841 research outputs found

    How ICT4D Research Fails the Poor

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    Research can improve development policies and practices and funders increasingly require evidence of such socioeconomic impact from their investments. This article questions whether information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) research conforms to the requirements for achieving socioeconomic impact. We report on a literature review of the impact of research in international development and a survey of ICT4D researchers who assessed the extent to which they follow practices for achieving socioeconomic impact. The findings suggest that while ICT4D researchers are interested in influencing both practice and policy, they are less inclined toward the activities that would make this happen, especially engaging with users of their research and communicating their findings to a wider audience. Their institutions do not provide incentives for researchers to adopt these practices. ICT4D researchers and their institutions should engage more closely with the users of their research through more and better communications with the public, especially through the use of information and communication technologies

    The Revolution of Mobile Phone-Enabled Services for Agricultural Development (m-Agri Services) in Africa: The Challenges for Sustainability

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    The provision of information through mobile phone-enabled agricultural information services (m-Agri services) has the potential to revolutionise agriculture and significantly improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in Africa. Globally, the benefits of m-Agri services include facilitating farmers’ access to financial services and sourcing agricultural information about input use, practices, and market prices. There are very few published literature sources that focus on the potential benefits of m-Agri services in Africa and none of which explore their sustainability. This study, therefore, explores the evolution, provision, and sustainability of these m-Agri services in Africa. An overview of the current landscape of m-Agri services in Africa is provided and this illustrates how varied these services are in design, content, and quality. Key findings from the exploratory literature review reveal that services are highly likely to fail to achieve their intended purpose or be abandoned when implementers ignore the literacy, skills, culture, and demands of the target users. This study recommends that, to enhance the sustainability of m-Agri services, the implementers need to design the services with the users involved, carefully analyse, and understand the target environment, and design for scale and a long-term purpose. While privacy and security of users need to be ensured, the reuse or improvement of existing initiatives should be explored, and projects need to be data-driven and maintained as open source. Thus, the study concludes that policymakers can support the long-term benefit of m-Agri services by ensuring favourable policies for both users and implementers

    Are we making a Better World with Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) Research? Findings from the Field and Theory Building

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    As Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) continue to penetrate people’s lives the world over, there is a sense that understanding the role of ICTs in the context of development needs to be conceptualized theoretically while making empirical contributions that add to what we know (Avgerou, 2008; Davison, 2012; Sein and Harindranath, 2004; Sahay and Walsham, 1995). Other scholars have pointed to the importance of this research for the field of Information Systems (ISs) in offering broader contributions. Avgerou (2008) suggests that in the era of globalization such research offers contributions in ISs beyond “organizational organizational and national boundaries and support global economic and political activities” (p. 134). If the concept of development can be used to conduct research and offer contributions that lead to improvements in people’s lives globally, then it follows that we should be, at some level, making a better world. The purpose of this editorial is to understand the challenges faced by scholars hoping to make contributions to this field and explore the ways in which they may continue to create a better world

    InfoInternet for Education in the Global South: A Study of Applications Enabled by Free Information-only Internet Access in Technologically Disadvantaged Areas (authors' version)

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    This paper summarises our work on studying educational applications enabled by the introduction of a new information layer called InfoInternet. This is an initiative to facilitate affordable access to internet based information in communities with network scarcity or economic problems from the Global South. InfoInternet develops both networking solutions as well as business and social models, together with actors like mobile operators and government organisations. In this paper we identify and describe characteristics of educational applications, their specific users, and learning environment. We are interested in applications that make the adoption of Internet faster, cheaper, and wider in such communities. When developing new applications (or adopting existing ones) for such constrained environments, this work acts as initial guidelines prior to field studies.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, under review for a journal since March 201

    Towards a Conceptual Framework for Social Wellbeing through Inclusive Frugal ICT innovation in Postcolonial Collectivist contexts

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    Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) researchers regard ICT innovation as critical to the social wellbeing of the marginalized in developing countries. However, an understanding of how various political, economic and socio-cultural contexts enable or constrain the influence of inclusive frugal ICT innovation on the marginalized in developing countries remains inadequate. Inclusive frugal ICT innovation refers to increasingly popular approach of creating goods and services using ICTs under constraints specifically to enhance the wellbeing of marginalized millions in developing countries. While Sen’s capability approach (SCA) is widely praised for its human centric view of wellbeing, it has been criticized for being individualistic as well as over-optimistic about human wellbeing in the context of disempowering sociopolitical contexts. This research proposes a conceptual framework that provides a holistic perspective of collective social wellbeing based on the pan-African concept of Ubuntu (shared interdependence). This framework makes use of the philosophical perspective of critical social research to better explain the interrelationship between inclusive ICT innovation aimed at empowering the marginalized through inclusion and the context and social wellbeing, particularly the pervasive postcolonial context

    Advancing ICT4D Research through Service-dominant Logic

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    The information systems (IS) discipline has not accorded the same attention to theory testing as it has to theory building. Further, crowdsourcing presents rich opportunities for the theory testing process that have not been fully explored. This paper builds on previous work, employing a design science research (DSR) paradigm in order to develop a decision support system artefact that will help early career researchers identify viable theory testing approaches, and how crowdsourcing can help facilitate the testing process. As part of the DSR build/evaluate cycle, this paper presents a conceptual framework and model of theory testing in IS, and the problem frame in which they are situated is evaluated using Scho_n’s theory of reflective practice and problem/solution framing. Data collected from PhD students revealed an incomplete level of knowledge of theory testing, and a lack of awareness of the possibilities provided by adopting a crowdsourcing strategy

    Subaltern studies: Advancing critical theory in ICT4D

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    Critical research has been advocated as capable to uncover multiple contradictions in ICT-induced development processes. This paper explores the potential of subaltern studies to contribute to the generation of critical theory in ICT4D. Following the postcolonial thought of Partha Chatterjee, the paper proposes a vision of subalternity centred on technologies of rule that concur to devoicing the marginalised. The theory is used to examine the computerisation of a large Indian social protection scheme, illustrating how processes of digitalisation, formally aimed at the empowerment of recipients, actually resulted in the systematic crystallisation of alienating power structures in the programme. This resulted in the further devoicing of the wageseekers that the scheme should have empowered, casting doubt on the image of a pro-poor “digital India” represented in mainstream narratives. Used as analytical framework, subalternity theory makes it possible to represent the views of the devoiced and marginalised, hence contributing to enacting the emancipatory purpose of critical theory in ICT4D
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