Features A Dialogue on ICTs and Poverty: The Documentary The broad overview of the discussions tackled during the forum. ICTs, Human Development, Growth and Poverty Reduction: A Background Paper (2009) [Global Voices] Communication and Human Development: The Freedom Connection? Global Voices will be looking for stories in global citizen media and blogs about how ICT is being used for development. | (Read more...) [Publius Project] Spotlight: IDRC Forum IDRC Forum Essays on the Publius platform | (Read more...) [Sept. 23] Communication and Human Development: The Freedom Connection? Please join the IDRC, moderator Michael Best, and the Berkman Center in the Ames Courtroom, Harvard Law School, or online via video or audio webcast. | (Read more...)

Amartya Sen

Harvard Forum II: ICTs, Human Development, Growth and Poverty Reduction

Leading thinkers in the area of development discuss how ICTs could contribute to poverty reduction in developing countries, now and in the future.

Listen to the full audiocast  and/or read the live blog of the event!

Convened by Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and Michael Spence, in collaboration with Randy Spence and the International Development Research Centre, the meeting will take place on September 23-24, 2009 at Harvard University.

Building on the work conducted during the first Harvard Forum in 2003, participants will

• consider how ICT policies, management, and investments can more effectively contribute to poverty reduction; 
• identify lessons learned and changes in the area of ICTs for development (ICT4D) since the first Harvard Forum; and 
• develop a new ICT4D research strategy / agenda.

During the first Harvard Forum, participants identified several needs in the area of ICT4D: 

• increased access to ICTs for poverty reduction 
• ICT governance and regulatory reform, especially in the telecommunication sector 
• services and content that focus on the poorest of the poor, and particularly those that encourage entrepreneurship as a means to achieve poverty reduction

In the six years since the first Harvard Forum, many important and transformative changes in the world of ICTs and development have occurred. Notably: 

• the explosion of mobile phone use in the developing world, which previously had little or no contact with new technologies; 
• the emergence of new social technologies, such as Facebook and Twitter, allowing for greater degrees and depth of social networking, political mobilization, and participation; 
• the penetration of new models of open and collaborative content development and distribution into almost all sectors of society in both developed and developing countries; 
• a heightened focus on the largest, but poorest socio-economic group (i.e. the Bottom of the Pyramid BoP) and the potential for new business models that target this group. 
• an increasing pressure and need for global collective action on climate change; and 
• the current economic slowdown.

In light of these new contextual realities, and the need for a new round of strategic corporate planning, it is an opportune time to revisit these questions and objectives.