Connecting ICTs to Development

Laurent Elder, Heloise Emdon, Richard Fuchs And Ben Petrazzini

Description

A much-needed analysis of the global role that information and communication technologies play in fostering human development and reducing poverty. 

Digital technologies are an indispensable facet of every aspect of our society. Even in the developing world, mobile phones have transformed the lives and livelihoods of average citizens. Yet, two decades ago, when there were more phone lines in Manhattan than in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, only a few visionary institutions could have imagined that computers, the Internet and mobile phones would be so prominent in poverty-stricken environments. One of these visionary institutions was the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), which recognized the important but complex role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) would have in fostering human development and reducing poverty. IDRC-supported projects critically examined the ways in which ICTs could be used to improve learning, empower the disenfranchised, generate income opportunities for the poor, and facilitate access to healthcare in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Their research focused on development priorities that were defined in collaboration with researchers from the Global South, civil society organizations, government officials and policymakers. By supporting research in this field since 1996, IDRC has become one of the leading institutions and key contributors to the growth of the “ICTs for development” (ICT4D) field, specifically because of its strategic decision to focus on building the capacity of Southern researchers and policymakers to explore how ICTs can continue to change people’s lives in the developing world.

Considering that most development institutions and governments are currently attempting to integrate ICTs into their practices, this is an opportune time to reflect on the research findings that have emerged from working alongside researchers in this area. In particular, this book examines how research has helped IDRC contribute to building the ICT4D field based on a nuanced understanding of the relationship between ICTs and development goals. It also discusses programmatic investments made by IDRC since the late 1990s in a wide variety of areas related to ICTs, including infrastructure, access, regulations, health, governance, education, livelihoods, social inclusion, technical innovation, intellectual property rights and evaluation.

Each chapter in this book analyzes how the research findings from IDRC-supported projects have contributed to an evolution of thinking, and the successes and challenges in using ICTs as a tool to address development issues. Each chapter also presents key lessons learned from ICT4D programming and makes recommendations for future work. The book illustrates how IDRC’s focus shifted over time from looking specifically at issues of access to understanding the implications of ICTs in the lives of citizens in the developing world. 

Acknowledgments; INTRODUCTION PART I: From Heresy to Orthodoxy: ICT4D at IDRC – Richard Fuchs; INTRODUCTION PART II: From Beginning to End to Beginning Again – Katie Bryant, Laurent Elder, Heloise Emdon and Richard Fuchs; CHAPTER 1: Catalyzing Access through Social and Technical Innovation – John-Harmen Valk, Frank Tulus, Raymond Hyma and Florencio Ceballos; CHAPTER 2: Catalyzing Access via Telecommunications Policy and Regulatory Research – John-Harmen Valk and Khaled Fourati; CHAPTER 3: Access to Knowledge as a New Paradigm for Research on ICTs and Intellectual Property – Jeremy de Beer and Sara Bannerman; CHAPTER 4: ICTs and Social Inclusion – Chaitali Sinha and Raymond Hyma; CHAPTER 5: Access and Usage of ICTs by the Poor (Part I) – Kathleen Diga; CHAPTER 6: Local Economic Opportunities and ICTs: How ICTs Affect Livelihoods (Part II) – Kathleen Diga; CHAPTER 7: Research on eHealth across Health Systems: Contributions to Strengthen a Field – Chaitali Sinha and Dominique Garro-Strauss; CHAPTER 8: Making the Grade: The Role of ICTs in Providing Access to Knowledge – Ahmed T. Rashid, Alioune Camara, Maria Ng and Alicia Richero; CHAPTER 9: E-Government for Development: ICTs in the Public Sector and the Evolving Citizen–Government Relationship – Tara Fischer, Matthew L. Smith and John-Harmen Valk; CHAPTER 10: Innovations in Evaluating ICT4D Research – Sarah Earl, Chaitali Sinha and Matthew L. Smith; CHAPTER 11: Conclusions: A Decade of Innovation that Matters – Richard Fuchs and Laurent Elder; EPILOGUE: Into the Future: New Opportunities and Threats in a Global Networked Society – Laurent Elder; Author Biographies 

