Africa

This study was undertaken to evaluate the implementation of ICT to support learning, teaching, school administration and use of E-communication between cooperating rural secondary schools in Western Kenya under the Rotary project, Forssa Rotary Club of Finland District 1410. Two rural schools were selected for the investigation. A case study research design was adopted, where interviews, observation and open-ended questionnaires including document analysis were used to collect qualitative data.

For at least the past decade, political leaders and policy makers have stressed how important it is for Africa to harness technology, leapfrog development, and take part in the global knowledge economy. In numerous initiatives aimed at realizing these goals, education is a primary target, viewed as a mechanism through which information and communication technologies (ICT) can empower societies to develop technologically literate workforces. Unfortunately, there is a considerable gap between policy rhetoric and effective project implementation.

Mobile applications in general and mobile applications for agricultural and rural development (m-ARD apps) in particular hold significant potential for advancing development. Though there have been many studies on the mobile revolution, there is a lack of systematic trend analyses, in-depth case studies, and assessments of experiences with m-ARD apps in developing countries. Thus this report examines their development impact, ecosystems, and business models to provide an analytical framework for policymakers and development practitioners.

Mobile phones are now the primary form of telecommunication in developing countries and they are used for communications, information and, more recently, access to a range of services from m-Banking to m-Education and m-Governance. The transformation of society by mobile telephony, and especially mobile applications, is perhaps most profound in the Philippines. This publication digs deeper into the Philippine experience and attempts to identify best practices and lessons learned.

This paper is a positional paper that is set to take inventory of existing innovative ICT solutions in health service delivery (e-health) in rural community of developing countries and to open up researches into the acceptability and utilization of various ICT solutions in health services in developing countries. The assessment is based on the existing e-health model of Peter Dury and other subsequent works of other Authors who have researched into electronic health solutions in developing countries.

This study describes the experiences, achievements and lessons learned of the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) and its partners in using ICT to enhance education through thirty-two projects and ICT policy processes over eight years in Jamaica, Bolivia, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda.

From 2007 up until early 2011 Spider supported various gender-focused initiatives that sought to uplift women particularly in the rural regions of the global south. This report offers an analysis of the impact on the lives of the women that participated in the projects. The publication covers five different projects carried out in six different locations.

The objective of this analytical report is to support the strategic direction, focus, and action plan in governance reform by implementing ICT within the urban development framework of the Africa Region.

This paper examines two parallel case studies to promote remote medical consultation in Ghana. These projects, initiated independently by different researchers in different organizations, both deployed ICT solutions in the same medical community in the same year. The Ghana Consultation Network currently has over 125 users running a Web-based application over a delay-tolerant network of servers. OneTouch MedicareLine is currently providing 1700 doctors in Ghana with free mobile phone calls and text messages to other members of the medical community.

In the fall of 2011, Danida commissioned a study with the objective of examining strategic opportunities for using ICT for promoting governance and democratization efforts within development assistance; and exploring opportunities for ICT in the present Danish portfolio of development programs and within the vision of the Strategy for Danish Development Cooperation. The study touches on a range of ICT technologies but its focus is the use of mobile phones, including voice calls, SMS Text, mobile internet, and social media.