Nazrul Islam
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In mid 1990’s in Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank’s Village Phone Programme was a breakthrough in the history of development and has been recognized as a milestone in promoting technology for economic development and to improve the lot of poor people. It was an eye opening event in the developing part of the world as to how new information technology, such as cell phones can shape the livelihoods of the many thousands of poor people. The development gurus across the world were forced to rethink their strategy in regard to using technology for development. In early 2002 I had an opportunity to see how the programme worked in rural Bangladesh changing the landscape of rural economy. I was surprised to see the power of new information and communication technology. And since then ICT4D became my professional illusion.

Early in this century, ICT4D has become a popular jargon in the development circle. Many hundreds of people both in developed and developing countries are claiming themselves as ICT4D professionals. A number of universities from Sweden to California are offering masters level courses in ICT4D helping people to develop career in this particular area. Multilateral and bilateral donors, UN agencies, and INGO have their ICT4D section to deal and follow up with the growing trend in the use of ICT in development. This is inspiring indeed. Two global summits on Information Society clearly indicate dominance of ICT in development initiatives in coming years. Building an information society is now at the forefront of development efforts across the globe. Information has been recognized as important resources to cope with many development challenges. Development practitioners have put importance on access to information in order to bring positive changes to the livelihoods of poor people. While the WSIS Geneva summit was a good start the WSIS Tunis has made it clear that information and communication technologies have significant roles to play in development efforts. Now the task for the development practitioners is to draw a blue print clearly stating how to use these technologies in development.

Once blue print is drawn the second most important task is to ensure access to technology. Putting all forms of government offices on the web in Bangladesh sounds revolutionary but to many people it really does not make any sense if people don’t have computers and access to the internet. This is a simple conclusion. Computers and internet are still expensive in this part of the world. Internet penetration and teledensity is lowest in the world. The organization I work with sets up telecenters in schools that are also used by community people living around the school (For detail about the project: www.connect-bangladesh.org). Unfortunately we can’t go beyond the urban and semi urban areas. Sometimes I feel guilty that I am contributing to widen the already existing digital divide.

While the intervention of technology in addressing many development problems has been recognized as obvious the issue of meaningful intervention remains a challenge. I am often confronted with some typical questions: how information and communication technology could relate to the mainstream development initiatives? How is it different from technology transfer? Can we find a relationship between poverty reduction and ICT? These are the questions dominating the ICT4D discourse. We have, however, already found some nice examples of use and integration of new technologies in development. This will certainly inspire emerging cadre of ICT4D professional.

Access to information and knowledge is also central to ICT4D. This is associated with some other critical issues, such as, affordability, poverty and so on. In order to access information one needs appropriate tools which are not free and in most cases, are very expensive. If this is the reality, what steps should we take to make sure that everyone irrespective of economic standing has access to information and knowledge? I feel I must have to find out answers to these questions as I work in a country where most people cannot afford to buy tools like computers, internet etc. This is true that information can bring positive changes to livelihoods. But information is not free at all. Information is still within those who can afford it. Again, it just widens the already existing gap between information-poor and information-rich.