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 5
• EAN13: 9780857281364
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Connecting ICTs to DevelopmentConnecting ICTs to Development
The IDRC Experience
Edited by
Laurent Elder, Heloise Emdon,
Richard Fuchs and Ben Petrazzini
International Development Research Centre
Ottawa • Cairo • Montevideo • Nairobi • New DelhiAnthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition frst published in UK and USA 2013
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
A copublication with
International Development Research Centre
PO Box 8500
Ottawa, ON K1G 3H9
Canada
www.idrc.ca / [e-mail]
ISBN: 978 1 55250 563 4 (IDRC ebook)
© 2013 International Development Research Centre
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Connecting ICTs to development : the IDRC experience / edited by Laurent Elder, Heloise
Emdon, Richard Fuchs and Ben Petrazzini.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-85728-124-1 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Information technology–Economic aspects. 2. Economic development. 3. Economic
development–Developing countries. 4. International Development Research Centre (Canada)
I. Elder, Laurent.
HC79.I55C6698 2013
338.9–dc23
2013041530
ISBN-13: 978 0 85728 124 1 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 0 85728 124 0 (Hbk)
Cover image © 2013 Raimundas/Shutterstock
This title is also available as an ebook.CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction From Heresy to Orthodoxy: ICT4D at IDRC 1
Part I Richard Fuchs
Introduction From Beginning to End to Beginning Again 19
Part II Katie Bryant, Laurent Elder, Heloise Emdon and Richard Fuchs
Chapter 1 Catalyzing Access through Social and Technical Innovation 27
John-Harmen Valk, Frank Tulus, Raymond Hyma and Florencio Ceballos
Chapter 2 Catalyzing Access via Telecommunications Policy
and Regulatory Research 57
John-Harmen Valk and Khaled Fourati
Chapter 3 Access to Knowledge as a New Paradigm for Research on
ICTs and Intellectual Property 75
Jeremy de Beer and Sara Bannerman
Chapter 4 ICTs and Social Inclusion 91
Chaitali Sinha and Raymond Hyma
Chapter 5 Access and Usage of ICTs by the Poor (Part I) 117
Kathleen Diga
Chapter 6 Local Economic Opportunities and ICTs: How ICTs Affect
Livelihoods (Part II) 137
Kathleen Diga
Chapter 7 Research on eHealth across Health Systems: Contributions
to Strengthen a Field 161
Chaitali Sinha and Dominique Garro-Strauss
Chapter 8 Making the Grade: The Role of ICTs in Providing Access to
Knowledge 197
Ahmed T. Rashid, Alioune Camara, Maria Ng and Alicia Richero
Chapter 9E-Government for Development: ICTs in the Public Sector and the
Evolving Citizen–Government Relationship 215
Tara Fischer, Matthew L. Smith and John-Harmen Valkvi CONNECTING ICTs TO DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 10 Innovations in Evaluating ICT4D Research 241
Sarah Earl, Chaitali Sinha and Matthew L. Smith
Chapter 11 Conclusions: A Decade of Innovation that Matters 267
Richard Fuchs and Laurent Elder
Epilogue Into the Future: New Opportunities and Threats in a Global
Networked Society 279
Laurent Elder
Author Biographies 287ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book, at times, seemed like a Herculean task. The incredible number of documents
to sift through, authors and researchers to work with and myriad editorial opinions to
mediate helps explain how the book – assumed to be a fairly quick and straightforward
activity – became a complex two-year endeavor. Sifting through 15 years of documentation
required a squad of young researchers, who trawled outputs, wrote précis of projects,
compiled and analyzed data and assisted the editors and authors meet deadlines for
“writeshops” and “editshops” that crystalized the chapters.
The result, however, is a much better piece of work than had originally been
envisaged. For that we have to thank all those involved in the research for and writing of
this book. The researchers, authors and editors played an obvious and essential role and
are acknowledged accordingly; however, many others helped the book come to fruition.
First and foremost, Silvia Caicedo ensured we were all rowing in the same direction
and helped to deal with all the fnicky details so essential to see the fnal product come
to life. Ramata Thioune, Adel El Zaïm, Edith Adera, Phet Sayo and Fernando Perini
