Hi all!
Hope everyone is excited for conference! As the first committee session approaches, I just wanted to hopefully help spark some creative juices for your Topic 2 solutions.
Recently, Jem Spectar wrote an opinion in the Washington Post (linked at the bottom of this blog post) about bridging the rural-urban gap in the United States. For those of you who are unaware, the rural-urban gap even in a "developed" nation like the USA mirrors a lot of the same situations covered when we discuss the flight of human capital internationally. Compared to metropolitan areas, rural areas are characterized by problems such as "loss of manufacturing jobs, rising poverty, opioid abuse, blight, insufficient capital, anemic investment..." and much more. And just as how some skilled workers flee their country of origin because of political instability, wars, violence and poverty, Americans are also leaving rural areas, which only further exacerbates many of the issues mentioned above.
I'd definitely encourage everyone to read the article yourselves, but Spectar's main point was to bridge this divide not with traditional government growth programs, but instead by spreading digital literacy. He argues that unlike traditional infrastructure (which rural areas do need as well), things like broadband internet and digital programs can be set up at a much quicker pace. With rural digital growth, rural Americans will be able to access valuable resources like basic coding education, vocational training, and much more. He believes that this can have the potential to transform these areas - to turn these impoverished areas into America's new tech hubs, sparking further economic growth and reinvestment.
That being said, be cautious about directly applying this idea to our committee. While Google may want to spread gigabit fiber and hold free coding bootcamps for rural Americans, they may face a lot more difficulties doing the same in a nation that doesn't even have consistent access to clean drinking water. So think about how you could resolve those inconsistencies.
WaPo Opinion:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/20/want-close-americas-rural-urban-divide-digital-infrastructure-is-key/?utm_term=.534ee6eaa378
This article was so interesting!
ReplyDeleteThe United Kingdom actually does struggle a lot with rural brain drain, as a lot of people would rather live in London than the British countryside -- which is understandable seeing as London is awesome :). While of course access to technology is not necessarily as big a problem in a developed nation such as a the UK, we have strived to combat this by placing an emphasis on our rural universities, such as in Coventry, central England. If people study there, they are more likely to stay there, and the influx of bright young mind has helped Coventry develop and grow as a city.
So yeah, tat was my two-cents!
Julie de Vaulx
Hello! My name is Josh Tsuda and I am representing Ethiopia in this conference with my partner Nathan Backman. I found this article very interesting and helpful for the dialogue that will open this week. Ethiopia is a very rural country and the key points suggested above will definitely be taken into consideration and will most likely be the center of many solutions. I am looking forward to talking with all of the other delegations and helping solve both aid dependency and the flight of the human capital.
ReplyDeleteThe delegation of China was thrilled to read this article. Turning every impoverished country into tech hubs is definitely not feasible, but it's the right mindset. As a country that has rapidly developed their economy and state of welfare recently, we are looking forward to working together to improve other countries with new solutions, because it's possible. The People's Republic of China acknowledges the extremity of issues in nations and technology is the least of their concerns, but we need to start somewhere. Spreading digital literacy in certain areas could be the start to new and creative solutions because the more educated our global population becomes, the more chances for innovation. I hope education is a main topic of discussion this weekend!
ReplyDeleteThis article offered some unique insight as brain drain within developed nations as it is often overlooked. The country of France itself has seen large numbers of young people immigrating to new countries because of our elevated taxes. Reading this article, we've realized the importance of taking into consideration remodeling our infrastructure and improving our access to technology in order to give people the same level of opportunities to become successful and provide our country with new professionals.
ReplyDelete- Gizelle & Chi (France :)
Hi, I am Kalyani Valiyaveettil and I will be representing the delegation of Luxembourg with my partner, Sahana Nellian, this weekend! We found this article to have a unique perspective in relation to the topic of human capital flight. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has a high digital literacy rate, with approximately 98% of the urban population having access to the internet. However, 68.84% of land in Luxembourg is agrarian with an estimated rural population of 56,000 people. To address this internal metropolitan imbalance in Luxembourg and other countries, we propose implementing urbanization projects in these vast rurals areas, aiming to promote technological advancement and education in communities, and discouraging residents from relocating to the tech hubs in the country. We look forward to collaborating with other delegations and seeing this idea further discussed in committee. :)
ReplyDelete