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Scoping Study on ICT and Rural Livelihoods: Southeast Asia and the Pacific1 Alexander G. Flor2 ABSTRACT ENRAP, a collaborative undertaking between the IFAD and IDRC designed to bring the benefits of global information resources in Asia-Pacific, is about to enter its third phase. Consultants were engaged to conduct Scoping Studies on ENRAP3-ICT4L Research to answer the following research questions: What specific agricultural livelihood outcomes can be directly linked with ICT interventions at the grassroots? Under what conditions are these ICT interventions likely to produce these livelihood outcomes? How does gender and social dimensions factor into these interventions and outcomes? Are these interventions and outcomes replicable in other grassroots communities? Are these interventions and outcomes scalable at the local and national levels? The Report begins with an introductory chapter made up of the background of the study, the objectives and the coverage. It progresses into Chapter II, a comprehensive review of literature divided into two sections: the state of ICT4L in Southeast Asia; and relevant ICT4L frameworks. Then, it transitions into Chapter III, which presents: an overall strategic framework for ICT4L; an M&E framework; and a proposed research framework for ENRAP3-ICT4L. Chapter IV provides an ICT4L Research Agenda for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, proposing three action research pilot projects and five ex-post evaluation studies covering the countries of China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, the Philippines, the Pacific Islands and Thailand. Concept Notes on the proposed ICT4L pilot projects have been included as Annexes D, E and F. Chapter V proposes an ICT4L research network in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Lastly, Chapter VI provides the study’s conclusions and recommendations. The Scoping Study concludes that the following specific livelihood outcomes can be directly linked with ICT4L interventions in rural communities: increased access to ICTs; increased capacities of rural groups, particularly rural women, to offer marketable skills; increased awareness and availing of basic services by communities as well as linkages with government service providers; increased agricultural production and incomes among rural families; higher sales in users’ primary livelihoods such as small retail stores, local eateries, local transport provision; development and evolution of support mechanisms and locally driven enterprises such as technical supply chains, marketing solutions, and other ICT-related services; and increased social capital generated through information sharing and networking among groups, particularly women.

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Technical Report of Study Commissioned by the INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTER OF CANADA, Regional Office for South Asia and China, New Delhi, www.idrc.org.in, November 2008 2

Consultant, IDRC; Professor and Dean, University of the Philippines- Open University Faculty of Information and Communication Studies

Furthermore, the Scoping Study found that ICT4L interventions are likely to produce these livelihood outcomes when ICT4L projects: are run as secondary instead of primary livelihoods; are run by women groups; are linked to basic services providers; use intermediaries and personalized technologies; have a capacity building component; operate with public-private sector partnerships; and are not technology- or donordriven. An ENRAP3-ICT4L research framework and agenda based on the above findings are proposed for implementation by a regional research network with a clear institutional advantage and track record within the international development assistance community. Finally, an ENRAP3-ICT4L strategic framework based on the Millennium Development Goals and supplemented by a monitoring and evaluation framework guided by MfDR/ ODI approaches, is recommended. The ICT4D community has reached the halfway mark in the pursuit of the MDGs. Now more than ever, it should provide solid evidence that ICT can contribute to the eradication of hunger and poverty. The ENRAP3-ICT4L component must continue adopting an evidence-based approach to research and establish the links between ICT and poverty reduction, and between ICT and the Millennium Development Goals.

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I. INTRODUCTION

Background Knowledge Networking for Rural Development in the Asia-Pacific Region (ENRAP) is a collaborative undertaking between the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC) of Canada. ENRAP is designed to bring the benefits of accessing and sharing global information resources to development undertakings in Asia-Pacific. Its purpose is to leverage a growing body of knowledge, insights and lessons generated by development projects, on poverty reduction and food security through information and communication technologies (ICTs). The program, about to enter its third and final phase, will run until 2010. ENRAP3 has two components: Networking and Knowledge Management; and Information and Communication Technologies for Rural Livelihoods (ICT4L) Research. Two consultants were engaged to conduct a Scoping Study on ENRAP3-ICT4L Research covering South Asia and Southeast Asia/Pacific subregions, respectively. The terms of reference of the consultants are found in Annex A. In May 2008, the Inception Report for the scoping study (Southeast Asia and the Pacific) was submitted to the IDRC Regional Office for South Asia and China. The Midterm Report soon followed in July 2008. Subsequently, the Draft Final Report was submitted in October 2008, which incorporated suggestions on gender and social dimensions. This current document constitutes the Final Report of the Scoping Study on ENRAP3-ICT4L Research covering Southeast Asia and the Pacific subregions. Scoping Research Questions Essentially, the results of the Scoping Study will serve as the guide to set the parameters for ENRAP3-ICT4L. Before it can set these parameters, the Scoping Study needs to answer the following research questions: 1. What specific agricultural livelihood outcomes, if any, can be directly linked with ICT interventions at the grassroots? 2. Under what conditions are these ICT interventions likely to produce these livelihood outcomes? 3. How does gender and social dimensions factor into these interventions and outcomes? 4. Are these interventions and outcomes replicable in other grassroots communities across Southeast Asia and the Pacific? 5. Are these interventions and outcomes scalable at the local and national levels?

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Objectives The objectives of the ENRAP3-ICT4L Research Scoping Study are: 1. to undertake a systematic review of the literature relevant to the area of ICT interventions and livelihood outcomes in developing countries; 2. to take stock, describe and give a basic assessment of the state-of-play of the wide range of activities and development interventions around utilizing ICTs to improve rural, particularly agricultural, livelihoods; 3. to provide recommendations on the formulation and modalities for a research network on ICTs and livelihood; 4. to provide recommended cases and suggested methodologies for which ex-post evaluations of existing projects within the region will be conducted; and 5. to provide recommendations for action research pilots for testing innovative models and technologies. Coverage Sectoral Coverage. Livelihood covers a variety of sectors from agriculture and rural communications to manufacturing and business processes outsourcing (BPO). However, agriculture remains the predominant rural livelihood in the Asia-Pacific region. Although rural livelihoods are not exclusive to agriculture-based activities, they comprise the lion’s share of rural livelihoods in the region. Therefore, while it is necessary for this scoping study to examine ICTs and agricultural livelihood, it is not restricted to that domain so long as the area of study addresses rural livelihood improvements. Geographical Coverage. The geographic coverage for the scoping study is Asia, with emphasis on IDRC's PAN Asia Networking priority countries (Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia and the Philippines), ODA countries, and countries in which IFAD have current programs. This report, however, focuses on Southeast Asia and the Pacific subregions, specifically the countries of Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and the Pacific Islands. Overview of the Final Report. The Final Report of the Scoping Study for ENRAP3-ICT4L (Southeast Asia and the Pacific) begins with an introductory chapter made up of the background of the study, the objectives and the coverage. It progresses into Chapter 2, a comprehensive review of literature divided into two sections: the state-of-play of ICT4L in Southeast Asia and the Pacific; and relevant ICT4L frameworks. Then, it transitions into Chapter 3, the proposed research framework on ICT4L. Chapter 4 provides an ICT4L Research Agenda for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, proposing three action research pilot projects and five ex-post evaluation studies covering the countries of China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, the Philippines, the Pacific Islands and Thailand. Concept Notes on the proposed ICT4L pilot projects have been included as Annexes D, E and F. Chapter 5 proposes an ICT4L research network in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Chapter 6 provides the study’s conclusions and recommendations.

