Enhancing rural livelihoods

The role of ICTs

Access, empowerment and individual champions are all essential ingredients for creating a local environment in which Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can contribute to rural livelihoods.

The Overseas Development Institute in the UK recently carried out a study on ICT for rural livelihoods, commissioned by InfoDev. The study included a literature and donor review in collaboration with the Institute of Development Studies, and country studies carried out with partners in Argentina, Uruguay, Tanzania, South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. ICT was defined broadly to include broadcast media as well as internet and wireless technologies.

In addition to clarifying general principles necessary for successfully harnessing ICT for livelihoods impact, the project highlighted important advances in our knowledge of how to create an enabling environment for innovation. The first principle is access and some country examples showed how access is being successfully stimulated through private enterprise and donor-funded programmes.

In Tanzania, for instance, vibanda vya simu —- or rural telephone kiosks — provide a business package for local people to start up and expand. These are provided by the telecom companies and create opportunities for business communication and agricultural information exchange. In Uruguay, an Inter-American Development Bank-funded programme has brought connectivity as well as empowerment to a remote community in Bernabe Rivera. The formation of a mixed, community-elected commission to manage the project led to the infrastructure being put to diverse uses.

As well as access, individuals with specific skills and qualities are needed to help stimulate local technology appropriation. In Argentina, the non-government organisation, TEDEL, is seeking to site technology graduates from the city back in their home communities with the aim of them becoming local ICT entrepreneurs and strengthening local capacity through their own business model.

More generally, telecentre programmes are realising the importance of entrepreneurship and facilitation skills in their centre managers, who can connect people and provide backup for livelihood projects requiring information support. This is an important feature of new-generation telecentres such as those being set up by Grameen in Bangladesh.

Concerning innovation, the study noted:

• Many existing local institutions can be technology-enabled and are likely to be better trusted and understood by communities than new ones (community centres in Tanzania are one example)
• There is a need for content owners to form more productive partnerships with technology providers and funders. Often the less technically adept agencies (central government ministries, for example) have access to valuable information that can be unlocked with technology.
• Mass media remain an excellent means for disseminating livelihoods-related innovation, for example, the use of television in Bangladesh to spread seed technology knowledge.

Policy-related recommendations include :

• Policy needs to be backed up by good communication, so that local people understand and act on new opportunities.
• Universal access programmes need to make it easy for small and medium sized enterprises to access funds for local connectivity projects — often these companies are the most enthusiastic about entering rural markets.
• Deregulation and the formal acknowledgement of local languages and information access rights will help to stimulate rural technology uptake.

Paul Matthews and John Young
Overseas Development Institute, 111 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7JD, UK
T +44 (0)207 922 0300
j.young@odi.org.uk
p.matthews@odi.org.uk
www.odi.org.uk

See also

www.ict4rl.info

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