tmsd 20 (1) pp. 21–41 Intellect Limited 2021
International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development
Volume 20 Number 1
© 2021 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. https://doi.org/10.1386/tmsd_00033_1
Received 20 March 2020; Accepted 22 March 2021
IBRAHIM OSMAN ADAM
University for Development Studies
MUFTAWU DZANG ALHASSAN
SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development
Studies
Examining the link
between information and
communication technologies
and the UN Sustainable
Development Goals
ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS
This study examines the empirical link between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 143
countries for 2016. The adoption of the 2030 agenda of the SDGs has prompted
the creation of research streams across disciplines, including the information
systems discipline. Despite these, extant literature since the adoption of the SDGs
has sought to highlight the importance of ICTs in achieving the 2030 milestones.
Whilst many of these studies proffer the ICT–SDG linkage, there is no empirical evidence that examines this linkage. This study draws on archival data and
structural equation modelling to empirically show the relationship between ICTs
information and
communication
technologies
Sustainable
Development Goals
human development
capability approach
SEM-PLS
ICT4D
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Ibrahim Osman Adam | Muftawu Dzang Alhassan
and the SDGs, on one hand, and the mediating role of human development, on
the other. Our findings show that there is a direct significant relationship between
ICTs and the SDGs and that investment in ICTs will significantly accelerate
the achievement of the 2030 targets of the SDGs. Further, human development
plays a significant mediating role in this relationship. The policy implications are
discussed.
1. INTRODUCTION
Technological developments have become more complex, especially in the area
of information and communication technologies (ICTs), but the question in the
Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) field
that remains is whether we are making a better world with ICTs (Walsham
2012: 1). Developments in ICTs are racing, and, as ICT has become more
pervasive across the world and in many areas of human activity, the emphasis
on the role of ICTs in development is as critical today as it was over a decade
ago. Whilst the rapidly changing nature of technologies is a challenge for the
ICT4D research field (Zheng et al. 2018), the relevance of ICTs in the development discourse is more important now than before. Today, access to ICTs,
their adoption and diffusion have become the key drivers of global knowledgedriven economies because ICTs have become the core of economic, social and
environmental spheres of many nations (Gouvea et al. 2018).
Sumner and Tribe (2008) give three definitions of ‘development’ that
portray different schools of thought. The first sees development as a longterm process of structural societal transformation; the second, a short- to
the medium-term outcome of desirable targets; and the third, a dominant
discourse of western modernity. To Zheng et al. (2018:3), these three definitions connote three connected dimensions of development seen in the context
of ‘strong influence on government policies, international funding and allocation of resources that drive long-term processes of societal change, which,
in turn, define and inform short to medium-term targets’. In the contemporary ICT4D discourse, human-centred development drawn from the theoretical perspectives of Amartya Sen’s capability approach (Sen 1999) is favoured.
The capability approach focuses on the social dimension of development
(Lehtonen 2004) and proposes that individual capabilities offer people the
freedom to make choices that can help in attaining the life that they value
and a reason to value (Sen 1999). From the perspective of ICT4D, the key
to development is to develop these capabilities through technologies (Oxoby
2009). We, therefore, view development from the ICT4D perspective as human
development propelled by technology. The role of ICTs in development has
been emphasized, and many have argued that the issue of development in
ICT4D should be clearer (Hatakka et al. 2016; Thapa and Sæbø 2014; Walsham
and Sahay 2006).
In 2015, UN member-states agreed on the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
2015). This supersedes the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000–15),
which is perceived as an important initiative that was aimed at eradicating
poverty in modern history. With eight goals, the MDGs have succeeded in
transforming the lives of over 1 billion people from an extreme level of poverty
to a better standard of life (United Nations General Assembly 2013). The
SDGs are aimed at setting an agenda to drive all forces towards tackling the
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Examining the link between information and communication technologies and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
world’s largest challenges, such as fighting poverty, eliminating inequalities
and achieving sustainable economic growth by 2030. The SDGs are seventeen,
which are further divided into 169 targets addressing economic, social and
environmental aspects (United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs 2015).