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II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE The major source of documentation, lessons, insights and frameworks on Information and Communication Technologies for Rural Livelihoods is the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) based in the United Kingdom. Beginning 2001 onwards, ODI has partnered with the UK Department of International Development (DFID), the World Bank InfoDEV, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and IDRC, jointly or separately, to undertake several initiatives on ICT4L. Their undertakings ranged from regional, country and community program or project reviews capturing experiences and mining knowledge that have been published in several monographs, policy papers and websites, collaboratively maintained with its partners the latest of which is the Research and Policy in Development (RAPID) program website (Chapman et al, undated; ODI, 2001; ODI, 2003; RAPID, 2007). The ODI-DFID-World Bank-FAO collaboration resulted in an extensive ICT4L Bibliography with 123 titles (Annex B). This was supplemented by the RAPID Annotated Bibliography with 21 titles (Annex C). The most notable contribution of the ODI initiative is the Enhancing the Livelihoods of the Rural Poor Through ICT Knowledge Map, which among other things, presents a sound framework for the planning and implementation of ICT4L. The framework introduces: the seven basic principles of the livelihoods approach (ODI-DFID-World Bank-FAO, 2003); the eight pillars of good ICT4L (ODI, 2003); the Livelihoods Information Wheel (Chapman et al, undated) and the 12 Cs of ICT and Livelihood (UNCTAD, 2006) Another noteworthy contribution is the evidence-based approach to policy and operational frameworks for knowledge systems in support of rural livelihoods (Rudgard et al, 2003). This approach ensures an empirical basis for policies and programs on ICT4L that would lead to sound investments and investment modalities. ODI offers a series of recommendations on the conduct of ICT4L, which will be dealt with in this review. These recommendations are based on several sectoral applications such as agriculture, healthcare, microfinance, education, land adiminstration and management, governance and disaster preparedness. These are based on several country snapshots and case studies. Africa and Latin America figure out prominently in these cases. However, Asia (particularly Southeast Asia and the Pacific) has not been adequately represented (www.ict4l.info/HomePage). It may be useful to note that the Asian context is quite different from the African or Latin American contexts. In Asia, particularly in Southeast Asia, one finds the richest and the poorest, the best endowed and the least endowed countries, ICT-wise. Thus, the framework in general and the basic principles, pillars and ,in particular, need to be validated in the Southeast Asian setting, considering the emphasis on an evidence-based approach.

Part A. State-of-Play of ICT4L

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Infrastructure and Policy Environment for ICT4L This review explores the prevailing ICT4L environment in the following countries: Cambodia; China; Indonesia; Lao PDR; Philippines; Thailand; and VietNam. The main sources are grey literature, i.e., agency and project reports, some of which were prepared by the Consultant himself. Cambodia. Cambodia is one of the six countries making up the Greater Mekong Subregion or GMS. In the past nine years, the GMS has kept up with the rest of Asia and the Pacific in terms of telecommunications infrastructure development (ADB, 2004). This was due primarily to the multilateral assistance provided by the Asian Development Bank and bilateral funding coming from Germany, the People’s Republic of China, JICA and KOICA. One distinguishing feature of infrastructure development in the GMS is its subregional character. The laying out of a fiber optic backbone in one country is planned with the provision of linking up with fiber optic backbones in neighboring countries the idea being the formation of a subregional telecommunications backbone for the entire Greater Mekong Subregion (Flor, 2005). For the three GMS countries covered by this scoping study, it may be stated that the national telecommunications backbones are in varying stages of completion, the most advanced being Viet Nam’s. Lao PDR’s strategic location bordering all GMS countries provides it with a distinct advantage in potentially reaping maximum benefits from a subregional infrastructure. Cambodia, on the other hand, has the most developed wireless connectivity in the subregion. However, there is still the matter of extending this ICT infrastructure and, in effect, connectivity and bandwidth, to peripheral areas in the countryside, an initiative which is being pursued in all three countries with different degrees of progress and measures of support (Flor, 2005). Nevertheless, infrastructure development must be linked to thematic sectors such as educational equity, health access, economic policy, and science and technology (S&T) promotion. The link between telecommunications and thematic sectors has been a continuing concern of the International Telecommunications Union since it forwarded its missing link hypothesis, wherein the level of telecommunications infrastructure development has not been directly correlated with levels of utilization particularly in developing countries. Calvano (2002) believes that the missing link is the partnering of infrastructure development to thematic sectors represented by institutions such as UNESCAP for the economic sector, UNESCO for the education sector, FAO for the agriculture sector or WHO for the health sector. The extension of ICT infrastructure from the national backbone to peripheral areas is, after all, likened to the growth of a living network. The impetus for infrastructure development to extend or grow radially is provided by these thematic sectors. Further investments into infrastructure should likewise address these concerns (ADB, 2002).

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Among the three countries, the Cambodian backbone is the least developed. This may be expected from a country with the lowest electricity availability and the highest generation cost in the region. However, there are two factors that easily redeem this situation. Firstly, Cambodia has a robust wireless network. It is the first country in the world where the number of cellular phone subscribers exceeded the number of landline subscribers. This began in 1996, when the number of cellular subscribers reached the 25 thousand mark. Now there are 325 thousand cellular phone lines compared to a mere 40 thousand landlines, increasing the country’s teledensity to 2.75 (Flor, 2005). Secondly, Cambodia has recently received JBIC financing for its segment in the Greater Mekong Subregional Backbone network (from Phnom Penh to Sihanouk Ville to Kampong Chiang Road 6). The design and development phase is now ongoing. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Cambodia (MPTC) is the government agency for spearheading ICT development. It is likewise the main telecoms provider, sometimes characterized as a monopoly. Plans are now in the offing to privatize MPTC. There is also a plan to establish at least one exchange via fiber optic cables per province to make available services to the village through private providers. Since fiber optics is cheaper than microwave, the cost of the service will go down thus increasing demand (Flor, 2005). Its establishment of the National Information and Communication Technology Development Authority evidences national government support for ICT development or NIDA attached to the Office of the President above the cabinet level. Among NIDA’s responsibility is the drafting of a national ICT Master Plan. Cambodia may easily be categorized as an LDC or least developed country. Its public school teachers have an average monthly salary of US$30. Among the labor force, there is a lack of middle-level capacity or supervisory skills. The demand for eServices in rural areas is quite low primarily because of: low access and availability; the lack of eServices awareness; low information and communication literacy; preoccupation with daily survival needs; and high service cost (Flor, 2005). However, being a socialist country with a centrally planned economy, Cambodia has a firmly entrenched governance structure that extends from the national to the provincial to the district then to the commune and village levels. The agency tasked for the delivery of basic services is the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD). Services from the national to the village flow through this structure: At the highest level is the Council for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) chaired by the Prime Minister. CARD provides policy and program directions to the Ministry of Rural Development. At the provincial level, there is a Provincial Rural Development Council or PRDC. This body coordinates closely with the Provincial Office for Rural Development under the MRD. At the district level is the District Rural Development Council (DRDC), which coordinates closely with the District Office for Rural Development (DORD) under the PORD. At the commune level is the Commune Rural Development Council (CRDC), which is made up of the heads of the Village Development Councils (VDCs). The VDC acts as the bridge between the rural community and government. The support of the VDCs would be invaluable in ICT4L undertakings in Cambodia.

