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ICT4D

ICT for Development

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“The example of Wikipedia gives us a taste of how we will likely generate our knowledge in the future: Radically different from the last 500 years, with an entirely new form of global networking and cooperation in areas such as culture, education, technology and business. The Internet plays a central role in this new form of knowledge generation. Anyone with access to the Internet, and who has language skills, can join the discussion on specific issues, plan, swap ideas and get together with like-minded people. Such “open models” of global knowledge co-operation and open innovation hold tremendous opportunities for development cooperation. ”

For more on how ICTs and the Internet can be drivers of open knowledge co-operation and a global knowledge commons , please check the following compilation of articles by GIZ Global Connect, which provides concrete examples and models such as energypedia and ict@innovation. The  reporting was just released in three languages:

- English: Global Knowledge Sharing – “The Wisdom of Crowds”
- Spanish:  La cooperación global en conocimientos como “la sabiduría de muchos”
- German:  Globale Wissenskooperationen als „Die Weisheit der Vielen”

One word on ‘GIZ global connect’. This service addresses participants,  alumni and partners of GIZ  capacity development programmes. The website provides the GIZ community with information on alumni events, follow-up seminars, news, expert chats, network features, and a large community function enabling peer-to-peer networking though social networking tools. To join the community, check the registration info.

An Inter-American Development Bank Working Paper (if you encounter difficulties in opening the document after clicking on the link, please simply copy the link address into a new browser window and hit enter)  reports results of an evaluation of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative in Peru.

“Although many countries are aggressively implementing the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, there is a lack of empirical evidence on its effects. This paper presents the impact of the first large-scale randomized evaluation of the OLPC program, using data collected after 15 months of implementation in 319 primary schools in rural Peru. The results indicate that the program increased the ratio of computers per student from 0.12 to 1.18 in treatment schools. This expansion in access translated into substantial increases in use both at school and at home. No evidence is found of effects on enrollment and test scores in Math and Language. Some positive effects are found, however, in general cognitive skills as measured by Raven’s Progressive Matrices, a verbal fluency test and a Coding test.”

The Sector Project ICT4D on behalf of BMZ and with the support of GIZ’s ict@innovation team has just released it’s IT Sector Promotion Toolbox. The Toolbox, together with its explanatory Manual, introduces a methodology and a set of practical tools to promote the IT industry in developing and emerging countries. Relying on German Development Cooperation’s instruments and project experience, the Manual and the Toolbox provide a strategic “roadmap” for IT sector promotion which can be flexibly adapted to accommodate future changes in resources, global markets and technologies. They have primarily been designed for the staff of ministries and agencies involved in economic development, for managers and staff members of IT clusters, associations, networks, communities of practice and chambers of commerce. They should serve as orientation for staff of donor organisations involved in private sector development, economic development, and employment promotion as well as in information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D)/development informatics. 

The Manual and the Toolbox could be found on the “IT Sector Promotion Tools” page of this blog.

We have recently published the new issue of the ict4d-Newsletter, including:

Enjoy!

Mobile banking is transforming the face of commercial business and personal remittances transactions around the globe. 

On behalf of BMZ, GIZ has recently issued a publication on the transformative role of Mobile Banking whilst outlining the role of German Development Cooperation in the sector.

German Development Cooperation is indeed supporting ICT based branchless banking services as a crucial step to reach out to poor clients with inclusive financial services. Within the context of financial systems development, through capacity building (e.g. financial literacy trainings) and advisory services for regulators and policy-makers, German Development Cooperation aims at promoting an enabling environment that helps to leverage the transformative potential of branchless banking. German Development Cooperation assists microfinance institutions in building capacities for implementing and running innovative ICT solutions for branchless banking services. At the same time, Germany assists in building up capacities of microfinance institutions, in order to deal with regulatory issues, financial requirements and legislative duties. Furthermore, it supports public and private investments into financial infrastructure, such as multi-operator payment hubs, as well as agent infrastructure, e.g. hardware. Measures are flanked with capacity building services on all relevant levels from macro to micro-level.

I just found this new publication by Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is giving a good overview of Finland’s current ICT4D strategy and running programmes. Its interesting to see that there is a strong focus on building local innovation capacities, business incubation and linking entrepreneurship to  technologies for the poor (and of course mobile solutions – its Finland after all…). Cheers and happy new year. And here’s the link: http://www.formin.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=208262&nodeid=34605&contentlan=2&culture=en-US

The “ICT for Rural Economic Development” conference will start after tomorrow. Some food for thoughts before the start of the debate: a factsheet that we recently prepared for the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development outlining the Impact of ICT on Economic Growth and Development.

