Dr. Harsha speaks on ‘ICT for Poverty Alleviation’ at Global Summit in London

Parliamentarian and economist Dr. Harsha de Silva was recently invited to speak at the International Conference on Information and Communications Technology for Development at the University of London on account of his work on ICT and development being extensively referenced in the new book ‘Information Economy Report 2010: ICTs, Enterprises and Poverty Alleviation’ published by UNCTAD. 

Fourth in the series of global conferences, the previous being in Doha, Bangalore and Berkeley, the event brought together over 500 academics, researchers and practitioners from all continents to discuss the advancements and challenges in the field. 

Dr. de Silva, participating in a well-attended interactive session on ICTs, enterprises and poverty alleviation, emphasised on the importance of leveraging mobile phone-based sustainable interventions at the bottom of the pyramid rather than large-scale PC-based projects that relied heavily on donor funding.

He argued for the reduction of taxes and transparent governance in the sector across the emerging world for increased private investments that would truly help fight poverty by empowering small entrepreneurs be it in services, industry or in agriculture. 

Also participating in the sessions were Dr. Alison Gilwald from Research ICT Africa, Illary Lindy from the Government of Finland, David Souter from ICT Development Associates and the London School of Economics and Richard Duncombe from the University of Manchester.  The session was moderated by Torbjörn Fredriksson from UNCTAD. 

Highlighting some recent research findings of Colombo-based LIRNEasia, an emerging Asia Pacific wide think-tank at which he consults as the lead economist, Dr. De Silva showed how accurate and timely yet simple information on market prices on agricultural produce using cheap mobile phones were making a significant impact on income of small farmers in rural Sri Lanka.

He pointed out how Govi-Gnana Seva, the agricultural component driving Dialog Tradenet, a gold award winner at the Mobile World Summit 2010 where instant price alerts are being delivered to interested farmers while providing them with platform to sell their produce, was actively creating wealth among large numbers of agricultural entrepreneurs.