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The government ministry structure reaches down to the district level. Connectivity is likewise down to the district level only (Bestle, 2004). Hence the last mile linkage from the district to the village is missing. CeCs stationed in the communes may provide such a linkage. China. China is the world’s biggest nation and fastest growing economy. It is Asia’s most powerful country with a population of 1.25 billion. However, rural dwellers account for 78 percent of its population. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood in the rural areas. In fact, this sector accounts for a substantive portion of China’s GNP. Chinese agriculture is diverse and technology driven. Yet, it has reached less than half of its potential because of poor education (FAO, 2001). Because of centralized planning, China has adopted a radial approach in developing its rural ICT infrastructure. In collaboration with the telecommunications and education ministries, the Ministry of Agriculture has taken the lead in establishing eCommunity centers all over China, albeit employing an approach that differs from that of other countries in four respects (Flor, 2004). Firstly, China is simultaneously developing both satellite and fiber optics technology for its rural ICT infrastructure. It currently operates a robust satellite service actively participated in by commercial service providers. Recently, however, it has entered into an agreement with the Government of Israel for the provision of 500 very small aperture terminals (VSAT) for its rural satellite broadcasts and Internet access. Hand-inhand, the development of the fiber-optics backbone is well on its completion. The last mile links, however, are concurrently being addressed primarily through eCommunity centers. Secondly, the eCommunity centers belong to a centralized multi-tiered network at the national, provincial, prefecture, township and village levels. In other countries eCommunity centers usually start as independent community initiatives and are thus not networked institutionally. Thirdly, the Ministry of Agriculture is building upon existing networks of agricultural service providers such as agricultural bureaus, agricultural information centers, local governments and other distance education institutions. For the past three decades, the Ministry has been establishing an expanded network of farmers’ libraries. These libraries are gradually being retooled and transformed into eCommunity centers thus ensuring density and penetration. Fourthly, the eCommunity centers particularly those under the Ministry of Agriculture form part and parcel of a distance-learning network called the Central Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School (CABTS). The Central Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School was established in 1980 with a mandate for providing education and training to enhance agricultural production.

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Its target audiences are farmers, rural youth, rural women, leaders of rural communities and agricultural extension workers. CABTS, which has been called the “cradle of competent farmers,” is now the world’s largest educational establishment for agriculture and rural development catering to an average of 900,000 enrollees per year (FAO, 2001). To say the least, the CABTS Network is huge. It has: one central school in Beijing administering the network; thirty eight provincial schools; three-hundred and thirty prefecture schools; two-thousand four hundred and eight county schools; twenty-three thousand township training centers; sixty virtual classrooms, which will soon increase to five hundred and sixty with Israel’s donation of VSAT units; two-thousand seven hundred and fifty administrators; and forty-five thousand one hundred and seven staff. Since it was established in 1980, CABTS has been employing traditional print, radio and TV-based distance learning delivery. In 2001, however, it began migrating to online teaching and digital learning environments employing broadband and wireless technologies. It will make full use of the noncommercial Internet backbone and will eventually establish two thousand virtual classrooms all over China. In other words, most of the CABTS network is now linked. In the past few years, CABTS have begun venturing into learning programs dealing with non-agricultural livelihood. The shift is becoming more pronounced since rural-urban migration has become a dominant trend in most provinces. This shift would definitely be worthwhile monitoring under ICT4L. Indonesia. Presidential Decree Number 3 of 2003 promulgates the application of eGovernance all throughout Indonesia. Yet, two laws have severely impacted on the information and communication capacities of the agricultural extension system in Indonesia although not relating directly to ICT. Republic Act Number 22 of 1999, otherwise known as the Local Government Code has decentralized the agricultural extension function from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Dinas Pertanian of the devolved local governments. It may well be worth mentioning that there are several Dinas’s responsible for agriculture. Aside from the Dinas Pertanian, the major ones are the Dinas Perikanan, for fisheries and the Dinas Perhutanan for forestry. Prior to the implementation of this Code, the then Agency for Agricultural Extension had a network of 32 Agricultural Training Centers (BLPPs) and 343 Rural Extension Centers (BIPPs) based in the provinces and districts (kabupatens), respectively. These centers were equipped with what was then considered as high-end information and communication hardware. When the responsibility for these centers was transferred to the Dinas, most of them went exclusively to one Dinas, marginalizing the others from utilizing it. Another law, Republic Act Number 25 of 1999, distributed the budget for agricultural extension to the local governments, which had the liberty to reallocate it for other pressing priorities. Hence, money that was meant for extension activities were

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channeled elsewhere. This effectively weakened the information and communication capabilities of the agricultural extension force. As of today, the number of productive BIPPs have dwindled 343 to 28. Of the 32 BLPPs, 7 were retained by the Ministry and are operational. In a scoping study conducted for FAO, Flor (2004) observed that the GOI has since retraced its steps along this line. The Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (AARD) has made a strategic decision not to devolve its Assessment Institutes for Agricultural Technology (AIATS). In other words, Indonesia’s agricultural R&D network is still intact in spite of decentralization. Republic Act Number 8 of 2003 has limited the number of Dinases in each district to three unless certain criteria are met for establishing more. Additionally, the Ministry, although unable to exert any direct influence in decisions regarding agricultural extension programs at the local level, has decided to play its financial card. It has set guidelines in the release of budgets meant for extension. In Indonesia, devolution has emasculated the national agricultural extension system (Flor, 2002). Among the casualties was the agricultural information and communication system. In a devolved structure, there was no scope for national or regional communication programs. Moreover, the devolved services just did not have the capability to launch their own localized information and communication campaigns. The contribution of information and communication in mainstream extension gradually diminished since these were not supported by the current structure. The GOI has invested heavily and early into ICT for the basic delivery of services in the country. Considered to be the world’s largest archipelago, it was a strategic decision on the part of the government to do so. Indonesia was the first Southeast Asian country to launch its own satellite for telecommunications purposes. Furthermore, the country has pioneered in programs that promote rural access. The WARTEL (warung telepon or rural telephone service) and the WARNET (warung Internet or rural Internet service) have been present in Indonesia long before the Digital Divide became an issue in the developing world. However, Internet penetration is still one of the lowest in Southeast Asia, below that of Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. Furthermore, the noncommercial Internet backbone is not adequately tapped for agricultural extension. The MOA Center for Agricultural Database and Information (CADI), for instance, contracts the services of commercial ISPs for its district and sub-district level programs. The Ministry of Agriculture has adequate hardware, software and networking facilities up to the provincial level and, in some cases, the district level. In particular, four highend Sun Microsystems servers power CADI’s system. At the sub-district level and below, however, hardware is extremely lacking and aging. Although the potential for ICT infrastructure exits, it is not being adequately tapped for agricultural extension purposes. Indonesia’s Palapa satellite may be used for wireless technologies. The noncommercial Internet backbone should be developed and utilized accordingly. The Agency for Agricultural Extension and Training has since been renamed as the Agency for Agricultural Human Resource Development (AAHRD). Given the current devolved structure AAHRD cannot directly implement ICT programs at the field level for

