A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF THE APPLICATION OF CAPABILITY APPROACH IN THE ICT4D STUDIES

The applicability of the Capability approach (CA) continue to be a lingering problem in the Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) studies. The aim of this systematic literature review (SLR) is to review the use of the CA and its application in the ICT4D studies. The study synthesized literature from Three ICT4D journals: The Information Technologies & International Development (ITID), Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC) and Information Technology for Development (ITD). We reviewed articles published between January 2004 to January 2019. The study reveals a mismatch and misalignment on the understanding of some of the concepts of the CA such as development/empowerment, especially when people and information technology are incorporated in the studies. Thus, there seems to be dearth consensual knowledge of CA when particularized to people with disability when they adopt mobile phone as a source of development and/or empowerment in the ICT4D domain. This calls for a further examination and contextualisation of the concepts of the CA in line with mobile phone use, people with disability and empowerment in the ICT4D domain

Factors influencing discretionary ICT corporate social responsibility decisions made by financial services organisations

Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) promotes the use of technology in development. Business organisations are realising that ICT solutions can be used to solve certain developmental issues and businesses are deciding to invest into these kinds of technology solutions as part of its Corporate social responsibility (CSR). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this intersection of these two concepts (ICT4D and CSR) by identifying the factors that influence ICT4D CSR decisions made by South African financial services organisations. This evaluation is performed by interviewing representatives of financial services organisations that participate in CSR projects as well as by analysing corporate websites and documentation on these organisations’ CSR strategy and activities to identify major factors that influence ICT CSR decisions. These factors when grouped into categories highlight that businesses are searching for the projects that align with the business organisation’s corporate strategy, projects that make use of solutions that the business consider the most appropriate and projects where businesses can partner with the correct partner. This research paper proposes a new theoretical framework that combines elements of the Strategic IT decision making (SITDM) model with the Technological organisational and environmental (TOE) model with which to identify the factors that influence ICT CSR projects

ICT4D Research – Literature Review and Conflict Perspective

ICTs can positively influence development outcomes. However, ICT4D projects have achieved limited success in achieving their development objectives. In this study, we conduct a literature review of ICT4D studies conducted over the period 2006 - 2016. We find that theory linking ICT use and development impact is lacking, and that mobile devices might offer high positive impact possibilities than personal computers. We also find that studies characterize development in different ways: 1) development as expanded digital inclusion, 2) development as increased economic productivity, 3) development as expanded freedom, and 4) development as increased well-being. Across these development perspectives, however, conflict among stakeholders impacts development outcomes. By examining the literature under the lens of postcolonial theory, we find that power asymmetry among stakeholders might increase the resource dependency of beneficiary communities on donors, and might lead to the former resisting further ICT interventions

A Capability Maturity Model to assess Government ICT4D Policy

The efforts of a Government to provide ICTs in a developing country are mostly well intended but not always successful. To establish why this happens can be a complex process. Influencing government initiatives are a variety of inhibitors, enablers and influences ranging from the diversity of stakeholders and their cultures and history, to skill levels, existing infrastructure, economic conditions, access, prejudice and politics, and language. All these factors need to be understood and managed before current or future initiatives can hope to be successful. To this end, the purpose of this paper was to develop a Capability Maturity Model for use as a conceptual framework to advance the understanding of researchers and practitioners of Governmental ICT4D policy, and the implementation of that policy. This paper sets up a theoretical model with four levels of maturity, each level consisting of five dimensions. Each of the five dimensions are then discussed and, finally, the use and contribution of the model is outlined

Impact of ICT usage on indigenous peoples’ quality of life: Evidence from an Asian developing country

Indigenous communities across the world have been suffering disadvantages in several domains, e.g. erosion of land rights, language and other cultural aspects, while at the same time being discriminated against when prepared to integrate into the dominant cultures. It has been argued in the literature that information communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential of contributing to addressing some of these disadvantages – both in terms of rebuilding what has been eroded and facilitating integration into non-Indigenous societies. In trying to understand how ICTs can be useful for these processes, it is important to do so from a conceptual framework that encompasses the multi-dimensionality of the issues faced by Indigenous communities. The conceptual frameworks frequently used in the ICT literature tend to focus on adoption, use and diffusion of technologies rather than how the use of ICTs affects the livelihoods of the users, which is the focus of this paper. The conceptual framework is informed by the capability approach (CA), in particular by the five freedoms identified in the seminal work of Amartya Sen (2001), “Development as Freedom” (DaF). Data were collected from a purposive sample in an Indigenous community in Bangladesh, using a qualitative method to map how ICTs had affected the lives of these community members The findings suggest that the participants perceived that ICTs had made positive contributions, particularly the benefits they gained from learning how to use computers in the domains that are relevant from the perspective of the five freedoms espoused in DaF. The findings reported in this paper are useful for policy formulation in Bangladesh. As the study is contextualised in a transitional economy setting and can therefore not be generalised, but we believe that the conceptual framework has much to offer future research designed to understand how ICTs can improve the livelihoods of Indigenous individuals and communities

Can mobile health training meet the challenge of ‘measuring better’?

