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ICTs and large-scale poverty reduction- Lessons from the developing world
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and Panos London has recently brought out a publication that shares lessons learnt from ICTs and poverty reduction efforts in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. It is edited by Kitty Warnock and Ravi Wickremasinghe, in cooperation with Gerolf Weigel.
In his foreword, Prof. M. S. Swaminathan, chairman of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in India, writes, "among the many lessons shared, Every Village a Knowledge Centre movement, an initiative of the National Alliance on Mission 2007 is one of the finest examples of how small and isolated experiments can be upscaled at a national level."
Gerolf Weigel of SDC, highlights the important role ICTs can play in achieving the MDGs which otherwise seems difficult to meet in the defined time framework. In his introductory remarks he also emphasises that the enabling role of ICT in fighting poverty, especially in national Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) development and implementation is manifold. To harness the available and latent potential of ICTs, it is important to mainstream it in the entire development planning process. As highlighted by Weigel, ICTs can definitely enhance the effectiveness of National PRS.
Stijn van der Krogt of the International Institute shares an overview of experiences on the contribution of ICT to fighting poverty on a large scale Asia, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean for Communication and Development, the Netherlands.
Reiterating the critical importance of access to ICTs and the role policy and technological innovations play in poverty alleviation in chapter 1, Radhika Lal, UNDP, argues that while ICT is often mentioned as a priority, it is not comprehensively integrated into the poverty reduction priorities and programmes. In cases where there is a recognition of the role of ICT to increase development effectiveness, up-scaling strategies often move to completely different modalities of implementation. They often neglect to incorporate the creativity, local connections and community structures of support and participation that the bottom-up approaches and community-based initiatives bring. She brings out the missing link of grassroots voices in the poverty alleviation initiatives.
Stijn van der Krogt in Chapter 2 discusses the issues related to the scaling up projects to national level in Latin America and the Caribbean. He discusses an approach to up-scaling ICT in poverty alleviation. The approach is based on the experiences in the Latin America and the Caribbean. He also deliberates upon the roles of the stakeholders in ICT4D policies and programmes at various levels.
Richard Gerster and Sonja Zimmermann of share the lessons for up-caling pro-poor ICT policies and practices. The chapter 3 focuses on the outcomes of the Chennai workshop organised in 2004 to review the experiences in Asia and Africa in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for poverty reduction. They argue that ICTs are a tool and should be understood in a broader perspective.
In chapter 4 'From a small beginning to a mass movement: the story of Indias Mission 2007', Subbiah Arunachalam of M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation reflects on the genesis and progress of Mission 2007. He strongly believes that when the Mission achieves its goal, not only will it have reduced the rural-urban divide but it would also provide a platform for achieving all the Millennium Development Goals, and provide a model for the rest of the world.
Radio's catalytic role in local development in Africa is very well captured in chapter 5 on 'Local radio in the Information Society: technology, participation and content in Africa' by Sameer Padania and Francesca Silvani, Panos London, with specific focus on the experiences in Uganda. The authors bring forth a number of factors like community participation, access and availability of technology, donor support, etc., which decides the success and sustainability of different radio initiatives.
Microfinance has been changing the lives of people and revitalising communities worldwide, South Asia in particular, for many decades. The primary clients of microfinance are poor and low-income people. They may be artisans, farmers, women, and other marginalised groups and individuals. In the concluding chapter on 'Building microfinance through ICT innovation'
Stuart Mathison, Foundation for Development Cooperation, shares some examples of ICT innovations in microfinance like back-office management information systems, mobile computing, Internet banking, etc. However, these innovations still remain confined to certain pockets. The author has enumerated some of the limiting factors in scaling up of successful experiments.
Overall, this publication is a rich repository of experiential learning and the developments in the ICT for development sector worldwide. It provides insight to the issues related to practicing ICTs in development. This book is must read for those who are more interested in practice.
Download the book here
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"ICT intervention"
Time: 10.10.2007 11:44
Comment: In the Indian context and perhaps the world over, the One Laptop per Child Project (OLCP) expected to be launched in mid-2007 is important. If a child can be given a laptop and connected to the internet with primary education, the child will find its way to get empowered. This is an important assumption but worth trying out. We can not be sure about the outcomes. One of the primary beauty of the Internet is that it is evolving and accomodates mistakes and build tools around the mistakes to empower. It is also a lot of fun for a child to indulge in.
Empowerment of the vulnerable does not come easily but the Internet is an interesting via media to get empowered. It will increase functional literacy, access to knowledge and information and if children work in small and medium sized groups with guidance from like minded NGOs (which can produce content even on a pro bono publico basis) it will have a significant impact on their competitiveness.
The roll-out of the OLCP at viable costs and its implementation and outcomes will be interesting to watch.
Lets all remember - We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them - Albert Einstein
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"ICT for poverty alleviation - hyped or real"
Time: 23.12.2005 18:18
Comment: From my experience dealing with Governments, corporates and NGOs, my humble submission is, none seem to want total transparency and accountability, lest their personal authority, power, position, etc get eroded. It is funny indeed, whhen most feel it a highly fashionable to talk of ICT and e-Governance, achieving transparency and accountability, minimizing corruption, eliminating poverty, creating alevel playing field, achieving UN MDGs, etc. in public places.
On the ground, nothing concrete is happening, except to invest huge amounts in hardware systems, which are grossly under utilized. There is no utilization audit. The mindset has to change to accept openness in RTI and public transactions.
If all this has to change, there must be total transparency and accountability in ICT implementations, benchmarking progress and single point responsibility.
Would the present form of democracy ever allow all these to change is the question? We are trying to change all these in our own small way, thro' a transparency and accountability tool.
Kris Dev, Co-Founder, Intnl. Transparency and Accountability Network
http://TrAcNet.blogspot.com and http://ll2b.blogspot.com
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