[UgaBYTES] Discussion; Poverty Eradication and Financial Crisis- Are ICT4D playing a positive role in addressing these issues?

[Sandra Nassali]

Thanks Kiringai for your contribution...its been very knowledgeable

Regards

On 6/2/09, Kiringai Kamau <kiringai at willpower.co.ke> wrote:
> Sandra,
>
> Poverty is complex to understand, which explains why it is difficult to
> reduce, with or without technology. A major challenge to economists is to
> define what poverty is. You will therefore have it addressed from a variety
> of angles or metrics. If you use the finance metric, then you can talk of
> the famous 'one dollar a day' as a standard. When you use the nutrition
> metric, then you will have the number of kilo calories one must consume as
> the standard etc. As such when you come up with a discussion on using ICT to
> address poverty and the financial crisis, a number of assumptions will have
> to be made.  My assumption is that the target beneficiaries of pro-poor
> interventions affected by the financial crisis are not the poor that you
> encounter in rural areas, but rather those that you encounter in policy
> documents. There is always a variance in the two categories. Documents are
> for reading by policy developers and their financiers, while the poor face
> hunger and starvation and hardly get the resources targeted for them as we
> read in the policy documents- there is no infrastructure to reach them and
> no one bothers.
>
>
>
> Having highlighted the foregoing, I feel confident that whatever I write
> falls within the ambit of this discussion and hence feel comfortable
> sympathising with economists when they seek to explain how some economies
> manages to sustain in the face of so much mismanagement. Academic assessment
> of the economic parameters just do not explain how poorly managed economies
> never grind to a halt like was seen in the case of the American economy. Do
> we have a study to read from this and evolve our ICT4D to suit a model that
> is not internationally universal?
>
>
>
> I lived in Kenya when the economy was supported by the micro-economy which
> made non-sense of documented macro-economic standards. Very recently (may be
> even now), the economy of Zimbabwe beat any logical reason on how such an
> economy has managed to survive with an inflation rate that baffled even the
> new-paper reporters that told the story!.
>
>
>
> The line of argument here is that when looking at poverty; choose very
> wisely what lenses you use to assess poverty is. The financial meltdown,
> crisis or whatever baptismal name you give it, does affect the wealth
> creating institutions that rely on external linkages. Most of the poor
> rarely interact with the world outside their local area. If you wanted to
> create wealth for those who are poor therefore, the choice of the solutions
> is limited to what the affected, the poor can embrace. No external solution
> can help address local poverty situations. Some ground work will have to be
> done to define poverty, describe the approach to study it, then look at how
> to design solutions to alleviate or ameliorate the same.
>
>
>
> My experience is that the development sector has had so many models designed
> 'out there' on how to address poverty yet the only visible has been more
> poverty with each dollar spent. We have seen more expatriate jobs and more
> PhDs churned out of Africa and other developing economies than there have
> been impact in addressing poverty.
>
>
>
> If ICT has to be used to address poverty, then the first step should be to
> create a database of anti-poverty projects, the people responsible for
> ensuring the achievement of outcomes and the outcomes that they realise. At
> the beginning of the project, it would be desirable to specify which poverty
> metrics are to be focused on. Performance of the project should be tied to
> assessable parameters and the assessment undertaken by the beneficiaries
> rather than consultants hired from the funders.
>
>
>
> What I am trying to say is that the design of pro-poor programmes needs to
> be undertaken with the beneficiaries in mind or in participation. It is
> critical that such programmes be evolved around localised institutional
> frameworks that promote value addition of local resources such as natural
> resources, crops, or livestock.
>
>
>
> Designing of ICT4D initiatives should then be integrated into the
> institutional frameworks and their design based on the collective action of
> the pro-poor institutions with a view to help them aggregate their resources
> for wealth creation.
>
>
>
> I have worked on microfinance models, their automation and now engaged with
> agricultural value chains and I am convinced that no pro-poor solution works
> better than when you integrate agricultural value addition to wealth
> creation initiatives. I am definitely a champion of the integration of ICT4D
> as exemplified by the growing number of producer cooperatives using my
> technologies but the fights I always face from vested interests of donor
> programmes seeking to oust our efforts have been awesome.
>
>
>
> Kiringai Kamau
>
> Founder and Value Chain Analyst
>
> VACID Africa
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org
> [mailto:ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org] On Behalf Of Sandra Nassali
> Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 12:56 PM
> To: UgaBYTES
> Subject: [UgaBYTES] Discussion; Poverty Eradication and Financial Crisis-
> Are ICT4D playing a positive role in addressing these issues?
>
>
>
> The elimination and ultimate eradication of poverty is one of the most
>
> urgent and compelling goals for the world community today. Thus raising the
>
> standard of living of the world's impoverished people is of paramount
>
> priority to all, i.e. from individual level to community, country, region or
>
> global level.
>
>
>
>
>
>  ICTs are known and believed to play a pivotal role by helping to fill gaps
>
> in local access to vital resources and information to enable individuals to
>
> elevate themselves out of the poverty cycle. However, some of these
>
> deliverables are not clear given the fact that current evidence shows that
>
> they influence income disparities so in rapid economic growth situations,
>
> the level of inequality is cushioned by expansion.
>
>
>
>
>
>  Today. the whole world is being affected by the economic crunch. Though it
>
> may not appear apparent, its real as we have witnessed big wigs in terms of
>
> companies/organizations in the business world collapsing. The standards of
>
> living are also declining everywhere and though ICT4D are meant to fight
>
> such occurrences, some are being taken along the drain instead.
>
>
>
>
>
>  The purpose of this thread is to identify ideas and suggestions from the
>
> community on how telecentres/ ICT4D can contribute with clear deliverables
>
> to progress on the issue of "*Poverty eradication and financial crisis*"
>
>
>
>
>
>  Share with us your opinions.....we shall be glad to hear from you
>
>
>
>
>
>  Thank you
>
> --
>
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>
>
> Sandra Nassali
>
> Community Facilitator
>
> UgaBYTES Initiative (www.ugabytes.org)
>
> Telecentre.org  (www.telecentrecommunity.ning.com)
>
> Plot 2218 Ggaba Road,
>
> 2nd Floor Kangave House
>
> P.O. Box 6081 K'la
>
> Email  snassali at ugabytes.org
>
> chat    (skype)- n.sandra.
>
> Tel      +256-414-370163
>
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Join the telecentre.org BLOG Contest for a chance to win recognition
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Sandra Nassali
Community Facilitator
UgaBYTES Initiative (www.ugabytes.org)
Telecentre.org  (www.telecentrecommunity.ning.com)
Plot 2218 Ggaba Road,
2nd Floor Kangave House
P.O. Box 6081 K'la
Email  snassali at ugabytes.org
chat    (skype)- n.sandra.
Tel      +256-414-370163