ICT for Development
ICT for Rural Development
ICT4D Lectures 10 and 11
Tim Unwin
Outline
• Setting the scene
• Identifying the rural
• The potential of ICTs for
rural development
 Constraints
 Potential solutions
• Case studies
Lectures 10 and 11
Setting the scene
• Understanding Livelihoods: complexity,
choices and policies in Southern India
 A 20 minute video by Catcher Media for DFID
 Designed “to spark discussion about
sustainable livelihoods approaches”
 “Resource for development professionals in
the NGO and Government sectors working at
both policy and field levels”
Lectures 10 and 11
Setting the scene
• What are the core messages this video is
trying to get across?
• What strengths does the video format
have in delivering these?
• How would you use the video in a learning
context with
 NGOs?
 Government officials?
Lectures 10 and 11
Identifying the rural
• What do we think of when we consider the
‘rural’?
 Low density
 Extensive production
 Forestry
 Agriculture
 Mineral extraction
 Generally poor
 Why else would people migrate to towns?
 ‘Backward’
 Limited services
• The Urban as dominant and ‘civilised’
Lectures 10 and 11
Identifying the rural
• How much ‘rural’ development have you learnt in
your courses so far?
 An example of bias against ‘the rural’!
 Yet almost all the world’s food and raw materials
come from rural areas
• Michael Lipton (1977) Why Poor People Stay
Poor
 Urban bias
 Dominance of interests designed to increase unequal
terms of trade between urban and rural areas and
people
Lectures 10 and 11
ICTs in rural development
• Potential to
 Provide services to dispersed rural people
 Radio, TV, Internet, Mobile telephony
 Disseminate information more broadly
 Market information
 Agricultural extension services
 Breakdown the urban bias
• But
 Infrastructure is needed
 Costs must be affordable
Lectures 10 and 11
Key constraints in rural
communication
• Dispersed low density populations
 Therefore high cost of providing services
• Distances
 High transport costs to peripheral regions
• Terrain
 Mountain ranges
 Impassable roads in rainy seasons
• Traditional lack of technological knowledge
 Need for easy to use solutions
Lectures 10 and 11
Technological solutions
• Radio can reach everywhere
 Soaps for health and rural development
• Satellites can likewise overcome line of sight
constraints
 Especially VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal)
 Gilat in Rwanda, Kenya, DRC, Mozambique
• Posta Kenya http://www.gilat.com/Solutions_CaseStudies_Posta.asp
 The WorldSpace solution http://www.worldspace.com/about/index.html
 Established in 1990 - satellite radio
 Downloading learning content to rural areas
• Telephony
 Mobiles: dramatic impact on communication
Lectures 10 and 11
Case studies
•
•
•
•
•
Agricultural Information Systems
M.S. Swanimathan Research Foundation (India)
Gilat VSAT solutions in Africa
African Agricultural Technology Foundation
Philippines: e-Learning for agricultural
communities
• Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and
Communication
• HP KNUST Digital Villages
Lectures 10 and 11
Internet based agricultural
information services
• Internet in the 1990s enabled institutions to be
both recipients and disseminators of information
 A donor supported information explosion
• But many such schemes failed (IICD, 2003)
 Technology focus
 No clear policy on how the information would be acquired
 Portals not information
 Point to sources of information, not the information
 Same as asking for milk, and being pointed to a cow
 Lack of integrated access
Lectures 10 and 11
M.S. Swaminathan Foundation
in southern India
• Village knowledge
centres for fishing
communities
 Dangers of fishing in
ignorance of the weather
 Use of satellite imagery
 Disseminate information to
whole community
 Women also know, and
can give them other tasks!
Lectures 10 and 11
M.S. Swaminathan Foundation
in southern India
• Village Knowledge Centres
 Particular emphasis on women’s
education
 Use of solar power for energy
 Women helping rural women
 Initially from 1997 funded by
IDRC
 Now plans to roll out across
India - Mission 2007
Lectures 10 and 11
Gilat: VSAT in Africa
• DialAw@y IP provides Internet access
and telephony services on a single,
low-cost platform
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (U ncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see t his picture.
 rural telephony, Internet access and/or distance learning in
South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nambia,
Kenya, Angola, Uganda, Rwanda and Mozambique
• In South Africa
 The successful application of VSATs in rural networks is best
illustrated by the Telkom South Africa project to implement a
3,000-site telephone network to serve tens of thousands of
rural customers. More than 1,600 VSAT sites were successfully
deployed in the first two months, perhaps the quickest
deployment on record. The project enabled Telkom SA to carry
out its Universal Service Obligation (USO) to provide a large
number of rural sites - largely schools and village groceries with basic telephone service, where none had existed.
