USING LIVELIHOOD PROFILES FOR ASSESSING CONTEXT IN ICT4D RESARCH:
A CASE STUDY OF ZIMBABWE’S HIGHVELD PRIME COMMUNAL

USING LIVELIHOOD PROFILES FOR ASSESSING CONTEXT IN ICT4D RESARCH:
A CASE STUDY OF ZIMBABWE’S HIGHVELD PRIME COMMUNAL

SAM TAKAVARASHA JR

GILFORD HAPANYENGWI

GABRIEL KABANDA

The importance of context specific ICT4D innovation has been highlighted in Information
Systems research by the short-comings of a-contextual innovation. This has often been
accepted without due understanding of how to develop context specific interventions. There
is therefore a need for a framework that elucidates ICT4D contextualisation and guides the
development of context specific interventions. This should be useful to practitioners that are
constantly advised to develop context specific artefacts without any clarity of how to do so.
Using evidence from Zimbabwe this paper proposes the use of livelihood profiles for
identifying the livelihood issues that matter in a particular locality and Sen’s Capability
Approach for assessing the opportunity freedoms to exploit the local livelihoods. This is
presented as a systematic way of establishing the context under which ICT4D interventions
will be deployed. The study uses focus groups under an interpretivist paradigm to investigate
contextual issues in Zimbabwe Highveld Prime Communal livelihood zone. The study found
a politically polarised contextual setting characterised by poor agricultural finance,
ineffective crop and livestock markets, unrewarding labour markets against a good
agricultural climate that is affected by cyclical droughts. As a result the study posits that
ICT4D innovations for the zone must be designed to operate under these realities and
limitations

EJISDC

2017