Title: Development 2.0: Transformative ICT-Enabled Development Models and Impacts
Author: Richard Heeks
Pages: 6 pp.
Source: Development Informatics Short Paper no.11
Publisher: Centre for Development Informatics IDPM, SED, University of Manchester, UK
Date (published): 01/07/2010
Date (accessed): 14/07/2010
Type of information: research paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Where are the Amazon and eBay for international development? If we could find them, they might represent "Development 2.0": new ICT-enabled models that can transform the processes and structures of development. In this briefing, I will trace out some examples, and analyse how they are changing the way that we "do development".
The foundation for these changes has been the rapid diffusion of ICTs into the developing world. In 1998, less than one out of every 100 inhabitants in developing countries was an Internet user. By 2008, that figure was 22 out of every 100. In 1998, 2 of every 100 inhabitants in developing countries was a mobile phone subscriber. By 2008, that figure was 55 out of every 100.i Shared usage takes this further: even in the world's poorest continent, Africa, an estimated two­thirds of the population now has access to a mobile phone.ii
What happens when you start to connect the world's poor into the infrastructure for a digital economy? What happens is that some of the basic assumptions about barriers to development might no longer apply. Some examples follow, looking first at development models, and then at development impacts.

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