Rural Transformation by the
establishment of Community
Information Centers (CICs) in
the remote villages of Nepal:
A Pilot Project
Sudip Aryal
Nepal Rural Information
Technology Development
Society (NRIDS), Syangja
For the community, by the community and to the community.
Rural Transformation
• Focus on learning and experiences sharing
• Change in the perspective of looking at things
• focus on equal opportunity for access to ICT facilities to
reach up to the marginalized community
• transformation of our traditional society into knowledge
based society through the exploitation and maximum
usage of ICT and contemporary educational tools.
• Contribution for the quality of life for the marginalized
communities and individuals by increasing their knowledge,
skills and concept to uplift their standard of life
• The village needs to become a self-sustaining unit, and at
the same time integrated with the rest of the ecosystem
Digital Divide Factors
• Difference between
• Developed country and developing country
• Urban areas and rural areas
• Differences caused by;
• Income
• Education and job training
• Opportunities
• Status
• Race
• Gender
• Age
Problem Statement
• Lack of information access and training to rural areas in
Nepal
• Very little is being done to rectify the information shortage.
• Access to Telephones, computers and the Internet is very
low in Rural areas.
• Lack of rigid plans/policies and strategies
• Lack of technical manpower
Project Detail
Goal
• Rural Transformation through ICT
•Villages need disruptive innovations to make the village
giant leap forward
Objectives
• Develop institutional and individual ICT capacity
• Demonstrate innovative ICT applications
• Encouraging Policy Reform
• Enabling Businesses to succeed
• Using ICT to Improve Approaches to Development
Methods
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Identification of four stakeholders: villagers, village
administration, district administration and rural
marketing organizations.
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The establishment of a Community Information
Centers (CICs) in villages
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Providing information on Agriculture, Jobs, Conflict
Management, Democracy and good Governance etc.
From a villager’s point of view
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Access to computing resources and the Internet.
A program to ensure that he and his family can be made
literate and e-literate.
Access to various eServices for government interactions
Computer-enabled education for his/her children in schools
Access to electronic markets where he/she can sell his
products directly without middlemen
Programs to upgrade his and his family’s skill sets
Protection of data, so that unauthorized access does not
happen.
All of this to be available for a monthly minimal charge from
one family .
Village administration viewpoint, the solution
should:
• Help in village planning and monitoring.
• Share and discuss best practices with other village
administrators eg.community web blogs
• Provide a micro-credit facility to enable villagers to
save money and get loans when required.
District administration would like to see in the
solution:
• Two-way information flows: the administration can update
the village and its residents on various government
programs and schemes
• Electronic accounting for the funds which are disseminated
by the state/district administration for village activities.
• Ability to provide better services to the citizens (for
example, telemedicine).
• Provide comparisons across villages on various
parameters, to be able to identify success stories and
enable their replication across other villages.
Rural marketing organizations would like to:
• Use a medium by which they can reach out to villagers
for their products and services.
• Get a distribution point for eCommerce
• Have a mechanism by which they can collect payments
for their offerings.
Three key ideas in using technology to transform
rural Nepal
•Setting up a CIC in every village.
•Networking these CICs through a Community webportal to ensure communication between villages.
•Computerize key government operations in an
eGovernance initiative, starting with those that can
have the greatest impact for the villagers.
Sustainability Approaches
• Minimum charges for services
• Can take up data entry jobs or other such work to better
leverage the computers that it has.
• Computer training programs, desktop work for local
schools and institutions
• Some funds could be allocated from the village for the
operation of the CIC, since the village administration will
also be a significant user and beneficiary.
• Additional services can be offered for the villagers beyond
the base set, which can result in more revenue.
We can involve community only if..
• A package of applications is made available to the
villagers for a minimal charge
• It Offer hopes of additional income as a growth in
livelihood
• Remove pain from their lives
• Improve their skill and learn to do things better and
retraining
• Make them more productive in agriculture and other
profession
• Offer their children a brighter future in terms of education
and jobs.
• Provide them a voice to and response from government
within a specified time period
Classification of CICs
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Rural Community Information CenterRCIC
Village Community Information Center- VCIC
District Community Information Center- DCIC
Zonal Community Information Center- ZCIC
Regional Community Information Center- CICR
Central Community Information Center- CCIC
RCIC
Overall Structure of CIC
Data
Collection Unit
Technical
Research
Unit
Conducting
Research about
possibilities of
Local Development
by the Villagers.
