Abstract
Economic empowerment for marginalized people is one of the core interests driving ICTD practice and scholarship. Many non-governmental organizations state that improving the economic livelihood of their communities is one of their most important missions. Many training programs, from those which are donor- and public-supported to those which are privately operated, have been built with the express purpose of providing people who come into the centers with the skills they need to be hired by a local company, obtain a better-paying job, or start a microenterprise. While numerous studies have documented the labor markets for high-end ICT skills (programmers and other IT specialists), surprisingly little research has been conducted on basic ICT skills—those skills needed to perform the common tasks associated with almost any job—especially among underserved communities in developing countries. It is for this reason that we organized this special issue, to capture and encourage research in this area.
