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Appropriation of ICTs by FAO Development Communication for Sustainable Rural Development and Agriculture

By Dominic Otieno Omolo, FAO

It is an honor to me to be given this opportunity to address the Symposium participants drawn from the corners of our beloved and promising continent of Africa. I have the double honor to address these words to you in the name of an Organization whose toil in the field of ICTs in rural development have enabled the continent to "arm" herself both in the fight against hunger and - specifically to our gathering- in the fight against the rural digital divide.

The Millennium Declaration of the United Nations calls for urgent action to address the "digital divide". This call is addressed to governments, public and private sector, as well as to multi-lateral organizations to give high priority to the matter of access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) for developing countries. As a consequence of this new effort, many United Nations partners, such as ITU, UNDP, UNESCO, UNCTAD, UNIDO, UNICEF, the World Bank, IFC, IDB, the UN Secretariat, and FAO itself are already engaged in innovative programmes with private partners and national governments to address the problem of access to information and knowledge using the new technologies.

The "digital divide"

Understandably, there are many definitions of the term "digital divide". The FAO Sustainable Development Department, uses the term to refer to the "inequitable access to ICTs both between wealthy and poor countries, and within all countries, between relatively privileged and underprivileged social groups." The divide is thus conceived to be imbalance of accessibility and appropriation.

The growth of ICTs has indeed exacerbated the already extreme differences between rich and poor countries. UNDP identified nine countries as requiring urgent attention due to their extreme technological marginalization. In 2001, these countries were: Nicaragua, Pakistan, Senegal, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, United Republic of Tanzania, Sudan and Mozambique.

FAO's Efforts in Bridging the "digital divide"

Three broadly defined types of interventions are carried out by donors in this area. These are as follows: a) creating opportunities to directly involve poor communities in using ICTs, e.g. rural radio networks, telecentres; b) programmes designed to promote a national enabling environment for ICTs to thrive, e.g. telecommunications infrastructure; legislation and public policies, ICT education, skills training and institution building; c) poverty reduction and economic development mechanisms supported by ICTs, such as databases, knowledge management systems, e-commerce, communities of practice, etc.

FAO is already engaged in many initiatives related to ICTs in Latin America, Africa and Asia, and an expansion of its role and a diversification of the type of assistance it provides are fully justified as: (i) a number of FAO Member Governments are seeking to harness digital technologies for their national sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries programmes; (ii) although FAO is already a key player in the provision of content and in facilitating access to information and knowledge through WAICENT, much work remains to be done to accelerate the speed with which relevant and current information, in appropriate languages becomes available to FAO member countries; (iii) in FAO's poverty reduction work with developing countries, including the Special Programme for Food Security; in the Farmer Field Schools, in extension services and educational projects, in community development projects, and in other field projects there are unique opportunities for ICT-based interventions that specifically target poor people in rural communities.

In addition, FAO has a mandate to convene member countries on these issues and to get consensus on a range of technical standards, norms and methodologies that can be adopted by FAO member countries to accelerate progress in this area.

Finally, FAO has a particular people-focussed perspective on the "digital divide" that makes its programmes attractive to many donors. FAO sees the problems not only as a matter of infrastructure and connectivity, but rather as a multi-faceted problem of ineffective knowledge exchange and management of content, lack of human resources and institutional capacity - compounded obviously - by an acute scarcity of financial resources. Despite the fact that the technologies are increasingly available, many developing countries lack the capacity to use this technology appropriately, because they do not have the know-how to manage information content effectively and do not have the appropriate institutional culture and resources.

Allow me now to pass over briefly to those tangible and concrete projects which FAO has recently attempted to apply ICTs and which continues to offer good results to rural farmers and dwellers. For brevity sake, I will pick on just a few instances.

1. The VERCON project: Knowledge and information through agricultural research are essential for improving food security. But to be useful, agro-knowledge and information must be effectively communicated to farmers. The Virtual Extension, Research and Communication Network, VERCON, is a new internet-based ICT project developed by FAO for effective linkages by connecting geographically dispersed people and enhance two-way communication, managing large volumes of data, while rapidly collecting, processing and dispersing information in a variety of forms. It uses Internet standards and is accessed either through the Internet or by using a combination of CD-ROM and Internet, depending on specific situations.

FAO has prepared a prototype for the technological component of VERCON whose purpose is to stimulate discussion on the concept inorder to assist in designing customized information and communication systems with stakeholders. The actual technical component is developed locally in collaboration with the users drawing international content as appropriate. Equipment and training are provided where necessary to ensure that network members are able to utilize the VERCON. A pilot project is currently underway in Egypt.

2. FARMNET: The organized use of ICTs, combined with conventional media can help farmers to exchange experiences, find common grounds for collaboration and actively participate in; and manage agricultural and rural development activities. The Farmers Information Network (FarmNet), is a network of rural people supported by intermediary organizations such as extension services, which use ICTs and conventional media to facilitate the generation, collection and exchange of knowledge and information for improved livelihoods. FAO recently completed a feasibility study to establish FarmNet with the Uganda National Farmers' Association.

In building FAO's portfolio in "digital divide" projects, the Organization do focus on interventions where it already has experience and a comparative advantage.

This Symposium aims at tackling the development of human capacity in the Information society from the point of view of volunteerism. Even though ICTs is currently one of the leading employment sector in the continent - a ground that makes it an expensive undertaking - much more volunteer work has to be done to bridge the digital divide that is still so acute in the rural areas. Our people are still too poor to invest in ICTs especially in the rural areas.

This sad situation can only be reversed if more and more Africans who have benefited from this knowledge would reach out to these rural areas albeit without placing emphasis on the financial outcomes from such ventures. Only with this spirit of volunteerism will we be able to save Africa as Africans. We have the challenge to do more with the little that we already have, since our cultural upbringing already instilled in us this orientation towards fraternal sharing and co-action. We need to build on this if we are to play active role in bridging the rural digital divide in our continent. Thank you all.

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About the author:

Dominic Otieno Omolo,

Born on 11 May 1970 in Kisumu, Kenya
Holds Masters Degrees in Social Communication (Radio) and Philosophy
Currently working for Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, under the Young
Professionals Program as the Rural Youth Communication Officer, in Rome, Italy.