Abstract: Mobile learning has seen a large uptake in use in low- and middleincome countries. This is driven by rhetorics of easy scaling, reaching the hard-to-reach and the potential for generating analytics from the applications used by learners. Healthcare training has seen a proliferation of apps aimed at improving accountability through tracking and measuring workplace learning. A view of the mobile phone as an agent of change is thus linked with a technocentric approach to measurement. Metrics, initially created as proxies for what gets done by health workers, are now shaping the practices they were intended to describe. In this paper, we show how, despite some valiant efforts, ‘measuring better’ remains difficult to achieve due to entrenched views of what measurement consists of. We analyse a mobile health (mHealth) classification framework, drawing out some implications of how it has been used in training health workers. These lead us to recommend moving away from a view of mobile learning linked tightly to accountability and numbers. We suggest a focus on an alternative future, where ‘measuring better’ is promoted as part of sociocultural views of learning and linked with a social justice conceptualisation of development

The place of technology in the Capability Approach

Increasing scholarly attention has focussed on how to integrate technology within the Capability Approach (CA), yet without a consistent solution. Some describe technology as a special kind of capability input, but others consider the concept of technology to be fundamentally different from that of an ordinary input. We aim to contribute to the theoretical development of the CA by offering a consistent justification for the explicit inclusion of technology in this framework. We propose that technical objects have a ‘generative’ and a ‘transformative’ dimension through which they enable capabilities directly and affect other inputs in the attainment of valued capabilities. The objects acquire the transformative dimension from the broader technological context, which we propose as a new class of conversion factors. Using the example of mobile phones and their role in healthcare access, we demonstrate that our proposal helps to frame the analysis of the development impact of technology

The Impact of ICT Projects on Developing Economies: The Case of People with Physical Disabilities in Nigeria

This study investigates the use of computers by People with Disabilities (PWDs) and whether it improves capability and human development in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on a case study’s findings and interviews with PWDs, we build on the Technology-Augment Capability Approach to show how computers as technical objects and caregivers as non-technical objects facilitate four key capabilities for PWDs, namely (1) Capability to education, (2) Capability to socio-economic activities, (3) Capability to social relations, (4) Informational capabilities and capability to employment. However, PWDs’ ability to convert the use of computers into capabilities is influenced by conversion factors, such as personal, social, environmental, technological, choice, and agency. Furthermore, our findings show also that there are enabling factors, such as accessibility, technological know-how, computer features, and Internet connectivity which facilitate PWDs’ achieved functionings

Increasing the quality and quantity of tertiary-level information systems students : a graduate development framework

This article forms part of research-in-progress aimed toward creating a comprehensive graduate development framework that will assist Information Systems (IS) departments in increasing the quality and quantity of their enrollments and graduates. In this article, we present the IS Graduate Development Framework (ISGDF). This framework combines concepts from four related fields of IS study into a single framework for identifying the graduate development potential of IS institutions, courses, and development projects. These four fields of study are: (i) Information and Communication Technology for Development, (ii) economic labor market theory that relates to IS labor, (iii) a study of IS education concepts and course structures, and (iv) a study of IS labor within the creative industries. We present the ISGDF based on literature from these fields of study and show how this framework can be applied by means of a comprehensive case study example. The case study gives a detailed account of how the framework was used to identify, and improve, the graduate development potential of an IS graduate development project. Findings from the case study include several areas for possible improvement of IS curricula to increase the graduate development potential of IS departments. Although the case study was conducted in a South African context, we suggest that the ISGDF, and case study findings report in this article, can be useful for informing IS departments toward increasing graduate quality and quantity in their own contexts.The National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa and the Department of Communication,via the e-Skills Institute.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/titd202016-08-30hb201

Designing a more effective way to surface the information needs of people in developing communities

This paper is a reflection on the research design of an information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) research project using design science research (DSR) in the pragmatic tradition. The artefact created and evaluated during the study is the Community Shaping Solutions Framework (CSSF) in response to the problem that this study addresses: how should the information needs that are meaningful to women working as domestic workers, be effectively translated through the use of ICT in order to enhance their experience of the good life as defined by Sen’s (1999) capability approach and to contribute to the success and social value of ICT4D projects. The study is conducted in Pretoria and Johannesburg, South Africa. A group of women from the domestic cleaning sector represents a developing community in an urban setting and is selected using snowball sampling to participate in the study. Six organisations that have an interest in interacting with developing communities were selected using purposive sampling and participated in the study to provide a perspective on information inclusivity. The study has three phases starting with the group of women using journals to self-document their interactions with information, followed by a design thinking workshop with the women and ending with the organisational interviews. The CSSF contributes to knowledge as a theory of design and action. The novelty of the CSSF is the combination of DSR with ICT4D, the use of journals as a self-documentation technique to collect data, followed by a design thinking workshop and interviews. The effectiveness of the CSSF and utility to the community of users are demonstrated through the participatory approach to facilitate the community to shape solutions that they value and the empowerment experienced through both the activities as well as the impact of the solution as an expansion of choice.http://www.ejisdc.org/ojs2/index.php/ejisdcam2017Informatic