Hi Taran & All, Let me explain a little of what I know about how debt condonation works: (1) The countries in the list for debt condonation (forgiven or in the process) are the countries with the severest poverty conditions, so if that means that funds will be available to other "more needy" countries is a concept I don't really understand, because greater poverty than these have, who else? But there's plenty of space to talk because as some poor countries reach new levels of growth, the concept of poverty takes new meanings. (2) The countries whose debts are forgiven continue to collect taxes as if they were going to pay the debt and is budgeted, except that (by law) the money gets re-invested in poverty reduction programs. (3) The poverty reduction programs that will recieve these funds are encompassed in a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). So the secret to the effectiveness lies in the PRS that the particular countries have. (4) The idea that 100% of the debt was forgiven is a relative concept, because the guys forgiving the debt can only forgive that part of the debt that the country has with them (multilateral debt). Thus, 100% of the Honduran debt was forgiven means that the 30% of our debt with those countries was forgiven, but the InterAmerican Development Bank and the Paris Club are not included, so Honduras still has 70% of its debt outstanding. So do the other countries.
Still, that means that funds are available in the country for poverty reduction and that these funds are "tied" to the PRS. In Honduras, the specifics are managed by a Government-Civil Society-Cooperating Agencies partnership. But there are no cooperating agencies that are prioritizing Telecenters as a tool to eradicate poverty. ITU for instance is doing telecenters but mostly as a tool of technology transfer. Which was the point I was making in an earlier e-mail to DDN. We must somehow see beyond the "digital divide" and see it as a technology solution to HUMAN needs. I don't know why solutions such as Kidlink and the Boston ICC clubs that present solutions to human learning problems are not more participative in these issues. We need agricultural systems that can help the peasants that live in the most abject situations but can benefit from a telecenter. We need health solutions through the internet that can help rural children where they have a minimal health clinic with no doctors. I don't know. Maybe I'm just dreaming. Jorge --- Taran Rampersad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Jorge Gallardo Rius wrote: > > >Hi all, > > I was hoping to see more comments on this note > >trying to establish a link between the digital > divide > >and debt forgiving in developing nations, but > >apparently there isn't much interest. > > > > > Sorry, Jorge, I'm actually quite interested but have > been travelling. On > the surface, I think the debt forgiving can be good > for the involved > developing nations. Whether it is or not is up to > the nations > themselves; it can be room to grow or room to get > into debt again. It's > not an optimistic or cynical view - it's realistic. > > I haven't been following this, and I don't know if > the involved > countries had to sign onto anything either. That's a > factor that I'm > always concerned about. If this debt forgiving is > free and clear of > conditions, then I would have to say that it has > greater potential for > assisting the forgiven nations. But if there is - > and it happens - the > details of the agreements would have to be shared. > Whether such > agreements are there or not, I do not know. > > > I live in one of those countries whose debt was > >written off, but not in Africa, instead in Central > >America. I'm referring to Honduras. > > Honduras has a very interesting Poverty Reduction > >Strategy (PRS). The highest committee that decides > >project financing in the land is the Presidential > >Social Cabinet. Right below it, in an advisory > role, > >is the PRS Consulting Committee (CC-PRS). This > >Committee is now sending up projects and > prioritizing > >them so that funds get put into those actions. > > For this second semester, the country will have > >about 32 million US$ for social projects dealing > with > >Poverty Reduction. For next year, the country will > >have about 10 times as much. > > I was recently in a meeting where 34 project > >profiles were sent up to the Social Cabinet for the > >first 32M but none dealt with the digital divide. > And > >judging by what I'm seeing, I don't think any will > >have anything to do in the 650M for next year. > > Honduras has a rural telecenter project but > >apparently there has been no correlation between > >poverty reduction and bridging the digital divide. > > Frankly, I thank "Montee" for bringing up the > topic. > > I think that bridging the digital divide could > help > >out very much in poverty reduction and now there > are > >funds available. > > > I'm not sure that just because debts have been > forgiven that funds are > now available. Every country has it's own > priorities. I believe that > bridging the digital divide should be *a* priority, > but if people need > to eat or have shelter that is certainly more > important than people > having a Flickr account, podcasting ability and > gmail so that they can > store all the emails they wish. > > Maybe others are silent because of similar concerns, > I cannot say. But > what I can say is that this will really take time to > evaluate. What I'm > also interested in is how this is going to affect > funding being piped > into these countries. With debt relieved, and the > possibility of more > self-sufficiency of these nations, will funding now > go to other > countries which may now need it more? > > > -- > Taran Rampersad > Presently in: Georgetown, Guyana > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > http://www.knowprose.com > http://www.easylum.net > http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran > > "Criticize by creating." Michelangelo > > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word > UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. > ____________________________________________________ Yahoo! Sports Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
