poverty

ICT, Development, and Poverty Reduction: Five Emerging Stories

Drawing from a wide range of recent literature, this paper identifies five main stories that come together at many points in the literature: universal access, economic and social services, openness, human development, and innovation. It is worth underlining that this article is mostly about mobile phone access and use, as this is the dominant story of the last decade for people in the bottom or base of the pyramid. This is not to deny the importance of broadband, Internet connection, or computers and devices with computing power much greater than that of mobiles.

A Framework for Designing Telecentres

This Framework is organized in the sequence of a logical approach to the design of information systems that are intended to deliver socio-economic benefits via telecentres for the purpose of community level development and poverty reduction. The audience for this Framework is the institutions or individuals involved in, or contemplating, the setting up of telecentres.

High Impact, Pro-Poor e-Governance Applications: Identifying 'Killer Applications' and Best Practice Models of e-Governance through Community e-Centers in the Philippines

The purpose of the study is to find a way to identify services that genuinely make a difference to people in their interactions with Governments. The expected outcome is increased impact and utilization of e-governance and e-government services in the Philippines and Asia-Pacific over the longer term. This study is a collaboration between the Commission of ICT in the Philippines, UNDP Philippines and UNDP-APDIP.

Mobile Phone and Telecenter: A comparative case study of Bangladesh and Uganda

The aim of this paper is to examine the utility of ICT4D project efficacy. Particular consideration is given to the Village Phone Programme in Bangladesh and the Nakaseke Multipurpose Community Telecentre in Uganda. The results show that the Village Phone Programme, which focuses primarily on the economic empowerment of project beneficiaries, and the Nakaseke Telecentre, which prioritizes expanding service provision, both fall short to take into consideration the extreme poor and disadvantaged; a remarkable weakness in conventional ICT4D programming.

Space Technology Applications for Poverty Alleviation

In this report, Section I discusses poverty alleviation in the context of information, communication, and space technologies; Section II introduces trends and perspectives of relevant space technologies for poverty alleviation; Sections III addresses specific areas of poverty alleviation from a space technology perspective; Section IV discusses the relevant policy environment necessary for making these applications affordable, accessible and useful; and Section V summarizes recommendations made by the Expert Group Meeting on 20-21 August 2003.

UNESCAP Reference No.: ST/ESCAP/2309

Chennai statement on up-scaling pro-poor ICT policies and practices

Upon invitation of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), development practitioners and policy makers met in Chennai, India, from 17-19 November 2004, for a workshop to review experiences in Asia and Africa in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for poverty reduction. The event was organised in coordination with the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), OneWorld South Asia and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

APDIP e-Note 2 - Do Governments Actually Believe that ICT Can Help Alleviate Poverty? A perspective from Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers

This APDIP e-Note examines the treatment of information and communication technologies in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) of Asia-Pacific countries. PRSPs serve as a good starting point because they direct the focus of World Bank and International Monetary Fund concessional lending.