Metamorphing With Ict

By Author: Malintha Rodrigo
Total Articles: 3
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Mohamed Muhsin, a Strategic Management Consultant is an eloquent speaker and has been a highly favored keynote speaker at global IT conferences. About a decade ago, Mohamed Muhsin promoted the use of Information and communications technology (ICT) to boost nation's economy, improve standards of education and health, and protect the environment. In order to give wings to his vision of alleviating poverty and transforming the underdeveloped nations, Mohamed Muhsin met up with several Government heads, public organizations and school managements to promote the use of ICT.


Prior to working as a Strategic Management Consultant, Mohamed Muhsin served as the Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of World Bank. He also served as adviser to the president of Zambia, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, on State Enterprise Reform. M.V.Muhsin also holds positions on several international and corporate boards. During his seventeen year tenure at the World Bank, Mohamed Muhsin worked selflessly to decentralize the World Bank’s operations and used ICT to get the World Bank closer to its customers by enabling real-time global ...
... operations at more than 100 country offices.


The world in the last decade

For over a decade now, ICT has changed the face of the world we live in. ICT can be defined as computers, software, telecoms - such as mobile and fixed phones, the Internet and satellite technology which enables people to communicate with family, friends and colleagues around the world instantaneously and also gain access to global libraries, information and resources, and innumerable opportunities. ICT brought many underdeveloped nations one step closer to eradicating poverty. M.V. Muhsin used this technology to break down barriers between people and nations. Mohamed Muhsin met with various Government heads and public organizations to showcase the power of ICT in redefining governance and defined various modes of engagement with citizens. For ICT to be used effectively, technology had to be matched to the local context and be sensitive to people needs. Advances in communications technology - cellular telephones, text messaging, the internet, social networking – now allow an ever-widening circle of people to easily and inexpensively shares ideas and aspirations.


ICT for the youth

M.V.Muhsin, an alumnus of Trinity College, Kandy, Sri Lanka, has been actively associated with activities at his alma-mater. He saw the young at school as the world's largest resource in development. Mohamed Muhsin’s inspiring messages and speeches has been a source of inspiration to both the teacher and student community around the world.
In some developing countries, youth constitute more than two thirds of the population. Young people, when given early access to information and communications technologies (ICT) tend to become early adopters and adapters of the technologies. Mohamed Muhsin met with school management and urged them to transform the future of the youth through ICT. Education systems are now increasingly investigating the use of technology, to better understand a student’s knowledge base from prior learning and tailor teaching to both address learning gaps as well as learning styles. This change in focus over the last decade has transformed a classroom from one that teaches to the middle to one that adjusts content and pedagogy based on individual student needs – both strong and weak.


Alleviate poverty with ICT

In emerging economies, ICTs can provide farmers, entrepreneurs and community organizations with market information and services that are vital to their success and sustainability. There are however, millions of poor people in underdeveloped countries for whom ICTs currently have no meaning whatsoever. When Mohamed Muhsin served as CIO of the World Bank, he met with several Government heads to make them understand the primary role they play, and the opportunities that exist for ICTs in alleviating poverty. M.V. Muhsin explained how national implementations can distribute the potential benefits to widespread populations. However, for long term sustainability of ICT, governments had to assume responsibility had to track their own initiatives and those by local and international organizations to avoid duplication of efforts and wasted resources. By keeping the maps public, the population can better demand answers about where resources are being allocated and why.


Unlike past technological revolutions, ICT took only four years to reach an audience of 50 million people. Although ICT has changed the way people work, interact and live; doubts and uncertainties continue to exist with regard to the applicability of ICTs to the problems of the poor. The projects that have started in the last decade, contribute immeasurably to the knowledge and experience that is required in order to understand the conditions under which ICTs can be usefully applied to the alleviation of poverty. Achieving the millennium development goal of halving global poverty by 2015 will however, require an enormous undertaking.