eDevelopment - what's in a name?
News
Dec 14 2001
eDevelopment sounds like it is development through the Internet or ICT-driven development. It is neither. eDevelopment is development that is effective, efficient, and empowering. It is development that uses ICTs to increase people's opportunities, to empower poor people, and to counter insecurity and vulnerability. Its benefits are for everyone, whether connected or not. Peter Ballantyne argues that we need to work for development with ICTs, and not with ICTs for development.
New words, new thinking
Whatever else they influence, new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are having an influence on our language. Where once we traded and wrote letters, we now engage in e-commerce and send e-mail; where once we studied or went to seminars, we now take part in eLearning, participate in e-groups, or join e-meetings. Where countries were measured according to their gross national product or position on the human development index, we now assess their eReadiness.
The new 'E' vocabulary is spreading fast. At a December 2000 DOT Force meeting in Tokyo, the delegate from Cairo joked that his country (e-gypt) was the first to grasp new digital opportunities. In March 2000, leaders of the European Union met in Lisbon to agree an 'eEurope' initiative to bring every European citizen, home, school, business and administration online as quickly as possible. Beyond connectivity, everyone will become digitally literate and the necessary entrepreneurship and innovation will be stimulated to capitalise on the new opportunities of a new economy.
These ideas have also reached the development world. In October 2000, the MIT Media Lab and the Harvard Center for International Development held a one-day conference on 'eDevelopment' (http://edev.media.mit.edu/). In June 2001, a Dutch NGO (http://www.hivos.nl) organised a seminar to debate ICT policy and practice in developing countries and particularly the transition from development cooperation to 'eDevelopment.'
But what exactly are we talking about?
eDevelopment . . . not just development that's digital!
Conventional definitions of the 'E' word suggest that an activity is 'electronic' or digital in nature. Hence, eDevelopment is simply the use of electronic ICTs to help prepare and execute all kinds of development activities, in education, health, agriculture, governance or trade, etc.
This seems to be a clear, straightforward, and self-evident definition that few people will disagree with. However, it hardly justifies a new approach or a new terminology. Nor does it reflect the added value that ICTs are actually bringing to the development process.
Instead of thinking about eDevelopment as something electronic - development that's digital - we should see 'eDevelopment' as a different, and a better, approach to doing development, in which:
If we accept such logic, and define eDevelopment as ICT-enabled ways to do development differently and better, then we need to also re-think what we are doing and how we are doing it.
Instead of working with ICTs for development, we need to work for development with ICTs.
This has several implications:
It means using ICTs to address development challenges - in areas like health, education, food, debt, the environment, income generation, civil participation, and governance. Links to such purposes give the ICTs meaning.
It means focusing on development notions like ownership, partnership, capacity development, demand responsiveness, inclusiveness, and joint action. These principles help ensure that ICTs are sustainable in the longer term.
It means adapting the pace and direction of change to local capacities and cultures and not to the technological potentials on offer. The commitment and capabilities of local people and institutions determine what ICTs actually achieve.
It means investing in people, institutions, incentives, relationships and knowledge. The ICTs are important but not sufficient.
It means mainstreaming ICT applications into development processes; and development thinking and practices into the ICT 'business.' Each needs the other, and can benefit from it.
Of course, eDevelopment requires access to ICTs. But such access, in the digital sense, isn't the whole story. Much more important than actual access to computers or connections to the Internet, poor people need access to the 'non-digital' benefits that eDevelopment can bring - like sufficient food, affordable health care, and opportunities to learn. Of course, connectivity and ICTs can help in this. But they cannot replace appropriate 'pro-poor' sustainable development policies, actions, and delivery mechanisms.
Nevertheless, by thinking and working differently and by making our efforts ICT-enabled, we can get closer to the local needs, demands and capabilities that determine what development can do. By making our efforts more e-ffective, more e-mpowering, and more e-fficient, we can make development sustainable and achieve our anti-poverty development targets.
Whatever else they influence, new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are having an influence on our language. Where once we traded and wrote letters, we now engage in e-commerce and send e-mail; where once we studied or went to seminars, we now take part in eLearning, participate in e-groups, or join e-meetings. Where countries were measured according to their gross national product or position on the human development index, we now assess their eReadiness.
The new 'E' vocabulary is spreading fast. At a December 2000 DOT Force meeting in Tokyo, the delegate from Cairo joked that his country (e-gypt) was the first to grasp new digital opportunities. In March 2000, leaders of the European Union met in Lisbon to agree an 'eEurope' initiative to bring every European citizen, home, school, business and administration online as quickly as possible. Beyond connectivity, everyone will become digitally literate and the necessary entrepreneurship and innovation will be stimulated to capitalise on the new opportunities of a new economy.
These ideas have also reached the development world. In October 2000, the MIT Media Lab and the Harvard Center for International Development held a one-day conference on 'eDevelopment' (http://edev.media.mit.edu/). In June 2001, a Dutch NGO (http://www.hivos.nl) organised a seminar to debate ICT policy and practice in developing countries and particularly the transition from development cooperation to 'eDevelopment.'
