Information and Communication Technologies for Poverty Reduction and Rural Development in Asia

1. Information and Communication
Technologies for Poverty Reduction
and Rural Development in Asia
Roger Harris Associates
Roger W. Harris PhD
Roger Harris Associates
Hong Kong
Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok
The Centre for Learning Innovation and Quality (CLIQ)
11 September, 2009

2. • Promoting rural ICTs for poverty
reduction since 1997
• Major aid agencies; UN, WB,
ADB, IDRC, APEC…
• Hands-on implementations
– Individual telecentres
– Programme implementations
– Programme evaluations
– Research
• Knowledge sharing
• Advocacy
• Multi-country:
•Malaysia
•Nepal
•Vietnam
•Philippines
•China
•Sri-Lanka
•Lao PDR
•India
•Thailand
•Taiwan
•Indonesia
•Papua New Guinea
•Mongolia
•Bangladesh
Introduction
Roger Harris Associates
INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
FOR
POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Roger W. Harris
harris38@netvigator.com
http://rogharris.org

3. Current Projects
• Communication for Empowerment of Asia’s
Indigenous Peoples; UNDP
• Support for Trans-Mongolia Sustainable
Tourism; EU
• Encounter Laos; GKP
• eBorneo; Bario Radio
• Research mentorship; SiRCA, Bangladesh

4. Agenda
• Poverty
• The Digital Divide
• Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs)
• Examples
• Some Issues
• Teaching and Research

5. Poverty
“If we can imagine a world where nobody
should be a poor person, we can create it”

6. Global Population and Incomes
Population
Low Income
Countries
2.33bn
37%
High Income
Countries
1.01bn
16%
Middle Income
Countries
3.02bn
47%
High Income Countries e.g.;
Europe
North America
Australasia
Japan
Some Middle East
Middle Income Countries, e.g.;
China
Indonesia
Philippines
Thailand
Mexico
Russia
Turkey
Low Income Countries, e.g.;
Bangladesh
India
Pakistan
Viet Nam
D.R. Congo
Ethiopia
Nigeria
GDP Per Capita US$*
High Income
Countries
US$28,480
Low Income
Countries
$US 2,110Middle Income
Countries
US$5,800
* GDP = Gross Domestic Product. It is the total value of goods and services produced by a nation.
The GDP of a country divided by its total population yields per capita GDP

7. The Consequences of
Global Poverty
• One third of deathsdeaths- some 18 million people a year or 50,00050,000per day - are due to
poverty-related causes, the majority women and childrenwomen and children.
• Every year more than 10 million10 millionchildren die of hunger and preventable diseases -
that's over 30,000 per day and one every 3 seconds3 seconds.
• Over 1 billion1 billionpeople live on less than $1 a day with nearly halfhalfthe world's
population (2.8 billion) living on less than $2 a day.
•• 600 million600 millionchildren live in absolute poverty.
• The threethree richest people in the world control more wealth than all 600600 millionmillionpeople
living in the world's poorest countries.
• Income per person in the poorest countries in Africa has fallenfallenby a quarter in the last 20
years.
•• 800 million800 millionpeople go to bed hungry every day.
• Every year nearly 11 million11 millionchildren die before their fifthfifth birthday.
•• ““ItIt’’s not their faults not their fault””

8. What helps move people out of poverty?
• Education
• Employment
• Enterprise development
• Credit
• Public services
• Health care
• Better agriculture
• Information
….about all the above,
…….and the Technology to deliver it.

9. The Digital Divide

10. Definitions
The Digital Divide
• The term digital divide refers to the gap between those
with regular, effective access to digital and information
technology, and those without such access.
E-Inclusion
• e-Inclusion refers to the effective participation of
individuals and communities in all dimensions of
knowledge-based societies and economies through
their use of ICTs.
• Addresses the underlying socio-economic problems that
are highlighted by the the digital divide
• In Asia, references to the digital divide still dominate
discussions and the concept of e-inclusion has yet to
take hold.

11. The Global Digital Divide
54.1
41.49
3.07
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
High Income
Countries
Middle Income
Countries
Low Income
Countries
Main Line Telephones per 100 population
77.14
72.67
4.13
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Mobile cellular subscribers per 100 population
High Income
Countries
Middle Income
Countries
Low Income
Countries
52.52
23.73
2.38
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Internet Users per 100 population.
High Income
Countries
Middle Income
Countries
Low Income
Countries
57.22
16.29
1.13
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
PCs Per 100 population.
High Income
Countries
Middle Income
Countries
Low Income
Countries

12. Household access to ICTs
% of BOP households
TV Phone Radio Computer
Bangladesh Pakistan India Sri Lanka Philippines Thailand
52
41
13
0
68
39
24
1
77
3
50
38
28
80
64
4
6463
50 52
1
75 70
6
• Telephones have overtaken radios in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India
• India is the only country in the world to send and receive missed calls,
used by 84% of users to minimize communication expenditures .