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agricultural extension. However, a number of ICT-related programs are in the pipeline that may be linked to an agricultural extension ICT system for Indonesia. These are: the FAO TCP National Program for Food Security (NPFS); the ADB Poor Farmers Income Improvement through Innovation Project (PFI3P); and the World Bank Farmers’ Empowerment through Agricultural Technology and Information (FEATI). Furthermore, there are current FAO initiatives that are active in Indonesia such as the SPFS Asia Information Management System (SAIMS). On the other hand, the National Center for Agricultural Extension Development has expressed the need for a program strategy that combines ICT with traditional media most accessible in the rural areas. This again points towards innovative interfaces for last mile linkages. Although programs on agricultural extension ICT systems are lacking, there are opportunities to link-up with existing and up coming programs that relate directly to this area. Furthermore, an explicit and comprehensive last mile linkage strategy should be developed for Indonesian agricultural extension. This strategy should utilize: high end ICTs such as the Web, cable modem, PDAs, 3G Cellular telephony; low end ICTs such as cable television, SMS or rural radio; and indigenous media (Flor, 2004). As mentioned earlier, the AARD has strategically kept its AIATS and retained its nationwide agricultural research network. This network has given AARD the ability to implement field level activities from a national program perspective. Because of the vacuum left by the dismantling of the agricultural extension system, AARD has found itself carrying part of the extension burden in the countryside. Note that the content for innovative agricultural technologies is housed in the AIATs. This has a significant bearing in agriculture-related ICT4L in Indonesia. Insofar as market information is concerned it should be likewise noted that CADI developed a market information system that was piloted in Indramaya and Sukhabumi in collaboration with the Directorate General for Processing and Marketing. The ADB Poor Farmers Income Improvement through Innovation Project further pursued this. With the participation of the AIATs in the agricultural extension ICT system, content will be made available. Insofar as market information is concerned, CADI can potentially supply the content. Lao PDR. With a population of 5.5 million, Lao PDR has a total of 442,500 mobile and fixed lines resulting in a teledensity of 8.04. As regards to Internet service, it has a capacity of 5,700 dial up lines and 192 ADSL lines bringing the Internet penetration ratio to 2. Ninety-five out of 140 districts have public telephones. The Ministry of Communications, Transportation, Posts and Construction has been tasked to spearhead the development of the Lao telecommunications backbone. The initiative began with the China-Singapore Optical Fiber and Cable Project financed by a loan from Germany. A succeeding loan from China has resulted in 430 kilometers of fiber optic cables laid down and utilized locally (ADB, 2004). The development of the national telecommunications infrastructure has been divided into four phases. Phase 1 targeted the initial 430-kilometer backbone that traversed the

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Thailand and Vietnam borders from west to east of the country. Phase 2 covered 1,250 kilometers extending the backbone northwards and southwards. Phase 3 covered 1,500 kilometers further, extensions to the south and north as well as outlying peripheral areas. Phase 4 covers 1,500 kilometers of mostly peripheral areas in the north, for a total of 4.680 kilometers of fiber optic cables laid out nationwide. As in the case of Cambodia, the national government has placed much priority on ICT development. The lead agency for this is the Science, Technology and Environment Agency (STEA) of the Prime Minister’s Office. In 2004, STEA drafted the National Policy on Information and Communication Technology. Otherwise known as the Lao ePolicy, it contained ample provisions for the development of ICT in rural and remote areas. The ePolicy will pave the way for an ICT Master Plan (Flor, 2005). Likewise initiated was the eGovernment Project funded by KOIKA. The project will produce an eGovernment Plan within the framework of ASEAN integration. STEA ha also been charged in drafting the eCommerce Law. In the past five years, much progress has been made in the development of an eExtension platform for the agriculture sector. In particular, the National Agriculture and Fishery Research Institute (NAFRI) and the National Agriculture and Fishery Extension Service (NAFES) have made gains in the use of ICT for the storage, retrieval, sharing and reuse of agricultural knowledge and information (Riggs and Flor, 2005). Linkages between research and development institutions in Lao have been electronically established. A one-stop shop for agricultural information has also been launched by both NARFI and NAFES to serve farmers in rural and remote areas. In the case of Lao PDR, connectivity can only be assured down to the provincial level. The flow of services generates from the central or national government to the provincial government, down to the prefectures, the districts and on to the villages (Bestle, 2004). As in the case of Cambodia, there is a need to facilitate the flow of basic services down to the village level through the various ICT4R platforms. However, the GOL realizes that fulfilling the demand for eServices in rural and remote areas has to be done in phases. The provincial level needs to be linked to central government before the district level and the village level. Philippines. In the Philippines as in the rest of Asia, the use of the term ICT is hardly a decade old. Before 1996, the term most prevalently in use was IT or information technology. There were three factors that influenced the shift from IT to ICT: firstly, the marriage of telecommunications and information technology in the form of the Internet; the spawning of revolutionary Web-based applications, which required expertise not generally associated with IT; and the increasing recognition that the advent of new IT is transforming social processes that are often classified under the gamut of communication. ICT was indeed changing the corporate horizon, and its potential for catalyzing upheavals in the development sector as well was seriously considered. However, there

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were and still are, serious reservations about its applications in the development sector considering its classification as high-end or non-appropriate technology (Flor, 2005). After all, how can one talk about connectivity in rural areas when electricity itself is lacking? How can one assume computer literacy when functional literacy itself is a problem? Proponents of ICT argued along with leading economists that the portion of the gross national product of the Philippines attributable to information-related activities is getting larger and larger. The number of information workers is also increasing while the number of agricultural and industrial workers is decreasing (Flor, 1986). In other words, the Philippine economy is getting to be more and more information-based. Simultaneously, the realization that the world is turning into a global information society wherein information becomes the source of wealth and the most critical economic resource, has prompted development planners to support investments in ICTs. The international development assistance community has since been actively endorsing ICT as a thematic area that cuts across all sectoral concerns such as agriculture, health, the environment, and education (Flor, 2005). Thus, almost every development project proposed, funded and implemented contains an ICT component or element in the form of the design and development of information systems or the provision for public awareness employing digital tools. Government policy and programs have also been quite supportive. To the Arroyo Administration’s credit, a cabinet-level Commission on Information and Communication Technology has been established. The General Appropriations Act and financial injections from international funding agencies and the private sector have supported ICT programs in every line agency. Insofar as agricultural livelihoods are concerned, extension workers serve as the frontline support group for farmers, rural women and out-of-school youth. As in the case of Indonesia, the network of agricultural extension workers in the Philippines began disintegrating in the eighties due to reorganization within the Department of Agriculture and the devolution of basic services to local governments. The alternative deemed most logical under the circumstances was the use of ICT to re-establish a network of extension workers that would transcend devolved governmental structures (Flor and Hazelman, 2004). This response was the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture or OPAPA, a network of institutions providing education, training, extension, and communication in agriculture to farmers, and support service providers. It is an alliance of national, local, and international organizations that utilize and tap the potentials of existing infrastructure from the government and private sectors, their content and information databases, in an open environment. It links policymakers, researchers, service providers, markets, business organizations, and farm communities using ICT and distance learning.

