Information and Communication Technologies for Governance and Poverty Alleviation: Scaling up the Successes

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have repeatedly demonstrated their potential for alleviating poverty in developing countries. In many instances, poor people have experienced benefits in the form of; increased income; better health care; improved education and training; access to job opportunities; engagement with government services; contacts with family and friends; enterprise development opportunities; increased agricultural productivity, and so on. However, in probably all cases, these experiences have arisen from highly focused and locally intensive pilot projects that were experimental in nature. Whilst doubts and uncertainties continue to exist with regard to the applicability of ICTs to the problems of the poor, such projects contribute immeasurably to the growing body of knowledge and experience that is required in order to understand the conditions under which ICTs can be usefully applied to the alleviation of poverty.