ICT4D

Vincent Shaw

What I found in exploring the topic

• The D of ICT4D is very under-developed

• The ISR literature has not paid much attention to the D

• That the ISDC literature is not really engaging the development world

The focus of this presentation

1. Defining ICT and Development2. Development as conceptualised currently

by the – Development practitioners– ISR literature

3. Framework based on Sen’s work4. Explore the use of the framework5. Implications for future research

1.1 Defining ICT

– radio and television services, and – other digital technologies including

• methods for communication protocols,• transmission techniques, • communications equipment,

– techniques for storing & processing information using computers, & similar devices like handheld palmtops and PDA’s.

• ICT is an umbrella term that covers all technical means for processing & communicating information.

PC’s

Graphing the expansion in access to ICT’s

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% Penetration Population # Implications for use of mobiles:

• % penetration• Expected growth

Comparing mobile penetration across Africa

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Population (M) Internet content (%)

Gaining some perspective

The languages spoken across the world and language of internet content

Gaining some perspective

Only 15% of rural households in sub-Saharan Africa have access to electricity

What should we be

tracking?

Coverage or Use?

Bahati’s story

Defining Development: Sen’s Capability Approach

• Sen defines development as a “process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy”.

• A substantially different approach to that of using GNP or incomes

• Focus on freedoms shifts the emphasis towards the ends rather than the means of development

The Capability Approach:Functionings and Capabilities

• Functionings are the things we can do – the beings and doings of our lives– They are our actual achievements

• Functionings provide us with a “capability set”– This represents our potential achievements –

or the opportunities we have• Commodities are goods and services that

are the means to achieve

Functionings and Capabilities

2. Development as empowerment

Empowerment is the expansion of assets and capabilities of poor people to – participate in, – negotiate with, – influence, – control, and – hold accountable institutions that affect their

lives. (World Bank, 2002)

Agency

Opportunity Structure

IterativeRelationship

Degree of Empowerment

DevelopmentOutcomes

Alsop, 2006

Development as Empowerment

Agency

Opportunity Structure

IterativeRelationship

Degree of Empowerment

DevelopmentOutcomes

Alsop, 2006

Development as Empowerment

Agency and Assets

• Assets provide power – a combination of resources and rules

• Interaction takes place between the assets and opportunity structures

• Examples include:• Psychological – capacity to envision• Human – skills of various kinds,

literacy• Informational• Organizational• Material• Social• Financial

Agency

Opportunity Structure

IterativeRelationship

Degree of Empowerment

DevelopmentOutcomes

Alsop, 2006

Development as Empowerment

Opportunity Structure

• Institutions that govern people’s behavior, and which influence the success or failure of people’s choices

• The rules of society that shape human interactions and peoples’ choices• Formal institutions• Informal institutions – unofficial rules,

cultural practices and value systems

Agency

Opportunity Structure

IterativeRelationship

Degree of Empowerment

DevelopmentOutcomes

Alsop, 2006

Development as Empowerment

Degrees of Empowerment

The opportunity to make a choice existsThe opportunity is usedThe choice brings about the desired effect

Surprise finding:Mobile use in rural

Nigeria• “Self-developed”

report format• Self-funded from

“free sms’s”

Degrees of Empowerment• Improvement in mobile coverage created

“opportunity structures” for Bahati and the CHEW in Gagure HC

• They both utilised a variety of personal skills (functionings) to obtain cell phones, and use them

• Their use of their agency, and the opportunity structure (free sms) to enhance their productivity and efficiency

• Despite the lack of material benefit (for Gagure CHEW), they were empowered

3. A Framework for Evaluating Empowerment:Domains and Sub-domains

• State– Justice– Politics– Public service delivery

• Market– Labour– Goods– Services

• Society– Intra-household– Intra-community

Which can be applied in a framework to assess agency and opportunity structures across a number of levels:

• Micro (local, household)• Intermediate (Regional,

State, Provincial)• Macro (National)

Domains Sub-domains   Micro Intermediate Macro

State     

Policy and regulatory framework

OS Agency

Public service delivery, such as health, education, democracy

OS

Agency Governance and accountability

OS Agency

Market         

Entrepreneurialism and economic activity/productivity

OS

Agency Goods

OS Agency

Services

OS Agency

Access to global markets and resources

OS

Agency

Organisational (non-governmental organizations)

OS

Agency Society

   

Intra-household OS Agency

Intra-community

OS Agency

Framework for Evaluating Empowerment

Four Key Points

1. Empowerment is a relational concept– it emerges from the interaction between

people and their environment;– it plays out through the rights, rules, norms,

behaviours and processes governing poor people and powerful actors;

– the relationship plays out at multiple levels, and in different domains;

Four Key Points

2. Usually, marginalized/poor people capabilities and attributes are conceptualized as individual attributes, but where they are disempowered, they often find a voice through collective action/organizations;

3. Empowerment requires both top-down and bottom-up approaches– Top-down processes are required to change

structures and organizational processes– Bottom-up for awakening individual assets

4 Key Points

4. Intervention points vary, depending on the – Constraints and barriers– What is feasible– The developmental outcome desired

Intervention points can also change over time

Summary so far

• ICT has been defined, and we have drawn attention to the relatively superficial “bean counting” strategies that track expansion so far

• We have suggested that more sophisticated measures are required to monitor the use of ICT, and how this contributes to development

• Defined development using Sen’s Capability Approach

• Explored a framework used in the development domain to track empowerment

Early ISR views on Development

• Development was seen as the antithesis of poverty, and poverty could be addressed by– funding for economic development– transfer of economic and technological policies

from the “developed world” to the “developing world”

• Failure due to instrumentalist view of social life and people which ignores the various factors that influence the well-being of individuals and groups (Critiqued by Escobar, 1995).

