ICT deployment and adoption have been identified as fundamental to achieving development goals. Thus, progress and efforts need to be monitored and evaluated to feedback into strategy and policy processes. Traditional indicators used by policy makers in the telecom sector are blunt instruments – useful for crude comparisons between countries, but not for informing national policy and regulation. National teledensity rates, for example, say nothing about the disparities between urban and rural communities, men and women, or rich and poor. Nor do many of the available indicators capture the range of new network technologies, services and applications or account for innovative usage adopted by the poor. Yet another problem arises in situations where research has been conducted but the data is locked in proprietary databases with the keys priced out of reach of developing country policy makers and regulators.
This thematic area is thus concerned with developing and accessing indicators that can capture and provide information about penetration and use of ICTs in developing countries.
MORE [+]
|
|
Cooperation on Indicators Theme in Asia |
|
Written by Divakar Goswami
|
|
Monday, 08 May 2006 |
|
 Links were formed between LIRNEasia, a WDR partner working in the Asian region and the Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA), Philippines, an organization involved in a project to develop a set of standard indicators for the ICT sector for the Philippine Statistical Development Plan.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
SME E-access and E-usage Index Survey |
|
Written by Christoph Stork
|
|
Monday, 20 February 2006 |
 The Research ICT Africa! network (RIA), a WDR partner, is currently carrying out surveys in 14 African countries on how small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) use information and communication technologies (ICTs). Preliminary conclusions indicate that ICTs can assist informal businesses to become formal and establish a more sustainable basis for income generation. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Steve Esselaar
|
|
Thursday, 16 February 2006 |
 In January the LINK Centre, WDR’s partner in South Africa, held a briefing for the South African regulator, ICASA. The briefing was planned to share the results of South African part of the e-access and usage household survey that is reported on in the report Towards an African e-Index. One of the areas highlighted in the briefing was the important role that payphones still play as a communications tool. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Alison Gillwald
|
|
Thursday, 01 December 2005 |
|
 Based on the e-Access & Usage Household survey that was completed during the course of 2004 and 2005, this report is the result of a demand study of individuals and households and how ICT's are used across 10 African countries. This ground-breaking research was launched at the WSIS in Tunis and is now available online. It was produced by Research ICT Africa (RIA!), a WDR research partner in Africa.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Variations on the expenditure in communications in developing countries |
|
Written by Sebastian Ureta
|
|
Friday, 25 November 2005 |
|
 A new draft is available of the paper Variations on the expenditure in communications in developing countries: A synthesis of the evidence from Albania, Mexico, Nepal and South Africa (2000-2003). The author is Sebastian Ureta of the Media and Communications Department of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
South African E-index draft report |
|
Written by Stephen Esselaar
|
|
Friday, 27 May 2005 |
|
The first draft report has been completed by the LINK Centre as part of the "African E-Index: Understanding supply and demand by measuring ICT access and usage" topic of WDR's third research cycle.
Among its key findings, the South African 2004 e-Index survey shows that there is considerable evidence to suggest that the protectionist policies that accompanied the privatisation of the national telecom operator have not served the country well and while they allowed for the maximisation of state assets this occurred at the expense of the ICT sector and indeed the national economy.
The draft report and a summary of key findings are available on the WDR website. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Towards an African E-Index: Understanding supply and demand by measuring ICT access and usage |
|
Tuesday, 19 April 2005 |
|
Lead centre: LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand - Contact: Alison Gillwald
Every society needs a guiding vision, policy certainty and transparent regulation to promote the potential of ICTs for economic growth and poverty alleviation, global competitiveness and growing employment opportunities and skills provision. Research is critical to establishing the needs of countries and groups within them, and to conceptualising approaches that are likely to be effective in resolving country-specific problems. Unlike other parts of the world committed to participatory policy formulation processes, there are few, and in most countries no, independent agencies contributing to these processes in the broader public interest on the basis of rigorous applied research. African research based on a sound body of data, information and analysis is urgently needed to assess the issues and inform African decision-making in relation to policies, regulations and investment. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
