What is ICT4D?
Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) is the use of digital solutions to magnify the intent of communities to accelerate their social and economic development.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) include hardware, software, content, and the design and implementation methodologies required for their successful adoption. ICT4D employs all technology interventions that can assist poor and marginalized people. Radio, television, mobile phones, artificial intelligence, blockchain, UAV drones, and geographic information systems are common digital tools.
Who Uses ICT4D Solutions?
ICT4D advisors use digital development approaches to deploy cutting-edge innovations in the world’s more difficult environments. They work to reduce the digital divide in education, healthcare, agriculture, and civil society. Advisors ensure equitable access to information and communication technologies around the world, minimizing disparities in gender, geography, and wealth.
Experts in ICT4D solutions work for major donors, like USAID, DFID, and the Gates Foundation, their implementing partner organizations, and humanitarian aid organizations. They also work in national and local governments, and the private sector.
What Are ICT4D Solutions?
ICTs are deploying in multiple sectors to improve international development outcomes. Here are the three most popular ICT4D solution areas:
- Healthcare: Mobile phone applications can help patients self-diagnose their ailments using the camera, microphone, or other sensor. Front line health workers can use electronic medical records to track patients, and healthcare managers employ big data and algorithms to see disease patterns at national scale.
- Education: Students read eBooks to improve their reading ability while teachers employ computer-assisted adaptive testing to understand learner needs. School headmasters leverage educational management information systems to predict learning solutions.
- Agriculture: Farmers work with drones and GIS to modernize farming practices taught by extension agents trained in online learning programs. Ministries estimate crop yields with real-time satellite data.
Examples of ICT4D Solutions
ICTworks is constantly researching emerging ICT4D programs to identify successful interventions and share lessons learned with our growing readership. You can learn more about impactful projects in the expanding list below:
Do You Eat Your Own ICT4D Dog Food?
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ICT4D Academics Are Failing the Poor
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Three Factors to Make Your ICTforAg Efforts More Effective
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Ranking the 6 Problems with ICT4D Product Rankings
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Where is DFID in Digital Development?
Recently, DFID commissioned a review of how digital tools are being used in its programmes to benchmark DFID’s current activities and support the development...
Apply Now for $312,000 in ICT4D Grants for Africa and Asia
Finding seed funding to launch ICT4D projects isn’t easy, and we’d like to help! Here’s three grant opportunities and one award program that can...
Why Yes, Pokemon Go Is Relevant to Digital Development!
The runaway success of mobile game Pokemon Go has many of us scratching our heads in disbelief: More people are swiping balls at monsters than using Twitter? They’re...
Pop Quiz: Should You Need a License to Practice ICT4D?
The Kenyan government recently introduced the Information Communications Technology Practitioners Bill 2016 bill that would require every ICT practitioner to have...
Process Improvements: The Forgotten Big Wins in Digital Development
Working with ICT, we often get myopically focused on trying solving big problems, not even thinking about where technology has proven benefit: improving systems...
Mobile Learning Lessons: From the Developing to the Developed World
The ICT4D field is proving mature enough in some instances to reverse the flow of informal technology transfer from developed to developing, so much so that it...
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