Outcome:

The urban poor are often deprived by a lack of knowledge and information. The public sector often discriminates against the poor when they seek access to information, or is simply inefficient. The poor tend to have more trust in the private sector, including NGOs, but they cannot cope with the demand either. This leaves them having to rely mostly on their own social networks and key informants within or sometimes outside their communities to access information that is essential for their livelihoods or to cope with crisis. Some of them are excluded in that process. As yet, the urban poor in our research locations have little access to ICTs.

To overcome these problems, development agencies should seek to improve their communication with the poor, to reduce exclusion, to support communities in building their knowledge and information assets, to improve the attitudes and performance of information suppliers and to invest in sustainable ICTs that are of use to the poor.