Information and communicationtechnologies (ICTs) have great promise to reduce poverty,increase productivity, boost economic growth, and improveaccountability and governance. That promise only grew whenICTs underwent a revolution in the 2000s. Nearly 5 billionpeople in developing countries now use mobile phones, upfrom 200 million at the last decade's start, and thenumber of Internet users has risen 10-fold. People acrossthe globe do much more than chat and play games. They learnwhere best to fish and what market to sell their produce in.They trace cattle from pastures to supermarkets. They reportillegal logging and misuses of local budget. They pay bills,send money back home, and receive cash transfers. They dobusiness on mobile phones. They use ICTs to prevent violenceagainst women and community radio to empower them. They getstate-of-the-art schooling online. They remotely monitor andswitch on irrigation pumps. The World Bank Group (WBG) hasworked with its clients as they have pursued theseopportunities and has supported sector reforms throughtechnical assistance and lending operations, guided by its2001 ICT strategy. The WBG has been most successful infostering ICT sector reform and attracting privateinvestment in mobile communications. WBG support for ICTapplications has grown rapidly over the past decade. Morethan 1,300 active Bank investment projects have ICTcomponents (74 percent of the Bank's 1,700-projectportfolio) to modernize internal processes and upgradeservice delivery. Results have been mixed, with only 59percent of Bank project components for ICT applicationsachieving or likely to achieve their objectives fully or substantially.
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