The qualitative analysis is best used for ICT services projects where cost and revenues are not easily known or predictable, and other methods are therefore difficult to apply. Nevertheless, it ideally combines a market (financial and commercial) and the socio-economic perspective, i.e., both user needs and demand as well as developmental rationale and impact. Projects that have these two aspects in balance are the most likely to succeed. On the other hand, projects that skip the market side and seek justification based solely on socio-economic and developmental cases can face sustainability problems.
- The basic issues to be addressed qualitatively are summarised by the following two tables:
- Table A provides a checklist to define the project’s core ideas, values and approach in a descriptive manner, covering the overall developmental rationale and justification.
- Table B captures a more market-oriented view of the project’s deliverables, their viability, and the hurdles that may be faced either at implementation or with long term sustainability.
The combination of the qualitative data summarized through these checklists allow an understanding of the project’s impacts.
Source: A rural ICT toolkit for Africa, Andrew Dymond, Sonja Oestmann, infoDev 2003 (updated)
Source: A rural ICT toolkit for Africa, Andrew Dymond, Sonja Oestmann, infoDev 2003 (updated)