ICT AND AID EFFECTIVENESS

I have been searching the web for resources that combine these two topics but without success. There are of course many resources that deal with ICT for Development, and the effect of the Information Revolution on the rates of social and economic progress and poverty reduction. I was interested in some rather narrower topics.

First, it seems clear that ICTs have a crucial role in improving the measurement of aid effectiveness. Rapid assessment methods make it possible to assess the progress of aid projects and programs much more rapidly and less expensively than was possible in the past, and these methods owe much to personal computers, PDAs, and the like. One the other hand, remote sensing, data processing of remote sensing data, large scale computer models, etc. offer new alternatives in monitoring large scale changes and in attributing causality. Why is there not a literature on these topics? Am I just missing it?

Second, there should be a literature on the use of ICTs to increase aid effectiveness. A colleague at USAID some time ago suggested that we should entirely reconsider technical assistance in light of the Internet. It is indeed easier to more electrons than people. To what degree are aid agencies utilizing the potential of the Internet to make technical assistance less expensive, more timely, more informed, and more responsive to demand?

Clearly ICTs have an important role to play in the planning of development aid, and I would suspect that the potential here has not been fully exploited. Certainly ICTs should play an important role in improving the administration of aid programs and projects in donor and recipient agencies. Have these potentials been realized? Have they been documented?