Information Provision: the Challenge of developing Countries

Abstract

Information has become the driving force in the global economy in the latter part of the twentieth century and has helped to successfully meet the needs of the fast changing business and higher education environments. Coupled to this, developments in information communication technology have made it possible to address many of the new challenges in the information environment and many other fields. However, it is an expensive exercise to provide sufficient infrastructure for information communication technology to be able to play the game successfully. It is this latter aspect that has become a major challenge for countries in the developing world. Fortunately there are many projects in place or under development that support this challenge. One of these is the role that the Economic Commission for Africa is playing in the digitization of the African continent. In this presentation I would like to focus on the work of the Open Society Institute (OSI), which is part of the Soros Foundation Network, and the work which it is doing in assisting developing countries to get access to a wide variety of mainly full text electronic information and then to elaborate on the challenges this creates for developing countries.