ICT in poverty reduction

29.08.2006 ITU, in partnership with national carrier Bhutan Telecom Ltd (BTL), embarked on connectivity Dagana VoIP Project to expand the VoIP service to ten isolated communities in the remote province of Dagana, Bhutan.

21.08.2006 The draft national policy for farmers put on the Government website is already under debate and it broadly provided 24 policy prescriptions to ensure the livelihood security of the farmers, said M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman of the National Commission on Farmers.

21.08.2006 On the edge of the expanding wave of Internet connectivity, Punavali Kalan is located deep in the impoverished region of Bundelkhand in India. This tiny community of 3,800 inhabitants is an oasis where local information is exchanged, discussed,...

09.08.2006

ICT4D

This article discusses the link between national Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy in developing countries and the effectiveness of ICT for development (ICT4D) initiatives at a community level. This research project, currently in progress, which has the primary goal of determining determine whether, by adopting a Community Informatics (CI) approach to community based ICT4D projects, which leverages existing social capital in the communities, the sustainability of such projects can be significantly improved so that ICT4D is more inclusive in reach and its overall contribution to development is enhanced. The research has a secondary goal to develop a framework for national ICT policy which is anchored in this social paradigm as distinct from the purely techno-economic paradigm that currently prevails. This article reviews the current policy paradigm and framework as reflected in the literature, elaborates on the central research question relating to CI, social capital and sustainability, and hypothesises on what an alternative ICT policy development framework might look like.

07.08.2006 Development is a central challenge of our time. The demographic trends are crystal clear: the international balance of power, when measured in population, is undergoing a tectonic shift