World Dialogue on Regulation

The UN Partnership has designated four key areas of measurement:

1. infrastructure and access 
2. use of ICT by households and individuals
3. use of ICT by business
4. ICT sector and trade in ICT goods

WDR work in terms of measurement has been undertaken by the LINK Centre which in context of Research ICT Africa! and the Africa e-Index made strides in the task of creating a body of basic data where none had previously existed. There are different dimensions to this data collection, namely: household and individual information; business use of ICTs; and e-Government adoption and national e-Readiness information and indicators.

Further filling this data gap in terms of disaggregating for gender, rural/urban areas, by age, and a pro-poor perspective in terms of ICT demand and measuring information poverty, means that this aspect of the theme will be an ongoing issue for all researchers – namely in terms of whether the level of detail needed is available, and for some in terms of strategizing how to continue to collect missing data.

Key Projects
Measuring ICT demand from a pro-poor perspective, builds upon and consolidates research during the third WDR research cycle, including LIRNEasia’s Tele-use on a Shoestring research and RIA!’s E-Index. 

LIRNEasia
LIRNEasia, beginning with its Workshop on ICT Indicators for Benchmarking Performance in Network and Services Development (Delhi, March 2006) began developing standardised supply-side ICT indicators through a participatory process involving national regulatory agencies (NRAs) national statistical offices (NSOs) and private sector participants from South Asia to ensure a representative set of indicators are defined for the region. An Indicators Manual is being developed which would frame the methodology, concepts, definitions and standards for the indicators. In the first instance, the methodology developed in the manual will be applied to a six-country multi-component indicators study in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand with the potential to extend the procedures and practices across all of emerging Asia. Subsequently, the draft manual will be presented at another indicators workshop to be conducted in late 2006, for adoption by the South Asian NRAs.

The six-country indicators study, launched by LIRNEasia in June 2006, encompasses three components to be consistently applied across the six countries. These are the Telecom Regulatory Environment (TRE) Survey, an Analytic Description of the Telecom Reform Process specific to the individual countries, and the Telecom and ICT Indicators (primarily supply side). A demand-side Shoestring Survey (focusing on the poor and on women) will be conducted in 4-6 countries. In addition to country studies, this project will yield comparative data based on a common methodology. The findings are expected to highlight the major differences and similarities between the six Asian countries. 

In 2005, LIRNEasia conducted a study on tele-use by those earning less than USD 100 a month in 11 locations in India and Sri Lanka, based on random samples in each of the locations. The exploratory study yielded a plethora of findings that have been written up for publication and will also be included in forthcoming books. Based on critical analysis of the findings and discussion at a research planning meeting, a preliminary questionnaire has been developed. The Shoestring research for 2006-2007 will be expanded to cover six countries, three in South Asia and three in Southeast Asia, mentioned above. The 2006-07 study will adopt methods from the African e-Index study to make the findings representative of countries, to include focus group studies to probe further user behaviours, and will include additional questions on women’s use.  While the focus will remain on users who earn less than USD 100 a month, control groups of higher-income users will also be surveyed. 

Center for ICT (CICT)
The Center for ICT (CICT) in Denmark will effect a primarily an assessment of the experiences in the Nordic countries (especially Denmark) in building up ICT statistics. Over the course of the past five to seven years, there have been efforts in this region to formalise strategies and stocks of ICT statistics, and CICT will review the difficulties and achievements in this exercise.

Regional Dialogue on the Information Society (DIRSI)
DIRSI is undertaking a regional assessment to understand the access strategies and use of mobile telephony services by the poor in Latin America, and identify the major market and regulatory barriers to increased penetration and use. The investigation seeks to understand how mobile telephony access contributes to social and economic development by the poor – what is termed by the project as mobile opportunities. A set of policy recommendations for governments in the region to help remove major access barriers is a key project deliverable.

Research Strategy: This project combines the gathering of primary data and review of secondary sources. The main instrument for primary data gathering will be a regional survey of low-income mobile telephony users and non-users, to be conducted during 2007. This survey will be preceded by thematic background papers that review the existing literature and compile available data on relevant market and regulatory trends in the mobile telephony industry in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in comparable developing regions. These papers, to be developed through the year and published by the end of 2006, are expected to provide the necessary knowledge input to develop the survey instrument and make informed choices about appropriate research design.