June 2001
Prepared by
Sabine Isabel Michiels
and L.Van Crowder
Communication for Development Group
Extension, Education and Communication Service (SDRE)
Research, Extension and Training Division
Part 2 of 2
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2
The main findings of the study are:
The review of the case studies reveals that in fact not much is known about "local appropriation", how it works, how it is initiated, maintained and perceived by the local community. A methodological problem for the study of local ICT appropriation is that there are multiple and varied definitions and interpretations of "local appropriation" which makes it difficult to reach any common consensus on what it is or is not.
It is clear that there is still much that needs to be done to understand processes of local appropriation of ICTs. A major challenge for the donor and technical assistance community is to interact with, facilitate and support local ICT efforts in ways that are not paternalistic and domineering. The ultimate goal should be to foster local empowerment through ICTs, rather than create dependencies.
It seems overly optimistic to think there is an ICT "technological fix" that will allow developing countries to easily "leapfrog" through the stages of development. Nonetheless, Amazon.com's founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, at the "Creating Digital Dividends" conference in Seattle, USA, October, 2000, "emphasized that developing regions could leapfrog traditional development by skipping entire layers of [ICT] infrastructure" (Businessweek, December 18, 2000). There is also the concern that developing countries will be "left behind" if they don't participate in the global information society. For example, a 1996 World Bank report (Increasing Internet Connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa) stated that "If African countries cannot take advantage of the information revolution and surf this great wave of technological change, they may be crushed by it".
There is still much to be done before local communities and groups, especially poor ones, can begin to realise significant livelihood improvements from the new ICTs. However, the potential exists and can be furthered by focusing on equitable access and meaningful use of ICTs to improve livelihoods, quality of education and healthcare, and to advance community economic growth.12 However, access without local capacity and skills for purposeful and meaningful use of ICTs, and decisive control by local groups and communities over ICT resources and applications, will most likely have little impact.
Clearly what came out of this initial study is a pressing need for "socially and culturally responsible connectivity" strategies. These are strategies that look beyond merely providing access and instead embrace a more holistic approach by fostering equitable access, supporting meaningful use of ICTs13 and encouraging community and group self-empowerment through local ICT appropriation.
"People's media are owned and controlled by the powerless with the intention to empower themselves. They are a direct confrontation of the disempowered with the dominant communication structure. They select different themes and discourses, tell their own stories and articulate their fears and dreams in the cultural idiom of their own communities" (Cees J. Hamelink, Trends in World Communication: On Disempowerment and Self-Empowerment, Southbound:Penang, 1994).
Below are some aspects that should be part of any ICT approach that aims at community empowerment:
As a strategy for ICT applications, the communication for development approach "begins with the needs of people in rural communities and grassroots agricultural organisations and works to establish vertical and horizontal channels of communication." (Don Richardson, FAO, 1997)
In order to promote the development of socially and culturally appropriate community-based ICT projects, the following attributes are desirable:
This study has highlighted a few examples of community based ICT projects. Projects that, in one way or another, have the potential to reduce the digital divide at the community, group and individual levels. The paper has attempted to bring together various "good practise" recommendations and propose a set of tentative guidelines or principles that should be taken into consideration when developing, planning, supporting and analysing ICT for development projects. The approach advocated in this paper is one that promotes and fosters community appropriation of and empowerment through ICTs -- in essence, an approach that sees ICTs as most effective for development when they are "people's media". The problem, however, is that many ICT projects, no matter how well intended, often do not foster empowerment, but rather lead to new dependencies. As this study shows, there are examples of "self-empowerment" through ICT applications. The challenge for the donor and technical assistance community will be to encourage and support such initiatives without denying or stifling the autonomous control of the local communities and groups involved. The challenge for local communities and groups will be to "reach beyond the borders of their local space and jointly create a global public sphere in which people can freely express themselves, share information, opinions, ideas and cultural experiences, challenge the accountability of power holders..." (C.J. Hamelink, 1994).
