Why Developing Countries Can Gain from Standards

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Why Developing Countries Can Gain from Standards

• Dr. Laura DeNardis,
• Yale Law School

Nadi, Fiji, 17 September 2009
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Some Questions

• What are the direct public policy implications of
  ICT standards?
• What are the consequences of lack of standards
  participation to developing countries?
• How is the ITU's Bridging the Standardization Gap
  project examining these issues?

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Standards Have Public Policy and Economic
Implications

• Technical Interoperability
• Effective Government Services
• Public Interest Effects
• Innovation Policy and National Competitiveness
• Global Access to Knowledge

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Effective Government Services
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Public Interest Effects
Standards design decisions sometimes have effects
on substantive public interest issues.
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Innovation Policy and National Competitiveness
From an economic standpoint, ITU standards
capability is a critical factor in a countrys
innovation and competition policy.

• Innovation Policy.  ICT standards provide a
  common platform from which innovation can
  proceed.
• Entrepreneurial Opportunity. Standards can
  determine the competitive openness of national
  ICT markets.
• Global Competitiveness.  ICT standards can
  provide the opportunity for nations to become
  more competitive with other nations in technology
  product markets.
• Global Trade. ICT standards facilitate
  infrastructures for global trade or, if
  proprietary, can be used to create technical
  barriers to trade

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Global Access to Knowledge
Interoperability, achieved through agreed upon
ICT standards, enables information sharing within
governments, between governments and citizens,
and more ubiquitously, in the overall information
society.

• Emerging forms of digital education
• Medical and health diagnostic information
• Participation in digital cultural life
• Participation in global political sphere

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Pronounced Effects of Standards on Developing
Countries

• "The development and use of open, interoperable,
  non-discriminatory and demand-driven standards
  that take into account needs of users and
  consumers is a basic element for the development
  and greater diffusion of ICTs and more affordable
  access to them, particularly in developing
  countries."

World Summit on the Information
Society Declaration of Principles, Paragraph 44
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National Involvement in Standards
Participation in ICT standards can take a number
of forms
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Consequences of Lack of Participation in Standards
Lack of participation in any aspect of
standardization carries consequences to
developing countries
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Impeding Public Services
Lack of access to or adoption of effective ICT
standards can create problems such as inhibiting
public services or compromising critical
infrastructures.

• Public Safety Problems. Lack of interoperability
  between first responder technical infrastructures
  can impede services during a natural disaster. 
• Public Accountability Concerns. Digital
  government archives can be problematic if the
  formats and network protocols necessary to access
  these documents are incompatible with
  technologies used by the public or if they rely
  on proprietary standards that may become
  inaccessible or incompatible in the future.
• Network Outages. Use of products with technical
  standards vulnerable to network security attacks
  can disrupt the functioning of public services,
  disrupt public utilities or financial networks,
  or compromise individual or national security. 

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Exclusion from Policy Making
If developing countries are not involved in
standards-setting, their interests are not
reflected in design of standards that establish
policy.

• Possible reasons for exclusion
• Late entry into standards-setting processes
• Institutional barriers to participation
• Technical barriers to participation
• Financial barriers to participation
• Knowledge barriers to participation

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Innovation Barriers
In the developing world, the production of
innovative products based on ICT standards holds
the potential to create new economic
opportunities.

• Standards barriers to innovation can include
• Lack of access to ICT standards
• Research and development capacity
• Standards education capacity
• Lack of human resources
• Insufficient private industry capacity for
  standards adoption
• Lack of a national standards policy for standards
  adoption or procurement

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Economic Inefficiency
Furthermore, inefficiencies and lack of
interoperability resulting from the lack of
adoption of universal standards or the use of
incompatible standards can drive up the cost of
the following
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Global Trade Barriers
In the context of ICT globalization, technical
interoperability is the precursor to economic
interoperability. 

• The WTOs Agreement on Technical Barriers to
  Trade (TBT) asserts that standards should not
  create unnecessary obstacles to trade.
• Relatively closed standards can serve as
  alternative trade barriers in contrast to open
  standards which have tended to promote
  competition and free trade.
• In the global knowledge economy, countries
  failing to use universal ICT standards can be
  impeded from tapping into global exchange markets
  with trading partners.

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Global Knowledge Barriers

• Lack of technical interoperability or information
  access in the developing world can also cut off
  citizens from
• Emerging forms of digital education
• Medical and health diagnostic information
• Participation in digital cultural life
• Participation in global political sphere

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ITU's Bridging the Standardization Gap (BSG)
Project

• ITU is committed to improving opportunities for
  developing countries in standardization and is
  seeking to identify remaining standardization
  disparities and recommend actionable measures
  that can help improve national standards
  capacity.
• ITU has embarked upon an ambitious project
  entitled Bridging the standardization gap
  between developing and developed countries.

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Bridging the Standardization Gap Project
Objectives

• To facilitate increased participation of
  developing countries in standardization
• To ensure that developing countries experience
  the economic benefits of associated technological
  development
• To better reflect the requirements and interests
  of developing countries in the standards-developme
  nt process

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Current BSG Standards Capacity Assessment Project
OBJECTIVES

• Understand the primary gaps that must be bridged
  to improve the standards development,
  implementation, and usage capacities of
  developing countries.
•  
• Identify variables necessary for developing
  countries to effectively develop, access, and
  deploy standards.
•  
• Develop a national profile of standards readiness
  and recommend best practices for national
  standards participation

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Current BSG Project Activities

1. Distribution of the Tool for Assessing Standards
   Capability (TASC), a questionnaire designed to
   elicit a self-assessment of standards capacity
   for effectively developing, accessing, and
   deploying ICT standards.
2. Development of a set of case studies of
   standards capability.
3. A quantitative evaluation of national standards
   capaility
4. Present actionable recommendations and best
   practices for the resources, knowledge, policies,
   institutional activities that can bridge the
   standardization gap between developed and
   developing countries.

Preliminary Project Results will be Discussed in
Next Session
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laura.denardis_at_yale.edu
THANK YOU!