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Bridging the Rural Digital Divide. .... Information and Communication for Development (ICD). Stephen Rudgard, Michal Demes WAICENT Capacity Building and Outreach. Improvement of Information Exchange between Education institutions in the SEE Region Godollo, Hungary, 1- 3 June 2005. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Stephen Rudgard, Michal Demes WAICENT Capacity Building and Outreach
Improvement of Information Exchange between Education institutions in the SEE Region
Godollo, Hungary, 1- 3 June 2005
.... Information and Communication for Development (ICD)
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Hunger & poverty concentrated in rural areas in LIFDCs
• Poor capacity to access information in rural areas
• Information/knowledge gap for rural stakeholders
How many people?
75% of 1.3 billion people
living on less than $1/day
live in rural areas
What is the problem?
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Millennium Development Goals
World Food SummitFAO Strategic Framework
WAICENT – World Agricultural Information Centre
World Summit on Information Society
What is the development context?
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Definition – Digital Divide
Inequitable access to Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT) between
The divide has a Urban-Rural dimension.
wealthy and poor – countries and social groups
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Urban Rural
Population(%)
Fixed Lines (%)
Population(%)
Fixed Lines (%)
Asia 37 67 63 33
Europe 64 88 36 12
Americas 75 82 25 18
Disaggregated data on ICT access
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Information & Communication for Development (ICD) – an Integrated Approach
The agents of change are the new ICTs -
but all components must be addressed:
– Connectivity
– Content
– Capacity - institutional and human
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Information Content – in digital format
• Innovative Mechanisms and Processes – for information digitization and exchange, and for communication
• Networks - amongst key stakeholders
ICD – the main elements
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Connectivity
• Telecoms growth disguises trends
– Urban vs. rural: Weaker infrastructure, Lower reliability and quality, Higher costs
– Major growth is in mobile telephony
– Internet access still difficult/expensive
• New technology options
• Doubtful commercial viability
Key Constraint
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Institutional Capacities – lack of
resources and appropriate
organizational structures• Human Capacities – lack of
awareness and skills • Partnerships – poor outreach to key
service providers and audiences
Other Key Constraints
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Core competencies in Agriculture• Imperative
− to acquire information− to communicate/disseminate outputs
• Opportunities in the New Technologies
Institutional Capacities
Many Organizations are not addressing the challenge adequately.
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• New Institutional Structures• New Skills and/or New People• New Content – Digital• New Technologies
Institutional Capacities Investing in Information
Minimise impact of change –
• learn lessons from others
• use existing technologies
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Rural communities and their representatives
Public and private sector service organizations
Government policy-makers and their advisers
Who are the national stakeholders?
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FAO’s Activities in ICD
Three components:
• Evidence for validated models
• Institutional learning platform
• Advocacy
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
COMPONENT Conceptual Models & Evidence
Case studies of existing experiences
Development of conceptual models
Pilots to test and validate models
Studies to capture evidence of good practice
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Define and develop common themes/concepts
Share documented experiences and evidence
Develop and disseminate : tools and methodologies training materials
Advocacy
COMPONENTInternational Community of Practice
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Conceptual ModelsPriority Areas
• Document management and e-publishing
• Rural information and communication systems
• Decision support tools
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Manage/ Disseminate Local Information
Access Global Information
www.aginternetwork.orgwww.fao.org/agris
Conceptual ModelsDocument Management
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• decentralized approach • greater diversity of participating organizations• strengthened role in capacity building• focus on full text documents• greater availability of associated information
about activities/organizations/people• set of web-enabled standards (AGMES),
methodologies (AGRIS Application Profiles, AGROVOC), and tools (WebAGRIS)
New AGRIS Vision (2002)
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Launched in October 2003• FAO in partnership with more than 20
commercial publishers, WHO, Cornell University, and several other organizations
• Free online access to over 500 journals in agriculture and related fields
• 69 countries eligible (39 from Africa)• 50 countries & 250 organizations registered
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
BUT......• Web access is costly for many countries• Transition technologies e.g. web→email• Other content offerings available:
– TEEAL (CD-ROM product)– PERI (CD-ROM and Web-based)
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
VERCON (Virtual Extension, Research and Communication Network)
FarmNet - Farmers Information Network
Models for Networking Tools and Processes
Conceptual ModelsRural information and communication
systems
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
AgroWeb Network
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• FAOSTAT2 and
CountrySTAT
• Food security information
system
Conceptual ModelsDecision-support Systems
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Evidence
• Case Studies
• Pilot implementations
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Human Capacities
Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK)
• Modules – CD and Web-based curricula & resources
• On-line Community - a "virtual" community for experts and learners
Partnership-based e-learning initiative
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Advocacy
• Improved BRDD Website
• WSIS Tunis Session – November 2005
• FAO Conference – November 2005
• Regional Conferences – 2006
• Expert Consultations
• Publications
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Advocacy – Building Partnerships
National/Regional• Ministries• Universities• Private Sector• NGOs• IICA• etc….
International• World Bank• European Union• V4 region• Balkan region• Bilateral donors
• etc…
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
For more information
www.fao.org/gil/rdd
http://www.fao.org/regional/seur/
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