What is the most effective way to measure the impact of ICT for development (ICT4D) initiatives?

Dear All,

It seems that the forum is warming up very well with great contributions from Surabhi, Shahroz, Arafat, Bulbul and John so far. Now building on Jim's suggestion as above, let me pose the following questions to the forum for further thoughts and opinions for this week -

What is the most effective way to measure the impact of ICT for development (ICT4D) initiatives?

Please let us know what you think is the most effective way and why you think so.

Shehzaad ShamsAmnesty InternationalUnited Kingdom

04.10.2011

Dear Ehud,

Many thanks for sharing this link, I will also create an entry to this document in the 'resource' section of the forum.

Hope to hear more from you in this final week of discussions.

Antoine KantizaPromotion de l'Education à Distance/Promotion of Education and Learning in Distance, PLEAD in short Burundi

04.10.2011

Dear all,

I look of the image of old women using ICT on the homepage of Gelb's website ( http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-main.html) and I just think that they are wasting time because ICT could not improve their poor conditions, may be, they could communicate in speed with ICT more than in traditional way like sending letters by post.

A high person that I met one day said " Do you know why children do not like computers? It is because, they do not find bread or love of their relatives in it" so, children are often more clever than old men, they do not waste time.

I think that communication using ICT does not lead in short time to the development, ICT is a new media with his specific rules, anyone must know that when he communicates with ICT, he begins a hard game : he is searching for information or he is sending it and he must have time for it and know how to use such information, it means that only experts persons can know what to do with information collected somewhere with ICT

The problems of agriculture are also complex in developing countries, the current tools of ICT can not do anything for the moment in the prevention of climate change and irruptions of new insects or diseases against plants or animals, the help could take long to arrive due of many things.

So, it is needed to get specific tools of ICT for improving the agricultural and pastoral development, those tools could be used only in agriculture or in livestock situation, in order to avoid noise in the path of communication using current ICT.

I think deeply that public actions would be more useful in agriculture than words sent by ICT like assisting agriculture's actors by bringing some necessary inputs and by advising them in taking right decisions.

Prof. Antoine KANTIZA, Master UTICEF,-

Muaz JalilBangladesh

04.10.2011

Probably a bit late in to the discussion but I was wondering if someone can share their experience (if any) with application of Randomize Control Trial (RCT) in evaluating ICT projects. Basically I was hoping to get answers to the following questions:

1. The time and cost involvement from inception to results.

2. The sample size that was required (control +treatment group) and the unit of sample (individual, class, household etc)

3. The size of the project (in terms of their geographic scope and number of interventions, other than the one tested, that they were working on)

4. The challenges faced.

The reason for asking this is that from what I have heard and read, it seems RCT has been applied quite successfully in projects which have few interventions, with very precise crisp measurable goals (literacy, health indicators, reduction in absenteeism etc) and significant access to resource (time and money). I am bit apprehensive when it comes to applying such methodologies in projects with 20-30+ interventions, working on light touch approach, private sector driven and focusing on more complex indicators like competitiveness, sustainability, systemic change etc.

Shehzaad ShamsAmnesty InternationalUnited Kingdom

04.10.2011

Thank you for your question Muaz. I will hope our SMEs will shed more light on this very specific topic that you have raised.

Hasan ShahriarKatalystBangladesh

05.10.2011

Hello everybody.

I would like to add a different angle of defining impact of ICT4D initiatives.

Successful ICT initiatives in agriculture often requires the collaboration and participation of private sector companies. When it comes to the measurement of impact, the private sector entities are mostly focused on issues such as financial feasibility, market scenario, penetration statistics, etc. These information, although required, do not serve the prime purpose of development organizations. They require information more emphasizing on the social and pro-poor impact of the services offered. Thus we can see a gap between the information need of the private sector and the development agencies.

Let me refer back to the rural ICT initiative that my colleagues from Katalyst have already shared. One of our learning was that most of the Community Information Centres (CICs) – those we facilitated to be developed – were more or less commercially viable. Our private partner recognized the business case, and is continuing and expanding. However, in some cases we found CICs flourishing through revenues from mobile phone top-ups, photocopying, internet browsing, etc. (definitely positive impact on pro-poor social development). For these few CICs, provision of agro information remains a sporadic and somewhat philanthropic endeavour.

My query to all participants: how can a project specifically geared towards agricultural development tackle this issue?

Ehud GelbIsrael

20.05.2013

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At 06:30 03/10/2011, you wrote:
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Still missing - comments from
the end users/beneficiaries,</blockquote>
Cheers, 
Ehud Gelb 
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Write above this line to
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Dear | Estimado(a) | Cher/ChÃ¨re: gelb 
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New commentÂ  | Nuevo comentarioÂ  | Nouveau
commentaire: ICT index 
 
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06:25 
 
surabhi75 wrote | escribiÃ³ | a Ã©crit: 
Isn't it worth discussing about these indicators and trying to list
out both quantitative and qualitative ones to be able to start thinking
in developing an ICT index for agriculture. This will build the base the
future databasis and comparative studies across states or nations. At
this forum we can think and try to do this. 
SurabhiÂ 
 Read more | Leer mÃ¡s | Lire la suite:
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