The role of ICTs in the development of countries, especially in providing innovation, efficiency and effectiveness in various sectors, is tremendous
(Tjoa and Tjoa 2016). Hilty and Aebischer (2015) categorize ICT effects threefold: negative, enabling and systemic effects. The systemic effects are longterm impacts of ICTs in socioeconomic development. The SDGs are said to
address the shortcomings of the MDGs and contain a broader and transformative agenda that more adequately reflects the complex challenges of the
twenty-first century and the need for structural reforms in the global economy (Fukuda-Parr 2016) and are largely geared towards systemic effects. To
understand clearly the role of ICT in development, there is a need for unified
thinking that examines the interrelation among entities, actions and events
and how these interrelationships produce outcomes (Singh et al. 2018). This
is because whilst managing ICTs to ensure the most net social benefits is a
complex challenge, the benefits of ICTs for SDGs can depend largely on the
existence of complementary elements in today’s digital economy (Kostoska
and Kocarev 2019). For instance, the basic ICT infrastructure needs to be available to ensure some level of sustainable development in our highly dynamic
digitalized world.
The 2030 agenda aim to achieve a better and sustainable world for all. The
SDGs aim at managing the major challenges in the world by recognizing that
poverty eradication will require strategies that can ensure economic growth
through environmental protection and improving social needs such as health,
education and gender equality. Whilst the seventeen SDGs and their related
targets are designed to be monitored through some global indicators adopted
for the 2030 agenda (Miola and Schiltz 2019), we argue that there is the need
for empirical evidence on the role of ICTs in achieving this 2030 agenda.
There is evidence on the linkage between ICTs and economic development. For instance, Evans (2019) show that ICTs have significant effects on
economic development, and economic development in turn leads to investment in ICTs. Also, ICTs are recognized as playing a critical role in the sustainable development of a country, with the argument that these technologies
are critical for least developing countries (LDCs). Based on this analogy,
Mulamula and Amadi-Echendu (2017) posit that technology transfer positively influences sustainable development. Though extant literature since
the adoption of the SDGs has sought to highlight the importance of ICTs in
achieving the 2030 milestones (Azadnia and Zahedi 2018; Azadnia et al. 2017;
Castro 2018; Jayaprakash and Pillai 2019; Tjoa and Tjoa 2016; Wynn and Jones
2018), many of these studies postulate the ICT–SDG linkage. The empirical
evidence that examines this linkage is few and far between and ambiguous.
Furthermore, human capital as a fundamental source of economic growth and
technological advancement has been ignored in the discourse of the nexus
between ICT development and SDGs. This article attempts to fill this gap by
using partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM)
and data relating to 143 countries drawn from archival sources to empirically
examine the effect of ICTs on the SDGs, on one hand, and the mediating role
of human development on the discourse of ICTs and the SDGs, on the other.
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Ibrahim Osman Adam | Muftawu Dzang Alhassan
The findings will contribute to the empirical basis of the relationship between
ICTs and SDGs.
The article is organized as follows. The following section provides a theoretical framework concerning the role of ICTs on SDGs whilst stressing the
importance of human development. This culminates in the development of
the hypotheses to be investigated. Section 3 describes the PLS-SEM methodology and the data employed. Section 4 discusses the results obtained. In
Section 4, the conclusions are presented pointing out the implications of the
study.
2 THEORY AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT
2.1 The capability approach
The capability approach argues that development concerns the freedom
of choice of individuals, be it in the personal, social, economic and political
realms (Sen 1999; Sen and Nussbaum 1993). In this approach, a person has a
functioning that refers to various things the person values as part of his being.
This may be a matter of health, nutrition and skill and educational development conditions of individuals and the extent of their social participation in
social activities. Capability in this approach means a person may have alternative combinations of functionings the person can achieve (Sen 1999). In
this approach, development basically refers to how a person’s capabilities can
be increased or how the person’s freedom to live a life of their choice can
be increased. The functionings connote the outcome of the person’s choices,
whilst the capabilities are the freedoms. According to Sen (1999), freedom
plays two roles – the constitutive role and the instrumental role. The constitutive role is the capability to develop one’s potential, without being affected
by circumstances beyond one’s control. In this case, development is ensuring
that people are empowered against deprivations like literacy or poor health
through the removal of barriers that limit their choice and opportunities. The
instrumental role refers to the means of attaining development and having the
freedom to pursue it if one wishes. Here, development is about people’s rights,
opportunities and entitlements and how it contributes to increasing their
freedoms so that they can achieve economic progress.
