Faculty and professionals from around Africa share their insights on the Top 7 Reasons Why Most development efforts using ICT (Information and Communication Technology) fail.
Below are some of the Key Questions from this video — please share Your thoughts too!
(Most of it was filmed from Winneba, Ghana, during the ICT4D Poverty Reduction Summit)
(To view the video above, you need to be on an Internet connection that allows access to YouTube.)
Questions for Reflection:
– Do you think the things you are doing will still have value in 10 years? What about 100 years?
– Do you really understand the context, and the key elements of the system you are trying to intervene in?
– Are you involving End-Users in the whole process, from Idea to Evaluation?
– Do You View Yourself as “Helping Poor People” vs “Partnering with and Learning from Rich People”?
Questions for Discussion — What are Your thoughts:
– Do You think Most ICT4D Projects Fail?
– If so, why do You think they Fail?
– In Your opinion, what are Elements of ICT4D Projects that “Work”?
mmmmm, problems are basically back to the basics: electricity self-sufficiency, hardware maintenance, and grassroot-brainstorming on usage efficacy.(incidentaly, I always wondered how the tech gadgets provided to those countries were disposed of once they stopped working? ref to battery disposal, etc.) So based on the testimonies, most ICT projects fail because help was provided by well-wishers working on Westerns assumptions from everyday commodity (reliable electricity, computer power/services/upgrades, atmospherical conditions, internet accessibility) to professional knowledge (culture, training…). It seems that local and national government have to participate hand in hand with the local educational needs. But what does that mean in practical results on site? Once that is figured out so that the infrastructure can be stabilized (aruhmmmph….small detail, right?), then only can educators start thinking aoutside the box on how to use the tech for THIER needs.
Clint you have pretty good camera presence. Do you have a tripod? 🙂
Clint, good job!
Wow, those are some really broad generalizations in there. Really, farmers don’t want to know market prices? Or most projects fail because they don’t consider local context. Considering no examples are given in the video, it’s hard to figure out what exactly they are criticizing. It’s more like some bits of common sense, elementary level development advice, rather than a critique of why (unnamed) projects fail (in unnamed ways).
Yes, it is true that summarizing 4-6 hours of video in 15 minutes means that most of the good examples and specific details are lost. Hopefully I’ll be able to post more videos soon that can give more details. Thanks for your comments!
well done Clint, you’re fab!
It is a great resource indeed and screening in the conference was an added value. Great!
Seriously i do not understand why only African projects are considered to be failing, the same counts for S-America, SE-Asia etc. Furthermore a rough 60% of all ict projects in the ‘west’ are considered #fail. But anyway nice to remind us.
Dear Clint,
We have placed your video on our communication for development website, located at: http://www.comminit.com/content/top-7-reasons-why-most-ict4d-projects-fail
along with a summary.
If you have any additions/corrections, please feel free to contact me.
All the best,
Julie Levy
Hi Julie,
Thanks for your interest in posting the video to your forum.
Due to the very helpful work of Michael Weber, Giacomo Rambaldi, and others — the video has now been translated into several languages (either completed or in progress in French, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, and Italian so far).
I recommend you embed the version of the video that has the multiple translations – so more people can benefit and discuss it.
For the version with optional translated subtitles, here is the embed code:
And here is the link:
http://dotsub.com/view/1f2752b3-e7ce-4445-801d-5ccd5d7ccd88
Also – some minor points, the summit was held in Winneba, Ghana – not South Africa.
And the embed code you used made the video too big for your site – but if you use this translated version – it should work well – just change the width and height dimensions as needed.
Best regards,
Dr Clint Rogers