into or out of the digital divide? dieter neuvians md deutsche gesellschaft für technische...
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Into or Out of the Digital Divide?
Dieter Neuvians MD
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit
Harare - Zimbabwe
An African Perspective
Part I: The Digital Divide
‘Digital Divide’ definition by OECD (1998): The gap between individuals,
households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICT) and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities.
World Telephone DensityMain lines per 1,000 population
*
Telephone Density in African countries(Main lines per 100 inhabitants)
Main lines
per 100 inhabitants
Urban main lines
Rural main lines
“In reply to your letter to our mail order section regarding theBurke garden hoe, please visit our
World Wide Web home page.
Internet in Africa
1996 2000Internet Hosts WorldWide
Rest of WorldAfrica Total
Internet users
3 7 13 2551
8330 47
77
124
180
232
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000# of
Inte
rnet
use
rs (m
illio
ns)
Developing Developed countries
Average costs:(1998)
US$ 58 / monthUS$ 704 / year
*
Faults per 100 telephone lines per year
12
41
55
110
130
148
150
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
OECD (average)
Maledives
Gambia
Chad
Benin
Mauretania
Bangladesh
Source: OECD
The Digital Divide is a consequence of existing social and economic
inequalities:
Country Per capita GNP (US$)
Per capita health expenditure (US$)
Doctors per 1,000 population
Telephone lines per 100 pop.
Africa 660
Sub-s. Africa 320
Ethiopia 110 4 0.03 0.28
Zimbabwe 720 42 0.16 1.7
South Africa 3210 158 0.61 10.7
UK 20,870 1,039 1.4 54.2
USA 29,000 2,763 2.38 64.4