Abstract
The chapter provides an overview of the role of information technology in development, examining its functions, applications, and impacts. This chapter reviews the ways in which information technology has “digitized development,” discussing the rollout of information technology by the private sector, as well as development-driven interventions that use digital technologies. It provides a framework for thinking about the role of digital in development in five key areas: health, agriculture, education, financial services, and social protection programs.
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Notes
- 1.
This book does not attempt to provide an exhaustive list of all digital services—such as national identification schemes or elections—nor a comprehensive review of all initiatives, interventions, and projects in each field. The field is in a constant state of flux, and so a comprehensive overview risks being out of date quickly. Rather, we try to provide a broad overview of interventions in this area and their purpose. For example, Gelb and Metz (2018) provide an overview of digital identification innovations and their contribution to development.
- 2.
In the agriculture sector alone, 700 digital services were rolled out in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 62% of which were located in sub-Saharan Africa. While m-Education (or “EdTech”) of m-Health initiatives are also common, there are no up-to-date available data on mobile initiatives in these sectors.
- 3.
Internet-based interventions include telecenters, internet kiosks, smart phones, or other digital devices that allow individuals to connect to the internet (or other pre-recorded content) on a given topic.
- 4.
One particularly vital supply chain affected by poor infrastructure is healthcare logistics, including distribution of blood and medications which are often vital to save the lives of patients experiencing medical emergencies or chronic health conditions (Chi et al., 2015; Conway et al., 2020). This is exacerbated by poorly-developed procurement systems for imported drugs, lack of storage facilities, weak manufacturing capacity, and unreliable energy supply and cold chain facilities (Pheage, 2017; Pothering, 2019). As a result, a majority of countries in sub-Saharan Africa import up to 70–90 % of drugs consumed, with high prices for imported drugs (Conway et al., 2020).
- 5.
Sheffel et al. (2023) define absenteeism as the proportion of health workers not at work who are expected to be present.
- 6.
These include, among others, Totohealth in Kenya, The Audrey Pack in Nigeria, Wazazi Nipendeni in Tanzania, Human Networks International in Malawi and Zambia, and Living Goods in Uganda.
- 7.
- 8.
One of the most prominent digital applications in use in the healthcare sector is CommCare, an open-source software that allows for a variety of flexible ways to support health workers.
- 9.
These constraints are particularly pronounced in the agricultural “last mile,” which is the web of relationships and transactions between buyers of crops, such as agribusinesses, cooperatives, and middlemen, and the farmers who produce and sell them (GSMA, 2022).
- 10.
The GSMA E-Agri tracker estimated that there were 437 m-Agri initiatives as of 2020, with 95 in Kenya, 47 in Nigeria, and 45 in Ghana (GSMA, 2020).
- 11.
GSMA categorizes these a bit differently, but with some overlap. These include digital advisory, digital financial services, Agri e-commerce, digital procurement, and “smart” farming (GSMA, 2020).
- 12.
Defined as literacy conditional on completing five years of schooling (Le Nestour et al., 2022).
- 13.
Using survey data from seven African countries covering 16,543 teachers from 2,001 schools, Bold et al. (2017) find that on average, 44% of teachers were absent from class, that less than a half of the scheduled teaching time was actually spent teaching, that only half were able to understand a factual text, and that a small minority were mastering basic pedagogical tools.
- 14.
A key issue with digital financial services is that of interoperability, which can occur at the network, platform, agent, and data levels. While interoperability has often been sought-after as a policy goal in many contexts, in the hopes of increasing the ease of money transfers across time and space, recent evidence suggests that platform interoperability lowers mobile money fees and reduces network coverage and mobile towers, especially in rural and poor districts (Bianchi et al., 2022; Brunnermeier et al., 2023).
- 15.
Beyond the sectors mentioned in this chapter, there are a number of other initiatives using digital technology in sub-Saharan Africa, covering the areas of employment, elections, supply chains, and energy. Several digital job platforms in SSA have adapted traditional job platform models to meet the needs of both informal and formal sector workers (Lakemann & Jay, 2019). Simple mobile phones have been used to share information on candidates and voter rights in Mozambique and Kenya, as well as to report electoral violence in both countries (Aker et al., 2017). Finally, off-grid solar solutions have been introduced and integrated with mobile money platforms in places as diverse as Togo, Kenya, and Nigeria (Roach & Cohen, 2016).
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Aker, J.C., Cariolle, J. (2023). Digitizing Development?. In: Mobile Phones and Development in Africa. Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41885-3_4
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