I just would like to focus on this again... ICTs, technological innovations, community media are great but they need to be used in a process where participatory approaches and the people themselves play the main role. In particular in a comdev perspective, they are not the aim but a powerful means to achieve development objectives, including empowering people, with a special accent on the most "vulnerable" sectors.
Christiane good point empowerment is one of the key factors, all need to be aware of and respect the traditions and cultures of each community that ICTs can help the development of each community, but new needs of the modern world are not imposed on i infer intrinsic decisions of each community.
Hi Christiane, I really like your strong point on People - and not Technologies - being at the centre of everything. Indeed, ICT tools remain a mean towards higher development actions and achievements. This said, one may consider how much ICTs and communications processes (- among which Social media and interactions -) give to People a "Power" to take action , to be connected, to be heard, to interact...and ultimately to participate and work together.
Most importantly, and we observe it amoung young people: ICTs has a way to expand one's creativity and concrete initiatives by young people - individualy but also collectively (as a group). I see in this, a way for young people to be more motivated to take an active role in family farming. The Young generation's implication per se thus contribute to lasting family farming, but also to more innovative and creative family farming practices for viable solutions.
Last but not the least, not only ICTs enable family farmers to get useful information for their daily work, but also it helps them to get involved in broader discussions and decisions making processes: be them on national, regional and global issues that do impact their activities (climate change, economic regulations etc). Farmers are thus able to voice and contribute in tackling their very practical day-to-day challenges - notably with better linkages with research - but also to contribute in shaping those dynamics driven and regulated by broader political, economic, societal and environmental frameworks. ICTs support Family farmers in their activity by enabling them to get involved into the micro and the macro level in which their acitivites falls into ( - in the extent that farmers are aware about the impact global decisions have on their life) .
Hello everyone.
very true from my point of view what we share christiane dimitra, ICTs must be seen as a means not an end to achieve progress towards integrated development of personas.a the time these people take ownership of the technology.
Thank you for all your contributions so far. It would be nice to read about some experiences about the role of community media in supporting family farmers' activities alongside the "newer" technologies! And maybe we will also find out how the community media themselves benefit from ICTs...
Simon WandilaSouthern Africa Telecentre Network / YPARDZambia
It is very interesting to note and reflect on Christiane's point; "community media are great but they need to be used in a process where participatory approaches and the people themselves play the main role." Many youths easily adopt ICTs with less challenges, access more ICT tools such as mobile phones and radio, and frequent public access centres, as compared to other groups of population in communities. On the other hand, especially in rural areas where levels of literacy are low, the youth are usually adopters and intermediaries of a different range of information; they acquire, disseminate and help the rest of th community understand information. A simple level of education such as Junior Secondary, with just basic reading and writing skills in the local language and an initial level of understanding of the official language, qualifies the youth to be intermediaries in their communities.
When a participatory approach is in place in whatever model, requiring for instance the formation of learning groups/ clubs, the energetic and enthusiastic youths are usually in the fore front to pick up roles and actively participate in the activities of such groups. They are eager to lend their time and volunteer in their spirit to learn and seek leadership roles and experience. Care consideration and motivation coupled with an inclusive approach, even motivates the youth to participate more.
There are various factors behind the active role of the youth, such as identifying and understanding as well as strengthen their source of motivation. For instance, when the youth receive training to build their capacity in content generation, say, training a group of youths in video production at a telecentre so that they can work with the agriculture extension officers and other stakeholders in recording participatory groups in the community, the sense of empowerment, leadership and identity in the community, is in itself a motivating factor.
In addition to this, the generation of content which suits their style and generation, such as combining learning with entertainment increases the chances of the youth to adopt content and participate in its generation and improvement. Meanwhile, youths in communities do not work in isolation, they are part of bigger families and influencial when it comes to information intermediary. Therefore, as they consume information they share it with families to improve their farming activities and other cross cutting issues such as health. I recall these points I grasped from discussions with various young Volunteers at Sikwane and other Nteletsa Telecentres in Botswana, on 2011, how they got motivated to volunteer at community telecentres and in the generation of content, and whether their families supported this, and if so what benefit, their families expected to get from their children's involvement in community service.
