Information Economy Report 2006: The development perspective
UNCTAD Secretariat (2006)
Chapter three of this report looks at the latest thinking and practices regarding the use of ICTs for poverty reduction, focusing particularly on ICT policies and programmes targeted at the poor. It aims at informing policymakers about best practices and providing recommendations for institutional development in order to further ICTs for poverty reduction.
The leading questions are:
What does the term “pro-poor ICTs” mean?
Which are the best-practice pro-poor ICT policies and interventions?
Which framework can be used to assess whether a given ICT intervention is pro-poor?
Which institutional handicaps are hindering the use of ICTs for poverty alleviation?
How can international organizations, national Governments and civil society further support pro-poor ICTs?
A framework is offered to examine the poverty alleviation focus of a given ICT strategy or policy. The framework includes 12 Cs and is applied to two case studies for elaboration. The Cs include: Connectivity, Content, Community, Commerce, Capacity, Culture, Cooperation, and Capital; Context, Control, and Coherence.
The advantages of this framework are the following:
it can be used at different levels, for specific context and target poor communities
if forces people to think about issues relevant to the poor, and not about functional ones, such as the legal framework and the budget, and takes into account ICTs’ crosscutting nature
it highlights linkages between different levels of action – macro, meso and micro.
it draws attention to assumptions, conflicts and visions.
Key recommendations to make a difference with regard to using ICTs for poverty alleviation include:
Focus on ICTs for poverty reduction. Design and implement sound policies, adopt and adapt best practices, and support approaches, including participation and decentralization, that enable the poor to be heard and participate actively. Mainstream ICTs effectively into national and sectoral poverty reduction policies and programmes, while being aware of the crosscutting nature of pro-poor ICTs.
Mainstream ICTs also into development assistance programmes. Donors should also consider the importance of funding ICT infrastructure and other infrastructure favouring poor communities, particularly in least developed countries.
Understand the poverty implications and gendered nature of ICT policies and programmes. Carry out poverty and gender analysis of ICT policies and undertake country reviews of ICT4P policies and programmes across sectors and issues areas.
Promote the scaling up of successful programmes by providing an enabling environment and encouraging the development of pro-poor ICT networks. Support local governments and sectoral agencies adopting pro-poor ICT policies and practices, including through fostering awareness of ICT and poverty issues. Promote the development of organizational capacities that help organizations work with other stakeholders in partnership. Support learning approaches by providing programmes with long-term support and by the needs of the poor.
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