Bridging the Rural Digital Divide

1. 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 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

3. What is the problem? 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

4. What is the development context? • Millennium Development Goals World Food Summit FAO Strategic Framework WAICENT – World Agricultural Information Centre World Summit on Information Society

5. Definition – Digital Divide Inequitable access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) between wealthy and poor – countries and social groups The divide has a Urban-Rural dimension.

6. Disaggregated data on ICT access

7. The agents of change are the newICTs - butall components must be addressed: Connectivity Content Capacity - institutional and human Information & Communication for Development (ICD) – an Integrated Approach

8. ICD – the main elements Information Content – in digital format Innovative Mechanisms and Processes – for information digitization and exchange, and for communication Networks- amongst key stakeholders

9. 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 Connectivity Key Constraint

10. Other Key Constraints 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

11. Institutional Capacities • Core competencies in Agriculture • Imperative • to acquire information • to communicate/disseminate outputs • Opportunities in the New Technologies Many Organizations are not addressing the challenge adequately.

12. Institutional Capacities Investing in Information New Institutional Structures New Skills and/or New People New Content – Digital New Technologies Minimise impact of change – • learn lessons from others • use existing technologies

13. Who are the national stakeholders? • Rural communities and their representatives • Public and private sector service organizations • Government policy-makers and their advisers

14. FAO’s Activities in ICD Three components: • Evidence for validated models • Institutional learning platform • Advocacy

15. 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

16. COMPONENT International Community of Practice • Define and develop common themes/concepts • Share documented experiences and evidence • Develop and disseminate : • tools and methodologies • training materials • Advocacy

17. Conceptual ModelsPriority Areas • Document management and e-publishing • Rural information and communication systems • Decision support tools

18. Conceptual Models Document Management Manage/ Disseminate Local Information Access Global Information www.fao.org/agris www.aginternetwork.org

19. New AGRIS Vision (2002) • 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)

20. 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

21. 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)

22. Conceptual ModelsRural information and communication systems Models for Networking Tools and Processes VERCON (Virtual Extension, Research and Communication Network) FarmNet - Farmers Information Network

23. AgroWeb Network

24. Conceptual ModelsDecision-support Systems • FAOSTAT2 and CountrySTAT • Food security information system

25. Case Studies Pilot implementations Evidence

26. Human Capacities Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) Partnership-based e-learning initiative • Modules – CD and Web-based curricula & resources • On-line Community - a "virtual" community for experts and learners

27. Improved BRDD Website WSIS Tunis Session – November 2005 FAO Conference – November 2005 Regional Conferences – 2006 Expert Consultations Publications Advocacy

28. National/Regional Ministries Universities Private Sector NGOs IICA etc…. International World Bank European Union V4 region Balkan region Bilateral donors etc… Advocacy – Building Partnerships

29. For more information www.fao.org/gil/rdd http://www.fao.org/regional/seur/