The next ten years will tell us if there is indeed strength in the argument that information in itself does not feed, clothe or house the world, but does have the capacity to create wealth that can be converted into food, clothing and shelter" (Linda Main, 2001).
Or, do we have to wait ten years.....?
A study of the Grameen Bank Village Pay Phone (VPP) in Bangladesh found that profits for poor rural women who were VPP owners "amounted to between one fifth and one quarter of household income. This increase in household income meant improved food security, a greater ability to invest in health, education and clothes for children, and in an increased propensity to save" (IFAD, Rural Poverty Report 2001).
Bankilare people have had access to radio for a while but felt they needed some way of expressing and disseminating their own ideas and thus, the concept of owning and operating a local community radio station was taken into consideration. A Community Information Centre (CIC) was created where information is exchanged, discussed, analysed and applied to community life. The Centre is in a small, one-room sun-baked brick building but uses solar-powered transmitters that receive information from a geo-stationary digital satellite. The station soon became an essential part of community life in Bankilare, announcing weather conditions or alerting the community to potential disasters such as fires as well as providing information on topics such as health, nutrition, trade, environment as well as offering entertainment. The Community Information Centre is linked to the Africa Learning Channel and transmits multimedia information from the Internet, targeting specific audiences where Internet connections are unreliable and/or expensive. Bankilare uses listening groups and their policy is "one receiver reaching many ears". The Centre, which up to only a few years ago, received next to no information, now receives information from around Africa and the world, with an audience of 1.2 million.
The Across Borders project aims to connect Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon for the first time to the Internet. In each camp, a computer/Internet Centre will be set up and camp refugees will be trained in ICT skills. Each camp will create its own web site and collect oral history and testimonies about the life of the refugees. So far, an Across Borders Centre has opened in Dheisheh refugee camp outside Bethlehem in the West Bank www.dheisheh.acrossborders.org. The Centre will enable Palestinian refugees to "cross borders", which separate them and communicate directly and swiftly with one and another and with the outside world. The purpose is also to document (on-line) the oral history of these camps since their inception in 1948-49. The third and important purpose of this project is to provide the refugees with the necessary computer and Internet skills that would enable them to get better jobs in the new Information Age. The uniqueness of this project is that there are no partners involved and it is economically self-sufficient.
Nakaseke, north of the Ugandan capital of Kampala, was once a town that didn't even have access to local newspapers. Now, a modern telecentre and library complete with textbooks in English and the local language serves not only the local people, but also neighbouring communities. Services offered include computer applications, training, Internet, and e-mail, along with several business services such as photocopying, telephone and fax. Trainees were selected from the community to support the technical aspects of the Centre and in turn, offer training to others. Although the telecentre is for the whole community, particular attention is given to the following user groups: women, youth, children, the media community, workers, teachers, students, farmers, and local leaders. A local steering committee representing each of the core target groups was elected by the community to supervise the telecentre's daily activities, liase with the management committee and mobilise the community. The Telecentre has revitalised rural community life and training in computer services at the telecentre has led to the growth of a number of core group skilled people within the local community.
Kgautswane is a deep-rural village in South Africa with no electricity and prior to the project, with no telephone access. The community in Kgautswane already had a Community Building Programme and understood that not having access to new technologies was marginalising the people who live there. For this reason, they asked for assistance in creating an Information Centre with PCs and access to Internet. The project was funded by the World Bank to provide access to computer equipment, business-related equipment and services. The equipment consisted of an IBM server, three workstations, 2 small un-interuptable power supplies, modem, printer/scanner and a large custom designed desk. A generator provides power for up to 18 hours a day. The Centre is still waiting for a telephone line, which can carry a modem or fax service). The project shows how high tech equipment can be effectively used in a deep-rural setting and how a community can accept high tech solutions and integrate them into their own lifestyle. The results have shown an increase in computer literacy and ability in training others. There is now a demand for more PCs for the centre. Once the telecom line is installed, users will be able to register for and complete tertiary-level studies via the Internet, use the African Digital Library and other free research resources made available via the Africa Education.org web site.
