Working Paper
230
UNDERSTANDING ICT ENABLED DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS WITH MDG PERSPECTIVES IN INDIAN CONTEXT : A STUDY IN PANCHMAHAL DISTRICT
Harekrishna Misra
The purpose of the Working Paper Series (WPS) is to provide an opportunity to IRMA faculty, visiting fellows, and students to sound out their ideas and research work before publication and to get feedback and comments from their peer group. Therefore, a working paper is to be considered as a pre-publication document of the Institute.
Institute of Rural Management Anand Post Box No. 60, Anand, Gujarat (India) Phones: (02692) 263260, 260246, 260391, 261502 Fax: 02692-260188 Email:
[email protected] Website: www.irma.ac.in
January 2012
UNDERSTANDING ICT ENABLED DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS WITH MDG PERSPECTIVES IN INDIAN CONTEXT: A STUDY IN PANCHMAHAL DISTRICT Harekrishna Misra Abstract Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are being pursued in most countries today. In the United Nation (UN) Millennium Summit 2000, 191 countries adopted the Millennium declaration. The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has been identified as a critical element in achieving the suggested targets under MDG. MDG-specified deliverables notwithstanding, almost all the countries implementing MDGs today have recognized the larger role of ICT in managing polices as well as strategies related to development processes and their implementation. Efforts are on to deploy ICT enabled tools for the conceptualization, development, incubation, and alignment of development-oriented services with country-specific needs. In many regions like the European Union (EU), ICT enabled processes have been standardized for large scale deployment. In some countries maturity has been attained with regard to providing insights vis-à-vis critical success factors and key learning. However, there are many pitfalls in managing ICT-oriented development processes. There have been a number of instances across the globe showcasing the design-reality gaps in the entire project life cycle. Since MDG has accepted ICT as a contributor for achieving the desired goals there is a need to appreciate the opportunities and limitations while deploying ICT enabled processes for the purpose. This paper discusses the UN‟s mandate on MDG with ICT as component. In order to appreciate the design-reality gaps in adopting ICT for development sustainably a framework has been presented. As a case, a district in the state of Gujarat in India has been cited for the study as per the framework to validate its applicability. Keywords: Design-Reality Gaps, ICT for Development, Millennium Development Goals, Systems Modeling, User Centered Designs. Professor, Institute of Rural Management, Anand - 388 001, Gujarat, India. Email:
[email protected]
LIST OF ANNEXURES Annexure-1
Framework for Information Need Assessment
Annexure-2
Analyses for Supporting MDGs
Annexure-3
Information Need and Availability
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CSC
Common Service Centres
DCS
Dairy Cooperative Societies
EU
European Union
ICT
Information and Communication Technologies
INSEAD
Institut Européen d' Administration des Affaires
ITU
International Telecommunication Union
MDG
Millennium Development Goals
MMP
Mission Mode Projects
NeGP
National e-Governance Plan
NIC
National Informatics Centre
NKN
National Knowledge Network
NTP
National Telecom Policy
ODA
Official Development Assistance
QoS
Quality of Services
SDTT
Sir Dorabji Tata Trust
SWAN
State Wide Area Networks
TDSAT
Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal
TRAI
Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Indian Act
UCD
User Centered Designs
UIDAI
Unique Identification Authority of India
UN
United Nations
WSIS
World Summit on the Information Society
UNDERSTANDING ICT ENABLED DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS WITH MDG PERSPECTIVES IN INDIAN CONTEXT: A STUDY IN PANCHMAHAL DISTRICT
1. INTRODUCTION MDG is considered an important agenda for the United Nations (UN) which aims to address poverty reduction globally. The UN, in its Millennium Summit in 2000, resolved to acknowledge poverty as a global phenomenon. MDG, with its set of eight goals, aims to achieve targeted objectives by the year 2015 and recognizes the intertwined relationships amongst all these goals in order to foster sustainable development. The UN, in its declaration, aims to address two major dimensions. One of the dimensions includes obtaining the commitment of developed nations to extend the increased Official Development Assistance (ODA) and provide better export market for developing nations. The second dimension is to ensure that each developing nation has its own national policy with the objective of reducing the gap between goals and achievements (UN 2001). While the deadline for achieving MDG is fast approaching, the results of the planned activities under UN‟s mandate have been found to be discouraging with all member countries showing mixed results across all the eight goals. ODA has reduced over the years and the assistance has so far been 0.31 percent of the Gross National Income against the UN‟s target of 0.7 percent (UN 2010a). As regards the role of the ICT for development with specific reference to MDG, goal 8.F suggests effective inclusion of ICT as a component for the development process. While recognizing the prolific progress in embracing ICT enabled processes among all participating nations, the UN acknowledges the persistence of digital divides in the form of affordability, access to technology, and the usage and usability of the services rendered. However, most countries have shown considerable progress in establishing ICT infrastructure and services with regard to implementing the e-government strategies. In real terms MDG has not been able to focus on the role of ICT in particular to ensure that all the goals are met while intertwining themselves for a converged effect on 1
