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Globalization presents opportunities and challenges for developing regions such as sub-Saharan Africa as they seek to improve their levels of socioeconomic development. Processes of globalization increasingly depend upon information and communication technologies (ICTs), and these normally need modifications to fit local contexts. This requires that processes that affect interactions between global, regional, and local levels need to be understood. It appears reasonable to conjecture that understanding the roles or effects of socioeconomic and cultural factors (among others) would lead to more effective ICT policies for sustainable development at regional and local levels. Drawing on Sen's capability theory of human development, a modified version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is presented, and validated by analyzing survey data gathered in two sub-Saharan African countries, although no claim is made as to the model's generalizability. Some diagnostics and prescriptions for how to effect sustainable technology adoption and development across the region to enhance human capabilities are then presented. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Billions are faced with poor sanitation in developing countries, forcing United Nations' to miss sanitation targets over the years. This is mainly due to the poor condition of sanitation in the global-south comprising mostly developing countries. International and national organizations are mainly focused on building sanitation infrastructure to target the Sustainable Development Goal 6.2 (i.e., eradicating open defecation by 2030). But the service delivery in terms of monitoring & maintenance along with other governance issues is often overlooked in most cases. How can we arrange sustainable monitoring of a global sanitation community? In this paper, we discuss how information and communications technology (ICT) may be used to address sanitation governance. We outline the necessary governance criteria found in our field-observations and then explore ICT options to address these issues. We conceptualized and created 'Find A Loo' – a mobile application designed to be a 'good-governance' enabler. We tested this application with the help of System Usability Scale (SUS) and Potential Capability Scale (PCS), where it appeared as 'Good' with an 'A Grade' score, based on evaluators' satisfaction on usability and capability. Overall the evaluation affirms that the application is not only useful and ready to use, but also capable of helping in addressing governance issues in sanitation. This work will be of interest to policy & decision-makers, researchers, service providers, NGOs and people working in the sanitation space. Further, such a system lends itself to analytics that helps optimize the performance of sanitation infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]