L I R N E . N E T

Alison Gillwald (Director) and Christoph Stork (senior researcher) of the Research ICT Africa network (RIA!) have released a working paper, Towards an African ICT e-Index: Towards evidence based ICT policy in Africa. The creation of an African ICT research network was in response the growing demand for the information and analysis required for appropriate policy formulation and effective regulation. This paper traverses the work of RIA! and the network’s efforts to bridge the research gap, to contribute to informed policy solutions for Africa and better align these with overall development policies for the region. The paper describes the different research strategies employed since the inception of the network, such as the LIRNE Sector Performance Review and Telecommunication Regulation Environment (TRE) methodologies, and the ground breaking work in household and SME surveys. Work for the future is also described around the RIA efforts to formulate an African e-Index.

Download the paper in pdf format here.

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DIRSI has released an overview of the national reports for its project, Mobile Opportunities: Poverty and Telephony Access in Latin America and the Caribbean. The study gathered information about the strategies to access and use mobile telephony in contexts of poverty and social exclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean. Seven national surveys were undertaken for Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago. The analysis of the data will help form policy recommendations for each country. Contrasting the information from the different country case studies provides a regional panorama of the growing penetration and use of mobile telephony at the bottom of the pyramid.

Download the DIRSI Regional Report on Mobile Opportunities here (in .pdf).
Download the national reports on the Mobile Opportunities here.

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Last week, the Sri Lankan government withdrew part of its plan for putting a flat rate tax on SIM cards and further taxing mobile use in the country. LIRNEasia had been concerned about this possible development since it became known. Rohan Samarajiva, Executive Director of LIRNEasia, describes the effort, “with a lot of help from our media friends, and the serendipity of the scheduling of the Broadband Congress for this week that allowed me to hob-nob with the Minister, we rolled back the worst of it.” This happened during a very quick period of six days. (more…)

LIRNE’s partner in Latin America & the Caribbean has published its first book, DIGITAL POVERTY: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives. The book examines the problem of inadequate access to information and communication technology (ICT) and the need to develop appropriate pro-poor ICT policies within the Latin American and Caribbean context. The authors show how market reforms have failed to ensure that the benefits of the Information Society have spread across the many social and economic divides that characterize the region.
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An article in the June 2007 issue of the Indian-based international magazine i4d discusses DIRSI’s survey on mobile use by poor urban populations in eight countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Mobile Opportunities: Bottom of the pyramid mobile access by LIRNE. NET coordinator Amy Mahan is one of two articles by LIRNE.NET members in the issue. The other, by RIA! researchers Christoph Stork, Steve Esselaar and Ali Ndiwalana looks at mobile banking in Africa, arguing that a “paradigm shift needs to occur in order to determine how the poor might be profitably brought into the banking sector.”

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