Catalyzing Development through ICT Adoption: The Developing World Experience

292 Pages·2017·4.3 MB·English

by  Harleen Kaur

Harleen Kaur
Ewa Lechman
Adam Marszk Editors
Catalyzing
Development
through ICT
Adoption
The Developing World Experience
Catalyzing Development through ICT Adoption
Harleen Kaur • Ewa Lechman • Adam Marszk
Editors
Catalyzing Development
through ICT Adoption
The Developing World Experience
Editors
Harleen Kaur Ewa Lechman
Department of Computer Science and Faculty of Management and Economics
Engineering Gdańsk University of Technology
School of Engineering Sciences Gdańsk, Poland
and Technology
Hamdard University
New Delhi, India
Adam Marszk
Faculty of Management and Economics
Gdańsk University of Technology
Gdańsk, Poland
ISBN 978-3-319-56522-4 ISBN 978-3-319-56523-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56523-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017942941
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Foreword
This is the second year since the adoption of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) by world leaders in September 2015 at a historic United Nations Summit.
Over the next 15 years, countries will mobilize total efforts to end all forms of pov-
erty, fight inequalities, and tackle climate change. Information and communication
technologies (ICTs) have the potential to accelerate socio-economic development of
all countries in support of the 2030 development agenda for sustainable
development.
Today, seven billion people (95% of the global population) live in an area that is
covered by a mobile-cellular network. Mobile-broadband networks (3G or above)
reach 84% of the global population. Over two-thirds of the population lives within
an area covered by a mobile-broadband network. Information and communication
technology services are increasingly becoming more affordable. For instance,
mobile-broadband services have become more affordable than fixed-broadband ser-
vices. By end of 2015, average mobile-broadband prices corresponded to 5.5% of
gross national income per capita worldwide. Although in the developing world,
more than half of all people are not yet using the Internet and there exists large dif-
ferences in terms of broadband speeds and quality, the situation in terms of ICT
adoption is improving.
The progress being made has significant impact in the developing world in edu-
cation, health, agriculture, commerce, and almost every facet of human life. Even in
the world’s 48 least developed countries, there is a new wave of hope and adoption
of the latest ICT services and applications that include the use of Big Data to miti-
gate epidemics and road network planning. Financial inclusion is also on top of the
agenda and is playing a key role for the development of these countries as it extends
services at affordable cost to sections and low-income segments of society.
I have no doubt that the stage is already set for catalyzing development through
ICT adoption. Policy makers and telecommunication regulators are encouraged to,
however, create an enabling environment in order to encourage the private sector to
invest into the ICT sector and get more and more people to have easy access to ICT
and to develop the necessary skills that will enable them to fully use these new tools.
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Capacity building remains a key success factor as new technologies are constantly
introduced into the market such as Big Data, Internet of Things, and Artificial
Intelligence. These technologies have immense potential to accelerate economic
growth that in turn could result in most countries achieving the targets of the 2030
sustainable agenda covering economic, social development, and environmental
protection.
Cosmas Zavazava
Projects and Knowledge Management
International Telecommunication Union (UN) (ITU)
Geneva, Switzerland
Preface
The Context
Recently, the world has witnessed unprecedented advancements in terms of
speed and geographical coverage and diffusion of information and communica-
tion technologies (ICTs). Broad empirical evidence shows that even the most
economically backward countries are adopting ICTs to eradicate their techno-
logical deprivation.
ICTs are universally acknowledged as a powerful tool for development and
are often promoted as pivotal to bringing about social and economic growth. The
revolutionary feature of modern ICTs – mainly the Internet and mobile tele-
phony – facilitates low cost and speedy interaction among network participants.
The full potential of new technologies can be easily unleashed when they are
deployed as an economic development accelerator in least developed countries.
ICTs bring to developing markets new business models, innovations, capital-
labor substitution, and improved goods and services. Because they can spread
rapidly, with little cost and minimal skills required for usage, ICTs create a solid
background for social and economic gains. They enable significant reduction in
information asymmetries, which improves access to economic activities for a
multitude of agents, fostering participation, inter alia, in labor market of disad-
vantaged societal groups.
The adoption of ICTs creates better conditions for education and skills improve-
ment, allows overcoming barriers for disadvantaged groups, brings about empower-
ment, and paves the way to tap the global market of goods and services. ICTs
enhance shifts from traditional to modern forms of conducting business and provide
the necessary impetus to usher in an industrial revolution.
Regardless of all the abovementioned facts, information and communication
technologies’ impact on economies’ performance is claimed to exhibit in the long-
run perspective, and – in addition – their real impact is limited and hardly quantifi-
able. Therefore, after almost two decades of rapid diffusion of ICT in the developing
world, it becomes imperative to assess the real consequences of adoption of ICTs in
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economically backward countries. Broad, real-world-based evidence would provide
a better understanding of the precise nature of new technologies and their impact on
a country’s economy and society.
The recent years have witnessed the role of ICTs in influencing the socioeco-