sustainable development. Thus, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) has acknowledged the impact of e-government on development and suggested a ten-point agenda for ICT-related interventions for supporting sustainable development and achieving committed targets by the year 2015 (ITU 2010). ICT for development along global lines has shown mixed results. The core area of successful ICT enabled development processes has been limited to egovernment efforts which have supported the MDG indirectly. The direct impact has been in the form of access to telephony, television and other modes of communication with ICT support. However, a digital divide still persists and there are many unsuccessful projects related to ICT enabled development processes. Despite their mixed results, most countries have incubated ICT enabled development projects with the active participation of entrepreneurs from public, private and civil society organizations (Heeks and Molla, 2009). ICT enabled development projects are quite complex in nature due to the inherent characteristics of the development process involving government, society, citizen, market and business issues. These multi-stakeholder driven projects provide dynamic scenarios for ICT enabling service providing agencies to manage project life cycles effectively with due convergence on the part of all the services. Thus, there is a need for understanding this complex phenomenon of convergence within ICT as technology and various stakeholders involved in the development process so that citizens accept this new environment for advancing the development of their own lives and that of the society they live in. The paper has been organized with the objective of understanding the reasons for getting mixed results despite a clearly defined MDG, prolific advancements in ICT as a technology in general, and the noticeable deployment of ICT enabled development processes in particular. For purposes of the study Panchmahal district in the state of Gujarat has been chosen. The choice was deliberate because of the successful implementation of pilot egovernance projects and ICT enabled interventions in dairy societies. The 2
paper has been organized as follows. In section two, MDG and ICT for development have been discussed in order to appreciate the role of ICT as an enabling factor for development. This section discusses global perspectives with specific references to Indian scenarios. In section three, a framework has been presented to understand the rationale behind capturing design-reality gaps during the adoption of ICT enabled development processes. It also includes some of the available measurement frameworks used for understanding the effectiveness of ICT enabled processes and the adoption of best practices. In section four, a case study has been cited in the Indian context to apply the framework for the assessment of MDG oriented and ICT enabled development processes. Section five presents discussions on the findings of the case-based study. Conclusions have been presented in section six and in section seven limitations of the work and scope for further studies in the area are discussed. 2. MDG AND ICT FOR DEVELOPMENT- NEED FOR ASSESSMENT As discussed in the introduction section, MDGs are now embedded in the policies of the member countries. Goal 8F of the MDG recognizes the importance of ICT for fulfilling various objectives set in the MDG. In order to introduce more clarity while adopting the ICT strategies for development the WSIS has set up ten goals for the member countries (ITU 2010). In this section a link through the WSIS between MDG and ICT has been discussed to provide insights into the development process and role of ICT. Table 1 below presents the ICT agenda of the WSIS and MDG goals.
3
Table 1: MDG and ICT Deliveries MDG Goals
WSIS ICT Agenda
1.Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Connect Villages with ICT and establish access points
2.Achieve universal primary education
To connect Universities, Colleges, Secondary and Primary Schools, Public Libraries, Scientific and Research Centres with ICT
3.Promote gender equality and empower women
World‟s population to have access to Television and Radio; facilitate use of ICT to have information on internet in local languages
Possible ICT based Interventions for MDGs Rise in individual income with ICT Increase supply of trained teachers through ICT enabled distance mode training, establish networks amongst teachers through ICT, internet connectivity in schools, improved student/computer ratio Focus on ICT literacy amongst girls, adopt ICT enabled modes of communication to encourage women to contribute to society
No specific agenda
Increase in ICT use by Health Workers, ICT enabled information dissemination on awareness
No specific agenda
Enhance accessibility to specialists by village health workers through remote access, training through ICT enabled curriculum
6.Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
No specific agenda
Increase in ICT use by Health Workers, ICT enabled information dissemination on awareness
7.Ensure environmental sustainability
No specific agenda
Use of GIS and Remote Sensing Technologies, maintain transparency
4.Reduce child mortality
5.Improve maternal health
8.Develop a global partnership for development
Ensure that World‟s population have access to ICT
4
Currency in databases, networks
While the WSIS has not been specific in setting the agenda for ICT interventions vis-à-vis implementing MDGs (Goals 4,5,6,7), efforts are on in these areas. As per WSIS predictions, ICT interventions would be quite significant in the areas of mobile communications as well as basic radio and television services by the year 2015. Progress in the areas related to egovernments has also been quite reasonable as per the WSIS study. But as per WSIS, the barriers for larger use ICT would be in the form of availability of electricity and internet. The UN‟s MDG report for the year 2010 indicates that targeted interventions with sustained effort through political and administrative (including funding) support has shown significant progress in many areas considered important for achieving MDG. However, important goals are still unmet for the poor living in remote areas and progress has been uneven. More importantly, the report recognizes that gender inequality and women empowerment concerns have not been adequately addressed. The latter are preconditions for overcoming poverty, hunger and disease (UN 2010b). Linking ICT to the MDGs is not a new approach. ICT has been evolving and continuously providing new directions to the computing environment. ICT has been quite strong in optimizing transaction costs and time while enabling points of transaction. Besides, ICT has also extensively supported improvements in the exchange of goods, services and information (Misra, H. K. 2010). All these dimensions are quite important in the development sector. Contemporary approaches to ICT adoption for development have been under scrutiny through an established impact analysis path. This sectoral assessment has recognized the need for strategic alliances amongst government, business, civil society and the common citizen. While addressing the challenges of linking ICT with MDGs, the UN has accepted various dimensions related to measurement including impact, policy development, resource mobilization, global alliance, and initiatives (Gilhooly, 2004). Assessment as a part of strategy leads to performance measurements, establishment of best practices and making futuristic decisions on possible 5
