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Development benefitsHypothesis : - overall benefits of the ICT activity justify the costs.
Although financial sustainability, including all replacement costs and system costs would be desirable, the reality is that investment by donors is made against more indirect benefits to poor communities. We have already noted how Gyandoot has facilitated clean water for a community and increased the opportunities for “good governance” (lower opportunities for corruption and increasing the response of the government to deliver statutory rights), among other benefits.
MANAGE has similar reports. “These programmes have evinced keen interest from the villagers, from the point of view of their utility and the participation of village community in the same. Recently when the Home Minister of the State inaugurated the second MACTCS building at Keesara Mandal, the village ladies asked a number of questions on implementation of various welfare schemes, particularly those for women. They also expressed their unhappiness about paucity of drinking water in their area. They also suggested the schemes under which the development works could be undertaken. Thus the information access at the village level has improved the information about the state programmes meant to support the village community and the communities are able to articulate their needs and demands much more clearly to the concerned officers.”
CARDIN is an interesting example of an activity that has had multiple benefits. The general public benefits in two ways. The first is a direct benefit, from the training seminars given by CARDIN. These training seminars not only give the participants the capacity to access disaster information, but also give a broad understanding of the world wide web. They are trained how to access disaster information and how to analyse and apply it, which in itself is an obvious benefit, but in doing this they learn key skill about access information in general from the Internet. The second way that the public benefit from this project is indirect. Due to CARDIN, all the key organisations involved in disaster management have access to useful information, this means that they can carry out their jobs with more confidence and competence.
Regarding the above, we note that more information is not always good. Information overload is a common problem of out times, and this can often lead to an inability to process and act on it. In CARDIN the timely access to key data is being used by institutions that can apply it, and use it in their disaster preparation activities.
ACISAM, which is not attempting cost recovery, is having strong developmental benefits. The main benefit with the development process is that there is greater participation and communication within the community. They feel more like a community, they feel they have access to the world by owning their own means of communication, and therefore they have a greater chance for emotional stability and development. There is evidence that the project has helped raise people's self-esteem through their own reflections at viewing the videos.
However, when analysing these benefits, we should refer back to the objectives.
Enhancing information to planners:- CARDIN, MIGIS, and KUMINFO, were said to have this objective. In the above we note that CARDIN has had a capacity building effect on many institutions. The case study on MIGIS also talks about capacity building. It demonstrated that it is possible to integrate indigenous and scientific knowledge. It engaged illiterate male and female farmers, representing a wide range of ages in a research project. It presented farmers knowledge and needs in a high quality and critical medium in which it has to be taken seriously and was incorporated into development plans. KUMINFO is in its early stages and potentially could benefit the management of natural resources.
Increasing citizens access to governance:- Revistazo and Gyandoot have both given examples above of some fulfilment of their objective. Revistazo also measures its success by its effect on society Having an independent media source gives civil society a chance to participate and have a voice on issues. Otherwise only the 10 wealthiest families get to control what issues are heard and how they are heard. An anecdote as evidence that this ICT has added value... “Normally when supreme court judges are picked, government or congress members "pick their own people". However, Revistazo published an issue in which one of the candidates was a woman with a terrible track record of corruption, which Revistazo highlighted. This woman was ultimately not elected to the Supreme Court and was very angry about it.”
Enhancing livelihood incomes of the poor:- Digital Village and Food Marketers. This is where the questions of cost benefit analysis and sustainability can be questioned. Digital Village with its fairly direct model of selling services to the poor has found it difficult to cover all costs. It has survived its recurrent costs but has not generated income to cover replacement costs. It follows the standard “telecentre” model promoted by IDRC which is now being questioned and was not set up as a multi purpose community centre. However over the years it has become focal point for the community and the associated library and community hall is well used. FOOD emarketers has a few anecdotes of income, but it is early days. However when this action is seen in the light of the research “Ecommerce options for Third World craft producers” it seems likely that Food emarketers will be constrained by the barriers mentioned by that research.
Facilitating livelihoods of the poor:- ACISAM do not attempt cost recovery, but can identify direct developmental benefits.
Summary of identifiable developmental benefits
The above table is not exhaustive but summarises points mentioned in the case studies.
Regarding the hypothesis, we can see then that ICTs when employed in the support of other developmental objectives – general livelihood support or good governance – can have an immediate and identifiable benefit. These benefits seem to be cost effective although a detailed analysis was not possible. However, when ICTs are installed for the purpose of raising incomes directly, there is still room for debate. The measurement of the impact of the ICTs on local businesses and the local economy was beyond the scope of this research. |
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