Raúl Zambrano is the Global Lead and Policy Adviser in the ICT for Development and e-governance team at UNDP's Democratic Governance practice based in New York. For the past 20 years, Mr. Zambrano has supported the deployment and use of ICT in nearly 100 developing countries. His current focus is on mobile technologies and social networks to enhance access to public information, advance service delivery for under-served populations and promote the participation of stakeholders in public policy and decision-making processes. Mr. Zambrano is also working on open government and open data and the use of cloud computing by developing countries. A Colombian national, Mr. Zambrano has previously worked in academia in the United States and has an MA in Economics with a major in Economic Development from the New School for Social Research, USA.
BR Research recently sat down with Raul Zambrano in Islamabad to discuss ICT and development. Some of the contents, relating to e-governance, technology and development, appeared in Business Recorder's pioneering ICT publication, the ICT Review 2014 (released on December 16, 2014). Other equally insightful excerpts are shared below:
BR Research: Why has it been difficult for developing countries to introduce e-governance?
Raul Zambrano: A lot depends on how governments want to approach the issue. Our role as UNDP is to advise them on how to do it on a sound basis, while keeping national development agenda in mind. We offer governments options for deploying ICTs in the public sector but it is up to them to select which of these options, a combination of them, and a mixed or unique approach is better suited for the local context.
For open, transparent and accountable government, you need technology. Reforms are about changing the way a particular government works, e-governance encompasses that. That's a hard paradigm shift to bring about, but one that is very important to do.
BRR: Coming to the debate about technology and its potential to exacerbate inequalities, how can technology be a force of development in societies?
RZ: My job is to create a bridge between people who are passionate about technology and people who have been doing development for many years. So I see this debate regularly. As I said earlier, using technology per se is different from using it for development purposes. You don't have to be a direct user to benefit from technology.
We need to understand the current debate about technology and development. In many developing countries, ministries usually see technology as an expense. They might even think that technology solutions do not make sense for their ministries. On the other hand, when you talk to technologists and innovators, they will tell you that technology is the solution for almost everything and that raising technology access - bridging digital divide that is - must also be made a priority. There are already so many unmet development priorities, and now there seems to be additional pressure to add "digital divide" as another priority.
But you cannot do development with just a technology focus. Private sector would obviously like to have more people using their services - that means chunks of additional revenues and that is great. But in my view, one can still get the benefits of technology with limited personal access to technology. Government can still bring public services and public value to people in areas with low or no connectivity. Technology is also great for scaling up development programmes.
BRR: Does that mean that digital divide is currently a secondary issue in development?
RZ: The digital divide is a direct reflection of current socio-economic divides. The real power of new ICTs is to bring new solutions and application to traditional development divides. If that, at the same time, addresses the digital divide then that is great. But it is also possible to address the digital divide while ignoring development gaps. There is not an automatic link between the two in the latter case.
The issue of digital divide seems related more towards increasing the number of consumers of technology services. I will give you a counter example: how many poor people have refrigerators? Do we have the statistics? No. Why? Is that not as important if not more important than the internet? It is important because when you are poor and don't have a refrigerator, you have to pay more for food as it is not possible to buy larger quantities. That means you end up paying more per unit and have access to low-quality food products that perish soon.
I'm surprised about lack of adequate data on such a basic question. We are talking about people's ability to feed themselves under tight household budgets. So, why don't we discuss fridge-divide? Why don't we discuss electricity-divide? Where do we start? By the way, India has started to produce affordable refrigerators with the same question in mind.
BRR: Can there be a situation where technological use is increasing but so is poverty?
RZ: Globally, the number of smartphones users and broadband subscriptions are increasing year after year but from a development point of view, there is still poverty in the world, while inequality is getting worse. Poverty actually declined in recent years in many countries, thanks to governments and partners that designed adequate programmes explicitly targeting poverty - and many of them are using technology in one way or the other.
Indeed, ICT enables development but is not a goal in itself. The same goes for social innovation, for example. And it is here where things such as e-governance can make a huge difference in enhancing development of Pakistan - and in many other countries, too.
BRR: Transparency and accountability are very important for a credible public sector. How effective have open data initiatives been in the countries where they have been implemented?
RZ: Open data is as important as is open government. I have been repeatedly told by the new generation of innovators and practitioners that e-governance is old-fashion and should be replaced by open government. Maybe! In any case, the UNDP recently joined the Open Government Partnership that the Obama Administration launched back in 2011. The partnership now has 65 countries that have joined in.
Open data is a key component of Open Government but it is only useful if we can ensure its productive consumption by stakeholders that want to be better informed so that they can engage in more effective fashion with the public sector.
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