Open Development Paper by SIRCA III Programme Leads Caitlin Bentley and Arul Chib published in EJISDC

Assessing the field of open development

A paper titled “The Impact of Open Development Initiatives in Lower and Middle Income Countries: A Review of the Literature” by Research Associate Caitlin Bentley and Director Arul Chib was accepted for publication in the Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC).

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explore the field of open development in lower and middle income countries (LMIC) through a review of literature. We examined 269 articles between 2010 and 2015, that were retrieved through keyword searches of the Scopus database and four ICT4D journals. This article adopts the pathway of effects model to analyse contributions according to inputs, mechanisms and outputs of open initiatives in LMICs. The review finds a fairly even spread of articles across the three stages of effects. Studies that disentangled reasons why or why not openness makes a difference provided the most insight to underlying mechanisms and impact of open initiatives. We found very little evidence that research within this area is concerned with the perspectives of poor and marginalised people – notably women. We therefore question the normative value of open development as a means to transform power relations. However, we argue that a more concentrated vision within this field is needed to exploit the full potential of digitally enabled openness for development.

The full paper can be accessed here.