Name: Michael Clarke
Publish Date: 05 June 2008
Designation & Organisation: Director- ICT4D Division, International Development and Research Centre (IDRC)
Location: Canada

Michael Clarke, Director, ICT4D Division, International Development and Research Centre (IDRC), Canada has been elected as the Chair of the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) Executive Committee in April 2008. He succeeds Walter Fust, Director-General, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Clarke holds a PhD in Parasitology from the University of Guelph and has assumed progressively senior roles in the management and direction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) programmes over the past 15 years. He has been involved in the areas of curriculum development and medical education. He is the founder of the Canadian health and clinical medicine journal, 'Open Medicine'. In a brief interview with telecentre magazine, Clarke articulates the future of ICTs for development, his new role at GKP, and the trajectory of telecentre.org.

How do you see the future of ICT4D and your new role in the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP)?

It's very difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. It's very difficult to say where ICT4D is moving. Initially, access was the issue. Contrary to popular perception, access is still the issue. But it's not the access to infrastructure anymore; it's about access to ideas, people, networks, conversations, information, etc. Therefore, the focus would be more on enabling people to access knowledge through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) rather than accessing ICTs per se.

The way I see it, in the future, the 'I' and 'C' in ICT4D will remain upper case, 'T' will become lower case and 'D' will become even larger. In other words, access to information and communication for development will become the prime concern within ICT4D in the coming years.

Among all players in this space, GKP is in a better position to broker such sharing among the stakeholders. As the chairperson of GKP, I am in the service of and responsive to the committee and community. The committee is going to have some new members on board. But, the larger goals and the democratic character of the committee are not going to change.

How do you see the telecentre.org programme fitting into the overall agenda of IDRC?

As far as telecentre.org is concerned, it plays the role of strengthening human and financial resources of the global telecentre movement. The telecentre.org was set up as a programme. The idea was to launch it as a 5-year project, which will come up with its own sustainability model at the end. The IDRC granted a one-time funding to this programme.

The programme has a strategic advisory group to advise on the key decisions and with their guidance there is an on-going work to develop strategies directed towards making telecentre.org a self-sustaining model. In the meanwhile, some initiatives, which have a strong IDRC character within telecentre.org, have been identified.

Recently, IDRC and Gates Foundation have initiated a joint research project on public access to ICTs. What are the research issues that the project is focusing on?

Basically, the project will develop research methodologies that don't yet exist. It will address questions like:

• What are the observable social and economic impacts of public access to ICT?
• What is the magnitude of these benefits?
• What is the relationship between costs and benefits in providing free public access?

The project has brought together international researchers to develop ICT4D as a bona fide research area. It is challenging, because it seeks to develop new ways of researching ICTs in development. The objective is to see if empowerment through knowledge happens, and also,

 “Even though the telecentre.org was set up as a programme, the idea was to launch it as a 5-year project, which will come up with its own sustainability model in the end”

hopefully, to prove this point. The current notion is to keep libraries as open spaces for shared access to information. But in case of such open spaces, the key challenge is what kind of intermediary should exist and how to train them? We can hope to benefit more from this research.

What is your 'Open Philosophy'? How does it link to ICT for development?

The 'Open Movement' was born out of the ICT Movement. It has provided new thinking around the notion of proprietary versus public domain intellectual property. Open business models have emerged. The organisations are collaboratively building business plans and putting it out in the public space.

“IDRC and Gates Foundation have initiated a joint research project on public access to ICTs. It has brought together international researchers to develop ICT4D as a bona fide research area”

What are the telecentre.org and IDRC telecentre initiatives in Africa?

There have been a lot of initiatives in Africa. But, the question is, how do you evaluate the contribution of these telecentres to development in the African region. The telecentre.org programme has immensely contributed to the African telecentre movement.

The IDRC and telecentre.org are also bringing together telecentre practitioners from Asia and Africa, so that they can learn from each other.

You were in Rwanda last week working with telecentre practitioners. Do you see a bigger role for telecentres, globally, for providing access to telemedicine?

Globally, the telecentres can play a key role in disseminating health related information. But, when it comes to access to health care facilities, there is still a lot that could be done by telecentres. For instance, the trained health practitioners can provide most of the health care services throuh telecentres.

It is not entirely clear to me how telecentres will be able deliver these services but there is no question that telecentres can function as information access points for those seeking validated, evidence-based information about health issues.

What are the recent developments on the ICT and health care front?

Most of us know that health care is an information rich industry and Information and Communication Technologies have a place naturally. There is a growing awareness that effective management of health care service delivery is now predicated on an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platform.

The scope is widening. There is an increasing demand to engage with health care delivery management services and applications. This engagement has to be at both the national and international levels. IDRC is currently working on different health related projects all over the world. We are making sure that the projects we are working on comply with international standards.

How do ICTs play a role in mitigating the risks of climate change and what are the emerging research issues pursued at IDRC?

The issues around climate change and global warming are well evidenced, researched and documented.. We are also looking at 'bio-surveillance', as a northeast sector monitoring exercise. We are considering a project that will involve aggregating data from the fields of primary health care, agriculture, and the environment. to monitor and predict adverse likelihood events and to set a model to monitor climate change that could provide solid evidence for informed policy making.

Rockefeller Foundation has recently initiated a huge e-Health programme. Is IDRC going to be a part of it?

Yes, we are aware of it. Currently, IDRC partners are engaged in this initiative and I will be participating in the upcoming Bellagio conference on eHealth in July.

What are the emerging ICT4D issues which are being looked at by the IDRC?

We need to move beyond the focus on access to technology. Our research partners are telling us now that the prime focus now should be on access to knowledge through ICTs. In fact, we have projects in Asia and Africa to address the issues around access to knowledge. It is exploring different issues around intellectual property, copyright policies, livelihood issues. The project focuses on enabling new competencies and business opportunities.

“Contrary to popular perception, access is sill the issue. But it’s not so much about access to infrastructure anymore; it’s about access to knowledge ---  ideas, people, networks, conversations, information, etc.”

In terms of technology, we obviously have to pay attention to connectivity. It is still important. However, one of the big questions that came up in the discussion with the Gates Foundation was, what are the consequences of providing high-speed broadband connectivity removing any bandwidth constraints? How does that create an impact and how does that change priorities in developing countries? Therefore, there is a whole range of questions, issues and concerns around the availability or non-availability of broadband access.

In this age, mobiles are becoming ICT tools that are already in the hands of the poor, even before they lay hands on the computer. This has been observed in the remote parts of Africa as well as Asia. Where do you fit telecentres in such a scenario? 

It is true that mobile phones have a far greater prevalence in remote and rural areas than computers. But, the range of activities and services that will go on in a telecentre can very well exploit the benefits of the mobile phone. It is not a case of 'either or', it should be both. Greater connectivity requires the presence of both mobile phones and telecentres.

Quick Scan

• Future of ICT4D: Shared access to information, ideas, networks, etc.
• Public access to ICT: Research commission to assess the socio-economic impact of telecentres on communities
• Health and telecentres: Telecentres can function as information access points for those seeking validated, evidence-based information about health services
• Mobile phones can complement telecentres