Jon “maddog” Hall, the international open source expert and elder statesman of the programming community, just published a comprehensive piece on IT / open source training and Linux certification in Africa. The blog entry on the LPI site talks about the Linux Admin certification programme of  ict@innovation.
Source: Picture by "Flyhighplato" on Wikipedia.orgict@innovation is a partnership between FOSSFA (Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa) and InWEnt – Capacity Building International (Germany) and is funded by  the German Ministry Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).
For more, see Johns blog titled “Open Source Lights Up Darkest Africa“.  Thanks, Jon!

Photo by ”Flyhighplato” on Wikipedia.org, see cc licence there.

title page unctad report 2010Weltwirtschaft und Entwicklung: Die UN-Konferenz für Handel und Entwicklung (UNCTAD) sieht im Sektor der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie (IKT) neue Chancen für die Armutsbekämpfung. Ihr jüngster Bericht zur Informationsökonomie beschreibt, wie im Süden Mikrounternehmen aus dem Boden schießen, die den Boom der Mobiltelefon-Industrie anfeuern, aber auch den Armen neue Hoffnung bieten.
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An academic “monitoring & evaluation” report on olpc Ethiopia conducted by the University of Groningen will be published in around 4 weeks. Here are some highlights exclusively on GTZ’s ICT4D-blog:

* At home the children use the laptop as a learning device: 54,80 % of their time is used for writing & reading
* Only 12,30 % of their time is used to play games with it
* The laptop increases the motivation to go to school
* The laptop radically changes and shapes the future aspirations for children. They now want to become teachers (13,40 %), doctors (38,80 %), pilots (8,50 %) and so on.
* The biggest positive change is with girls

Information about the project: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Ethiopia

Telepolis hat gerade einen interessanten Hintergrundartikel zum Thema Free and Open Source Software in Afrika online gestellt: Freie Software, freies Afrika?

Was ich zum Anlass nehme, hier als Einführung kurz ein Projekt vorzustellen, das in dem Artikel u.a. erwähnt wird: ict@innovation – Creating Business and Learning Opportunities with Free and Open Source Software in Africa – Mehr online unter  http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net - bei Interesse kann man sich auch hier registrieren. Mehr zu den InWEnt-Projekten im Bereich ICT4D ist auf http://www.inwent.org/it-inwent/ - wir freuen uns über Feedback & Anknüpfungsmöglichkeiten. Ansonsten: vielen Dank nochmals für das Öffnen des Blogs für alle DOs (siehe Post vom 12.12.2008)! Balthas, InWEnt.

 

The last issue of Rural 21 (No. 42 – 6/2008) focused on the still untapped potential of ICT in rural regions. The authors – most of them members of our ICT4D Community – show many interesting project examples:

Koda A. Traoré (CTA – Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation, The Netherlands) describes  ICTs that are offering new opportunities for sustainable development and livelihoods improvement: http://www.rural21.com/uploads/media/R21_Telecentres_0608.pdf

Albrecht Wald and Dr. Reiner Koblo (KfW, Germany) discuss how the use of mobile telecommunication can facilitate efforts to reduce poverty in a variety of ways: http://www.rural21.com/uploads/media/R21_Productive_agriculture_with_GPS_and_databases_0608.pdf

Thorsten Scherf (BMZ, Germany) describes how Universal Access Funds coupled with “smart subsidies” are a useful tool to provide telecommunications services to rural areas: http://www.rural21.com/uploads/media/R21_Universal_Access_Funds_0608.pdf

Dion Jerling (CONNECT AFRICA, Johannesburg/South Africa) highlights the important role of (renewable) energy supply for ICT: http://www.rural21.com/uploads/media/R21_Without_energy_no_ICT__0608.pdf

Peter Rave (GTZ, Germany) describes the use of some innovative ICT-applications for knowledge transfer: http://www.rural21.com/uploads/media/R21_ICT_as_a_tool_for_knowledge_transfer_0608.pdf 

Ednah Karamagi (BROSDI – Busoga Rural Open Source & Development Initiative, Kampala, Uganda) discusses how the use of Web 2.0 might improve rural livelihoods when there is very limited internet connectivity: http://www.rural21.com/uploads/media/R21_Web_2.0_in_rural_areas_0608.pdf

Dean Mulozi (ZA-ICT/SATNET, Lusaka, Zambia) describes how some of the existing regional telecentre networks established in African regions during the past five years can contribute positively to national and regional development in African countries: http://www.rural21.com/uploads/media/R21_Telecentres_0608.pdf

Elizabeth Corley (Development Gateway Foundation, Washington D.C., USA) and Ingo Imhoff (GTZ, Germany) describe how joint efforts of recipient and donor countries for more aid effectiveness imply also a demand for more effective ICT solutions: http://www.rural21.com/uploads/media/R21_Improving_aid_effectiveness_by_e-government__0608.pdf

