A Framework for the Development of Human Centred ICT4D Initiatives: A Capability Approach Perspective

Abstract

The term “development” is often used concomitantly with Information Technology for Development (ICT4D) and Information Systems for Development (ISD4D) initiatives in discussions related to these fields. Development as an outcome is often pursued through ICT mechanisms without questioning the assumptions about its contribution to human development. Development, as a construct, has been the subject of increasing debate in the ICT4D research community, and is especially fuelled by the current global economic uncertainty. It is when the paradigm of development is shifted away from the predominant Western theory of development, as postulated by many economic development theorists, as well as other development theories, such as utilitarianism, for example, that new development outcomes can be explored. One such outcome is the result of a human centred development approach, where well-being and human development form the focal point of ICT initiative outcomes. The Capability Approach (CA), developed and promulgated by Nobel Prize laureate Amartya Sen, provides an operationalizable framework that views development as human development and having or obtaining certain freedoms. The CA affords the observer the opportunity to assert the social dimension of development and, in the case of this study, that of a rural community in South Africa, with the ICT4D artifact delineated to mobile health, or mHealth.