Innovative ways to reduce poverty and unemployment: from the townships to the shopping malls

I wrote this article while volunteering in South Africa in 2008. perhaps this was the time

New Hope for a new country

I wrote this article while in South Africa. This is sample of my first steps on Design Thinking. Joseph: New hope for a new country As a member of an International Organization, part of the United Nations, I am still trying to figure out “who” is my user. Taking on consideration that all our work is centered on providing support to governments to achieve national and global goals on a “by demand” approach. Clearly our user will be government officials, whom we try to support with capacity enhancement programmes and advisory services for new policies formulations. But, after DTBC my concept has started to change, and personally I think that our efforts (especially mine) should move beyond this concept and start thinking on the final users, who are the actual citizens of any country. Design thinking is helping me to understand this much better and to be able to focus my attention to the users that really needs our help and support.

Let me introduce my user. Joseph. He is a 34 years old man who was born in Limpopo Province (Limpopo is one of the poorest provinces in South Africa) and migrate to Gauteng (one of the wealthiest provinces) in 1997, three years after the end of Apartheid. He is married and has two kids (6 and 2) and lives in a township close to Pretoria, 30Kms away from his workplace (in South Africa the lack of public transportation makes it very difficult and expensive to move around, especially when you are in a budget). Since 1994 South Africa has been working towards reducing inequalities and social imbalances in the country. 18 years after the new government took the leadership of a unified country, huge divisions of wealth and imbalances are easily identified in all segments of society. Joseph’s dreams when he was young coming to the capital of the country are gradually fading. The country is not offering young people opportunities to growth and to improve the quality of life. Every year new universities/colleges graduates are ending working at the hospitality industry, hence reducing their hopes and dreams of a new life. So, the issue is how all the international agencies, corporates, and civil society organizations that work in developing countries in Africa could contribute to a change and make an impact on lives of the these young dreamers.

Summit on the Information Society

The Information and communications technologies have advanced at an unprecedented rate during the last 10 years. The world has experienced economic and social benefits from access to Internet. The rapid diffusion of mobiles technologies have shown that ICTs could be a tool for change and that we should link it policy and development programmes to foster development outcomes. The penetration of mobile technology, the growth of smartphones along with the growth of mobile broadband has shown that the world is changing towards mobile. The initial plans to end the “digital divide” and make the Internet accessible to everyone should change based on the new context. There has been much change and development on the ICT arena during the last 10 years that a new World Summit on the Information Society is needed. Additionally, there have been several positions among different stakeholders that the first two Summits were not inclusive and that the declaration paid little attention to the comments and recommendations of civil society organizations in particular. For all of these a new Summit could help to enhance the objectives and include all stakeholders. A new summit could present an opportunity to support policy changes and lead to a faster achievement of development goals.

ICTs a tool for development?

ICT4D refers to use of ICTs in the fields of socioeconomic development, international development and human rights. The goal of ICT4D is to make use of the ongoing transformation by actively using the enabling technology to improve living conditions of societies and segments. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can play a critical role in sustainable human development and poverty eradication. ICT is a powerful enabler of development goals because of the way in which it improves communication and the exchange of knowledge and information necessary for development processes. ICT is pervasive and cross-cutting, impacts the full range of human activity and has become one of the main enablers in the pursuit of poverty alleviation and wealth creation in developed and developing countries. As accelerator, driver, multiplier and innovator, ICTs are powerful if not indispensable tools in the massive scaling up and interlinkage of development interventions and outcomes. ICTs also play a critical role in speeding up the flow of information and knowledge between government and citizens and transforming the way in which governments and citizens interact. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) the challenge for all countries is to create and develop a system of governance that promotes, supports and sustains human development. Governments in many parts of the world have made huge ICT investments aimed at improving governance processes. The rapid diffusion of mobile technology has brought forward new opportunities to foster public service delivery and access to public information, enhance the transparency and accountability of public institutions and private organizations, and empower stakeholders to have louder voices in key decision-making processes. The potential of ICTs as key enablers of development, and as critical components of innovative development solutions, is fully recognized in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. However, all stakeholders should consider that in order to fully use ICTs for development the necessary content and skills should be accompany the enabling environment, including broadband Internet, mobile technologies and applications.

