Designing e-Government for the Poor - Tanzania Development ...

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Methods of assessing the information needs of the poor
Mr. Gunawardena explained that over the past few decades a vast
quantum of innovations in the field of ICT have increased access to vital
information. However, in most of the developing countries, the access to
ICT based information is limited to a very small segment of people with a
high income. In these countries, the poor have little or no access to ICT
based information due to the lack of social innovations. An innovation to
increase ICT usage, and provide services to the poor, is the assessment of
real-world information needs of the specific target groups of the poor. The
information services to be provided should be people-centred and demand
driven.
Mr. Gunawardena explained that when a community or government
intends to establish community information centres (CIC), they must conduct
an assessment of initial information needs. This initial assessment can
be seen as a “kick off” information assessment and should focus on the
wide range of information needs of the target population. These include
their techno-social background, and data that would help to attract the poor
to visit CICs and contribute to the establishment of a community information
network (CIN). Mr. Gunawardena emphasized that providing services
to the poor should be seen as marketing a product to a client. In addition
to “kick off” or start up information needs appraisal, it is also necessary to
conduct a continuous assessment of information needs to guarantee that the
CIN continuously caters to the specific needs of the people who are
patronizing it.
The most appropriate method of assessing “kick-off” or “start-up”
community information needs is via an assessment survey utilizing a
structured questionnaire. A group of investigators or interviewers with
experience in this type of survey should be selected for the processing of
the surveys. The survey questionnaire should be pilot tested to ensure
that it is adequate and efficient for the purpose of the “kick-off” information
assessment survey. The filled questionnaires should be edited and
processed via data entry work. A second method of needs assessment
is to conduct a series of focus group discussions among officials and
opinion leaders.
For continuous information needs assessment, different methods
should be undertaken. These include:
• Maintenance of registration forms of information seekers
• Maintenance of suggestion books at each information centre
• Periodical consultations with the steering committees of the CIN
• Establishment of e-communities among target groups
• Identification and continuous focus groups of small entrepreneur