Mobile phones and development : the future in new hands?

More and more development workers tell stories of mobile surprises - not just who is using them, and where they are using them, but also how they are using them. Through mobiles, the first digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) have reached poor households and communities. In less than a generation, the majority of poor people will have access to mobile phones and services

The impact of mobile telephony on developing country micro-enterprises: a Nigerian case study

Informational challenges-absence, uncertainty, asymmetry-shape the working of markets and commerce in many developing countries. For developing country micro-enterprises, which form the bulk of all enterprises worldwide, these challenges shape the characteristics of their supply chains. They reduce the chances that business and trade will emerge. They keep supply chains localised and intermediated. They make trade within those supply chains slow, costly, and risky. Mobile telephony may provide an opportunity to address the informational challenges and, hence, to alter the characteristics of trade within micro-enterprise supply chains. However, mobile telephony has only recently penetrated. This paper, therefore, presents one of the first case studies of the impact of mobile telephony on the numerically-dominant form of enterprise, based around a case study of the cloth-weaving sector in Nigeria. It finds that there are ways in which costs and risks are being reduced and time is saved, often by substitution of journeys. But it also finds a continuing need for journeys and physical meetings due to issues of trust, design intensity, physical inspection and exchange, and interaction complexity. As a result, there are few signs of the de-localisation or disintermediation predicted by some commentators. An economising effect of mobile phones on supply chain processes may therefore co-exist with the entrenchment of supply chain structures and a growing 'competitive divide' between those with and without access to telephony

Does the internet deserve everybody?

There has been a long standing tradition amongst developed nations of influencing, both directly and indirectly, the activities of developing economies. Behind this is one of a range of aims: building/improving living standards, bettering the social status of recipient communities, etc. In some cases, this has resulted in prosperous relations, yet often this has been seen as the exploitation of a power position or a veneer for other activities (e.g. to tap into new emerging markets). In this paper, we explore whether initiatives to improve Internet connectivity in developing regions are always ethical. We draw a list of issues that would aid in formulating Internet initiatives that are ethical, effective, and sustainable

ICT4D 2016: New Priorities for ICT4D Policy, Practice and WSIS in a Post-2015 World

In 2016, the Millennium Development Goals will be replaced by the post-2015 development agenda (PTDA). The foundational content is in place for this new agenda, which will be the single most-important force shaping the future of international development and, hence, the single most-important force shaping the future of information-and-communication-technology-for-development (ICT4D). In planning prospective ICT4D priorities, we should therefore pay close attention to the PTDA.This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the post-2015 development agenda versus the current content and future direction of ICT4D policy and practice, as exemplified by WSIS+10 documentation. These latter documents bring together nearly 1,000 pages of text that review the current state of ICT4D ten years after the foundational World Summits on the Information Society; and that seek to set out a vision of WSIS and of ICT4D beyond 2015.From this analysis, the paper identifies a set of post-2015 priorities in international development which have to date been under-emphasised within ICT4D. In all, 16 ICT4D gaps are identified for a world from 2016. These gaps, plus other key topics, are used to create a map of post-2015 ICT4D priorities; a map which will be of significant value to policy-makers, strategists and practitioners planning their future ICT4D activities.Alongside these specific topics, the paper diagnoses a set of cross-cutting issues. It recognises the need for practice to break out of the “ICT4D bubble” and engage more with the development mainstream through a reorientation of ICT4D’s scope, language and worldview. And it discusses ICT4D’s future structure, process and vision. It identifies the need to retain specialist centres of ICT4D expertise alongside mainstreaming, and the value of multi-stakeholder participation. It highlights the current absence of a compelling narrative and vision for the future of ICT4D: ICT’s transformative potential – and the possibilities of “Development 2.0” – might form one such vision. The implications of all these issues are outlined for ICT4D generally and for WSIS specifically beyond 2015

ICTs and Poverty Eradication: Comparing Economic, Livelihoods and Capabilities Models

From the MDGs to the post-2015 development agenda, poverty eradication is arguably the single most important development goal. This paper asks how information and communication technologies can contribute to that goal. ICTs – mobile phones especially – have diffused rapidly in developing countries in recent years, and now reach increasingly into the lives of the world's poor.Research assessing the poverty impacts of that diffusion has been relatively limited; in part because this change has been so recent. Research has also sometimes been constrained by its lack of conceptual foundation. The purpose of this paper is therefore to assess research evidence within a framework that conceptualises both poverty eradication and ICT application.It does this by identifying three categories of ICT application – other ICT uses, enterprise ICT use, and ICT sector use. And by identifying three perspectives on poverty eradication – economic, livelihoods, and capabilities. It suggests that moving across the categories of application may lead to deeper poverty impacts; but impacts which affect a smaller number of people. And that moving across the perspectives may provide a fuller understanding of poverty; particularly in developing the capabilities approach to understand the ladder of “roles” through which poor people can engage with ICTs.The paper ends by suggesting some implications for policy and practice

Future Priorities for Development Informatics Research from the Post-2015 Development Agenda

At the end of 2015, the Millennium Development Goals will be replaced by the post-2015 development agenda (PTDA). The foundational content is in place for this new agenda, which will be the single most-important force shaping the future of international development. In planning our priorities for development informatics research – the academic study of ICT4D policy and practice – we should therefore pay close attention to the PTDA.This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the post-2015 development agenda versus the current content of development informatics (DI) research. From this analysis, it identifies a set of post-2015 priorities in international development which have to date been under-emphasised within development informatics. In all, 16 development informatics research gaps for a post-2015 world are identified. The research agenda for each gap is described alongside the more general need for DI research to break out of the “ICT4D bubble” and engage more with the development mainstream.Those gaps, plus other key topics, are used to create a map of post-2015 development informatics research priorities; a map which will be of significant value to academic and other researchers planning their future DI activities. The paper ends by contemplating what the key narrative will be for the coming “fifth wave” of development informatics research: sustainable informatics, inclusive informatics, or Development 2.0

mGovernment Services and Adoption: Current Research and Future Direction

Part 5: Research in ProgressInternational audienceWith the unprecedented growth of mobile technologies, governments of both developed and developing countries have started adopting mobile services in the form of m-government. While the vendors and practitioners are heavily engaged in this transformation, the scholarly world is lagging to keep pace with the progress and to provide clear theoretical guidance for successful adoption. This paper takes a stock of scholarly publications on m-government adoption since the year 2000 and reports findings and future directions based on meta-analysis of secondary data. The articles were classified into research themes, delivery mode, theory and methods. The paper identifies the dearth of scholarly work and calls for more in-depth work to make important contribution in this area

eGovernment in Africa: Promise and Practice

e-Government has already arrived in Africa, though it is essentially an imported concept based on imported designs. There are growing numbers of e-government projects, some of which are contributing to public sector reform and delivering gains of efficiency and/or effectiveness across a broad agenda. However, this positive picture must be set alongside significant challenges. e-Government is only slowly diffusing within Africa because of a lack of 'e-readiness for e-government' that can be charted along six dimensions. There is widespread recognition that this challenge must be met by strategic building of national infrastructure. Where e-government projects are introduced, they mainly end in failure; either partial or total. To address this tactical challenge, stakeholders must be sensitised to the large gaps that often exist between project design and African public sector reality. These large `design - reality gaps' can be seen to underlie failure. They arise particularly because e-government concepts and designs have their origins in the West; origins that are significantly different from African realities. Some best practices are outlined that may help to close design - reality gaps and, hence, may help to improve project success rates. This will only happen, though, if they too are appropriate to African realities