Including the Excluded- Can ICTs empower poor communities? Towards an alternative evaluation framework based on the capability approach Björn-Sören Gigler London School of Economics, United Kingdom [email protected] August 1, 2004 Paper for 4th International Conference on the Capability Approach 5-7 September, 2004 University of Pavia, Italy Abstract Under which conditions can information and communications technologies (ICTs) empower poor communities? This paper investigates this question, focusing on the role of information and communications technologies in promoting indigenous people’s development in Latin America. First, the paper analyzes key factors under which information and knowledge can be instrumental and substantive for the empowerment of marginalized groups. Hereby, we argue that improved access to information and ICT skills, similar to the enhancement of a person’s writing and reading skills, can enhance poor peoples’ capabilities to make strategic life choices and to achieve the lifestyle they value. Furthermore, the paper develops an alternative evaluation framework for ICT interventions based on Sen’s capability approach. This framework places, in contrast to the current discourse around the “digital divide”, the human development of the poor and not technology at the center of the analysis. The paper concludes that there does not exist a direct and causal relationship between ICTs and empowerment, but that in fact this relationship is being shaped by a dynamic, multi-dimensional interrelationship between technology and the social context.1 Introduction The potential impact of information and communications technologies (ICTs)1 on development has recently become a much contested issue within the development discourse. Proponents of ICTs (World Bank 2002, UNDP 2001; Pohjola, 2002; Braga, 1998) take an optimistic view and highlight the positive effects of the Internet and other forms of ICTs to create new economic, social and political opportunities for developing countries and the poor. Its critics on the other hand, take a pessimistic view and claim that ICTs due to existing socio-economic inequalities will favor the privileged segments within society and not reach the economically and socially disadvantaged thus leading to a widening of the socio-economic gap within developing countries (Panos, 1998; Wade, 2002; Gumucio, 2001). Finally, the contextualized approach to ICTs underscores the importance of the socio-economic and cultural context, which is being considered crucial for the better understanding of the potential effects of ICTs on development and the empowerment of poor communities (Avgerou, 2001; Walsham, 1993 and 1998). In spite of their significant difference, all three approaches share one key feature in common: the focal point of their investigation represents technology and its societal, economic and political impact. Hereby, these different schools of thoughts distinguish themselves by emphasizing either the positive or negative impacts of ICTs on people’s lives, or stress that the impacts will vary depending on the local and social context in which the ICT program is being carried out. In contrast to these more conventional approaches to ICTs, we suggest in the following paper to initiate our investigation from the vantage point of the perspective of marginalized groups themselves. This approach stresses the capacity of poor people to define their own development priorities and goals, whereby outside agents should only ‘begin’ to work with the community, once it has developed its own ‘development plan’ and identified its specific needs for outside support. Based on such a ‘people-centered’ approach to development, we will develop in this paper an alternative evaluation framework of ICT interventions. Hereby, we will attempt to operationalize Amartya Sen’s capability approach and to directly apply its theoretical framework to the evaluation of the impact of ICT programs. Within this analysis, the paper will address the central question, whether and under which conditions the improved access to information and knowledge facilitated by ICTs can enhance the individual and collective capabilities of the poor to better achieve the lifestyle they value. At the outset of the analysis it will be argued that information and knowledge can play a role for the empowerment of marginalized groups as long as it is fully integrated into the much broader sustainable livelihoods framework of the communities. This approach places the communities’ assets and capabilities in the center of the analysis and examines the role of the improved flow of information and knowledge thorough the use of ICTs as a catalyst in expanding the human and social 1 For the purpose of this paper I am using Hamelink’s definition of ICTs: “Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) encompass all those technologies that enable the handling of information and facilitate different forms of communication among human actors, between human beings and electronic systems, and among electronic systems” (Hamelink, 1997:3). This functional definition of ICTs includes both the new (i.e. Internet, e-mail) and traditional (i.e. community-radio, TV) forms of ICT into its definition.2 capabilities of the poor. Within this framework we will investigate key factors that have to be met to enable the poor to have ‘real and meaningful’ access to ICTs and allow them to appropriate these technologies as an instrument for their own development. In particular, we will examine the following key hypotheses: i) a successful mediation process by an effective and local intermediary is required so that ICTs can contribute in a meaningful way to improve the livelihoods of the poor; ii) ICT’s have to be locally appropriated by poor communities, in order to facilitate their empowerment; and iii) ICTs have to build on and strengthen existing social and organizational community structures, so they can lead not only to the individual, but the collective empowerment of poor communities. On the basis of two case studies on the use of ICTs by indigenous peoples, the paper will provide a series of conclusions, which highlight that it is not possible to identify a direct and causal relationship between ICTs and the empowerment of marginalized groups, but stress the complex and dynamic interdependency between people, social institutions