nomic context in many countries. Despite that, in many regions, a significant pro-
portion of the population does not have access to clean water, sanitation, basic
health services, infrastructure, and proper education. The mission of this book is to
explain how ICTs provide novel opportunities for information interchange and tech-
nology transfer and escalate socioeconomic development in the developing world.
ICT can be pivotal to building a transparent and all-inclusive society. This being
said, integration poses challenges that are not easy to overcome, and so strategic and
holistic approaches are needed to realize the full potential of these advancements in
technologies to reform governance and transform public agencies and services. The
gap is especially wide because policy makers and government agencies view ICT as
an add-on technical fix, while ICT specialists fail to speak the mainstream develop-
ment language. Our thoughts are that policy makers and technology specialists must
communicate across the divide and manage the transformations brought about by a
new paradigm.
What This Book Offers
This highly valuable book offers the reader a critical look into aspects of ICTs in
raising socioeconomic development in underdeveloped countries. It intends to
illustrate “success stories” in developing countries in reducing poverty, improving
productivity, and addressing climate change issues. It aims to bridge the gap
between the disciplines of ICT and economic development, and hence, it argues for
the need to merge socioeconomic development with the revolutionary advances in
information and communication technologies in order to address development
challenges facing poor countries and emerging economies, particularly those con-
cerning basic facilities such as clean water, sanitation, and basic healthcare ser-
vices. It also builds a case for integrating new technologies into development
strategies and governance reforms. It offers a number of frameworks and tools to
advance this integration agenda. When properly leveraged, the ICT tools can reduce
the cost of public services, enhance access to quality services, and make governing
agencies more transparent.
This book comprises five parts.
Part I General and Multiregional Studies: In this part, you will understand why
and how ICTs may affect socioeconomic development in economically backward
economies and the prerequisites that are required to bring about social and eco-
nomic escalation. We focus on some of the challenges faced by emerging econo-
mies in tackling corruption and the issues encountered in handling and processing
Preface ix
heterogeneous, complex, and unstructured data for better decisionmaking. We use
case studies to demonstrate how ICT can be a powerful tool to fight corruption and
handle big data for implementing better management policies.
Part II Asia: We use Bangladesh as a case study to highlight the role of ICT in
strengthening the public sector accounting and introducing more transparency and
accountability in the system. You will also gain an insight into how ICT can play a
vital role in addressing climate change with particular focus on agricultural adapta-
tion and disaster risk reduction from a community perspective.
Part III Africa and the Middle East: Case studies from Africa and the Middle
East are used to evaluate infrastructure deployment in OECD and MENA countries.
The section highlights how reconstructing the institutional framework that supports
scientific knowledge management systems (SKMS) in developing countries can be
a panacea for successful IR innovation. It also throws light on how developing coun-
tries can enhance their ICT adoption for development by improving formal institu-
tions and strengthening domestic determinants of ICT adoption.
Part IV Latin America: In this part, we study the role of ICTs, especially the
Internet, in three Latin American countries to understand how people can attain the
lifestyle they value and how inequalities in this ability or “information richness” can
be explained by sociodemographic characteristics that do not depend on the indi-
vidual’s decisions. Evidence from Chile illustrates how ICT can improve communi-
cation access and participation in social programs and reinforce preexisting
inequalities. We use country-specific information from Chile to show how
e- commerce is emerging as a channel to penetrate new markets and opening up new
avenues for productivity in the manufacturing and service sector.
Part V Europe: In this part we assess the economic potential of big data industries
in Europe and the challenges they face. We use data from Slovenia and Slovakia to
understand the common patterns of digital development in developing countries and
find that while the levels of efficiency of these industries are high, they are missing
some key economic links with other sectors of the economy. We then shift focus to
Estonia, which is home to many new ICT startups to understand how ordinary citi-
zens are benefitting from this revolution.
We expect that the book content draws on the insights and contributions of many
colleagues and academics in developing countries. Its intended audiences are policy
makers and ICT strategists. We also hope that it provides the necessary impetus for
a more active communication among government agencies concerned with socio-
economic development and ICT strategies to build more inclusive societies in the
developing world. We are fully aware that the book tackles only a small sample of
issues which are associated with problems of ICT adoption in the developing world
and exploiting its full potential. However, we do hope it is an inspiring worldwide
study, paving the road ahead for further research.
And last but not the least, we would like to acknowledge the role of the
Department of Science & Technology (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology,
Govt. of India, India, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the
x Preface
Government of Poland (MNISW) in making this book possible. This work is cata-
lyzed and supported partially by the Indo-Polish joint research grant funded by the
DST and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Poland).
New Delhi, India Harleen Kaur
Gdańsk, Poland Ewa Lechman
Gdańsk, Poland Adam Marszk