Information communication technology for development, or ICT4D, is an increasingly hot topic in the development space. For better or worse, it may even be turning into the next fad – the default response to a world of unique challenges and circumstances. If sixty years of development history suggest anything, it is that mission drift and waste are the likely byproducts of hype, an outcome which neither beneficiaries nor practitioners of ICT4D can afford. In order to avoid such an outcome, the ICT4D community must accept its growing fame with humility, caution, patience, and self-scrutiny.

Humility

Most fundamentally, we have to acknowledge that technology is a not a solution, but rather one tool in the toolkit. Whatever solutions result from technology are largely a consequence of user uptake and ingenuity. End users leveraged mobile technology, for instance, to create the airtime transfer and ‘flash’, much like Twitter users, not only created the @ reply and hash tag, but altered its very purpose from “What are you doing?” to “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world”. That more than 1/3 of M-PESA clients in Kenya hold informal savings in their ‘mobile wallet’ and that Iranians used Twitter to compel coverage by the mainstream media (remember #CNNfail?) is further proof. Technology providers are facilitators, not White Knights.

Caution

As with development in general, this isn’t a game. Real lives and livelihoods are on the line and mistakes can have dire consequences. Technologies must therefore be accessible, affordable, durable and intuitive. Without foresight and commitment to long-run sustainability, providers may be creating user bases only to rip the floor out from underneath them when the business model fails. By way of example, imagine how millions of Filipinos would be impacted if either SMART Money or GCASH went under.

Patience

In the world of semi-conductors and fiber optics, it’s difficult to imagine progress in non-exponential terms. In the developing world, however, Murphy and Maslow are far more relevant than Moore. Despite incredible bursts of growth – leapfrogging – in telecommunications and gradual gains in internet penetration, a tremendous amount of work remains unfinished. Consequently, some technologies are more appropriate than others insofar as they respond to current market failures and user needs. Cloud computing and Android, for example, will dramatically alter the development landscape in the future, but remain largely inappropriate in the present. ICT4D practitioners should therefore be driven by ‘pull’ instead of attempting to ‘push’ the ‘next big thing’. More simply, supply is driven by demand, not vice versa.

Self-Scrutiny

Everyone comes to the table with pride and predispositions, especially in development. One of the biggest assets of the ICT industry is its focus on engineering, a science driven by the simple question: How do I make process X more efficient? Once we add “4D” to the equation, however, we introduce a host of conflicting ideologies and practices that shift the focus from quantitative to qualitative. As ICT4D continues to grow, we must constantly ask ourselves: What biases and blinders are we bringing to the table?

In Closing…

We cannot let ICT4D become a victim of its own success. In order to help mitigate the varied challenges and circumstances in our areas of operation, it is critical that we constantly revisit the following four questions:

1. How are we facilitating organic solutions to local problems?
2. How will the user be impacted if we fail?
3. Are we basing our strategy on push or pull?
4. Are we driven by efficiency or ego?

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