[Paper Review] Resilient ICT4D: Building and Sustaining our Community in Pandemic Times

Silvia Masiero, Petter Nielsen|arXiv (Cornell University)|Aug 22, 2021

Smart Cities and Technologies6 references4 citations

TL;DR

This paper proposes a resilient ICT4D framework to sustain community engagement and equity in digital development during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing marginalized voices and participatory design. It introduces a community-centered approach grounded in critical digital development theory, demonstrating how ICT4D initiatives can adapt to global crises while mitigating systemic inequities.

ABSTRACT

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, disproportionally affecting vulnerable people and deepening pre-existing inequalities (Dreze, 2020; Qureshi, 2021), have interested the very same "development" processes that the IFIP Working Group 9.4 on the Implications of Information and Digital Technologies for Development has dealt with over time. A global development paradigm (Oldekop et al., 2020) has emerged in response to the global nature of the crisis, infusing new meaning in the spirit of "making a better world" with ICTs (Walsham, 2012) that always have characterised ICT4D research. Such a new meaning contextualises our research in the landscape of the first pandemic of the datafied society (Milan & Trere, 2020), coming to terms with the silencing of narratives from the margins within the pandemic (Milan et al., 2021) - in Qureshi's (2021) words, a "pandemics within the pandemic" producing new socio-economic inequities in a state of global emergency.

Motivation & Objective

• To address the deepening socio-economic inequalities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for vulnerable populations.
• To examine how ICT4D research and practice must evolve in response to the global crisis and the datafied nature of modern society.
• To center marginalized narratives that were silenced during the pandemic, addressing the 'pandemics within the pandemic' as identified by Qureshi (2021).
• To reframe the mission of ICT4D around resilience, equity, and community sustainability in times of global emergency.
• To contribute a renewed, context-sensitive vision for ICT4D that integrates critical digital development theory with practical community engagement.

Proposed method

• Adopting a critical digital development lens, the paper analyzes the impacts of the pandemic on ICT4D initiatives through a socio-political and ethical framework.
• Drawing on theoretical insights from Milan & Trere (2020) and Walsham (2012), it positions the pandemic as a defining moment for the datafied society.
• The authors use a community-based, participatory approach to reframe ICT4D around resilience and inclusion, informed by empirical observations from the IFIP WG 9.4 community.
• The method emphasizes narrative recovery—amplifying voices from the margins that were excluded in mainstream pandemic discourse.
• It integrates insights from existing literature on digital inequality (e.g., Dreze, 2020; Qureshi, 2021) to ground the proposed framework in real-world challenges.
• The framework is developed through reflective analysis of the IFIP Working Group 9.4’s evolving role during the pandemic, focusing on collective action and ethical responsibility.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How has the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted existing ICT4D initiatives and deepened pre-existing digital and socio-economic inequalities?
• RQ2 In what ways did the pandemic silence narratives from marginalized communities, and how can ICT4D research respond to this 'pandemic within the pandemic'?
• RQ3 What role can community-centered, participatory ICT4D approaches play in building resilience during global crises?
• RQ4 How can ICT4D research and practice be reimagined to sustain equity and inclusion in the context of a datafied society?
• RQ5 What ethical and structural shifts are needed in ICT4D to ensure long-term community sustainability during global emergencies?

Key findings

• The pandemic revealed and intensified existing structural inequalities, particularly affecting vulnerable populations in global development contexts.
• Mainstream pandemic responses often marginalized voices from the Global South and other vulnerable groups, resulting in a 'pandemic within the pandemic' of systemic exclusion.
• ICT4D research must shift from technocratic models to community-driven, participatory frameworks to ensure resilience and equity.
• The datafied nature of modern society amplifies both opportunities and risks in digital development, demanding critical engagement with data governance and representation.
• A renewed commitment to 'making a better world' through ICTs requires centering marginalized narratives and ethical responsibility in design and implementation.
• The IFIP WG 9.4’s response to the pandemic exemplifies how academic communities can sustain engagement through virtual collaboration and reflexive practice.