ICT, an unproductive luxury for the country still plagued by many miseries

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Information and communications technologies have tremendous potential to achieve the goals of sustainable development. Despite the current context marked by the intensive use of information in many activities, the contribution of ICTs to the development of Burundi is still disputed.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have become an integral part of the daily life of humanity and have imposed themselves on everyone. They have created new professions and caused the decline for others. This implies that human development depends a lot on them today.

In the countries of the North, whether in the field of health, companies, the role of ICT remains preponderant, better, these technologies take more place every day.

However, today ICT and human development are taking on increased importance due, among other things, to their strong correlation. And it has fostered economic growth in almost every area. Here, we must mention large companies, schools etc.

However, even if in other countries, ICTs play a key role in advancing the economy, some developing countries of which Burundi is a part still have great difficulty in developing and thriving in this sector.

Information and communication technologies for sustainable development

African news is marked by acts of calamity, in particular bloody coups d’état, famine and disease and so on. From this perspective of these scourges quite frequently, it is not surprising that in the programming of development projects that of information and communication technologies is little considered.

ICTs are little considered by leaders in developing countries. This implies that they prefer to develop health, food, drinking water etc.

Indeed, in northern countries like Europe, Asia and the USA, the 2016 World Bank report shows that it is the rich, skilled and influential people around the world who benefit from rapid expansion. digital, who are better placed to take advantage of new technologies.

This is not the case for sub-Saharan countries, including Burundi. In Burundi, it was necessary to wait for the arrival of the Covid-19 to introduce NICTs into the administration.

It was only in 2015 that the saw its first beneficiaries of training on the use of ICT in administration. This training was provided by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

It should be noted that until now, information technologies are little used in the administrative services in Burundi. And yet, the role of these technologies in the development of the country no longer needs to be demonstrated.

Many are public services that do not have the IT tools. So to say that where there are computer services, the connection to the Internet network is at a very slow speed. This proves that technologies in Burundi in particular do not have a prominent place in the daily life of Burundians.

The advent of ICTs for solving development problems is good news. And having access to it should no longer be a luxury but a right, because it promotes economic growth, competitiveness, access to information and knowledge, poverty eradication and social inclusion, achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

By Christophe Niyongabo

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