In this article, we draw on both roles to examine how ICTs can provide
capabilities in social arrangements and expand people’s capabilities through
their basic freedoms to participate in activities that contribute to development.
According to Sen (1999), economic growth is a very critical but not an exclusive indicator of development. There is a need to focus on human well-being
and the capabilities of people.
Though the deployment of ICTs, especially in developing countries, may
not necessarily translate into benefits, such as efficiency and cost-effectiveness,
there is evidence to show that the implementation of ICTs supports human
capabilities (Qureshi 2011). Since the capability approach to development is
based on the argument about ensuring improvements in the quality of life for
individuals, the importance of ICTs in pushing these capabilities cannot be
overemphasized. This is because ICTs can improve the broader quality of life
in many ways through the freedom people enjoy. ICTs can play a critical role
in improving people’s lives, especially when people are impoverished and are
constrained by limited resources. ICTs can have a positive impact on the lives
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Examining the link between information and communication technologies and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
of people in the midst of the freedoms they have by increasing their capabilities. With ICTs, people can even expand their freedoms and embark on initiatives to improve their social and economic well-being (Walsham 2012).
It may be difficult to specifically measure the effects of ICT implementations on development, and so a broad approach may be used to understand
the capabilities developed due to the implementation of ICTs (Qureshi 2011).
Therefore, in adopting the capability approach to study the contribution of
ICTs to development, different factors that make up a person’s capabilities
and affect his/her freedom to realize improvements in quality of life are necessary (Zheng 2009). This is why we view ICTs as a means to attain an improvement of human capabilities that enable people to pursue the kind of life they
cherish (Qureshi 2011; Zheng 2009). This supports the view of Heeks (2008)
that the poor would need to use ICTs to generate digital content and provide
services that create new sources of income to improve their well-being.
Several studies have used the capability approach to explain the relationship between ICTs and development (Haenssgen and Ariana 2018; Hatakka
et al. 2019; Kleine 2010; Oosterlaken and van den Hoven 2011; Tshivhase
et al. 2016). This study follows previous studies to appropriate the capability
approach to examine the linkage between the ICTs and the SDGs. In the next
sections, we develop the hypothesis that ICTs on their own or through human
development can lead to the achievement of the 2030 agenda.
2.2 ICTs and human development
Extant literature has sought to show the link between ICTs and human development (Castells and Himanen 2014; Iqbal et al. 2019). The empirical evidence
on this is not conclusive, and the jury is still out to bridge the knowledge gap
in the discourse in ICT–human development linkage (Heeks 2016). To reap the
benefits of ICTs, access to ICT infrastructure alone is not enough. Inequality
in ICT access and other complementary assets may lead to uneven growth
across the population. So, whilst ICT access may lead to some economic benefits, some social disparities may also appear as a result (Kostoska and Kocarev
2019). Therefore, with ICT access, people will also require the requisite ICT
skills and the willingness to use the ICTs for their intended and sometimes
unintended purposes in order to reap the full benefits of ICTs. ICT skills can
be enhanced through education and training programmes.
The findings of some studies that have investigated the development effects
of ICT investments (Castells and Himanen 2014; Iqbal et al. 2019) have pointed
to a positive impact of ICT investment on economic development (Heeks 2010),
whilst others bring to light the inconclusiveness of the findings. For instance,
Asongu and Le Roux (2017: 1) posit that the ‘degree of positive responsiveness
of inclusive development to ICT varies across fundamental characteristics of
human development and ICT dynamics’. Not many studies have examined the
impacts of ICTs globally (Datta et al. 2005). The few studies that examined
the impact of ICTs on human development generally and on specific aspects
such as health and education (Ngwenyama et al. 2006) have sought to examine
the issue further giving credence to the claim by Bada and Madon (2006: 180)
that this is ‘an opportune moment to examine new ways in which ICTs are
being deployed in the process of developing human resources that will contribute to economic, social, and political progress’. This leads to the hypothesis (H1)
that ICTs positively influence human development.
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Ibrahim Osman Adam | Muftawu Dzang Alhassan
2.3 Human development and the SDGs
There is a large body of evidence about human development as a driver of
economic growth (Ayertey Odonkor et al. 2018; Musibau et al. 2019; Ogundari
and Awokuse 2018; Siddiqui and Rehman 2017). In developing countries, this
has resulted in so much attention on school attainment (Hanushek 2013).
