Pessimists claim that IT will further isolate countries in Africa, and where it is introduced will strengthen the economic and cultural control of local societies by northern multinationals. The recent Copenhagen UN Conference on Social Development focused on development to reduce poverty. This approach concentrates on providing the basic needs of the poor more than improving the economic circumstances of rich enclaves in cities. Apart from ethical reasons, it also brings more people to a level where they become consumers, developing mass markets for locally produced goods.
Technology can contribute to social development, provided it is specifically designed to do so.
Merely transplanting a technology without adapting it often fails to do so. Hence the idea of Appropriate Technology, as developed over the last 30 years by development workers, engineers, agriculturalists, sociologists and some development economists. Most IT applications in developing countries have been done without modification, and applied in the situations most like those in the north. First a change agent gets dissatisfied with a situation, thinks of it as a problem, and gets interested in finding a solution. Then the change agent and others investigate the problem and possible solutions.