Connecting the first mile – Investigating best practice for ICTs and information sharing for development
Talyarkhan,S (2005)
This study aims to develop a framework for best practice in ICT projects for knowledge sharing in development. It begins with a discussion of the role of ICTs in development and a review of literature about connecting the ‘first mile’. It suggests that authors are polarised around key debates:
Top down versus participatory solutions to development problems
Global versus local solutions
Technological versus social solutions
Optimism versus pessimism about the role of ICTs in development
The study situates ITDG’s perspective in the context of those debates and identifies the success factors highlighted in the literature. These can be divided into three dimensions:
the environment
the project level
and the first mile.
For each of the success factors, the framework outlines activities that constitute best practice.
Significant factors to address at the environmental level are the policy environment, infrastructure limitations, building a good relationship with donors and communicating project progress.
At the project level, success factors are identified as: starting from communities’ development priorities; planning projects effectively; learning from monitoring and evaluation; forging strong partnerships; developing a sustainable business model and building capacity among all partners to deliver.
At the ‘first mile’ success factors are: building on existing knowledge systems; creating appropriate materials; using appropriate technologies to reach communities; working with infomediaries; building capacity of infomediaries and target groups; facilitating local content creation; making local knowledge visible; minimising social exclusion and strengthening social capital.
From this study however, it is clear that the success of many projects is ‘situated success’ in the sense that the project has worked due to a particular combination of factors such as a strong local champion, good timing or a conducive political environment. This means that it is difficult to isolate best practice or indeed to generalize much from reported project experience.
This framework aimed to offer practitioners a way of critically examining their ICT projects to ensure that they are adopting best practice and putting the needs of people living in poverty first.
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