Minding the Design Reality Gap

This paper focuses on evaluating an information and communication technology (ICT) intervention promoted as a pro-poor telecentre initiative in rural Ghana. Our evaluative tool is the Design Reality Gap (DRG) framework used to analyse the Community Information Centre (CIC) initiative in Ghana. Data were collected through a qualitative multi-site case study. By tracing the linkages between the investment and outcomes, we found a worrying trend of failed implementations and sustainability, although implementers did sustain efforts at planning new initiatives. Based on the findings, we argue that the CIC initiative in Ghana is a failing ICT intervention. We also found that the tailored DRG approach allowed us to tease out the nuances that account for the CICs' status. We conclude by proposing gap closure measures for the failing intervention. This paper contributes to ICT evaluations by demonstrating the utility of the DRG framework in evaluating one of the most significant pro-poor ICT initiatives in lower-to-middle-income communities: telecentres. This research also contributes to the current ICT literature by enhancing our current knowledge about publicly accessible ICT facilities in an under-investigated setting, and further offers an approach to telecentre evaluations in similar contexts inspired by the DRG model.