Abstract:

Since the early part of the last decade major international agencies have been advancing the idea that information and communication technologies should play a major role in reaching such important priorities as the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. A recent (2011) report of the World Bank takes the argument for ICTs in development a step further. The document concentrates on the role of ICTs in meeting information needs of smallholder agriculturalists. It notes, for example, that “with booming mobile, wireless and internet industries, ICT have found a foothold even in poor smallholder farms and their activities.”

Since the early 1990s, there has been widespread recognition of the increasing importance of information and communication technologies in the everyday lives of people particularly in the developing world. A major impetus was the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva (December 2003) and Tunis (November 2005) which prompted many international organizations to come forward with ideas, plans, and programs involving ICTs.
The story of Luva in India illustrates the potential. Luva received training about a mobile texting plan. She now does research each day on market prices and provides this at a small charge to farmers who, armed with the information, then can decide whether to go to the market that day.

Despite the official enthusiasm about the potential of ICTs in development (ICTD), research in Asia specifically reveals that government officials and other leaders know little about how to build ICTs into their everyday activities. Two major initiatives address this problem. One is by the Asia Pacific Center for Information and Communication technologies for Development. In 2008 APCICT launched the Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders. The Academy is an integrated set of materials that target current leaders in national and local governments because of the leaders’ potential as advocates and instruments for the region’s ICTD efforts. In 2011 the World Bank and infoDev issued a 15-module source book aimed at helping practitioners and policymakers take maximum advantage of ICTs’ potential for improving agricultural productivity and smallholders’ income. Both resources have been made available without charge via the Internet. APCICT also addressed the need to train future leaders. It developed materials and strategies for introducing ICT programs in university curricula around the Asia Pacific Region. At the end of 2011 APCICT released a Primer (textbook) designed for use in university courses related to ICTD. This was an important first step in APCICT’s “Strengthening ICTD Education in Institutions of Higher Learning” project that aims to raise the awareness of policymakers, governments and a network of partners in the region about the importance of ICT for development education in tertiary schools.