TARAhaat.com (www.tarahaat.com/about.htm) is a project whose goal it is to bring Information and Marketing Services using e-business to rural India. Under the Development Alternatives Group, TARAhaat acts as a social enterprise to promote effective e-commerce through access, content, and fulfilment. TARAhaat provides access to a variety of information resources (health, nutrition, agriculture, sustainable livelihoods, market prices, etc.) and to a wide-range of market-based opportunities in the local language and in an incredibly user-friendly format (also accessible for low-literates). Users are able to buy seeds, machinery, spare parts, and even household items. TARAhaat puts a special focus on responding to the people's needs, making the network highly participatory and responsive. TARAhaat is definitely worth a visit.
InfoDes is a pilot project under the Intermedia Technology Development Group (ITDG) of the World Bank. It aim is to promote local and rural development by means of effective systems of information and communication. The goal is to contribute to the sub-regional development of Cajamarca by increasing the production levels of small farmers and the management skills of local governments, through the provision of information and communication tools. The project has designed and established a sub-regional information system that integrates conventional local libraries, research on local knowledge and the use of modern information technologies. It is also testing a methodology that can be adapted to other rural areas of Peru and Latin America. The Information System is an integrated approach that includes various levels of contact with the local population and the availability of many services. Rather than spreading computers and access to rural areas formerly deprived of these gadgets, and with no conceptual framework to support them, InfoDes has opted for incorporating existing resources, facilitating networking among local institutions and expanding the information services on the basis of user demand and community participation.
Market watch is a multi-media price information and analysis service produced and delivered by the Gobi Regional Economic Growth Initiative, a five-year rural development program funded by USAID. Market Watch tracks price information for more than 30 commodities in seven Gobi and two Ulaanbaatar markets on twice-weekly, monthly, and quarterly bases. Delivered via Gobi Business News' national and regional radio, print and Internet media, Market Watch is incredibly popular among herders and valued highly among traders, cashmere and wool processing companies, banks, and other financial institutions. Radio has proven to be a way to reach almost all-remote users since radio is widely diffused in this region. In addition to Market Watch, Gobi business news Radio includes Weather Watch, Policy Watch, and Animal husbandry management segments. These services allow rural communities to make informed (livelihood) decisions with timely and accurate data. www.gbn.mn.
Cyberpop is composed of Community Resource Centres in eight underprivileged and poor districts in Dakar and was born out of a partnership with IDRC and ENDA. Cyberpop's main goal is to create the social and technical conditions to direct appropriate technologies to the community. The Centres are locally run by young managers from Community Based Organizations who act as an intermediaries between illiterate people and ICTs (www.enda.sn\cyberpop). This pilot project will, in collaboration with community organisations in Senegal, undertake participatory action research on the use and appropriation of ICTs. The Community Resource Centres facilitate ICT training, support knowledge exchange between the different Centres, and intend to effectively involve the community by mobilising local knowledge and skills.
Generating work, particularly for women, is a big issue in developing countries. Providing a second income for the family and taking care of children is a great dilemma for many women. Aware of this pressing problem, Maria del Carmen Vucetich and her husband created Tortas Peru - www.tortasperu.com.pe. Homemade cakes are offered for delivery in major cities in Peru and customers can order a cake from a catalogue and pay by credit card, cheque, money order or bank transfer. Orders are sent by e-mail and depending on where the cake is to be delivered, To maintain low prices, the company is Internet-based and it is necessary for women-members to be familiar with computers and Internet. The company has an innovative national network of more than one thousand computer booths where Internet access is cheaper than a phone call. Thus, prior to taking part in the network, the women participate in a course designed to give them the basic knowledge of Marketing, preparation of the cakes and Internet use as well as other e-commerce skills. This e-commerce model is relatively straightforward, inexpensive and generates income for women allowing them to feel empowered by actively participating in the economic development of their community.