Lately, there has been increasing interest in empowering the poor through the provision of information technology and communication (ICT) inexpensive. This requires policies and regulatory frameworks for the poor to generate an environment conducive to the development of adequate and affordable ICT infrastructure in unserved areas; phased implementation of such initiatives to provide services accessible and affordable to the poor in general; sustainability of projects through adequate financing, ownership and commitment; the allocation of sufficient human resources to keep them; and providing relevant content, useful for the poor to improve their income and quality of life. This study provides an overview of the emerging opportunities and challenges that arise in implementing innovative technological options in community projects, particularly the poor, marginalized and underserved communities.
Equitable access is achieved rarely initiated by a single institution or ministry, nor can be considered the exclusive domain of utilities, or large private telecommunications operators - the effort required to reach markets unattractive (usually the most remote and poor areas) is too large in most cases, and the financial return is insufficient for traditional telecommunications service providers. This makes an approach on behalf of the poor in order to reach the most disadvantaged sectors of developing societies needed. You can find a more detailed needs of this type of approach in the module on policies and regulations of this analysis toolkit.
Implement projects for ICT access in poor and marginalized communities face several challenges involved: lack of access to ICT infrastructure; lack of energy sources to operate ICT equipment; lack of capacity and human resources to develop, install and maintain technologies; lack of access to financing for projects; lack of public awareness of the benefits of access to ICTs; through the local bureaucracy; and little political and regulatory enabling environment. In addition, gender inequalities are generally evident in ICT access, requiring specific interventions to address this problem.
ICT refers to a wide range of old, new and emerging technologies including radio, television, voice and data landline and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and lately, the rapid development of new technologies and emerging mobile telephony as well as a number of wireless technologies. The latest developments in ICT and the possibilities arising from the combination of technologies like Internet and mobile technology have jeopardized the traditional ("old") media, which resulted in a reduction in public consumption. This has led to said means happen to use mobile and internet applications to reach their audience, and allow the public to contribute by sending content, which increases the degree of interaction available to the public.
The choice of technologies can play a central role in defining what are appropriate ICT for the poor. In general, radio remains the most accessible of all technology and community radio have played a key role in the supply of locally relevant information to poor communities.
Moses OwinyWomen of Uganda Network (WOUGNET)Uganda
Rural women farmers are more inclined to actively participate in community media programs when they are involved and hence feel part of the programming or part of such intervention. Using a combination of both traditional and modern ICT tools combined with offline mediums example, face to face interactions and meetings, listening clubs and radio discussions at community levels etc. are crucial towards the success of community media delivering quality and authenticated information to rural women family farmers. The effective use of multi- dimensional information centers with access to farming/agricultural resources, ICTs, and extension advises for farmers are crucial in this aspect. Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) in partnership with Community Radios - especially Radio Apac in Northern Uganda has a very long and sustained experience on how innovative modern and traditional ICT tools combined with offline mediums makes communication effective and beneficial to rural women farmers - with convergence of a multi-dimensional information center serving as a one stop center for ICT initiatives targeting rural family farmers.
Moses, thank you for this input! I was waiting for more discussion on how ICT and other channels for information delivery could be combined to better meet the needs of family farmers. I would like to ask two follow on questions to extend our thoughts about this.
1. What is a "multi-dimensional information center"? Is it something specific or a generic term, and what might it look like?
2. Over the years I have seen a lot of discussion and some very interesting disagreement about the role of information intermediaries (including info centers). Would you explain some of the advantates of having these multi-dimensional information centers as intermediaries?
Moses OwinyWomen of Uganda Network (WOUGNET)Uganda
Thanks Micheal for asking. From my experience and understanding, an information center that is not only restricted to offering a particluar kind of service e.g. training but going beyond to provide various services as well serving as platform for exchanges, sharing of information and knowledge generation would be multi designed. In our case, this center was doing ICT training, it was serving as a resource hub for communities to find useful information, it was well equiped with more than agricultural resources but health, education, and gender for instance. This center furthure provided opportunities where questions and answer - especially on agricultural related issues could be answered on spot whenever farmers would get to the place. It was a good intermedieary in faciliating flow and exchange of information as well as success of the project. In fact, up to now the center is more diversified with resources of all kinds and accessible to anyone within reach.
As for its relevance, this is why i believe no single ICT approach is sufficient in effectively solving agricultural as well as other rural development needs of farmers and hence the need to employ a collaborative approach - using multiple ICT mediums combined with other offline form of interactions.
