Technological Revolution, Evolution and New Dependencies: what's new about ict4d?

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of recent developments in the use of information and communication technologies for development, and argues that, while they do indeed offer new potential for resolving some of the classic dilemmas of development policy and practice, insufficient attention has yet been paid to the lessons that can be learnt from previous information and communication initiatives.

Notes

1 See for example, TL Friedman, The World is Flat: The Globalized World in the Twenty-first Century, London: Penguin, 2006; and M Castells, The Rise of the Network Society: Economy, Society and Culture, 3 vols, Oxford: Blackwell, 2000–03.

2 P Norris, Digital Divide, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

3 International Telecommunication Union, at http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/at_glance/KeyTelecom99.html, accessed 31 December 2008.

4 International Telecommunication Union, ‘Internet indicators: subscribers, users, and broadband subscribers’, at http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/icteye/Reporting/ShowReportFrame.aspx?ReportName=/WTI/InformationTechnologyPublic&RP_intYear=2007&RP_intLanguageID=1, accessed 30 December 2008.

5 Castells, The Rise of the Network Society.

6 International Communication Union, at http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/at_glance/KeyTelecom99.html, accessed 31 December 2008.

7 ofcom, at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2008/11/nr_20081120, accessed 30 December 2008.

8 http://www.gsmworld.com/newsroom/press-releases/2009/2521.htm, accessed 19 February 2009.

9 K Annan, ‘Secretary General stresses international community's objective of harnessing informatics revolution for benefit of mankind’, in United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development ‘Inter-Agency Project on Universal Access to Basic Communication and Information Services’, 3rd Session, Geneva, 12 May 1997, E/CN.16/1997/Misc.3, p 1.

10 R Mansell & U Wehn (eds), Knowledge Societies: Information Technologies for Sustainable Development, report prepared for the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

11 Ibid, p 7.

12 R Brown, ‘Global computer networks and geographies of development in East Africa’, unpublished PhD thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 1999.

13 See, for example, F Webster (ed), Theories of the Information Society, London: Routledge, 1995.

14 D Simon, ‘Dilemmas of development and the environment in a globalising world: theory, policy and praxis’, Progress in Development Studies, 3 (1), 2003, pp 5–41.

15 Term used by D Perrons, Globalization and Social Change—People and Places in a Divided World, London: Routledge, 2004.

16 P Safran, ‘Asian Development Bank—ict Mission Statement’, 2006, at http://www.adb.org/Documents/Periodicals/ADB_Review/2001/vol33_2/bright2.asp, accessed 1 January 2009.

17 D Souter, ‘Then and now: what would be the remit of a modern-day Maitland Commission?’, in G Milward-Oliver (ed), Maitland +20—Fixing the Missing Link, Bradford-on-Avon: Anima Centre, 2004.

18 RH Wade, ‘Bridging the digital divide—new route to development or new form of dependency?’, Global Governance, 8, 2002, pp 443–466.

19 See, for example, M Dawson & JB Foster, ‘Virtual capitalism’, in RW McChesney, E Meiksins Wood & JB Foster (eds), Capitalism and the Information Age, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1998; and C Fuchs, ‘Transnational space and the “Network Society”, 21st Century Society, 2 (1), 2007, pp 1–30.

20 Norris, Digital Divide.

21 See Souter, ‘Then and now’; and R Heeks, ‘icts and the mdgs: on the wrong track?’, 2005, at http://www.i4donline.net/feb05/perspective.pdf, accessed 2 January 2009.

22 See P Schmidt, ‘New model, old barriers: remaining challenges to African civil society participation’, Information Technologies and International Development, 1 (3–4), 2004, pp 100–103; and N Hafkin, ‘Gender issues at the World Summit on the Information Society’, Information Technologies and International Development, 1 (3–4), 2004, pp 55–59.

23 For a more extensive argument, see D Kleine, ‘The ideology behind the technology—Chilean microentrepreneurs and public ict-policies’, Geoforum, 2009 forthcoming.

24 http://www.un-gaid.org, http://ictd2009.org/cfp.html, http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/knowledgefordevelopment, http://home.bellanet.org, and http://www.km4dev.org, all accessed 29 December 2008; K Laudon & J Laudon, Management Information Systems, New York: Pearson, 2005; D Schwartz (ed), Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management, Hershey, PA: Idea Group Reference, 2005; and who, Developing Health Management Information Systems: A Practical Guide for Developing Countries, Geneva: World Health Organisation for the Western Pacific, 2004, at http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/3A34C50D-C035-425A-8155-65E8AD3CB906/0/Health_manage.pdf.