The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (www.mssrf.org) has set up village centres for six villages in Pondicherry, South India. The objective of these centres is to enable rural families to access modern information and communication technologies in order to train and educate youth and women. They aim to build a model in information dissemination and exchange in rural areas that uses advanced information and communication technologies and generate locally relevant information. To be of use to farm households, the generic information found in the networks, particularly the Internet, needs to be rendered into locally specific. The village centres receive queries from local residents and then (re)transmit information collected from the hub.
Two important components of these centres are the sense of ownership by the communities using them and the active participation of rural women in the management of the centres. A system of close consultation between the project staff and the rural users has evolved so that information needs are realistically assessed.
CMCM is a non-profit organisation whose web site is hosted by the Sustainable Development Networking Programme, which also provides technical support: www.sdnp.undp.org. The Centre's activities are determined by indigenous women who participate and co-ordinate through a directive committee. The functions of the Centre are primarily to unite and communicate, develop skills in communications technology to enable them to 'ameliorate' the way they are perceived, viewed in the world and in the local media. Video and photography are often the tools used for research reflection and organisation. Using the (Internet) services offered by the Centre, Mayan women living in isolated communities have the opportunity to sell their products by accessing alternative markets thus keeping their traditional crafts and artwork alive. www.rds.org.gt/cmcm/coop2n.html.
NairoBits (www.nairobits.org) is a locally developed ICT initiative that teaches young Africans from slum areas the technical and creative skills of web design enabling them to express themselves through the Internet. NairoBits was founded to realise cultural projects that would create channels of communication between Africa and the rest of the world. The programme was initiated by two Dutch web designers who started developing a computer course that would give young Africans a voice on the Internet. Instead of having to consume information, these young people would be taught how to create their own. The initiators realised that the Internet can provide relatively cheap means of worldwide expression to people in the developing world with little access to the more traditional media. For this purpose, a one-year curriculum was designed in which participants learn to become Webmasters. The idea is that once they have been trained, they then go on and train their peers. As a result of the initial phase: 20 young enthusiastic new web designers capable of training others, an exhibition of their creative efforts in the National Museum of Kenya, a virtual dialogue with computer students from other countries, and a website for the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA).
The training given to the young people of Mathare has had a positive impact on the community. Aside from the participants, their family, friends and co-members of MYSA have become acquainted with computers and the Internet. Some of the youth will be able to become stand alone web designers by the end of one year. Definitely worth a browse!
The Street Children's Project in the Esmeraldas is using the Internet as a tool for life to create links between street children (www.chasquinet.org/ninosdelacalle/e-proyecto.html). They share common struggles, including those related to prostitution, theft, drugs, and the daily battle to stay alive in the midst of crime. The Street Children Telecentre project in Ecuador and Colombia is thus exploring ways the Internet can be used to exchange knowledge and experiences in order to help street children solve their problems and create opportunities for a better life. The project has established a street children portal and an initial network. The aim is to expand this network throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The primary goal is to provide computer skills and Internet tools to street children and introduce alternative skills and lifestyles to support them in the search for better opportunities. The Telecentres offer street children access to well-structured learning and guidance, as well as provide a minimum of education and training. This program can open doors not only to information, skills, and jobs but more importantly provide street children with a measure of self-confidence and better opportunities. In addition, the project has created a sense of solidarity as street children share their experiences.