The importance of human development as a critical component of economic
development is widely discussed. The main issue that involves human development concerns increasing the knowledge, skills and capacities of a population and, in addition, promoting well-being through economic growth.
Human resource development can be attained through the development and
delivery of practical and appropriate education and training for the population, providing on-the-job training, ensuring self-development, empowering
citizens’ access to ICTs and improving health and nutrition. Human development can be enhanced through ICTs (Bada and Madon 2006), and through
the quality of life attained through ICT implementation, the contribution of
the human resource to sustainable development can be reinforced. Hence the
second hypothesis (H2): human development positively influences the SDGs.
2.4 ICTs and the SDGs
ICTs are key enablers of widespread change in countries across the world.
As such, the potential involvement of ICTs in the advancement of the SDGs
cannot be overemphasized. There are many versions of sustainable development, but the most recognized one describes sustainable development as
‘being able to meet the requirements of the current generation and does not
have to consume the capability of the future generations’ (Brundtland 1987:
n.pag). ICTs can play a critical role in ensuring sustainable development. Wu et
al. (2018) examined the influence that ICTs can have in achieving SDGs. They
emphasize that ICTs can hasten progress and even help in building knowledge societies. According to Kostoska and Kocarev (2019), there are three basic
tenets in a knowledge-driven digital economy – knowledge flow, economic
development and environmental sustainability. The nexus between these critical components can lay the foundation that can lead to development through
quality education, research and development, innovation, wealth creation and
poverty elimination (Kottemann and Boyer-Wright 2009). The adoption of the
2030 agenda for SDGs, with its seventeen goals and 169 targets, addresses the
role of ICT as a critical component in promoting sustainable economic development and the SDGs. The implementation of ICTs would enable a number
of applications and services geared towards sustainable economic development to abound. These range from the internet of things, the use of drones, to
smart cities (Gouvea et al. 2018). This leads us to the hypothesis (H3) that ICTs
positively influence the SDGs.
The above hypothesized relationships lead to our conceptual model shown
in Figure 1. Evidence from the literature shows that previous studies have not
explored all these relationships in a global context. Hence our study offers a
unique contribution to the body of knowledge on ICT, human development
and the SDGs.
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Based on the model shown in Figure 1, the study gathered data from secondary sources. The methodological process involved PLS-SEM. This was used
to assess both the measurement and structural models (Hair et al. 2016). The
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Examining the link between information and communication technologies and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Figure 1: Conceptual model showing the linkage between ICTs, human development and the SDGs.
advantage of using SEM is that it allows the researcher to assess the measurement model by showing the relationship between the constructs and measures
as well as between the path model to test the theoretical relationships (Freeze
and Raschke 2007). Based on this, the use of SEM-PLS in this study allows
for the testing of relational models based on a theoretical grounding of the
constructs as shown in the previous section. In addition, SEM defines constructs
and the direction of causality of the measures. This helps in avoiding inappropriate conclusions about the relationships among the various constructs.
4. DESCRIPTION OF DATA
4.1. Data sources
This study relied on data obtained from several archival sources for 2016: the
International Telecommunications Union for the ICT data (ITU 2017), the
World Bank (World Development Indicators) for human development (World
Bank 2016) and the United Nations Sustainable Solutions Network (Sustainable
Development Report) for the SDG index (Sachs et al. 2016). Data were collected
for 143 countries. The variables used were consolidated from these reports, and
only data for those countries that were covered in all reports were considered.
The common data points were compared across all reports, and this resulted in
an analysis of 143 countries (See Appendix). Indicators that had missing data of
less than 5% of their data were ‘mean-replaced’ (Hair et al. 2016).
Data from these sources have been used in previous IS and ICT4D research
(Alderete 2017; Bankole et al. 2015; Diaz-Sarachaga et al. 2018). The ITU is a
specialized UN agency that has the most reliable source of data for the ICT
sector, whilst the World Bank group collects statistical profiles for all countries
globally in a well-organized database, usually presented in different dimensions, one of which is the Human Development Index. The study relied on
data from these different sources because the data was not readily available in
one source. As a result, gathering data from all these sources into a homogenous database for this study was a challenge. The SDG index, a complement
to the official SDG indicators and the Sustainable Development Report, uses
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Ibrahim Osman Adam | Muftawu Dzang Alhassan
publicly available data published by official data providers (World Bank, ILO)
and other organizations.
