IDIA 2015 — 9th International Development Informatics Conference

The 9th IDIA Conference was held at Nungwi, Zanzibar, Tanzania in October 2015. The conference brought together researchers and practitioners from across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe to share the latest findings in ICT for development.

Conference Theme

IDIA 2015 examined evidence-based approaches to digital development, with particular focus on sustainable ICT4D models, mobile-first strategies in low-income contexts, and the role of informatics in achieving development outcomes aligned with the emerging Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Selected Papers

• Full Proceedings Table of Contents
• Acevedo, Moreno & Mataix — ICT4D and Local Governance
• Whale, Scholtz & Calitz — e-Learning for Enterprise Systems Education in Developing Countries

Legacy & Current Relevance

IDIA 2015's alignment with the emerging Sustainable Development Goals was timely — the SDG framework has since become the dominant lens through which international digital development investment is evaluated. SDG 9 (infrastructure and innovation) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) directly underpin the policy rationale for broadband equity programmes in both developing and developed nations.

The mobile-first strategies examined at IDIA 2015 for low-income contexts in the Global South anticipated the smartphone-as-primary-device reality now documented across underserved communities in the United States. Digital equity programmes that assume a desktop-first or even laptop-first user experience miss the mark for the populations they aim to serve — a lesson the IDIA research community had established by 2015 and that North American practitioners are still absorbing a decade later.

Conference Series

IDIA 2015 was the ninth in a series of annual conferences. See the full conference archive for proceedings from 2007–2015.