Dear Colleagues, Once again I have mixed views.
I think that Jim Forster's point about the public sector role in investing in part of the infrastructure for ICT is very important and indeed important from a country's e-readiness perspective as well, and that there is a clear similarity here with other public sector investments into water, railways etc. I also agree that the market's ability to listen to customers is one of its key qualities (however, this is assuming that all customer voices are heard). Allen Hammond's research is excellent, needed and very encouraging for businesses in doubt about investing in poorly served markets, and with the current trend for corporate responsibility some "externalities" will no doubt be taken care of. However, if we are talking about eliminating poverty, the cut-off of $6000 per household per year is rather high. But perhaps this is not the point? Perhaps it is merely that there is a large untapped market amongst the poorer (not the absolute poor) and that this group would benefit from the investment? If the key question is can profit alone eliminate poverty and businesses take over where NGO's and Governments fail -- then I think the answer has to be no -- simply because their motivations and goals are different. But if the key question is can businesses provide ICT services better than NGO's, and is there a business case for entering "bottom of the pyramid" markets, I think the answer is without a doubt - yes! When it comes to the very poor or otherwise disadvantaged groups, and when it comes to market externalities such as the environment, governments and NGOs must continue to play a role. Albeit, a more efficient role than in the past! In this regard, I found Sam Lanfranco's analysis of the driving forces of development projects excellent, and I agree that often development projects do not have the required level of management, administration and accountability. The latter is an area that the not-for-profit organisations desperately need to address. Although I don't think that NGOs' function will become superseded by business (rather, they have different roles to play), Tom Abeles' point here that the current trend poses new challenges to NGOs is very relevant, and perhaps this debate will lead to greater transparency and efficiency in the not-for-profit sector, which in itself, would not be such a bad thing. Best wishes, Bettina Gronblom Hammerich ------------ 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>
