This article presents the main findings from a meta-review study of 15 agricultural development projects that employed a diversity of information and communications technology (ICT) tools in combination with other interventions to scale up innovations in low-income smallholder agriculture, predominately in sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, the study finds that interactive ICT tools and platforms are valuable in their capacity to improve the quality of agricultural extension and climate information services and, as such, can help smallholder farmers better manage predicted risks on the farm and elsewhere in the agriculture sector. The scope of impact in most of these projects, however, was largely premised on the numbers of beneficiaries reached (e.g., with information pertaining to an innovation). The efficacy of scaled-up results to achieve positive, long-lasting livelihood impacts in smallholder agriculture is more complex, and often requires effecting systemwide change on multiple dimensions, e.g., in societal values, institutional arrangements, market relations, and policy decision making. The scaling process here requires long-term attention, even if the impacts are not immediately apparent.
This study explores how access to the mobile phone affects the lives of female live-out (as opposed to live-in) domestic workers in Delhi, India. Through interviews with 102 workers, we find that the mobile phone enhances their agency in determining their daily schedule, the amount of work they take on, and the public spaces they can safely occupy. It also engenders certain communication obligations at home and work, reinforcing the inequalities they face due to their marginalized position at the intersection of gender and social class. We draw upon contextually sensitive conceptualizations of agency to explain this phenomenon. In doing so, we argue that the device enhances the women's capacity to act within the context of the social, cultural, and economic forces within which they are embedded. Further, we discuss the relationship between different types of access to technology and such conceptualizations of agency, highlighting its dynamic and complex nature. Thus, we move beyond dichotomies such as empowerment/disempowerment and access/no access to make a nuanced contribution to the literature on gender, mobile communication, and development.
Financial inclusion spurs economic development, and digital mobile devices are considered an efficient tool for incorporating an unbanked population into the financial market. Despite this, close to 2 billion adults worldwide remain unbanked, as business models of digital financial services for the bottom of the pyramid have not proliferated. This article argues that the state may play a crucial role: acting as a catalyst to advance financial inclusion of the poor. We analyze how a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program may be an effective platform to achieve this. We offer evidence and analyze a pilot project through which beneficiaries of the CCT program in Mexico (Prospera) were migrated from a system of cash transfers to the use of digital transfers. The results show that a digital transfer platform may indeed be effective if governments integrate diverse public entities into the mobile money ecosystem and if they promote market competition in service delivery.
Interest in the role and contribution of ICT development, e-government development, and the quality of a nation's institutions on economic development is profound. While extant research shows that the impact of institutions on national development is different across countries generally, the literature overlooks the role institutional quality plays in either the ICT development-economic development or the e-government-economic development nexuses. Relying on publicly available archival data, this study explores the mediating relationship of institutional quality by using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Our results show a significant relationship between ICT development and e-government development; e-government development and institutional quality, e-government development and economic development; and institutional quality on economic development. Also, the contribution of ICT development to economic prosperity can further be strengthened indirectly via the impacts of institutional quality. This study contributes to the theoretical discourse on the impact of ICT development and e-government development on economic development and the mediating effects of institutional quality. It offers implications for practice and policy.
Collective behaviors such as sharing a mobile phone or receiving assistance with a social media account play a significant role in information and communication technology (ICT) access and use, particularly in low-resource environments. Yet to date, few studies provide quantitative comparisons of these behaviors. We establish common ground for such a comparison by viewing collective behaviors as exchanges, using a framework combining social exchange and transaction cost theories. Our research compares sharing and assistance primarily through secondary analyses of survey data collected from Syrian refugees in Jordan. Our results demonstrate the role of both relational dimensions and asset characteristics in explaining collective behaviors. Importantly, we provide quantitative evidence of differences in the effects of sharing and in assistance for men and women. Further, our findings suggest collective behaviors are important for extending women's access and use. We conclude that the exchange perspective provides a helpful framework for deepening our understanding of collective behaviors.
To identify impact evaluations on the effectiveness of ICTD interventions, we conducted a systematic search and screening that identiaed 253 studies. We present our results in an evidence map that shows the amount of evidence for each of 11 intervention categories across nine development sectors. We and large amounts of evidence for some intervention categories and little to no evidence in others. Roughly 80% of the ICTD impact evaluations use randomized assignment, suggesting a relatively low risk of bias across the evidence base. At the same time, roughly 80% evaluate pilot implementations instead of programs, raising questions about how useful the evidence is for informing programs at scale. Less than 20% of studies report costs, limiting our ability to assess cost effectiveness. We make four recommendations to improve the evidence base.
