Each of the following suggestions was made by one or more of the participants during the third week's discussion.

1) Criteria for success of rural information centers (RICs)

• Community participation and involvement, right from the conceptualization and in continuous monitoring and evaluation of RICs, is the key to ensure local ownership, relevance to the community and motivation of local people. These will be crucial for the sustainability of RICs.
  
  
• A need-based approach, adapted to local needs, and especially designed to arouse interests of women, such as discussion groups about questions faced by women's in their daily life. Programs that can reduce usage fees and lighten women's work burden will also encourage women's participation in RICs.
  
  
• Establish a management structure to enable follow-up and sustainability.
  
  
• Women should be involved in RICs as core members and leaders.
  
  
• Usage of the 'Training of trainers' approach for outreach to the population. Special attention should be paid to training local people, keeping them motivated, and in case they quit there should be people ready to replace them.

Other criteria mentioned:

• RICs need to aim at promoting higher standard of living of rural communities
• RICs need to aim at enhancing motivation and self-esteem of women
• Information should be accurate and relevant
• RIC services should be affordable
• RICs should be free from political leanings and be integrated into local socio-economic and leadership structures.

2) Other factors enabling information access for women

• Making electricity available to rural households (électrification de foyers)
  
  
• A conducive policy environment, such as regulations of tax and tariffs on electricity, energy and telecommunications such as satellite, phone and fax, and regulatory regime regarding pornography.
  
  
• Support from local government officials to utilize and strengthen local infrastructure (radio broadcasting, buildings, etc.) and strengthening the communication autonomy of local government areas.
  
  
• Preparedness and commitment to be stakeholders. Stakeholders include policy makers, researchers, information providers, community members, NGOs, women groups, etc.
  
  
• Dialogue among information professionals and researchers in search of ways to systematically produce knowledge, with due consideration of the social context of the local community.
  
  
• Serious support from leadership of women or men committed to the cause of enhancing information access for rural women.
  
  
• Strengthening the element of information dissemination in development projects in general. These projects, if successfully implemented and arouse local community's interests around the communication initiatives, can serve as a catalyst for RIC-related initiatives.
  
  
• Sensitization of development co-workers about the importance of information access for women.
  
  
• Projects aiming at multiplication of RICs.

3) Technologies / means of enabling information access and dissemination

• (Community) Radio has once again been mentioned as the essential tool of dissemination of information, especially for poorer communities in remote areas which cannot afford computers.
  
  
• Listening clubs and outreach programs to complement community radio and RIC.
  
  
• Telecenters

4) Opportunities and benefits of RICs

• Creating a central point/hub in a village where information about the village itself is made available. Making such information available may serve to build capacity, mobilize and motivate the community to take collective actions for planning, initiating development interventions and influence upper-level political decisions which have an impact on the community, such as budget allocations.
  
  
• On the other hand, information about policy can reach the people who are under its influence.
  
  
• RICs may also induce behavioral changes in the community, arouse desire to learn, promote effective accountability, empower locals to resolve their own problems and sensitize them about the need to study how they can benefit from new information and communication technologies.
  
  
• RICs can cement relationships emerging from networks created in the community.
  
  
• Benefits accrued to women : liberation, flourishing of women socially, economically and culturally, participation in decision making, freedom to be informed and to communicate, ability to make informed decisions, enhanced status and consciousness about their rights.

5) Precautions and limitations of RICs

• Rather than the misconception that RICs is meant for a one-way communication to rural women, it should be meant for creating space for dialogue.
  
  
• In setting up RICs, attention should be paid to the preservation of existing cultures, family values, norms, etc., considering especially the threats posed by pornography and trafficking of women and girls on the Internet.
  
  
• To avoid exacerbating social divide, government should facilitate lifelong learning for both women and men in order to enable them to benefit from new jobs created which are related to information technologies. As well, setting up a special fund for mandatory universal service can prevent the poor and the elderly from being ignored in the wave of privatization.
  
  
• Substantial financial resources needed for the operations and maintenance of RICs, including of equipment, training, programs, management, etc.

6) Some participants shared information about their projects:

• One Village One Computer in Maharashtra state in India (experimentation in four districts). Each center acts as center of information + communication + education. It emphasizes local participation and integration with development process, and thus local relevance, cost effectiveness, continuous experimentation and adaptations at local level and sharing of experience among centers. It aims at achieving endogenous growth in terms of human capital, investment and innovation in IT, employment, etc.
  
  
• Helen Keller Programs: the Kongwe Women's Credit Project in Tanzania, which combines credit, gardening and literacy programs, has reached 119 villages. In Niger and Mali, the Helen Keller program started with gardening projects bundled with literacy classes. The program also co-operates with village theatre troops and village health committees to facilitate health screening when villagers gather in theatre performances.
  
  
• Arid Land Information Network (ALIN) targeting community development workers. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, ALIN publishes newsletters and assists development workers in setting up equipment to receive information from digital satellite broadcasting (World Space Radio). Focal groups are formed and they meet regularly for sharing of experience.
  
  
• Documentation center of CEMINA, in Pagu, Brazil. Aiming at promoting women's rights and visions in the media, they produce radio programs, carry out campaigns and conduct training workshops. They are launching a radio Internet portal to connect women's radio networks and their listeners. They are also involved in an Infocenter project in co-operation with the federal government, aiming at universal access to telecommunication services.
  
  
• Maths, Agriculture and Environment: The Network of Rural Women, Trinidad and Tobago. The network helps students and parents to use maths to analyze issues of importance to the community, such as tourism development and environment, equal opportunities for students, etc.
  
  
• Mubende Information Unit supported by Isis-WICCE, Uganda. The information unit tape-recorded violations against a girl child and women used the recording to demand for justice. They now also use the meetings at the Mubende RIC to sensitize local communities.

More examples and recommendations have also been given during the first two weeks of discussions and are not included in this summary.

(Summary prepared by Denise Cheung)

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Last update: June-27, 2002