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The Philippine Rice Research Institute or PhilRice serves as the lead agency or the official hub for OPAPA because of the institution’s advanced network infrastructure, trained ICT specialists and current initiatives in the promotion of hybrid rice technology, which is the pilot course offering of OPAPA. OPAPA is not a formal organization but a network of organizations. It is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and has no charter as an organization. Hence, it does not have a mission and vision statement. However, it is an active living network engaged in ODL at the nonformal level backed up by the most prestigious Philippine institutions in this area. Clearly, the OPAPA case merits closer study specifically in its impact on farmers’ livelihoods. Thailand. The Government of Thailand has prioritized the use of information and communication technology in bringing its services to the countryside through a comprehensive eGovernment policy. Championed by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the government has sponsored several initiatives along this line. Thailand has established a National Information Technology Committee made up of four modules covering agriculture, finance, industry and governance. All four clusters are linked to the Prime Minister’s Office (Flor and Hazelman, 2004). Furthermore, Thailand has enacted six ICT Laws, which includes the Digital Opportunity Law designed to provide grants to build rural telecenters. The general policy of the Thai Government to employ ICT in the delivery of basic services has set the tone for the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. Most of its line departments, including the Department of Agricultural Extension, have their own ICT programs. What may be lacking is an explicit policy for the integration of and coordination among these programs and systems. Such a policy would ensure that: efforts are not fragmented; no duplication of programs and systems occur; resources are not wasted; standards for ICT services are established; and synergy is created among the line departments. Thailand has a National Information Infrastructure Action Plan, which is divided into three components: the SchoolNet; public Internet services by CAT and TOT; and PubNet. Telephone density is pegged at 8 lines per one hundred persons for terrestrial services and more than 9 lines per one hundred persons for cellular services. There are a total of 24 Internet Service Providers: 18 commercial, 4 non-commercial and 2 domestic hubs. The National Electronics Technology and Computer Center (NECTEC), a quasigovernmental think-tank, provides government agencies with ICT solutions. However, bandwidth availability continues to be a pressing concern among field-level extension workers and farmer users. Insofar as information support for agricultural livelihoods is concerned, the Department of Agricultural Extension is well endowed with hardware, software and networking facilities up to the provincial level. Below this level, hardware is extremely lacking. Attempts have been made, however, to tap the Internet Tambon program for this “last mile linkage” and for community livelihood projects (Flor and Hazelman, 2004).

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The Thai ICT infrastructure for agricultural extension can best be strengthened through strategic interventions for the expanded access and use of the non-commercial research and education backbone instead of the commercial Internet backbone. Innovative interfaces between the Internet technologies and other media such as cable television, radio and cellular telephony should be explored as “last mile linkage” options. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has an IT Master Plan upon which the Department of Agriculture’s IT Master Plan is built. The DOA has an Information Service Center (DISC) that serves as the support unit to the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Information Officer. The Department of Agricultural Extension, on the other hand, has established an ICT Center exclusively devoted to the agency and extension services. It has likewise embarked upon a five-year Master Plan dubbed eExtension dovetailing the GOT’s eProvince initiative. The Master Plan, which began implementation in 2000, is now on its second phase. One of the most prominent stakeholders in the ICT for extension arena is the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. BAAC initiated its Agricultural Information Network (AIN) in 2002 offering several innovative products and services. Among these are: an agricultural information gateway that provides unified access to most of the agriculture-related databases of the GOI; eLearning for farmers; and the Pocket PC Project, that makes available a DA-powered decision support system (DSS) for farming/livelihood options. One of its high-end applications is the Global Mapper geospatial information systems (GIS) using CONUS satellite-generated base maps (Flor and Hazelman, 2004). BAAC has gone beyond credit provision services into information, education and communication services to farmers and housewives. Providing technical assistance to specific components of the bank’s AIN Program are the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the U.S. Trade Development Agency (USTDA), and the European Union (EU). As in the case of ICT policy, the Thai agricultural sector has adequate programs for the use of ICT in agricultural extension. However, these programs are only coordinated to a certain extent and not at all integrated. A case in point is the need for integration between the ICT programs, products and services of BAAC and the MOAC Department of Agricultural Extension. For Phase I (2000-2002) of the eExtension Master Plan, the ICT Center of the Department of Agricultural Extension has designed, developed and tested 21 data/information bases, all of which have been made available online. Eight of these data/information bases have administrative (MIS) applications accessed by staff over the Intranet while the remaining 13 have technical applications made available to DOAE clients over the Internet. The latter includes: the Agribusiness Network; the OnlIne Library on Agricultural Knowledge; the Plant Clinic; Agricultural Experts’ Directory;

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Success Stories; and the Web Board, an agricultural online discussion forum for farmers and experts. For Phase II (2003-2004), DOAE intends to set up the Contact Center for Agricultural Extension or CCExt with field level extension agents and farming communities as users. CCExt is designed as the DOAE’s knowledge management platform, an electronic system for the sharing and reuse of best practices and lessons learned among extension workers and farming communities. Initially, these best practices and lessons learned will be mined from the Web Board discussion forum. CCExt will eventually employ a Counter Service Real Time Web-based front-end. With CCExt, the DOAE is migrating from data management and information management to knowledge management. BAAC, on the other hand, makes their products and services available via satellite through their network of 370 branch-based nodes all over Thailand. It has entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with Kasetsart University for the provision of technical content. Furthermore, it interfaces with the MOAC Department of Agricultural Extension for selected agricultural information and field level activities (Flor and Hazelman, 2004). Content provision is the least of the Thai agricultural extension sectors problems. Research institutions and the academe provide technology and innovations. Economic, credit and financial information is provided by BAAC. There may be a need, however, for up-to-date reliable market information. VietNam. Flor (2005) observes that Vietnam has the highest developed ICT infrastructure among the three countries. Its approach to ICT development is also the most sophisticated. The National Institute of Posts and Telematics has put forward a three-way model to illustrate the key components of ICT in Viet Nam. These key components are:   

Users - consume products and services; indirectly influence business investments; interact with businesses and government. Government – provides laws, institutions and policies; conducts regulation, supervision and coordination; conducts training, international cooperation; provides support and facilitation. Businesses – make investments; deliver products, services and training; promotes and develops markets; works with government.

These three components are said to interact within four areas: infrastructure; applications; human resource; and industry. Another facet of the Viet Nam ICT policy environment is legislation. A US$ 860 thousand grant has been awarded by KOIKA to the GOVN to fund the Drafting of the ICT Law. The project is now in the final stage and the draft will soon be submitted to the National Assembly. The ICT Law includes provisions on eGovernance and eCommerce. MPT has also prepared a proposal for the IT Industry Master Planning that would be funded by

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JICA. The proposal has already been submitted to the Ministry of Planning and Investment for consideration. Lastly, the Ministry of Posts and Telematics and the National Institute of Post and Telematics is currently implementing a US$ 80 Million ICT loan project funded by the World Bank. Executing agencies other than the MPT and NIPT are the cities of Danang, Hanoi, Ho Chin Minh, and the Government Statistics Office. The project will: review of existing ICT infrastructure; promote ICT standards; establish an eGovernance platform powered by GIS; establish an eCommerce platform; develop an ICT HRP Plan; conduct assessments and strategy development; and develop a roadmap for ICT4D. At the community level, this undertaking may result to solid gains in ICT4L. National Policy and Agricultural Livelihoods The existing infrastructure and policy environment for most of the countries analyzed reflect a conscious effort of governments to bring to bear new ICTs to improve agricultural livelihoods. China and the Philippines are focusing their efforts on the provision of agricultural knowledge and skills to extension workers, rural women and farmers through CABTS and OPAPA respectively. Indonesia and Thailand are embarking on district and provincial level market information undertakings. Cambodia, through the Ministry of Agriculture’s Council for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) has adopted ICT4L as a national level agenda. A study of the infrastructure and policy environment, however, can only reveal government initiated programs at the national and local scale. Seldom does this reflect ICT4L at the community level. In the Philippines, for instance, the Infanta Community Development Association, Inc. or ICDAI, a community NGO based in two municipalities of Quezon province, has succeeded to increase the productivity of rice farmers from an average of 6 tons per hectare to 9 tons per hectare through knowledge sharing and reuse, which involves, among other things, the use of mobile phones. Although a cause and effect relationship cannot be established due to the lack of documentation and evaluation studies, the ICDAI experience provides a strong argument for the direct correlation between ICT use and agricultural productivity. However, there may be a variety of intervening factors. Key Projects Within the aforementioned policy and infrastructure environment, what ICT4L interventions have prospered? What were their livelihood outcomes? What were the key features of success? Aside from the projects mentioned in the above review, the following provides a list of key initiatives available in grey literature found in the World Wide Web. A project profile matrix describing most of these initiatives follows.

