Industrial societies have been transformed into informational ones, where economic success is determined by the capacity to process and exploit information in a networked world, and where inclusion means being part of the net. The digital divide expresses not only material but also cultural divisions that facilitate or prevent the full use of the resources of the new media. Digital inequality also includes the existence of infrastructure and access to cognitive, social and cultural capital, which represent the potential of people (discerning and active ‘prosumers’) to use technology to change and shape their lives by actively producing, consuming and communicating .

Global ‘ICT for development’ movements have been growing in response to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG), in particular, Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development, and Target 8f, Making ICT available to all. The MDG as articulated through the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), has spurred many initiatives from global, hemispheric, regional and national organizations, including the World Computing Services Industry Association, WITSA, World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), (CANTO), and others that represent various sub-sectors of and interests in the ICT sector and global trade.

Source: Draft ICT Strategy