(When) is information power? Lessons from the ICT-for-development field

Kerry McNamara, Scholar-in-Residence in the School of Communication at American University, will speak at the Community Information Corps fall 2009 seminar series (SI-575) on Friday, November 13 from 11:30-1 pm in 311 West Hall on the central campus of the University of Michigan. This event is free and open to the public.

For more than a decade, there has been widespread enthusiasm about, and experimentation in, using information and communication technologies (ICT) to combat poverty and promote economic and social empowerment in developing countries. "ICT for development" -- which built upon but did not always learn lessons from earlier "informatics for development" and "communication for development" efforts -- has become a field of scholarly research and technological innovation in its own right. Over time, the field's technical focus has shifted with the larger technological landscape, which is why (not surprisingly) the emphasis at the moment is heavily on the development potential of mobile technology (or "m-development", now a more popular buzzword than the earlier "e-development"). Yet, whatever the technology platform, the evidence base for the impact of ICT4D initiatives remains weak, and largely anecdotal. And puzzles remain about how to scale those applications that seem promising; how to make these interventions sustainable; and how to shape the broader enabling conditions that help assure a positive impact for these efforts. This presentation will review some of the key lessons that have emerged from the ICT4D field in the past decade; explore some of the particular opportunities and challenges in using ICT to promote poverty-reduction and economic and social empowerment among the rural poor; and offer some thoughts on a framework for thinking about the enablers and impediments (institutional, structural, political, cultural) to using ICT as tools of economic and social change.

For more information about Dr. McNamara’s work, please visit: http://www.infodev.org/en/index.html

For more information about the Community Information Corps, please visit: http://cic.si.umich.edu/

Short Biography:
A political scientist by training, McNamara focuses on the impact of information and communication on economic and social development and poverty reduction. From 1996-2008 he played an active role in the World Bank's increasing engagement with information and communication technologies as tools of development and poverty reduction. From January 2004 to January 2008, he served as chief knowledge officer of the Information for Development Program (infoDev), a public multi-donor research and advisory facility on technology and development at the World Bank. He led infoDev's work on mainstreaming new technologies in core development sectors (such as education, health, rural development and governance). From 2004 to 2006 he also managed infoDev's program of grants and technical assistance to technology business incubators in 10 African countries. Previously, at the World Bank Institute, he was a principal architect of several innovative programs focused on the impact of information, communication and knowledge on poverty and development, including the Global Knowledge Partnership and the Development Forum, the World Bank's first public online discussion facility. He also served on the expert Secretariat of the Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force) convened by the G8 Heads of State in 2000-2001. In 2001 he was invited by the UK Government's Department for International Development to serve as the external member of a small team that developed DFID's strategy paper on "The Significance of Information and Communication Technologies for Reducing Poverty". Prior to his 12 years at the World Bank, he built the Civic Education Project from a start-up to a region-wide non-profit organization assisting higher education reform in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He has also served as a research and teaching fellow at Harvard University, a senior officer of a foreign policy research organization, and a political science instructor at the University of Notre Dame.