This paper adds to the debate on the contribution of ICT towards improving the quality of local governance. The data presented were collected during the scoping phase of an ICT‐based participation platform aimed at improving local governance in Togo. We combine original data from a social network analysis and a representative household survey. Based on these data, we conclude that the success of ICT interventions to transform local power structures depends on their adequate adaption to the political and technical environment. Decisions about the stage of the public policy cycle at which ICT projects intervene must be informed by the nature of local power relations and the distribution of access to ICT and participation opportunities across the intervention's target population.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractLand rights are essential assets for improving the livelihoods of the rural poor. This literature based paper shed light to some land rights issues that are crucial for the effectiveness and sustainability of implementing technological innovations in marginalized rural areas of Ethiopia, Ghana, India and Bangladesh. By analysing country specific land right regimes, this paper aims to understand what institutional conditions might constitute barriers to the effective implementation of technological innovations and how they might be overcome. Land rights issues considered in this paper include public and private ownership of land in Ethiopia, customary and statutory law in Ghana, and gender equality and land rights in India and Bangladesh. A better understanding of institutional barriers for the effective implementation of technological innovations is a precondition for complementing technological with enabling institutional innovations and for improving priority setting, targeting and sequencing in the implementation of productivity increasing development measures.

We would like to thank everyone who agreed to be interviewed for this study and offered us their time and expertise. We are also deeply grateful for the indispensable support of our Togolese counterpart LaDySIR, in particular Professor Kokou Folly Lolowou Hetcheli, Edem Gnamatchi, Ifa Adanto, Koffi Adaba, and Georgina Afiwavi. Furthermore, we would like to thank our translators, Edem Defly and Yawovi Kokouvi, without whose support we would not have been able to complete this study. Furthermore, we are very grateful to the German Embassy in Lomé, especially Rafael Teck, for his continuous support during our field research.

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