Africa/Global: Information technology must be used to promote development, Annan tells UN forum

To make vital progress towards implementing internationally agreed development goals, it will be crucial to harness the potential created by the past decade's info-tech explosion, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today in his message to a global forum on using new technologies to boost education. "One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)is achievement of universal primary education by 2015. We must ensure that information and communication technologies (ICT) are used to help unlock the door to education," the Secretary-General said in a message delivered by José Antonio Ocampo. He urged the Forum to use 2005 to explore ways to "think and act urgently and boldly to ensure that ICT is used to advance education and development…whether for young girls in Afghanistan, university students in Uganda, or workers in Brazil, so that we can fully seize economic opportunities, and live lives of dignity, free from want.