Information Society in Bolivia

ICTs present a revolutionary approach to addressing developmental questions due to their unequalled capacity to provide access to information instantaneously from any location in the world at a relatively low cost. This has brought down global geographic boundaries faster than ever thought possible. The resulting new interconnected digital world heralds the fluid and seamless flow of information, capital, ideas, people and products. Bolivia’s path towards an information society has been long but is generating results. The Supreme Decree 26553 of April 9, 2002, established the legal and institutional framework for building the Information Society to strengthen ICT and Information Society. To implement the strategies and coordinate actions to reduce the digital divide through the promotion of ICT in all areas, the Agency for the Development of Information Society in Bolivia - ADSIB was created, as a decentralized body under the custody of the Vice-President. The path started in the year 2002, when the Government of Bolivia presented "Digital Agenda-Bolivia - The Guidelines for a Bolivian Strategy in the Digital Age", this document laid the foundations for creating a guideline country ICT that allows people to be part of the Information Society. Within this framework, ADSIB, Vice Ministry of Electricity, Alternative Energy and SITTEL (former Superintendence of Telecommunications), with support from the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP) imposed the important task of coordinating and preparing the National Strategy and Information Technology Communication (ETIC). During the period 2003-2006, the country developed an inclusive and participatory strategy finding models of ICT appropriation in the various strata of society, in order to accelerate the reduction of the digital divide in Bolivia and thus increase levels of the Information Society. The central objective of ETIC was "Develop and implement policies, programs, initiatives and propose use of ICT for human capacity development in a participatory and inclusive process with emphasis on low-income groups with peri-urban and rural ". From ETIC born the National Digital Inclusion Plan (PNID) that addressed the first challenges and the desire to close the digital divide in the country. The digital divide is conceived as the dividing line between communities, cities, regions or individuals that use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and those that do not have access or do not know how to use them. Thus reducing their chances of individual and collective development. The Ministry of Development Planning through the Department of Science and Technology in exercise of its powers assumed leadership on ICT in the country, through the implementation of PNID to create a knowledge society with the country’s own characteristics. The Ministry acknowledging ICT as an important factor of economic and social development, which has among its main pillars, providing access to and use of information and telecommunications infrastructure, improve the capabilities of the population in the use and application of ICT tools, generate and share content relevant to reality and national development needs, implement appropriate legislation and regulation and improve the participation of citizens in access to information and public services and government decisions. The incorporation of ICT for guiding government actions on the needs and demands of the population in a relevant and timely manner, and at the same time, allowing better access to information and services in sectors such as: health, education, science and technology, production, rural development and government. Furthermore, stimulating economic activity, supporting the dissemination of projects and development programs, providing mechanisms for transparent governance, and opening new communication channels for internal and external social empowerment aiming to eradicate poverty and social exclusion. Currently Bolivia is heading to increase the penetration of access to telecommunications services in rural areas, from a new public policy framework under the principle of "universal right to access and telecommunications" recently established in the new Constitution. Although this is a recent constitutional status in the country and largely rural, there were already a number of important ICT initiatives that facilitated the creation of community telecentres driven by some municipalities, private banks and NGOs. Meanwhile private enterprise and service operators primarily considered not even a priority to invest in telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas profitably considering them irrelevant. Although the state has a regulation that provides for the introduction of incentives for the construction of telecommunications networks in rural communities, large operators do not fully meet these regulations. As a result of this and following the government’s policy, the National Telecommunications Company (ENTEL) was nationalize from STET Telecom and has investing in access in the less privileged areas. In the same path in February 2010 President Evo Morales signed the decree creating the Bolivian Space Agency with the aim of “build and send into orbit the Túpac Katari satellite for the benefit of the country." Technologies of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) enable people, organizations of all type of companies and public institutions to enhance internal process (automatization/digitalization), to find information, to create knowledge, and share in real time, which means cost savings and resources optimization. In the modern world, the most prosperous economies are based on the skills of citizens, businesses, organizations, government, academia and the private sector to generate, store, retrieve, process and transmit information and knowledge, functions that are applicable to all activities the human being. Technology can be a powerful tool for human development in reducing poverty because it provides a bridge to the creation of new employment opportunities and trade. In this sense, the implementation of services based on information technology and, in particular, mobile applications represents a significant potential for developing countries, which is given to the extent to which information technologies are appropriately adapted to the specific needs of these nations. The trend to mobility and social networks, are completely transforming the way we think and solve business problems in organizations through the use of ICTs. According to the site CheckFacebook.com, there are 1,988,220 Bolivians who have active accounts on Facebook. According to the website, the country has 19.9% of penetration and is on place 67 globally. Also, the composition ethereal groups shows that most users of the platform's biggest Social Web is between 18-24 years (806.120 users). Interestingly also in Bolivia have more male users (56%) than women, opposing data to the global trend. Thanks to ICTs, Bolivia is part of the global village. ICTs are not just used by big business, but also by small and medium producers, organizations, indigenous communities, settlers, rural economic organizations, producer associations and NGOs, among others. Bolivia is a sample on how technologies could be used to improve access, use and adopt ICT-based applications to its needs, skill communities through education programs to promote economic growth and development.

