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PJ Wall – Doctoral Researcher 8 th November 2013

Technology and Practice: Implementing ICT4D in low and middle income countries - A sociotechnical approach . PJ Wall – Doctoral Researcher 8 th November 2013. Trinity Development Research Week 2013. ICT4D Failure. Failure rates in ICT4D are very high

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PJ Wall – Doctoral Researcher 8 th November 2013

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  1. Technology and Practice: Implementing ICT4D in low and middle income countries- A sociotechnical approach PJ Wall – Doctoral Researcher 8th November 2013 Trinity Development Research Week 2013

  2. ICT4D Failure Failure rates in ICT4D are very high Becoming increasingly evident just how difficult it is to sustain mHealth projects beyond pilot implementation [1-3]

  3. ICT4D Failure The technology, by and large, “works” So, it must be about something other than the technology ...

  4. Community Health Workers CHWs using the mobile phones in Mattru – October 2013

  5. Issues with the phones Hardware & Software • The mHealth hardware & software • Power supply and charging the phones • Mobile signal

  6. Community Health Workers

  7. Community Health Workers Mobile phone “charging station” in Mattru – October 2013

  8. Community Health Workers Cell towers in Mattru – October 2013

  9. Other issues with the phones Other issues • Society, culture, power, politics • Illiterate users • Local capacity • Creation of networks of stakeholders • Business models for scaling and sustainability

  10. A Socio-technical View All technology is embedded in a social and cultural context, making the transfer of just the technology problematic The assumption that technology will simply fit into any environment and be easily adopted by the user has been described “fallacy” [4]

  11. A Socio-technical View Implementers are likely to have to negotiate a multiplicity of interacting socio-technical factors that are both within and outside their control [5]

  12. Socio-technical Theory Many people have written about socio-technical theory: • Albert Cherns [6] • Chris Clegg [7] • Enid Mumford [8-9]

  13. A Socio-technical View Joint optimization of “technical” and “social” subsystems • People given the opportunity to participate in the design process • Design is an extended social process and is socially shaped [7] • “Multifunctional” workforce [6], and “multidisciplinary” education [7] • The “need to be able to learn on the job and to go on learning” [6] • System capable of self-modification, of adapting to change and of making the most use of the creative capacities of the individual [6] • The means of undertaking tasks should be flexibly specified [7] • Iterative processes and “incompletion” [6]

  14. Initial Findings? What are the initial findings from the Sierra Leone mHealth initiative? • People given limited opportunity to participate in the design process • Training was provided in operating the phone, but not as yet in anything beyond this • Additional training planned • MoU on use of the phone • Problems with solar chargers means that CHWs may have to use charging stations to charge the phones • Some evidence of iterative processes

  15. A final thought … Maybe ICT4D implementation, scaling, and sustainability is about more than just socio-technical theory We may need new ways of understanding ICT4D ...

  16. References • Anderson, R., and N. Perin. Case studies from the Vital Wave mHealth Report 2009. Available from http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~anderson/docs/2009/mHealthAnalysis_v1.pdf. • Curioso, W. H., and P. N. Mechael. 2010a. "Enhancing 'M-health' with south-to-south collaborations." Health Aff (Millwood) no. 29 (2):264-7. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2009.1057. • Curioso, W.H., and P.N. Mechael. 2010b. "Enhancing 'M-Health' with South-to-South Collaborations." Health Affairs no. 29 (2):pp. 264-267. • Shozi, N.A., D. Pottas, and N. Mostert-Phipps. 2012. "A Socio-technical Perspective on the Use of Mobile Phones for Remote Data Collection in Home Community Based Care in Developing Countries." In e-Infrastructure and e- Services for Developing Countries, edited by R. Popescu-Zeletin, K. Jonas, I. Rai, R. Glitho and A. Villafiorita, 135-145. Berlin: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. • Manda, Tiwonge Davis, and TerjeAkselSanner. 2012. Bootstrapping Information Technology Innovations Across Organisational and Geographical Boundaries: Lessons from an mHealth Implementation in Malawi. Paper read at IRIS. No. 35. Tapir AkademiskForlag. • Cherns, A., 1976. The Principles of Sociotechnical Design. Human Relations, 29(8), pp.783– 792. • Clegg, C.W., 2000. Sociotechnical Principles for System Design. Applied Ergonomics, 31, pp.463 – 477. • Mumford, E., (1995), Effective Systems Design and Requirements Analysis: The ETHICS Approach, London, Macmillan • Mumford, E., (2003), Redesigning Human Systems, Hershey, IRM Press

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