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Search by Keywords: Advanced Search In Numbers Charts and graphs on how internet usage and spending on information and communication technologies have changed in developing countries- click here. ICT at the Development Gateway AiDA - Projects dgMarket - Tenders dgCommunities – ICT for Development About this Report This Special Report provides a forum for diverse perspectives on the Information Society and what's ahead for ICT as a development tool. Participating in this Special Report are our online communities focused on: Afghanistan Reconstruction Culture & Development E-Government E-Learning Environment  Food Security Foreign Direct Investment Gender and Development HIV/AIDS ICT for Development Indigenous Issues Iraq Knowledge Economy  Microfinance  Non-Governmental Organizations Poverty Space Applications Trade and Development Urban Development  Water Resources Management Youth for Development       Please take our online survey for the next Special Report "Online Education: What Can It Deliver?" coming in March 2006. Become a Development Gateway member, and you will be notified of our upcoming reports. Sign-up! See previous Special Reports here. Special Report The requested resource (/editor/default/) is not available FROM OUR MEMBERS Has ICT been an effective tool for development? Whether or not ICT for development is an effective tool for development has been a widely discussed issue for many years. The Development Gateway went directly to its members in a survey to ask people on the ground about the impact of ICT on development. Here are their answers. Efefiong Akpan - Nigeria The problem lies in the fact that, despite the Internet's ability to transform people, Nigerians can't have access, because it is all about the cost of purchasing computers and getting linked. It is very costly to get in. The Internet is democracy technology, but when there is no real empowerment for people to have the Internet, there is no saturation. But in Nigeria we need to get over the fact that internet is a tool for committing web fraud and porn enjoyment, instead of education and development. It is the networked society that is a tool for development, not ICT in itself. SMEs forming alliances make themselves larger than they are, grow faster, develop the local economy faster and create in such a way social durability. That was always like that (the cooperatives!). What is new is that omnipresent ICT can speed up the creation of alliances between different partners. First of all however those partners have to be mentally prepared ‘to work’ together. Only then there will be economic growth and social inclusion and will ICT be a tool for development. It is a myth that ICT on its own will help social inclusion. Development Gateway Member Vidyaratha Kissoon – Guyana In Guyana, the impact of ICTs in our development has not been adequately measured. The use of computers as tools in business and for home use has grown, but the application within specific sectors is still limited. There are many reasons for this, chief of which is that the national ICT strategy was linked to the liberalization of the telecoms reform sector and this liberalization has failed. There have to be new ways to overcome the hurdle of monopolistic access to the Internet and to encourage investment in this sector, especially since the Guyana terrain is characterized by large areas with low population densities. Once this has happened, then it would be easy to deploy other applications. Being an enthusiast of the potential of ICT as a tool for development, and having been working with Digital Inclusion in Brazil for the last four years, I would like to say that ICT has promoted huge changes in the communities affected by our actions and reality has really changed for people who got in touch with technology. Unfortunately, I can't say that. Still, this doesn't mean that nothing has changed, but the changes are still small. What we have to avoid is the digital divide—large amounts of the population who will be excluded from the process and, later, will have no access to things and information that will happen only online. Development Gateway Member Amera Salman – Pakistan Certainly NGOs and aid organizations are relying on ICTs and trying to bring them to rural areas but there is still a vast gap. At times it seems that the gulf between rich and poor has been widened even further; for example even a child living in a city knows what a computer or cell phone are and why they are used but in many villages there is still no electricity or potable water. Emmanuel Roldan - Philippines I've been in development work for the past 15 years and I'm convinced that ICTs have been an effective tool for the development of our country. ICT as a system facilitates two things: 1) sharing of relevant information of those who have it such as technicians, educators, human rights and environment activists, development workers, legislators, program implementers, etc.; and 2) gathering or surfacing of feedback of the information given. Availability and free access of information to all are barometers of a democratic system. Although the Internet and e-mail access have given the Kawaiisu Tribe some abilities to research and inform the general public on our past and present hurdles that have been within our battle ground, we have found ourselves without any good or even minor results. Instead we found ourselves chastised for even suggesting that we should have basic human rights. Development Gateway Member Giacomo Rambaldi - Netherlands In my case and in my experience I would say YES. I have been dealing with SPATIAL ICTools and would like to recall that access to such technologies and systems has profoundly changed the power relationship among simple people and higher institution and economic forces. Sometimes empowering people (good practice) sometimes disempowers them via bad practice. ICT has been particularly important in the support of trade, commerce and education. It allows remote producers to have access to up-to-date market information and to make contact with potential customers in ways that would have been impossible in the past. Online education resources, whilst facing obvious difficulties, also hold out the prospect of education access to many people who would otherwise not have this opportunity. Development Gateway Member Brenda Anugwom - Nigeria In Nigeria, communication has never been better and, as a result, life has become easier to even the common man. The GSM system was introduced in Nigeria in 2003 and since then, it not only created jobs for engineers who were fast diminishing in number in the country but created a network for business men and women to do things easier and faster. It has also facilitated so many sectors like the banking sector which has introduced e-banking, the commercial sector which uses e-commerce as means of trading. The new dimension which is expected very soon is e-medicine. They have helped but to a limited degree. In the developing world, a large percentage of the populace suffers under repressive regimes that have delivered few incentives, have limited literacy skills and suffer from harsh economic conditions. As a result documents are largely viewed as empty promises. However, people are attracted to documents and ideas presented in pictorial form. When repeated over a period of time, the