A Framework to Guide Development Through ICTs in Rural Areas in South Africa

Mamba, Malungelo Siphiwosami Njinga; Isabirye, Naomi

doi:10.1080/02681102.2013.874321

Cited by 29 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Du Bois and Chigona (2018) The research summarised in Table 1 indicates a plethora of findings, across a range of issues, in respect of the public access ICT4D landscape in South Africa over the past decade. These range from studies that provide a general overview of the landscape (eg, James, Finlay, Jensen, Neville, & Pillay, 2008;Pather & Gomez, 2010) to issues that sought to determine factors of success (eg, Chigona et al, 2005;Mamba & Isabirye, 2015) to those that highlight the implementation challenges (eg, Chigona, Roode, Nabeel, & Pinnock, 2010).…”

Section: Attwood and Maymentioning

confidence: 99%

A benefits framework for public access ICT4D programmes

Uys

Pather

2019

E J Info Sys Dev Countries

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There have been expectations across the developing world that information and communications technologies (ICTs) will deliver benefits to marginalised people. Despite many programmes related to the promotion of Internet uptake and usage amongst poorer communities, evidence regarding such benefit is lacking, and there is little agreement in respect of frameworks and metrics to evaluate the benefits thereof. This paper reports on a case study that investigated the nature of a public access information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) programme and presents a framework for assessing the associated benefits in the South African context. The capability approach is used as a lens to assess the process of providing opportunities to ordinary citizens through ICT access and use. By operationalising agency and conversion factors, the study identified inhibitors and enhancers of opportunities and choices in realising benefits. Through the application of a critical realism paradigm and a mixed method analytical approach, perceptions of a changed life, aspirations for a better life, and “hope” emerged as key intangible benefits. The paper presents an ICT benefits framework, which serves as an important contribution to the ICT4D evaluation field. A novel outcome of the study is that it provides evidence of constructs that to date have been considered as intangible benefits in the literature.

show abstract

Section: Attwood and Maymentioning

confidence: 99%

A benefits framework for public access ICT4D programmes

Uys

Pather

2019

E J Info Sys Dev Countries

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many ICT4D initiatives fail, and one critical aspect has been the mismatch between technology and context (Heeks, ; Mamba & Isabirye, ; Toyama, ). In many cases, technology designers often do not fully understand the context for which they are designing technologies, ie, they may apply Western/Northern technologies and approaches to Southern/Eastern contexts.…”

Section: Related Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards low‐cost community networks in rural communities: The impact of context using the case study of Beitbridge, Zimbabwe

Gwaka

May

Tucker

2018

E J Info Sys Dev Countries

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Most rural communities in developing countries such as Zimbabwe are underserved and/or unserved with regard to telecommunication connectivity. Governments in developing countries are also under-resourced to provide adequate digital infrastructure. Thus, community networks are increasingly seen as viable alternatives to bridge the infrastructure gap in Africa. However, new infrastructure interventions in developing countries face many challenges including complex interventions stemming from complex policies inserted into complex sociopolitical environments. The success of community networks in other African countries prompts this investigation into the potential of transferring the community network approach to Zimbabwe. The objective of this article is to frame how context impacts development of digital infrastructure. Zimbabwe's telecommunication regulatory framework is on the verge of countenancing the development of community networks, and for this reason, there is need for research to inform would-be investors, policy makers, and other stakeholders such as academia, NGOs, and communities themselves, on how the sociopolitical and economic environment impact these efforts. This is important because successful deployment of a community network may result in improved community development, eg, in food security, health, and education.

show abstract

“…Method contributions related to impact assessment or M&E range from a high level critique on how ICT4D projects are evaluated , to the development of a more hands-on process assessment framework (Osah, Pade-Khene, & Foster, 2013). General method or process related contributions include studies on project selection (Plauché, Waal, Grover, & Gumede, 2010), user requirements elicitation (Mamba & Isabirye, 2015), project management (Pade-Khene, Mallinson, & Sewry, 2011), policy evaluation (Krauss, 2013), systems thinking (Turpin & Alexander, 2014) and research philosophy (van Zyl, 2015). As can be seen, a variety of topics and angles are covered.…”

Section: Method/impact Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing South African ICT4D research outputs: a journal review

Turpin¹

2018

SACJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

South Africa is an ideal test bed for ICT4D research, since on the one hand it has stark development challenges, and on the other hand it has well established ICT infrastructure that could be utilised towards socio-economic development. Not surprisingly, a plethora of ICT4D projects are executed in South Africa by a variety of role-players. This paper focuses on how effective South African researchers are in converting ICT4D research activity into significant research outputs. Since effective research is assessed by journal publications, a review was done of papers published by South African authors in the prominent international ICT4D journals. It is found that while South Africa has a prominent presence in ICT4D journals, this prominence is concentrated in one research institution and one ICT4D journal. A surprising finding is that cooperation among research institutions that leads to co-authored publications is very low, even among neighbouring institutions. Future research is suggested to investigate the good practices of the most prolific research institution, to investigate reasons for the low cooperation between institutions and to more thoroughly investigate the research contributions made by the South African authors.

show abstract

A Framework to Guide Development Through ICTs in Rural Areas in South Africa

Cited by 29 publications

References 9 publications

A benefits framework for public access ICT4D programmes

A benefits framework for public access ICT4D programmes

Towards low‐cost community networks in rural communities: The impact of context using the case study of Beitbridge, Zimbabwe

Assessing South African ICT4D research outputs: a journal review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About