ICT interventions for socio-economic development — A practitioner's view

Interventions that focus on the socio-economic development of communities and the research associated with it, are costing governments, research initiatives, donor communities to name but a few, billions in terms of time, effort and money. It is easy to find research literature and practical examples of the countless initiatives that have failed and less that have succeeded. Different approaches have been followed and different roads have been taken, with little success. The question remains why so many initiatives fail and so little succeed? What has been done differently? What indicates ‘failure’ and what indicates ‘success’… and for whom? This paper focuses on the human side of technology interventions and how these are to be approached in low-income communities.