Cambodia:

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Providing Basic Services to Cambodian Communes and Villages through ICT Indonesia:

Home workers and ICTs (linked to Malaysia and Thai studies) Poor Farmers’ Income Improvement through Innovation

Lao PDR:

ICTs in Support of Tourism Development eCommunity Centers to Improve Local Governance

Malaysia:

Integrated Tools Development Home workers and ICTs (linked to Indonesian and Thai studies)

Philippines:

Low-Cost IT Center Village Phone at Work

Thailand:

Home workers and ICTs in Southeast Asia (Linked to Malaysia and Indonesia) The BAAC Agricultural Information Network

VietNam:

ICT for poverty alleviation in the VietNam Highlands Development of eCommunity Centers in the Central Region

Pacific Islands: Development of Sustainable Agriculture in the Pacific HELP (Health, Education, Livelihood, Participation) Resources

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Country Cambodia

Malaysia

Descriptive Level Title/Name Community National Access to Computers Project

Integrated Tools Group Development (women) Project

Papua New HELP Resources Community Guinea (Health, Education, Livelihood, and Participation)

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Objectives/Goals To achieve universal access to ICTs

Livelihood Funding Initial Outcomes Investment Evolution of locally IDRC 1,462,400 driven cooperative (CA$) enterprises to manage ICT services for all community sectors

Key Features Small grants provision Capacity building

Networking among Cambodian researchers, and the sharing of experiences with neighboring Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam To assist disadvantaged women who are  Development UNDP/ Pan- USD 29,947 Improving access: Use of an integrated platform to confined to their homes due to Asia R&D manage supply chain through a not-for-profit entity of technical disabilities and other circumstances. like eHomemakers, a model for poverty reduction supply chain Grant using entrepreneurial principles and ICTs was and marketing The project explores the possibility of created. solutions. developing an integrated system of ICT tools such as computers, the Internet, Gender dimension: The ICT platform expanded  Increased telephone, Short Message System (SMS), further to allow women to participate in capacities of facsimile and others to free the women eHomemakers’ gender governance framework women to offer from the confines of their homes. where women own and manage the information marketable Through utilization of tools already network for and by them. skills available to them, or supplied through this project, the women can provide Social capital formation through networking.  Income products and services to the external generation market. To meet the Information and Communication, Training and Capacity Building and Networking needs of local communities, groups and communitybased organizations that are keen to undertake sustainable development initiatives

Increased capacities

Bread for K350,000 perHELP Resources currently operates: the World, year and OXFAM  a development focused library, with print, video, New audio and CD based resources Zealand  a desktop publishing service, including translation, editing and graphic design

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Country

Descriptive Title/Name

Level

Objectives/Goals

Livelihood Outcomes

Funding

Initial Investment

Key Features 

Philippines Low-Cost IT Community To bring low cost IT and services to Increased Center for the communities throughout the Philippines capacities Philippines

UNDP/ Pan- USD 9,000 Asia R&D Grant

Three principles ensure positive outcomes, sustainability and replication:   

Philippines Village Phone At Work

South-East Asia (Thailand, Indonesia,

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a training unit that can research, conceive, write, design and deliver appropriate training and adult learning curriculum

low initial cost; targeted services for the community based on a pay-what-you-can principle; and building of local skills to maintain and repair the IT center after sponsors has departed.

Community Village Phone Direct uses existing Increased incomes Grameen Not Gender dimension mobile communications products and for VPOs Foundation indicated does not require the same level of amounting to Micro-financing engagement from the US$5-6/ week. telecommunications company. This Higher sales Networking model allows virtually any microfinance volume in VPOs institution (MFI) to directly develop and primary livelihood Village Phone Direct was a finalist in the 2008 GSMA implement a Village Phone product for (small retail stores, Global Mobile Awards for the "Best Use of Mobile their clients and to select the local local eateries and for Social and Economic Development” telecommunications provider from which the like) to purchase the pre-paid airtime. Home workers Community To carry out a participatory study to IDRC PAN USD 165,520 and ICTs in identify and document the issues Increased access to R&D Grant Gender dimension: eHomemakers project is a model South-East Asia surrounding home-based work; telecoms for all teleworkers and e-entrepreneurs, proving that women can break new grounds with ICT usage, and

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Country

Descriptive Title/Name

Level

Malaysia)

Objectives/Goals

Livelihood Outcomes To understand how ICTs can address Increased social specific social economic challenges and capital gender barriers facing women home workers in South East Asia. Increased incomes

Funding

Initial Investment

Key Features have the ability to balance home and career Improving access: Creation of trilingual Internet portal catering to women homemakers. Networking: Website enables visitors to improve efficiency of home-based work, embark on entrepreneurship, exchange ideas and experiences, and ask questions of experts in working from home or starting an internet business.

South Pacific DSAP – Community (Papua New Development of Guinea, Sustainable Samoa, Fiji, Agriculture in Tonga, the Pacific Kiribati.) Thailand Agriculture National Information Network Project

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To increase sustainable agricultural production of farm families.

NGO (European Increased provision Union) Increased access

“Missing Link” Hypothesis: Establishing linkages with basic services providers including local agricultural offices, health offices, schools and NGOs

of basic services This project aims to create a model of integrated agricultural information gathered by domestic and international organizations engaged in agricultural research in Thailand. The project developed a model to analyze agricultural areas at risk from floods, droughts, and landslides based on geographical information system (GIS).

Increased sharing NECTEC, of information BAAC, MOAC Increased disaster preparedness

Not Public-Private Sector Partnership: The agricultural Mentioned information network benefit farming communities through a data clearing house system that integrates information from public and private organizations. Early Warning Systems: Established an Internet GIS system that shows areas at risk from flooding, drought, and landslides. Precision Agriculture: The GIS can be used to manage areas at the community level. A system of image recording and image information management.

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Country Vietnam

Descriptive Title/Name ICT for enhancing people's capacity and poverty alleviation in the highlands

Level

Objectives/Goals

Livelihood Funding Initial Key Features Outcomes Investment Community: Enhancing capacity of people in doing Increased access to Not Not reports via ICT- Improving technology in ICTs mentioned mentioned Missing Link Hypothesis: Provided information links Indigenous Communication, Health care Education , to basic services providers peoples in Agricultural production - Handicraft Increased the production and communication system awareness of Transferability: Initial trained group can serve as Konplong of Cooperatives in project areas health services trainers for the following training program to district, Kon Objectives: Enhancing capacity of people transfer their ICT knowledge to other people at the Tum in the Konplong district, Kon Tum Increased Cultural Community House - so more people can province province for using ICT to improve their capacities have access to ICT. livelihood.