reviewed and improved various chapters. Jennifer Vincent helped with data collection.
Marcia Chandra and Silvia Caicedo transformed the book’s material into a beautiful
and comprehensive web collection. We also have to thank our previous IDRC ICT4D
director, Michael Clarke, and the current director of Science and Innovation, Naser
Faruqui, for the original idea for the book and also for guiding us through bureaucratic
snags. Finally, we would like to thank Abigail Mulhall of the British Department for
International Development who reinforced the idea that all these important fndings and
lessons should be compiled in a monograph.
Many hours of devotion to reproduce the lessons and knowledge that evolved in our
programming have gone into developing this book. We thank everyone for dedication
and hard work, but most of all for their patience and generosity of sharing such
hardearned wisdom.Introduction Part I
FROM HERESY TO ORTHODOXY:
1ICT4D AT IDRC
Richard Fuchs
Histories are written about people and events that are in the past. This book is not a
history. Rather, it is a documentary or ethnography of a particular time in the business of
foreign aid and of the ascendant role of Canada’s International Development Research
Centre (IDRC) in that time and space.
With the introduction of the frst desktop computers in the mid-1980s, the
postindustrial world was just awakening to the power and wonder of digital technologies.
At the onset, the idea that digital technologies had something to do with social and
economic development was a heretical notion. And it arose in unlikely locations in
postindustrial North America and Europe – in places that were being bypassed by the
2frst great wave of digital tools. In rural areas of Scandinavia, in the ghetto that was East
Harlem, in the Australian outback and in rural outposts of Canada’s poorest province,
Newfoundland, the frst attempts to “leapfrog” past an industrial revolution that had
already left them as outsiders were beginning.
Ideas of how computers, email and networks might advance the interests of the
marginalized and the poor in the developing world were also beginning to percolate.
In Brazil, South Africa, the Philippines and other developing places, early pioneers
and heretics were introducing the digital idea into more commonplace notions of how
“development” might occur.
It was the pre-Internet, early digital age and the frst desktop computers were fnding
their way into workplaces. The early versions of this bulky rectangular device were
frst mistaken for a fast electronic typewriter – a supercharged IBM Selectric! New job
descriptions for “Word Processor Equipment Operators” hit the employment boards in
great numbers. In metropolitan places, very few understood how the invention of the
personal computer and the introduction of Microsoft’s Disk Operating System (DOS)
would change organizational and professional capacity.
Among development activists, email lists, bulletin board services (BBS), CommunityNets
and telecenters were introduced to help advance the prospects of underdeveloped places.
The World Wide Web was still to be imagined. Gopher, fle transfer protocol (FTP),
FidoNet and WordPerfect signifed modernity.2 CONNECTING ICTs TO DEVELOPMENT
The “Great Transformation” (Polyani 1944) from agricultural to industrial economies
had taken almost a century. The postindustrial society – based on the rise of knowledge,
services and communications (Bell 1973) – would change the world in little more than
ten years. The idea that digital tools might have something to do with the business
of development was no longer heretical; digital tools and the Internet came to have
everything to do with both business and development. What began as a heresy morphed
into orthodoxy in a little more than a decade.
The IDRC Idea
Since its inception in 1970, IDRC had always understood that information and networks
were essential elements in what the organization did. Relying on “outside” experts and
knowledge did little to change the dependence that was underdevelopment. So, the
architects of IDRC designed it so local knowledge might get produced to infuence
progressive policy formation. It was far better to have local evidence, produced by local
knowledge producers, informing public policy. But, for this to occur, there frst had to be
systems for information man