4.2. Constructs, variables and measures
Based on our research model shown in Figure 1, three latent variables
(constructs) are considered in this study: (1) ICT access, (2) human development and (3) sustainable development. ICT development was measured by
ICT access and use both based on ICT development indicators (ITU 2017)
and comprises fixed telephone subscriptions per hundred inhabitants, the
percentage of households with computers, the percentage of individuals using the internet, households with internet access and fixed or wired
broadband subscriptions per hundred inhabitants. Human development
was measured by the percentage of adult literacy, the gross enrolment ratio,
expected years of schooling and the mean years of schooling. These measure
the skills and literacy as well as human abilities of the populations (World
Bank 2016). Sustainable development was measured by the SDG index. The
SDG index assesses where each country stands with regard to achieving the
SDGs in terms of the best and worst performers. There are 33 indicators
included in the SDG index, with between one to twelve variables per goal
(Sachs et al. 2016).
5. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
5.1. Assessment of the measurement model
To assess the measurement model, we tested for reliability and validity before assessing the structural model. The PLS-SEM using Adanco
(Henseler 2017) was used to assess the research model. The assessment
included that for reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity
(Hulland 1999; Nunnally 1978). Not all the indicators loaded significantly
on their corresponding constructs (Gefen and Straub 2005). Using the cutoff point of 0.708 (Hair et al. 2019), the indicators (mobile cellular subscriptions and international internet bandwidth) that were below the threshold
were deleted and the algorithm was rerun. The remaining indicator met the
threshold as shown in Figure 2. This showed that each indicator was a good
measure of its latent construct.
In assessing for reliability, both the composite reliability and the Cronbach
alpha coefficients must be equal to or greater than 0.7 (Fornell and Larcker
1981; Nunnally 1978) if the constructs are reflective. In Table 1, all the values
satisfy the reliability criteria since the composite reliability and Cronbach
alpha coefficients of the individual constructs are greater than 0.7. This means
that the measures and the constructs have a significant amount of variance.
Cronbach’s alpha is a less precise measure of reliability and produces lower
values than composite reliability because the items are unweighted and so ρA
is usually used as an alternative measure of construct reliability (Dijkstra and
Henseler 2015). ρA also exceeded a minimum of 0.7.
Convergent validity was used to measure the extent to which the construct
explains the variance of its items. It is the average variance extracted (AVEs)
and measures all the items on each construct. The threshold is 0.50, and AVEs
higher than the threshold show that the construct explains 50% or more of
the variance of its items. In Table 2, all the AVEs are above 0.5 (Fornell and
Larcker 1981; Hair et al. 2019).
28 International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development
Figure 2: Results from PLS analysis.
Examining the link between information and communication technologies and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
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Ibrahim Osman Adam | Muftawu Dzang Alhassan
To assess discriminant validity, cross-loading was used. In Table 3, the
loadings of each indicator exceed the cross-loadings. For example, fixed tel
subs/100 loads high on its corresponding construct ICTs (0.8959), but much
lower on constructs human development (0.7675) and SDGs (0.8070).
Therefore, the usage of cross-loadings shows that discriminant validity has
been established.
Henseler et al. (2015) introduced a newer approach called heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT), which is based on the
Dijkstra-Henseler's rho (ρA)
Jöreskog's rho (ρc)
Cronbach’s alpha
ICTs
Construct
0.9667
0.9729
0.9651
Human development
0.9450
0.9585
0.9421
SDGs
1.0000
1.0000
Table 1: Construct reliability.
Construct
Average variance extracted
ICTs
0.8778
Human development
0.8525
SDGs
1.0000
Table 2: Convergent validity.
Indicator
ICTs
Human development
SDGs
SDGI
0.9040
0.9296
1.0000
Fixed tel subs/100
0.8959
0.7675
0.8070
%HH with comp
0.9554
0.7885
0.8262
%HH with internet access
0.9532
0.7772
0.8164
% ind using the internet
0.9399
0.8750
0.9117
Fixed (wired) broadband subs/100
0.9390
0.8038
0.8648
Adult literacy (%)
0.6961
0.8836
0.8173
Gross enrolment ratio (%)
0.8001
0.9390
0.8450
Expected years of schooling
0.8477
0.9536
0.8851
Mean years of schooling
0.8172
0.9155
0.8831
Table 3: Cross-loadings.
