Capability listing and functioning achievements of indigenous people of a developing country: testing the moderating effect of the use of ICT

Abstract

There is a gap in the existing literature in exploring comprehensive capability needs and degree of functioning achievements of indigenous people living in developing nations. This study offers a nine-dimensional 43-item statistically valid, and reliable model that captures capability and functioning achievement indicators as perceived by the indigenous people of Bangladesh. Also, the paper investigates the extent to which the impacts of capability dimensions on functioning achievements change concerning the degree of use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) by the indigenous community. The methodology of the study is based on 1741 primary data collected by way of a survey and analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling. Results revealed that effects of seven out of eight capability dimensions on functioning achievements had improved significantly due to the higher use of ICT. The study also revealed that frequent use of ICT could reduce the degree of vulnerability among the indigenous poor.

KEYWORDS:

• Capability approach
• functioning achievements
• indigenous people
• developing country
• Bangladesh

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted with North South University Annual Research Grants of 2019–2020. The author would like to thank Mr. Omar Nasif Abdullah of North South University for his copy editing support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data used in this paper can be found at: 10.6084/m9.figshare.14665245 (https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/_/14665245).

Additional information

Funding

This study was conducted with North South University Annual Research Grants of 2019–2020.

Notes on contributors

Tamgid Ahmed Chowdhury

Dr.Tamgid Ahmed Chowdhury has received his PhD in Economics from Macquarie University, Australia and specialized in poverty and inequality. He has published numerous journal articles in reputed ranked international journals. Dr. Chowdhury has presented papers in international conferences held in the USA, UK, Australia, Turkey, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia.