Learning how to harness Information Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D)
DFID funded research is helping to build more open, better networked societies through the use of digital technologies.
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The ICT4D programme, which was co-funded with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), examined the positive and negative impacts that ICT can have on the lives of the poor. Research findings are helping to inform emerging policy that looks to empower the world’s poorest people through technology.
For example, in Bangladesh, action research effectively demonstrated how a planned national tax on mobile phone usage would have effectively ‘cut off’ half of the poor population. The programme has improved the global knowledge base of how connectivity can be positively harnessed for social and economic development.