Identification of the
Key areas of
Development.
Selected decisions
will be categorized
according to the
priority and
forwarded them to
the concerned.
Management
Unit
Training related
Computer to
information and
newspaper
Computer,
Internet, Fax,
Photocopy,
Telephone
etc.
Ward members/
active
/community
people/Unemplo
yed Youths
Primary
knowledge from
Language class
and computer
Act as a
source of
income.
Selection of
the location
for RCIC.
E-mail,
Internet etc.
Place may be
School, Tea shop,
government offices,
where people are
used to going there.
Provide basic
training and
additional
facilities to the
Community.
Internet based Community web-portal
What Can Government do to encourage the
establishment of CICs?
• Authentic information dissemination
• Facilitates for the good Internet Access
• Give technical knowledge and trainings
• Provide Outdated equipments and devices like Computer in the first phase
etc.
• Provide old racks and cupboards, tables and furniture
• Publication houses can give free copies of their publication to CICs.
• Cooperation between NGOs/ INGOs and private sector companies
• Reporting :RCIC-VCIC-DCIC-ZCIC-CICR-CCIC .Help the government make
decision in reference to the voices and the wants of the Grass root Level.
• Volunteering program by technical college students as the partial fulfillment
of their course.
STAFF / ADMINISTRATION
Projected Setup Costs
• Set up cost for 30 Small CICs: 30*Rs.59500 =Rs. 17, 85,000
only
• Set up cost for 30 big CICs: 30*Rs.3, 01,660= Rs.90, 49,800
only (Minimum)
• Set up cost for 30 big CICs: 30*Rs.4, 87,300= Rs.1, 46, 79,000
only (Optimum)
• Note: Set up Cost will be negligible if the concerned authority
could provide the second hand Computers, Fax machine,
Photocopy Machine, Scanners, Printers, and the furniture.
EVALUATION PLAN
Formative Evaluation
• Qualitative in nature-conducted through interviews and
questionnaires.
• Local people and student volunteers will be asked about the
day-to-day operation of the Center, the topics covered in the
training programs and the workshops, the attractiveness of
the training materials, and other questions to provide
feedback for the ongoing improvement of the operation of
the Project.
• Meet regularly with CIC staff to share findings from the
formative evaluation effort.
• Periodic reports for formative evaluation and how they have
been used to improve Project operation.
Summative Evaluation
• Primarily quantitative in nature, will begin with the
establishment of baseline data at the beginning of the
project (using a random sample Local people to assess
their ICT knowledge) and then be conducted at 6 month
intervals (just prior to each group of volunteers completing
their Project service).
• A yearly report will be issued that presents the formative
and summative findings.
NRIDS activities
• This work began with the endorsement of the Syangja DDC the
members of NRIDS have been formulating a blueprint to convert
Syangja into the model district for an information revolution in Nepal.
• Extended in Kaski and Dang District.
• A CIC, with the involvement and support of local business people,
teachers, serviceman, and young people, have been established in
different villages
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Mayatari, Syangja
Karen dada, Syangja
Bagalthok, Syangja
Lampata, Syangja
Bayatari, Sayngja
Helu, Syangja
Kaskikot, Kaski
Dhital, Kaski
Rampur, Dang
Laxmipur, Dang
Services provided in the First phase
• Market information of agricultural products to the local people.
• Basic functionalities of library and the meeting point of people
for various discussions and decision making.
• Daily newspapers and monthly magazines
• Notice board for advertisement
• Wall newspaper
• Data collection-Village profile
• Sustainability-e.g. local people can submit their electricity bills
in CIC
• Conducting Tuition Classes for the local Students
Service provided in the Second Phase
• Providing knowledge to the people about computers.
• There will be around 5-10 networked computers in each
CICs .
• Location: Schools, Youth Club, Amma Group based on the
community decision.
• There will be two phone lines in each CIC one for the PCO
and other for the Internet Connection
• The main aim of CIC is the concept of “IT Chautari”
• It will provide real time applications
• It will act as an inquiry system
• All the Desktop works
• Computer training institute
Third Phase Implementation
• Developing web based CIC portal for the CIC
connectivity.
Last words
Dreams Come true for those who work
while they dream!
Let us together generate the workflow to transform rural
Nepal