Information Gaps

Lack of information impacts on a number of socio-economic activities. Their biggest impact is seen in how people and organisations fail to base economic development on the acquisition and application of knowledge. What are some of these information gaps that are typically found in many developing countries? What are some of the causes of these gaps? How can the Internet, in particular web sites be used to reduce these gaps?

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), has clearly stated that the Internet presents an ideal opportunity to transform the lives of many people not just in the region but in other developing settings, who are isolated from the rest of the world. They need to have access to information that they can use to make gigantic steps towards full economic independence. In the spirit of the 1999 SADC theme document - policies that are yet to be fully translated into practice, the information disseminated through online facilities like web sites, email and electronic forums should be directed towards achieving the following:

1. Improved governance - forging a new relationship between the citizens and the state through an up-to-date flow of public information on health, education, rural development, government projects etc.
2. Community development - rural communities accessing information that they can use to reduce poverty, ignorance, social isolation and removal of barriers to personal communications - savings in cost of communication, better use of time through less travelling especially for those with physical disabilities.
3. Education - by far the biggest winner, the Internet being used to reduce illiteracy, use of multimedia resources to enhance learning, schools being able to access up-to-date information that libraries increasingly fail to provide, taking learning to where the learner is i.e. virtual learning, reducing class numbers, up-grading teacher skills as job requirements change, hospitals and communities having access to up-to-date information on health matters.
4. Business - using the Internet for electronic trading and business training, beneficial to SMEs who need not travel too much, reduction in communication expenses, providing market wide information for business expansion, increased productivity resulting and becoming more competitive.
5. Agricultural development and resource management - farmers having access to market information about their produce, distribution of knowledge on agricultural and natural resource techniques.

Information Gaps