UNDP focuses on new technologies to help end extreme poverty

UNDP draws attention at the World Summit on the Information Society to ways in which new technologies can help more than a billion people get out of extreme poverty.

Many countries are joining the information and communications revolution, coming on to the information superhighway at great speed, but while at least a third of people in the industrialized countries use the Internet, fewer than 1 per cent of people in the 49 least developed countries get online.

"The question is how do we leverage this technological revolution for a revolution in development that can make a real difference to the everyday lives of the world's poor," said UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown.

UNDP helped bring private and public sectors together to set up the first Internet nodes in 24 countries and enable more than 25,000 organizations and institutions to train millions of men and women in basic computer skills. Its focus is using ICT to improve governance and expand public access to information and services.

Part of its mission is to harness ICT as a tool to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the subject of a round table Mr. Malloch Brown is moderating with heads of government at the Summit.