5 Ways ICTs Can Support the MDGs

"The MDGs are lofty, but informed local community participation and ownership is key in efforts to reach them and in ensuring that marginalized populations can also be included."

This blog post lists 5 ways that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can facilitate accountability and transparency, citizen engagement, and public debate - all of which, according to author Linda Raftree, are necessary to bring about development improvements and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Strategies explored here include:

1. Engage children and youth in the development process - "ICTs can help children and youth engage in the development process and bring their ideas, opinions and voices alive at the community, district, national and global level." Anthony Njoroge, Plan Kenya Community ICT Manager, comments that: "Using new technology, new media, children and youth can claim a space that they didn't have before. They can influence certain things, advocate on particular issues that are important to them, take ownership in communities and in leadership. ICTs excite them and encourage them to be more involved and engaged." Also described here is a project by Plan Cameroon that used arts and ICTs as tools for youth engagement, mapping and prioritising, research, and community dialogue. The video that can be seen below is one of those made by African youth to emerge from that initiative.
2. Identify resources and mapping patterns for better decision-making - "The advent of simpler and open source participatory digital mapping tools allows community members to map their communities digitally and to have more ownership of the information. Mapping helps identify patterns that may not have been visible before. Local maps shared on-line allow local people to provide their own information from their own perspective, and that information serves multiple purposes at the local level and beyond."
3. Pull in quick information to guide further investigation, response, or advocacy, and then push out information for targeted actions - "ICTs can be used to gather quick information from a broad population. This can be useful in a variety of situations and themes, including those outlined in the MDGs. For example, SMS [text messages] are being used to report on whether teachers are showing up at school, where violence against children and women is happening, where help is needed in the aftermath of a disaster, and for tracking endangered wildlife. Crowd sourced information can help governments and agencies get preliminary information so that further investigation and support can be provided in a particular area. Another example is the use of mobiles in different health initiatives, including: child-birth care; HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment programs; support for volunteer community healthcare workers; and bed net treatment reminders."
4. Support accountability and transparency - "ICTs are useful to support accountability and transparency, necessary for attempts to track and ensure good use of funding for different efforts, including those related to the MDGs and other aid and development programs. Making information more available to the public by mobile is one such way."
5. Improve municipal services and information management - "ICTs are being used to digitize civil registry in Kenya, for example. Not only are records being digitized, but mobile phones are used to make it more convenient for the population to know when their documents are ready. This saves people time and money and means that more parents will register their children."