Lectures 10 and 11
Gilat: VSAT in Africa
• Ethiopia

“Ethiopia is the site of another VSAT success story. Just outside Addis Ababa lies
the Sululta earth station with its 13-meter antenna. The Ethiopian
Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) has installed a network control center
there to operate its 500-site VSAT network, which is spread throughout the
country. This network replaced outdated analog telephone systems in outlying
population centers. It provides service to more than 50,000 telephone
subscribers along with broadcasts of Ethiopian television. Each site is tailored to
the population who is using it. The larger sites replace or add to the old existing
telephone network. Villages of approximately 1,000 persons that have shared
one or two rather unreliable lines have been provided with 3-16 new, very
reliable lines via their VSAT terminal. Phone sets are placed in shops, public
facilities and some private homes. In larger towns, the ETC has purchased
brand-new digital switches, and the VSAT network allows these switches to link
more than 250 subscribers. These larger sites also receive direct transmission of
Ethiopiaﾕs national TV, recently upgraded to a digital system”.
• But who pays the cost?
 Fuelled by donor support (especially USA)
Lectures 10 and 11
African Agricultural Technology
Foundation
• Creating public-private partnerships
 Striga (witchweed) control in cereals
 Insect resistance maize for Africa
 Pro-Viramin A enhancement in Maize and
Rice
 Cowpeas Production
 Production of Bananas and Plantains
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
http://www.aatf-africa.org/
Lectures 10 and 11
Philippines e-Learning for
agricultural communities
• Creation of enterprising rural communities
 Slides from Evelyn Sadsad (NEDA)
 Material in Reading Room
• Emphasising the importance of a viable
business model
• NEDA Knowledge Emporium
(http://www.neda.gov.ph/knowledge-emporium/)
Lectures 10 and 11
E-Learning: Towards Enterprising
Agricultural Communities
Strategic and timely application of e-learning for agricultural
communities are expected to make farm families more productive, keep
farmlands fertile, strengthen rural infrastructure support, and help
promote a healthy business and social
environment.
Lectures
10 and 11
E-Learning Flow
National
Experts
Local
Expert
Extension
Worker
Knowledge Banks
Online Courses
E-Library
Forum, Email, SMS
Farmers’
Group
Program’s Business Model
Service Providers /
Inputs
Business Process/
Conduits
Beneficiaries/
Outputs
Web Portal
• Knowledge Banks
• Online Courses
• E-mail
• SMS
• Forum
Research
Centers
Open
Academy
B2B
pricenow.com
Entrepreneurs
Bank
e-AGRIculture
Market
Input
Suppliers
& other
Technology
Providers
Traders
Managed by
Coops/Community
• Internet access fee
• Fee for e-AGRIC
facilities
• Sales of Agri Inputs
• % as collection points
for agri produce
• Marketing fee
• Credit facilitation
Farmers
Bangladesh NGOs Network for
Radio and Communication
• Amateur radio
 Working with Oxfam since 2000
 To promote use of amateur radio
• Community Radio
 Training people in the use of community radio
since 2001
 Supporting NGOs
 Advocacy
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Lectures 10 and 11
HP - KNUST, Ghana
• HP’s Digital Village concept
 Collaboration with Kwame Nkrumah
University for Science and
Technology in Kumasi
 And University of Pennsylvania
• Hub in the university
 With spokes in villages
• But serious doubts over
sustainability and relevance
 Lack of really appropriate content
and knowledge of best educational
uses
• Video
Lectures 10 and 11
GTZ/InWEnt: training materials
• Use of media in rural development (CDs)
 Practical help for those using media in rural
development
 Example of training materials
 Critical success factors determining media
effectiveness
 How to achieve greater impact
Lectures 10 and 11
Conclusions
• Need for a diversity of solutions
• Technologies can indeed overcome many
of the physical constraints affecting rural
areas
• But, need for will of governments to
support them
 Is Lipton’s urban bias still alive and well in
developing countries?
Lectures 10 and 11