ICTs and rural development: review of the literature, current interventions and opportunities for action

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

ICTs and rural development: review of the literature, current 
interventions and opportunities for action

How can ICTs better be used for rural development? Chapman, R.; 
Slaymaker, T. / Overseas Development Institute (ODI) , 2002

This is a discussion paper on the role that ICTs potentially have to 
play in rural areas of the developing world. Its stated aim is to 
look beyond the current ‘digital divide’ debate which focuses on 
information disparities to assess the potential role of ICTs in the 
context of current rural development paradigms. The first section 
considers some alternative approaches that are being pioneered to 
harness ICTs for development goals including private sector, public 
sector and NGO-based initiatives. This leads on to a discussion of 
changing approaches to technology transfer drawing on lessons from 
agricultural extension experience to illustrate how ICTs could be 
harnessed for rural development.

The concept of building partnerships at the community level based 
around information exchange is explored in the second section, using 
ICTs to improve systems for the exchange of information sources that 
already exist locally and also providing established information 
intermediaries with the facilities to enhance their capacity for 
information sharing. The paper looks at how simple and 'off the 
shlef' technologies, rather than large scale expensive 
infrastructure, could have a greater role in future rural development 
strategies through the integration of available technologies and the 
diverse institutional and knowledge landscapes that exist in 
developing countries.

The paper concludes that there are numerous, well established 
barriers to improving information exchange. Knowledge capture, the 
high cost of information access and infrastructure constraints all 
affect the equitable distribution of information in rural areas. 
However, technological advances in ICTs have reduced the cost and 
increased the quantity and speed of information transfer 
dramatically. This is set to continue and the technologies are 
already being designed to accommodate a wide range of user choices. 
To pursue ‘universal access’ and one size fits all applications to 
‘bridge the digital divide’ is to ignore the real potential of ICTs 
to be used locally, in order to enable those individuals and 
institutions that are the priorities of rural development strategies 
to access the information that is relevant to their own multi-
dimensional livelihoods. The need for a concerted effort to build 
knowledge partnerships and to engage the private sector and 
technology drivers in the pursuit of rural development goals is 
paramount if ICTs are to have a role in future strategies. [authors]


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http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/working_papers/wp192.pdf

source: http://www.eldis.org/static/doc11279.htm