Empowering the poor: Information and Communications Technology for governance and poverty reduction
Empowering the poor: Information and Communications Technology for governance and poverty reduction - A study of rural development projects in India
2006, Roger Harris and Rajesh Rajora, UNDP-APDIP
It is widely believed that Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are effective tools in the fight against poverty, if used appropriately. As India's poverty is deepening and its ICT industry booming, there are many projects underway that are using ICT to reduce poverty and promote good governance.This publication systematically analyses 18 projects in India that use ICT for the benefit of poor people, and provides recommendations on how ICT can be applied to the massive, widespread and seemingly intractable problems of poverty. The intention of this research study was to understand what influences will determine the extent to which projects like these can be scaled up from what often appears to be a perpetual pilot syndrome; either to greater use within existing recipient beneficiaries (infusion) or among wider beneficiary populations (diffusion), or both. Projects were analyzed and ranked by their relevance, service delivery, community participation and empowerment, equality in decision-making and benefits, sustainability, replicability and their prospects for being scaled-up (Adapted from author).