outcomes and investments (Luftman, 2003). Assessment of any effort irrespective of sectoral attachment (business or development) is an essential part of the strategic decisions. It is important to note that decision-making scenarios are modeled through various assessment approaches. In the process, various decision models are innovated, applied and modified to establish for benchmarks and attain maturity. Levels of maturity and the adoption of tools for decisions are influenced by the priorities set by decision makers. These priorities include decision styles (reactive, preventive, and proactive) of executives and their ability to understand internal and external environments seamlessly. In Table 2 below various approaches are listed to explain the rationale behind adopting assessment approaches for appropriate business decision styles. Table 2 : Decision Styles and the Rationale Decision Style/ Assessments Reactive
Preventive
Proactive
Rationale for Decision Styles and Assessments Collaborative Resolutions (Hansson, S. O. 2005) 9 Explicit and Tacit Knowledge based Problem Solving tools – Structured Approaches (Davis, and Olson 2000); (Turban, E. et al. 2008); (Klein, and Methile 1992) Intelligence Gathering through information retrieval techniques and searches for best practices (Mintzberg et. al., 1976) Designed parametric evaluation mechanisms through benchmarking, Structured Approaches to Problems (Turban, E. et al. 2008); (Ward, and Peppard 2000); (Luftman, 2003) Preparing choices and alternatives with explicit and tacit knowledge (Simon, 1960); (Fernandez and Sabhrewal 2010) Intelligence Gathering through information retrieval techniques and searches for best practices (Mintzberg et al., 1976) Infusing Systems Thinking (Midgley, 2003) Probabilistic Decision Modeling for managing uncertainty, Unstructured Environment (Hansson, 2005), (Zeleny, 2005)
6
It is noted that strategic decisions in the business sector face dynamic situations and appropriate assessment designs provide insights to the set goals for sustenance. In business led scenarios with matured decision styles, dependence on structuredness of the problems identified is quite critical. The degree of structuredness varies with respect to the internal and external environment and the preparedness of decision makers to make rational choices based on normative-affective factors. Structuredness also depends on the degree of formalization in the assessment process. During this process of formalization the limitations of aggregation arise out of individual decisionmaking processes vis-à-vis overall priorities. Extrapolation errors are quite normal in this process of aggregation at the strategic level. In certain cases the benchmarking representative and ideal decision styles are adopted to assess success factors. As such this approach too, is not free from errors. The computing environment however, needs well-designed performance assessment indicators in order to provide better control systems. Various tools have been developed for capturing the measured performances systematically. This systematic approach provides scope for managing overall efficiency and effectiveness in the organization. Systemic approach on the other hand, explores the probabilistic situations while taking into account inputs from the systematic processes established for performance assessment. Systemic assessment is holistic and proactive with preventive decision styles being included in this assessment. Systematic assessment includes reactive decision styles and the explicit behaviour of the processes is taken care of continuously. ICT applications have evolved around these scenarios (Ward, and Peppard 2000); (Luftman, 2003). Development processes are not too different from what the ICT enabled business sector has experienced so far. Many systematic assessments are being carried out by funding agencies like the UN, World Bank, European Union (EU) (EU 2007), and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) etc. to understand the impact of ICT enabled interventions. Most countries are also engaging themselves in periodic and systematic assessments. In most cases reactive assessments are being carried out with qualitative and quantitative 7
indicators (UNCTAD 2011). The WSIS has also provided a structured agenda for understanding the impact of ICT in meeting MDGs (ITU 2010). EReadiness reports are being published annually to showcase the benchmarked performances of participating countries that are mostly reactive in nature (Dutta and Mia 2011). Despite the advancements in using ICT for development at national and global levels, there is scope for moving from reactive assessments‟ scenarios to preventive and proactive assessments, in that order. This approach entails a systemic approach (apart from being systematic) in order to assess designreality gaps and adopt corrective measures (Heeks and Molla 2009). In order to proceed in this direction it is, therefore, pertinent to examine the global scenarios and then understanding the situation in the Indian context before going on to present an assessment model and validating it through cases. 2.1
ICT for Development: Measurements in Global Context
Most ICT enabled development initiatives, despite their partial acceptance in the form of e-government systems, have so far remained hyped in many parts of the world. Failure stories amply reflect the fact that such initiatives with development perspectives have not yielded encouraging results. Estimates indicate that 35 per cent are total failures, 50 per cent partial failures while 15 per cent of these initiatives meet with success in developing and transitional countries. It has been argued that e-governance initiatives are often based on the project mode and each project forms an island for deliveries creating an overwhelming gap between project design and on-the-ground reality (known as design-reality gap). This gap contributes to failures (Heeks, and Molla 2009). Despite such discouraging outcomes, various initiatives in developing countries have evolved to a level of acceptance amongst government agencies and backend service provisioning organizations. Most countries are now in the phase of assessing the “impact” on issues related to “efficiency”, “effectiveness”, and “equity”. Countries have gone beyond the initial phases of addressing primary challenges of “digital divide”, “setting up 8