ICT for Development

ICTs are basically information-handling tools—a varied set of goods, applications and services that are used to produce, store, process, distribute and exchange information. They include the ‘old’ ICT of radio, television and telephone, and the new’ ICT of computers, satellite and wireless technology and the Internet. With appropriate content and applications, these tools are now able to work together, and combine to form a ‘networked world’—a massive infrastructure of interconnected telephone services, standardized computing hardware, the Internet, radio and television—which reaches into every corner of the globe.

ICTs present a revolutionary approach to addressing developmental questions due to their unequalled capacity to provide access to information instantaneously from any location in the world at a relatively low cost. This has brought down global geographic boundaries faster than ever thought possible. The resulting new interconnected digital world heralds the fluid and seamless flow of information, capital, ideas, people and products.

Five characteristics describe the modern ICTs:
-Interactivity: ICTs are effective two-way communication technologies.
- Permanent availability: the new ICTs area available 24 hours a day.
- Global reach: geographic distances hardly matter any more.
- Falling costs: relative costs of communication have shrunk to a fractional of previous values.
- Multi-media: The digital ICTs permit the exchange of information in writing, sound and picture.

If appropriately deployed, ICT can help facilitate crucial economic and social development objectives in all sectors:
·Efficiency gains: ICT reduces the unit cost of information by increasing the speed with which it can be collected, maintained, and disseminated.
·ICT applications enable the linkage to global markets, groups, and organizations.
·The rapidly decreasing cost of technology makes access more widespread. At the same time, the nonproprietary nature of the internet makes more information available to everybody.
·Because it makes information freely available to all, ICT is potentially empowering and democratizing.
·The speedier information flow and its public availability combine to create greater transparency and accountability in the functioning of organizations.
·New ICT applications, especially using mobile technology, can deliver services to remote, otherwise unreachable locations.

ICTs and the Millennium development goals

Digital opportunities provided by ICTs are fundamental to the improvement of all aspects of developing economies and their entry into the global marketplace. While ICTs are not a panacea for all development problems, they offer enormous opportunities to narrow social and economic inequalities, and thus help achieve broader development goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations.

In the development strategy of the United Nations Development Programme there is a focus on mainstreaming ICTs to effectively contribute to the achievement of the MDGs, particularly those related to income, poverty reduction, education, health, environment and gender equity by: creating economic opportunities and contributing to poverty reduction; managing the processes of providing basic services (for example, health care and education) at lower cost and with greater coverage; facilitating access to information and the involvement of stakeholders through greater transparency and support for networking at every stage; and enhancing the capacity to measure, monitor and report progress on the goals and to strategize.