Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects: A Compendium of Approaches

Billions of US dollars are invested each year by the public, NGO and private sectors in information-and-communication-technologies-for-development (ICT4D) projects such as telecentres, village phone schemes, e-health and e-education projects, e-government kiosks, etc.Yet we have very little sense of the effect of that investment. Put simply, there is far too little impact assessment of ICT4D projects.In part that reflects a lack of political will and motivation. But in part it also reflects a lack of knowledge about how to undertake impact assessment of ICT4D.This Compendium aims to address that lack of knowledge. It presents a set of frameworks that can be used by ICT4D practitioners, policy-makers and consultants to understand the impact of informatics initiatives in developing countries.The Compendium is arranged into three parts:Overview – explains the basis for understanding impact assessment of ICT4D projects, and the different assessment frameworks that can be used.Frameworks – summarises a series of impact assessment frameworks, each one drawing from a different perspective.Bibliography – a tabular summary of real-world examples of ICT4D impact assessment.