Information and Development: the information effect

Abstract

Paper presented at the 9th General Conference of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) Paris, France, 22–25 September 1999, in a session of the EADI Information Management Working Group. The need for integrating information and communication policy with other policies needs to be better understood in most developing countries. Information and communication technologies and the new global information infrastructure have both positive and negative impacts on development. Widening disparities can lead to further disenfranchisement of the ‘have-nots’, but can also help empower them. This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing international discussion on the ways in which the developing countries can benefit from the information revolution, to clarify the issues involved in measuring the information effect – the impact that the use of information makes on development –and to explore the methods that can be used to measure it.