[Ict4women] New IIED briefing paper: towards inclusive information technologies

[Sophia Huyer]

 From Bytesforall

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mike Shanahan <mike.shanahan at iied.org>
Date: 2009/4/24
Subject: New IIED briefing paper: towards inclusive information  
technologies
To: Mike Shanahan <mike.shanahan at iied.org>

Dear all

The International Institute for Environment and Development has
published a new briefing paper on information and communications
technologies and development in the global South.

Village voice: towards inclusive information technologies

Summary: A decade ago it was dubbed the ‘digital divide’. Now, the gap
in information and communications technologies (ICTs) between North
and South is slowly shrinking. The developing world accounts for
two-thirds of total mobile phone subscriptions, and Africa has the
world’s fastest growing mobile phone market. By gaining a toehold in
affordable ICTs, the poor can access the knowledge and services they
need, such as real-time market prices, to boost their livelihoods. But
to be sustainable, technologies need to factor in social realities.
These include how people already share knowledge, and adapt to
introduced technologies: mobile phones, for instance, confer status
but can eat into much-needed income. Many development agencies opt for
technology-led solutions that fail to ‘take’. Participatory approaches
that keep development concerns at their core and people as their
central focus are key.

Download the 4-page briefing as a pdf:
http://www.iied.org/pubs/pdfs/17051IIED.pdf

Contact the author, Ben Garside at ben.garside at iied.org or Tel: 44 (0)
207 388 2117

Best wishes

Mike

Mike Shanahan

Press officer

International Institute for Environment and Development

3 Endsleigh Street

London WC1H 0DD

Tel: 44 (0) 207 388 2117

Fax: 44 (0) 207 388 2826

Email: mike.shanahan at iied.org

www.iied.org

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