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ICT for Human Development

in the Developing World:The Myth and the Reality

By

Chanuka WattegamaTeam Leader, Enterprise Technology (Pvt) Ltd.

Senior Researcher, LIRNEasia

Country Representative, Asian Media and Information Centre (AMIC)

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PovertyThe Numero Unoenemy of thedeveloping

world

Half the world more than three billion people - live on lessthan two dollars a day.

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations(i.e. a quarter of the world's countries) is less than thewealth of the world's three richest people combined.

In 1960, the 20% of the world's people in the richest countrieshad 30 times the income of the poorest 20% - in 1997, 74

times as much.

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Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to reada book or sign their names.

Approximately 790 million people in the developing world arestill chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds ofwhom reside in Asia and the Pacific.

A mere 12 percent of the world's population uses 85 percent ofits water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third

World.

PovertyIts not just that poor

people earn less

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Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education (Target: Ensure

every boy and girl completes primary education)

Goal 3: Promote Gender equality (Target:Eliminate genderinequality in education)

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality (Target: Reduce child mortality

by two thirds)

MillenniumDevelopment Goals(MDGs)

Goal 1: Eradicate extremepoverty and hunger (Targets:

Halve the proportion of people whoseincome is less than US$ 1 a day; Halvethe proportion of people who sufferfrom hunger)

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Goal 7: Ensure environment sustainability (Targets:Integrateprincipals of sustainable development to country policies and reverseloss of environmental resources; Halve the proportion of peoplewithout safe drinking water; Significant improvement in the lives of100 million slum dwellers)

Goal 8: Establish a Global partnership for development

Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) contd

Goal 5: Improve maternal health(Target: Reduce the maternal mortalityratio by three quarters)

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malariaand other diseases (Target: Halt andbegin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDSand the incidence of Malaria and otherdiseases)

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A panacea for all woos?The Simputer can also be extremely useful in applications such asagriculture product marketing, contract farming, keeping track ofthe inputs, and fortracking the payments to contractors etc.Microcredit schemes find it to be an extremely effective tool, owing

to its local-language andSmartCard facilityandbuilt-incommunication capabilities. Likewise, Simputerkiosks owned bylocal educated unemployed youth in the villages could be aneffective source of income generation by providing e-mail, voice-mail, information access, tele-diagnosis, and other services to the

community members. (From an article on simputers)

Can

ICTshelp?

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or a worthless tool for the rural poor?

What the use of the computers yaar?Can computers give milk to even onepoor farmer of Andra Pradesh?Laloo Prasad Yadav (ex-Chief Minister, Bihar)

"Let IT remain the staple for academics andprofessionals. What will it mean for people in thethousands of miserable villages in this misguidednation? Please, please come out of your ivory towerand see the plight of Indian villages, sans water,sanitation and decent living. Photographs of farmers

posing with PCs and fishermen analysing computerprintouts may befit a TVad, but what are you tryingto sell?"(Extract from a letter to the editor of a leadingnewsmagazine, responding to a feature on the digital

empowerment of rural India.)

CanICTshelp?

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If you give a man a fish, you feedhim for a day; butif you teachhim how to fish, you feedhim for life.

An ancient Chinese proverb

Can

ICTshelp?

..or something in between?

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Objective: To empower farmer communities by providing themreliable and timely agriculture related information (market prices,information about fertilisers, crop varieties etc.)

Approach: A computer kiosk managed by a farmer at each village;One kiosk for 600 farmers who can use the system for the latest

price and technical information

Beneficiaries: Nearly 1 million farmers in 10,000+ villages

Benefits to community: Better prices, reliable information, Ease inselling their products

Driving Agency: ITC a private firm

ee--ChoupalChoupalIndia

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Beneficiaries: Communities in 50% of the villages in Bangladesh.140,000 Grameen village phones are already there.

Benefits to community: Means of income for phone owners,Communication facilities at the doorstep and at affordable rates

Driving Agency: Grameen Group (a Non Profit Org.)