infrastructure”, and “spreading awareness” for ICT use and are, instead, delivering citizen-centric e-governance services. Most of these countries are now able to showcase ICT enabled citizen-centric services and declare the “availability” of these services in an uninterrupted way crossing spatial challenges. However, the usage of such services has been a challenge. Most of the services have, so far, remained supply-driven in most countries and their actual use largely depends on the type of services rendered. For example, Egovernment services are “mandatory” in nature and citizens are expected to use them. However, the usage of many services with a development perspective such as income generation, health, and education depends largely on the success of these services related to citizens‟ needs. Reports on ICT enabled MDGs have indicated such scenarios (UN 2001); (UN 2010); (ITU 2010). It is often argued that readiness, availability, and uptake phases of ICT enabled services are not contemporary anymore for the evaluation of success. But most developing countries are still grappling with this phenomenon. The use of divide, low latent demand, and sub-optimal usage of e-governance services is still on in developing countries (Mishra, 2010). Contemporary ICT enabled development interventions on a global scale suggest a clear direction to policy makers and implementers calling for the provisioning of converged and value added services to citizens with least cost, time, and effort. It is also evident that such development-oriented services need to evolve to connected governance through establishment of robust infrastructure. In addition, development-oriented services need backend integration with all stakeholders along with the transformation of all the stakeholders including government, business, civil society and citizens through innovation and value addition (UN 2008). In addition, global development strategies include sustainability as an intrinsic measurement indicator. Electronic governance for development strategies has now shifted its focus from mere delivery of government services with adequate information infrastructures to development orientation. This strategy includes enhancing the capacity of government agencies for public service delivery through the ICT enabled reform and decentralization, utilising ICT to support the delivery 9
of accessible and affordable services for poor and small businesses, and enabling the participation of socially disadvantaged groups in government decision-making. Major sustainable development indicators like economic, social, political, cultural and environmental are being brought under the purview of e-Governance services for better management of MDG-driven policies and strategies (Tomaz et al, 2011). 2.2
ICT for Development: Measurements in Indian Context
Indian “ICT for development” initiatives have been quite noteworthy. Serious efforts were on since 2000 with an Information Technology Act in place. There are multipronged approaches by various agencies including government, business, civil society and funding agencies that provide ICT enabled services for development purposes. An assessment of the efforts as per the approaches described in Table 2 presents the current Indian scenario as detailed in Table 3. It may be noted that ICT for development in the Indian context has been quite emphatic with regard to the formulation of related policies. This proactive approach towards implementing national level strategies has led to prolific growth in telephone density and internet use. Some notably proactive decisions taken at the national level include Mission Mode Projects (state and national), State Wide Area Networks (SWAN), Common Service Centres (CSC) under NeGP, implementation of Unique Identity for the Indian public under UIDAI and recognizing each village as a knowledge centre while provisioning 1gbps bandwidth to each village under National Knowledge Network (NKN). IT Act, TDSAT and TRAI have been formulated in order to bring in regulatory frameworks for effective control and transparency to support national interests. This preventive approach has helped encourage the participation of private and public operators in implementing the policies.
10
Table 3: Assessment of Existing ICT for Development Efforts Decision Style/ Assessments
Current Scenario
Reactive
E-Readiness Assessment carried out annually by Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) (Country Level) E-Governance Readiness Reports by Department of Information Technology under National eGovernance Plan (NeGP)
Preventive
IT Act 2000; Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) 2000; Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Indian Act (TRAI) 1997, E-Governance Standards Formulation 2008
Proactive
National Telecom Policy 1994 and 1999; Broadband Policy 2000; NeGP 2006, Mission 2007; Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) 2006
As regards the reactive assessment scenario a continuous process has been adopted by the World Bank and the World Economic Forum through INSEAD and ITU etc. to look at the progress made in the areas of ICT adoption. Figure 1 below presents India‟s position on E-Readiness (reports of INSEAD are used here) (Dutta, and Mia 2011). This E-readiness exercise provides comprehensive analyses on various metrics driven performance assessment (termed as indices) of various countries participating in the process. Major indices, which are presented in Figure 1, reflect the ICT adoption behaviour in India vis-à-vis global scenarios. The indices used provide a percentile- a higher percentile confers a better status to the country. The percentiles are
11
presented longitudinally by using the data from INSEAD from the year 2002 onwards. Figure 1: ICT Indices for India
It may be noted that “network readiness”, “individual readiness”, “government readiness” and political readiness” indices have been showing an upward trend over the years. However, “infrastructure readiness” shows slow progress. It indicates that India is strategically poised to take a leap in adopting ICT for development and would leverage its benefit with the desired infrastructure. Figure 2 provides an overview of teledensity in India. It indicates that Indian scenario is still challenged by the rural-urban divide in the context of telecommunication infrastructure. This challenge provides a lead for analyzing the future of ICT adoption since the internet is predicted to largely influence the ICT enabled services in future irrespective of its medium (i.e., wire, wireless, kiosk, mobile, personal digital assistant etc.).
