ICT for Development: Empowerment or Exploitation? Learning from the Reflect ICTs project
Hannah Beardon (2004)
This DFID-funded project is exploring potential applications of ICTs for poor and marginalised people, linking to existing Reflect groups in Uganda, Burundi and India. Reflect is an approach to adult learning and social change through which groups of people meet regularly to discuss and analyse local issues and devise action plans, using participatory techniques. The ultimate aim is to provide tools which any group, network or organisation can use to facilitate a participatory process for developing and ICT or communications strategy.
This analysis led to a planning process at community level, whereby choices and priorities were made about the use of a grant for technology and staff to be released in the second and third years.
The resulting 'communications systems' are monitored according to indicators and objectives set by the communities themselves. This participatory approach led to challenges and lessons learned in methodology:
Good communication and trust were essential in navigating the line between steering and overwhelming local creativity.
Expectations and responsibilities need to be clearly established from the beginning in order to create an environment where it is easier to express concerns and clear up misunderstandings.
In each of the three pilots, poor marginalised people have thought and spoke about the potential role of ICTs in their lives, and in each case, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. People see the value of good quality, reliable information and want to find ways to improve the documentation of their knowledge. Beyond that, generalisations are few.
The perceived effectiveness of different ICTS depends not only on infrastructure and capacity, but on ingrained communication culture and political environment. There are no universals, ‘off-the-peg’ answers, but context specific outcomes:
In Uganda where government policy is pro-ICT, the proposal includes more high tech solutions such as the internet, and depends on support and involvement of local government officials.
In India, the focus is on lobbying government and other information providers to meet pro poor needs.
In Burundi, most telecentre-type solutions are not appropriate due to insecurity, lack of infrastructure and transport problems. The resulting communication systems includes an urban telecentre and training centre for revenue making, staff training and information only, while the main focus is on a community newsletter with an existing distribution list.
In all three pilots, radio was considered a very appropriate, accessible means of accessing communication.
Furthermore, these pilots suggest that:
ICTs cannot create communication capacity. ICTs should be built into existing structures and should recognise the less formal existing communications arenas.
In the long-term, our aim should be to consider ICTs part and parcel of all development work, never an aim in themselves.
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