ICT for Development ICT for Rural Development ICT4D Lectures 11 and 12 Tim Unwin.

ICT for DevelopmentICT for Rural Development

ICT4D Lectures 11 and 12Tim Unwin

Lectures 11 and 12

Outline

• Setting the scene• Identifying the rural• The potential of ICTs

for rural development Constraints Potential solutions

• Case studies

Lectures 11 and 12

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 11 and 12

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 11 and 12

Identifying the rural

• What do we think of when we consider the ‘rural’? Low density Extensive production

Forestry Agriculture

Generally poor Why else would people migrate to towns?

‘Backward’ Limited services

• The Urban as dominant and ‘civilised’

Lectures 11 and 12

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 11 and 12

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 11 and 12

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

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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

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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 11 and 12

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

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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!

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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 19997 funded by IDRC

Now plans to roll out across India

Lectures 11 and 12

Gilat: VSAT in Africa

• DialAw@y IP provides Internet access and telephony services on a single, low-cost platform 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.

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Lectures 11 and 12

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)

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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

http://www.aftechfound.org/

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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/)

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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

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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

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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?