ICT and Rural Development What are local communities telling us

1
ICT and Rural DevelopmentWhat are local
communities telling us?

• Presentation for Digital Opportunities for All
• Magdi M. Amin
• Private Sector Development
• World Bank
• July 2002

2
ICT can clearly make an impact on Poverty
Reduction

• Access to knowledge is at the heart of poverty
  reduction
• Information can transform economic opportunity
• Access to markets, information, and services is
  positively correlated with productivity and
  income
• Exchange of information complements social
  capital
• Rich local wisdom
• Trust built on sharing knowledge
• Information is central to effective poverty
  alleviation
• Better understanding of poverty incidence
• Better targeting of interventions

3
While ICT performance strongly correlated with
income, some states clearly lead
RELATIVE ICT PERFORMANCE (2001)
10
9
Singapore
2
R
0.883
IMPLICATIONS
8
Taiwan
Korea
7

• Korea, Taiwan, Singapore are the superstars,
  clearly outperforming their Asian peers, and
  relative to their economic development
• Thailand is lagging behind even after taking into
  account its development status -- thus at a
  disadvantage vis a vis its regional competitors

EIU ICT Index
6
Philippines
5
India
Malaysia
4
3
China
2
Indonesia
1
Per Capita Income (US)
0
Note EIUs e-readiness assessment combines six
categories connectivity, business environment,
e-commerce consumer and business adoption, legal
and regulatory environment, supporting
e-services, and social and cultural
infrastructure Source EIU, DRI, Booz-Allen
Hamilton National ICT Assessment
4
Likewise, some progress in internal digital
divide varies by country
BY REGION (URBAN/RURAL)
BY AGE
BY GENDER (MALE/FEMALE)
12
4.5
10.7

• No difference by gender vis a vis other countries

4.1

• Internet usage is heavily skewed towards younger
  population groups
• However, that generally applies to countries
  that have gone through rapid development

4.0
10
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.2
3.5
8.2
1.2
1.2
8

• Thailands real challenge appears to lie in the
  difference in penetration between urban and rural
  areas

3.0
1.0
2.5
6
0.8
2.0
0.6
4
1.5
1.3
1.2
2.7
2.4
0.4
1.0
2
0.2
0.5
-
-
-
Korea
Thailand
Australia
UK
Korea
Thailand
UK
Australia
Thailand
Australia
Korea
Note Digital divide is defined by the
penetration of the highest user group over the
lowest user group quality of data on internet
usage in Thailand is poor and makes meaningful
comparisons difficult
Source NCA, Australian Statistics Bureau,
NECTEC, TNS, UK National Statistics, Booz-Allen
Hamilton
5
Hypothesis elements of rural ICT innovation
climate
6
Key Questions

• Local ownership of content
• How can underserved communities be integrated
  into defining information/ content needs?
• How can the innovation process be best supported?
• Cost and sustainability of access
• National policy mix competition, PSOs
• Community
• Tradeoffs between sustainability and public good?
• Technology tradeoffs
• Tradeoffs between media community radio,
  internet, phone?
• Interactivity / networking / computing power vs.
  cost?
• Measuring Impact

7
Hypothesis elements of rural ICT innovation
climate
INNOVATION DAY PILOT PROJECTS
TELECENTER PILOT PROJECTS
8
Community-level needs assessments
9
Innovation Day

• Innovation competition
• 68 proposals representing over 160 partnerships
• 36 finalists
• 16 winners shared 147,000 in cash, plus in-kind
  awards
• Partners Cisco, Kenan, UCOM, MWeb, McKinsey,
  LoxInfo

10
Projects have been implemented for approximately
one year
www.clinic.worldmedic.com
www.thairuralnet.org/test/
11
Innovation Day Results
12
Grants were used primarily for operating costs
(equipment, access costs)
13
Innovation Day Successful Projects
14
Innovation Day Less Successful Projects
15
Comparison - quantitative indicators
16
Characteristics of Successful Projects

• Leadership
• Energy, commitment of project sponsor
• relationship with community, ability to attract
  volunteers
• Partnership
• Successful projects averaged 14.4 partners, while
  less successful projects averaged 3.6 partners
• Scale
• Successful projects tended to be cast over a
  wider community subdistrict, province, Tambon
  or national, while the less successful projects
  tended to be focused on a village
• Funding inconclusive
• Less successful projects had smaller initial
  awards but more total funding
• Almost all projects were able to catalyze
  additional funding initially
• Learning and management, not commerce
• Many successful projects focused on training,
  local culture, and basic information
• Great desire to build human capacity, and great
  interest in learning
• Agriculture-related information not fundamentally
  more attractive than non-agricultural
• Less successful projects included e-commerce or
  research

17
Lessons of Innovative Process

• Flexibility
• Successful projects tended to refocus target
  audiences and tools during development process
• Collaboration
• Successful projects involved intensive
  collaboration between lead partner, local partner
  and community
• Many of these relationships pre-existed the
  Innovation project ICT enabled and strengthened
  these relationships
• Less successful projects involved new
  partnerships and included some clear breakdowns
  in communication and collaboration
• Simplicity
• Projects with few, well-focused tools more
  effective than ones with multiple websites
• Content not necessarily about lack of data, more
  about lack of application
• Application more a people issue than a
  technology issue

18
Lessons for Replication

• Avoid tendency to over-specify the solution
• Many national programs are rigid in design and
  tend to assume specific information needs
  (agricultural market information, rural
  e-commerce, etc.)
• Information central to wide variety of life
  circumstances and problems impossible for
  central governments or international development
  agencies to predict with accuracy
• Agriculture-related programs not the killer ap
  - projects suggest demand for off-farm activity,
  both agriculture and more mainstream skills
• Community-Driven Content Approach Works
• Aligns with clear lessons about rural development
• Tension between self-sufficiency of access with
  nature of content demand
• Policy reform in Thailand is critical
• Not only an issue of cost models were
  constrained by inability to leverage mobile
• Leadership is critical
• For Government, a question of leading, not doing
• El-Salvadors Telecentros appears on the right
  track
• Franchise model for telecenter access

19
Scaling up

• PDA, NECTEC, CODI involved in monitoring and
  evaluation
• Sustainable access
• Revenue sharing with telecom provider
• Low-cost devices Simputer, and PDA
• Output-based subsidy
• Policy reform
• Organic scaling through community knowledge
  networks
• Market-based scaling
• Low replication costs, issue of licensing to be
  considered
• Franchising
• Capacity building

20
Bank Support

• National ICT Assessment
• Booz-Allen Hamilton to prepare an assessment
  for the National E-Government Committee chaired
  by Minister Suwit. Assessment consider
  Thailands position in
• Infrastructure
• Content
• Enabling Environment
• Human Resource Capacity
• Governance
• Financial Capacity
• Support planning process for new ICT Ministry
• International best practices in managing ICT
  function
• Roles, accountability, tools, coordination,
  architecture
• E-Society a core function