Abstract
ICT for development projects often focus on integrating social factors in information systems design. A well-designed ICT4D solution must be tailored to the needs of the people who will use them and subsequently, requires an extensive understanding of the context and constraints in people’s lives. With an objective to explore how context-specific issues influence the conveyance of appropriate agricultural information to women, this paper uses PROTIC (participatory research and ownership with technology, information and change), a 5-year collaborative project between Monash University and Oxfam, as a case. PROTIC was implemented in three climate vulnerable ecological zones of Bangladesh with an aim to overcome the agricultural information gap for rural women. Based on a study in mixed research method and triangulation, this paper brings evidence on the significance of considering context-specific attributes in designing effective and sustainable information services for marginalized women farmers in developing countries. The paper upfolds some significant recommendations which is expected to contribute to the domain of context-specific information system design in resolving socio-economic problems to pave the way of sustainable development.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmad H (2019) Bangladesh coastal zone management status and future trends. Coast Manag. https://doi.org/10.4172/2473-3350.1000466
Angeles LC (2011) Participatory development. In: Forsyth T (ed) Encyclopedia of international development. Routledge, London, pp 506–511
Arnstein SR (1969) A ladder of citizen participation. J Am Inst Plan 35:216–224
Attwood H (1997) An overview of issues around the use of participatory approaches by post-graduate students. In: IDS, participatory research, IDS PRA topic pack (February, 1997). IDS, University of Sussex, Brighton
Avgerou C (2003) The link between ICT and economic growth in the discourse of development. In: Korpela M, Montealegre R, Poulymenakou A (eds) Organizational information systems in the context of globalization. IFIP-The International Federation for Information Processing, vol 126. Springer, Boston
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2013a) District statistics 2011 Satkhira. http://203.112.218.65:8008/WebTestApplication/userfiles/Image/District%20Statistics/Satkhira.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2020
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2013b) District statistics 2011 Nilphamari. http://203.112.218.65:8008/WebTestApplication/userfiles/Image/District%20Statistics/Nilphamari.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2020
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2013c) District statistics 2011 Sunamganj. http://203.112.218.65:8008/WebTestApplication/userfiles/Image/District%20Statistics/Sunamganj.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2020
Bangladesh Haor and Wetland Development Board (2012) Master plan of Haor areas, vol 2. https://www.undp.org/content/dam/bangladesh/docs/Projects/ncd-for-rio-convention/UNFCCC/National_Legislations/Master%20Plan%20of%20Haor%20Areas,%20in%202012%20Volume%20II.pdf. Accessed 25 Feb 2020
Barakabitze A, Fue K, Sanga C (2017) The use of participatory approaches in developing ICT-based systems for disseminating agricultural knowledge and information for farmers in developing countries: the case of Tanzania. Electron J Inf Syst Dev Ctries 78:1–23. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2017.tb00576.x
Bernzen A, Jenkins JC, Braun B (2019) Climate change-induced migration in coastal Bangladesh? A critical assessment of migration drivers in rural households under economic and environmental stress. Geosciences 9:51. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9010051
Chanana-Nag N, Aggarwal PK (2020) Woman in agriculture, and climate risks: hotspots for development. Clim Change 158:13–27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2233-z
Chowdhury SQ, Chowdhury MH (2014) Char. Banglapedia. http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Char. Accessed 25 Feb 2020
Cutrell E (2011) Context and design in ICT for global development. UN Chronicle vol XLVIII, no 3. https://unchronicle.un.org/article/context-and-design-ict-global-development. Accessed 10 May 2020
El-Sayed H, Westrup C (2003) Egypt and ICTs: how ICTs bring national initiatives, global organizations and local companies together. IT People 16:76–92. https://doi.org/10.1108/09593840310463041
Fals-Borda O (2001) Participatory (action) research in social theory: origins and challenges. In: Reason P, Bradbury H (eds) Handbook of action research: participative inquiry and practice. SAGE, London, pp 27–37
FAO (2010) Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural employment: differentiated pathways out of poverty. http://www.fao.org/3/i1638e/i1638e.pdf. Accessed 6 Mar 2020
Hasan R, Haque MA, Chakraborty T (2016) The potential of local language based mobile app in the northern part of Bangladesh for maize. Int J Res Dev Technol 6(5):233–238. ISSN (O):2349-3585
Huq S, Rabbani G (2011) Climate change and Bangladesh: policy and institutional development to reduce vulnerability. J Bangladesh Stud 13:1–10
Huq S, Chow J, Fenton A, Stott C, Taub J, Wright H (2019) Confronting climate change in Bangladesh. Policy Strateg Adapt Resil. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05237-9
Islam MS, Grönlund Å (2012) Applying design science approach in ICT4D research: mobile phone-based agriculture market information service (AMIS) in Bangladesh. Commun Comput Inf Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33681-2_11
Joseph MK, Andrew TN (2008) Participatory approaches for the development and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS) for rural farmers. In: 2008 IEEE international symposium on technology and society, 26–28 June 2008. https://doi.org/10.1109/istas.2008.4559774 (ISBN 978 1 424416707)
