In relation to Al Hammond's posting on 10/27/04, I think there is a need to be more upfront about where ICT has a chance of working to alleviate poverty and where it does not.
Citing examples from India (from where many of the ICT for Development examples seem to come) and South Africa begs the question of whether there is a threshold level of infrastructure (physical and human) needed to make effective use of ICT. This is a question I tackle in my paper for Ausaid entitled: "Information and Communications Technologies and Development: Help or Hindrance?" (available from the Australian Development Gateway website under ICT) - <http://www.developmentgateway.com.au/> In the paper, I cite evidence from the the Networked ICT Readiness Index based on a rating of 82 countries (in S Dutta, B Lanvin, & F. Paua, 2003, The Global Information Technology Report 2002-2003. World Economic Forum, Oxford University Press, New York). The analysis presented there shows a clear association between GDP per capita and rating on the Readiness Index. The lower the per capita income level of a country, the lower the country's networked readiness rating. A country's readiness score increases notably with small increases in a country's per capita income until it tapers off at around US$9,000 per head of population. This suggests that with increases in income per head of population for low-income countries, the capacity to use ICT will improve. India is an outlier on the correlation between GDP per capita and its Networked ICT Readiness score. It is well worth understanding why this is the case. But are the factors that make India an outlier special to India? Can other low income per capita countries replicate the Indian successes? Richard Curtain Public policy consultant www.curtain-consulting.net.au ------------ 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>
