The last few years have seen a rapid increase in the discussion of the role of new technologies in strengthening social safety nets. However, the hypothesis that technology design is intertwined with political agendas - aiming at instilling specific visions and policy objectives in anti-poverty programmes - has remained to a large extent unexplored, being either taken as implicit or neglected by technical discourse. In this paper, we look at computerization of a large food security programme - the Public Distribution System in Karnataka, India - to argue that technology, far from simply affecting the functioning of existing processes, can be built to advance specific political agendas, which carry clear stances on the ways in which social welfare targets are to be reached. However, recipients' perception of these programmes depends highly on how technology affects access to their entitlements, which need therefore to be set at the core of anti-poverty technology design. The case study is used to draw lessons for policy, specifically aimed at countries embarking into computerization of their social safety nets.
{"title":"The politics of anti-poverty artefacts: lessons from the computerization of the food security system in Karnataka","authors":"S. Masiero, A. Prakash","doi":"10.1145/2737856.2738011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2737856.2738011","url":null,"abstract":"The last few years have seen a rapid increase in the discussion of the role of new technologies in strengthening social safety nets. However, the hypothesis that technology design is intertwined with political agendas - aiming at instilling specific visions and policy objectives in anti-poverty programmes - has remained to a large extent unexplored, being either taken as implicit or neglected by technical discourse. In this paper, we look at computerization of a large food security programme - the Public Distribution System in Karnataka, India - to argue that technology, far from simply affecting the functioning of existing processes, can be built to advance specific political agendas, which carry clear stances on the ways in which social welfare targets are to be reached. However, recipients' perception of these programmes depends highly on how technology affects access to their entitlements, which need therefore to be set at the core of anti-poverty technology design. The case study is used to draw lessons for policy, specifically aimed at countries embarking into computerization of their social safety nets.","PeriodicalId":210700,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126200746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Computerised clinical practice guidelines are a key component of effective clinical decision support systems, especially in low-resource regions such as Malawi. To address shortages in staffing and budgets for training, the practice of task-shifting, the clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) enable health workers with limited training to provide a standardised level of care. However, CPGs are tradition-ally paper-based, with only a few CPGs having been computerised for Malawi's national electronic health record system. These CPGs have been hard-coded into the system, necessitating significant additional work to add support for future and revised CPGs. We further investigate CPG computerisation challenges in order to understand the motivations for the current computerised CPGs implementation. We use semi-structured interviews, code reviews, and observations in Malawi. Most significantly, we extend existing understanding of software engineering principles to the context of low-resource environments, noting that the tensions between conflicting stakeholder requirements, deadline and deliverable expectations, and good software engineering often result in systems that are harder to maintain, further exacerbating potential problems with longevity of ICTD deployments. We further suggest that a component-based approach in conjunction with communities of open source developers might help alleviate this problem by providing more scalable and robust CPG support.
{"title":"Towards an architectural design of a guideline-driven EMR system: a contextual inquiry of Malawi","authors":"Y. Msosa, Melissa Densmore, C. Keet","doi":"10.1145/2737856.2737899","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2737856.2737899","url":null,"abstract":"Computerised clinical practice guidelines are a key component of effective clinical decision support systems, especially in low-resource regions such as Malawi. To address shortages in staffing and budgets for training, the practice of task-shifting, the clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) enable health workers with limited training to provide a standardised level of care. However, CPGs are tradition-ally paper-based, with only a few CPGs having been computerised for Malawi's national electronic health record system. These CPGs have been hard-coded into the system, necessitating significant additional work to add support for future and revised CPGs. We further investigate CPG computerisation challenges in order to understand the motivations for the current computerised CPGs implementation. We use semi-structured interviews, code reviews, and observations in Malawi. Most significantly, we extend existing understanding of software engineering principles to the context of low-resource environments, noting that the tensions between conflicting stakeholder requirements, deadline and deliverable expectations, and good software engineering often result in systems that are harder to maintain, further exacerbating potential problems with longevity of ICTD deployments. We further suggest that a component-based approach in conjunction with communities of open source developers might help alleviate this problem by providing more scalable and robust CPG support.","PeriodicalId":210700,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116968884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The power of crowd-sourced social data can be combined with the precision of formal on-the-ground observations in a way that is of benefit to social causes in civil society. To do this, we are developing technological platforms, human and social processes and the underlying creative abilities to leverage social media and formal observer networks to enhance and promote social causes in developing countries. In our previous work, we highlighted the importance of social media aggregation for election monitoring using our technological platform, Aggie, for elections in Nigeria, Liberia, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. In this case study, we seek to introduce new insight by sharing our experiences and understanding on leveraging formal observation techniques in validating and reinforcing the veracity of real time aggregated social media generated reports [10]. In this paper, we will treat election monitoring as an instance of civic management.
