ADOPTION OF IT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF NEPAL

A recent MSc student project by Prabin Gautam looked at the efficacious adoption of IT in developing countries, with a particular focus on Nepal.


Abstract:Information Technology (IT) is the essential tool for development of the country. The use of IT as a tool for delivering various services and its adoption as a sustainable industry which contribute to the national economy are accepted by every country. The effective use and adoption of IT has the potential to deliver significant benefits to the developing countries. Despite of low level economic development, lack of infrastructure and long political instability, Nepal has been trying to prove its capability and aims to place itself in global IT map. Widened digital divide, brain drain, cost of IT infrastructure, power outage and insufficient connectivity infrastructures has always been felt as the challenges in IT adoption in the country. Beside that, increasing software piracy, lack of systematic framework for IT adoption leads to chaotic and uneven distribution of IT infrastructure in the country.

Developing countries like Nepal are in urgent need to adopt effective framework and strategies effectively managing the IT assets, reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of software solutions and building mechanism to tackle software piracy. Open Technologies like Open Source Software, Open Standards and Open Contents offers compelling prospects for addressing the issues mentioned above.

This dissertation is based on the study and evaluation of IT scenario and adoption frameworks from various countries. The data collection form IT stakeholders in Nepal and relevant literatures and reports delivers the clear picture of Nepal present IT status. Questionnaire survey, based on purposive sampling, has been carried out with 46 participants representing IT stakeholders of Nepal. To further validate the questionnaire finding and obtain more data, Interview with few stakeholders were conducted. The data collection combined with the overall literature has been analysed. Based on the key outcome of this analysis, the framework has been developed and evaluated.

This report delivers the framework for efficacious IT adoption in countries like Nepal with the implementation of Open Technologies. Beside that, the report also suggests the roles and activities that must be carried out for making the investment in IT fruitful. The building up of local expert pool and knowledgebase will help the country to be self reliable and reduces dependency on foreign proprietary software.