Construct
ICTs
Human development
ICTs
Human development
0.8962
SDGs
0.9185
0.9573
Table 4: HTMT.
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Examining the link between information and communication technologies and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
multitrait-multimethod matrix. They argue that traditional approaches are
inadequate in detecting discriminant validity compared to the HTMT criterion.
This study also used the HTMT, which is considered sensitive and specific in
sensing discriminant validity (Ab Hamid et al. 2017). The results from a bootstrap procedure in Table 4 show the HTMT ratios less than 1, and this indicates that the model passed the test of discriminant validity.
5.2. Analysis of the structural model
The path coefficients and R2 were used to assess the structural model. From
Figure 2 and Table 5, the R2 for human development and SDGs were 0.737 and
0.907, respectively. R2 must be between 0 and 1. When it is at the higher end,
it shows higher levels of predictive accuracy.
Finally, to test the hypotheses for significance, a bootstrapping was run
with 4,999 resamples to obtain the t-values in Adanco 2.0.1 using a two-tailed
t-distribution to obtain the paths’ significance levels. The results are shown in
Tables 6 and 7 for the direct and indirect effects. Using a two-tailed t-test with
a 5% significance level, the path coefficient is said to be significant given a
t-statistic greater than 1.96. However, the critical t-value is 1.65 with a significance level of 10%, and 2.58 for a significance level of 1% (all two-tailed)
(Wong 2019).
Construct
Coefficient of determination (R2)
Adjusted R2
Human development
0.7367
0.7348
SDGs
0.9069
0.9056
Table 5: R2.
Standard bootstrap
results
Original
coefficient
Mean
value
ICTs -> human
development
0.8583
0.8594
0.0186
46.1754 Supported
0.8091 0.8208 0.8939 0.9033
ICTs -> SDGs
0.4031
0.4034
0.0507
7.9488
Supported
0.2752 0.3054 0.5037 0.5352
Human
development -> SDGs
0.5836
0.5833
0.0503
11.6106 Supported
0.4485 0.4799 0.6770 0.7040
Effect
Standard
error
t-value
Percentile bootstrap
quantiles
Inference
0.5%
2.5%
97.5% 99.5%
Table 6: Direct effects inference.
Standard bootstrap results
Effect
ICTs ->
SDGs
Percentile bootstrap quantiles
Original
coefficient
Mean
value
Standard
error
t-value
Inference
0.5%
2.5%
97.5%
99.5%
0.5009
0.5012
0.0434
11.5434
Supported
0.3871
0.4141
0.5837
0.6098
Table 7: Indirect effects inference.
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Ibrahim Osman Adam | Muftawu Dzang Alhassan
6. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
From our model and the results of the hypotheses presented in Table 6, it
can be shown that H1, H2 and H3 are supported. The indirect effects of ICTs
through human development were also found to be significant as shown
in Table 7. In addition, R2 values shown in Table 5 indicate that, whilst ICTs
explain 73.7% of the variance in human development, ICTs and human development together explain 90.7% of the variance of SDGs. The findings in relation to the individual hypotheses are discussed in the subsequent paragraphs.
Concerning our hypothesis that ICT development positively influences
human development, the results confirm the existence of a positive relationship. ICT’s effects on development have largely been studied from the
standpoint of how they affect economic growth (Avgerou 2003, 2010; De La
Hoz-Rosales et al. 2019; Palvia et al. 2018; Sein and Harindranath 2004). ICTs
can provide more capabilities than just monetary ones, and through these
capabilities, people’s standard of living can be improved. ICTs can improve
human development through quality education and improved training
programmes, the impact of ICT on the quality of life and through the creation
of awareness of practices that hitherto was a hindrance to enjoying a quality
human life. This confirms the use of the capability approach to explain the
social dimensions of development where ICT adoption and use can improve
the living conditions of people (De La Hoz-Rosales et al. 2019; Lwoga and
Sangeda 2019).