Khan MS, Begum F, Islam MM (2017) A review on feminization of agriculture and women empowerment in Bangladesh. Fundam Appl Agric 2(1):183–188. ISSN:2518-2021 (Print), ISSN:2415-4474 (Online)
Lasco RD, Habito CMD, Delfino RJP, Pulhin FB, Concepcion RN (2011) Climate change adaptation for smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia. World Agroforestry Centre, Philippines. http://exchange.growasia.org/system/files/lasco-2011-ccadaptationfarmerssoutheastasia.pdf. Accessed 5 Apr 2020
McNamara K, Belden C, Kelley T, Pehu E, Donovan K (2017) Introduction: ICT in agricultural development. E-sourcebook: ICT IN AGRICULTURE. Connecting smallholders to knowledge, networks, and institutions. World Bank Group, p 3. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/522141499680975973/pdf/117319-PUB-Date-6-27-2017-PUBLIC.pdf. Accessed 5 Apr 2020
Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (2005) National adaptation programme of action (NAPA). Final Report-November 2005. https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/napa/ban01.pdf. Accessed 25 Feb 2020
Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (2013) Bangladesh climate change and gender action plan (ccGAP: Bangladesh). https://portals.iucn.org/union/sites/union/files/doc/bangladesh.pdf. Accessed 18 Feb 2020
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (2018) Climate change profile Bangladesh. https://www.government.nl/documents/publications/2019/02/05/climate-change-profiles. Accessed 18 Feb 2020
Murata F, Hayashi T, Matsumoto J, Asada H (2007) Rainfall on the Meghalaya plateau in northeastern India—one of the rainiest places in the world. Nat Hazards 42:391–399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-006-9084-z
Noble H, Heale R (2019) Triangulation in research, with examples. Evid Based Nurs 22:67–68. https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2019-103145
Oxfam in Bangladesh (2017) About PROTIC. http://proticbd.info/about-protic/. Accessed 28 Feb 2020
Oxfam International (2017) Resilience-building and women’s leadership in Bangladesh. https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/620296/cs-resilience-building-bangladesh-100717-en.pdf;jsessionid=40B9AAC727A560EA00E6D5BCC76C3389?sequence=4. Accessed 28 Feb 2020
Prokopy LS, Mase AS, Perry-Hill R, Lemos MC (2013) Assessing vulnerabilities and adaptation approaches: useful to usable tools. In: Climate vulnerability: understanding and addressing threats to essential resources, vol 2, pp 129–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-384703-4.00224-0
Rahaman M, Rahman M, Hossain S (2018) Climate-resilient agricultural practices in different agro-ecological zones of Bangladesh. Handbook of climate change resilience. Springer, Cham, pp 1–27
Reza AHMA, Barua SP, Huq SMI, Khan ASM, Nishat A (2002) Bio-ecological zones of Bangladesh. Int Union Conserv Nat. https://www.iucn.org/content/bio-ecological-zones-bangladesh. Accessed 15 Feb 2020
Rufai IA (2014) The impact of communication technologies on the performance of SMEs in a developing economy: Nigeria as a case study. Electron J Inf Syst Dev Ctries 65(7):1–22
Samuelson DA (1999) Predictive dialing for outbound telephone call centers. INFORMS 29(5):66–81
Sarrica M, Denison T, Stillman L, Chakraborty T, Auvi P (2017) “What do others think?” An emic approach to participatory action research in Bangladesh. AI Soc. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0765-9
Selener D (1997) Participatory action research and social change. Cornell University, New York. ISBN 997895130X
Sharma N, Kumar S, Ravula P, Tyagi P (2016). Mainstreaming gender and empowering women in agriculture in the Thar region of India. Research Report 68. Technical Report. ICRISAT, Telangana, India. http://oar.icrisat.org/9823/. Accessed 18 Feb 2020
Singh S, Ahlawat S, Sanwal S (2017) Role of ICT in agriculture: policy implications. Orient J Comput Sci Technol 10(3):691–697. ISSN:0974-6471
Stoecker R (2001) Community-based research: the next new thing. http://coserver.sa.utoledo.edu/drafts/cbrreportb.htm. Accessed 18 June 2020
Stoecker R (2012) Community-based research and two forms of social change. J Rural Soc Sci 27:83–98
Swaminathan M, Swaminathan (2018) ICT and agriculture. CSI Trans ICT 6:227–229. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40012-018-0209-9
Tinkler B (2010) Reaching for a radical community-based research model: two community-based research experiences lead to a conceptual model that puts control in the hands of the community. J Community Engagem Scholarsh (online). http://jces.ua.edu/reaching-for-a-radical-community-based-research-model/
Tolentino J (2015) Enhancing customer engagement with interactive voice response. The Next Web. https://thenextweb.com/future-of-communications/2015/04/20/enhancing-customer-engagement-with-interactive-voice-response/#gref. Accessed 17 Mar 2020
Torri MC (2010) Power, structure, gender relations and community-based conservation: the Cawswe Study of the Sariska Region, Rajasthan India. J Int Womens Stud 11(4):1–18
Zewge A, Dittrich Y (2017) Systematic mapping study of information technology for development in agriculture (the case of developing countries). Electron J Inf Syst Dev Ctries 82:1–25. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2017.tb00602.x
Ziervogel G (2004) Targeting seasonal climate forecasts for integration into household level decisions: the case of smallholder farmers in Lesotho. Geogr J 170(1):6–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0016-7398.2004.05002.x
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Khan Tithi, T., Chakraborty, T.R., Akter, P. et al. Context, design and conveyance of information: ICT-enabled agricultural information services for rural women in Bangladesh. AI & Soc 36, 277–287 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-020-01016-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-020-01016-9