Virtual Souk is a financially stable, decentralised and locally controlled e-commerce operation (www.elsouk.com) which has been implementing activities on awareness raising, capacity building, network strengthening, and the expanding the use of the new ICTs. Artisans in the Middle East and North Africa Region have always crafted high quality products using traditional techniques and ancestral know-how. However, the shrinking of local markets, the great distances to more lucrative national and international markets, limited access to information and technical skills, financial services and a tight control of the commercial chain by the tourist-oriented intermediaries, has threatened the livelihoods of small artisans. In many cases, the artisans who produce the most authentic and fine crafts are those with the least access to markets, and also the poorest. The Virtual Souk aims to bring the artisans crafts onto the market, without standardising their techniques, and provide them with a return in profits without too much inter-mediation, and thus improving their income.
The Chapter 2 Network is a member-based clearinghouse of information and communication for social justice. It provides support to civil society organisations involved in advocacy in South Africa. They use the network to actively share skills, experiences and collectively engage in advocacy activities.
The network uses ICTs, integrated with more conventional media, to gather and disseminate information about advocacy campaigns, train in advocacy and lobbying, undertake research on political intelligence, perform policy analysis and legislation monitoring, as well as to network and interact with other civil society organisations who are engaged in social justice advocacy.
Grameen Phone is a commercial operation providing cellular services in both urban and rural areas of Bangladesh, with approximately 40,000 customers. In rural areas where isolation and poor infrastructure services are the norm, telecommunications can play an extremely important role in enhancing rural social and economic development. The Programme is enabling women members of the Grameen Bank's revolving credit system to retail cellular phone services in rural areas. This pilot project currently involves 950 village phones providing telephone access to more than 65,000 people.
Village women access micro-credit to acquire digital GMS cellular phones and subsequently re-sell phone calls and phone services within their villages. The Village Phone programme also provides an opportunity to review innovative strategies for incorporating targeted, micro-level PSD in the telecom sector within project design. The Village Phone is a communication tool that provides real and substantial financial, travel and productive-time savings for rural villagers. The consumer surplus gained through phone use demonstrates that the Village Phone is clearly a cost-effective tool for enabling rural people to take active roles in productive activities and life outside the village. Consumer surplus is a measure of how much a phone user gains by using a telephone rather than an alternative means of communication. In rural Bangladesh, the most common form of alternative communication is personal travel, and the costs associated with personal travel include transportation costs and the opportunity costs associated with being absent from normal village labour activities. The villagers use the phone also to keep in touch with family members who are working overseas to facilitate the flow of income of wealth between overseas workers or workers in urban centres such as Dhaka.
ASAFE (Association pour le Soutien et l'Appui à la Femme Entrepreneur) was created in 1989 and has a strategic alliance with Networked Intelligence for Development (NID). The organisation is based in Douala, Cameroon and offers women entrepreneurs who live and trade in Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Guinea and Benin various business services and support for their businesses. It has focused its attention on the needs of women entrepreneurs, through awareness raising, counselling, and the provision of specific business training programmes. Over the last few years, ASAFE has been consistently applying new ICTs to all its functions and activities. The organisation is a one-stop information area accessible to the public for general inquiries and information, a "cyber-hub" with its own web site, access to 30 computers and training rooms. ASAFE focuses on assimilating and adapting technology to meet the community's needs and give women ownership of both content and methodology. In turn, successful technology transfer is achieved through capacity building, needs identification, ongoing community evaluation, monitoring and control, local decision making and strengthening of social capital. By offering e-commerce to women entrepreneurs and technology training, the users have saved time and money in selling their products, invoicing, and inventories and communicating with suppliers and customers. Women have benefited from having reduced service and administrative costs, better service quality (marketing, sales, support and procurement process), increased revenue by being able to reach a wider market share and get business transactions done faster. www.networkedintelligence.com
The Kothmale Internet Community Radio offers ordinary people a gateway to the global knowledge society. It combines local radio by local people in local languages with information and communication technology (ICT) applications in a wide range of social, economic and cultural areas. Using community radio as an interface between the community and the Internet helps raise awareness about the Internet among those who do not have access to computers and connectivity.
