Two important challenges continue to exercise the minds and hearts of those involved with applying knowledge to development. The challenge can be divided into two parts:

• The issue of costs – how can ICT facilities generate income when being accessed by poor communities (issues of affordability)?
• Barriers to the use (and usefulness) of the internet – how can the poor actually access and share information?

There are many examples of ICT access points (telecentres) set up in developing countries specifically for the poor. Some have proved valuable and successful, but most that have survived continue to rely on donor funding. Financial sustainability remains elusive. Even if ICT services cannot be self sustaining, there is evidence that the poor are willing to pay for services, so it should be possible for NGOs and civil society to use facilities to generate some income. The question is whether it is enough to sustain the facilities economically.

But there are also many barriers to internet access facing the poor other than finance. NGOs/CSOs are well placed to help overcome some of these. They have contacts in local communities and are familiar with local information needs and the most effective means of communication, and can assist communities to overcome social and cultural barriers. As not for profit organisations, people will be more willing to trust them for advice and services with which they are not familiar – there is less risk of being “ripped off”. Access by the poor to information can strengthen livelihoods, so the use of ICTs can also contribute to the wider work of NGOs and CSOs.

The balance between an insistence on cost recovery for all ICT facilities and the benefits of improving access to (appropriate and relevant) information (with subsequent benefit to livelihoods) is a challenge. Under a Knowledge and Research project recently commissioned by the DFID, Gamos and Big World will gather information from practical case studies to try to discuss this balance point.

The preliminary stages of the project include making contact with networks and NGOs/CSOs which have identified applications of ICTs containing innovative elements of revenue generation and/or information access by communities. The main output of the project will be case studies but collated with a view to finding guiding principles for NGO/CSOs working with ICT facilities. To this end, the team would very much welcome any suggestions or contacts from the readership of iConnect offline.

contact:
Mike Webb (Big World) – mike@big-world.org
Nigel Scott (Gamos) – nigel@gamos.org