This website features highlights from our annual report. To read our full annual report 2011 offline, please download the PDF version, or our Dutch summary.
IICD is a non-profit foundation with over 15 years of experience in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) as a tool and driver for development. IICD was founded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Some examples of how we help by using ICT? Lives of farmers in Ghana change because they can use mobiles to find out how much they can ask for their crops. Women in rural Burkina Faso are able to change their lives because they use radio shows to address domestic violence. And IICD helps to save the lives of patients in remote areas by enabling doctors to use the Internet to consult specialists on complex cases.
IICD uses the power of innovative digital solutions to contribute to a better world. Our vision is to connect people in Africa and Latin America so that they too can take advantage of information and communication technologies to shape their future and that of their society. We help people to move from digital dreams to concrete change.
In 2011, IICD was active in twelve countries: Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Peru, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
IICD does not focus on the transfer of specific new and innovative technologies to developing countries. Rather, we employ participatory, multi-stakeholder approaches to seek innovative ways to use ICT to address structural problems in sectors such as economic development, education and health. Driven by users' needs and powered by local networks of passionate individuals and organisations, IICD facilitates the co-creation of ICT-enabled solutions that are appropriate to local contexts.
Social Innovation
IICD works with
'ICT-based social innovation processes.'
We define social innovation as people-focused innovation. Yet even people-focused innovation can be advanced by ICT tools. Our process puts local actors in the driver's seat, positioning them to decide how their organisations will use ICT to navigate their sector's development path, to empower staff and beneficiaries and, ultimately, to engineer positive change.
Learning and knowledge sharing
Learning and knowledge sharing remain at the core of IICD's activities. In 2011, we continued our efforts to make IICD a better learning organisation. Together with the Connect4Change partners we formulated a learning agenda revolving around a question that is central to our mission: 'How can ICT be effectively integrated into development programmes'.
Learning activities in 2011 included:
- in-country workshops with representatives of partner organisations
- 'thematic learning communities' (in-office workshops) on topics such as health, education, economic development and gender
- face-to-face sessions at IICD
- e-mail based discussion groups
- blogs, and wikis on the intranet
In total, our programmes reached 5.8 million people. Doctors, nurses, farmers, teachers, students government workers and many more.
The ICT for Economic Development programme promotes entrepreneurial capacity among small-scale producers and youths in developing countries, especially in rural areas. The programme targets 650,000 small-scale producers and entrepreneurs in 200 organisations, supported by 24 partner organisations in seven of our partner countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Zambia, Bolivia and Peru.
The programme surpassed expectations, supporting more organisations than planned. In the Connect4Change programme we helped 40 partner organisations to formulate and implement 19 extra projects. The programme thus exceeded in its first year the number of partners and projects that it expected to reach over its full five-year duration. By the end of 2011, we had reached 3.8 million beneficiaries and trained 250,000 people.
Priority themes of the ICT for Economic Development programme are market information, extension, credit information, producer organisations, product information and certification.
Our ICT for Education programme improves the quality and equity of educational systems by integrating ICT into primary and secondary schooling and teacher and vocational training. Our special emphasis is the empowerment of women. IICD's Education work mainly targets remote areas.
The ICT for Education programme collectively involved teachers and managers from 250 educational institutions, alongside 150 parent associations and grassroots organisations in eight countries: Bolivia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Peru, Uganda and Zambia.
Most of the 39 education projects that we supported in 2011se projects began implementation in the final months of the year. A start was also made in implementing ICT in 50 primary and secondary schools, 43 vocational training institutes and seven teacher training colleges.
The ICT for Education programme reached more than 1.3 million beneficiaries by the end of 2011, and 320,000 people were trained in using ICTs. Our partners identified four key areas in which ICT could have the largest impact for improved education in local contexts: better teaching materials, better teaching, better school management and greater parental participation.
The ICT for Health programme uses ICT to increase access to health-care services and to improve their quality. It served six countries: Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
The programme worked with 20 partner organisations, together reaching out to 1 million patients and community members. ICT for Health activities involve some 6,000 health workers, home-based care givers and health professionals working in some 300 health facilities in as many communities.
