But Italy believes that having more Internet and other information technology may go far in alleviating poverty.
A former IBM executive who is now Italy's technology minister, Lucio Stanca, is spearheading Italy's Internet program for developing countries -- as part of the Group of Eight's efforts to reduce the so-called digital divide.
The first projects -- like creating an electronic database for real estate in Mozambique -- will be implemented in the fall.
"Of course, we must solve the problem of world hunger, disease, education," Stanca recently told The Associated Press. "But if we want to move from a phase of assistance to creating development in these countries, we must first help them create good governance."
The idea is that, by making their public administration more transparent and accountable, developing countries would also become more attractive potential recipients of traditional forms of aid, such as loans and investments.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi -- who had already put Stanca in charge of modernizing Italy's paper-heavy bureaucracy -- has supported and sponsored the initiative with his counterparts at recent international gatherings, including the last G-8 summit in Canada.
Good governance "would thwart the alibi used by all those countries that don't do enough -- that of not knowing whether the aid would reach its destination or would remain in some people's pockets," Berlusconi said in June.
According to the United Nations telecommunications agency, 83 countries in Africa, Asia and what the former Soviet Union still have less than 10 telephone lines for every 100 people. Other studies note that, even though the Internet has been in use for more than a decade, only about 10 percent of the world's population has access to it.
"The technology gap is so wide that only by bringing technology directly to the poor countries can you bridge it," said Pierrette Parriaux of Oxfam America, a nonprofit development group based in Boston.
Reducing the digital divide has taken on a central role in the fight against global poverty in recent years. The United Nations has repeatedly warned that the world's poor may be further marginalized if they do not gain access to information technology.
At last year's G-8 summit in Genoa, which includes Russia, leaders made bridging the gap a priority. Italy persuaded its partners to let it spearhead the group's e-government initiative, called DOT force, or Digital Opportunity Task force.
In April, a conference in Sicily, sponsored by the United Nations and Italy, looked at how technologies can be used to improve administration in developing countries. At the meeting, Italy launched pilot programs in five countries.
For Albania, the plan is to computerize demographic surveys; for Jordan it's e-procurement-- a system which allows for online trading, auctions, payment and settlement of bills; for Tunisia is the creation of electronic databases to facilitate tax collection; for Nigeria and Mozambique, is creating an electronic database for real estate.
"We are not aiming at countries that have very basic needs," Stanca, a former chairman of Paris-based IBM Europe, Middle East and Africa, said.
"Poverty reduction will only occur when the poor themselves are brought into the policy process," said Ann Hudock, a Washington-based adviser at World Learning, an organization promoting education and social justice.
So far, 12 million euros has been allocated to finance the initial phase of these projects, a fraction of what it will cost to get these ideas working. Italy is financing most of it, with the World Bank -- and possibly some private telecommunications companies -- also contributing.
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