IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2016 - 37

he global spread of Internet and
mobile communications has been
accompanied by a growing interest
in how information and communication technologies (ICTs) can contribute to social and economic development. There are a considerable
number of such examples in developing countries.
For example, M-Pesa in Kenya allows workers in the
cities to send money back to families living in the
countryside using SMS messages on basic mobile
phones. In Ghana, the Motech project allows community health workers to use feature phones and
network services to track ante-natal (and post-natal)
care with the objective of improving outcomes for
both mothers and babies. Other examples include
Gram Vaani's (GR INS) open-source software for
community radio stations, or Ushahidi's initiatives,
which began with tracking post-electoral violence in
Kenya in 2008 using mobile phones and Google
maps. These examples illustrate different ways of leveraging ICT to improve lives and livelihoods worldwide. Such stories are inspiring many young (and not
so young) researchers and innovators alike to explore how technology might support social and economic development and inclusion in global knowledge exchange.
Few of the researchers involved in such efforts
come from situations and backgrounds where the technology is to be deployed. More typically, researchers
from Western, industrialized, educated, rich, and democratic (WIERD) parts of the world make short visits to
study a situation that they hope to influence, return to
their home base to work on solutions, and return for
further short visits to evaluate designs and prototypes.
It is this kind of "bungee research" that we want to
question [1].
In this work, ICTD refers to Information and Communication Technologies and Development, or Information
and Communication Technologies for Development.
The former construction "and Development" can be
associated with studies of the processes and consequences of technology adoption, whereas the "for
Development" formulation may be more appealing for
engineers, setting the goal of devising technologies and
establishing (socio-)technical interventions to contribute toward development [2]. ICTD is a growing research
field with multiple conferences and journals (e.g., Information Technology for Development, Information
Technology and International Development, the ICTD
conference, the ACM Symposium on Computing for
Development, the IFIP Working Group 9.4 Conference,
the Electronic Journal of Information Systems in
Developing Countries, etc.).
september 2016

∕

Introducing new technologies into social settings
often generates surprises. A classic example has been
the mass market adoption of Short Message Service
(SMS), which was initially conceived as an internal service for mobile phone operator employees to use to
communicate. "At the time it didn't seem like a big
deal," according to Neil Papworth who sent the very first
message [3]. In unfamiliar situations, the potential for
surprising responses is higher. Initially promising interventions are sometimes later found to result in unforeseen and undesirable consequences. Consider the
YayNay app. YayNay was developed as a social tool for
teenagers out shopping to get feedback from friends
about clothes that they were trying on. Early adopters
were very enthusiastic and the developer was negotiating for major investment, until he discovered YayNay
was being used by adult stalkers to collect pictures of
semi-naked children [4]!
Unintended consequences are a common feature of
ICTD. A recent project in Bangladesh introduced smart
cards to pay bus fares with the objective of combating
fraud and reducing waiting times. However, inflating
fares was commonplace and widely accepted, and drivers' wages were very low. Bus drivers could not cope
with the dramatically reduced income that resulted from
the introduction of a cashless payment system. (Before
judging, consider the social norm in North America
where restaurant waiting staff receive very low basic
pay, and generous tipping is a general social obligation
on diners). What seemed like a simple technical change
resulted in significant industrial relations issues [5]. At
times, technology can be a "double-edged sword" for
the same individuals. Wakanuma [6] reports on the
mixed benefits for women using mobile phones in rural
Zambia, describing how husbands used call logs to
monitor and track their wives' contacts.
Unintended consequences and mixed benefits are not
the only issues of concern. Heeks [7] highlights the high
rate of failures of ICTD projects, many of which are initially funded by external donors, but do not have sustainable
financial models. Such projects provide income for technology providers and development consultants, but often
fail to deliver long term benefits for the nominal beneficiaries. Such results promote cynicism and suspicion
about the motivations of donors as well as those implementing such projects.

Getting Clear About 'Development'
Evaluating Development
ICTD is difficult for Engineers because the desired outcome (development) is ultimately a social, rather than a
technical phenomenon. Worse still, "development" lacks
a universally accepted definition. There is often

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2016