec tions
ii. Number of personal computers
iii. Number of people trained in ICT(local capacity building)
iv. Number of local companies registered w ith ICTas main/major businessv. Number of domain names registered locally or domain addresses registered to an address
in a country
32 Development o f ICT,b esides playing a role in achieving the other MDGs,has be en conside red as a g oa l in itself.Thiswo uld enab le inclusion of a large numb er of supply-side indicators perta ining to ICT, as listed
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vi. Number of PCs, phones, mobiles, radios, radio stations,etc.
vii. Degree of competitiveness and regulatory controls in the market
viii. Number of internet service providers (ISPs)
ix. Patents registered related to local ICT
x. Number of registered software licenses
xi. Number of health and educational institutions connected electronically
xii. Number of web pages in major local languages
xiii. Number of IP addresses, domain names and e-mail accounts
xiv. Number of people employed in ICTsector
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26 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
Appendix III:Indicators used for construction of indices pertaining to ICT
development
1. Availabilit y or supply-linked — skill-independenti. Telephone mainlines (per 1,000 people)
ii. Cellular subscribers (per 1,000 people)
iii. Television sets (per 1,000 people)
iv. Radios (per 1,000 people)
2. Availabilit y or supply-linked — skill-dependenti. Internet users (per 100 people)
ii. Personal computers in use (per 100 people)
iii. ICTexpenditure per capita (in US dollars)
3. Efficiency and speed i. Internet service provider charges (in US dollars)
ii. Telephone usag e charge for internet service (in US dollars)
iii. Cost of local call per 3 min (in US dollars)
iv. Cost of call to US per 3 min (in US dollars)
v. Int ernet speed a nd a ccess
vi. Training and education in IT
4. Targeting social sectors i. In ternet access in schools
ii. Computers installed in education (in thousands)
iii. Government prioritisation in ICT
iv. Government online services availability
5. Targeting vulnerable groups i. Female professional and technical workers (%of total female workers)
ii. Public access to internet
iii. Government’s success in ICTpromotion
iv. Competition among internet service providers (ISPs)
v. La w s re la ted t o ICTuse
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27 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
Appendix IV:Methodology for construction of composite indices
Range Equalisation (RE) method
Step 1: Making the indicators scale free
i. Computation of the range for each indicator.For the j th indicator belonging to t he r th cat-
egory,t he range R* rj would be (X rjmax X rjmin ) where X rjmax and X rjmin are the ma ximum and
minimum va lues for the j th indicator in the r th category.
ii. Compute (X rij X rjmin ) and divide ea ch value by R* rj .We thus ob ta in the sca le-free values ofthe j th indicators as (X rij X rjmin )/R*rj for a ll i where i = 1,2,… Z.Z is the number of countries,
which is 9 in the present case for each indicato r in ea ch categ ory.
Step 2: Adding up the scale-free values of the indicators within each categ ory for each country.
The group ‘skill-independ ent ICTavailability ’ (category 1), for example, has 4 constituent indicators
and hence we shall have N 1 as eq ual to 4.The compo nent index for skill-independ ent ICTavailabil-
ity Y 1i for the i th country would then be computed as
Y 1i (X 1ij X 1jmin )/R* 1j , j 1....N 1 .
Describing Y ri as the component index for the r th categ ory for the i th country, one w ould w rite
Y ri (
X rij
X rjmin )/R*
rj, for each
j = 1....N r where
N r is the number of indicators in the
r th categ ory.
The ag greg ate index for the i th country Y i would be Y ri /N, where N is the number of categories
which in the present exercise is 5.
Division by Mean (DM) method
Step 1: Making the indicators scale free
i. Computation of the mean for each indicator.For the j th indicator belonging to t he r th cat-
egory, the mean X* rj would be X rij /Z where X rij is the value of the ith country for j th indi-
cator in the r th category and i = 1,2,… Z.Z is the number of countries,w hich is 9in the pres-
ent case for each indicator and each categ ory.
ii. Division of each observation of the indicator (X rij ) by respect ive mea n (X*rj).We thus ob ta in
X rij / X*rj.These ma y be called the scale-free values of the indicato rs.
Step 2: Adding up the scale-free values within ea ch g roup for each country.‘Skill-dependent ICT
availability ’ (cate go ry 2), for example, has 3 constituent indicators. The skill-depe ndent ava ilab ility
index Y 2i for the i th country would then be computed as
Y 2i (X 2ij /X* 2j ), j 1....N 2 .N 2 would be 3 as there are only 3 indicators in this category.
Describing Y ri as the component index for the r th categ ory for the i th country,one w ould write
Y ri (X rij / X*rj),for each j 1....N r where N r is the number of indicato rs in the r th category .
The ag greg ate index for the i th country Y i would be Y ri /N, where N is the numb er of cat egories,
which is 5.
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28 ICT and Human Development: Towards Building a Composite Index for Asia
Appendix V:Mean and coefficient of variation of the indicators
pertaining to different aspects of ICT development*
Mean Coefficient of variation
Skill -independent ICT
Telephone mainlines (per 1,000 people) 73.78 80.28Cellular subscribers (per 1,000 people) 80.22 122.31
Television sets (per 1,000 people) 144.67 51.68
Radios (per 1,000 people) 182.00 57.07
Skil l-dependent ICT
Internet users (per 100 people) 4.70 183.65
Personal computers in use (per 100 people) 2.52 152.63
ICTexpenditure per capita (US$) 59.09 132.94
Indicators of efficiency
Internet time available (per US$) 0.10 51.92
Telephone time for internet (per US$) 6.45 82.51
Loca l telephone time (at peak period)available (per US$) 65.48 53.3
US telephone time (per US$) 0.29 35.24
Internet speed and access 3.54 15.7
ITtraining and education 3.99 20.89
Sectoral diversification in ICT
Internet access in schools 2.76 17.53
Computers installed in education (in thousands) 318.67 210.93
Govternment prioritisation in ICT 4.58 14.31
Government online services availability 2.78 26.75
User group specific indicators
Female professiona l and technical workers(as %of total female workers) 44.71 25.99
Public access to internet 3.20 13.62
Govternment success in ICTpromotion 3.98 13.34
Competition among internet service providers 4.18 15.37
Laws relating to ICTuse 3.34 23.84
Note: * The indicat ors a re available a t UNDP w ebsite: ht tp://hdrc.undp.org.in/initiatives/apri/ict.html
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