Growth and ICT

Development is a package deal. It happens not because of just one thing but due to collation of many things working together. Policy, institutions, capacity, technology and many more factors impact development. (So, a linear relationship between only ICT and development may not be that direct to extrapolate!)

Conversely, lack of development is just a manifestation of many deeper root causes (– and not the reason thereof). For example – digital divide – like hunger is not a problem in itself (poverty is!), but an indicator (– and definitely not the cause) of more critical issues – dipper socio-economic divides.

Therefore, caution is warranted here! The efforts in ICT for Development arena too, should attempt to tend to the underlying causes and not the symptoms directly. The efforts to bridge the digital divide for that reason, should not only limit to ‘having IT there’ but also ‘getting IT used’ because, the sense of ‘use’ per se relates to a ‘purpose’ and focus thus remains on the basic ideas of information needs, voice and participation of communities which enables their stakes in the process of development.

Ensuring usages by the communities, of the ICT, is the key to (sustainable) development. To make that happen, the strategies required need to address simultaneously the issues of access (in terms of physical, social, economical and political), awareness (in terms of knowledge of its availability and possibilities it can offer i.e. value proposition), and interface (in terms of medium, devices, language etc.) of the tools and technologies with the communities.

Take the case of ‘Grameen Village Phone’ in Bangladesh. Through this venture, mobile phones into the hands of the poor have been made possible through innovative practices which have enabled poor people to exploit the technology to attain hitherto unknown benefits.

When a micro entrepreneur buys a phone with a loan from the Grameen Bank and then sells the use of it on a per call basis – it is nothing but fall of an economical barrier to the access. Also, the fact that these entrepreneurs are women makes the access socially much easier for other women in a comparatively conservative setup. Physically, access is eased by the roaming ‘telephone ladies’ taking mobile phones door to door.

However, all this would have not worked had it been not made known through various means to the villagers that this facility now exists and that what value it can create for them.

Furthermore, mobile phone is a simpler device – less buttons, less clumsy – at least simpler than a bulky computer. Also, the helpful guidance of the ‘telephone ladies’ helped bridge the gap between up till now, an unknown device – the mobile phone – and mostly illiterate users.

With adequate thrust to issues pertaining to access, awareness and interface, Grameen Village Phone is a success story not only from social venture side but also from business perspective. Today, Grameen Phone is the largest cellular phone company in all of South Asia with over 8.5 million subscribers.

(data: http://www.grameenfoundation.org)

(more: http://www.telecommons.com/villagephone/contents.html)

Establishing relationship between development and ICT has never been easy. This was precisely the situation in businesses few years ago. It wasn’t easy either for the businesses to see value in using ICT for growth. It took time and understanding of the nuances before it got established that ICT can clearly offer strategic advantage to the businesses.

Enterprise Resource Planning, Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management, Knowledge Management, Data warehousing /Data mining, e-Commerce etc., which have now become part and parcel of doing business – were never heard of before. These and other such concepts which are made feasible by ICT have offered clear paybacks to the companies of the modern world. The demands of the ‘flat world’ are hard to cope up with, without embracing ICT.

However, the concept of – impact of ICT on development – has to still fight many tough battles. The situation gravitates further due to a valid question on the importance of the basic necessities such as food, water, shelter etc. versus ICT. In response to this, practitioners have resorted to ‘prioritization’ as a way out. The similarities between this dilemma and those faced by the businesses few years ago are hard to ignore.

Today – after various phases of evolution – when the businesses stand victorious, the lessons learnt too are hard to ignore.

Eventually, the development sector will learn from the businesses. ‘If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it’, approach wouldn’t work in this case. The lessons have been learnt the hard way of the inadequacy of measuring Returns on Investment (ROI) in cases of ICT investments (/spending!). Also, on the other side of the spectrum the valuation for companies in the ICT industry has remained – a not so exact science.

This thing is different! May be, the challenge here is to manage what you can’t measure!

If technologies were/are so vital for organizations, it must be also evident in-as cumulative effect-on nations to grow! 

This is my take:

Development in countries has traditionally been associated with spurts of new technologies (locally or globally – if they are linked well with the global economy). Researchers have established that growth between 1780s and 1840s in many countries was mainly driven by technologies related with textiles industry. Between 1840s and 1890s it was steam power and railways. Similarly, electricity and steel were at the centre stage of development between 1890s and 1940s. Hereafter it was mass production of automobiles and synthetic materials, which have been instrumental in the economic growth in many countries. 

Nowadays, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are by and large considered technologies of the new millennia and are seen as main drivers of growth in the twenty-first century. 

Here comes the difference though – and the effects. The difference between these technologies and those of past is, others remained concentrated in only few countries for quite some time and this one crisscrossed the globe in comparatively very little time. These technologies have fewer entry barriers. 
 
Taking it further, ICTs are much easier to be exploited for growth by developing countries than other technologies of the past eras and this has to be a remarkable opportunity.

Working on this hypothesis, can we say that, this period compared to any other ‘technology periods’ in the past, will see more countries crossing the line – low income to middle income and middle income to high income?

Long time ago, when Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was new (yes it was!), businesses were first to exploit it as strategic advantage against their competitors until recently most of it has become a commodity and started coming in packages.

It has always been important to remain competitive, and ICT appeared to be the perfect tool for accomplishing that. But even in those days everyone was not reaping the benefits. The difference in installation and implementation started to surface. Many companies lost faith (and shirts too!) after failing to realize the benefits from ICT as professed by their own CIOs or the external consultancy firms. 

But, many come victorious too! – Yes they took time. The question is, was it time, or was it the mix – People, Process and Technology?