12
Figure 2: ICT Indices for India
Figure 3 suggests that in addition to the rural-urban divide in teledensity, other supporting infrastructure too is not very encouraging. All the indices assessed in Figure 3 i.e. phone lines, mobile network coverage, mobile phone ownership, PC ownership, broadband use, and internet bandwidth availability for India are ranked very low (the higher the number, the lower the rank) in all the 138 countries assessed by INSEAD (Dutta, and Mia, 2011). All the assessed indices point to a phenomenon called design-reality gap. It is, thus, easy to deduce that India needs to be proactive with regard to setting up right policies and their implementation. India should also adopt preventive strategy for continuously monitoring and evaluating the decisions taken for providing better infrastructure and enabling conditions for ICT enabled services.
13
Figure 3: ICT Indices for India
ICT adoption for development purposes in India refers to rural India. MDGs too aim to accomplish goals that are mostly targeted for rural dimensions in the Indian context. As explained in Table 1, the role of ICT in meeting the MDGs is concentrated in service provisioning through appropriate infrastructure. As regards services, NeGP in India has identified Mission Mode Projects (MMPs). Table 4 presents them as follows: Table 4: MMPs in India MMP Level Central Government
Description of the Service Income Tax, Central Excise, Passports/Visa & Immigration, MCA 21, National ID, Pensions, Banking, Insurance
State Governments
Agriculture, Land Records, Transport, Treasuries, Commercial Taxes, Gram Panchayats, Registration, Police, Employment Exchange, e-Districts (State can add 5 MMPs as per their choice)
Integrated
e-Business, Electronic Data Interchange, India Portal, Electronic Government Gateway, E-Courts, E-Office, E Procurement
14
Services listed in Table 4 are specific to the central government and the state government while some are integrated across state governments and central government. These integrated services, which are independent of states and the centre, will be available seamlessly to the citizens of India. In addition to these services, efforts are being made by the civil society, business organizations, and funding agencies to provide ICT enabled services. However, these services may be deployed and used with the availability of desired infrastructure. The success of these services would also depend upon adequate support on the part of the citizens who are otherwise challenged by many issues vis-à-vis MDGs. 3.
DEVELOPMENT OF AN ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK
As explained in section two, the sustainability of ICT enabled services for development would depend strongly on the availability of infrastructure and services. In the Indian context with MDG imperatives, this phenomenon emphasizes the importance of studying the following three dimensions i.e. “services desired as per MDG”, “services available for delivery” and “services actually delivered on demand”. In this paper, it has been argued that the services supplied would meet their desired level of success through proper identification of demanded services and provisioning of these services with quality, low latency, and on demand. The proposed framework includes the assessment of “ICT services‟ supply” and “ICT services‟ Demand” for development purposes. The assessment framework recognizes the WSIS suggested ICT-oriented deliverables as explained in section one. The points explained under the WSIS ICT agenda in Table 1 are taken into account for understanding the ICT supplies with specific reference to MDGs. The framework recognizes the limitations of the assessment of ICT for development because of the diversity in technology availability, difficulty in understanding user-centered services (especially those with a rural focus), and the fact of ICT being a general purpose technology providing mostly indirect impact. Besides, cause-effect relationships cannot be derived directly for ICT enabled development processes (UNCTAD 2011). 15
The framework is presented in Figure 4. The premise on which the framework has been organized is discussed below: 1. MDG needs to assess the local needs and capture them for intervention, 2. There are multiple agencies as service providers and sets of services to meet each MDG, 3. The household needs in rural areas are divergent, 4. Information needs are also divergent, 5. ICT for development would depend on the demand for information, services, and access points for meeting the demand, 6. Designs for ICT services should adapt to the realities at the points of demand. This reality check is dynamic. The framework has three components to assess the design-reality gaps as shown in Figure 4. These components are discussed below. Figure 4: Framework for Assessment Deliverables
Goals
Services Available ICT Services to meet MDGs in the Area Agencies Design Reality Gap Assessment
ICT Services Demanded
Household Needs (MDG)
16
Information Needs
3.1
ICT Services Available
Availability of services in the development scenario with ICT interventions is perceived to be supply-driven. These services are mostly conceptualized, designed, developed, and deployed with the aim of gaining user-acceptance. As explained in section two, the Indian scenario in ICT-mediated development practices are mostly supply-driven. This framework aims to capture the services available in the Indian context (supplies) and relate them to the MDG imperatives. 3.2
ICT Services Demanded
This component of the framework is quite critical to the argument that people targeted for ICT-mediated development interventions are expected to receive services on demand. Thus, there is a need to capture the requirements of the people to sustain their livelihoods. Livelihood security issues being too complex simplification has been sought by including in the framework livelihood security dimensions like food, health, education, finance and social (Misra, 2010). This framework takes into consideration the village environment of India to understand rural realities because of the serious divides including information asymmetry that exist today. These realities are assessed through the information needs emanating from family needs in a village set up. The information needs are captured through the metrics like. “proximity”, “latency” and “Quality of Service (QoS)” (Misra, 2010). These metrics are explained for their use in the analyses. Annexure-1 indicates these metrics used for information need assessment. Livelihood security dimensions used in the framework relate to MDGs. Each dimension of the livelihood security is attached to a metric with the measurement parameters including ranges to categorize the findings. These findings are applied to “Likert Scales” with “1-3 scale” (1-good, 2-avearge, 3poor) to objectively analyze the findings to support emerging situations and discussions. This scaling is rife with limitations inherent in a 3-point scale. 17
However, this scale is used for indicating trends instead of establishing generalized performances of any ICT mediated development intervention. India, with its large population in rural areas and beset with diverse socioeconomic situations poses a challenge in terms of measuring the success of MDGs directly. This assessment framework relates to “reactive assessment” with a view to engaging rural people in the process so that their contributions may be reflected in the preventive and proactive decision-making process at the national level. The framework may be suitable for frequent use with regard to periodical assessment. It will help design ICT enabled applications, services, process re-engineering and infrastructure in rural India. 4.
