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ICT for Development Innovation of Rural Information Systems

ICT for Development Innovation of Rural Information Systems Overview of current practices and challenges Koen Beelen– Co-Capacity CDI seminar – May 18, 2011. Intro. Facebook opens an office in Colombo? (1).

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ICT for Development Innovation of Rural Information Systems

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  1. ICT for Development Innovation of Rural Information Systems Overview of current practices and challenges Koen Beelen– Co-Capacity CDI seminar – May 18, 2011

  2. Intro

  3. Facebook opens an office in Colombo? (1) • What you see on the picture is a tiny shop in capital of Sri Lanka. The shop owner has named his shop as “Facebook”. What made him to do that?

  4. Facebook opens an office in Colombo? (2) Sri Lanka is a country with an area of 65,610 km2 and population of 21,283,913 (by 2011). As per International Telecommunication Union (ITU) reports, there were 1,776,200 Internet users as of Jun 2010, a penetration of 8.3%. Usage of Facebook in Sri Lanka • Currently (April 2011) there are 894,240 Facebook users in Sri Lanka, that means; • - 4.2 % of the Sri Lankan population is on Facebook • - 50.3% of the Sri Lankan internet users are on Facebook • Though the impact is debatable, Facebook has become a term which is good enough to name an IT shop on the corner of the street.

  5. questions • How many of you have smartphones? • How many of you don’t have a mobile phone? • How many of you already had a mobile phone in the year 2000?

  6. Stats (1) • "The mobile phone revolution continues," says a UN report charting the phenomenon that has transformed commerce, healthcare and social lives across the planet. Mobile subscriptions in Africa rose from 54m to almost 350m between 2003 and 2008, the quickest growth in the world. The global total reached 4bn at the end of last year and, although growth was down on the previous year, it remained close to 20%. • On average there are now 60 mobile subscriptions for every 100 people in the world. In developing countries, the figure stands at 48 – more than eight times the level of penetration in 2000.

  7. Stats (2) • Currently, only one quarter of the world’s nearly 7 billion people have access to the Internet and all the opportunities it creates • Would you pay over £800 a month for Internet? That’s what it could cost you to access mobile internet if you are a health worker in rural Malawi or Zambia.

  8. Stats (3) • In recent months Facebook - the major social media platform worldwide and currently the most visited website in most of Africa - has seen massive growth on the continent. The number of African Facebook users now stands at over 17 million, up from 10 million in 2009. More than 15 percent of people online in Africa are currently using the platform, compared to 11 percent in Asia. Two other social networking websites, Twitter and YouTube, rank among the most visited websites in most African countries.

  9. http://www.itu.int/

  10. Overview of ICT4D • Current practices • Challenges • Conditions

  11. Overview of ICT4D • Current practices • Challenges • Conditions

  12. Openideo / Oxfam / Nokia • OpenIDEO has partnered with Oxfam and Nokia to explore how mobile technologies can be used to improve maternal health (particularly in pregnancy and childbirth) for low income countries.

  13. The AIMS Portal - Approach Together

  14. 50X15 • 50x15 is an initiative which aims to bring Internet access and computing capability to 50% of the world’s population by 2015. Currently, only one quarter of the world’s nearly 7 billion people have access to the Internet and all the opportunities it creates. >>Learning Labs!

  15. AIMS– Integrated Approach

  16. AIMS– Integrated Approach

  17. One laptop per child • UK laptop for 10 pounds

  18. some ICT building blocks Twitter Online/Video conferencing Discussion/ Chat E-mail Facebook Bulletin Board Google Search Blog Moblog WIKI E-publishing Survey, Questionnaire Specialised databases LinkedIn Picture/photo library Audio/Radio News/Events E-newsletters Resources Library Video/TV Management tools SMS Organisation directory Specialists Best practices/ Technologies Needs Assessment Info Website/Portal

  19. What is ICT4D? (1) • Fair tracing: providing enhanced supply chain info to consumers and produces • Community mapping, participatory GIS • Biomedical and primary health • Budgetary support Systems • ICT in teacher training • Collaborative e-science in spatial decision making in distributed environments

  20. What is ICT4D (2) • ICT’s and national development • Interactive databases • Participatory video • Community radio • North Africa revolutions • Social media & Web2.0

  21. Synthesis Practices • ICT for development? ICT’s for Developments a seismic shift will happen with services, products and information

  22. Overview of ICT4D • Current practices • Challenges • Conditions

  23. Why ICT4D? • UNESCO chair in ICT4D the sustainable use of ICTs to enable poor people and marginalised communities to use the potential of ICT to transform their lives

  24. ICT4D >>MDG • The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are 8 international development goals that all 192 member states of United Nations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They include reducing child mortality rates, eradicating extreme poverty and fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS. The aim of the MDGs is to encourage development by improving social & economic conditions in the poorest countries of the world. • This infographic shows the Africa Progress and how each country is doing in meeting the 2015 Millenium Development Goals.

  25. http://www.undp.org/mdg/

  26. Just a Linkedin discussion • XXX: “Following a participatory and problem-driven approach is thus key to understand what ICTs and how they should be implemented, as ICT itself is never a magic wand.Once set this 'methodological' basis, I could say that the convergence of rural radios, mobile phones and the Web can now be considered THE tool through which boosting development in rural areas. This 'trident' can be applied to specific sectoral problem, i.e. dissemination of agricultural information, provision of medical 'second opinion', support to early warning for disaster risk reduction, etc.” • YYY • It has been long time, ICT4D practitioners are looking for a comprehensive answer of this issue. However, from my understanding is there is no specific and universal solution is available. It should be very much customized depending on the social and economic perspective of the situation i.e. locality.

  27. Top 7 reasons why most ICT4D projects FAIL • from ITC4D Poverty Reduction Summit in Ghana, 28 april 2011 UNESCO chair ICT4D • http://dotsub.com/view/1f2752b3-e7ce-4445-801d-5ccd5d7ccd88

  28. fail 1 • Idea/result NOT directly tied to improving economic condition of end user, ICT should be enabler. • E.g. tomato will rot if to other market

  29. fail 2 • Not relevant to local context/strengths/needs • e.g. mechanism working at situation A do not automatically work at B. • each context is unique

  30. fail 3 • Not understand infrastructure capability • e.g. electricity cut off

  31. fail 4 • Underestimate maintenance costs & issues • e.g. costs of bandwidth, old computers, school with 40 computers/none work anymore

  32. fail 5 • Projects supported only by short-term grants • E.g. what happens beyond project period?

  33. fail 6 • Not looking at whole system • e.g. not taking into account local governments powers, private sector, number of mobile phones don’t increase market itself but redistribute, …

  34. fail 7 • Projects built on condescending assumptions • e.g. third world depth versus Greece bankrupt • e.g. not using indigenous solutions but plug in external solutions

  35. Synthesis Challenges

  36. Overview of ICT4D • Current practices • Challenges • Conditions

  37. Conditions • What are elements of ICT4D that do work??

  38. do work 1 • Will your intervention still have value 10 or 100 years from now?

  39. do work 2 • Are you using technology as the starting point Or the strengths/needs of people?

  40. do work 3 • Do you really understand the context & the whole system?

  41. do work 4 • Are you involving end users in the entire process from idea to evaluation?

  42. do work 5 • Do people need what you have enough, that they want to pay for it?

  43. do work 6 • Do you view the end user as “poor person we are helping” or “rich person we are partnering with & learning from”?

  44. Synthesis • ICT’s for Developments! • Multiple pitfalls, multi challenges • Multiple conditions

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