Access to information two years after an ICT4D Project in Bangladesh: new digital skills and traditional practices

The continuity of access to information is rarely considered in the design of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) projects. In this paper, the authors report on the results of a study conducted two years after the end of an ICT4D project which provided 300 Bangladeshi women with smartphones and support services to enable them to access information on agricultural topics. The study shows that although few of the women were still using a smartphone and accessing online information, they still had access to part of the information supplied to them during the project because they had taken the initiative to write it down in notebooks and they had memorised the information they used frequently. However, when they needed to access new information to address new problems, they had to rely on advice from the local agricultural supplies shop. Although the women had developed their literacy skills during the course of the project, and some of them had started new business ventures, most of them did not feel confident enough to select reliable information by themselves and preferred to rely on local “experts”. The authors argue that for an ICT4D project to be successful and sustainable, continued access to the information provided during the project and to up-to-date information after the end of the project should be planned for in the design of the project.