Dear Al, I'm by no means saying that it is impossible (or even only un-ethical) to make profit out of selling needed (!) ICT-services to whomsoever -poor included. I do agree that there may be -or even there are already proven- win-win situations. You point out some candidates. I do however insist, that this analysis -if aimed to improve the situation of the poor- has to start with an analysis of what services are needed (or useful) to help the poor to get out of their situation -again you gave candidate examples- and not based on marketing and packaging strategies for actual service providers. And I said so.
I am aware of most of the examples in the Digital Dividend site. Yet I haven't found -may be I just missed them- evaluated examples (i.e. studies that use the instruments of standard Impact-analysis (and econometrics) like Base-Lines, Control-groups, Correlation or Factor-analysis, etc.), prove in quantifiable way the positive impact of "ICT for the Poor" projects. It's more: I posted the question for such a type of study in this list more than once -without reply- and I put forward the same question to WRI/DD, when we were discussing a joint project between WRI and the Central American Country Gateways ... with no concrete answer either. What there is ... are tales about potentials (like in your email) and tales about success-stories -expressed as acceptance or usage- yet no hard and systematic economic data. (May I add that this is a hot topic of discussion for ICT and their impact on productivity and profitability in general). That's why I'm insisting (after almost 20 years of experience in a developing country and another 14 in a Top-OECD country) to put the poor's viewpoint (and interest) first and do not accept automatics as if what sells serves because otherwise it wouldn't be bought. Yours Cornelio ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by USAID's dot-ORG Cooperative Agreement with AED, in partnership with World Resources Institute's Digital Dividend Project, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org and http://www.digitaldividend.org provide 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 Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html>