I just would like to focus on this again... ICTs, technological innovations, community media are great but they need to be used in a process where participatory approaches and the people themselves play the main role. In particular in a comdev perspective, they are not the aim but a powerful means to achieve development objectives, including empowering people, with a special accent on the most "vulnerable" sectors.
Christiane good point empowerment is one of the key factors, all need to be aware of and respect the traditions and cultures of each community that ICTs can help the development of each community, but new needs of the modern world are not imposed on i infer intrinsic decisions of each community.
Hi Christiane, I really like your strong point on People - and not Technologies - being at the centre of everything. Indeed, ICT tools remain a mean towards higher development actions and achievements. This said, one may consider how much ICTs and communications processes (- among which Social media and interactions -) give to People a "Power" to take action , to be connected, to be heard, to interact...and ultimately to participate and work together.
Most importantly, and we observe it amoung young people: ICTs has a way to expand one's creativity and concrete initiatives by young people - individualy but also collectively (as a group). I see in this, a way for young people to be more motivated to take an active role in family farming. The Young generation's implication per se thus contribute to lasting family farming, but also to more innovative and creative family farming practices for viable solutions.
Last but not the least, not only ICTs enable family farmers to get useful information for their daily work, but also it helps them to get involved in broader discussions and decisions making processes: be them on national, regional and global issues that do impact their activities (climate change, economic regulations etc). Farmers are thus able to voice and contribute in tackling their very practical day-to-day challenges - notably with better linkages with research - but also to contribute in shaping those dynamics driven and regulated by broader political, economic, societal and environmental frameworks. ICTs support Family farmers in their activity by enabling them to get involved into the micro and the macro level in which their acitivites falls into ( - in the extent that farmers are aware about the impact global decisions have on their life) .
Hello everyone.
very true from my point of view what we share christiane dimitra, ICTs must be seen as a means not an end to achieve progress towards integrated development of personas.a the time these people take ownership of the technology.
Thank you for all your contributions so far. It would be nice to read about some experiences about the role of community media in supporting family farmers' activities alongside the "newer" technologies! And maybe we will also find out how the community media themselves benefit from ICTs...
It is very interesting to note and reflect on Christiane's point; "community media are great but they need to be used in a process where participatory approaches and the people themselves play the main role." Many youths easily adopt ICTs with less challenges, access more ICT tools such as mobile phones and radio, and frequent public access centres, as compared to other groups of population in communities. On the other hand, especially in rural areas where levels of literacy are low, the youth are usually adopters and intermediaries of a different range of information; they acquire, disseminate and help the rest of th community understand information. A simple level of education such as Junior Secondary, with just basic reading and writing skills in the local language and an initial level of understanding of the official language, qualifies the youth to be intermediaries in their communities.
When a participatory approach is in place in whatever model, requiring for instance the formation of learning groups/ clubs, the energetic and enthusiastic youths are usually in the fore front to pick up roles and actively participate in the activities of such groups. They are eager to lend their time and volunteer in their spirit to learn and seek leadership roles and experience. Care consideration and motivation coupled with an inclusive approach, even motivates the youth to participate more.
There are various factors behind the active role of the youth, such as identifying and understanding as well as strengthen their source of motivation. For instance, when the youth receive training to build their capacity in content generation, say, training a group of youths in video production at a telecentre so that they can work with the agriculture extension officers and other stakeholders in recording participatory groups in the community, the sense of empowerment, leadership and identity in the community, is in itself a motivating factor.
In addition to this, the generation of content which suits their style and generation, such as combining learning with entertainment increases the chances of the youth to adopt content and participate in its generation and improvement. Meanwhile, youths in communities do not work in isolation, they are part of bigger families and influencial when it comes to information intermediary. Therefore, as they consume information they share it with families to improve their farming activities and other cross cutting issues such as health. I recall these points I grasped from discussions with various young Volunteers at Sikwane and other Nteletsa Telecentres in Botswana, on 2011, how they got motivated to volunteer at community telecentres and in the generation of content, and whether their families supported this, and if so what benefit, their families expected to get from their children's involvement in community service.
Hello everyone.