Development and ISR

• Avgerou (2003) has critiqued simplistic views drawing on narrow economic theory that links ICT’s to development, arguing that complex interactions govern whether ICT make a meaningful impact on development.

The Offending Reports

• Human Dev Report 2001, • Human Dev Report 2002, • Porter Global Competitiveness

Report (2001/2002), • Global Information Technology

Report

• Avgerou argues that institutional intervention (in the form of government and networked organizations as watchdogs) are required to regulate market dynamics.

• She concludes that emulation of western based practices in developing economies hardly ever succeeds, and suggest that “situated action appropriate to formative contexts” should be prioritized.

Technological innovation

Human capabilities

Economic growth

The reports suggest that a virtuous cycle gets established that can be left to market forces to develop

Development and ISR• The effect of internet expansion has been assessed

by exploring the impact in specific areas– Economic productivity– Health– Education– Poverty alleviation and empowerment– Democracy– Sustainable development

• Useful study:– Clear description of development initiatives over time– Highlights the role of intermediary institutions in linking

local and global conditions in creating knowledge, disseminating knowledge, and in human resource development Madon (2000)

Development and ISR• Papers assessed according to the areas of

contribution– Public infrastructure (e.g. health)– Governance, accountability and civil society (e.g.

educational provision)– Entrepreneurialism and economic activity– Access to global markets and resources.

Thompson and Walsham (undated)

Papers reviewed in:• Walsham and Sahay (2006), • Avgerou (2008), • Walsham et al (2007)

Reference to Development• only 5 made an explicit attempt

to address development issues

Summary• While there have been significant calls for an increased

focus on the role of ICT’s in development, the ISR literature has responded mainly by – Describing the areas in which developmental contributions have been

effected– Warning against overly simplistic views on the link between ICT diffusion

and development;– Highlighting the complex interactions that are required to effect productivity

gains related to ICT diffusion• Most views on development continue to look at the extent of

access to ICT’s rather than their actual use• There are a few articles that draw on Sen’s Capability

Approach

Capability Approach and ISR

• Madon 2004 framework for assessing eGov project in Kerala:– Range of ICT-generated applications– What functionings are enabled– What people do with the opportunities– Barriers to achieving functionings

Development and ISR Contd

• Zheng and Walsham 2008– Commodities:

• What type of technology?• What characteristics of technology are relevant to local conditions?

– Conversion factors:• Personal factors• Social factors• Environmental factors

– Agents:• Whose capabilities are deprived

– Capabilities:• What capabilities are deprived?

– Well-being freedom– Agency freedom

4. Adapting the Framework• State

– Policy and regulatory framework– Public service delivery, such as health, education, democracy– Governance and accountability

• Market– Entrepreneurialism and economic activity/productivity– Goods– Services– Access to global markets and resources – Organisational (non-governmental organizations)

• Society– Intra-household– Intra-community

Domain Sub-domain Micro Intermediate MacroState Policy and regulatory

frameworkOS Data reporting requirements,

indicators, and standards

AgencyPublic service delivery, such as health, education, democracy

OS PAH network

Agency Voice and collective bargaining power

Governance and accountability

OS PAH network

Agency Increased confidence of roles and responsibilities

Analysis based on Jacucci, Shaw, Braa 2003

Analysis based Shaw 2008, HISP-SA Case

Domains Sub-domains   Facility Province/Region National/StateMarket

Entrepreneurialism and economic activity/productivity

OS Health Information Practitioner (HIP) as a new cadre in the health sector

Agency

Goods

OS DHIS as a tool for HISDAgency

Services

OS DHIS lists and hot-line support for HIPAgency

Access to global markets and resources

OS HISP as an International network

Agency International networks empowering employees, opportunities for study (reciprocal relationship), etc

Organisational (non-governmental organizations)

OS HISP-SA as a NGO, NPO

Agency Voice for HIP

Analysis based on Zheng and Walsham, 2008 – SA Case

Domain Sub-domains Micro State

Policy and regulatory framework OS Agency

Public service delivery, such as health, education, democracy

OS Computer provided, software available, potential to be comp lit

Agency Inability to use information, absence of culture of information use

Governance and accountability

OS Absence of regular support from superiors, district officeAgency

Market

Entrepreneurialism and economic activity/productivity

OS Agency

Goods

OS Agency

Services

OS Absence of regular support from HISPAgency Software too complicated

Access to global markets and resources

OS Agency

Organisational (non-governmental organizations)

OS Agency

Society

Intra-household

OS Agency

Intra-community

OS Social hierarchy as threat to individual performance - Information officer feels inferior in relation to prof nurses

Ability to recall individual cases with clarityAgency

Value of the framework:

• Assess progress over time• Comparative across time and space• Different view to “failure” of IS projects, or

the paradox of ongoing “unsuccessful” interventions

5. Implications for further research:

• Emergent themes:– South vs North – the framework enables local

priorities to be set, and a range of OS and agency tasks to be determined which are understood to contribute to developmental outcomes

• Longitudinal studies

Implications for further research contd

• Use of particular theories:– Complexity theory –

• non-linearity• role of self-organizing groups• Co-evolution

– Structuration theory• Use of particular methodologies:

– Critical emancipatory action research

Concluding Remarks

• The “Capability Approach” is a useful philosophical and analytical framework;

• Advantage to be gained from combining perspectives from the “development domain” with those from the ISR domain;

• Shift in thinking about ISR in DC, in particular to consider different research approaches, and the use of theory.