Socio-Cultural Influence in ICT4D Interventions: Reflections from Three Case Studies

Over the last decade, the domain of development studies has viewed, with sufficient reason, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as an important catalyst for achieving development goals (Brown, 2010; Walsham and Sahay, 2006; Hanna & Schware, 1990). The innovations and productivity enhancement wrought by ICT in private organisations has partly contributed to the belief that this effect may be replicated in other domains as long as the change agent is the same. Internalising this notion, the development discourse has firmly placed ICT as the focal agent of transformation and development (Wade, 2004) and research on ICT for Development (ICT4D) interventions has focused on the organizational context in understanding its adoption and use. However, over the last decade, researchers have begun highlighting issues arising in the ICT4D interventions. Analysing the failure of ICT in ushering in transformation and development, a multitude of researchers (Avgerou, 2001; Heeks, 2002 and 2003; Silva and Figueroa, 2002; Krishna and Madon, 2003) have suggested that this has happened largely due to a failure in recognising the complexity of the underlying issues. An examination of the high rate of failure of ICT4D interventions reveals reasons originating in both the practical as well as the theoretical domains. While there is a considerable body of literature that highlights the influence of context in ICT4D adoption, there is less explication of the unique nature of socio-cultural context related to each ICT4D interventions.