Lately, there has been increasing interest in empowering the poor through the provision of information technology and communication (ICT) inexpensive. This requires policies and regulatory frameworks for the poor to generate an environment conducive to the development of adequate and affordable ICT infrastructure in unserved areas; phased implementation of such initiatives to provide services accessible and affordable to the poor in general; sustainability of projects through adequate financing, ownership and commitment; the allocation of sufficient human resources to keep them; and providing relevant content, useful for the poor to improve their income and quality of life. This study provides an overview of the emerging opportunities and challenges that arise in implementing innovative technological options in community projects, particularly the poor, marginalized and underserved communities.
Equitable access is achieved rarely initiated by a single institution or ministry, nor can be considered the exclusive domain of utilities, or large private telecommunications operators - the effort required to reach markets unattractive (usually the most remote and poor areas) is too large in most cases, and the financial return is insufficient for traditional telecommunications service providers. This makes an approach on behalf of the poor in order to reach the most disadvantaged sectors of developing societies needed. You can find a more detailed needs of this type of approach in the module on policies and regulations of this analysis toolkit.
Implement projects for ICT access in poor and marginalized communities face several challenges involved: lack of access to ICT infrastructure; lack of energy sources to operate ICT equipment; lack of capacity and human resources to develop, install and maintain technologies; lack of access to financing for projects; lack of public awareness of the benefits of access to ICTs; through the local bureaucracy; and little political and regulatory enabling environment. In addition, gender inequalities are generally evident in ICT access, requiring specific interventions to address this problem.
ICT refers to a wide range of old, new and emerging technologies including radio, television, voice and data landline and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and lately, the rapid development of new technologies and emerging mobile telephony as well as a number of wireless technologies. The latest developments in ICT and the possibilities arising from the combination of technologies like Internet and mobile technology have jeopardized the traditional ("old") media, which resulted in a reduction in public consumption. This has led to said means happen to use mobile and internet applications to reach their audience, and allow the public to contribute by sending content, which increases the degree of interaction available to the public.
The choice of technologies can play a central role in defining what are appropriate ICT for the poor. In general, radio remains the most accessible of all technology and community radio have played a key role in the supply of locally relevant information to poor communities.
Rural women farmers are more inclined to actively participate in community media programs when they are involved and hence feel part of the programming or part of such intervention. Using a combination of both traditional and modern ICT tools combined with offline mediums example, face to face interactions and meetings, listening clubs and radio discussions at community levels etc. are crucial towards the success of community media delivering quality and authenticated information to rural women family farmers. The effective use of multi- dimensional information centers with access to farming/agricultural resources, ICTs, and extension advises for farmers are crucial in this aspect. Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) in partnership with Community Radios - especially Radio Apac in Northern Uganda has a very long and sustained experience on how innovative modern and traditional ICT tools combined with offline mediums makes communication effective and beneficial to rural women farmers - with convergence of a multi-dimensional information center serving as a one stop center for ICT initiatives targeting rural family farmers.
Moses,
WOUGNET
Moses, thank you for this input! I was waiting for more discussion on how ICT and other channels for information delivery could be combined to better meet the needs of family farmers. I would like to ask two follow on questions to extend our thoughts about this.
1. What is a "multi-dimensional information center"? Is it something specific or a generic term, and what might it look like?
2. Over the years I have seen a lot of discussion and some very interesting disagreement about the role of information intermediaries (including info centers). Would you explain some of the advantates of having these multi-dimensional information centers as intermediaries?
Thank you!
Thanks Micheal for asking. From my experience and understanding, an information center that is not only restricted to offering a particluar kind of service e.g. training but going beyond to provide various services as well serving as platform for exchanges, sharing of information and knowledge generation would be multi designed. In our case, this center was doing ICT training, it was serving as a resource hub for communities to find useful information, it was well equiped with more than agricultural resources but health, education, and gender for instance. This center furthure provided opportunities where questions and answer - especially on agricultural related issues could be answered on spot whenever farmers would get to the place. It was a good intermedieary in faciliating flow and exchange of information as well as success of the project. In fact, up to now the center is more diversified with resources of all kinds and accessible to anyone within reach.
As for its relevance, this is why i believe no single ICT approach is sufficient in effectively solving agricultural as well as other rural development needs of farmers and hence the need to employ a collaborative approach - using multiple ICT mediums combined with other offline form of interactions.