25 http://home.bellanet.org, accessed 29 December 2008. After 12 years based as an international secretariat in International Development Research Centre (idrc), Bellanet transformed itself into the Bellanet Alliance of Social Entrepreneurs (base) during the latter part of 2008.

26 http://www.km4dev.org, accessed 29 December 2008.

27 RJ Forbes, ‘Power to 1850’, in C Singer (ed), A History of Technology, Vol 4, The Industrial Revolution, 1750–1850, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958.

28 J Mokyr, The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress, New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

29 Castells, The Rise of the Network Society.

30 D Headrick, The Tentacles of Progress: Technology Transfer in the Age of Imperialism, 1850–1940, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

31 Ibid.

32 D Simon, ‘Introduction: rethinking geographies of North–South development’, Third World Quarterly, 19 (4), 1998, pp 595–606; and K Dodds, ‘The geopolitics of regionalism: the Valdivia Group and southern hemispheric environmental co-operation’, Third World Quarterly, 19 (4), 1998, pp 725–743.

33 HS Truman, Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 1949, at http://www.trumanlibrary.org/calendar/viewpapers.php?pid=1030, accessed 31 December 2008.

34 W Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960. See also Simon, ‘Dilemmas of development and the environment in a globalising world’.

35 gtz,‘Commitment to a development mission, interview with Heinrich von Pierer’, Akzente Focus 2001, Economic Development and Employment Promotion, 2001, pp 8–9.

36 For a review, see T Unwin (ed), ict4d: Information and Communication Technology for Development, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

37 Ibid, p 53. See also W Gaul & G Ritter (eds), ‘Classification, automation, and new media’, in Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft für Klassifikation EV, University of Passau, March 15–17, 2000, Berlin: Springer, 2002.

38 See, for example, G Weigel & D Waldburger (eds), ict4d— Connecting People for a Better World, Berne/Kuala Lumpur: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation/Global Knowledge Partnership, 2004; and A Greenberg, icts for Poverty Alleviation: Basic Tool and Enabling Sector, Stockholm: Sida, 2005.

39 See L Floridi, Philosophy and Computing: An Introduction, London: Routledge, 1999; and Floridi, ‘Information ethics: on the theoretical foundations of computer ethics’, Ethics and Information Technology, 1 (1), 1999, pp 37–56.

40 P Roberts, ‘Knowledge, information and literacy’, International Review of Education, 46 (5), 2000, pp 433–453.

41 unesco, Towards Knowledge Societies, Paris: unesco, 2005; and World Bank Institute, Building Knowledge Economies: Advanced Strategies for Development, Washington, DC: World Bank Institute, 2007.

42 Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, Vol I, The Information Age, Vol III, The End of Millennium, Vol II, The Power of Identity.

43 unesco, Towards Knowledge Societies, p 17.

44 Unwin, ict4d.

45 JJ Britz, PJ Lor, IEM Coetzee & BC Bester, ‘Africa as a knowledge society: a reality check’, International Information and Library Review, 38, 2006, pp 25–40.

46 For a wider exploration, see Unwin, ict4d , esp chs 2 and 3.

47 See, in particular, Habermas's theory of communicative action, on which some of the following arguments are based. J Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol 1, Reason and the Rationalization of Society, Boston, MA: Beacon Press 1984; Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol 2, Lifeworld and System, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987; and S Buckley, ‘Radio's new horizons: democracy and popular communication in the digital age’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, 3(2), 2000, p180.

48 SR Melkote & HL Steeves, Communication for Development in the Third World: Theory and Practice for Empowerment, New Delhi: Sage, 2001, p 143.

49 See, for example, M Mozammel & S Odugbemi, With the Support of Multitudes: Using Strategic Communications to Fight Poverty through prsps, London: dfid, 2005.

50 See also G Coldevin, Participatory Communication: A Key to Rural Learning Systems, Rome: fao, at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/005/y4774e/y4774e00.pdf, accessed 29 December 2008.

51 R Green & N Fallgren, ‘Anticipating new media: a faceted classification of material types’, Proceedings of the North American Symposium on Knowledge Organization, 1, 2007, pp 87–99, at http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/1911, accessed 29 December 2008.

52 EM Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, New York: Free Press, 1983; and HP Binswanger & VW Ruttan, Induced Innovation: Technology, Institutions and Development, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978.

53 For contrasting approaches, see E Wenger, Communities of Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999; EC Johnson & R Khalidi, ‘Communities of practice for development in the Middle East and North Africa’, km4d Journal, 1 (1), 2005, pp 96–110; and Communities of practice in ecohealth, at http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-101449-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html, accessed 29 December 2008.