Table 1. Matrix of ICTs for Rural Livelihoods Projects Sampled in the Southeast Asian and Pacific Regions

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Best Practice and Lessons Learned We may cull a number of observations on ICT4L best practice and lessons learned in the preceding literature review. At this point, preliminary answers to the research questions forwarded by the Scoping Study can be given, based on these observations. Specific Livelihood Outcomes of ICT4L. On the basis of cases found in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, specific livelihood outcomes linked with ICT are: 1. Increased access to information and communication technologies. 2. Increased capacities of rural groups, particularly rural women, to offer marketable skills. 3. Increased awareness and availing of basic services by communities as well as linkages with government service providers in the agriculture, health, education, micro-finance and disaster preparedness sectors. 4. Increased incomes among families. 5. Higher sales volume in users’ primary livelihoods (e.g. small retail stores, local eateries, local transport provision) as in the case of village phone operators or VPOs. 6. Development and evolution of support mechanisms and locally driven enterprises such as technical supply chains, marketing solutions, and other ICT-related services that assist the community and generate additional employment opportunities and incomes as well. 7. Increased social capital generated through information sharing and networking among groups, particularly women. Conditions Under Which ICT4L Interventions Produce Outcomes. There appears to be a number of conditions for these outcomes. Firstly, ICT4L projects are more likely to succeed as secondary livelihoods, that is, if it is associated with already pre-existing primary livelihoods in the community, such as small retail stores, marketing cooperatives, food service providers, transport providers, micro-finance establishments, and others. The demand for ICT services increase with the presence of these primary livelihoods. Secondly, ICT4L projects are more likely to succeed if women groups run these. Thirdly, ICT4L projects are more likely to succeed if these are linked to basic services providers such as government agencies involve in agriculture, health and education sectors. This observation validates Calvano’s “missing link hypothesis” discussed in Part A of Chapter II, wherein the level of telecommunications infrastructure AGFlor

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development has been directly correlated with levels of utilization by thematic sectors. Fourthly, ICT4L projects are more likely to be sustainable with the use of intermediaries and personalized user-friendly technologies such as mobile phones in the VPO Project (Philippines). Fifthly, ICT4L projects are more likely to be sustainable if it has a capacity building component as in the case of the Home Workers and ICTs Project (Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand) and the Community Access to Computer Project (Cambodia). Sixthly, ICT4L projects are more likely to be sustainable with public-private sector partnerships and cost sharing as in the case of the Thai Agricultural Information Network. Lastly, ICT4L projects are more likely to have better outcomes if they are not technology-driven or donor-driven. Gender and Social Dimensions. Possible causes of the above seven conditions are explained herein. Gender. It may be considered sexist to conclude that ICT4L projects run by women are more successful. However, sex may have little to do with it. A specific gender trait may explain this observation. Casual observation reveals that rural women’s groups, particularly in Southeast Asia, tend to be more closely knit than farmers’ groups or youth groups. Perhaps this is a function of their circumstances since women have more time to spend with one another during work and leisure times. Furthermore, they can relate and empathize with one another’s roles and challenges. It is clear that rural women’s groups tend to possess more social capital. Thus, women’s networks appear to benefit more from the so-called Network Effect. Social Capital. The concept of social capital figures out prominently in a discussion of social dimensions. In recent years, economists and sociologists alike have been closely studying a factor, which has been deemed as a necessary element in the development equation. This factor is called social capital as distinguished from financial capital, resource capital and intellectual capital. Social capital has been defined as the capacity of groups to work together for the common good (Montgomery, 1998) or as the ability to draw on relationships with others especially on the basis of trust and reciprocity (HDR, 1998). The sociological definition of social capital is trust, reciprocity and mutuality that are inherent in social relationships (Cox, 1996). Robinson & Hanson (1995) forwarded an economic definition that describes social capital as the institutional dimension of transactions, markets and contracts. To the above definitions, we would venture to add another, which may be considered as communicational in nature. Simply put, social capital is the economic value AGFlor

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obtained in institutional or individual networking. Note that reciprocity and mutuality, two concepts contained in the sociological definition, are variables central to networks and network analysis. However, social capital must be measured in economic terms. Networking. Another social dimension of ICT4L is networking. Perhaps the most popular IT adage is found in Moore’s Law, which states that, technology-wise, computing power doubles every eighteen months. A lesser-known IT principle is the Network Effect. Otherwise known as Metcalf’s Law, after the head of the Ethernet development team, the Network Effect states that the total value of a network where each node can reach every other node grows with the square of the number of nodes. David Reed, a sociologist and community development expert, applied Metcalf’s Law to social networks and arrived at a similar conclusion. Social capital may increase exponentially through Intra and Internet connectivity. How may social capital increase in a networked environment? The following reasons are given:  Superimposing electronic networks on social networks allow individuals to cross easily between these networks  Electronic networks provide pathways, bridges. doors and entry points between and among online community infrastructures  Access to the World Wide Web increases the potential social capital of a community through the augmentation of its knowledge capital. Due to: the synergy produced in working together as a group; the use of a common platform; and the knowledge resources in the World Wide Web available to them individually and as a group, the potential social capital of a group increases exponentially. More so with women’s groups, it appears. Conscientization. A third social dimension is education. How does education contribute to positive ICT4L outcomes? The obvious answer is that it builds up knowledge and skills that capacitates an individual or a group to earn a living. However, there is more to education than capacity building. A higher social goal of education is conscientization. Conscientization can be made possible through ICTs, particularly video capture and playback, functionalities found in most mobile phone models nowadays. Much has been written about the power of video to act as an electronic mirror that brings a social problem to the fore of a community agenda. An early illustration of conscientization through video and how it addresses poverty may be found in the Fogo Process. In the late sixties, the island of Fogo was one of the most depressed areas within the Commonwealth of Canada. Situated off Notre Dame Bay, the island is chiefly populated by farm families. In 1967, a film crew from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation visited Fogo to film a documentary on the islanders' poverty. What resulted was a television feature that presented a superficial and at times erroneous depiction of Fogo life. The film documentary was essentially a subjective AGFlor

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interpretation and, hence, a product of the filmmakers’ creative process. This generated a lot of resentment from local officials who knew of the genuine situation in Fogo. To present what they felt was a more accurate picture of poverty in Fogo, Colin Low of the Agricultural Extension Service approached a Canadian filmmaker, Don Snowden, known for his documentary work. They collaborated on a film that eventually had a very profound, and yet inadvertent effect on the subjects of the film and their community. This effect was an outcome of the innovative documentary technique that Low and Snowden employed. This technique may best be described as participatory documentation. Low and Snowden avoided any tendency to impose their opinions and perspectives on their subjects and saw to it that these were not reflected in the film. In other words, they presented the situation from their subjects’ eyes, ears and experiences. What was even more innovative was the processing of the documentary in their subjects’ minds. The Fogo islanders were shown the film rushes, the rough edits and the final edits. Not only did they participate in the editing. They were actually processing these images and sounds in their minds, eventually, bringing Fogo poverty into their consciousness allowing them an opportunity to collectively validate its causes. This collective validation led to collective action against the conditions that caused poverty. Participation and Web 2.0. The Fogo Process began with participation initiated social reflection, which resulted in collective action or mobilization. Nowadays, a parallel may be seen in the participatory content provision of Web 2.0 Insofar as social dimensions are concerned, a final consideration should be the impetus that drives ICT4L undertakings. There are concerns related to current ICT4L program rationale and design. What are the determinants of the elements of a program design? Are these based on assessed needs or are these donor-driven? Are these determined by a social agenda or are they technology driven? The Village Phone Direct and the eHomemakers Project are definitely based on assessed needs. However, some of the ICT4L cases given above may indeed be described as technology driven or donor driven. There is nothing wrong with such projects particularly if they are funded by grant money, and not by loan funds. However, the relevance and sustainability of an undertaking would be immensely enhanced if the impetus for the project came from a real and felt need. Furthermore, donor-driven or technology-driven initiatives tend not to foster project ownership within the community. Replicability of Interventions and Outcomes. Two of the conditions mentioned that influence outcomes of ICT4Lrelate to replicability. These are:  ICT4L projects are more likely to succeed as secondary livelihoods, that is, if it is associated with already pre-existing primary livelihoods in the community, such as small retail stores, marketing cooperatives, food service providers, transport

