Making Policy on ICTs and Climate Change in Developing Countries

This guide is written for policy makers and policy advisers in senior climate change and information and communication technologies (ICT) roles. It explores the ICTs, climate change and development (ICCD) policy context, identifying policy domains and principles. Based on that, the analysis suggests that three main components should be in place for the formulation and implementation of effective ICCD policies, namely (a) content, (b) structures, and (c) processes. After exploring each of those components, the paper presents opportunities and challenges faced in the integration of ICCD policies, suggesting entry points for developing country policymakers and strategists in this field.

According to the authors, the impacts and level of uncertainty posed by climate change are redefining the way in which policies and strategies are designed and implemented at the international, national, and local levels. Thus, developing country governments are starting to explore new tools and approaches to face the magnitude and uncertainty posed by climate change within socioeconomic and political contexts. Among them, the use of widely diffused information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as mobile phones, community radio, and internet-based applications, is emerging as a new area of research and practice that can foster climate change responses utilising readily available and low-cost tools.

The content of the guide includes:

• Identification of the ICTs, climate change, and development (ICCD) policy actors and priorities at three levels: international, national and sub-national.
• Laying out of five ICCD policy principles.
• Details of climate change issues that ICT policy should address, and the ICT issues that climate change policy should address.
• Alongside these policy content elements, description of policy structures and policy processes that need to be in place.
• Evaluation of ICCD policy benefits and risks.
• Identification of key entry points to ICCD policy for developing country policy makers.