Children, ICTs and development : capturing the potential, meeting the challenges

This report explores the ways in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) can contribute to efforts towards meeting child-focused development goals. The diffusion of ICTs has been highly uneven, and it is clear that digital divides not only trace but can also further deepen existing social divides, between income-rich and income-poor, between urban and rural dwellers, between women and men, and girls and boys. The report therefore supports UNICEF in efforts to further develop and disseminate good practice regarding ICT4D and children. UNICEF is committed to work for the most marginalized children in society and a focus on equity and technology runs throughout the research. The pioneering research process consisted of a review of relevant literature and in-depth interviews with 35 experts in the field connecting ICT4D with child-focused development, thus providing one of the most comprehensive overviews of the subject to date. The literature review focuses on the topics of extreme poverty, maternal and child health, nutrition, access to education, governance and accountability, and eParticipation, children and the internet. This provides a foundation for the eight analytical themes, which are grounded in the expert interviews with practitioners, policy makers and academics. The first theme, access and equity, explores the complex socio-political factors which dictate availability and affordability of ICTs for children. It highlights the importance of focusing on children in the most disadvantaged city districts and remote regions and shows how ICT can both exacerbate and reduce pre-existing inequalities for children. The second theme, gender, emphasizes the specific challenges for girls in accessing and utilizing ICT. It explores some of the initiatives that are working to reduce the gender divide in ICT and identifies technology-related risks that are particularly likely to affect girls. The third theme focuses on the important role that intermediaries play, assessing who controls access to and use of ICTs and the implications that this has for e-health and e-learning. Alongside this, the discussion of intermediaries also emphasizes the role of commercial interests affecting the distribution patterns of ICTs. The fourth issue the analysis engages with is local demand and appropriate design. It documents interviewee perspectives regarding appropriate responses to local demand and emphasizes the importance of contextualised, user-centred appro ...