The Kothmale community radio is an efficient way to promote active and continuous community participation within small target areas. The Kothmale Radio browsing programme and the Internet access facility have demonstrated the potential for overcoming language barriers to accessing information available on the Internet. Moreover, being a participatory radio programme, radio browsing of the Internet has taken into account the desires of rural communities to assimilate knowledge collectively, in contrast to the prevailing mode of individual access to the Internet. This ensures that ICTs are genuinely enabling technologies for all members of the community. The Centre has a full range of multimedia facilities, plus a computer for Internet browsing, email and office, library and learning applications. The Project also has a web site www.kothmale.net to develop a database with useful information for the rural community, provide a portal for the community broadcaster, and give a means of expression for the community to reach out the cyber community through web publishing.
Gyandoot is a unique form of Government to Citizen (G2C) e-commerce activity being performed in Central India wherein the local elected governing council is enabling over half a million rural tribal citizens affordable access to various government and market related needs using state-of-the-art Information Technology. Gyandoot is an Intranet that is community-based, cost-effective, and financially self-reliant. The people have full control of running, developing and supporting the network on a sustainable basis. They also take charge of their own knowledge and transfer of technology needs. By using the information kiosks and the Internet service: www.gyandoot.net , rural villagers are able to check market prices for various commodities, send applications for income verification, caste and domicile certificates, as well as requests for land demarcation and details on loans taken. The villagers are willing to spend 5 Rupees (10 cents) to use the services of the Information kiosks because it allows them to get reliable market information, which can save them hundreds of Rupees.
Healthinfo-Ethiopia is an institution that promotes ICT among health professionals as well as acquires and disseminate health-related information about Ethiopia/Africa to Ethiopians/Africans in the continent and the Diaspora. It organises annual ICT conferences for health professionals which is increasing the number of healthnet members - a global communication network for health professionals connected to healthnet in Ethiopia increased by 60% in just 6 months, and it is bringing more and more health professionals in Ethiopia access to information on the Internet. The 'Ethiohealth' discussion forum www.ethiohealth.listbot.com aims at fighting HIV/AIDS and improving health care in the country by creating a forum for Ethiopian health professionals to get involved in health related activities and a network of professional health practitioners. The contents of this discussion group are becoming resources for the local print media leading to convergence of ICT and print media in the country. Healthinfo-Ethiopia is paving the way for collaboration of health professionals in the Diaspora and health societies in Ethiopia. It has enabled the establishment of a robust International Scientific Advisory Board for the Journal of Ethiopian Medical Practice (JEMP) using ICTs. A database now exists and it is an effective method for continuing medical education as well as providing wider access to evidence based medicine for health workers in the country.
Villageleap.com is a site set up in Robib, an isolated farming village in the northern hinterland of Cambodia that offers Internet access to the community. A satellite dish and a set of solar panels have connected the village schoolhouse to the Internet. A site was designed and an e-commerce experiment is underway in which village women are able to sell their traditional silk-woven scarves to customers all over the world through the village web site - www.villageleap.com. The profits from selling the scarves have been put into a village pig farm and the farm has generated new employment (and other spin-off industries), higher wages and increased sustainability to the families living in Robib. The village chief Mit Mien says, "I don't really know what the Internet is or how it works, but it is changing our lives." The children at the school are taught the basics of how to send e-mail, browse the net and make friends with children in other cities.
AKASHGANGA (meaning 'The Milky Way') is an MSDOS based computer system, which offers an information-kiosk service. The service also offers the Dairy Information Services Kiosk, which offers a multitude of animal husbandry related services, besides maintaining databases and offering Internet connectivity to the Dairy Cooperative Society.
