ICTs and THE MARGINALIZED

In one of my classes I visited the infamous Bill gates statement “medicines and not computers are of use to the world’s poorest people,” and also the controversial question ‘bread or computers for the poor?’ I asked my students those questions; most of them felt that the poor need the basic necessities like food, clothing and shelter more than they need the computers (ICTs) which they termed as a luxury.

To help us understand the importance of ICTs for development, let us have a brief look at the key dimensions of ICT4D that is Knowledge and Communication for development (K4D and C4D)

Most people are poor because they suffer from information impoverishment, Knowledge is power, power that can enable one to ascend to greater heights and lack thereof is detrimental to development. Access to information is vital, but mere access to information in a narrow approach will not automatically lead to poverty reduction. It has to be embedded in a broader context of knowledge. Access to relevant information and knowledge is thus crucial for empowerment and development and to be effective it has to be linked to the particular situation, needs and demands of the people concerned. Thus local knowledge is vital.

Internet is the greatest source of information that we have in the 21^st century, but whose importance has not been fully realized by the majority of the poor and the marginalized, most of them do not even know what it means. This reminds me of a scenario that I encountered not so long ago, I had just moved to this new house and found this wonderful lady (I gauze she was in her mid thirties) who was to orient me on my new surrounding, so I asked her whether there was internet connection in the house, surprisingly and not knowing what she was looking for, she searched the whole house only to come back and tell me that she did not find it but she suspected that the previous occupant had gone with it! This story is not so different from the one I witnessed with some of my students, I had asked them to find the MDGs from the internet, most of them couldn’t this is because they haven’t used internet before to search for information save for chatting on facebook, this is astonishing but it is the stark reality on the ground! The majority of the population (the poor) do not know how to use these tools to better their lives and this further increases social divides, widens the gap between rich and poor countries, regions, indi­viduals and even between men and women.

Other than knowledge, people-centered communication is also very important; under communication we have Voice which facilitates broad participation in democratic processes, good governance, cultural diversity and local content and Networking to facilitate effective communication and cooperation among people and organizations

Using, producing and sharing knowledge requires effective communication at all levels. Information and communication technology provides a broad range of powerful tools to enhance both the knowledge and communication dimensions of development

For the poor, the real issue is not whether ICT are desirable because the technology is already part of their broader con­text. The issue is whether we accept that the poor should, in addition to the existing deprivation of income, food and health service, etc., also be further deprived of new oppor­tunities to improve their livelihood. The strategic choice is whether to accept the rapidly growing gap caused by a very asymmetric architecture of opportunities or whether to use ICT in a creative manner to level the playing field in economic, social, cultural and political terms

Today we have the hindsight to ask questions like, how can internet be useful to people who cannot read or write? Does it make sense to provide computers to village schools where there are no teachers? Is access to technology financially sustainable? Even if villagers do learn how to use the computer and get a web browser open, where will they go? Which meaningful sites will they visit? Where is the content? Is it local?

A lot of funding has gone to many ICT4D projects, projects that were started with a view to help the poor leapfrog from poverty to wealth, some of them have in one way or the other achieved their objectives, but majority of the projects haven’t, which begs the question why?? Why has most ICT4D projects failed? And what lessons can we learn from the successful ones?

Many books have been written; many papers and articles published on ICT4D, but why are we not there yet? No doubt progress have been made on how to use ICT for development but the pace is a bit slow, maybe too slow.

This could be due to the fact that the marginalized and the poor are sidelined or are not fully incorporated in the implementation process and/or they are left out, or have no idea how to use these ICTs to empower themselves. And this is where the main challenge lies; this in my view is the missing part of the equation, the lost piece of the puzzle- grassroots’ education, the neglected base of the pyramid – most projects I feel engage those who already have the knowhow but leave out the targeted audience and for this to be reversed, most organizations should go down to the grassroots level and teach and educate these people on how to use these tools for development and to empower themselves, because it is at the grassroots level where empowerment ought to start, it is good for instance to develop an awesome software that can help farmers to access market prices but it would not achieve its intended objective if the farmers themselves are not taught how to use the said software, or to provide internet access to schools and not teach those students how to access information from the internet.

To make ICT work for poverty reduction and development, it needs both affordable, market-driven infra­structure and multi-stakeholder efforts at all levels to help poor, disadvantaged and marginalized people use the whole range of ICT according to their priorities and demands.

References:

·         1.Start up and change the world by S.Deve Appanah and Sunit Shrestha

·         2.  ICT4D – Connecting People for a Better World edited by Weigel, G., Waldburger, D.