In 2011, we helped 30 partner organisations to identify and implement 18 new projects. In total, ICT for Health reached 660,000 beneficiaries and trained 5,000 people.
Partner organisations identified four areas in which they expect ICT to have the largest impact on health outcomes: collection of health data, provision of relevant information, didactic digital training materials and data registration. A key theme addressed by the programme, in collaboration with Cordaid and the World Bank, is performance-based financing in Zimbabwe.
Gender plays a big part in the projects that we support. Not only do we support women's organisations and projects for women but we also ensure that in our other economic development, education and health programmes, gender is always taken into account.
We are on the right track, but at monitoring and evaluation feedback also confirms that there is still progress to be made in gender balance. At the same time, 83 per cent of respondents said that our projects will change women's situation for the better.
IICD and its partners will continue to be vigilant in ensuring that the programmes we support have equitable outcomes and respond to the needs of both women and men.
Partnerships are at the heart of IICD's work. We collaborate with a range of local, national and international partners from the public, private and non-profit sectors. IICD's strong reputation and the growing recognition of the development potential of ICT tools brought us exciting new partnerships in 2011. They also earned us a spot among the five most successful Dutch NGOs in terms of partnering with private companies and governments, according to the Partnership Resource Centre. Our wide network of partners extends from the developing countries where we work to Europe and North America.
IICD's largest programme, Connect4Change, is conducted in a consortium involving ICCO, Cordaid, Edukans and Akvo, with Text to Change as a preferred partner. In addition, IICD initiated activities in 2011 with a variety of organisations including Inter Access, Oxfam Novib, Heifer International, Progreso Network, Cordaid and the World Bank. We entered new partnerships with companies like 1Zero. A range of knowledge-sharing partners, like CTA and PSO, strengthened our ability to learn from each other's strengths.
Social media and the Internet continued to be IICD's main communication channels. In 2011, we significantly increased our visibility through these platforms. Our Twitter followers, for example, more than doubled in 2011; and we were one of the first NGOs using Google+. We updated our social media strategy in 2011 and revamped our ICT for Development (ICT4D) community platform 'iConnect-Online'.
A highlight in 2011 was the celebration of IICD's 15th anniversary in October. In honour of this milestone we organised the conference 'ICT for a Greener Economy in Developing Countries'. This event featured keynote speeches by the Dutch Minister of International Cooperation Ben Knapen and many others. IICD Managing Director Caroline Figuères presented Ben Knapen a list of recommendations on the use of ICT for a greener economy. This was drawn up in preparation for the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development slated for 20–22 June 2012. Together with WorldPC, we also launched the Bits4Green programme to reduce energy consumption and e-waste in developing countries. Dutch and international IT entrepreneurs and other businesses joined us in this initiative, providing donations to underline their support. |
In 2011 we implemented substantial organisational changes resulting from the start of the Connect4Change programme. A new organisational structure was put in place. This meant getting staff members comfortable with their new positions, tasks and roles. Staff were divided over three teams: Country Programmes, Community Relations and Central Services.
At the close of 2011, IICD had 29 employees (18 women and 11 men), 28.9 full-time equivalents in total. Of our 29 employees, two worked part time and 27 full time.
In 2011, IICD received €8,789,792 in funding of which €4,624,000 was transferred to Connect4Change consortium partners and €4,165,792 was IICD funding.
Our main funder in 2011 was the Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The funding from DGIS represented 69% of IICD's income.
11.5% of IICD's funding was received in contributions from third parties in 2011.
A key aim of IICD is to ensure that our partners and activities achieve independent sustainability. In order to accomplish this, we advise and assist partners in obtaining direct third-party contributions for their programmes. These funds do not flow through the books of IICD but go directly to our partners. The total percentage of IICD funding generated in this way in 2011 was 19.5%.
Beyond funding, we received in-kind contributions (staff time) and computers and other hardware and software donated by private foundations, private sector companies and NGOs.
In 2011, IICD implemented financial reporting using the Dutch RJ650 norm, which is for fundraising organisations.
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Annual report 2008 |
International Institute for Communication and Development
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