ICT for Human Development

1
ICT for Human Development in the Developing
World The Myth and the Reality
By Chanuka Wattegama Team Leader, Enterprise
Technology (Pvt) Ltd. Senior Researcher,
LIRNEasia Country Representative, Asian Media and
Information Centre (AMIC)
2
Poverty The Numero Uno enemy of the developing
world

• Half the world more than three billion people
  - live on less than 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 the wealth of the
  world's three richest people combined.
• In 1960, the 20 of the world's people in the
  richest countries had 30 times the income of the
  poorest 20 - in 1997, 74 times as much.

3
Poverty Its not just that poor people earn less

• Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century
  unable to read a book or sign their names.
• Approximately 790 million people in the
  developing world are still chronically
  undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside
  in Asia and the Pacific.
• A mere 12 percent of the world's population
  uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12
  percent do not live in the Third World.

4
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
Goal 1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
(Targets Halve the proportion of people whose
income is less than US 1 a day Halve the
proportion of people who suffer from hunger)
Goal 2 Achieve universal primary education
(Target Ensure every boy and girl completes
primary education) Goal 3 Promote Gender
equality (TargetEliminate gender inequality in
education) Goal 4 Reduce child mortality
(Target Reduce child mortality by two thirds)
5
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) contd
Goal 5 Improve maternal health (Target Reduce
the maternal mortality ratio by three
quarters) Goal 6 Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and
other diseases (Target Halt and begin to reverse
the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidence of
Malaria and other diseases)
Goal 7 Ensure environment sustainability
(TargetsIntegrate principals of sustainable
development to country policies and reverse loss
of environmental resources Halve the proportion
of people without safe drinking water
Significant improvement in the lives of 100
million slum dwellers) Goal 8 Establish a Global
partnership for development
6
Can ICTs help?
A panacea for all woos?
The Simputer can also be extremely useful in
applications such as agriculture product
marketing, contract farming, keeping track of the
inputs, and for tracking the payments to
contractors etc. Microcredit schemes find it to
be an extremely effective tool, owing to its
local-language and SmartCard facility and
built-in communication capabilities. Likewise,
Simputer kiosks owned by local educated
unemployed youth in the villages could be an
effective 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)
7
or a worthless tool for the rural poor?
Can ICTs help?
What the use of the computers yaar? Can
computers give milk to even one poor farmer of
Andra Pradesh? Laloo Prasad Yadav (ex-Chief
Minister, Bihar)
"Let IT remain the staple for academics and
professionals. What will it mean for people in
the thousands of miserable villages in this
misguided nation? Please, please come out of your
ivory tower and see the plight of Indian
villages, sans water, sanitation and decent
living. Photographs of farmers posing with PCs
and fishermen analysing computer printouts may
befit a TV ad, but what are you trying to sell?"
(Extract from a letter to the editor of a
leading newsmagazine, responding to a feature on
the digital empowerment of rural India.)
8
Can ICTs help?
..or something in between?
If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a
day but if you teach him how to fish, you feed
him for life. An ancient Chinese proverb
9
1
e-Choupal India
Objective To empower farmer communities by
providing them reliable 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 in selling their products Driving Agency
ITC a private firm
10
Grameen Phone Bangladesh
2
Objective To reduce poverty by the economic
empowerment of women in rural Bangladesh Approach
Run a GSM network lend money to rural women so
that they can purchase mobile phones Phone
owners rent the phones to the rest in the
community for taking and receiving phone calls
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.)
11
3
Pride Africa East Africa
Objective To provide an effective micro finance
services to the community 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 network Beneficiaries 100,000 villagers
in five East African countries Benefits to
community Fulfillment of financial needs at the
village level and at the correct time, better
rates Driving Agency Pride Africa a Non Profit
Org.
12
4
B2BPricenow.com Philippines
Objective To build an e-marketplace for
agricultural, chemical and construction products,
enables farmers, cooperatives, and small
entrepreneurs 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 and industrialists 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)
13
Akashganga India
Objective To increase the efficiency and the
productivity of the rural diary industry using
ICTs Approach An electronic equipment that can
weigh and analyse milk and also record the
transactions, to be used at the collection
centres Beneficiaries Farmers using the 600
collection centres Benefits to community Better
prices, more income Driving Agency SK
Electronics (pvt) A private firm
5
14
6
Horizon Sri Lanka
Objective To educate children English and ICTs
at the village level and use them to empower the
farmer communities Approach A Computer school
that complements the government schools
education programme computers at children's
houses Beneficiaries The farmer community of
the Mahavilachchiya village Benefits to
community Better opportunities for children,
Parents can benefit by the knowledge acquired by
the children Driving Agency Horizon Lanka A
trust fund
15
7
Sarvodaya.org Country Sri Lanka
Objective To provide immediate relief to nearly
a million of displaced 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 left homeless in the disaster
Driving Agency Sarvodaya with the help of few
volunteers
16
Lessons
ICTs are not Alladins lamp (e.g. Akashganga,
e-Choupal)
It is a myth that ICTs are only for the urban
rich, and not for the rural poor (e.g. All)
At the rural level, ICTs are for communities, not
just for individuals (e.g. e-Choupal, Grameen
phone)
The technologies themselves can do nothing. What
needs most is the effective participation of the
communities (e.g. Akashganga, Sarvodaya.org)
17
Lessons
In most of the countries the problems are same.
So the solutions too cannot be too different. It
is worthwhile learn from each other
(B2Bpricenow.com, e-Choupal)
ICTs will not necessarily change the lifestyles
of the rural communities. Rather they will
introduce new methods of doing the same old
activities (e.g. Pride Africa, Akashganga)
It is a myth that key economic projects should be
launched by the government. The private sector as
well as civil society organisations can play a
major role in ICT4D projects (e.g. All)
18
Lessons
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
for the success of any ICT4D project (e.g
Horizon, e-Choupal)
ICTs are not just tools that make money. They
uplift the socio economic conditions of rural
communities in a broader sense (e.g. Horizon,
Grameen Phone)
19
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 and community (civil society) together
  to get the best benefits from the ICT4D projects

20
Thank You!