The importance of technology for economic development has long been recognized. This may be especially true of information and communication technologies (ICTs), which as infrastructure technologies cut across all economic activities and have a wide range of applications, offering the potential for increased availability of information, new communication opportunities, reorganization of productive processes and improved efficiency in many different economic activities.
However, technological research, innovation and capabilities remain concentrated in a limited number of countries. Developing countries face various barriers to effective ICT use, due to problems of telecoms infrastructure, poor computer and general literacy, lack of awareness of the Internet and regulatory inadequacy. There is growing concern that many developing countries are being left behind, not able to participate in shaping these technologies and deprived of their potential benefits. Developing countries must look forward prospectively, and participate actively in building technological capabilities to suit their needs.
The Benchmarking Tool is an interactive web-based system consisting of two modules: MDG Benchmarking and ICT Benchmarking that aims to provide policy makers in developing countries with an effective tool to compare and assess their ICT capabilities and their progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The results of this Benchmarkin Tool could be useful in setting up or implementing national development strategies.
Table of Contents
UN-Benchmarking Tool consists of two benchmarking modules: MDG Benchmarking and ICT Benchmarking. The Benchmarking modules allows the users to select a number of indicators and benchmark themselves against selective countries from different regions of the world and monitor progress over time. These indicators are representative rather than all-inclusive, and they are not designed to investigate causation. However, used wisely and with caution, they can provide a useful input to policy analysis in allowing more informed and insightful study of policy and, ultimately, in promoting better, faster and more effective ICT development.
MDG Benchmarking Tool enables end-users to compare their countries' progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals with that of others. Specifically, it allows users to carry out the following search functions:
End-user may select an MDG or related target and compare the entire range of indicators of one country with other countries.
End-user may compare a selected country within country-groups as defined by United Nations.
End-user may compare a selected country with countries in a selected income category (High , Upper middle, Lower middle, Low)
End-user may compare the results with the following special groups: LDCs, LLDCs and SIDs.
End-user may compare the statistics of the same country in different years.
The second module focuses on benchmarking of ICT indicators. It helps the end-users to compare statistical data and assess their countries' ICT capabilities in terms of connectivity and ease of access and to compare them against those of other countries. Users can benchmark the performance of a selected country against other countries with regard to hardware and access, as measured by cellular mobile telephone subscribers, main telephone lines, internet users, internet hosts, total telephone subscribers per 100 inhabitants and number of PCs. In addition, it allows users to benchmark speed of Internet access as measured by upload speed, download speed, and the speed of access to selected search engines and government websites.
The web based interface is tested with the following browsers (some features may not run on older version of browsers) :
IE 5.5 +
Further more the Benchmarking Tool is best viewed at 800 x 600 or higher resolutions.
The MDG Benchmarking Tool is based on a framework of 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators to measure progress towards the Millennium Development goals. This framework was adopted by a consensus of experts from the United Nations Secretariat and IMF, OECD and the World Bank. Using the Benchmarking Tool user will be able to select any desired groups of these indicators and related data series and carry out benchmarking results.
To start the MDG benchmarking Tool, user should click on the MDG Benchmarking item from the main menu and then there will be three main steps to complete an MDG benchmarking process:
Step 1: Selection of data series.
Step 2: Selection of target countries.
Step 3: Selection of years to be compared and output format.
In this chapter we will cover all the above mentioned steps in detail.
As soon as the users enters the MDG Benchmarking Tool the MDG goals view will be displayed. In goals' view targets, indicators and corresponding data series are shown in a hierarchically and user will be able to select them by selecting the checkbox next to data series. Further more the user will be able to select all related data series of a goal, target or indicator by clicking on the "select" and "unselect" buttons next to each of these groups.
You can browse this view anytime and modify your selection, by selecting the goal icon from the left menu. After selection of desired data series, user should continue with next step which is selection of target countries.
You can select countries by clicking on the country selection icon from the left menu.
To select countries you may use either of the following selection methods, as appropriate:
Method 1: Select from list of countries
To select the countries from list you should first click on the "Select from Country List" option and then click on the desired countries from the list below.
To do multiple country selections, you should press and hold the "Ctrl" button and then select the desired items by clicking on the country names. Also you can select a range of countries from the list by clicking on the first country and then holding down the "Shift" key and clicking the last desired country; this will select all countries in between.
Method 2: Select by country groupings
UN Statistics Division presents a list of countries for statistical processing purposes. The Benchmarking Tool has adopted this standard and the countries can be selected by selection lists and check boxes in country selection view.
You can use one or more options from the following country selection view to build the desired list of countries. The grouping options are as follows:
Geographical region selection list. You may select on of the following options:
Income group selection list. You may select on of the following options:
Note that the result set of target countries will have all selected grouping features. For example if you select "Western Asia" from the geographical region list and "Lower middle" from the income group list. You will end up with the all Western Asia countries that their income is in lower middle range.
You are able to browse back to this view anytime and modify the selected list of countries by selecting the country selection icon from the left menu. After selection of target countries user should continue with next step which is year selection and output types.
Before making any comparison you should select the years to be compared for selected data series and countries. This can be done by selecting multiple items from year selection list. As explained before you can combine mouse click with "Ctrl" and "shift" buttons to select more than one option from the list.
You can also select the grouping option of output results. The grouping options are:
The benchmarking results can be presented in any of the following formats:
To select an output format you should simply click on the desired icon. Finally to view the benchmarking results you should click on "Benchmark" button which will show the benchmark in a new window.
