Widening Opportunities in the New Economy

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Widening Opportunitiesin the New Economy

• Presented by
• Gillian M Marcelle
• AISGWG, ITU Task Force on Gender Issues
• From Beijing 5 to Copenhagen 5
• June 28th 2000, GENEVA

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Topics

• The New Economy
• Enabling conditions for benefits in the New
  Economy
• Benefits from the New Economy
• Barriers in the New Economy
• Strategies for change

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The New Economy?
ICTs are a generic, systemic and pervasive set
of technologies which have facilitated
economic and social restructuring (electricity,
steam engines, genetic engineering)
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
telecommunications, television and radio
broadcasting, computer hardware and software,
computer services and electronic media (e.g.
Internet, electronic mail, electronic commerce,
computer games).
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The New Economy

• 220 million Internet users
• 220 million devices accessing the Web
• 1.5 billion web pages
• (1998) USD 45 billion e-commerce revenue
• (2004) USD 7 trillion e-commerce revenue

5 worlds population
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The New Economy

• Economy driven by services sector
• Importance of knowledge and innovation as factors
  of production
• Increasing importance of facilitating innovation
  climate and institutions
• Greater reliance on supply of skills and finance
• Investment capital
• Active policy intervention

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Opportunity

• Produce improvement in quality of life
• Facilitate efficiency gains
• Create Jobs
• Gain Skills
• Increase Wealth
• Enhance political empowerment
• Challenge harmful traditional values and
  practices and protect human rights

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Marginalisation in the New Economy

• Terms and participation in global economy
• Increasing vulnerability to market forces
• Imbalance between profit and public interest
  objectives
• Discrimination in education training leads to
  barriers to jobs and skills
• Poor employment conditions in New Economy
  occupations
• Persistent occupational stratification and lack
  of mobility

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Gender Gaps in Education
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Create Enabling Conditions
benefits
Make opportunities available across the wealth
divide
equity
Strategic action
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Enabling Conditions

• Capital
• Capacity
• Commitment
• Coordination
• Courage and creativity

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Strategies for Change
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Capital

• Long term development finance
• Risk capital and venture financing
• Supplier credits and insurance schemes
• Structured financing for smaller markets
• Human capital as well as financial resources

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Capacity

• Technology scanning and selection
• Policy and regulatory skills
• Managing national and global ICTs for development
  efforts
• Developing and stimulating market growth and
  expansion
• Design and delivery of appropriate technologies
  and services

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Coordination

• Reduced fragmentation and generate multiplier
  effects
• Genuine partnership across state, private sector
  and civil society
• Improved performance of donor community

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Commitment Courage and Creativity

• Public interest objectives as well as profit
  motives
• No tied aid, fashionable fads and techno hype
• Needs of marginalised advocated by themselves and
  taken into account on fair terms
• No across the board solutions from Northern
  capitals -- independent strategies tailored to
  individual needs of regions, countries and
  communities