The development of an integrated E-commerce marketing framework to enhance trading activities for rural African communities

The World Bank Development Report on poverty findings (2000) posits that at the macro level the most effective antipoverty policies are those that enhance the efficiency of markets used by poor people. However, the report has little evidence to show that microeconomic development, particularly in social, political, cultural, and human assets, has been implemented successfully to support market efficiency and effectiveness in these rural communities. Although there has been some introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in rural communities, a significant proportion of the research work in ICT and rural development is speculative and often offers little more than project progress reports. An intensive case study on a rural African community reveals that poor market access might not be simply an ICT problem. The missing link appears to be the inability of rural communities to optimize existing facilities and resources. A more fundamental cause could be the lack of microeconomic reforms in these communities, resulting in ineffectually applied marketing skills, poor leadership and management ability, low status and power of women, inadequate financial knowledge, and insufficient technical and information technology knowledge. Hence, an integrated e-commerce marketing framework is put forward to resolve the problems mentioned. The development of this proposed model should be consolidated by further studies using the Participative Action Research approach.