ICT framework

The ICT for Development community is long searching for comprehensive and adequate conceptual frameworks. In 2003, United Nations Regional Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean proposed a three-dimensional conceptual framework that models the transition toward so-called Information Societies as interplay between technology, policy and social change.

This paper presents an approach to understanding information and communication technology-for-development (ICT4D) interventions based around informal learning, where the ongoing process of using ICTs – rather than informational products – is seen as the principal development driver. A conceptual model of informal learning in ICT4D is constructed.

This paper will review recent literature and consider elements and boundary concepts that constitute the ICT4D field. The paper's goal is to review boundary objects (frameworks and participation processes) that have so far been created to aid ICT4D understanding and decision-making, and seek to synthesise these into a framework that goes at least some way to addressing the concerns about this issue.

This article reviews the multidisciplinary literature on ICTD and identifies two perspectives regarding the nature of the ICT innovation process in developing countries—as transfer and diffusion and as socially embedded action—and two perspectives on the development transformation toward which ICT is understood to contribute—progressive transformation and disruptive transformation. The paper then discusses the four discourses formed by combining the perspectives on the nature of IS innovation and on the development transformation.

This paper identifies the most common security objectives being set in ICT enabled solutions for judicial environments; as found in several on-going and finished projects co-funded by the European Union (EU). These objectives are discussed within the context of Justice and the state-of-the-art of Information Security is resented as possible solutions. Finally, a number of security initiatives and organizations which try to standardise solutions and approaches to common challenges are discussed.

This paper explains the phase change – from "ICT4D 1.0" to "ICT4D 2.0" – and its implications. The background to these phases is reviewed, charting the logic and chronology of applying ICTs in developing countries. The implications of the phase change are then analysed. First, in terms of new technology and application priorities. Then, in relation to new models of innovation we may need to embrace: from laboratory to collaborative to grassroots innovation. Next, in relation to new implementation models for funding, managing, and applying digital technology.

Information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) projects can only be considered successful if they lead to some kind of individual, social, or economic development. The benefits of introducing ICT4D projects in developing countries are yet to be realized, particularly those introduced in mountainous and remote areas. This study addresses this knowledge gap by analyzing the Nepal Wireless Networking Project from the mountain areas in Nepal using the assets pentagon model (APM).

The promotion of micro and small-scale enterprises (MSEs) has been recognized as an important strategy for advancing the economic empowerment of women while reducing poverty and gender inequality. Women entrepreneurs are offered new opportunities by ICTs to start and grow businesses. Through new as well as traditional forms of ICTs, women entrepreneurs are reaching out to customers, becoming more efficient and building businesses in ways they could not do before.

Mobile financial services (MFS) are emerging rapidly in the developing world, with over 150 mobile money deployments live and over 110 more planned worldwide at present. Markets such as Tanzania, Bangladesh and Pakistan are realizing success and are potentially able to replicate the widespread adoption of Safaricom’s M-PESA service in Kenya. Others are still works-in-progress, finding mass adoption and scale elusive.