Much of my work in recent years has involved looking at the economic and social impacts of mobile phones in developing countries (much of it for Vodafone – scroll down this page for reports numbers 2, 6 and 9 on Africa, mobile transactions and India). Mobiles have proven an extraordinary appropriate technology for poor countries, have spread breathtakingly quickly, and it has all been a private sector phenomenon with next to no input from the aid community – although donors and agencies are ultra-keen to get involved these days. ICT4D (ICTs for development) is big aid business these days.
And when you think the story can't get better, it does; as the the use of mobiles for financial transactions (with M-Pesa the poster child but many others following suit) and other services, and increasingly for internet access demonstrates. A side-effect of the mobile revolution has been to prompt a reassessment of what other technologies might prove equally useful in aiding development.
The phenomenon is so recent that researchers are only now starting to publish robust assessments of mobile impacts, including useful demolitions of excessive hype. I'm always on the lookout for publications. This month's edition of the ever-excellent Boston Review is part way through a series of essays on the question 'Can Technology End Poverty?' The lead essay in the forum is by Kentaro Toyama, and I wholeheartedly agree with its main argument:
“In every one of our projects, a technology’s effects were wholly
dependent on the intention and capacity of the people handling it. The
success of PC projects in schools hinged on supportive administrators
and dedicated teachers. Microcredit processes with mobile phones worked
because of effective microfinance organizations. Teaching farming
practices through video required capable agriculture-extension officers
and devoted nonprofit staff. In our most successful ICT4D projects, the
partner organizations did the hard work of real development, and our
role was simply to assist, and strengthen, their efforts with
technology.”
Technology is a social phenomenon. No single element of it can be considered in isolation from other parts of the infrastructure, society and culture, or politics.
No doubt the essays will be collected in one of the Boston Review's books in due course, but I highly recommend reading them meanwhile if you're at all interested in ICT4D.
(The Amazon article in this issue looks tantalising but isn't online.)
