Plan International’s Finnish office has just published a thorough user-friendly guide to using ICTs in community programs. The guide has been in development for over a year, based on experiences and input from staff working on the ground with communities in Plan programs in several countries.
It was authored and facilitated by Hannah Beardon, who also wrote two other great ICT4D guides for Plan in the past: Mobiles for Development (2009) and ICT Enabled Development (2010).
The guide is written in plain language and comes from the perspective of folks working together with communities to integrate ICTs in a sustainable way.
It’s organized into 8 sections, each covering a stage of project planning, with additional practical ideas and guidance in the annexes at the end.
Chapters include:
1 Assessing the potential of ICTs
2 Assessing the social context for ICTs
3 Assessing the physical context for ICTs
4 Reviewing
5 Choosing the ICT
6 Planning for sustainability
7 Building capacity
8 Monitoring, evaluation and sharing learning
The sections are not set up as a linear process, and depending on each situation and the status of a project the whole guide can be used, or smaller sections can be pulled out to offer some guidance. Each section includes steps to follow and questions to ask. There are detailed orientations in the annexes as well, for example, how to conduct a participatory communications assessment at the community level, how to map information and communication flows and identify bottlenecks where ICTs might help, how to conduct a feasibility study, how to budget and consider ‘total cost of ownership.’
One thing I especially like about the guide is that it doesn’t push ICTs or particular ‘ICT solutions’ (I really hate that term for some reason!). Rather, it helps people to look at the information and communication needs in a particular situation and to work through a realistic and contextually appropriate process to resolve them, which may or may not involve digital technology. It also assumes that people in communities, district offices and country offices know the context best, and simply offers a framework for pulling that knowledge together and applying it.
99% of my hands-on experience using ICTs in development programming comes from my time at Plan International, much of it spent working alongside and learning from the knowledgeable folks who put this guide together. So I’m really happy to see that now other people can benefit from their expertise as well!
Let @vatamik know if you have questions, or if you have feedback for them and the team!
Download “A practical guide to using ICTs” here.
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