Though the discourse on the linkage of ICTs is debatable (Lwoga and
Sangeda 2019), several studies, such as Hatakka et al. (2019), have found the
relationship between ICT and development using the capability approach to
contribute to expanding capabilities. ICTs are resources - the use of which
must be assessed based on their potential to expand the capabilities and functionings of people that can eventually lead to an improvement in the lifestyles
they want. Whilst the initial benefit of using ICTs accrues to the individual,
the larger society in which the individual lives will be the biggest beneficiary.
Therefore, access to and use of ICTs can support the development of social
and human capital (Hatakka et al. 2019). For instance, there is evidence of
ICTs improving health systems and agricultural supply chains (Johnston et al.
2015), having a positive impact of mobile phone use on socio-economic lives
in rural Nigeria (Baro and Endouware 2013) and in other countries such as
rural China (Soriano 2007), Columbia (Parkinson and Lauzon 2008) and so
on. Through ICT access and use, people can have choices in accessing different kinds of livelihood styles. Based on the above, we emphasize our finding
that ICT access and use present people with the opportunity to expand their
capacity and improve their quality of life.
Generally, human development embraces sustainable development
(Griffin and McKinley 1994). This is because the purpose of development
should be to enlarge human capabilities. Given the overwhelming evidence
of human development as an engine of economic growth (Ayertey Odonkor
et al. 2018; Musibau et al. 2019; Ogundari and Awokuse 2018; Siddiqui and
Rehman 2017), the findings confirm the hypothesis that human development
positively influences sustainable development. When human development is
enhanced through ICTs (Bada and Madon 2006), the quality of life can be
improved and thereby continuously contribute to sustainable development in
the cycle of human existence.
32 International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development
Examining the link between information and communication technologies and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
On whether ICTs positively influence sustainable development, the
hypothesis was supported. ICTs play a critical role in development generally
(Lwoga and Sangeda 2019) and, based on our finding, are critical in ensuring
sustainable development. In examining the effect of ICTs on the SDGs, Wu et
al. (2018) posit that ICTs can accelerate the achievement of having knowledge
societies, and the development of knowledge societies can propel sustainable
development. For instance, ICTs through application and services, such as the
internet of things that allow for the management and control of connected
devices in relation to the environment, the use of robots and drones for
environmental surveillance and smart grids and cities, can positively impact
sustainable development.
7. CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
The main aim of this study was to show evidence of the relationship between
ICT development, human development and sustainable development. To do
this, we relied on the capability approach as the theoretical foundation and
PLS-SEM as the statistical analysis method. Several findings emerged from
the study. Our first conclusion is that, through the capability approach, the
study sheds light on how ICTs can improve human development by providing several capabilities for people to live the lives they desire. This it does
through a confirmation of the hypothesis that ICT as a resource can expand
the capacity of human development. Second, we conclude that continued
expansion of the capacity of the human resource through ICTs can translate
into sustainable development. This is because the nature of human resource
in itself is to sustain its self and so a positive propelling force can only gear it
towards achieving more sustainability. We posit that human resource development significantly mediates the relationship between ICT development
and sustainable development. Finally, we conclude that ICT development
can also lead directly to sustainable development. Overall, ICT access and
use can positively affect the achievement of the SDGs, and with ICTs, the
lives of people will be far better and the achievement of the SDGs will be a
reality.
The findings of the study have implications for practice and policy and can
be used as a tool by policy-makers globally to reinforce the uptake of initiatives that support the access and use of ICTs for the poor. This is because ICTs
can lift people out of poverty in a sustainable way.
The study relied on secondary data drawn from different sources,
which meant the data indices were formulated and the data were collated
by external reporting agencies. We could not rely on primary data to ensure
better control over the definition of the study’s variables because it was
not feasible for the researchers to undertake such a large-scale global data
collection exercise. These, to some extent, limit the study. Furthermore,
the study used data only from the countries with commonly available data
from all the sources that were considered. Not all countries in the world
were included because data were not available for some. Future studies
may consider to cover more countries or extend this study by introducing
other variables.
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Ibrahim Osman Adam | Muftawu Dzang Alhassan
APPENDIX: LIST OF COUNTRIES CONSIDERED FOR THE STUDY
Afghanistan
Denmark
Kyrgyz Republic
Albania
Dominican Republic
Lao PDR
Algeria
Ecuador
Latvia
Angola
Egypt, Arab Rep.
