Drawn from comments made as part of a panel discussion on this topic convened by the British High Commission in Delhi.
“I will be sharing some thoughts on the challenges for bringing the benefits of an expanding cyber space for the prosperity agenda. Time is short, prosperity is vast.. so I will share from a rural, smallholder farmer perspective. Low economic footprints when standing alone. So while cyber security is a big hygiene factor – today, from this perspective, ” access and relevance” are critical challenges.
So, what are the benefits of this expanding cyberspace/digital space?
First, is just the power of information
We know that the pathway is not unidirectional – people drop back and pull out of poverty – and access to information builds resilience and improved chances of coming out of poverty. Anirudh Krishna ”People need to be connected to economic growth, they need to have information and contacts, and households that have lacked information and contacts have been less able to use diversification as a pathway out of poverty”.
Second, is the democratic/levelling power of technology
Technology is a leveler. The promise of digital for prosperity, is that it brings all on one platform outside of giver-taker power dynamics. putting the community in the driving seat. It depends on the enterprise of the individual, not being limited to goodwill of those around them.
In sum, the expanding cyberspace offers not just efficiencies it offers disruptive potential in the way we work for prosperity for marginalized communities.
Big task. Big challenges!
First challenge, is of access and who accesses ?
Second largest number of users of the internet are in India. Challenge is to increase penetration of devices and usage of data for those who matter to the prosperity agenda. This agenda will not be complete without focus on women, marginalised communities and undeserved geographies. In the area where I work, ownership is currently more with youth, men. Feature phones are more than internet enabled phones.
Data even if available is rarely used. Why? This is the second challenge- that of usage.
Smartphone users use WhatsApp and Facebook…don’t have the agriapps that are available. 1) they don’t know; 2) they can’t use them alone; 3) information is good but it is not relevant to them. A good example of how relevance of content and impact of their online actions on offline world have to be addressed.
When designing institutions, “Member salience” i..e higher market share in the user’s circumstances is to increase if you want to better your chances of being relevant and thus getting engagement. This means digital players need to see the community in the totality of the roles they play: a) as a citizen in interface with state and governance; b) consumer of services – education, health, finance, entertainment; c) member of a community – in terms of reaching out connecting with others, building identities and connections; d) producer – buying inputs, selling production.
Today, most digital solutions talk to very specific problems, currently thinly spread over a vast country. How can we increase salience in life of the community? The challenge therefore is to marry understanding on technology with insights of development – building ecosystem of users, with offline linkages, mix of media and nested in specific geographical context
There are no short cuts. This is no small challenge. However the really transformational benefits of this expanding cyberspace will reach farmers only if we do more farmer facing work and not being limited to realizing efficiencies in the delivery system.
