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This report acknowledges the crucial role that information and communication technologies play in the fight to reduce poverty. It focuses in particular on the impact that "older" technologies such as radio and telephone can have in addressing poor communities' problems. The study investigates the linkages between ICTs and four key areas: education, livelihoods, healthcare and government. It reports on pilot studies which have shown that use of technologies can help reduce child mortality and maternal mortality by nearly 50 per cent. It suggests that ICTs can enable people's empowerment and ultimately strengthen human rights

This paper argues that recipient countries/organisations do not readily assume ownership of project evaluations, and that they often see them as a burden rather than as a useful tool. The changing context of development cooperation, with a growing share of aid transfers being channelled through multi-donor budget and sector support programmes rather than through single-donor projects, is also raising challenges to the conventional practice of evaluation. The relevance of assessing achieved results compared to the originally stated goals of these programmes is being questioned by some of their managers. This paper suggests that strengthening the partnership around the evaluation would make it more relevant and would increase its impact