Fighting Rural Poverty: The Role of ICTs

"What can information and communication technologies (ICTs) do for the world’s 900 million extremely poor people who live in rural areas?" The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) posed this question at an auxiliary event during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva in December 2003.

According to the author, "the outcome of the [IFAD] event was a strong agreement that ICT is a possible tool, not a solution. Development is not about technology and it is not about information - it is about economic, social and political empowerment."

IFAD believes that the clear message to emerge was: "process is more important than access, and content is more important than machines".

The purpose of this paper is to provide a synthesis of the panel discussion, as a contribution to the development of an IFAD communication for development strategy. The author provides a brief summary of each of the eleven panel speakers' presentations and goes on to discuss the main outcomes of the discussion including recommendations on future directions and focus in relation to the development of a strategy.

Excerpts from the paper

IFAD posed four specific questions to provide a framework for the discussion:

1. How can we ensure that ICTs are considered a tool and not a solution?
2. How can rural poor people set the ICT agenda?
3. How can partners respond?
4. How do we balance investment in ICTs between technology and content development?

The following summary of key issues raised during panel presentations and discussion is based on Phrang Roy’s (one of the presenters) concluding summary, with additions drawn from this synthesis paper.

Key issues to emerge in response to the four questions:

How can we ensure that ICT is a tool and not considered a solution?

• put people at the centre (ownership and appropriation of communication processes)
• put decision-making in the hands of the people through participatory processes
• recognize that process is more important than access
• enhance the bargaining power of poor people
• envision ICTs from the perspective of the users and through their active participation
• combine traditional and modern technologies
• develop local content
• use local languages
• meet local needs
• ensure technologies are appropriate
• provide on the ground services
• be flexible, but ensure there is a structure

How can rural poor people set the ICT agenda?

• empower rural poor people and communities to lead their own development
• localize the WWW: each local initiative/community develops its own demand-driven content
• abandon vertical development paradigms
• respond to real needs of communities, not institutional needs
• ensure content is determined by the needs of rural poor people
• acknowledge that content in local languages is crucial
• acknowledge cultural pertinence
• ensure local ownership and appropriation of the communication process
• take into account convergence and networking
• use appropriate technology
• build capacity of rural poor people and their organizations
• share knowledge horizontally
• see networking as more than information exchange - also as an opportunity to build capacity based on new experiences
• focus on convergence – building on existing communication processes – not just a technology challenge. ICT projects must converge with local schools, local libraries, local development projects and local social organizations

How can partners respond to the ICT agenda?

• link ICT “push” to existing development projects and existing communities
• promote a more participatory, consultative approach in order to bridge the disconnect between local realities and the global/policy agenda
• develop culturally sensitive networking that can build partnerships and promote capacity building and skills development
• use knowledge networks to strengthen, not replace traditional methods of communication
• encourage foundations and donors to invest in developing ICTs’ multimedia capabilities to support the needs of communities with strong oral traditions
• support internationalization of the Internet (multi-lingual)
• encourage donors to work with partners – including civil society – to create an enabling environment for participation by civil society in policy processes – and to strengthen the capacity of civil society to work for itself
• work with public and private sectors to develop better indicators to monitor the benefits of ICTs and their contribution to reaching the MDGs
• introduce stronger monitoring and evaluation at both national and international levels to ensure communication is linked to other processes, especially policy processes
• engage with civil society and the private sector for provision of infrastructure
• promote coherence, collaboration and new partnerships
• focus on networking at the grassroots and ensure that women are included
• focus support on the “.org” community, as opposed to the ".com"
• work in the context of the MDGs and use an evidence-based approach
• ensure that technology is appropriate
• acknowledge that technology is important, but it must be sustainable
• acknowledge the importance of radio
• promote open access to low cost technologies

How do we balance investment in ICT technology with investment in content development?

• recognize that development is not about technology and not about information
• recognize that technology is important, but must be appropriate - and sustainable for poor people
• focus more on content and less on machines

This paper was prepared by Helen Gillman, Manager of Editorial Services, IFAD, with the support of Maria Elisa Pinzon, Manager of Corporate Image, IFAD, and Roxanna Samii, Manager of Web Services, IFAD.