RESEARCH METHOD
The framework presented in section three is based on assessments of the ICT enabled development interventions being carried out in India. In the present research work, the state of Gujarat has been taken into consideration because of the convenience factor along with the fact that Gujarat is among the “Aspiring Leaders” of Indian states in terms of embracing ICT enabled government (e-government) and rolling out NeGP (Misra, 2010). For purposes of the study the “Panchamahal” district was chosen because of support received from the “Sir Dorabjee Tata Trust” (SDTT) and access provided by the Panchamahal Collectorate and Panchamahal District Milk Cooperative Union. This district is largely influenced by district milk cooperative societies and people are engaged in the milk business although it is not central to household incomes. People are amenable to ICT applications through the Cooperative Union and an e-governance project “Mahiti Shakti” that was piloted with success (the first of its kind in the state). Because of the prevailing environment random sampling (only in rural areas) was the method chosen for the primary survey. Besides, the desk work involved gathering secondary information through websites of the Gujarat Informatics Limited (GIL), Gandhinagar and National Informatics Centre (NIC) and other government agencies working for the state and at the national level to implement MMPs (state, national and integrative) in the areas related to ICT 18
for development. The present work does not include the efforts of the civil society and other service providers. The sample size of 284 has been drawn with the help of random sampling. This number is the response received from an expected sample size of 500. The population was drawn from a homogeneous category of dairy farmers who are inclined towards accepting ICT enabled services. No control samples were included in order to avoid the validation process for understanding the relevance of ICT adoption process. Besides, since the research method adopted is not intended for generalization, no hypotheses have been formulated. 5.
ANALYSES
Analyses are based on the framework to indicate the pattern whereby the ICT adoption process is supporting MDGs in the district of Panchmahal. As presented in the framework two aspects have been analyzed; one aspect is related to the ICT services available for intended users and the second to the demands and quality of services available in the domain for service providers (with MDG focus) to understand the gap and provide the desired services. 5.1
ICT Services in the State of Gujarat
In this section, ICT services have been compiled on the basis of their availability through web-enabled features in order to simplify approach. The rationale behind this approach lies in supporting the concept that web technologies have progressed to a scenario where all modes and media of communication may be facilitated, minimizing the challenges of proximity, access points and languages. In Table 5 below these services have been are presented with specific references to MDGs. This table also provides an indicative list of web-enabled services available in the state. It is also accepted in this work that web services are available in Panchmahal district because of the presence of CSCs, wire and wireless modes of internet connectivity, and mobile services. It is also indicative of the fact that almost all the MDGs are targeted for receiving support through these services either directly or indirectly. Having drawn a list of services available for rural people, a profile 19
of the sample of respondents was contemplated in order to analyze their information and household priorities. Table 5: ICT enabled Services in Gujarat State Description of Service e-Dhara: Land Records for all Value Added Tax System State Wide Attention on Public Grievances by Application of technology (SWAGAT)
Level at which Service is Rendered State State State
MDGs Addressed 1,2,8 1,8 1,8
Health Management Information System
State
4,5,6,8
e-Gram Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN) NIC Services – Driving License NIC Services – Check Gates for Commercial Tax NIC Services – Agriculture Services Ministry of Finance – Personal Account Number (PAN) Ministry of Company Affairs Railway Reservation Services Ministry of Information TechnologyCommon Service Centres
State State and National State State
1,2,3,8 1,8
National National
1,8 1,8
National National National
1,8 1,8 1,8,3,4,5,6,8
1,8 1,8
NB: The List is not exhaustive
5.2
Profiling of the Sample Respondents
As mentioned earlier, the sampling was homogeneous with most respondents drawn from milk producing household units. The profiling suggests that 79.5% are marginal farmers and 13.75% are small farmers (with the remaining falling in the category of landless and large farmers). As regards family size, around 64% of the sample households have families within the range of 5-9. 20
Around 75% of sample respondents reported availability of food grains for their household consumption as being in the range of 3-6 months in a year. Migration is a major issue in this district with 90% of the respondents migrating annually. 5.3
Analyses of Survey Results
In Annexure-2 presents the responses received through primary survey. It may be noted that food security and health security are two major areas of concern for the respondents. In areas related to financial security, credit facilities extended by the Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCS) has led to tremendous support on the part of respondents. Despite this support, however, meeting household expenses at household level is quite difficult for most of the respondents. As regards social security, community groups are in existence, especially for women with many activities supported by DCS. What this analysis indicates about this sample is that the district presence of DCS has helped support the MDGs. 5.4
Information Needs vis-à-vis Availability
Information needs of the rural population is considered important since information is regarded as a critical input for factors related to production, optimization transaction and coordination cost, and for managing the exchange of goods, services and information (Loudon et al., 2010). The livelihood security for rural people largely depends on these inputs. In order to ensure the role of ICT in terms of supporting MDGs, it is important that information needs be captured adequately to examine the contribution of ICT to MDGs in a rural setup. As per the primary survey results the findings are enumerated in Table 7 below. Analyses on information available in Table 6 suggest that information needs are quite relevant to the success of MDGs in local conditions. Almost all the 21