The Dairy Cooperative Society is a farmer-owned, grass-roots level unit in the co-operative structure. All the farmers (members) of the DCS congregate twice a day at its premises to sell milk. Before AKASHGANGA, all the milk collection activities were performed manually and due to the climatic conditions, milk would often get spoiled, as producers had to wait in long queues. The simple technology used in this product has enabled the timely collection of milk and thus, generated higher profits for the producer. A basic milk collection transaction done by AKASHGANGA comprises of measuring the weight of milk with an Electronic Weighing Scale, using a Milk Tester for fat testing, member database and providing a printed pay slip with all the necessary data and amount to be paid. AKASHGANGA has been implemented at more than 400 locations. At each location, it is being used 365 days a year, and for more than 6 hours in a day. The members of the DCS are so attuned and dependent on this system, that it can be compared to any online heavy-traffic application. With so many farmers dependent on dairying as a supplementary livelihood, the money earned goes a long way in sustaining their livelihoods and their families.
The Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme is a portal that uses ICTs to help build social networks and contribute towards progressive, social change - www.gn.apc.org/apcwoment/about/index.html. The network consists of women from more than 20 countries all working in the field of gender and ICTs. Through training, organisational support and participatory research, policy and advocacy in gender and information technology, the network aims to respond to the inequities for women, especially those in developing countries. The network promotes gender equity in the design, implementation and use of information and communication technologies, initiates and implements research activities in the field of gender and ICT, advances knowledge, understanding and skills in the field of gender and ICTs, and facilitates access to information resources in the field of gender and ICTs.
The Sapphire AIDS Victims Fund uses the Internet to sell local handicrafts in order to get money and help women who have AIDS. The funds are then used to support AIDS children and orphans. Its main mission is to ease the suffering of children orphaned by AIDS. The organisation tries to not only meet their physical needs like clothing and food, but also their emotional and psychological needs.
The Sapphire Women engage in traditional basket making, a tradition that has been handed down through generations and then sell the products on-line through PeopLink (USA), a non-profit organisation helping producers in remote communities all over the world to market their products on the Internet. PeopLink is also building a global network of Trading Partners (TPs) that in turn provide services to several community-based artisan producer groups. PeopLink equips the TPs with digital cameras and trains them to capture images and edit them in a compressed format suitable for transmission via the Internet. They then place images of the crafts and promote them to retail and wholesale buyers in the industrialised countries.
www.peoplink.org/sapphire/.
1The Global Knowledge Partnership draws the vision and experience of its members into to the global dialogue on 'bridging the digital divide' by undertaking the consultative process outlined in the Okinawa Charter (2000), to:
"Actively
facilitate discussions with developing countries, international organisations and other stakeholders to promote international co-operation with a view to fostering policy, regulatory and network readiness; improving connectivity, increasing access and lowering cost; building human capacity; and encouraging participation in global e-commerce networks"
For more information regarding GKP/ DOTforce Consultations see the following press release: www.globalknowledge.org/pressdotforce.html
2At the year 2000 G8 Summit in Kyushu-Okinawa the Charter on Global Information Society was adopted. The G8 Leaders agreed to establish a Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT force) aimed at integrating efforts to bridge the digital divide into a broader international approach.
3Local appropriation in the sense of ICTs as tools of information exchange and socio-human communication that are adopted and adapted by local people (individuals, social groups and communities) to meet their specific information and communication needs, and thus to express, share, gather, collect, disseminate, accumulate, distribute and analyse information and knowledge.
4"A community telecentre is defined as a multipurpose centre, providing IT and telecommunications facilities, user support and training for members of a (usually remote and isolated) community who cannot afford such facilities on an individual basis and/or do not have the skills to use such tools. " (Ernberg, 1998:191)
5ICTs can be defined as a range of electronic technologies which when converged in new configurations are flexible, adaptable, enabling and capable of transforming organisations and redefining social relations. ICTs combine technical, functional, organisational and human characteristics that influence communication processes and information content. ICTs can include the Internet, e-mail, PCs, PDAs, mobile phones, digital cameras, networks, databases, portals and software.
6ICT skills enable people not only to be users but also "brokers" in helping communities to appropriate ICTs to their own needs.