Table of Contents
ICT Benchmarking Tool enables the end-users to do benchmarking for a selected set of ICT indicators. The ICT indicators are categorized into two main groups: Statistical Indicators and Internet Connection Indicators
Statistical indicators which are extracted from ITU free statistics are presented for 182 economies with populations greater than 100.000 for years 2001,2002,2003 and 2004. By selection of reference country and year the corresponding data will be loaded and the user will be able to benchmark his/her data against selective countries from different regions of the world and monitor progress over time. The Statistical Indicators which have been made available in ICT Benchmarking Tool are:
Total Tel. Subscribers: A total telephone subscriber per 100 inhabitants is calculated by dividing the total telephone subscribers by the population and multiplying by 100. Total telephone subscribers refer to the sum of main telephone lines and cellular mobile subscribers.
Mobile Subscribers: Cellular mobile telephone subscribers refer to users of portable telephones subscribing to an automatic public mobile telephone service using cellular technology that provides access to the PSTN. Per 100 inhabitants is obtained by dividing the number of cellular subscribers by the population and multiplying by 100.
Main Tel. Lines: Main telephone lines refer to telephone lines connecting a customer's equipment (e.g., telephone set, facsimile machine) to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and which have a dedicated port on a telephone exchange. Note that for most countries, main lines also include public payphones. Many countries also include ISDN channels in main lines. The "Main telephone lines per 100 inhabitants" is calculated by dividing the number of main lines by the population and multiplying by 100.
Internet Hosts: Internet hosts refer to the number of computers directly connected to the worldwide Internet network per 10000 inhabitants. Note that Internet host computers are identified by a two-digit country code or a three-digit code generally reflecting the nature of the organization using the Internet computer. The number of hosts is assigned to economies based on the country code although this does not necessarily indicate that the host is actually physically located in the economy. In addition, all other hosts for which there are no country code identification are assigned to the United States. Therefore the number of Internet hosts shown for each country can only be considered an approximation.
Internet Users: Internet Users per 100 inhabitants is based on nationally reported data. In some cases, surveys have been carried out that give a more precise figure for the number of Internet users. However surveys differ across countries in the age and frequency of use they cover. The reported figure for Internet users, which may refer to only users above a certain age, is divided by the total population to obtain users per 100 inhabitants.
PCs: PCs shows the estimated number of Personal Computers (PCs), both in absolute numbers and in terms of PCs per 100 inhabitants. The figures for PCs come from the annual questionnaire supplemented by other sources.
The ICT Benchmarking Tool enables the end-users to assess the internet connection quality and ease of access to search engines through some assessment wizards. These indicators are representative rather than all-inclusive, and they are not designed to investigate causation. The assessed values of parameters are just estimations and are strongly related to internet connection and environmental settings. The results only show the accessibility of internet for a typical user. However, used wisely and with caution, they can provide a useful input to policy analysis in allowing more informed and insightful study of policy and, ultimately, in promoting better, faster and more effective ICT development.
The Internet Connection Indicators that are assessable in ICT Benchmarking Tool are:
Upload Speed Parameter: This parameter specifies the upload speed in bit per second from your computer to the server where the benchmarking tool is running. To assess the upload speed parameter, click on the item in the left menu, and then in the content frame select a file from your computer using the browse button. Then click on upload, and the upload speed will calculated and shown in bit per second. To apply the assessed data, click on Apply button. To have a more reliable result, select a file with a size bigger than 100 kb
Download Speed Parameters: This parameter specifies the download speed from the server which hosts the benchmarking tool to your computer, in bit per second. To assess the download speed parameter, click on the item in the left menu, and then in the content frame click on "Start Test" button. A picture will be downloaded to your computer ten times and the average download speed will be shown on the average text box. To apply the assessed data, click on Apply button. If the picture is loaded only once and nothing happens after a few seconds, then check your browser compatibility.
Search Engine Test Parameters: These parameters specify the speed to carry out some sample queries from a search engine. After selecting the item in the left menu, you should select Start Test button in the content frame. Then the test will be started and ten different queries will be sent to the search machine. The results will be shown in the content frame. The average search speed will be shown in the average text box. To apply the assessed data , click on Apply button. If the search result is loaded only once and nothing happens after a few seconds, then check your browser compatibility.
Website Test Parameters: The value of this parameter shows the time needed to browse a user specified URL. After selecting the item in the left menu, you should enter the URL without the prefix "http://". Then select Start Test button in the content frame. The test will be started and the page specified by URL entered will be shown ten times. The average time needed to show the page will be shown in the average text box. To apply the assessed data click on Apply button. If the page is loaded only once, and nothing happens after a few seconds, then check your browser compatibility.
If the page is not shown at all , then may be the URL is incorrect. Try to browse this URL in a separate window and then enter the correct address.
Some websites may prevent the page to be loaded inside a frame, in which case the speed test for these websites can not be done. Try some other URLs instead.
To create an ICT Benchmark, you should follow these steps:
When finished, click on "Benchmark Button" and you will receive the results as a chart.
You can save your assessed datasets which can be loaded later on by you or other users to create Benchmarking results.
To save from the left menu, select "Datasets" and in the result frame, enter the following pieces of data:
To load an already existing data set, from left menu, and select "Datasets". Then, on the lower right corner of dataset form, click on "Load Dataset" button. A list of data sets will be displayed and by clicking on the dataset name, the selected dataset will be loaded and you can continue benchmarking with the loaded dataset.