But what exactly are we talking about?
eDevelopment . . . not just development that's digital!
Conventional definitions of the 'E' word suggest that an activity is 'electronic' or digital in nature. Hence, eDevelopment is simply the use of electronic ICTs to help prepare and execute all kinds of development activities, in education, health, agriculture, governance or trade, etc.
This seems to be a clear, straightforward, and self-evident definition that few people will disagree with. However, it hardly justifies a new approach or a new terminology. Nor does it reflect the added value that ICTs are actually bringing to the development process.
Instead of thinking about eDevelopment as something electronic - development that's digital - we should see 'eDevelopment' as a different, and a better, approach to doing development, in which:
- E means effective - 'Effective development' results from the use of
ICTs to improve the quality and demand responsiveness of a development
activity, ensuring that goals and objectives are actually achieved.
More effective development is when, for example, forestry researchers
in Ghana use e-mail to share and discuss results and to compare their
findings with peers elsewhere in the world. More effective development
is when local organisations can use ICTs to learn about, discuss and
influence policy and project proposals before they are decided. More
effective development is when teachers use the Internet to prepare and
deliver lessons in poor schools, when farmers consult each other by
e-mail regarding market or disease conditions, and when the advice of
doctors is made available to remote clinics by radio or video links.
Effective development is when development agencies and their partners
use ICTs to quickly and easily exchange lessons and experiences,
formulating more appropriate and demand responsive policies and
projects as a result.
- E means empowering - 'Empowered development' results from the use
of ICTs to strengthen the ability of poor people to shape decisions
that affect their lives and removing discrimination based on gender,
race, ethnicity, and social status. It means using ICTs to make
development more equitable by countering the effects of disability or
disadvantage on an individual or community. Empowered development is
when women's groups use the Internet to collaborate and sell their
crafts. Empowered development is when indigenous peoples link up using
the Internet to campaign for alternative development policies in their
traditional homelands. Empowered development is when the negotiating
capacities of developing countries in international forums like the WTO
are enhanced through access to critical data and information. Empowered
development is where the voices of all interested groups are heard in
policy debates via their access to enhanced communication and
dissemination channels and inclusion in public spaces for debate.
Empowered development is when people in rural areas use ICTs to gain
access to educational and health information and learn about
development proposals in their area. Empowered development is where
citizens check the actions of their elected representatives through
public information services and, if necessary, use ICTs to mobilise
national and international attention to human rights or other
violations.
- E means efficient - 'Efficient development' results from the use of ICTs to deliver intended results in a well-organised and economical manner. More efficient development is when transaction costs are reduced or made less bureaucratic, for example, when complete information of development projects can be quickly located from a database, when a farmer can retrieve local and international market conditions at her gate, or when a citizen finds answers to frequently asked tax or entitlement questions from an e-government web site. Countless other examples result from the use of ICTs to speed up government operations, to track and report on staff, finance and other resources available to organisations, to speed up international financial payments, to support decentralised activity by governments, to assist processes of planning and monitoring, etc. ICTs are also used to make the development process itself more efficient, through quick and easy communication among partners or between widely scattered individuals working together.
If we accept such logic, and define eDevelopment as ICT-enabled ways to do development differently and better, then we need to also re-think what we are doing and how we are doing it.
Instead of working with ICTs for development, we need to work for development with ICTs.
This has several implications:
It means using ICTs to address development challenges - in areas like health, education, food, debt, the environment, income generation, civil participation, and governance. Links to such purposes give the ICTs meaning.
It means focusing on development notions like ownership, partnership, capacity development, demand responsiveness, inclusiveness, and joint action. These principles help ensure that ICTs are sustainable in the longer term.
It means adapting the pace and direction of change to local capacities and cultures and not to the technological potentials on offer. The commitment and capabilities of local people and institutions determine what ICTs actually achieve.
It means investing in people, institutions, incentives, relationships and knowledge. The ICTs are important but not sufficient.
It means mainstreaming ICT applications into development processes; and development thinking and practices into the ICT 'business.' Each needs the other, and can benefit from it.
Of course, eDevelopment requires access to ICTs. But such access, in the digital sense, isn't the whole story. Much more important than actual access to computers or connections to the Internet, poor people need access to the 'non-digital' benefits that eDevelopment can bring - like sufficient food, affordable health care, and opportunities to learn. Of course, connectivity and ICTs can help in this. But they cannot replace appropriate 'pro-poor' sustainable development policies, actions, and delivery mechanisms.
Nevertheless, by thinking and working differently and by making our efforts ICT-enabled, we can get closer to the local needs, demands and capabilities that determine what development can do. By making our efforts more e-ffective, more e-mpowering, and more e-fficient, we can make development sustainable and achieve our anti-poverty development targets.