A feminist political economic critique of the human development approach to new information and communication technologies

Abstract

This article argues that although the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has broadened the scope of international development by including the human and social dimensions, the human development approach does not acknowledge the unbalanced power relations between global corporations and national governments of developing countries, between the global north and the global south and between the two genders. By analyzing the UNDP’s human development approach to new information and communication technologies from a feminist political economic perspective, this article contends that the ultimate goal of human development may expand the choices for poor people but it may not imply a transformation of power relations.