Why Technology?

Livelihoods

In the 21st Century, being able to use a computer makes its easier for a person to get a job or start a business, and provide income for themselves and their families.

Why are these skills important for the future?

20% of all people in the EU and USA are employed in ICT-intensive occupations. 75% to 100% of all businesses in OECD countries use Broadband.

Education

Access to technology - online resources, multimedia experiences and collaborative learning all enhance the experience of learning for children.

How?

The Khan Academy has produced 2,700 online videos (free) covering everything from arithmetic to history. Intel Teach Program has trained more than 10 million teachers in 70 countries. Camara is now using this program in Africa.

Social Justice

Online technology allows people to communicate to a wider audience the injustices, and abuse of human rights affecting their lives.

An example...

In India, Blank Noise a participatory arts project used a Blog (with uploaded pictures and personal experiences) to make visible the high level of street sexual harassment that girls and women face in urban public spaces.

Gender Equality

Most evidence suggests that women continue to have less access to ICT than men – the 'Gender Digital Divide'.

It doesn't have to be like that

However when given access and training it has been proven that women like the ones in Zantiébougou Women Shea Butter Producers Cooperative (CORPROZAKAN) in Mali will use ICT to improve their livelihoods.

Health

UNICEF says 21,000 children per day die from preventable diseases. The power of technology can be used to tackle these problems.

How?

In Kenya, Hewlett Packard has provided technology that allows test results for babies diagnosed with HIV/AIDS to be recorded in 1 day rather than the 3 months previously required, significantly improving their chances of survival.

Democracy

As the Arab Spring showed in 2011, the ability to use technology to communicate and organise civil society was an important catalyst for change among repressed people across the Arab world.

Twitter, Facebook, mobile phones were used to organise people and garner support from around the international community.

Environment

According to the ITU, "Although ICTs require energy resources, they also offer a number of opportunities to advance global environmental research, planning and action."

How?

Google Earth has teamed up with UNEP to produce an Atlas of 120 sites around the world where environmental changes have been researched and studied. Climateprediction.net use the computing power of people around the world to produce predictions of the Earth's climate up to 2100.