Almost forty years ago, FedEx pioneered the ability to move goods and information around the world overnight, forever changing industry and commerce.

Since then, advances in transportation, logistics and technology have lowered many of the barriers that separated people, businesses and nations, amplifying a force called Access, which is having a profound impact on our world.

Access changes lives

In 1981, one of every two people in the world lived in poverty, as defined by the World Bank. In 2008, that ratio had dropped to one in four.

During this same time period, advances in technology and transportation redefined how the world connects. More information and services became available in all corners of the world, and Access not only changed lives, but also extended them. In 1980, the World Bank put the world’s average life expectancy at birth at age 61. In 2007, that age was 69, and life expectancy worldwide has increased an average of four months per year since 1970. This steady climb is attributed to improved access to nutritional food, medicines and increased wealth.

Access fuels prosperity

Nations thrive or stagnate based on Access. Connections both within and across borders help create the means for shared wealth and growth. Nowhere is that clearer than in developing countries and smaller markets. Today, about one-third of developing nations’ gross domestic product (GDP) comes from export revenues, according to the World Bank.

And exports, enabled by Access, are the primary sources of growth for developing economies. Exports grew at an average annual rate of 12 percent from 2000 to 2007, according to the World Bank. Developing economies now account for nearly 30 percent of all world trade, and their share continues to increase. While some of these countries export to other low- and middle-income economies, their largest markets are still the high-income economies, which receive more than 70 percent of their exports.

Access spurs innovation

The adoption of mobile phone technology around the world has fueled an explosion in Access. People and communities that were once isolated are now connected to each other and the world.

According to a United Nations report released this year, more than half the people in the world have mobile phone service. At the end of 2009, there were 4.6 billion mobile phone subscriptions, compared to 1 billion in 2000. The change is staggering in Africa, the continent with the fastest growth of mobile phone adoption. In 2000, one in 50 people in Africa had a mobile phone. Now that ratio is nearly one in four.

In Africa today, citizens are turning Access into opportunity. For example, exports from Ghana in 2008 were nearly six times the total in 1998. According to World Bank data, exports of goods and services in Ghana were $881 million in 1998 and $5.2 billion in 2008.

That’s Access in action.