ICT for Poverty Alleviation

Onno W. Purbo (onno@indo.net.id)
A Common Indonesian
Disclaimer
I am an engineer, not an economist nor a social scientist. Although, I spend most of my active life in community based ICT development in Indonesia, I might wrong in the assumptions, the observations and bias to Indonesian experiences. As an engineer, I tend to simplified & extract the most strategic / main aspects.
Acknowledgement
I would like to acknowledge International Development Research Center (IDRC) in Canada for supporting this work.
Bottom Up Self-Finance Community Based Approach
I strongly believe that poverty alleviation can only be done through education processes. It may not be a formal education. In fact, mostly informal education process that encourage individual within the community to be a knowledge producer and share it to one’s community and ignite a bottom up self-finance community based development process to alleviate poverty. One’s value highly depends on the benefit received by ones community.
Having spent 10+ years in helping the Indonesian to build people own Internet infrastructure with minimal (if not no) support from the government, World Bank or IMF. ICT is basically only a communication tool to accelerate the knowledge sharing processes. My experience shows that it is NOT the technological superiority or the financial dominance that matters in a bottom-up self-finance community based ICT development.
Most community has some money; the bigger the community the larger amount of money can be accumulated. ICT technology enables multi-tasking, multi-user, and resource sharing. It, in turn, enables lower operational cost per individual in large communities, e.g., 10-50 US cents/student/month for 24 hours e-mail / Internet access with Return of Investment (RoI) within 1-2 years time in most schools is quite affordable for any poor communities. US$10-30/month for 24 hours WiFi Internet access in urban household is quite affordable for mid income families.
The major stumbling block is mainly in knowledge on ICT. Awareness, skill to build and run ICT infrastructure would be the main aspect in a bottom-up self-finance community based approach.
Keep in mind that most modern ICT equipments require the ability to read & write. Communities’ mode of communication would be important in deciding the appropriate ICT technology as well as community development strategies.
Stereotyping Poor Communities
If I may stereotyping poor communities, I will likely divide the communities into two (2) major categories, i.e.,
•	Those who would speak and listen only. They might be an older generation, uneducated or primary school dropped out. They will likely more resistance to change especially the one introduced by aliens.
•	Those who are having some enthusiast on new things / new technologies. They might be a younger generation & have some sort of education above primary school level. 
The younger generation may easily adapt the new ICT technology. However, to reach larger audience within the communities voice communication mode should be implemented as well.
Proposed Basic Strategic Approach
The basic strategy is to encourage the individual within the community to become a knowledge producer and sharing the knowledge to their community or surrounding other communities. Knowledge must not be in written form. It may be in audio form to reach larger audience in poor communities specially the older generation.
Example ICT in Tactical Plan
Community radio broadcasting, which affordably costs US$50-100 each, would be the most strategic tool for knowledge sharing of older generation as well as the young in the communities. Encouraging people to be part of broadcast programming will in turn encourage individuals to be a local knowledge producer. It guarantees information diversity and minimizing information colonialism by national broadcasters.
For younger generation, focused on ICT on schools. It may affordably cost only 10-50 cents/students/month. We are looking at millions of country’s future generation ICT literate. Curriculum wise, we need to focus these students to be a knowledge producer rather than consumer. These young generation would likely to influence their parents, their families, and, in turn, their surrounding communities. It takes a longer path, a longer time, but it guarantees a change in a long run.
	Community based telecommunication / ICT infrastructure using WiFi and VoIP would facilitate many transactional processes. It is 24 hour connected to the Internet. Expanding the Telecenter concept into Neighborhood Net Infrastructure. It investment costs US$ 80-100/house; operating costs US$ 15-30/house/month. If voice only communication is of interest, VoIP investment costs US$ 25-35/handset vs. US$ 1000/handset by Telco. VoIP operating costs US$ 15-25/month unlimited including unlimited long distance calls. The technology may be freely downloaded from http://sandbox.bellanet.org/~onno/.
	As a result after 10+ years, we are looking at 4+ Million Indonesian Internet Users; 2500+ WiFi outdoor installations; 2000+ CyberCafes; 1500+ schools on the Internet. Mostly are self-finance with no government, World Bank & IMF funding.