Assignments

1. Please spend some time familiarizing yourself with the United Nations Development Program, "Human Development Report 2005", which focuses on global inequality. To access it, go to: http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/. If you are interested, reports from 1990-present are available from http://hdr.undp.org.
2. Gapminder.org is a excellent site that uses visualization software to make sometimes impersonal human development statistics come alive. In addition to looking around the site, we highly recommend that you watch Gapminder founder Hans Roslings' lecture at the 2006 TED conference.

1. WATCH the video, Waters of Ayole This documentary is just under 30 minutes long.

   Some things to think about per the documentary:

   • Early on, from the government extension worker's perspective, why were the pumps failing?
   • From the citizens of Ayole's perspective, why were the pumps failing?
   • How did the government extension workers change their approach with the village of Ayole?
   • Name and describe all the roles instituted in Ayole to manage their water source.
   • How the the roles and means of sustaining the pump follow traditional lines, how did they differ?
   • How did the village's organization for sustaining its water source have impacts beyond clean, safe water?

2. Loka Institute: History of CBPR

   This short piece provides some history to community-based participatory research.

3. What is Participatory Research

   This is a classic article that describes participatory research. But little literature exists about using participatory research in technology for development. It is used in HCI research, but it tends to be in industrialized countries, and with technically sophisticated users. How might this apply to technology research in underserved communities?

1. Rapid ethnography: time deepening strategies for HCI field research, by David Millen


2. The Missing Piece: Human-Driven Design and Research in ICT and Development by Brand & Schwittay

1. Inaugural Address of Harry Truman, 20 January 1949.
   
   
2. W.W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960), Chapter 2, "The Five Stages of Growth--A Summary," pp. 4-16.

   We don't expect you to read the chapter by Rostow on the stages of growth in detail. Rather, you should give it a good skim (i.e., be able to state clearly and succinctly what his five stages of growth are). This chapter presents a view of growth that was central much of development economics and theory until recently. As you are skimming, you should think about why Rostow's model might not be ideally suited to this task. One way to tackle this question is to identify what sources of empirical evidence he used to construct his model. One other thing to think about is why the subtitle of his book is "A Non-Communist Manifesto."

3. Richard Sclove: Democracy and Technology (New York: The Guilford Press, 1995), Chapter 1: "Spanish Waters, Amish Farmers: Two Parables of Modernity", pp. 3-10.


4. Sheila Jasanoff: "New Modernities: Reimagining Science, Technology and Development", Environmental Values, 2002, 11: 253-276.

In preparation for this class and the next, we ask that you complete the following readings and watch the movie described below. Please read the instructions carefully and come to class prepared with your solution to the exercise described at the end of this reading assignment.

• BEFORE you do the reading or watch the movie, think about your images of poverty. What words would you use to describe people living in poverty? What images would you anticipate seeing in a story of poverty? Note your answers to these questions and bring your notes with you to both classes this week.


• Next, read the following sections of "Banker to the Poor", by the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus: Introduction, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. Pay special attention to the author's motivations, plans, challenges, and strategies to overcome these challenges as described in the reading.


• After you have completed the reading, watch the movie "Children of Heaven". It is available on reserve in the library. The film was made by Iranian director Majid Majidi in Tehran, and has English subtitles. It is 89 minutes long, so be sure to plan for the time. Our intention in having you watch the movie is to portray a story of living in poverty. Each story of living in poverty, as in each story of living in general, is unique. Nevertheless, it does give a glimpse into a life that is likely different than your own, and we would like to discuss it in that vein.


• WHILE you are watching the movie, consider:
  • Does this match your view of living in poverty?
  • How are the human relationships depicted in the film? Are they believable?
  • Are the relationships similar or different than you would expect?
  • What are the challenges the family has in the film?
  • Are these challenges unique to living in poverty? Unique to living in Tehran?
  • Is the film far from reality? A romanticization of a poor community?


• AFTER you have completed the reading and watched the movie, write down a summary of your thoughts on the following exercise and bring your notes to class:
  
  
  As a part of Carnegie Mellon University's global outreach efforts, you have been chosen to evaluate the most pressing needs of the community depicted in the movie. Write down 5 bullet points on how you would evaluate the community's needs, given a timeline of 3 months and a budget of US$5,000.
  
  Keep in mind that we don't expect you to come up with an elaborate plan and extensive reasoning - this is mostly a thought exercise, and you will use your evaluation plans as part of an in-class exercise.

• Why Living in a Rich Society Makes Us Feel Poor


• Achieving Sustainable Development

Jacques Panchard; Seshagiri Rao; T.V. Prabhakar; H.S. Jamadagni; Jean-Pierre Hubaux, "COMMON-Sense Net: Improved Water Management for Resource-Poor Farmers via Sensor Networks," 2006 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD 06), pp.22-33. (Also available from IEEE.)

• Review of Research on Rural PC Kiosks, Editors:  Renee Kuriyan and Kentaro Toyama, PhD.
• Reading Out of the "Idiot Box": Same-Language Subtitling on Television in India, by Kothari, Pandey, and Chudgar

Not required, but excellent additional information on telecentres, particularly the first few pages of history: Using Stakeholder Theory to Analyze Telecenter Projects, by Savita Bailur

There is no reading assignment for this class.

• Richard Heeks, Failure, Success and Improvisation of Information Systems Projects in Developing Countries

• USAID Technical Note 10, Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Title II Development-oriented Projects


• USAID Technical Note 11, Evaluating Title II Development oriented Multi-Year Assistance Projects

Both are nutrition related, but deal with monitoring and evaluation in a very concise (4 pages) and clear manner.

• http://www.crinfo.org/action/recommended.jsp?list_id=897

Development Gateway's Evaluation Community Page

Information and Communications Technology for Sustainable Development: Defining a Global Research Agenda, pp. 54-61 (Agriculture)

It's a very easy read, and you can skim other sections as you wish, especially energy.

• Peter Willetts, "What is a Non-Governmental Organization?"


• Chandasi Pandya, "Private Authority and Disaster Relief: The Cases of Post-Tsunami Aceh and Nias", Critical Asian Studies, 2006, 38(2): 298-308

Today, we will be reviewing two case studies. The first will focus on capacity building, and the second will focus on needs assessment, monitoring and evaluation, and the incorporation of feedback into product design. The discussion of the first study will be led by Joe, and the second will be led by Jay.

For the first case study, [info to come from Joe shortly]

The second case study examines an SMS-based service developed by a South African pharmacology researcher to help poor TB patients remember to take their lifesaving medications. Although the technology was initially developed for low-socio-economic-status TB patients in Cape Town, it is currently being enhanced and commercialized for sale in the developed world.

Please examine the following materials (which are all short):


• Case study of Compliance Services on bridges.org: Compliance Service Uses SMS for TB treatment and click on "Full Report" in the upper right hand corner.
  NOTE: This document can only be opened with Firefox.


• General information on non-compliance: Non-Compliance


• Description of the more developed version of the technological system from the case study, called Simpill: Simpill Medication Dispenser


• Video of a news story about Simpill that recently aired on an Austin, TX television station: Smart Pillbox for Forgetful Patients (Scroll down the page for a link to the video.)

• Martin Fisher, "Income Is Development: KickStart's Pumps Help Kenyan Farmers Transition to a Cash Economy"

• Prahalad & Hammond: "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid [focus only on the main paper, before the appendices]


• "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid - A Mirage"


• Prahalad's response to "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid - A Mirage"