Developing a Comparative Framework for ICT Policies-A Brief Look at Economic Sectors
Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a framework to guide my comparison of national policies and plans for ICT use in education. Through that investigation, I have come across a lot of literature and research devoted to ICT and broadly ICT4D. I briefly mentioned the ICT4D SIG from CIES 2017 in my last blog post, but in this case I am curious regarding the nature and the development of the field as a whole to inform my framework.
Before we can get into the details for comparison, it is first important to understand where these frameworks and policies are coming from. Since ICT4D is quite literally used for development projects and developing countries, the source material for ICT4D thoughts and projects frequently comes from a 'developed' nation. This is the case with many development projects--a 'richer' nation helping out a 'poorer' one. However, outside of just the human capital aspect (i.e. knowledge, advisement, consulting, etc.) coming from developed countries, the infrastructure--technology, software, networks, etc.--also come from a developed (and frequently Western) country. This creates an additional layer in the field--ICT developed by Westerners for Westerners but used in developing nations--who then develop policy by Westerners for their countrymen to adapt technology to their context. This kind of pressure often leads to the incomplete and unfinished projects and plans we've been discussing.
With all that being said--technology does work in a lot of cases. As it informs economic development, no better case can be shown than what Singapore accomplished in the last 60 years (see some of my other research). We can see how economies and societies have been transformed by ICT. From the example of Singapore, policy and plans still need to guide that discussion. The next question, for many countries, is a discussion on what aspects of use there are for ICT, and how that can lead to 'development.'
Esharenana E. Adomi and Stella E. Igun from Delta State University in Nigeria have done a great job in providing a summary of ICT policy objectives, which I'll use as a starting point for further discussion. They start by listing the following:
1) Increasing the benefits from ICT.
2) Ensuring that ICT resources are readily available to promote efficient national development.
3) Creating the necessary enabling environment to facilitate the deployment, utilization and exploitation of ICTS within the economy and society.
4) Assisting people and organizations to adapt to new circumstances and providing tools and models to respond rationally to challenges posed by ICT.
5) Facilitating the development, expansion, rehabilitation and continuous modernization of the country's information and communication infrastructure.
6) Encouraging local production and manufacture of ICT components in a competitive manner.
7) Providing individuals and organizations with a minimum level of knowledge and the ability to keep it up to date.
8) Supporting the concept of lifelong learning.
9) Identifying areas of priority for ICT development.
10) Promoting legislation and policies for the protection of online, business transaction, privacy, and security.
11) Enhancing the quality of services and products.*
Some of this list is pretty self-explanatory--ICT infrastructure is important, ICT should be useful, and ICT should be used more by people in a good way (in layman's terms). However it is important to recognize some underlying 'tiers' to this ICT development. From an economic standpoint, this list identifies 3 different sectors of ICT use: 1) "ICT component" production and manufacture 2) ICT products and 3) ICT services (including online methods). I've dis-aggregated these from the above list, because it represents very different factors in development and hints at broader themes and directions for governments. While the last point, "enhancing the quality of services and products," translates to the adaptation of ICT to benefit all forms of services and products, it is important to recognize the production of those services and products as it relates to the point prior--online privacy, security, etc--itself a very wide range of ICT services and products.
In the production of "ICT components"-we need to first identify the "components" of ICT. Given the very broad definition of ICT that is still heavily debated by academics, I will identify 5 major forms of ICT: radio, television, computers, mobile devices, and, broadly, the internet. The components of these different forms of ICT imply vary different states of economic status, political consideration (of ICT) and social returns. In varying stages of development, manufacturing components for radio versus mobile devices provide very different returns on investment based off of the resources and skills required to assemble. Arguably, mobile devices such as smartphones require expensive components and more skill to manufacture than, say, a car radio. Further, the components of these devices require a special set of resources--chips used for data storage in smartphones are made of rare earth metals and are very intricate. Although it is possible to produce these given the rare earth materials, a large share of that market is cornered by China. This then becomes not an issue of production as much as an issue of international trade.
This is a good transition to our second sector: ICT products. When we think of ICT products brought to market, there's hardware and software. Hardware here would be cellphones, tablets, laptops, televisions, and even things such as routers, fiber-optic cables, etc. When I say "software" here I mean not just software run on your computer, but also apps. Each of these, in the grand development scheme, at varying levels can either be developed locally or imported. A lot of the hardware in place in developing countries has been exported from developing countries--think of all the old iPhones you might have had. While it may not seem important to develop ICT products, old products from developed countries often do not function on the international scale and keep pace with developed technology and software. Also, support systems (IT for old software, parts, etc.) for these products are frequently not kept up as new products come out. Updating and producing software, or making adaptations to local contexts, becomes of critical importance then. However, the set of skills such as computer programming, television broadcasting (i.e. filming), website development, etc. require extensive training. This very different set of skills, then, becomes extremely important to inform our next sector.
Finally, we can think about ICT services. First, there are specifically services for ICTs--website content management, social networking, internet service provision, etc. However, there is also the previously mentioned services in general that incorporate ICTs--data management using online databases and e-resources, e-learning, online banking, etc. We've talked a lot more about the service aspect within the context of this blog as it regards education, and made references to M-Pesa before, but this is the current state of many "developed" knowledge economies for ICTs. ICT services require a blend of multiple different fields intersecting--for example, online banking requires knowledge of online networking, security measures, and finance.
Given that context, many policies and plans make directional aims to jump straight to online services. Frequently in ICT4D literature, the African region is said to have the capabilities of "leapfrogging" stages of development--i.e. form manufacture to services. While this may be possible due to excess products, the knowledge aspect is still important. It is difficult to focus on website development when coding, etc. is not understood. For example, while this very website that I am using to blog on does not require me to understand HTML, CSS, Java, etc., having that background knowledge helps me to understand formatting and design for this website, which can lead to a better product/service. Similarly, scaffolding that knowledge is still important for this "leapfrog" to take place.
Now, to return to our framework--economic capabilities and directions are important to understand what countries are leapfrogging from or towards. If an economy is primarily agrarian, then leapfrogging to ICT services may be much more difficult without 1) significant background knowledge regarding ICTs in terms of production, use, development, etc. or 2) a heavy reliance on external partners for those services and knowledge for ICT components and products. Frequently, the latter takes place, and countries rely on imports of both hardware and software, and attempt to skip straight to the service provision. Hence, when comparing national ICT policies and plans, it is important to keep things within the broader scope of economic possibilities and where they might lie in the component-product-service development tiers. This can inform practical policy and implementation, and determine the amount of reliance on said external partners.
As a caveat, it is important to note that it is entirely possible for all of these sectors to take place at once--one can craft components to make a product that provides a service all within the same country. However, this requires a foundation of businesses, partnerships and knowledge that might need to be developed in that tiered process. This is part of one of the objectives shown above: developing the environment for the success of ICTs. This critical factor will be necessary to develop that knowledge, and in the end, establish a sustainable ICT and knowledge-based economy.
For many countries, that tiered approach is a long process that requires extensive partnerships, education, and planning. Jumping straight to the finish line seems like a better option for immediate benefits, but some may find it difficult to further rely on external partnerships. In the end, it comes down to a choice, and following through with the outcomes of that decision.
*Adomi, E. E., & Igun, S. E. (2008). ICT policies in Africa. Encyclopedia of Information Communication Technology. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.