{"title":"Social media fostering social good: a case of election monitoring in Nigeria","authors":"Paul O. Lazarus, Tulika A. Saraf","doi":"10.1145/2737856.2737902","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2737856.2737902","url":null,"abstract":"The power of crowd-sourced social data can be combined with the precision of formal on-the-ground observations in a way that is of benefit to social causes in civil society. To do this, we are developing technological platforms, human and social processes and the underlying creative abilities to leverage social media and formal observer networks to enhance and promote social causes in developing countries. In our previous work, we highlighted the importance of social media aggregation for election monitoring using our technological platform, Aggie, for elections in Nigeria, Liberia, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. In this case study, we seek to introduce new insight by sharing our experiences and understanding on leveraging formal observation techniques in validating and reinforcing the veracity of real time aggregated social media generated reports [10]. In this paper, we will treat election monitoring as an instance of civic management.","PeriodicalId":210700,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134548182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Syed Fahad Sultasn, Hamza Humayun, Umar Nadeem, Z. Bhatti, Sohaib Khan
Average mobile phone price of a region's residents has not been explored as a proxy variable for socio-economic indicators in development literature. Using handset models from mobile data logs of a telecom operator, we calculate average phone prices of subscribers at each cell tower, and then find their relationship with indicators from preexisting census data. Our results show that average phone price correlates well (absolute Pearson's correlation coefficient > 0.35 and p-value < 0.01) with indicators of accessibility to services, infrastructure, hygiene and communication, but does not correlate well with literacy variables.
{"title":"Mobile phone price as a proxy for socio-economic indicators","authors":"Syed Fahad Sultasn, Hamza Humayun, Umar Nadeem, Z. Bhatti, Sohaib Khan","doi":"10.1145/2737856.2737892","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2737856.2737892","url":null,"abstract":"Average mobile phone price of a region's residents has not been explored as a proxy variable for socio-economic indicators in development literature. Using handset models from mobile data logs of a telecom operator, we calculate average phone prices of subscribers at each cell tower, and then find their relationship with indicators from preexisting census data. Our results show that average phone price correlates well (absolute Pearson's correlation coefficient > 0.35 and p-value < 0.01) with indicators of accessibility to services, infrastructure, hygiene and communication, but does not correlate well with literacy variables.","PeriodicalId":210700,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134282118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study argues that enabling policy environments on ICT instituted by the Government of Bangladesh over the past six years may not have necessarily improved digital inclusion, particularly with respect to women. Rather, the digital inclusion of women is facilitated by both the individual's socio-demographic context (age, education and experience) and the citizenship status of her local community in ethnic and religious terms as well as its proximity to the capital. The study compares ICT access and usage among men and women in the ICT telecentres of purposively chosen villages. Field observations were conducted in the first village (Kapasia, Gazipur, Dhaka Division) from June to July 2014 and in the second village (Sharsha, Jessore, Khulna Division) from August to September 2014. Twenty men and women from each village were interviewed in-depth along with opinion and political leaders. Data analysis and interpretation are still ongoing.