Through an empirical analysis of Amplify, a crowdsourcing platform funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), we examine the potential of ICTs to afford more participatory development. In particular, interactive Web 2.0 technologies are often assumed to enable participation by marginalized groups in their own development by allowing them to modify content and generate communication. We use the concepts of platform politics and voice to show that while Amplify managers and designers invested time and resources to include the voices of Amplify beneficiaries on the platform and elicit their feedback on projects supported via the platform, no meaningful participation took place. Our analysis of the gaps among participatory rhetoric policy, and practice concludes with suggestions for how ICTs could be harnessed to contribute to meaningful participatory development that matters materially and politically.
It is generally recognized that information and communication technologies (ICTs) have radically changed how modern business is conducted, benefiting firm performances through several channels such as increasing the efficiency of internal processes, expanding market reach, or increasing innovation. However; most related literature refers to developed countries, and evidence for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is scarce and fragmented. Our article contributes to filling this gap by identifying the drivers of ICT diffusion in LAC firms. We find evidence of the presence of both epidemic and rank effects, where larger, older, skill-intensive, and exporter and urban firms are more likely to adopt ICTs. However, once adopted, size and location lose importance. The availability of novel empirical evidence specific to the LAC region offers useful insights to policymakers for the design and implementation of initiatives aimed at fostering productivity by increasing ICT adoption and intensive use.
Human-centered design (HCD) is a creative approach to technology design that prioritizes users' needs in the design process. It is characterized by three phases: understanding, ideation, and evaluation. Enthusiasm for using HCD persists among ICTD (information and communication technologies for development) researchers; funding agencies continue to support efforts to use the approach in development projects. However, published studies documenting each phase of the approach are few. Here, we present one such case study that documents our use of HCD to understand farmers' hand tools in Kenya and to explore their ideas for new tools-designed to make weeding easier. We also present an evaluation of three redesigned tools, which were manufactured by jua kali (local metal workers). Our findings suggest that HCD resulted in improved tools. These findings motivate a discussion that elaborates on using HCD in ICTD. We suggest that the most significant impacts of HCD may come from using the approach to understand diverse local conditions as they relate to design, and from jua kali integrating the approach into their design practices. Finally, we consider how HCD supports (and challenges) conducting ethical research.
This study investigated how skills development training can empower rural youth to improve their socioeconomic status. An online questionnaire (n = 41) and semistructured interviews (n = 10) were conducted with graduates who joined a six-month information and communication technology (ICT) training program in Sarawak, Malaysia. The online survey discovered that the trained youth were likely to use the Internet to participate in socioeconomic activities such as information searching, communication, and e-commerce. Additionally, those who used computers and the Internet frequently were found more likely to be engaged in higher-paying occupations and industries than non-users (p < 0.05). The interviews revealed that the trained youth were empowered with knowledge and skills to move into the labor market and to provide ICT-related services to their communities. The overall findings suggest that skills development training helps facilitate the adoption and use of technologies by rural youth and improves their ability to serve their rural communities.
Despite being community-based and well planned, some ICTD interventions fall short of expectations. The present analysis seeks to advance the understanding of the effectiveness of the ICTD initiative by exploring some of the reasons for failure. In this article three such case studies were identified and issues with their outcomes analyzed. Each project enjoyed some successes, but also suffered from some anomalous outcomes. A common characteristic of the projects is that the people who executed the program were not included in the program design. The goal of this article is to advance the debate about the effectiveness of ICTD initiatives and dispute the notion that communitybased interventions carried out in conjunction with local partners assure success. The main lesson is that even a nearly imperceptible deviation from the full inclusion of all relevant parties in every aspect of the project can result in large deviations from the expected outcomes.
To identify impact evaluations on the effectiveness of ICTD interventions, we conducted a systematic search and screening that identified 253 studies. We present our results in an evidence map that shows the amount of evidence for each of 11 intervention categories across nine development sectors. We find large amounts of evidence for some intervention categories and little to no evidence in others. Roughly 80% of the ICTD impact evaluations use randomized assignment suggesting a relatively low risk of bias across the evidence base. At the same time, roughly 80% evaluate pilot implementations instead of programs, raising questions about how useful the evidence is for informing programs at scale. Less than 20% of studies report costs, limiting our ability to assess cost effectiveness. We make four recommendations to improve the evidence base.
Mobile phones have been the most rapidly adopted of all information and communication technologies. Understanding the impact of this technology on economic and productive outcomes in rural areas is of value to governments, international organizations, private companies, and nongovernmental entities. This article presents a comprehensive analysis of their impact from a systematic review of the economic impact of mobile-phone interventions in improving economic, social, and productive outcomes in rural areas in low- and lower-middle-income countries for the period 2000–2014. The evidence of the impact on economic and productive outcomes in rural areas was strongest with regard to infrastructure interventions, wherein mobile network coverage reaches a population that previously lacked connectivity. Studies of access-device interventions, wherein mobile phones or SIM cards are bought by the user or are provided by a third party, and studies of content and application interventions did not yield conclusive findings.