7"The issue of space has always been central for women and is highly sensitive, particularly in Africa…The freedom to have access to spaces other than the bedroom and the kitchen and to fully and safely be able to act in other public spaces is key to women's full participation in the world's future. Unless (African) women can participate fully in cyberspace, they will face a new form of exclusion from society." (Marie-Hélène Mottin Sylla of the Synergy, Gender and Development Programme of the NGO ENDA Tiers Monde in Senegal.)
8It is nevertheless important to bear in mind that: "ICTs are not a solution in themselves: they offer the means for communities to identify and implement their own solutions leading to their own goals in the field of human, social, cultural and economic development. It is therefore important to expand the concept of access from the right to receive information to include the notion of greater access to the means of content production. Governments and development partners can and should be supportive of this process, but the driving force is to be found within the communities themselves" (Integrating modern and traditional information and communication technologies for community development, UNESCO Seminar Report, January 22-27, 2001, Kothmale, Sri Lanka)
9e-commerce has no single definition but it includes "… commercial activity that is somehow linked or supported by electronic communications. It may be anything from a simple advertising presentation available on the World Wide Web, or an e-mail communication; all the way to an entire multi-million dollar transaction initiated and promulgated in electronic form up; to and in some cases including the actual delivery via the net of information intensive goods or services" (Gurstein, E-commerce and community economic development: Enemy or ally?, 2000 www.fao.org/sd/CDdirect/CDre0055i.htm). For an introduction to the concepts and terminology of e-commerce see for example Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective, by E. Turban et al.; Prentice-Hall, 2000.
10www.devmedia.org/documents/Wshop%2Ehtm
11"A community telecentre is defined as a multipurpose centre, providing IT and telecommunications facilities, user support and training for members of a (usually remote and isolated) community who cannot afford such facilities on an individual basis and/or do not have the skills to use such tools." (Ernberg 1998:191)
12See also the recommendations from the satellite workshop on The role of ICTs in rural development and food security, as part of FAO's First Consultation on Agricultural Information (5-7 June 2000, FAO, Rome) www.fao.org/coaim/ictws/docs/draft.doc
13These categories draw from the virtual community Mística (www.funredes.org) and Acceso's research on the social impact of the Internet.
14The Internet "…must be integrated within human contexts and seen as a 'communication process tool, not simply a static 'information technology' or 'uni-directional broadcast medium'. Otherwise, Internet tools will be relegated to the junk heaps of inappropriate development technologies or dismissed because of previous failures to make the medium locally relevant and useful." (Richardson 1998: 179)
15"…only when the Internet and other new ICTs are combined with traditional community radio, can all members of a community - irrespective of languages spoken or level of training - be fully included in the process of accessing, identifying, producing and exchanging information relevant to their needs." (Integrating modern and traditional information and communication technologies for community development, UNESCO Seminar Report, January 22-27, 2001, Kothmale, Sri Lanka)
16For a list of guiding questions for impact assessment/evaluation of ICT initiatives and projects in remote rural areas in developing countries, see the following articles: "Empowering communities in the information society: an international perspective" by Johan Ernberg (1998:199-201) from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and, "Connecting with the unconnected: proposing an evaluation of the impacts of the Internet on unconnected rural stakeholders" by Scott McConnell (1998:255-258) both published in The first mile of connectivity. Advancing telecommunications for rural development through a participatory communication approach, FAO, Rome 1998. See also the ITU evaluation study of the Suriname MCT pilot projects in Brownsberg and Gujaba (www.itu.int/ITU-D-UniversalAccess/johan/papers/guelph.htm
17"Research on impacts cannot only focus on user and local applications, but also focus on people who do not participate directly in local Internet initiatives…and suggest mechanisms for enabling them to benefit directly or indirectly from these initiatives." (Richardson 1996:24)
18The following summaries were prepared by Michael Pizzari.
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