Dr. Reiner Koblo (KfW, Germany) presents with an example from Georgia how ICT (here: GPS) can be of enormous help in ensuring that land reforms are successful: http://www.rural21.com/uploads/media/R21_Productive_agriculture_with_GPS_and_databases_0608.pdf

Geraldine de Bastion (newthinking communications GmbH, Germany) and Thomas Rolf (GTZ, Ethiopia) discuss whether and how low-cost devices (e.g. “100$-laptop”) might promote development (in future): http://www.rural21.com/uploads/media/R21_Low-cost_ICT_devices___new_solutions…_0608.pdf

Fast zwei Jahre hat es bis zur Freigabe des TAB-Berichts (Technikfolgen-Abschätzung Beim Deutschen Bundestag) gedauert, nun ist er endlich erschienen und liefert ein umfassendes Bild über die Potentiale von IKT und die Chancen für die (deutsche) Entwicklungszusammenarbeit in Afrika.

240 lesenswerte Seiten / Download ca. 1 MB

Zitate aus der Zusammenfassung :

“Folgende, sich vor allem auf Afrika beziehende Handlungsmöglichkeiten erschei­nen im Lichte der Untersuchungsergebnisse des TAB als entwicklungspolitisch besonders relevant:

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As prices of ICT hardware are decreasing, low-cost computing devices are spreading rapidly in schools, not just in industrialised countries, but increasingly in developing ones as well. There are many projects and programs currently underway that focus on the use of low-cost ICT devices for developing countries.

Only a few months ago the “One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Initiative” (originally a group at the Media Lab of MIT, now an independent organisation) developed the so-called “100$ Laptop” (or XO-Laptop). The main goal of OLPC is to introduce a low cost laptop that “is poised to empower and educate children through the use of technology, and connect the world’s next generation of thinkers.”

On this account GTZ conducted a pilot-test of the XO-Laptops in two Ethiopian schools. This report gives a first overview on possible use and impact of low-cost computing devices to poor people in developing countries.

Update (March 6): In the meantime also our partner company (eduvision) published its first implementation-report. Eduvision’s role in the project was to provide their solution for editable interactive textbooks as well as their educational consulting skills for a period of 3 month.

An dieser Stelle ein wenig Eigenwerbung. Ich hatte die Möglichkeit in der Zeitschrift “Internationale Politik” (dem Politologen-Olymp) ein Artikel über web2.0 und EZ zu schreiben. Hier ein kleiner Auszug und der Rest im Artikel anbei. Über Feedback, Kritik und Anregungen würde ich mich freuen. Bedaure der Artikel ist leider nicht in Englisch.

Wie das kollaborative Web 2.0 die Entwicklungszusammenarbeit herausfordert – und warum das eine Chance für Entwicklungsorganisationen ist

Mit seiner mittlerweile mehr als einer Milliarde Nutzern ist das Internet auch zur globalen Plattform für radikal neue Formen der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit geworden: Wer Hilfe braucht, sucht sich seine Geber selber im Netz. Traditionelle Entwicklungsorganisationen können von dieser neuen Dynamik, die von ganz alleine wächst, viel lernen.

Adyaka, ein Dorf im Herzen Ugandas, braucht eine neue Berufsschule. Doch keiner der 4000 Einwohner weiß, wie man einen Business Plan dafür entwickelt; bisher wurde ihnen auch nicht vom Staat geholfen. Also haben sich die
Bewohner von Adyaka ihren eigenen Weg gesucht. Sie wandten sich per Internet an die ganze Welt und baten um Unterstützung für ihr Dorf. Über das globale Nachbarschaftsnetzwerk Nabuur.com erarbeiten jetzt Freiwillige mit den
Dörflern zusammen den Business Plan. Und Adyaka ist nicht allein. Den zurzeit 150 auf Nabuur.com Unterstützung suchenden Gemeinden stehen 10 000 Ehrenamtliche gegenüber, die je nach Bedarf ihre Expertise anbieten. In dieser
webbasierten Nachbarschaftshilfe diskutieren Menschen aus aller Welt über Entwicklungsansätze, erarbeiten Konzepte und bekommen unmittelbares Feedback über die Erfolge und Schwierigkeiten bei der Umsetzung. Nabuur ist nur eine von vielen Plattformen und neuen Web-Akteuren, die in den letzten Jahren entstanden sind. Ihren Ansätzen ist eines gemeinsam: Sie nutzen das Potenzial der Vernetzung durch das Internet, um neue Ideen für Entwicklung voranzutreiben. Entwicklungsorganisationen sehen sich hier mit einer neuen Dynamik konfrontiert. Im Konzept der Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe wird die Rolle der Betroffenen neu definiert: Sie suchen sich die Geber selber aus.

Gesamter Artikel: original_ip_12_kreutz.pdf