Information and Communication Technologies for Reconstruction and Development: Afghanistan Challenges and Opportunities

摘要

The term information and communication technologies (ICTs) encompasses the range of technologies for gathering, storing, retrieving, processing, analyzing, and transmitting information that are essential to prospering in a globalized economy. Advances in ICTs have reduced the costs of managing information and introduced innovations in products, processes, and organizational structures that, in turn, have generated new ways of working, market development, and livelihood practices. Internationally, ICTs are viewed as a basic enabler of informal social and economic discourse, leading to a strengthening of civil society and the promotion of economic activity. The importance the United Nations (UN) attaches to ICTs as enablers of economic, governance, security, education, health care, and social well-being reconstruction and development is evident in sponsorship of two international summits, the 2003 and 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). These summits documented steps on how to establish and organize the Information Society, and their reports referenced the importance of ICT by frequently citing the phrase, ICTs as a tool for social and economic development. 1 While there is little doubt that ICTs are an engine for social and economic development, quantifying their impact is difficult. Evidence remains largely anecdotal, and the link between ICT deployment and reconstruction and development remains vague. The National Defense University (NDU) Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) recently completed a study, known as the I-Power study, which looked at using information and ICTs to achieve success in stability and reconstruction (S&R) operations. The study results suggest that the strategic use of information and ICTs can increase significantly the likelihood of success in affected-nation, cross-sector reconstruction and development if they are engaged at the outset as part of an overall strategy that coordinates actions.