Greentree Consensusというイニシアチブが、9 Principles for Digital Developmentというものを発表した。分かり易く勝手に解釈すると、「ICT4Dプロジェクト成功のための９つ鍵」みたいなものだ。そうそうたるメンツの援助機関（Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, UNICEF, The World Bank, SIDA, Omidiyar Foundation, The State Department, WHO, HRP, UNHCR, WFP, UNFPA, UNDP, Global Pulse, UNWomen, and OCHA）が集まって協議し、作成された９つの鍵は以下のとおり。どれをとっても「正にそのとおり」である。

一方で、「言うは易く行うは難し」というのも、また現実。例えば、最初のDesign with the Userにしても、重要性は間違いないけれども、真のuser participationを実現するには、時間もお金もかかる。また、６番目のOpen Standard…について考えてみると、民間企業が実施するICT4Dプロジェクトの場合、その企業の飯のタネである技術をどこまでオープンに出来るのか？という課題が。そして、８番目のセキュリティについては、堅牢にしようと思えばお金がいくらあっても足りないのでは？という気も。

この秋、神戸情報大学院でICT4Dについての授業をさせてもらい、アフガニスタンやルワンダからの学生と興味深い議論を沢山させてもらった。その中で、毎回行き詰まるのが、やはりお金（プロジェクトの予算）の問題だった。ICT4Dプロジェクトのリスクや解決策を考えてみると、最終的には、「あるべき論は導きだせるが、それを実行に移すための資金が問題」というのが、ボトルネックであると気づく。自分が教えているのは、セオリーなので、ICT4Dプロジェクトのリスクや解決策を考えるためのフレームワークは伝えることがで来ても、この問題の解決策については、うまい回答がなかった。

この点は今後の自分の課題として、引き続き考えて行きたいところです。

Principles for Digital Development

1. Design with the User
   1. Develop context appropriate solutions informed by user needs.
   2. Include all user groups in planning, development, implementation and assessment.
   3. Develop projects in an incremental and iterative manner.
   4. Design solutions that learn from and enhance existing workflows and plan for organizational adaptation.
   5. Ensure solutions are sensitive to, and useful for, the most marginalized populations: women, children, those with disabilities, and those affected by conflict and disaster.
2. Understand the Existing Ecosystem
   1. Participate in networks and communities of like-minded practitioners.
   2. Align to existing technological, legal, and regulatory policies.
3. Design for Scale
   1. Design for scale from the start, and assess and mitigate dependencies that might limit ability to scale.
   2. Employ a “systems” approach to design, considering implications of design beyond an immediate project.
   3. Be replicable and customizable in other countries and contexts.
   4. Demonstrate impact before scaling a solution.
   5. Analyze all technology choices through the lens of national and regional scale.
   6. Factor in partnerships from the beginning and start early negotiations.
4. Build for Sustainability
   1. Plan for sustainability from the start, including planning for long-term financial health e.g., assessing total cost of ownership.
   2. Utilize and invest in local communities and developers by default and help catalyze their growth.
   3. Engage with local governments to ensure integration into national strategy and identify high-level government advocates.
5. Be Data Driven
   1. Design projects so that impact can be measured at discrete milestones with a focus on outcomes rather than outputs.
   2. Evaluate innovative solutions and areas where there are gaps in data and evidence.
   3. Use real-time information to monitor and inform management decisions at all levels.
   4. When possible, leverage data as a by-product of user actions and transactions for assessments.
6. Use Open Standards, Open Data, Open Source, and Open Innovation
   1. Adopt and expand existing open standards.
   2. Open data and functionalities and expose them in documented APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) where use by a larger community is possible.
   3. Invest in software as a public good.
   4. Develop software to be open source by default with the code made available in public repositories and supported through developer communities.
7. Reuse and Improve
   1. Use, modify and extend existing tools, platforms, and frameworks when possible.
   2. Develop in modular ways favoring approaches that are interoperable over those that are monolithic by design.
8. Address Privacy & Security
   1. Assess and mitigate risks to the security of users and their data.
   2. Consider the context and needs for privacy of personally identifiable information when designing solutions and mitigate accordingly.
   3. Ensure equity and fairness in co-creation, and protect the best interests of the end end-users.
9. Be Collaborative
   1. Engage diverse expertise across disciplines and industries at all stages.
   2. Work across sector silos to create coordinated and more holistic approaches
   3. Document work, results, processes and best practices and share them widely.
   4. Publish materials under a Creative Commons license by default, with strong rationale if another licensing approach is taken.