IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2016 - 38

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FIguRe 1. Sign support enables Deaf and non-Deaf users to conduct structured conversations around specific scenarios.

ambiguity about whether "development" refers to an
observable process that is naturally occurring within
societies, or whether "development" refers to active
interventions designed to move social conditions in particular directions. From either perspective, questions
arise about what evaluation parameters to use.
A view that was dominant and is still highly influential, links development primarily with economic growth,
as measured by income/GDP/GNP. Perspectives such as
"sustainable development" highlight how these simple
financial measures ignore the damage that so-called
developed countries can cause to the global environment, and how people's life conditions can deteriorate
despite increases in cash income. Purely financial
views have also been criticized as neo-colonial for
imposing models and policies on "developing" countries that are determined by the rich "developed" countries, and are shaped as much (or more) by donor
interests rather than the interests and aspirations of the
supposed beneficiaries.
"Human Development" advocates alternate metrics
such as the Human Development Index (HDI), taking
into account life expectancy, education, and income.
The HDI was important in framing the United Nations'
(U.N.'s) eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
that targeted: poverty, education, gender equality, child
mortality, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, environmental
sustainability, and global partnership. The range of
parameters has been broadened further in the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the U.N. in 2015.

A growing perspective is the ''capabilities" approach,
which views development in terms of the freedom of
people to live lives they have reason to value [8], [9]. The
capabilities approach argues that ultimately our lives
improve when we have more opportunities and choices
and are able to take advantage of those choices. Poor
health, poverty, lack of education, environmental damage, etc. are all factors that limit such freedom, but so
are oppression, discrimination, and exclusion from decision making. The capabilities approach emphasizes the
rights and capacities of people to participate in shaping
their own futures at individual, family, community,
regional, national, and international levels. When development is understood in these broader terms, the question of how ICTD researchers and engineers interact
with the communities they claim to be supporting
demands careful scrutiny. If development is about people's self-determination, then the processes used in
ICTD must promote rather than subvert local capacities
for problem solving and innovation.

Evaluating ICTD Research
Heeks [7] highlights the high frequency of failure in ICTD
initiatives, and attributes these failures to "design-reality
gaps" arising because decision makers and engineers
lack sufficient understanding of context. To understand
the context of use for ICTD, it is common for researchers
and engineers to conduct field study visits to inform
their research and design. Much of this work, particularly
in research, involves short visits by external researchers

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september 2016

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