13. ICTs - Access

14. ICTs consist of:…
• Computers
• The internet
• Telephones
• Televisions
• Radios
• Loudspeakers
• And…
– PDAs, iPods, GPSs, etc…

15. Internet Access in Asia
• The number of internet subscribers in
Asia amounts to around 8% of Asia’s
population
• Over 60% in some countries, less
than 5% in others
• Telecentres provide shared access to
ICTs for the purpose of community
development and poverty reduction
• 11,160 telecentres in 16 countries in
Asia
• 2,000 new telecentres established in
India every year since 2001
Telecentre Diffusion in Asia

16. Mobile Telephones
• SMS services
• Voice applications
• Web applications
• Social exchanges
• Emergencies
• Informal networks
• Business transactions
• Weather updates
• Market prices
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Developing
economies
Africa Asia
Latin
America
SE Europe
and CIS
Developed
economies
World
Mobile Subscribers per 100 Population
2002 2006
• More than half the world's population
now pay to use a mobile phone
• Developing countries accounting for
about two-thirds of the mobile phones
in use.

17. Televisions
• Almost ubiquitous in Asia
• Main form of information
and entertainment
• Not used much for
development
• Notable exceptions;
farmer information in
China and Vietnam
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Africa Asia Latin
America
Global
TV Sets (% of households)
TVs (% of households)

18. (Community) Radio
• Popular, especially for local information
• Combined with telecentres = radio browsing
• Rapid diffusion of development information to remote areas
• Channel for interactive communication, dialogue and debate on
rural development issues.
• A tool for cultural expression, local language use,
entertainment.
• A platform for democratic expression of opinions, needs and
aspirations of rural communities
• 56% of farmer households in Vietnam have a radio
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Low
income
Middle
income
High
income
East
Asia &
Pacific
Latin
America
Middle
East &
N. Africa
South
Asia
Sub-Saharan
Africa
Europe
Radios per 1,000 people

19. Loudspeakers
• Important in some
contexts; China,
Vietnam, India
• Especially combined
with other technologies;
radio, internet.

20. Examples

21. M S Swaminathan Research Foundation,
Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, India
• 12 networked “Knowledge
Centres”
• Trained Village Knowledge
Workers
• Local language
• Promote government schemes
• Micro-enterprises
• Sea conditions
• Agricultural support
• Market information
• Veterinary support
• Computer-aided learning
• Nutrition and health awareness
• Rural yellow pages
• Local newsletter

22. E-Bario Telecentre, Sarawak, Malaysia
Bario
Bario
• Remote, isolated
• Fly-in only
• Starved of information
• Poor communications
• Indigenous, minority culture
• Dwindling population
E-Bario
• Telecentre with satellite
Internet and solar power
• Project began in 1998 by
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
• Now owned by the community
• Contributing to local
development; culture, tourism
and trade
• Won multiple awards.
• Implementing Community
Radio

23. Radio Sagarmatha
• The first independent radio in
Nepal
• Community based public radio
broadcasting to the Kathmandu
Valley since 1977
• Live and streaming audio to the
internet
• Broadcasting for twelve hours a
day
• Regular programming on good
governance, gender, women's
issues, environment and other
public matters.
• Music and cultural programming
include folk music, weekly live
classic recitals, contemporary
music as well as regular
programs on the visual and oral
arts.

24. Television
• China Ministry of Agriculture has its own TV
broadcast channel for farmers.
• Can Tho University, Vietnam runs regular farmers
workshops with extension agents that are
broadcast every week.
– "Doctor Farmer" - Prof. Vo-Tong Xuan "Television
has been wonderful as a medium for education. The
period 1978 to 1981 was crucial to our plan to
increase rice production. We used television to
spread the word about the new technology in high-
yielding rice cultivation among farmers and
agricultural extension workers and even government
offices in the province, district, and villages.
Television is available all over the southern part of
Viet Nam. Even poor farmers can go in the evening
over to the house of a neighbour with a television.
Television is better than radio because the farmers
can see for themselves."
Beijing Rural Distance Education System

