This is another good example in Kenya; http://technology.cgap.org/2009/09/08/understanding-what-drives-profits…

[quote="jennifer"] Hello, Practitioners generally acknowledge that there is a danger in a "one size fits all" approach to development. An understanding of local realities, cultures and conditions enables development projects to flourish and benefit communities and implementers. This question seeks to hear and discuss experiences that worked and those that did not work where women were empowered to use ICTs in agricultural production and to improve their status in communities. Jennifer Forum Moderator [/quote] Thanks to all for the insightful postings on the topics. Women's participation at all levels is a prerequisite for social, economic, cultural development and social integration. Most of the cases the traditional values and have prevented women's participation in decision-making at community and household levels. This excludes them from decision-making structures and in some cases dalit ( untouchable) women experience double discrimination. Further, no economic value is attached to women's daily activities such as child bearing, nurturing and agricultural work. Health wise, women suffer more and are more vulnerable, for example, maternal mortality is a great threat.. Culturally they have been tuned to bear with any physical and social hardships silently and violently. Many women are victims of hostile social customs, systems and traditions. Therefore before and while developing any initiatives like ICT 4D project, we have to consider the above issues as most of the posting has already recommended. Especially we have to give greater emphasis on inclusive and integrative development. In my opinion, there should be clear linkages between ICT initiative and gender balanced Economic empowerment activities in the community

Lisa and Jennifer, I have missed the yesterday discussions. Your 2nd question is most important element for the successful operation of ICT4D initiatives at local level. As it was already indicated above, most important thing is about the social culture barrier which is one of the critical entry barriers for such initiatives at rural settings. Therefore we need to develop holistic approach/ participation at community level where we can develop confident level of women participation. Other important factors is local content, with out appropriate and Users' friendly content of the ICT initiatives would not be successful especially when we are targeting more women participations. Control over the resources also play major role in to ownership. In this context before developing such project we need to develop clear business model and what is the level of earning that directly shares with the women? . Another important factor is capacity building - How much we invest to local build capacity with especial target?. Finally economic mapping is another important factor like which sector is most viable for women that ICT4D initiative be integrated. With best regards, Ekanath

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Dear Participants, please tell us a bit about yourselves here. [/quote] Hi Lisa and Team, I am sorry this time ,I could not participate for this very important discussion due to my holidays and inaccessibilities. I found the discussions very interesting. I am going through the discussions. If there is any practical issues that I would like to bring in to the groups, I will definitely provide my inputs on your draft reports. ICT is one of the important services in agriculture value chains . Generally access to information and access to markets are largely identified value chain constraints where ICT can play important role . ICT can play important role on empowerment basically rulral agriculture based SMEs can benefits form ICT innovations. One of the challenges is to integrate the ICT with in on going Value chain development and ICT user-friendly content should be designed as per the need of rural agriculture based SMEs. With best regards, Ekanath Khatiwada Private Sector Development Advisor SNV, Zambia

Here are my some collected inputs: Establishment of wider network; communication networks needs to be supported amongst actors in the market chain (farmers, transporters, buyers, traders, etc), in order to ensure more equitable, timely, and collaborative access to markets for smallholders Farming/Production: • More investment is needed to develop technical infrastructure and skilled human resources for farmers and make it available in local content /language . • Technical information systems in agriculture need to incorporate local knowledge through the local capacity building, the system need to be integrated into regional and international systems and maintain links to policy-makers for effective policy feed back. Research & Innovation"; in PPP model a group of Researchers and extensionists are required to improve the system and continued to interact and share knowledge more effectively using the new digital technologies. Financial sustainability must be built into PPP model

Thanks for your excellent moderation and quick responses during week1 discussion. Now I would like to draw the following two issues: a) There are various e -governance initiatives are taking place. Definitely the agriculture sector is one of the most important sector in governance priority .In my opinion it would be good to link this PPP model for e agriculture in to e- governance initiatives . b) If we see the PPP-e agriculture model for value chain perspectives, it will be more complicated. From production to end consumers' level, there are various functions and players in the chain. It will be difficult to accommodate all the players in a standard PPP e-agriculture model. Basically selecting the most commercial viable business services is important factor for successful business model. The viable PPP model for e agriculture depends on selection of services. Therefore I would suggest putting forward this question as well. There is some example in Nepal as well such as B2B Ecommerce services in Nepal (www.b2b.com.np). As per the web page it is called Nepali e-Haat Bazaar, is the National Business to Business (B2B) e-Commerce Market Place as a single electronic gateway to promote the market linkages within the country and with the international markets. The B2B e-Commerce web site is implemented with the objective of using ICTs to reduce poverty in the country. This is a joint initiation of Rural Urban Partnership Programme (MLD/UNDP) and High Level Commission for Information Technology and Agro Enterprise Center/Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce & Industries We can take it as good example of PPP model. But still we have to look its operational and sustainability issues carefully. Ekanath

Thanks for your excellent moderation and quick responses during week1 discussion. Now I would like to draw the following two issues: a) There are various e -governance initiatives are taking place. Definitely the agriculture sector is one of the most important sector in governance priority .In my opinion it would be good to link this PPP model for e agriculture in to e- governance initiatives . b) If we see the PPP-e agriculture model for value chain perspectives, it will be more complicated. From production to end consumers' level, there are various functions and players in the chain. It will be difficult to accommodate all the players in a standard PPP e-agriculture model. Basically selecting the most commercial viable business services is important factor for successful business model. The viable PPP model for e agriculture depends on selection of services. Therefore I would suggest putting forward this question as well. There is some example in Nepal as well such as B2B Ecommerce services in Nepal (www.b2b.com.np). As per the web page it is called Nepali e-Haat Bazaar, is the National Business to Business (B2B) e-Commerce Market Place as a single electronic gateway to promote the market linkages within the country and with the international markets. The B2B e-Commerce web site is implemented with the objective of using ICTs to reduce poverty in the country. This is a joint initiation of Rural Urban Partnership Programme (MLD/UNDP) and High Level Commission for Information Technology and Agro Enterprise Center/Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce & Industries We can take it as good example of PPP model. But still we have to look its operational and sustainability issues carefully. Ekanath

Another issue is agriculture data management. There are various links for agriculture data and information. How the make some standard and more authentic information data .There should be a clear links from central data bank to national e-information system and community e-agriculture centers. To make the system effective, all related sectors and stakeholders (researchers, community, and local /extension practitioner and data manager) should participate equally. Some time the flow of up ground level best practices will make very important contribution. In this context, the two way information flow needs to be ensured. Yes there is a need of regular interaction among all the stakeholders