respondents agreed that there is an immediate need for access to desired information especially in the areas of food, health and education security which are of prime concern to them. This supply would generate interest amongst the rural people if local language interfaces were provided. Table 6: Information Need vis-à-vis Availability for rural People Information Needs Description
Whether Available through ICT Enabled Services
Information on Input Market
98% said “no”, but 65% said information on government schemes available (not through ICT) 76% said “no”
Information on Livestock health
89% said “no”
Information on Family health
76% “no”
Information on Land Records
65% said no
Information on Credit Market
72% said “no”
Information on Migration Opportunity
97% said “no”
Information on Skill Enhancement
95% said “no”
Information on Education
65% said “no”
Information on Local Income Generation Opportunity
N=284 5.5
Design-Reality Gap Assessment
It is noted that there exist various ICT enabled development-oriented applications and services-provided agencies at the state and national levels in India. However, it is understood that most of these services do not reach the rural people because of various limitations in managing infrastructure, 22
processes, technology and the people involved. The present study‟s designreality gap assessment aims to enumerate the scope for improvement in rendering desired services. For this purpose WSIS indicators were taken into consideration as explained in Table 1. Analyses related to the information needs of rural people and the availability of such services are presented in Annexure-3. This gap analysis indicates that the service provisioning strategy has to take into consideration the demands of the people to ensure that the services are actually used to support all MDGs. 6. CONCLUSIONS This research work suggested an assessment model to support service provision agencies‟ understanding of the requirements of rural people in India who are primarily concerned about the security of their livelihood. This assessment, although reactive in nature, also provides the scope to support preventive and proactive decision-making processes for the strategic decision makers involved in the process. In this study it was found that almost all the MDGs need adequate attention in order to provide ICT enabled services with proper need-assessment at the local level. Global perspectives in providing ICT enabled service for development indicate that e-readiness for India is of great concern and needs improvement in order to enhance its effectiveness. Most of e-readiness parameters assessed by the INSEAD indicate that the digital divide continues to exist despite improvements in many areas including individual readiness. However, analyses of the survey conducted in the sample district suggest that most people living in rural areas are yet to gain access to such services. Rural teledensity too is a prime concern in India despite mobile penetration having gone up. As regards services‟ usage in India vis-à-vis global contexts as per INSEAD, India has not shown an encouraging performance and has been ranked low in all the areas including broadband services, bandwidth 23
availability and network coverage etc. Thus it is important to note that there is a design-reality gap in all the parameters that may be used to assess the role of ICT for development as per MDG imperatives in the Indian context. 7.
LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH
This research has several limitations. First, the research has been limited to a homogeneous sample of respondents in a particular district which does away with the scope for generalization. A larger number of samples need to be included covering larger areas with heterogeneity. Second, the framework is not modeled through hypotheses offering scope to work in this direction for validations and generalization. Third, the ICT enabled services considered for the study are limited to government web-access alone. Other sources like civil society and business organizations providing such services need to be included in order to provide broad-based analyses. Fourth, User Centered Designs (UCD) are quite relevant in such studies to assess Quality of Services (QoS) and latency. These could not be assessed as most of these services are yet to be availed by the sample respondents. There is a scope to include these dimensions while validating the model (especially in capturing information needs and uses). Acknowledgments The author acknowledges the support of the SDTT, Panchmahal District Collectorate and Panchmahal District Milk Cooperative Union for the successful conduct of the study.
24
References Davis, G. B. and M. H. Olson. (2000) Management Information Systems. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. Dutta, S. and I. Mia. (2011) The Global Information Technology Report, 20102011. Geneva: INSEAD, World Economic Forum. European Union (EU) (2007) “Inclusive e-Government: Survey of status and baseline activities”, European Commission, DG Information Society and Media, e-Government unit, December. Fernandez, I. B. and R. Sabhrewal. (2010) Knowledge Management: Systems and Processes. New Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited. Gilhooly, Denis (2004) “Mainstreaming Information & Communication Technologies for the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals”, Report UN ICT Task Force, Berlin, pp. 18-20. Government of Gujarat (2011) Gujarat Informatics Limited, Enabling eGovernance. url: www.gujaratinformatics.com. accessed on 15.07.2011. Government of India (2011) Agmarknet, A Step towards Globalization of Indian Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi. url: www.agmarknet.nic.in accessed on 15.07.2011. Government of India (2011) National Informatics Center. url: ww.nic.in accessed on 15.07.2011 Government of India (2011), Saaransh, A Compendium of Mission Mode Projects under NeGP, Ministry of IT, New Delhi. url: http://www.mit.gov.in/content/mission-mode-projects accessed on 17.07.2011http://www.mit.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/Compendi um_FINAL_Version_220211.pdf accessed on. 1407.2011. 25
Hansson, S. O. (2005) Decision Theory – A Brief Introduction. Stockholm: Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). Heeks, R. and A. Molla (2009) “Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects: A Compendium of Approaches”, Working Paper 36, Institute for Development, Policy and Management (IDPM), University of Manchester. India Statistics (2011) Revealing India Statically. accessed on 14.07.2011.
