Yacine Khelladi wrote: > I believe all projects should be started like this from the needs, and > build a sustainable capacity to manage ICT integration/appropriation. > Whatever technology is used or available. And IMHO yes, every project, > ICT4D project, is somehow unique, not necessarily scalable, as ICT is > just one element in the complex "development process" equation.
I'm writing a paper on e-readiness assessments and the Millennium Development Goals. A conclusion I've reached is that access to technology is not the point. It's exactly as Yacine says - ICT is only an [albeit powerful and potentially very useful] element of development initiatives. The problem is poverty, and the digital divide is just another manifestation of existing inequalities and injustices. I do think that access to ICT is important for equality and empowerment, and that becoming part of the Information society broadens options and opportunities, but access is not enough. ICT for Development initiatives need to strive towards enabling "Real Access" (see www.bridges.org), with a specific goal that this access is going to achieve. Instead of measuring e-readiness (how ready a country/community is to gain the benefits offered by ICT in terms of policy, infrastructure and ground level initiatives), we rather need to consider the application of ICT for concrete goals. While those offered by the Millennium Development Goals are only proxies for the complex and multi-faceted phenomenon of poverty, they are at least concrete goals to which our leaders have committed. Mainstreaming ICT through inclusion in national strategies such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers is, I believe, far more useful than thinking only about ICT integration without a specific context. Joy Olivier Policy Associate Phone +27 21 465 9313 Fax +27 21 465 5917 email [EMAIL PROTECTED] South Africa: P O Box 715, Cape Town 8000 South Africa United States: P O Box 53099, Washington, DC 20009-9099 http://www.bridges.org ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
