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In Conversation with Dr. Robin Mansell

1999-04-27

With the accelerating spread of information and communications technologies (ICTs) changing societies around the world, developing countries are being encouraged to invest in national ICT infrastructures so that they can reap the expected social and economic benefits.  From 1995 to 1997, the Working Group on Information Technology and Development of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development explored the risks and benefits of ICTs, and published the findings in a sourcebook, Knowledge Societies. 

Highlights of the findings of the Working Group have been published in an IDRC book Knowledge Societies  ...in a Nutshell, Information Technology for Sustainable Development,  by Dr. Robin Mansell and Andreas Credé.  The book describes how, although the costs of building ICT infrastructure in the developing world are high, the costs of not doing so are much higher.

Dr. Robin Mansell, co-editor of Knowledge Societies  ...in a Nutshell, discusses the in and outs of information technology for sustainable development in an interview with Reports. Dr. Mansell’s discussion included: 

• Making ICTs relevant to development
• India’s computer software industry
• Intellectual property protection
• National versus regional strategies

The Working Group concluded that ICTs can offer huge economic and social benefits to all people if appropriate strategies are implemented. How realistic an expectation is this, given the need for large amounts of investment and expertise? 

The key message is that ICTs need to be put on government agendas, so that ICT policies are coordinated with social and economic issues.  There is evidence that this is beginning to happen: for example, the Vietnamese have recently put together a science and technology policy strategy. 

It is also important to persuade people to look at existing resources.  Policies don’t have to cost billions of dollars, but can include small initiatives like those of non-governmental organizations that are working in communities to make more effective use of software. 

The Working Group falls short of stating categorically that it will be impossible for developing countries to develop without using or producing ICTs.  What sort of a role should ICTs play?  

There were members of the group who might have wanted to say something categorical; some people are very committed to the idea that developing countries will fall massively behind if they don’t increase their capability to produce or use ICTs. On balance, though, it would never be possible to make a blanket statement like that, because there are cases of bad and good experiences, depending on the situation. While their [the Working Group’s] conclusions were softer than that, they did stress that it was important for developing countries to put ICTs on their agendas and decide what their particular stance is toward them. 

I think there is too much emphasis on ICTs magically alleviating poverty. The key  message of this research is that ICTs are not a panacea for anything; rather, they should be seen as a tool that can contribute to positive outcomes in social and economic development. 
 

You state: "although ICTs offer new techniques for acquiring digital information, this information is of little use in developing countries if it cannot be transformed into knowledge relevant to development." Do you have an example? 

Education is an excellent and very generic example.  Within education systems in many developing countries, there are increasing possibilities for hooking up to the Internet and finding information on worldwide databases, often packaged in training kits, that is relevant for skills.  But just because you can download a manual on skills for maintaining agricultural machinery, does not mean that once you have read it, you will be able to go out and do this job.  Much of our knowledge is gained by working with people, which is also called "tacit learning." 
 

In addressing key governance issues, the book describes intellectual-property protection as attempting to "balance interests in the disclosure and dissemination of ideas with the exclusive rights of the owners of the property to control and profit from the invention or the authorship."  In light of social and economic costs AND benefits of greater intellectual-property protection, are there formulas to determine how to find the right balance?  
 

This is a very important question, and the answer is no, for two reasons. Firstly, the degree of protection for all countries is not static, but is continuously being negotiated. Secondly, countries interpret the needs differently: for example, developing countries tend to do empirical research, which promotes less protection, while industrialized countries are promoting greater protection. 
 

In 1984, the International Telecommunication Union published a report of major differences in providing basic telephone services throughout the world.  In this book, you explain how the lack of a widely accessible communication infrastructure is not an insurmountable obstacle, using India as an example, because it has established a significant export-oriented computer software industry despite having one of the world’s lowest levels of telephone provision.  Has the presence of this computer software industry helped India’s poor in a sustainable way? 

If India had not developed its export capability and had not concentrated on training large numbers of software developers and engineers, then India would today have a lower capability for knowing the uses of software.  At the same time, unless it finds ways to much more effectively enable that knowledge to be diffused into the population in a way that is relevant to the poor, one could argue that it is questionable whether this is helping India. 
 

Taiwan and South Korea, on the other hand, are used as examples of countries with extensive telephone networks.  Have they built up their ICT infrastructures to maximize use of these networks? 

Taiwan has made greater strides in establishing a balance between infrastructure and skills training.  South Korea has many semi-conductors and telecommunications structures, but the knowledge of ICT use is concentrated in the science and technology community. 
 

The book calls for national and regional ICT strategies that build "capabilities to assess the strengths and weaknesses of various hardware and software alternatives and to select specific applications in line with development priorities." Are the national and regional levels of equal importance? 

When we began our work, the focus was on national ICT issues.  However, by the time we had finished, major regional initiatives were taking place: regional sub-Saharan Africa information and communications policies were developed, and ICT conferences were held in Central and Eastern Europe. We could not overlook these coordinating efforts, and we should also look at local efforts. 
 

Were you surprised by any of the Working Group’s findings? 

I was surprised by the degree to which consensus was reached between those who come from a technical or engineering background and whose primary concerns deal with telecommunications and the costs of investment in infrastructure, and those in the areas of agriculture, health, environment and education who are more concerned with cultural and social issues. Although these two groups usually find it difficult to reach common ground, here their views cross-fertilized quite easily. I was also surprised by their willingness to find alternative strategies that reflect the differences between countries. So often, people in the policy world come out with blanket statements, such as those on "best practices." 
 

What kind of feedback have you received from members of the primary target audience (i.e., developing-country decision makers) to this research?  

One spectacular example - and indeed the strongest indication that our work was valuable - was the commitment of the Chinese Ministry for Science and Technology Policy. The Minister ordered many copies of the sourcebook in English and, because the issue was brought to the attention of  the head of state, they are having it translated into Chinese. 
 

What has happened in the debate about ICTs since the sourcebook and this book came out? 

The sourcebook reflected and captured the momentum of many discussions on ICTs that were already taking place. Since then, we have seen the vocabulary of knowledge-based development grow. For example, in the recent World Bank report on knowledge for development, ICTs received a lot of coverage.   

Dr. Robin Mansell is a Canadian who has been in the UK for 10 years. She is a professor of Information and Communication Policy at the University of Sussex’s Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU).  In Dr. Mansell’s words, "much of the work at SPRU is concerned with understanding how to link electronic information, social and technical networks in order to generate and use knowledge more effectively, in both industrialized and developing countries." 

Dr. Mansell is also Director of the SPRU Information, Networks and Knowledge Research Centre, which looks at the social and economic impact of information and communications  technology.  Although her primary interest is in industrialized countries, she is currently involved in developing a project on the software capabilities in poor communities in India, Jamaica and South Africa. She is also writing up a prospectus on behalf of a group promoting the concept of global access to information technology (GAIT). 

In addition to this booklet and the larger sourcebook discussed in the interview, Dr. Mansell has also written several books on information and communications technologies, including The Management of Information and Communication Technologies: Emerging Patterns of Control. 

Dr. Mansell has a PhD and an MA in Communication from Simon Fraser University in Canada, as well as an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science. 
 

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