{"title":"Women's inclusion in digital Bangladesh","authors":"J. W. Genilo, Marium Akther, M. Haque","doi":"10.1145/2737856.2737857","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2737856.2737857","url":null,"abstract":"This study argues that enabling policy environments on ICT instituted by the Government of Bangladesh over the past six years may not have necessarily improved digital inclusion, particularly with respect to women. Rather, the digital inclusion of women is facilitated by both the individual's socio-demographic context (age, education and experience) and the citizenship status of her local community in ethnic and religious terms as well as its proximity to the capital. The study compares ICT access and usage among men and women in the ICT telecentres of purposively chosen villages. Field observations were conducted in the first village (Kapasia, Gazipur, Dhaka Division) from June to July 2014 and in the second village (Sharsha, Jessore, Khulna Division) from August to September 2014. Twenty men and women from each village were interviewed in-depth along with opinion and political leaders. Data analysis and interpretation are still ongoing.","PeriodicalId":210700,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132546306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Citizen feedback on the implementation of social welfare schemes can help fine tune their design, understand problems, and assess the benefits and impact from these schemes. Such feedback loops however are singularly missing in most schemes in India, and are conveyed only indirectly via civil society and social audit organisations that try to serve as a bridge between citizens and the government. We leverage the deep penetration of mobile phones in India to design a suite of IVR (Interactive Voice Response) tools that can help capture community perceptions, improve awareness of the people, and verify official records directly by the beneficiaries themselves. In the context of a rural employment guarantee scheme, we evaluate these tools in a few villages in the state of Haryana and demonstrate that there is good scope for using IVR tools to serve as a citizen engagement channel for welfare schemes. Our contribution lies in outlining several use-cases for technology interventions, and uncovering nuances that should be addressed if such systems are integrated into the implementation of social welfare schemes.
{"title":"Building citizen engagement into the implementation of welfare schemes in rural India","authors":"D. Chakraborty, Aaditeshwar Seth","doi":"10.1145/2737856.2738027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2737856.2738027","url":null,"abstract":"Citizen feedback on the implementation of social welfare schemes can help fine tune their design, understand problems, and assess the benefits and impact from these schemes. Such feedback loops however are singularly missing in most schemes in India, and are conveyed only indirectly via civil society and social audit organisations that try to serve as a bridge between citizens and the government. We leverage the deep penetration of mobile phones in India to design a suite of IVR (Interactive Voice Response) tools that can help capture community perceptions, improve awareness of the people, and verify official records directly by the beneficiaries themselves. In the context of a rural employment guarantee scheme, we evaluate these tools in a few villages in the state of Haryana and demonstrate that there is good scope for using IVR tools to serve as a citizen engagement channel for welfare schemes. Our contribution lies in outlining several use-cases for technology interventions, and uncovering nuances that should be addressed if such systems are integrated into the implementation of social welfare schemes.","PeriodicalId":210700,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124900604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Regular, granular, digital data may be considered a 'holy grail' in development--allowing regular course correction, systematic learning and knowledge generation, performance management, remote monitoring, on-demand reports, unprecedented accountability and transparency, and even remote service provision & feedback. Till now, however, supply of such data has been severely constrained -- so development organizations have evolved systems designed to work in data scarcity, such as extensive planning and to-the-point implementation, elaborate monitoring systems, and logframe-based static evaluation methods. As a result of the proliferation of ICTs, a steady flow of high-frequency, high-fidelity data about beneficiaries and impact is now possible at low marginal cost. However, the development sector is yet to fully absorb and realize the potential of ICT-generated data in making itself more efficient and agile, due to the friction that occurs with processes designed for an analog world. This paper therefore argues that demand side constraints must be addressed before the abundant supply of data can be optimally utilized for making development more impactful.
{"title":"Use of digital data in development decision-making: an economic analysis","authors":"Rubayat Khan","doi":"10.1145/2737856.2737891","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2737856.2737891","url":null,"abstract":"Regular, granular, digital data may be considered a 'holy grail' in development--allowing regular course correction, systematic learning and knowledge generation, performance management, remote monitoring, on-demand reports, unprecedented accountability and transparency, and even remote service provision & feedback. Till now, however, supply of such data has been severely constrained -- so development organizations have evolved systems designed to work in data scarcity, such as extensive planning and to-the-point implementation, elaborate monitoring systems, and logframe-based static evaluation methods. As a result of the proliferation of ICTs, a steady flow of high-frequency, high-fidelity data about beneficiaries and impact is now possible at low marginal cost. However, the development sector is yet to fully absorb and realize the potential of ICT-generated data in making itself more efficient and agile, due to the friction that occurs with processes designed for an analog world. This paper therefore argues that demand side constraints must be addressed before the abundant supply of data can be optimally utilized for making development more impactful.","PeriodicalId":210700,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117128704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Numerous case studies have shown that ICTD projects lacked critical monitoring, sustainability and scalability, and were mostly anecdotal in nature. As a result, investors and stakeholders have increasingly required the proof-of-concept provided by a promising or successful pilot project, in order to convince them to invest in larger projects that will have greater impact on more communities. Scalability assessment aims to guide how and why a project should be replicated based on the success of the project. This assessment should be based on a comprehensive evaluation of the ICTD project, which can provide an indication of the level of success of that project throughout its life, and post-implementation or some aspects of an ICTD initiative. The question is then, how can the scalability of an ICTD project be assessed based on a comprehensive evaluation, and taking into consideration the impact and potential sustainability of a project, and imperative factors for up-scaling.
