Michele Marius
On Monday, 25 November, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) published its Measuring the Information Society Report 2014 in which it highlights key technology and developments worldwide and tracks the cost and affordability of telecommunications services as of the end of 2013.
The report includes the results of the organisation’s review of information and communications Technology (ICT) development globally, through its ICT Development Index. The IDI includes 11 indicators organised under three sub-indices: ICT access, ICT use and ICT skills.
Thirteen Caribbean countries were among the 166 economies assessed: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The majority of Caribbean countries slipped positions since the 2012 IDI exercise. The exceptions were Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, which improved their positions in the index, whilst Guyana and Saint Lucia, retained its 2012 ranking. But most Caribbean countries’ IDI scores improved compared with the previous year, which was generally the trend across the set of countries.
It could be that the decline in ranking that many Caribbean countries experienced could be attributed to the marked improvements that other countries worldwide have made.
As reflected by the overall IDI scores and rankings, Barbados, followed by Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda generally performed the best across the three sub-indices (access, use and skills). The most notable exception was Cuba, which overall had an IDI score of 2.77 and was ranked 125th out of 166 countries, but again the ITU reported that Cuba’s score for ICT skills was quite high—44th among the 166 countries.
The Caribbean group performed relatively well under the ICT access and skills sub-indices, which indicates that the region has a reasonably good handle on matters related to telecommunications infrastructure and education. But not unlike last year’s assessment, the region appears to be challenged with regard to ICT readiness, based on the actual use of the Internet and take-up of both wired and wireless broadband subscriptions densities.
In summary, and as reflected in other assessments conducted by other organisations, Caribbean countries still have not established the necessary systems to facilitate better use of technology by their citizens. The IDI scores not only reflect that the region is still lagging behind in relation to ICT development, it also suggests that they might not be positioning themselves for the possibilities and opportunities that could emerge from a more focused effort towards becoming Information Societies.
Michele Marius is the publisher and editor of ICT Pulse, a blog that discusses technology issues from a Caribbean perspective. She has almost two decades of professional experience in the telecommunications and ICT fields, which has been gained in the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, and in developed and developing countries.