A Framework for the Development of Human Centred ICT4D Initiatives: A Capability Approach Perspective

Abstract

The term “development” is often used  concomitantly with Information Technology for  Development (ICT4D) and Information Systems  for Development (ISD4D) initiatives in  discussions related to these fields. Development as an outcome is often pursued through ICT mechanisms without questioning the assumptions  about its contribution to human development.  Development, as a construct, has been the subject  of increasing debate in the ICT4D research  community, and is especially fuelled by the  current global economic uncertainty. It is when  the paradigm of development is shifted away from  the predominant Western theory of development,  as postulated by many economic development  theorists, as well as other development theories, such as utilitarianism, for example, that new  development outcomes can be explored. One  such outcome is the result of a human centred development approach, where well-being and  human development form the focal point of ICT  initiative outcomes. The Capability Approach (CA), developed and promulgated by Nobel Prize  laureate Amartya Sen, provides an  operationalizable framework that views  development as human development and having  or obtaining certain freedoms. The CA affords the  observer the opportunity to assert the social  dimension of development and, in the case of this  study, that of a rural community in South Africa, with the ICT4D artifact delineated to mobile  health, or mHealth.  

https://doi.org/10.59200/ICONIC.2022.031