54 See A Dickson, ‘Mass education in Togoland’, African Affairs, 49, 1950, pp 136–150; Dickson, ‘Training community leaders in the Gold Coast’. Overseas Education, 22 (1), 1950, pp 8–21; J Gibbs, ‘Propaganda and mass education: Alec Dickson and drama for development in the Gold Coast’, in M Banahm, J Gibbs & F Osofisan (eds), African Theatre in Development, Oxford: James Currey, 1999, pp 13–23.

55 See, for example, R Kidd, ‘Popular theatre and popular struggle in Kenya: the story of the Kamiriithu Community Educational and Cultural Centre’, Theaterwork, 2 (6), 1982, pp 47–61; FP Richmond, DL Swann & PB Zarrilli (eds), Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance, Honolulu, HU: University of Hawaii Press, 1990; Banham et al, African Theatre in Development; and N Bhatia, Acts of Authority/Acts of Resistance: Theater and Politics on Colonial and Postcolonial India, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2004.

56 See, for example, E de Costa, Collaborative Latin American Popular Theatre: From Theory to Form, From Text to Stage, New York: Peter Lang, 1992; A Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed, trans CA & M-O Leal McBride, London: Pluto, 1979; P Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Seabury Press, 1970; Freire, Cultural Action for Freedom, London: Penguin, 1972; and K Salhi (ed), African Theatre for Development: Art for Self-determination, Exeter: Intellect, 1998.

57 See L Elliott, L Gruer, K Farrow, A Henderson & L Cowan, ‘Theatre in aids education—a controlled study’, aids Care, 8 (3), 1996, pp 321–340; and Bagamayo College of Arts, Tanzania Theatre Centre, R Mabala & KB Allen, ‘Participatory action research on aids/hiv through a popular theatre approach in Tanzania’, Evaluation and Program Planning, 25 (4), 2002, pp 333–339.

58 II Chang, ‘Theatre as therapy, therapy as theatre: transforming the memories and trauma of the 21 September 1999 earthquake in Taiwan’, Research in Drama Education, 19 (3), 2005, pp 285–301.

59 SJ Ahmed, ‘Wishing for a world without “Theatre for Development”: demystifying the case of Bangladesh’, Research in Drama Education, 7 (2), 2002, p 211.

60 Ibid.

61 http://www.digitallearning.in/news/news-details.asp?Title=IGNOU-launches-TV-channel-on-Science&newsid=15880, dated 26 December 2008, accessed 28 December 2008.

62 http://www.soulcity.org.za/, accessed 29 December 2008.

63 http://www.mediae.org/Current%20Video.htm and http://www.dfid.gov.uk/casestudies/files/africa/east-africa-tv.asp, both accessed 28 December 2008.

64 A Cornwall & C Nyamu-Musembi, ‘Putting the “rights-based approach” to development into perspective’, Third World Quarterly, 2 (8), 2004, p 1430. See also P Uvin, Human Rights and Development, Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian, 2004; and J Hauserman, A Human Rights Approach to Development, London: Rights and Humanity, 1998.

65 http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/md/03/wsis/doc/S03-WSIS-DOC-0004!!MSW-E.doc, accessed 29 December 2008.

66 Ibid.

67 Although, for examples of such work, see N Gunawardena, ‘Communication rights and communication wrongs’, 2005, at http://www.scidev.net/Opinions/index.cfm?fuseaction=readopinions&itemid=447&language=1, accessed 29 December 2008; World Bank, ‘Voices of the poor’, nd, at http://go.worldbank.org/H1N8746X10, accessed 29 December 2008; and T Schilderman, Strengthening the Knowledge and Information Systems of the Urban Poor, London: dfid/itdg, 2002.

68 See, for example, dac, Financing icts for Development—Efforts of dac Members: Report to the UN Task Force on Financial Mechanisms for ict for Development, Paris oecd dac, 2005; Global Knowledge Partnership (gkp), Multistakeholder Partnerships, Issue Paper, Kuala Lumpur: gkp, 2003; C Mercer, ‘Performing partnership: civil society and the illusion of good governance in Tanzania’, Political Geography, 22 (7), 2003, pp 741–763; R Tennyson, The Partnering Toolbook, London: International Business Leaders Forum and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, 2003; M Warner & R Sullivan, Putting Partnerships to Work: Strategic Alliances for Development Between Governments, the Private Sector and Civil Society, Sheffield: Greenleaf, 2004; and World Economic Forum, Building on the Monterrey Consensus: The Growing Role of Public–Private Partnerships in Mobilizing Resources for Development, Geneva: World Economic Forum in Partnership with Financing for Development and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, 2005.

