Bridging the Rural Digital Divide

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)





• 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?



• Millennium Development Goals

World Food SummitFAO Strategic Framework

WAICENT – World Agricultural Information Centre

World Summit on Information Society

What is the development context?



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



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



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



• 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



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



• 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



• 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.



• 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



Rural communities and their representatives

Public and private sector service organizations

Government policy-makers and their advisers

Who are the national stakeholders?



FAO’s Activities in ICD

Three components:

• Evidence for validated models

• Institutional learning platform

• Advocacy



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



Define and develop common themes/concepts

Share documented experiences and evidence

Develop and disseminate : tools and methodologies training materials

Advocacy

COMPONENTInternational Community of Practice



Conceptual ModelsPriority Areas

• Document management and e-publishing

• Rural information and communication systems

• Decision support tools



Manage/ Disseminate Local Information

Access Global Information

www.aginternetwork.orgwww.fao.org/agris

Conceptual ModelsDocument Management



• 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)



• 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



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)



VERCON (Virtual Extension, Research and Communication Network)

FarmNet - Farmers Information Network

Models for Networking Tools and Processes

Conceptual ModelsRural information and communication

systems



AgroWeb Network



• FAOSTAT2 and

CountrySTAT

• Food security information

system

Conceptual ModelsDecision-support Systems



Evidence

• Case Studies

• Pilot implementations



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



Advocacy

• Improved BRDD Website

• WSIS Tunis Session – November 2005

• FAO Conference – November 2005

• Regional Conferences – 2006

• Expert Consultations

• Publications



Advocacy – Building Partnerships

National/Regional• Ministries• Universities• Private Sector• NGOs• IICA• etc….

International• World Bank• European Union• V4 region• Balkan region• Bilateral donors

• etc…



For more information

www.fao.org/gil/rdd

http://www.fao.org/regional/seur/

Documents

Bridging the Rural Digital Divide