Thanks to all of you for all your great inputs. All that was cited, language, difficulty to access training, lack of awareness, old equipment, long distance to the nearest ICT centres or the belief that ICTs are for men, are indeed the major challenges that people face. . Part of the solution could come from has already been suggested by some of you, that it literacy training and education for all, particularly for women and the girl child. Education is a key. We have found out in Niger and the DRC, that when they use their solar cellular phones, women want to be able to make calls and send texts, so they demand literacy training courses. These requests should be encouraged and fulfilled. Education, together with a higher self-esteem, paves the way to changing the belief that ICTs and progress in general are for men only. Eliane

Hi Maureen and everyone, Sorry for coming in so late in the discussions but I have read all your contributions with the greatest interest. I fully agree with the list of criteria that have been developed by most participants. I would like to add that isolation and the feeling that it is virtually impossible to change one's environment are 2 additional factors that are very prevalent in rural areas and should be changed. I am very interested by Maureen's remark that "the Mobile phones and Community radio are the best ICTs for rural communities in developing countries". In the Dimitra project we have over the last few years worked a lot with rural community listeners clubs and rural community radios. We first found out that women have very little access to radio because it is too costly to own one and to buy batteries. So we distributed solar and crank radios to the listeners clubs (mixed or women or men only). In all the cases the radios are shared and stay in the care of a woman for a week and are then passed on to another family and so on. The women are the presidents of the listeners clubs. Each group meet as they decide for itself what they want to listen to on the radio. The goal is to have enough information on a topic that on can act together. They can call the radio and ask for more explanations or ask for a journalist to come with a resource person. Journalists interview them and broadcast the radio show to the whole region. Of course everything is in national languages. The fact that women, and men, hear themselves on the radio and that the groups have managed to lobby their leaders, to raise awareness on various issues, has largely enhance the women and men self-esteem The social cohesion is greater and conflicts are being discussed. In Niger we have added a fleet of solar powered cellular phones (100 phones for 90 community listeners clubs which have boosted even more the dynamic of traditionally isolated groups. This could be discussed later. No ;ore need for batteries for the radio nor for the cellular phone... Eliane

Greetings from Rome, My name is Eliane Najros and I am working for FAO on gender, information and communication for rural populations, particularly women. I am very involved right now in a programme with rural community radios and community listerners clubs in DRC and Niger. I am very interested in what every body has to share. Eliane http://www.fao.org/dimitra/en/ Eliane Najros Senior Project Manager/DIMITRA, FAO (Italy)