Article Title
Abstract
Social protection systems, a target of the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are intended to reduce extreme poverty, build human capital, and protect against risks to sustainable livelihoods and well-being. As social protection systems are by their nature inherently complex, multi-faceted and socially embedded, it is inevitable that tensions will emerge between their design and implementation, representing design-reality gaps. These tensions present an excellent opportunity for cross-disciplinary research, by understanding how best to bridge these design-reality gaps. In this qualitative, interpretivist case study, we situate our work on the ground with the actors involved in the design, implementation, and use of a social protection system in Zimbabwe. We find interaction failures amongst some users; design-reality gaps around network access and ICT policy implementation; as well as mixed views regarding transparency and accountability of ICT. Our findings provide rich insights from ICT users in the global south and underscore the importance of co-creation of IS interventions together with communities to ensure technologies consider social, political, economic and network realities. We conclude by providing directions for future research.
Recommended Citation
Ncube, T., Murray, U., & Dennehy, D. (in press). Digitalising Social Protection Systems for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Insights from Zimbabwe. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 53, pp-pp. Retrieved from https://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol53/iss1/11
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