"Over the last six years, IICD has facilitated Roundtable processes in each of its nine Country Programmes in Burkina Faso, Bolivia, Ecuador, Ghana, Jamaica, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. A Roundtable workshop is usually the first activity to be held at the start of a Country Programme and, as
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such, represents the first step towards facilitating ICT-enabled development in developing countries. Once a Country Programme is underway, a Roundtable workshop is generally held each time a new sector is added. During the period 1998 to 2003, a total of 22 Roundtable processes were facilitated. They generated ideas for 139 locally owned ICT projects in the health, good governance, education, livelihood opportunities, and environment sectors. This booklet is the result of an evaluation of the Roundtable process between 1998 to 2003 based on quantitative and qualitative indicators. The findings are relevant for all those involved in facilitating ICT for development initiatives, particularly decisionmakers in organisations for development cooperation, local policy-makers, practitioners in organisations working with ICTs for development, and the donor community. Following an introduction to the concept of ICT-enabled development and an acknowledgement of the growing recognition in development circles of the important role that ICTs can play in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, the booklet goes on to describe how the Roundtable process works. The Roundtable process is then placed within the context of the seven guiding principles that guide IICD’s holistic approach to ICT-enabled development: Demand-responsiveness; multi-stakeholder involvement; local ownership; capacity development; partnerships; learning by doing; and embedding ICT projects at the sector level. Empirical examples from different countries are also provided throughout the booklet. The main findings of the evaluation of the Roundtable process are then presented, followed by lessons learned and recommendations." (Foreword)
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"The Rural ICT Toolkit concentrates on the “how to” of implementing rural ICT programs and projects. It is aimed at providing state of the art knowledge and best practice on rural ICT development, basic recommended standards and tools for rural ICT initiatives. Among other things, it summarises
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best practice on rural ICT policy, funding principles & processes, monitoring and evaluation. It provides a basic understanding for technology options available. It offers a framework to select appropriate rural ICT projects, and it explains essentials of demand studies, business plans and socio-economic impact analysis." (Introduction, page 1)
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"Describes the work of Rádio Ecclesia (Luanda) and the ANGONET Wireless Internet Access Project in Huambo." (commbox)
"This publication by the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) highlights initiatives that are using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to make a real and meaningful difference in communities around the world, no matter how disadvantaged or isolated they may be. These stories on Youth, P
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overty and Gender are snapshots of the learning process that accompanies the introduction and implementation of ICTs in a community development project. In publishing these stories, the GKP hopes to share experiences and lessons learned to increase global understanding of how ICTs can be used to tackle poverty, injustice and inequalities. Conceptually, the idea of knowledge sharing and 'storytelling' underpins all of GKP programmes and projects. Good success stories have the ability to inspire and motivate communities. This is what the GKP hopes will happen when we award and recognise communities which have used ICT to uplift and empower themselves. [...] The stories were submitted under three broad categories: Youth, Poverty and Gender. The best among them have been selected for the inaugural GKP Youth Award, the Tony Zeitoun Awards for poverty reduction, and the Gender and ICT Awards. The awards will be presented at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to be held in Geneva in December 2003." (Foreword)
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"This OECD-DAC Donor Information and Communication Technologies Strategies Matrix CD-Rom presents the latest information on how bilateral and multilateral donors [21 OECD countries and 25 multilateral organizations] have mainstreamed information and communication technologies (ICT) in their developm
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ent assistance programmes in order to more effectively and efficiently achieve development goals, particularly the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This new compilation exercise builds on two previous ones: the first was conducted jointly by the OECD-DCD and IDRC in February 2001, the second was carried out by the OECD-DCD in February 2003. This latest version, prepared as a contribution to the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), is not only updated, it is also enriched with the inclusion of a large number of strategy papers and other related documents." (Introduction)
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"Harnessed to its full potential, basic e-mail and Internet facilities can serve as a powerful tool in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. In South-East Asia, UNAIDS has coordinated an infoDev project, a global grant programme funded and managed by the World Bank to promote innovative projects on the use of
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information technologies with a special emphasis on the needs of the poor in developing countries." (Back cover)
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"This evaluation examines the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in development by extracting lessons from previous IDRC project experiences, in order to provide input for the design and implementation of the Acacia program. Acacia explores the investment in, and application o
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f, ICTs by African communities to build local resources to solve development problems. The evaluation also tested the usefulness of the Lanfranco Framework for studying the value of ICTs in development research. ICTs were found to be valuable tools that can help people to gather and analyze information, store and manipulate data, and improve communication. ICTs improved the capability of individuals and institutions to tackle and solve development problems. National ICT policies and legislation, as well as the policies of donor agencies with respect to ICTs, were influenced by project activities, and consultations and lobbying efforts by Centre staff, efforts which were facilitated by email and internet access. Geographic information systems (GIS) projects demonstrated the potential of this technology to encourage planners and communities to take a more holistic view of development problems. Projects emphasized regional training and relied on local capabilities to establish and manage ICT systems. Programme support helped create an information culture and an environment in which people with similar interests could share ideas and were encouraged to form professional associations and informal networks. ICTs were most effective in overcoming barriers of distance and time, with electronic mail and associated list servers being used most often. GIS technologies helped overcome language barriers by presenting complex spatial relationships as more easily understandable maps. Several projects provided access to hardware and software that offered capabilities that were previously inaccessible. By providing improved access, enhanced sharing, and timely delivery of information, ICTs empowered people to take action. Projects were able to create a culture of communication and were most effective in this role when information was tailored to the needs of users. When jobs and economic activity were created, they were in most cases in the information and communication sector. Use of ICT is expanding in Africa. It is important that government policies and regulations with regard to telecommunications anticipate this coming tide and that development activities take advantage of opportunities presented by ICTs. These technologies can alter the perception of development problems, provide opportunities for improved communications, deliver information quickly and inexpensively over great distance, and offer the potential to enhance regional collaboration to address common problems. To realize these potentials, close collaboration with communities and appropriate packaging of information products will be crucial." (Review by IDRC Evaluation team, evaluation@idrc.ca; www.idrc.ca/evaluation, cited from the "Annotated Bibliography of Evaluations in Africa": http://www.geocities.com/afreval/documents/education.htm, 10.04.2007)
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