Information Technology: How to make it work for NGO Programmes

Information Technology (IT) has been identified as the greatest phenomenon after the Industrial Revolution which helped emerging economies like India and China leapfrog the development lifecycle.

Although its benefits have reflected in urban ecosystems, IT has shown potential of enabling rural development. Although recognised by multi-lateral and bi-lateral organisations as a potential tool for fight against poverty, health problems and illiteracy, the potential of ICT tools have not been utilised fully by large number of NGOs working on ground implementation of these development programmes.

Studies and pilots have identified several shortcoming and issues with use of ICT vs its economics, however reflective studies lack perspective of NGOs who end up being intermediaries in utilising ICT tools.

Our work of seven years have shown us some of the primary reasons are:

(Here we are discounting all infrastructure issues for the sake of arriving at focused discussions on issues which could be handled, such as Electricity, Hardware service providers etc.)

1) Management of ICT tools like Computers/Server/towers - NGOs have tried to take up 'total' ownership of managing computing infrastructure which requires highly qualified professionals (and who come expensive), this process worked for sometime till the programme funding lasted but could not be sustained further. Could outsourcing would have been a cost effective solution here?

2) Human Resource Development - Perhaps the most important area, where NGOs have tried to build capacity of IT team within its own fraternity and could not retain then or get the desired output, even after investing huge amount of money in training. Could a outsourcing model been a more sustainable option, considering even large companies have not been able to retain trained IT human resource?

3) Patchwork Software Solution - Identifying/developing the right solution for the development process/programme is the best way to ensure that delivery of the intended service is cost effective and meets the identified need of the community. NGOs have over years tried to develop software's which work as patchwork solution for their need instead of industry standard solutions. Open Source solutions have also not been leveraged properly, as most of these patchwork applications were developed on proprietary platforms and when the developer team withdrew (or left) so was all maintenance support to these softwares. Would "Open Source Community" and "Open platforms" have helped better then the patchwork solutions developed?

Are there other issues that could/should be considered?

I would like to disclaim any bias that might have come in above narrative for or against anyone. We have tried to do an objective analysis based on our years of experience working at the grassroots. Members are free to counter/support the arguments presented. Our intention is to help find solution not to create confusion.