Grameen PhoneGrameen PhoneBangladesh 2Objective: To reduce poverty by theeconomic empowerment of women in ruralBangladesh

Approach: Run a GSM network; lend moneyto rural women so that they can purchasemobile phones; Phone owners rent thephones to the rest in the community fortaking and receiving phone calls

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Objective: To provide an effective micro finance services to thecommunity by the effective use of ICT for maintaining records,collecting and monitoring

Approach: Provide loans in the range of US$ 50 - 150 to the poor

through its micro finance networkBeneficiaries: 100,000 villagers in five East African countries

Benefits to community: Fulfillment of financial needs at the villagelevel and at the correct time, better rates

Driving Agency: Pride Africa a Non Profit Org.

Pride AfricaPride AfricaEast Africa

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Objective: To build an e-marketplace for agricultural, chemical andconstruction products, enables farmers, cooperatives, and smallentrepreneurs to do online trading via their cell phones or a website

Approach: Build and maintain the on-line databases, provide access,build Internet kiosks at village levels

Beneficiaries: Thousands of small scale farmers, traders andindustrialists

Benefits to community: Better prices, a means for better income

Driving Agency: B2Bpricenow.com (with the help of govt. agencies, a

bank and a university)

B2BPricenow.comB2BPricenow.comPhilippines

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Objective: To increase the efficiency and the productivity of therural diary industry using ICTs

Approach: An electronic equipment that can weigh and analyse milkand also record the transactions, to be used at the collectioncentres

Beneficiaries: Farmers using the 600 collection centres

Benefits to community: Better prices, more income

Driving Agency: SK Electronics (pvt) A private firm

AkashgangaAkashgangaIndia

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Objective: To educate children English and ICTs at the village leveland use them to empower the farmer communities

Approach: A Computer school that complements the government

schools education programme; computers at children's housesBeneficiaries: The farmer community of the Mahavilachchiya village

Benefits to community: Better opportunities for children, Parentscan benefit by the knowledge acquired by the children

Driving Agency: Horizon Lanka A trust fund

HorizonHorizonSri Lanka

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Objective: To provide immediate relief to nearly a million ofdisplaced during the tsunami that hit the island in Dec 2004

Approach: A blog-site which was used as the window to the

international community in collecting financial aid

Beneficiaries: Nearly 1 million displaced

Benefits to community: Immediate relief to those who have lefthomeless in the disaster

Driving Agency: Sarvodaya with the help of few volunteers

Sarvodaya.orgSarvodaya.orgCountry: Sri Lanka

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The technologies themselves can do nothing. What needs most is theeffective participation of the communities (e.g. Akashganga,Sarvodaya.org)

At the rural level, ICTs are for communities, not just for

individuals (e.g. e-Choupal, Grameen phone)

It is a myth that ICTs are only for theurban rich, and not for the rural poor(e.g. All)

ICTs are not Alladins lamp (e.g.Akashganga, e-Choupal)

Lessons

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ICTs will not necessarily change the lifestyles of the ruralcommunities. Rather they will introduce new methods ofdoing the same old activities (e.g. Pride Africa, Akashganga)

It is a myth that key economic projects should be launched by thegovernment. The private sector as well as civil society organisationscan play a major role in ICT4D projects (e.g. All)

In most of the countries the problems aresame. So the solutions too cannot be toodifferent. It is worthwhile learn from eachother (B2Bpricenow.com, e-Choupal)

Lessons

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ICTs are not just tools that make money. They uplift the socioeconomic conditions of rural communities in a broader sense (e.g.Horizon, Grameen Phone)

ICT4D initiatives are far from perfect.There are still enough room for

development (e.g. Grameen phone,Pride Africa)

A strong leadership from the village is essential forthe success of any ICT4D project (e.g Horizon, e-Choupal)

Lessons

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The way forward

The three metaphors

River House Tree

Its time to

Stop depending too much on the government

Stop thinking the private sector as greedy Mudalalis

Combine the efforts of the public, private sectors andcommunity (civil society) together to get the best benefitsfrom the ICT4D projects

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Thank You!