We define community mobilization as offline activities typically required in ICTD initiatives to train users and drive adoption for the sustained use of ICTs within the community. Community mobilization forms an important but under-discussed component of ICTD initiatives. In this article, we present a case study of a voice-based community media platform in rural central India and the experiments it has undergone with multiple community mobilization strategies over a period of five years. We analyze different phases of community mobilization and draw insights related to how technology platforms can be appropriated by specific actors to drive their own agendas, how organizational control can be imposed to prevent undesirable appropriation, yet give communities the flexibility to use the platform according to their needs, and how group structures and hybrid financial-social incentives can be created to build sustainable networks that can be replicated and scaled in a standardized manner. We use the Actor-Network Theory, along with Olson’s Theory of Groups and Incentives to explain our observations. Our methods can be generalized and applied by other ICTD initiatives to evaluate their own community mobilization strategies.
ICT for education heralded much promise for improving learning outcomes, but results have not lived up to expectations. To understand why, researchers are increasingly exploring the factors that affect teachers’ acceptance and use of ICT in the classroom. This study adopts the systematic review approach used in clinical research to systematically search, screen, assess, and synthesize the literature on ICT use in classrooms and determine effect sizes, if any, of factors affecting teachers’ acceptance and use of ICT. We find that teachers’ perceptions about the usefulness of a particular technology are twice as important as their perceptions of the technology’s ease of use. We also find that two particular facilitating conditions—the provision of one laptop per child and on-site coaches—increased the use of technology by teachers by effect sizes ranging from 0.48 to 1.31.
My ethnographic research in the urban peripheries of New Delhi critically examines a popular, ICT-led skills training initiative for marginalized youth. Contemporary policy discourses in India emphasize the urgency for "training" versus "education" to prepare an efficient workforce trained for India's emerging, global economy. I argue that marginalized youth form critical subjects of these ICTD projects. Contrary to the aims of the training initiatives, participants continue to prioritize and press for an education. Their claim is an assertion of equality with more privileged individuals based on their experiences of a lack of access to familial, institutional, and linguistic privileges. I demonstrate that students' narratives disrupt the policy emphasis on consumption and hygiene, and point to deeper structural inequities in their lives. My research highlights the contradictions of ICTD programs and the limitations of the promise of inclusion for marginalized youth in the global economy.
End-user engagement is considered essential when designing new sociotechnical systems, but in the context of designing large-scale infrastructural systems such as communications networks, this ideal is rarely put into practice. We examine the challenges of engaging end users in the design of communications services by exploring how communities from 15 villages in the rural Congo incorporate mobile phones into their daily lives. To analyze the changes in social and cultural capital that result from mobile phone use, we apply Bourdieu's capital theory. This analysis exposes the difference in perceived value of the communication services between end users and the business owners of the infrastructure. The article concludes by suggesting new forms of partnership with end users to craft ways in which infrastructures and related organizations and practices can best cohere with local cultural views, specics, beliefs, needs, or realities of concerned participants.
This article presents a portrait of how the owners of two informal microenterprises in a poor urban neighborhood integrate several digital devices into their businesses. We explore how they learned to use diverse technologies, transformed their production processes, and developed new products and services. We contend that while ICTs did not lead to expansion for the businesses, ICTs were vital to staying in business.
Much research and practice on gender and digital technologies focus on the potential of ICTs to empower women positively. However, ICTs also have negative impacts on women as well as men. This article explores such implications in the context of mobile device use in Pakistan. While digital harassment is commonplace globally, its extent in Pakistan is interesting because of the country’s strong normative values and the complexity of the intersection of patriarchy, religion, and culture. We report on an online survey that examines the inouence of personal characteristics on perceptions and experiences of sexual harassment through mobile devices. We conclude that some conventional stereotypes may be misleading.
This systematic review examines whether access to business-relevant information through networked devices enhances internal efficiency and business growth of urban micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in low- and middle-income countries. Starting from 24,000-plus records, rigorous screening yielded a set of 10 research articles from which data were extracted and a meta-analysis conducted. All were observational studies; none used an experimental or quasi-experimental design. Only five reported a probability sampling method, and the sample size ranged from 100-3,691. Except one, all had used self-reported data about ICT use. The review found: The numbers of business calls increase with the longer use of the mobile phones; ICT use and possession predict labor productivity; network devices improve operational support, strategic development, process improvement, and operational performance. Also, after the purchase of mobile phones, the number of customers increases. Higher ICT expenditure results in increased turnover. Profits increase with the use of mobile money. The quantitative meta-analysis shows that the impact on business growth and internal efficiency is statistically small. The research field lacks rigorous causal studies that link ICTs and MSME growth.
