Assessing the Potential of ICTs for Participatory Development in Sub-Saharan Africa with Evidence from Urban Togo

As mobile phones are rapidly spreading across Sub-Saharan Africa, scholars and development practitioners are becoming increasingly interested in participatory, information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled initiatives to address the challenges of governance in the region. For such efforts to succeed, ICT interventions need to be custom-tailored to the characteristics of the politically marginalised groups they seek to empower. To advance the generation of the necessary empirical data, we surveyed 1498 respondents in Togo. Findings suggest that sociodemographic factors limiting political participation partially overlap with factors that limit access to ICT and the development of digital skills. Based on these findings, we formulate policy recommendations for the design of ICT-enabled projects that proactively seek to increase the participation of marginalised groups.