ICTs and Coordination for Poverty Alleviation

In recent decades, calls for poverty alleviation have increased significantly in both developed and developing countries. Relatively, ICTs have been viewed as offering helpful tools for poverty reduction. This chapter investigates access to ICTs in the context of poverty, in both developed and developing countries. Based on a sample of 40 countries (20 developing and 20 developed countries), several statistical tests have been performed with promising results obtained. It is first shown that people in developing countries have less access to ICTs relative to those in developed countries. Second, it is also proven that the use of Internet is positively affected by the literacy rate within a country. The higher the literacy rate, the higher the number of Internet users in a country. The third result conveys that countries with higher GDP per capita ensure higher access to ICTs for their populations. Finally, this chapter proposes that populations of countries with higher poverty rates have less access to ICTs.