GKD Weekly Summary (10/25 - 10/29) This message attempts to summarize briefly the major discussion points made on the GKD discussion focused on "Technology, Globalization and the Poor." Inevitably, many valuable points will not be captured here, and new List members are encouraged to visit the List archives.
**Technology in Context** Several members made the point that technology can certainly provide benefits to the poor -- but only as part of a larger set of inputs and resources, including a healthy economic context. Most agreed that technology is simply a tool, albeit a very powerful one. **ICT and e-Administration** One list member from India shared a project that helps improve government administration using an open-source e-Administration platform. In addition to helping make governance more effective, which has development benefits of it's own, the platform allows businesses and NGOs to communicate more effectively with government and helps to streamline business-to-government (B2G) processes. Although the software is free and open source, consultation and implementation are for-profit and provide another example of a win-win business proposition. **Win-Win Models** Members shared a number of win-win models of ICT and pro-poor business practices in India, Philippines, South Africa, Laos, and Mauritius, and described three positive impacts of these strategies: they broke up local monopolies in goods and services that had exploited the poor, they brought empowering information and technologies to otherwise marginalized groups, and they provided new employment opportunities. Other GKD members found the examples informative and valuable, but argued that more empirical and quantifiable analysis was needed to prove the positive impact of these types of strategies. Expanding on this theme, a list member pointed to a study they had conducted on this topic. The analysis revealed a clear correlation between GDP per capita and rating on the ICT Readiness Index: The lower the per capita income level of a country, the lower the country's networked readiness rating. India was an exception. In response to these data, a member posed the question: Can India's success be replicated? **Negative Impacts of ICT and Globalization** A detailed analysis demonstrated that globalization and new technologies have increased the process of Brain Drain. Members proposed that developing countries experiencing brain drain use those same new communications technologies to benefit from the skills and knowledge of former residents. They suggested that the development community find creative ways to allow expatriates to participate in the economies of the countries they had left. Others added that although there are many positive examples of successful ICT-based business models, there are also negative externalities that do not get the attention they should. Some projects in India, for example, have the unanticipated negative effect of reinforcing long standing caste divisions. Other participants shared specific examples of the negative effects of globalization, particularly the consolidation of agricultural production. They emphasized the need to look beyond neo-classical economics for solutions in the fight against poverty. **Business Approach and Business Drivers** One member asked: "What do we mean by business approach?" On one hand, it could mean an approach that relies entirely on market mechanisms. In that case, businesses might fail to serve the "bottom of the pyramid" (BoP) market if they lack concrete information about the needs of that segment and base their business decisions on false assumptions of what a 'typical' customer wants and needs. Alternatively, 'business approach' could refer to small, local entrepreneurs taking full advantage of their knowledge of local markets. This discussion was echoed by another participant who emphasized that the best models are driven by "the people closest to the ground." In other words, the poor know their own needs and understand their own markets better than anyone else. Businesses will succeed in serving the BOP segment only if they can design products and services specifically to align with BOP customer needs and contexts. Thus, businesses will do well to partner with local individuals or organizations in order to gain a solid understanding of the needs of particular groups of people. **Conclusions** The response to the question, "Can Technology and a Business Approach Make Globalization Work for the Poor?" was complex. Members offered cases from wide range of geographies and contexts that argued compellingly that ICT and a business approach can and has serviced the poor. On the other hand, members also raised concerns and provided examples in which ICT and a business approach were either unable to serve the poor -- and in the worst scenarios, exacerbated the problem. For example, some attributed the problem of "brain drain" to the emergence of new technologies in combination with multinational corporations. The conclusion is that we have to learn from the positive examples that members presented, while avoiding the pitfalls, which members also described. **Links and References** Some of the references and links shared in the discussion so far: Life Line to Business http://www.ll2b.com http://www.ll2b.blogspot.com Jhai Foundation http://www.jhai.org Digital Dividend Project http://www.digitaldividend.org Smart Communications Case Study http://www.digitaldividend.org/case/case_smart.htm ICT e-Chopul Case Study http://www.digitaldividend.org/case/case_echoupal.htm Project Examples from Argentina (in Spanish) <http://www.ceads.org.ar/casos/2003/casos2003pdf/Edenor-ElectricidadPrepagaE DF.pdf> CK Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits http://www.whartonsp.com/title/0131467506 Information and Communications Technologies and Development: Help or Hindrance? http://www.developmentgateway.com.au/ (available under 'ICT') Can ICTs Help the Urban Poor? http://www.unhabitat.org/programmes/ifup/conf/Theo-Schilderman.PDF Making Knowledge Networks Work For the Poor http://www.itdg.org/html/icts/knowledge.htm S Dutta, B Lanvin, & F. Paua, 2003, The Global Information Technology Report 2002-2003. World Economic Forum, Oxford University Press, New York Global Information Technology Report 2003-2004 <http://www.weforum.org/site/homepublic.nsf/Content/Global+Competitiveness+P rogramme%5CGlobal+Information+Technology+Report> ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by USAID's dot-ORG Cooperative Agreement with AED, in partnership with World Resources Institute's Digital Dividend Project, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org and http://www.digitaldividend.org provide more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html>
