A FRAMEWORK FOR ICT-BASED EDUCATIONAL, ECONOMIC,
AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
How can policymakers coordinate economic, social, and educational development? Policymakers are often confronted by a system of mutually reinforcing economic, social, and
educational components that work against change. Within this context, they must decide which factors, enriched by which public investments, will interact with private efforts to support sustained change. They must find the pressure points and levers within government
structures that can be applied to make the system dynamic. The appropriate policies, strategies, trajectory, and pace of change would vary from country to country based on unique strengths and competitive advantages. In one country, a strategic economic change, such as supportive macroeconomic policies, may be the appropriate way to launch change within the economic system, which then ripples into the social and educational systems. In other countries, it may be changes within the social or educational systems that ultimately affect economic growth. The selection of levers for change within government systems would be opportunistic. Policymakers in more developed countries may have the luxury of changing
several components at the same time in a coordinated way. Policymakers in less developed
countries are likely to be limited to finding the one or two levers that, strategically applied,
can launch a compounding, virtuous cycle of change and transformation.
In this section, I draw on the reviewed literature and the case studies to provide policymakers with a framework to help them with these decisions (Table 1). The framework
itself does not supply answers to the challenges of development. But I believe it can help policymakers analyze their national context, set goals, identify pressure points and levers, and
coordinate policies and programs for systemic change across sectors. Along the vertical axis
of the table are the factors that support growth: the deepening of physical capital, the improvement of human capital, the increase of technological innovativeness and knowledge
creation, and the networking of organizations to improve knowledge flow. To this list is added an evaluation and monitoring component that serves to chart progress and modify strategies over time. On the top of the horizontal axis of the matrix are the types of development or development sectors: Economic and social, with education being highlighted
as a special case of social development for the purpose of this article, and educational ICT
being a highlighted component of the education system. For other purposes, the columns could be modified to highlight different components of the economic or social system.
The Framework in Action
Analyses appearing in each of the cells would be a consideration of policy goals and strategies that would relate one of the growth factors to one or more system components within one of the development categories. While the cells in Table 1 are filled in, normally
they would be blank. Policymakers can use the exercise of filling in cells to either analyze the
current state of affairs or the desired government policies and activities of the private sector.
Not all the cells need to be filled in and the framework can be used to consider even modest
changes in one sector or another. But filling in the matrix completely will aid systemic change by coordinating growth strategies within and across sectors.
In Table 1, I draw on the findings from the economic, social, and educational development literature, along with insights from the case studies—to provide the hypothetical results of such a matrix-filling exercise. Let us say, for example, that a lower middle-income country pulled together a high-level cross-ministry, cross-sector commission to review the current economic and social situation and to devise a 15-year development plan for the future. In their analysis they identified specific strengths, problems, and trends. They were encouraged by the modest but steady economic growth over the past 10 years, supported primarily by an eco-tourism industry and by a growing light manufacturing industry that provides consumer goods and small appliances to a modest but expanding middle class. The country also has a significant, although traditional, film industry and a vibrant entertainment industry that is supported by regional market demand, based on linguistic and cultural commonalities. Their growing light manufacturing industry compensates somewhat for a significant decline in the state-subsidized heavy manufacturing industry. Most of these economic assets are located in the country’s two major cities. Ecotourism is located in remote areas but their corporate offices are in the urban centers. There are significant inequities in the distribution of income and social condition because of a large,