Lebanon
Argentina
El Salvador
Lesotho
Armenia
Estonia
Liberia
Australia
Ethiopia
Luxembourg
Austria
Finland
Madagascar
Azerbaijan
France
Malawi
Bangladesh
Gabon
Malaysia
Belarus
Gambia, The
Mali
Belgium
Georgia
Malta
Benin
Germany
Mauritania
Bhutan
Ghana
Mauritius
Bolivia
Greece
Mexico
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Guatemala
Moldova
Botswana
Guinea
Mongolia
Brazil
Guyana
Montenegro
Bulgaria
Haiti
Morocco
Burkina Faso
Honduras
Mozambique
Burundi
Hungary
Myanmar
Cabo Verde
Iceland
Namibia
Cambodia
India
Nepal
Cameroon
Indonesia
Netherlands
Canada
Iran, Islamic Rep.
New Zealand
Chad
Iraq
Nicaragua
Chile
Ireland
Nigeria
China
Israel
Norway
Colombia
Italy
Oman
Congo, Dem. Rep.
Jamaica
Pakistan
Congo, Rep.
Japan
Panama
Costa Rica
Jordan
Paraguay
Cote d’Ivoire
Kazakhstan
Peru
Croatia
Kenya
Philippines
Cyprus
Korea, Rep.
Poland
Czech Republic
Kuwait
Portugal
(continued)
34 International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development
Examining the link between information and communication technologies and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Qatar
Spain
Uganda
Romania
Sri Lanka
Ukraine
Russian Federation
Suriname
United Arab Emirates
Rwanda
Swaziland
United Kingdom
Saudi Arabia
Sweden
United States
Senegal
Switzerland
Uruguay
Serbia
Tajikistan
Venezuela, RB
Sierra Leone
Tanzania
Vietnam
Singapore
Thailand
Yemen, Rep.
Slovak Republic
Trinidad and Tobago
Zambia
Slovenia
Tunisia
Zimbabwe
South Africa
Turkey
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SUGGESTED CITATION
Adam, Ibrahim Osman and Dzang Alhassan, Muftawu (2021), ‘Examining
the link between information and communication technologies and the
UN Sustainable Development Goals’, International Journal of Technology
Management & Sustainable Development, 20:1, pp. 21–41, https://doi.
org/10.1386/tmsd_00033_1
CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Ibrahim Osman Adam is a senior lecturer in information systems at the
University for Development of Studies. His research interests are in digital
technologies in business and innovation as well as the use of PLS-SEM
and NCA to understand the nexuses in the ICT4D value chain (ICT readiness, access, use, impact). He holds a Ph.D. in information systems from
the University of Ghana Business School. He holds a double masters
degree; an MSc in Development Management from the London School
of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (UK), and an MSc in Applied
Informatics from the Henley Business School, University of Reading (UK).
He has a first-class bachelor’s degree in business administration (accounting option) from the University of Ghana. He is a Chartered Accountant
and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana). Prior to
joining academia, he worked as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in the
NGO sector. He has provided consultancy services for a number of small
businesses through the Skills Development Fund Ghana. Presently, he is
head of the Accounting Department at the School of Business. He teaches
management information systems, accounting information systems and
computer applications in management both at the undergraduate and
postgraduate levels.
Contact: University for Development Studies, School of Business and Law,
P.O. Box 36, Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana.
E-mail: ioadam@uds.edu.gh
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7742-7473
Muftawu Dzang Alhassan holds an MPhil in management information
systems from the University of Ghana Business School. He also holds
a bachelor’s degree in commerce with a major in accounting from the
University for Development Studies, Ghana. Muftawu is a senior research
assistant at the SD Dombo University for Business and Integrated Business
Studies, Wa, Ghana. He is currently a GEM Ph.D. scholar at the University
of Stellenbosch Business School. His research interest includes: digital
40 International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development
Examining the link between information and communication technologies and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
resilience, financial technologies, e-commerce, the sharing economy
and ICT4D.
Contact: P.O. Box 36, Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana.
E-mail: mdalhassan@ubids.edu.gh
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5305-6874
Ibrahim Osman Adam and Muftawu Dzang Alhassan have asserted their right
under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the
authors of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.
www.intellectbooks.com 41