Laurent Elder

International Development Research Centre | IDRC · Science and Innovation

Over the past two decades, projects supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) have critically examined the ways in which information and communications technologies (ICTs) can be used to improve learning, empower the disenfranchised, generate income opportunities for the poor, and facilitate access to healthcare in Africa, A...

Information and communication have always opened opportunities for the poor to earn income, reduce isolation, and respond resiliently to emergencies. With mobile phone use exploding across the developing world, even marginalized communities are now benefiting from modern communication tools. This book explores the impacts of this unprecedented tec...

This book is a documentary or ethnography of a particular time in the business of foreign aid and the ascendant role of Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in the era when the Centre supported applied research in Africa, Asia and Latin America in order to understand the effects on development. It was the ICT4D era.

The Strengthening ICTD Research Capacity in Asia (SIRCA I) was a pioneer capacity-building programme aimed to develop the research skills of emerging researchers in the Asia Pacific. The collaborations between the researchers and their mentors resulted in a range of research fundings and lessons learnt which are compiled in this book.

‘Connecting ICTs to Development’ highlights over fifteen years of IDRC-supported research in the field through its Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) program © 2013 International Development Research Centre. All Right Reserved.

The aim of this book is to document and synthesize a special time and space in the business of international development. During the first decade of the new millennium, a major effort was made to assist the developing world to adopt information and communications technologies (ICTs) in their approaches to social and economic development. Canada's I...

Digital technologies today are indispensable tools used in almost every facet of our daily lives. Especially in the developing world, mobile phones have transformed the lives and livelihoods of average citizens. Yet, two decades ago, when there were more phone lines in Manhattan than in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, only a few visionary institutions...

Despite improvements in educational indicators, such as enrolment, significant challenges remain with regard to the delivery of quality education in developing countries, particularly in rural and remote regions. In the attempt to find viable solutions to these challenges, much hope has been placed in new information and communication technologies...

Health care is primarily about people-to-people interactions. It is about understanding, diagnosis, physical contact, communication, and, ultimately, providing care. By bringing people together, telecommunication technologies have the potential to improve both the quality of and access to health care in the remotest areas of the developing world. T...

In the context of the rapid growth of mobile phone penetration in developing countries, mobile telephony is currently considered to be particularly important for development. Yet, until recently, very little systematic evidence was available that shed light on the developmental impacts of mobile telecommunication. The Information and Communication...

Information communications technology has been a focus of the work of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) since 1970, when this organization was formed in Canada with the goal of helping to improve the health of people in developing countries (http://www.idrc.ca). In this article, we focus on the field of telemedicine in developing...