messages have the tendency to sink in. Development Gateway Member Stewart Marshall, West Indies do believe that information and communication technologies (ICT) have been an effective tool for development. For this reason, together with my colleague Professor Wal Taylor, earlier this year we started the "International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology" (IJEDICT) - an e-journal that provides free and open access to all of its content. The journal url is: http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu. ICT has been an effective tool for development, wherever it has reached. The moot point however is to what extent has it been able to reach the poor. In the Indian context, ICT has made sufficient inroads in the urban area and there are sparse illustrations of ICT penetration in rural India. Even in decent universities a lot of students do not have adequate access to the internet. With an exception of management and a few engineering institutes, there are hardly any universities offering internet to students. With such a scenario at the urban and educational hubs, one can imagine what access the hinterlands have. Except for a handful of examples, where efforts and initiatives have been undertaken by NGOs or corporate companies, overall the ICT as a tool for development has not been widely implemented. Development Gateway Member Mikhail Doroshevich - Belarus ICT is certainly an extremely effective tool for development because it allows us to overcome lack of information. Lack of information is a serious problem for poor countries and is closely tied to unemployment, illiteracy, illnesses Additional Comments ICT has not been an effective tool for development in Uganda for a number of reasons. First, it has not been properly mainstreamed in the National Development Framework; though the PEAP has mentioned ICT, strategies for integrating ICT in national development are by and large lacking in that development framework. Second, ICT has not been looked at as a factor of production or an input into the production function rather as an end on itself. Unless there is a shift in the mindset of policy makers to look at ICT as an enabler or facilitator of development rather than a product of development, it will never play an effective part in development. Third, too much emphasis is placed on the sophistication of the technology. Very few people appreciate that ICT applies to simple devises such as radios. Policy makers tend to divert the focus away from simple and affordable technologies that can enhance universal access and universal services and from basic services (telephone) towards cutting-edge technologies and end-product services such as Internet. This tendency increases the stigma/stress of dealing with a sophisticated technologies instead of demystifying it. In turn ICT is viewed as separate instead of integrating it in people's daily practices and way of life. ICT delivers services to the users. It is essential in sectors like health, education, government, business, transport. ICT is essential in empowering people. See how women now in Tanzania are participating in national development, in politics, etc. ICT has established communication to less privileged areas where our leaders could not reach. See now we get information from almost every corner of our country. Overall, ICTs have been a pretty effective tool of development. These "virtual" resources can usually be deployed much more simply and at much lower cost than traditional development mechanisms, whether it is an e-course to replace a primary school or any other information, e.g. to improve agricultural methods. However, more can be done to involve the private sector and more highly skilled NGOs are needed to carry on the work in this area. The development community's support is necessary to ensure that the national policy and regulatory environment enable market forces of supply and demand to provide appropriate and financially sustainable infrastructure and applications. When the development community focuses on ICT magic bullets or magic box solutions (e.g. telecenters), the results are not encouraging - lack of sustainability. Focusing on enabling organizations that represent the poor - especially the rural poor - to engage in ICT policy and regulatory improvement is key to harnessing market forces to create ICTs that are effective tools for development. Unfortunately, too little attention has been paid to helping local actors engage in policy and regulatory reform. I do think that the process is still in its early stages of development. Nonetheless, to situate ICT4D within a comprehensive framework as the support of social and human development strategies will call for tight assessments of policy regulations vis-à-vis ICT expansions and market dynamics. If reforms have to be carried out, these measures will have to significantly weigh the challenges faced by social development strategies versus the sole applications of ICT reflecting and harboring the prints of free-market scenarios. The prospects for reforms though being the strength of government regulations, multi-lateral and bi-lateral agencies to integrate proper incentives (as an example fiscal policies) to The requested resource (/editor/default/) is not availablematch foreign and domestic investments toward the establishments of socially responsible ventures for the ICT market in developing countries. The requested resource (/editor/default/) is not available Email this page Sign-up Sponsored by: From Our Members How did Development Gateway members respond to our Information Society Survey questions?: Has ICT been an effective tool for development?  What are good examples of how ICT has worked for the poor?  How do you use ICT for development? (NEW) E-Leadership: What Role Can it Play in Development? Nagy Hanna, e-Leadership Institute Peter Knight, Telemática e Desenvolvimento Ltda Read Civil Society How Can ICT Contribute Most? M.S. Swaminathan, India Shafika Isaacs, South Africa Yahya Tabesh, Iran Cornelius Hopmann, Nicaragua Read Development Banks Do they Promote Knowledge Societies Daan Boom, Asian Development Bank Pierre Guislain, World Bank Danilo Piaggessi, IADB Read Case Study: How ICT has Transformed India Kiran Karnik, NASSCOM Sam Pitroda, World-Tel Limited Read WSIS  How Can WSIS Facilitate Development? Despite advances since 2003, the digital divide still exists Read Blogs and Wikis  Citizens Usher in an Era of Change New tools for citizens are changing ICT Read In Country  Putting ICT to Work for Development Examples from Africa and South Asia Read ICT Awards  Recognizing Leaders and Pioneers Promoting ideas through competitions Read Partners Global Events Nov 3, Fill-the-Gap!, Netherlands  Nov 9-Nov 11, World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities and the role Information Society, Spain  Nov 10 -11, Libraries and the Information Society in Action, Egypt Nov 13-15, Past, Present and Future of Research in the Information Society Nov 16-18, World Summit on Information Society, Tunisia  Nov 17, Creating Transformations: Intel at WSIS, Tunisia  Nov 28-Nov 30, IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education, Japan  Nov 28 - Dec 5, GKP/MSSRF South-South Exchange Traveling Workshop 2005, India May 25 – May 26, First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, USA

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