Research: ICT Innovations for Poverty Reduction

This 101-page paper offers comparative research of local initiatives in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for poverty reduction spread across a range of communities in South Asia, including: Uva, Sri Lanka; Tansen, Nepal; Sitakund, Bangaldesh; and Baduria and Darjeeling (West Bengal), Seelampur (New Delhi), Budikote (Karnataka) and Chennai, Cuddalore and Kancheepuram (Tamil Nadu), India.

The initiatives are part of a regional pilot project "ICTs in the Hands of the Poor" supported by UNESCO. They were led by different institutions including NGOs, universities, private companies, media and technology groups in addition to over a thousand people from host communities.

The project is described as using "ethnographic action research" which seeks to find insights into the many complex issues that surround questions of using ICT to reduce poverty. In the publication, the authors describe the importance of information and communication for poverty reduction as "strongly felt" but suggest that little evidence exists as to how ICTs can be used to respond to the needs of the poor "in their specific communicative ecologies." One of the main goals of this project is to try to address this gap.

In the preface of this book, W. Jayaweera, Director of UNESCO's Communication Development Division states:
"When we began this work, we asked ourselves "If technology is the answer, what was the question?" Our investigation has been framed around assessing whether and in what ways and under what circumstances ICTs are a useful tool for poor."

According to the report, findings "do provide substantial insights to the relevance of ICTs based interventions for poverty reduction." There is discussion on the use of ICTs in varied socio-economic contexts, the roles they can play towards reducing poverty and the impacts they can have on a more overarching process of empowerment.