Stakeholders

The Programme engages three broadly defined groups of stakeholders within countries:

• Rural communities and households – need to use and exchange information and knowledge more effectively, taking advantage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve their livelihoods and reduce vulnerability. This requires a mixture of awareness raising and capacity building based on a strongly people-focused and participatory approach. The concerns of rural households about their livelihoods extend into many sectors, and agricultural issues will take their place in the broader framework of these concerns and corresponding needs for information and knowledge.



• Rural service providers (agricultural, financial and communications) in the public and private sectors - need to enhance their use of digital information resources and knowledge systems as well as the new ICT themselves. This requires training to acquire the right skills. It also requires new mechanisms for interaction, such as e-commerce and electronic communities of practice. Organizations and services at sub-national and local levels have to focus on addressing the broad range of livelihood opportunities of poor people. This can be achieved only by improving communication and information exchange amongst the various players involved in rural development, and by catering to the needs of all the people whom they serve.



• Policy-makers and their advisers – need an enabling information and communication policy environment. A vital component of this environment is more reliable poverty monitoring indicators provided in a timely manner. Only in this way can accurate assessments be made and pro-poor government policy (such as Poverty Reduction and Food Security Strategies) be developed.

The ways in which the Programme is addressing stakeholders’ needs are described in relation to Rural Livelihoods and Information and Communication for Development (ICD) Approaches.