Information and Communications Technology as a Tool for Empowerment

This document is part of the World Bank sourcebook Empowerment and Poverty Reduction. This paper (found on pages 125-143) highlights how information and communication technology (ICT) can empower poor women and men in four broad areas, namely, access to basic services, improved governance, support for entrepreneurship and access to financial services.

ICT is creating economic, social, and political empowerment opportunities for poor people in the developing world. Financial sustainability is one of the main challenges for ICT projects. Rigorous monitoring, evaluation, and beneficiary impact assessments are necessary to appraise whether the benefits of ICT projects outweigh the costs. Conclusions include:

• Content and community participation are key to realizing the empowerment potential of ICT;
• Information needs of a community should be thoroughly assessed, with the active involvement of the community before launching an ICT initiative;
• ICT has enabled the delivery of education, job opportunities and health care to isolated rural areas;
• Government agencies can use ICT to transform relations with citizens and businesses;
• ICT can connect people to markets, thereby stimulating poor people’s entrepreneurship and the development of businesses in underdeveloped rural areas;
• Computerization, smart cards, and automated teller machines reduce costs for financial institutions, allowing poor people and micro-businesses to access financial services.