Why case studies are useful for development
Approaches to case studies 
ICT-Enabled Development Case Study Series
Our case study template
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Why case studies are useful for development

Business students and MBA candidates learn from real world examples by using objective case studies of businesses to learn from successes and failures. They examine what works best, what fails, and why, to fully understand how to build better businesses for themselves. In the same way, case studies are beginning to be used by ground level development initiatives to determine best practices that they can apply in their local context. Case studies are also a useful way to disseminate information about the most promising and effective development projects and to spark ideas for others working in the field. In particular, they offer a mechanism for telling the stories of small initiatives and accomplishments that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Case studies are especially relevant as a learning tool in the context of information and communications technology (ICT) and development. When ICT started to be used in development, many initiatives simply took technology out of the developed world and put it into a developing country setting. However, now it is widely recognised that ICT in development has the most impact when you mix it into the local cultural, political and social context in ways that are relevant to people's daily lives. The best local uses for ICT may start with one small idea that comes from someone using a technology in a new way that suits an immediate purpose. Development initiatives can help propagate and scale these ideas with wider implementation. And because people who are interested in ICT and development often also use the technology to learn about their field, disseminating case studies through the online media channels and websites is a great way to spread the word.

Approaches to case studies

Case studies come in a variety of formats and with different kinds of information and levels of detail. Many are written by the organisations that run the initiatives and serve as promotional pieces to highlight their strengths. Those that have been compiled by outsiders are sometimes written as human-interest stories. Others are technical reports on implementation details. They provide a range of information that can serve a variety of purposes. However, the usefulness of case studies can be limited when those who want to learn from them have to wade through a great deal of information to extract the best practices that are most relevant to their situation. And those who could benefit the most from case study examples usually have the least resources available to search for them, both in terms of time and - when the Internet is the main distribution channel - the ability to pay for connectivity.

The ICT-enabled development case studies series

In 2002, IICD and bridges.org joined forces to add value to the field of ICT and development by launching a case study project to search for innovative and effective uses of ICT at ground level and disseminate objective information about them in a comparable and user-friendly format. The intention was to create a series of case studies that would be distributed through a variety of channels to reach the widest possible audience, including the developing country entrepreneurs and development drivers of tomorrow. And at the same time, the project would establish a resource for ICT and development stories that would, over time, begin to show a pattern of best practice. The project started by looking at ICT use in a few African countries. This case study series is the result. During 2003, we will extend the series by collecting and disseminating case studies on a wider variety of ICT initiatives in more countries across Africa. To see some of the case studies that we have disseminated so far click here.

The case study series is a joint initiative of the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) and bridges.org, two organisations that share the goal of encouraging the effective use of ICT in developing countries. IICD is an independent non-profit foundation, established by the Netherlands Minister for Development Cooperation in 1997 and based in The Hague. Bridges.org is an international non-governmental organisation based in Cape Town, South Africa. This initiative is supported by the Building Digital Opportunities Programme (www.iconnect-online.org), funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Directorate General International Cooperation (DGIS), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Our case study template

These case studies are presented in a simple but structured format, to make it easy for users to determine whether and how the information might apply to them, and to make it possible to compare the different cases to one another. To see the case study template click here.

We tried to highlight the lessons learned, without focusing on the mistakes that are a necessary part of any learning process. The case study template has four parts:

I. Overview: Provides basic information about the initiative, such as the organisation driving it, target audience, type of technology used, and key development obstacles addressed.

II. Gauging Real Impact: Considers whether and how the initiative has made a Real Impact at the ground level by looking through the lens of basic best practice guidelines for successful initiatives. We use the bridges.org 7 Habits of Highly Effective ICT-Enabled Development Initiatives as a framework to highlight what the initiative has done well.

III. Lessons Learned: Shares the views of the people driving the initiative on their greatest successes, the challenges they have faced, key constraints and dependencies that affect the initiative, opportunities for future improvement of what they do, and other lessons they have learned.

IV. The Story: A narrative description of the initiative that highlights why this use of ICT for development is particularly interesting.

Criteria for including initiatives into the bridges.org-iicd case study series on ict-enabled development in africa

Our main criterion for selecting an initiative to be included in this case study series is to consider whether the initiative has successfully used information and communication technology ICT to promote socio-economic development in Africa. Initiatives could either be commercial or non-profit, African or foreign-based. If the initiative is using ICT innovatively and has a significant impact on poverty alleviation, it stands a bigger chance of being highlighted in the series.

We also look at whether the initiative has made a

Real Impact at the ground level by looking through the lens of basic best practice guidelines for successful initiatives. The bridges.org Habits of Highly Effective ICT-Enabled Development Initiatives are used as a framework to highlight what the initiative has done well.

 

An initiative of IICD and bridges.org

If you have any good suggestions of an initiative you think worthy of being included in this series, please send your submissions to info@bridges.org