69 J Martens, Multistakeholder Partnerships—Future Models of Multilateralism?, Berlin: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2007.

70 But see T Unwin & B Day, ‘Dos and don'ts in monitoring and evaluation’, in DA Wagner, B Day, T James, RB Kozma, RB Miller & T Unwin (eds), The Impact of icts in Education for Development: A Monitoring and Evaluation Handbook, Washington, DC: infoDev, 2005, pp 111–122; and Tennyson, The Partnering Toolbook.

71 G Farrell, S Isaacs & M Trucano, The nepad e-Schools Demonstration Project: A Work in Progress, Washington, DC: infoDev/World Bank and Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning, 2007, at http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.355.html.

72 Initiatives such as the World Economic Forum's and unesco's ‘Partnerships for Education’ programme, at http://www.pfore.org, accessed 30 December 2008, or the International Business Leaders Forum's (iblf) The Partnering Initiative, at http://tpi.iblf.org, accessed 30 December 2008, now provide helpful guidance on the implementation of such partnerships.

73 http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals, accessed 30 December 2008.

74 See, for example, J Sachs, The End of Poverty, London: Penguin, 2005. For a critique, see T Unwin, ‘No end to poverty’, Journal of Development Studies, 43 (5), 2007, pp 929–953.

75 unctad, Information Economy Report 2007–2008: Science and Technology for Development—The New Paradigm of ict , New York: United Nations, 2007, p xxiii. See also ML Best & C Kenny, ‘icts, enterprise and development’, in Unwin, ict4d , pp177–205.

76 Best & Kenny, ‘icts, enterprise and development’.

77 See, for example, L Casely-Hayford & P Lynch, A Review of Good Practice in ict and Special Educational Needs for Africa, London: dfid (Imfundo KnowledgeBank), 2003, at http://imfundo.digitalbrain.com/imfundo/web/papers/sen/?verb=view; T Unwin, ‘Reflections on ability: the use of icts to support people with disabilities in poor countries’, in Milward-Oliver, Maitland+20, pp 165–180; and http://www.w3.org/WAI/ accessed 30 December 2008. See also T Unwin, M Tan & K Pauso, ‘The potential of e-learning to address the needs of out-of-school youth in the Philippines’, Children's Geographies, 5 (4), 2007, pp 443–462.

78 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6570919.stm, accessed 30 December 2008.

79 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/deadlineusa/2008/sep/26/blogpost, accessed 30 December 2008.

80 DH Williams, ‘The strategic implications of WalMart's rfid mandate’, Directions Magazine, 29 June 2004, at http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=629&trv=1.

81 For more on the Fair Tracing Project, see D Kleine, ‘Negotiating partnerships, understanding power: doing action research on Chilean Fairtrade wine value chains’, Geographical Journal, 174 (2), 2008, pp 109–123; and A Chopra & A Kundu, ‘The Fair Tracing project: digital tracing technology and Indian coffee’, Contemporary South Asia, 16 (2), 2008, pp 217–230.

82 http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gei/index.htm, accessed 30 December 2008.

83 http://laptop.org/en/, accessed 30 December 2008.

84 http://www.ecbp.biz/metanav/media/newspage/article/45/5000-xo-lap.html, accessed 30 December 2008.

85 For a well-argued and highly critical view of the olpc project, see B Kozma, ‘One laptop per child and education reform’, 2007, at http://www.olpcnews.com/use_cases/education/one_laptop_per_child_education.html, accessed 30 December 2008.

86 http://lifelines-india.net, accessed 30 December 2008. See also M Gabriel & A Godfrey, ‘LifeLines India’, in Unwin, ict4d , pp 162–163.

87 Gabriel & Godfrey, ‘LifeLines India’, pp 162–163.

88 As for example with m-pesa in Kenya. See http://www.vodafone.com/start/media_relations/news/group_press_releases/2007/safaricom_and_vodafone.html.

89 http://www.kiwanja.net/projects.htm, accessed 30 December 2008.

90 M Castells, M Fernández-Ardèvol, JL Qiu & A Sey, Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective, Cambridge, MA: mit Press, 2007.

91 CK Prahalad, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, Philadelphia, PA: Wharton School Publishing, 2004; and T London, A Base-of-the-pyramid Perspective on Poverty Alleviation, William Davidson Institute University of Michigan, Working paper, 2007, at www.erb.umich.edu/News-and-Events/colloquium_papers/BoP_Perspective_on_Poverty_Alleviation__London%20(UNDP).pdf, accessed 30 December 2008.

92 See http://www.grameenphone.com.

93 http://www.kiwanja.net/frontlinesms.htm, accessed 30 December 2008.