Rohinton Medhora
Vice-President
Programs
International Development Research Centre

When the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) was created in 1970 by an Act of the Parliament of Canada, the production and exchange of ideas were explicitly recognized as being fundamental to the process of development. The acknowledgement of these concepts at the birth of a “donor agency” was about as revolutionary — arguably even more so — as were the changes in information and communication technologies (ICTs) that followed.

As a result, IDRC has had an ICTs program since its inception. By 1990, the organization — mainly but not exclusively through its Information Sciences Division — had allocated C$ 140 million to projects in support of strengthening information systems, services, and tools for development in 95 countries. Although the central focus of information sciences at the time was the library as traditionally defined, the bulk of IDRC’s work was on research about information and networking, and the role that these played in social and economic development.

This support complemented the important interventions by national governments, official donors, and private foundations in sometimes quite literally building universities and research institutions — and the libraries and reference collections that went with them. But, being public goods, both the institutions and the libraries risked being under-funded were the market left to its devices. In terms of IDRC’s central mission, the C$ 140m investment was a sound one, as several reviews and evaluations have attested.

Spending wisely

If IDRC’s early decades created the platform for technology and information to meet, subsequent years saw the full fusion of the two. Even corrected for inflation, the organization’s investments in the information sciences field (now called information and communication technologies for development, or ICT4D) have at least doubled during the past two decades. More importantly, these investments populate every part of IDRC’s program matrix. In fact, the mainstreaming of the ICT4D concept — even while still being backed by a set of dedicated programs — is at least as important as the rise in the financial figures.

But some things do not change. Research on ICT4D remains a public good, and the demonstration effect of such work — enabling larger players to make follow-on, scaled up investments — continues to be important. Consequently, IDRC’s support in this area has ranged from the creation of Internet service providers (ISPs) in some countries, to the provision of broadband access to non-profit players, to work on largely open-source applications of ICTs to development. Consider IDRC’s support for research in Uganda and Mozambique, where the personal digital assistant (PDA) and wireless networks are used to gather health data throughout the country, then aggregate and disseminate it – all more exhaustively, rapidly, and accurately than the traditional paper-based system of gathering health information. As a colleague puts it, innovation can be cool and still serve a pressing social need. What better use of development finance might there be? This goes to the heart of the first question posed in the Third Global Knowledge Conference cross-cutting panel on "Financing Change in ICT4D: Innovative and Emerging Social Investors and Donors": What development activities take priority, “bread or computers”? In fact, in most cases they go together, and the real question is how to set each up to strengthen the other. When a project on e-government in a particularly poor country in turmoil was presented to IDRC’s Board of Governors recently, a Governor remarked that one needs government before one can talk of e-government. This is no doubt correct. But once the conditions of peace and reform have taken hold, ICTs would play a role in any subsequent development strategy. That is surely the real lesson from the Uganda and Mozambique Health Information Networks.

Risks and rewards

The panel is also being asked: Are there risks in investing in ICT4D? Clearly there are. For example, when it comes to the application of new technologies, the danger of naiveté or hubris must be controlled. A second risk is the premature obsolescence of the technologies used in developing countries. A third is the more standard one associated with any scaling up: something that works well in a pilot setting may not succeed in the larger environment.

I am not convinced that credible generic solutions can be found to each of these risks. But I am convinced that two principles that guide IDRC’s programming provide some pointers. The first principle is: listen to the clients, adapt from one situation to another, and build from the ground up rather than come in with the technology fix. The second is: pay attention to research; that is, promote evidence-based decision-making, as it is sometimes called in our field. These are obvious points, but abiding by them can be more difficult than one might expect. And so to the good news. The panel is being asked, finally: How do we break the mould of “traditional” donor financing to engage other sectors? I will listen with interest as my colleagues from these “other sectors” respond. But the record suggests that success breeds success. In an area as vibrant and dynamic as the ICTs sector, where risk taking is second nature, accomplishment quickly attracts philanthropic and private sector interest. Almost every major IDRC investment in the ICT4D area that has demonstrably worked has drawn further investors. Currently, IDRC’s own program resources in the area are more than matched by other players — developing country governments, official donors, foundations, and private firms. In describing IDRC in the opening paragraph, quotes were used around the phrase donor agency. By now it should be evident why. IDRC is not a conventional donor, either in the scale or nature of its interventions. Financing ICT4D is at least as much about taking risks, promoting ideas, and understanding the social and political context within which technological innovation plays out as it is about finance.

Rohinton Medhora will join colleagues from donors and social investor organisations in the Third Global Knowledge Conference session on "Financing Change in ICT4D: Innovative and Emerging Social Investors and Donors ."