{"title":"A comprehensive approach to scalability assessment of ICTD projects: an ICT4RED case development","authors":"G. Baduza, Caroline Khene","doi":"10.1145/2737856.2737894","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2737856.2737894","url":null,"abstract":"Numerous case studies have shown that ICTD projects lacked critical monitoring, sustainability and scalability, and were mostly anecdotal in nature. As a result, investors and stakeholders have increasingly required the proof-of-concept provided by a promising or successful pilot project, in order to convince them to invest in larger projects that will have greater impact on more communities. Scalability assessment aims to guide how and why a project should be replicated based on the success of the project. This assessment should be based on a comprehensive evaluation of the ICTD project, which can provide an indication of the level of success of that project throughout its life, and post-implementation or some aspects of an ICTD initiative. The question is then, how can the scalability of an ICTD project be assessed based on a comprehensive evaluation, and taking into consideration the impact and potential sustainability of a project, and imperative factors for up-scaling.","PeriodicalId":210700,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126270771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
At the beginning of an ICT4D project where mobile phones will be used, the question that researchers and practitioners ponder is: what mobile device will be best for the project? In this paper, we present guidelines for making this choice, based on lessons drawn from a review of 30 ICT4D projects, and the reflection of our own work with Community Health Workers in Lesotho in the last four years, during which we used three types of devices in the field. We discuss the considerations that can guide the process of selecting the best device or mobile platform for each project and context, and discuss the recent upsurge of smartphone preference over feature phones in ICT4D projects, and the factors to consider when selecting smartphones for fieldwork.
{"title":"How to choose a mobile phone for an ICT4D project","authors":"Maletsabisa Molapo, Melissa Densmore","doi":"10.1145/2737856.2737897","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2737856.2737897","url":null,"abstract":"At the beginning of an ICT4D project where mobile phones will be used, the question that researchers and practitioners ponder is: what mobile device will be best for the project? In this paper, we present guidelines for making this choice, based on lessons drawn from a review of 30 ICT4D projects, and the reflection of our own work with Community Health Workers in Lesotho in the last four years, during which we used three types of devices in the field. We discuss the considerations that can guide the process of selecting the best device or mobile platform for each project and context, and discuss the recent upsurge of smartphone preference over feature phones in ICT4D projects, and the factors to consider when selecting smartphones for fieldwork.","PeriodicalId":210700,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134147169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
C. Steinfield, Susan Wyche, Tian Cai, Hastings Chiwasa
A survey of 191 randomly selected rural farm households in central Malawi was completed to provide a better estimate of mobile phone access in a country that falls at the lower end of published mobile subscription rates. We further ask whether there remains evidence of a mobile divide, across both socio-economic status and gender, in such a context. Detailed analyses of mobile phone ownership, usage practices, and the sources that phone and non-phone owners use for farming-relevant information highlight problems with the current over-reliance on mobile phones as a primary conduit for agricultural information and services.
{"title":"The mobile divide revisited: mobile phone use by smallholder farmers in Malawi","authors":"C. Steinfield, Susan Wyche, Tian Cai, Hastings Chiwasa","doi":"10.1145/2737856.2738022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2737856.2738022","url":null,"abstract":"A survey of 191 randomly selected rural farm households in central Malawi was completed to provide a better estimate of mobile phone access in a country that falls at the lower end of published mobile subscription rates. We further ask whether there remains evidence of a mobile divide, across both socio-economic status and gender, in such a context. Detailed analyses of mobile phone ownership, usage practices, and the sources that phone and non-phone owners use for farming-relevant information highlight problems with the current over-reliance on mobile phones as a primary conduit for agricultural information and services.","PeriodicalId":210700,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134546058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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