url: www.indiastat.com.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (2010) World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report 2010, Monitoring the WSIS Target: A Mid Term Review, Geneva, Switzerland. Klein, M. and L.B. Methile (1992) Expert Systems: A Decision Support Approach. Cornwall, Great Britain: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Loudon, K. C., J.P. Loudon and R. Dass (2010) Management Information Systems. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley. Luftman, Jerry. (2003: 9-21) “Assessing IT/Business Alignment”, Information Systems Management, 20(4), pp. 9-21. Midgley, G. (2003) Systems Thinking: An Introduction and Overview. London: Sage Publications. Mintzberg, H., R. Dury and T. Andre (1976) "The Structure of „Unstructured‟ Decision Processes", Administrative Sciences Quarterly, 21. Misra, H.K. (2010) “Citizen-Centric Service Dimensions of Indian Rural EGovernance Systems: An Evaluation”, in Hakikur Rahman (ed.) Cases on Adoption, Diffusion, and Evaluation of Global E-Governance Systems: Impact at the Grass Roots. Hershey, USA: IGI Global Publishing. 26
Misra, H. K. (2010) “Role of Information Systems Architecture in EGovernance: The Case of MGNREGS in India”. The 4th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV2010), Beijing, China, October 25 - 28. Simon, H. A. (1960) The New Science of Management Decision. New York: Harper and Row. Tomasz, J. et al. (2011) ICEGOV 2011. Tallinn, Estonia: Tutorial on Electronic Governance for Development. Turban, E. et al. (2008) Business Intelligence: A managerial Approach. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River. UNCTAD, (2011) “Measuring Impacts for Information and Communication Technologies for Development”, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, New York and Geneva. United Nations (2001) Road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, United Nations, New York. United Nations (2010) Millennium Development Goals Report, New York. United Nations (2010) The Global Partnership for Development at a Critical Juncture. MDG Gap Taskforce Report, United Nations, New York. United Nations, ( UN) (2008) UN E-Government Survey, New York: EGovernment to Connected E-Governance. url: http://www.indiatelecomonline.com accessed on 14.07.2011. Ward, J. and J. Peppard (2000) Strategic Planning for Information Systems. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 605, Third Avenue. Zeleny, M. (2005) Human Systems Management: Integrating Knowledge, Management and Systems. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing. 27
Annexure-1: Framework for Information Need Assessment
Health Security
Food Security
Livelihood Security Dimensions
Assessment Metrics Range
Measurement
0-4months 3 5-8 months 2 9-12 months 1 Proper Sale Value Realization in the Village > 80 per cent said Yes 1 40 per cent 2 5 < 10 Km 2 > 10 Km 3 Availability of Work Opportunity in Village > 80 per cent said Yes 1 40 per cent 2 80 per cent said Yes 1 40 per cent 2 said Yes < 40 per cent said Yes 3 Accessible to Health Infrastructure < 5 Km 1 > 5 < 10 Km 2 > 10 Km 3 Availability of Health Services in the Village > 80 per cent said Yes 1 40 per cent 2 80 per cent said Yes 1 4,5,6 40 per cent 2 80 per cent said Yes 1 4,5,6 40 per cent 2 80 per cent said Yes 1 2 40 per cent 2 5 < 10 Km 2 > 10 Km 3 Formal Education Facility (Secondary) > 80 per cent said Yes 1 2 40 per cent 2 5 < 10 Km 2 > 10 Km 3 Ability to meet Household Expenses > 80 per cent said Yes 1 1 40 per cent 2 80 per cent said Yes 1 1 40 per cent 2 Assessment Metrics Range
29
Measurement
Social Security
Livelihood Security Dimensions
Assessment Metrics Range
Measurement
5 < 10 Km 2 > 10 Km 3 Savings Activities > 80 per cent said Yes 1 40 per cent 2 80 per cent said Yes 1 40 per cent 2 80 per cent said Yes 1 40 per cent 2 80 per cent said Yes 1 40 per cent 2 80 per cent said Yes
2
Not Well Supported
Average Distance Travelled 15Km – (3)
Needs Priority
40 per cent 5 < 10 Km > 10 Km Availability of Work Opportunity in the Village > 80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent
85% said No. (3)
Needs Priority
Food Security
80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent said Yes
31
65% said Yes (2)
Not well supported
< 40 per cent said Yes Accessible to Health Infrastructure < 5 Km
Distance travelled for the services-15 Km – (3)
> 5 < 10 Km
Needs Priority
> 10 Km Availability of Health Services in the Village > 80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent 80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent
89% said Yes (1)
Supports adequately
80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent 80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent
95% said yes (1)
Well Supported
5 < 10 Km
Improveme nt
> 10 Km Formal Education Facility (Secondary) > 80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent
96% said yes (1)
Well Supported
5 < 10 Km
Not Well Supported
> 10 Km Ability to meet Household Expenses > 80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent
85% said No (3)
Not Well Supported
80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent 5 < 10 Km
84% said in the village (1)
Well Supported
46% said yes (2)
Not Well Supported
> 10 Km Savings Activities > 80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent 80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent 80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent
Social Security
80 per cent said Yes 40 per cent
