Conceptual ICT tool for Sustainable development :The Community development Index (CDI)

Abstract

As part of the shift from society to the community as the object of rule, disembodiment of expertise knowledge especially into ICT tools is crucial in empowering people to manage their lives. It also enables people to adopt a prudent and calculative approach to self-governance through being enabled to take appropriate economic, social and political decisions. The belief that there is a technological silver bullet that can ‘solve’ illiteracy, ill health or economic failure reflects scant understanding of real poverty. It is on this basis that new indicators monitored throuch ICT, and based on sources of poverty in our society, need to be developed to help understand poverty from a bottom-up/community-led approach. Hence, a preventive approach rather that a curative approach is recommended for poverty alleviation. By monitoring sources of poverty indicators, a community or government can be able tell whether it is on the right track of alleviating poverty or applying appropriate strategies.Therefore, there is need to develop ICT-based tools such as Community Development Index (CDI), for policy makers and citizens alike to be able to measure their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as recognize their opportunities. This paper presents the CDI concept that can be used to develope a decision support tool for policy makers, leaders and their people.