back to article World Bank: What do the poor need – clean water, or email ... take a guess

Efforts to expand IT and internet connectivity in developing countries are producing results that are "far less than expected," according to the World Bank. The 2016 Digital Dividends report [PDF] said that when it comes to quality of life and economic development, campaigns to bring poorer nations online have failed to meet …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Sherrie Ludwig

      2G? I would LOVE to get 2G at my rural northern Illinois home! I get an average of .5 to 1.25 download tested, and pay AT&T $42 a month. The only other "competitor" (by regulatory agreement), Comcast, will happily provide me with 5G, IF I pay $3000 to get the cable to my house, and then the current monthly service would be $79! And, that offer only came after we contacted the FCC (Federal Communications Commission, the US so-called regulatory body). I got much better service in rural Mexico! The USA is now a third-world country, just with better PR.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Part of the problem is...

    That if you put the average person online, their work productivity drops due to increased consumption of Facebook, porn and cat videos!

  3. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    What do the poor need...

    ...The Cloud, because they can then hopefully have some clean water.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What do the poor need...

      I would think their most basic needs are reliable cheap base load electricity available 24/7/365. When they have that water becomes easy because that electricity will power the necessary pumps.

      Once they have a reliable electricity supply from coal or oil or gas fired power stations then everything else becomes possible just as it did in Europe with the industrial revolution caused by steam power.

      1. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

        Re: coal or oil or gas fired power stations

        I take your point, but Hydro Electric is another method used by developing countries. Admittedly it requires more than a few clouds though.

  4. Charles Manning

    Clean water: reduce disease

    Condom factory: reduce disease and over population.

    500 other things....

    Internet

  5. Steve---d

    So basically; application of technology and automation have the same effect on 3rd world counties as they do on 1st world counties...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    > What do the poor need – clean water, or email ... take a guess

    Do they *have* to choose?

    Why the fictional dichotomy?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      No dichotomy. It's a question of priority and benefits returned

      With a fixed amount of time and money: Do you build well and sewer, or a cell tower first? Which improves the well-being of the populace it serves most?

      Ok. So they have water on tap and a drain now. Do you give the village a cell tower or a schoolroom and teacher?

    2. SundogUK Silver badge

      UN/Aid budgets are finite. Sometimes you do have to choose.

  7. PapaD

    It's a question of short vs long term

    Clean water helps right now, but access to the internet helps over the long term, and provides a more sustainable change.

    It's a rehash of 'give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime'

    Well, give him clean water and he can drink, give him the opportunity to learn LOTS of diverse stuff, and he will be able to learn the skills he needs to improve his life, and the lives of his children

    1. graeme leggett Silver badge

      Re: It's a question of short vs long term

      "give him the opportunity to learn LOTS of diverse stuff, and he will be able to learn the skills he needs to improve his life, and the lives of his children"

      But is a cellphone the better (cost effective?) way to deliver that, as opposed to a peripatetic agricultural adviser with a bunch of leaflets in the pannier of his bicycle?

    2. midcapwarrior

      Re: It's a question of short vs long term

      Give him clean water and he and his family do not get dysentery and other water borne ailments.

      Healthy children do better in school and learn LOTS of diverse stuff.....

      Healthy adults are more productive in their livelihood and learn new skills.....

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    1. John Robson Silver badge

      You say "of course"

      I'm not sure that's always something you can reasonably assume.

      It is in many areas, but not everywhere...

  9. Alistair
    Windows

    Structural failures in logic?

    1) water - reliable and clean

    2) food - reliable and sufficient and *affordable*

    3) decent basic education.

    4) honourable government. <Okay - I'll concede that no one on this planet has that yet but.....>

    The internet is as useful for one as a bicycle is for an earthworm, if you can't READ and WRITE

    Then, maybe the internet. It does, once one has the basics, provide the opportunity to learn much more. Why anyone would consider other priorities boggles the imagination.

  10. Crazy Operations Guy

    One laptop per child

    Programs like that tend to become 2 dozen laptops per village elder, or in some regions, one thousand laptops per warlord. A few weeks ago, I read an article about how some OLPCs were found in Boko Haram camps with piles and piles of scouting data on them.

    1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

      Well of course

      Boko Haram is basically just a criminal gang and criminals have a habit of stealing things.

      From there to everyone in the third world is corrupt is a big leap.

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