Access to technology

Access to technology

1. Technology can reduce risk and increase expectations

2. At a basic level, it reduces the risk of dying young by increasing life expectancy.

3. In the developed world we expect to live into our 70s or 80s

4. In the least developed parts of the world the risk of dying in your 40s or 50s is high

5. Haiti

   • Haiti is a high risk society with lacks the technology to manage these risks and improve life expectancy
   • Natural hazards
     • Impact on life expectancy
       • Flooding, usually associated with hurricanes, regularly kills. In 2004 Hurricane Jeanne killed 3,000 and destroyed crops. Storms cause landslides, destroying homes and roads
     • Key technologies required
       • Warming and evacuation systems.
       • Storm shelters to provide temporary refuge
       • Flood control and slope-stabilisation engineering to reduce landslide risk
       • Afforestation programmes to reduce flooding and soil erosion
   • Disease
     • Impact on life expectancy
       • Only 54% of Haitians have access to improved water supply and 30% to improved sanitation. Only 50% of children are immunisied against measles. 300 per 100,000 people have TB. Around 6% of the population are HIV+
     • Key technologies required
       • Clean water supply and sewage systems to decrease risk of disease
       • Nationwide vaccination and immunisation to reduce disease prevalence
       • Medical technology, drugs and education
   • Malutrition
     • Impact on life expectancy
       • Two-thirds of Haitians are farmers. 54% live on under $1 a day; 45% are undernourished. Infant mortality rate is high at 74% per 100 live births
     • Key technologies required
       • Farming technology to raise yields and incomes, improve food security and reduce child malnutrition
       • Better transport to improve food distribution systems
   • Haiti suffers from environmemental determinism
   • Haitians are more at mercy from nature than those in the developed world
   • If a major hurricane struck Haiti, or drought led to crop failure, we would expect people to die
   • In the developed world we would assume technology would come to our aid
   • Significant investment in technology in Haiti would improve the situation, but with a per capita GNI of only $1,600 in 2002, finding the money to pay for this is difficult