$100 Laptop Project Moves Closer to Narrowing Digital Divide

UNDP to support innovative child education project


The pioneering $100 laptop program, designed to give children in developing countries access to knowledge and educational tools, came a step closer to realization today with the signing of a partnership agreement in Davos between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and One Laptop per Child (OLPC).

Under the Memorandum of Understanding, signed at the World Economic Forum by UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis and OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte, the project's innovator and director, UNDP will work with local and international partners to design and develop programmes to deliver OLPC technology and learning resources to schools in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

"We are delighted to be part of this venture, which has the potential to break through the digital divide between rich countries and poor countries," said Kemal Dervis.

"Though the price of access to knowledge has dramatically decreased in recent years, new technologies remain out of reach for most people in developing countries, especially children, who rarely have access to the educational resources that could enhance their opportunities and lift them out of poverty," he said.

UNDP's global network is on the ground in 166 countries, and has extensive experience in using information and communication technology for sustainable development.

"One laptop per child is key, making learning more seamless with living, play and family life, versus being limited to school. Teacher preparation is important, in parallel with peer-to-peer and self education," said Nicholas Negroponte.

The $100 laptop is an inexpensive, robust computer, with open-source software, and very low power consumption. It can also be powered by hand cranking. The computers form a 'mesh network,' which means that they can talk to each other and several hundred machines can share a single point of access.

OLPC, the non-profit organization set up to oversee the project, was launched one year ago at Davos, and a working prototype of the product was showcased at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November 2005.

Corporate interest in the project has been high. After reviewing several bids, OLPC announced in December that Quanta Computers would manufacture the laptop; and six companies – Google, AMD, Red Hat, News Corporation, Nortel, and Brightstar, have already provided $2 million each to fund OLPC and the initial laptop design.

OLPC will first implement the program in seven diverse and very large countries. In each of those cases, the government will buy the machines to be given cost-free to students in well specified but large pilot projects. In the case of LDCs and poor countries, the UNDP will work closely with OLPC and other UN agencies on the ground to assist national governments to deploy the laptops to targeted public schools with a variety of internal and external funding sources.

It is expected that the cost of each laptop will come down over time. Manufacturing will begin when at least five million machines have been ordered and paid for in advance, and the preliminary target is to have units ready for shipment by early 2007.

"World demand and goodwill for the $100 Laptop has been boundless because any Head of State realizes that a nation's most precious natural resource is its children," said Negroponte.