ICT policies instituted over a number of years by the South African Government have clearly failed to establish Information Communication for Development (ICT4D) initiatives amongst rural communities in South Africa. The author of this thesis argues that, for rural South African communities to reap the benefits of ICT4D initiatives, it would be necessary for the communities to empower themselves and to take ownership of initiatives to participate in the planned South African Information Society. Furthermore, the author argues that the success of the ICT4D initiatives depends very strongly on an understanding of the interaction of such initiatives with the social context at local community level. Some of the significant aspects of the social context at community level include an understanding of the roles of leadership, technology, economy, governance, social welfare, and stakeholders in these communities. Through a grounded methodology approach a theory of context was developed for the rural community in the Dr J.S. Moroka Municipality in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The elements of the framework that emerged were Leadership, Stakeholders, Governance, Social welfare, Economics and Technology (LSGSET). The resulting framework is proposed as a tool that can be used by the community members to interact with the role players who intend to implement ICT4D projects or policies that have an impact on the community. It should also assist policymakers while they develop contextualized policies and improve project managers’ understanding of the developmental impact of the implementation of ICT4D projects on communities. One of the contributions made by this thesis is to “bridge” this divide between policymakers and communities by explicitly framing the developmental discourses of the community as a framework for ICT4D engagement by policymakers and communities at local level. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Informatics / PhD / Unrestricted

This thesis explores the challenges and barriers that influence women's engagement with ICTs in Muslim countries, particularly in Pakistan. It examines the extent to which ICT policies, plans and strategies for 24 countries refer to women, and the implications that this has for their experience of ICTs. It analyses the cultural and social constraints on women's engagement with ICTs. Empirical research was conducted in five regions of Pakistan using documentary analysis, interviews, focus groups and questionnaires. The research shows that involving women in the ICT policy formulation process does not necessarily guarantee effective and inclusive ICT policies. Supporting Thas et al. (2007) and Chowdhury and Khanam (2005) it suggests that women from diverse sections of society with real knowledge of cultural and social contexts need to be involved in policy making if it is to be of benefit to women. Building on the work of Wanasundera (2006) and Hafkin (2002), the research suggests that ICT policies cannot be gender-neutral in countries such as Pakistan, where prevailing patriarchal social structures limit understandings of the constraints faced by women in effectively utilising ICTs in their individual and collective interests. The use and impact of ICTs depends greatly on class, education and geographical location (Gurumurthy, 2004; Jorge, 2002). ICT policies/programmes appear to cater mainly for the needs of wealthy, upper and middle class educated urban women. Thus ICTs have negligible benefits for the lower class poor, uneducated rural women (Arun et al., 2004). This research also highlights critical gaps in our understanding of the interface between ICTs, women and development (Momsen, 2004). Women face a wide range of social barriers in their use of ICTs, based on their environments, immersed in tradition and cultural norms. This research identifies substantial barriers that appear to be unaddressed in the design of ICT projects and guidebooks.

Text in English / In line with the World Summit on the Information Society and with the expectation that this would enable them to advance their development and improve the lives of the population, almost all the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries had developed national information and communications technologies (ICT) policies. The purpose of this doctoral research was to investigate the theoretical underpinning(s) of the national ICT policies of the SADC countries in order to develop a theoretical framework for building an information society for development. The research employed a grounded theory design, utilising the NVivo11 software as a tool to support the analysis of the national ICT policies for the selected 12 of the 15 SADC countries, as well as the interviews of five knowledgeable informants. Content analysis and open-ended interviews were the research methods applied sequentially to develop the Capacitating Theory for Building the Information Society for Development (CaTBIS-4D) for SADC countries, which is the core of the theoretical framework that this thesis proposes. The research found that building an information society continues to remain relevant for SADC countries, and its achievement is dependent on capacitating human, infrastructure and financial factors. Significantly, the research concluded that the perceived failure of the information society project within the SADC countries is due to the arcaneness or obscurity of the recognition that development and the information society mutually reinforce upon each other such that the improvement of one contributes to the advancement in the other. Based on the research findings and conclusions, this research proposes a framework that contends that to build an information society for development, it is necessary/ crucial to capacitate the human, infrastructure and financial factors by focusing on identified economic sectors and social categories within an effective governing and implementation monitoring environment. The research recommends that as the national ICT policies within SADC countries are updated and implemented, the framework proposed in this research be utilised as a basis. Furthermore, the research recommends that the broadest range of local role-players should participate in the information society development project to ensure its endurance and relevance. / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)