Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) Strategy

This document provides IFAD’s strategic framework for leveraging Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) to increase its development impact. It outlines key principles, action areas, and risk mitigation measures. This strategy aims to guide IFAD in using digital technologies to improve the economic and social conditions of rural people through increased agricultural productivity, market participation, and household resilience.

Key Insights

Action Area 1: Scalable Uptake of ICT4D Solutions

The aim of this area is to increase the use and uptake of ICT4D in IFAD’s operations, promoting interventions that foster improved access to information, services, and financial inclusion. Focus areas include alignment with IFAD’s strategic framework, IFAD’s comparative advantage, and previous ICT4D work. Envisaged activities include assessing ICT4D entry points, supporting countries in identifying barriers, building on geospatial technologies, and engaging in policy dialogue.

Action Area 2: Strengthening ICT4D Partnerships

Partnerships are critical for IFAD and governments to increase rural development initiatives’ scale, outreach, impact, and funding. IFAD’s partnership approach must be flexible enough to accommodate different types of collaboration, including government-led and public-private partnerships. Envisaged activities include promoting partnerships, using IFAD’s expertise to encourage dialogue, establishing partnerships for data upgrade, strengthening collaboration with Rome-based agencies, and building on partnerships such as the Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results.

Action Area 3: Enhancing ICT4D Knowledge Management and Sharing

The objective of this action area is to help IFAD staff involved in the design and implementation of the PoLG to deliver stronger results by promoting accurate and timely data collection and analysis and leveraging ICT4D knowledge produced by relevant stakeholders. Envisaged activities include promoting the systematic management of project data, increasing the use of technology in M&E, developing case studies, advancing knowledge, organizing knowledge-sharing events, promoting an ICT4D community of practice, and building on the work of IOE and IFAD’s Research and Impact Assessment Division.

Action Area 4: Building Internal ICT4D Awareness, Capacity, and Leadership

Raising awareness and building capacity are key to accelerating the uptake of ICT4D in IFAD’s work. Training and guidance in the use and potential of ICT4D solutions are critical. Envisaged activities include developing and implementing a training program, hiring experts, organizing capacity-building events, raising internal awareness, developing incentives for IFAD staff, establishing internal coordination mechanisms, and establishing focal points within divisions.

Implementation Principles

The document specifies that the nine Principles for Digital Development will be IFAD’s main reference for ICT4D activities. These principles are:

• Design with the user.
• Understand the existing ecosystem.
• Design for scale.
• Build for sustainability.
• Be data-driven.
• Use open standards, open data, open source, and open innovation.
• Reuse and improve.
• Address privacy and security.
• Be collaborative.

Key Statistics & Data

• In 2017, only 30 percent of youth used the Internet in least-developed countries, compared to 94 percent in developed countries.
• Only 25 percent of users of digital agriculture solutions in sub-Saharan Africa are women.
• Between 2015 and 2018, an IFAD project in Tanzania sent over 6 million text messages about agricultural technologies to smallholder farmers.
• One IFAD project in Guatemala enabled 124,954 smallholder coffee growers to respond to impacts of changing climate.

Methodology

This strategy development was informed by:

• The potential uses of ICT for small-scale agriculture and rural development in line with United Nations, G20, and development partners’ objectives.
• Lessons learned from IFAD’s and development partners’ experiences.
• Consultations with IFAD technical specialists and country directors, as well as private-sector actors.

Implications and Conclusions

The strategy aims to establish a strategic direction, action areas, and guiding principles for leveraging ICT4D to achieve IFAD’s Strategic Objectives and organizational priorities. By 2030, the strategy’s vision is to create rural societies in which people have inclusive access to ICT-enabled services and solutions to achieve food security and prosperity that leaves no one behind. This will be enabled through IFAD’s existing budget and additional resources sought through partnerships.