25. Mobile Phones
• mHealth
– Medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices
– Tamil Nadu Health Watch allows health workers, even in remote areas, to immediately
report disease incidence data to health officials
• mLearning
– Learning with portable technologies
– Graduate students at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, North Bangkok, used mobile
phones to participate in tests, and more than 90 per cent of the participants owned the
mobile phones themselves
• mFinance
– Mobile phones to facilitate banking activities; deposits, withdrawals, payments, transfers.
– GCASH Philippines, turns a cellphone into an electronic wallet, for money transfers,
shopping and transferring money between cellphones
• mAgriculture
– Fishing boats in Kerala using offshore mobile phones to coordinate sales with traders
• mGovernment
– Delivery of government services and applications on mobile phones and other portable
devices using a wireless infrastructure.
– Income Tax Department of India - SMA to verify banks have uploaded tax deposits
• Crisis Management
– RapidSMS enables mass-scale mobile data collection, messaging, and workflow
management via SMS
– deployed by UNICEF to track the distribution of Plumpynut during a hunger crisis in Ethiopia
• Conservation
– Wild-life tracking, remote environmental sensing
• Advocacy/citizen mobilisation/social coordination
– FrontlineSMS for text messaging to large groups

26. Some Issues in ICTs for
Poverty Reduction

27. Define the development
strategy
Define the information
strategy
Define the technology
strategy
Define the sustainability
strategy
Define the evaluation
strategy
Begin with an awareness of the
potential and limitations of ICTs
for development and poverty
reduction
Against that
background
Where development is
going and why
What information is
needed
How the information
can be delivered
How the service can
be sustained,
extended
How the outcomes
can be identified
Design Approach

28. Telecentre Sustainability
• Sustainability usually means the ability
to generate revenue to cover
operational costs
• Market-based approaches fail the
poorest
• The more a telecentre is required to
generate revenues, the less emphasis it
will place on supporting development
and the more it will place on revenue-
generating services
• But without incentives for generating
some revenue, telecentres will continue
to depend on subsidies
• Necessary to strike a careful balance
between subsidy and revenue
• Universal service funds can support
telecentres, the same way other public
services are supported, which are often
enjoyed by the rich

29. Who pays? – Multiple models
• Government
– Malaysia: two schemes under two ministries
– Vietnam: ‘Culture Points’ under Ministry of Info & Comms
• Universal Service Funds
– Subsidy schemes: Malaysia ‘Kedai.com’, libraries
– Least cost auctions: Nepal
• Private sector
– New entrants: Sri Lanka, with decreasing subsidies
– Corporations: ITC India – e-Choupal
• Civil Society
– NGOs
– CBOs
– Research institutions

30. Mobile vs. Computers
ComputersMobile
Positive
Negative
•Affordable by BOP
•Low power use
•Approaching ubiquity
•Grass-roots driven applications
•Endless innovation with function
•Low cost internet access
•Nearly free to operate
•FOSS keeps costs down
•Many to many
•Walled garden; cost of entry
•Limited functionality
•Difficult to modify
•Metered use
•Centralised systems - vulnerable to
disasters and government control
•Hub and spoke
•Unaffordable domestically
•Telecentres have limited reach
and sustainability issues
False Dichotomy: Convergence of applications and services which
interoperate seamlessly over mobile networks and the Internet

31. Teaching and Research
“to change the system”

32. Understanding the Principles
• ICTs alone are insufficient
• Effective pro-poor policies for
public service provision
• Institutional reforms for making
effective use of ICTs
• Programmes that go beyond
access
• Technical skills that complement
poverty reduction efforts
• Capacity building at all levels
• Honest evaluations for evidence-
based policy making and
programme design

33. Teaching ICT4D – Multi-Disciplinary
• Information Systems
– What can be done with computers and the internet and how to get
the most from the technology
• Computer Science
– How the technology works.
• Development Studies
– The causes of poverty and efforts to alleviate it.
• Communication
– How the media, including new media, promotes social change
• Economics
– Social businesses and ICTs

34. Researching ICT4D
• Impact and evaluation
– Technology appropriation
– Unexpected but desirable outcomes
– Gender differentiation
• Sustainability
– Types of sustainability
– Who pays?
• Replication
– Conditions required for successful replication
• Technology diffusion
– E-inclusion for vulnerable groups
– Regulatory reform

35. Thank you
Roger Harris Associates
Roger W. Harris PhD
Roger Harris Associates
Hong Kong