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providers, micro-finance establishments, and others. The demand for ICT services increase with the presence of these primary livelihoods.  ICT4L projects are more likely to succeed if these are linked to basic services providers such as government agencies involve in agriculture, health and education sectors. These conditions may be attributed to the fact that technology is merely one of five dimensions in the development process, the others being: economics; values; social structures; and culture (Flor, 2002). Thus, ICT4L cannot exist and be treated separately from other development initiatives within the community. In fact, it has to be closely linked with other initiatives. Communities of Practice. Unfortunately, many of us involved in ICT4D, in general, and ICT4L, in particular, treat this as exclusive development initiatives. A case in point is our preoccupation on information sharing and reuse, particularly in eAgriculture communities of practice of COPs. The eAgriculture community engages communities of practice or CoPs to generate solutions to agricultural problems. Traditionally, communities of practice engage in information exchange, what has been quoted often enough as "the sharing and reuse of information." This approach is patterned after the corporate KM Model of Davenport et al. (1995). However, in many cases, the initiative ends there. The failure of this approach when applied to development stems from the fact that it stops short from mobilizing sectors and does not go beyond information and knowledge sharing. There are, of course, exceptions within the eAgriculture community such as Solutions Exchange India, but by and large, CoPs should live up to its name by engaging in practice. CoPs should disseminate information to correct unsound policies (e.g., land conversion), uninformed decisions (e.g., biofuel production), unwarranted practices (e.g., using staples as animal feed), and inaccurate predictions and forecasts, all of which are part of the entropy that is causing spiraling food prices and artificial food shortages. In other words, CoPs should engage in advocacy. We should note that the CoP concept was a progression from the CoIs or communities of interest that characterized the early Internet workgroups that essentially shared notes, information and insights on common areas of interest, beginning with CERN physics and Internet protocols. When CoIs began solving common problems, this brought the workgroup concept to the next level, the CoP. However, many of today’s CoPs offer solutions to problems but stop short of implementing these solutions, preferring to adopt the KM business protocol of sharing and reuse. The problems that confront eAgriculture nowadays are at a scale that often requires policy interventions, not technological solutions. We have fully dealt out the technological card by engaging into GMO research and precision agriculture. CoPs must now delve into the policy process and progress into communities of champions or CoCs. Thus from CoIs that share information and CoPs that share solutions, AGFlor

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eAgriculture must move into CoCs that mobilize sectors through information, knowledge and advocacy. This should hold true with the entire ICT4D community, including ICT4L proponents. To ensure replicability of ICT4L initiatives, ENRAP3 should ascertain that these go beyond the provision, sharing and reuse of information or knowledge. These initiatives should lead to action and community mobilization. They should be closely linked with other nodes involves with such, particularly agencies that provide basic services to the community. Critical Mass Theory. Another related consideration is the Critical Mass Theory, which drives home not only the possibility of replication but the desirability and necessity of such to achieve larger impacts. In physics, a critical mass is that amount of radioactive material necessary to produce nuclear fission. Since the eighties, social scientists have been applying this term to refer to the number of early adopters necessary to steer the rest of the population into collective action. The Critical Mass Theory developed by Oliver, Marwell & Teixeira (1985) attempts to answer: the following questions: What are the conditions for sustained collective action? When does a development intervention assume a life of its own? The theory was tested through empirical research on, among others, early adopters of rice production technology. In 1987 Markus applied the Critical Mass Theory to interactive media. Generally, these research found that sustained collective action is triggered when a core of members (10 -15 %) within a group or community engages in mutually reinforcing reciprocal behavior. When such conditions are achieved within a given population, a so-called critical mass is formed, ensuring the spread of such behavior throughout the population. A very clear example of this phenomenon is the spread of texting or the use of the SMS functionality in cellular phones in the Philippines. When a core of 10 to 15 percent of cellular phone users began reinforcing one another’s utilization through the exchange of SMS messages, the rest of the population migrated to GSM and followed suit making it more popular that telephone calls or voice mail (Flor, 2004). Hence, the above interventions and outcomes must be replicable in order for these to reach the critical mass of users that would produce desired impacts at a societal scale. Scalability of Interventions and Outcome.These interventions and outcomes must likewise be scalable at the provincial and national levels. In fact, the larger the scale, the bigger the impact these may have on countryside development. Again, the impact and sustainability of ICT4L will only be assured if critical numbers of participant-users are reached. Validating Scoping Study Observations with Current Frameworks The preceding section has discussed outcomes and factors as observed in ICT4L best practice in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. However, are these observations general AGFlor

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enough to be incorporated in a research framework? How valid are these observations? The following chapter campares the above observations with elements of existing ICT4L frameworks.

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Part B. Relevant ICT4L Frameworks The preceding section discussed the state of information and communication technology for rural livelihoods in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, observed livelihood outcomes, as well as explanations on the conditions that lead to these outcomes. This section presents relevant frameworks in the study of ICT4L available in current literature. It refers liberally to the ODI-DFID-FAO-InfoDev output. Although the terms of reference of this engagement states that the review of literature may make reference to, but not overlap with the ODI endeavor, this current work does not only adopt the ODI framework for purposes of consistency, but more importantly builds upon it. Initially, the review provides the developmental, methodological, analytical and implementation contexts for ENRAP3-ICT4L. Then, it discusses the ODI framework and its research applications, specifically within the Southeast Asian and Pacific environments. As stated in the Inception and Midterm Reports, the ODI initiative may not have been able to adequately cover Asia, particularly Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The Asian context is quite unique from the African or Latin American contexts. In Asia, particularly in Southeast Asia, one finds the richest and the poorest, the best endowed and the least endowed countries, ICT-wise. Thus, the framework in general, and the basic principles, in particular, may need validation in the Southeast Asian setting, considering the current emphasis on an evidence-based approach. This review has adopted a number of assumptions in its analysis. Firstly, information and communication technology for rural livelihoods falls within the scope of the Millennium Development Goals. Secondly, ENRAP3-ICT4L research should not be thought of merely as a theory building exercise but should primarily be considered as part and parcel of the monitoring and evaluation efforts to measure progress and identify adjustments required towards the fulfillment of the MDGs. Thus, theoretical and conceptual frameworks are not elaborated upon in succeeding chapters. The approach adopted is Management for Development Results or MfDR. Thirdly, the ENRAP-ICT4L research framework should be consistent with the ICT4L project implementation framework. In short, this paper situates the ENRAP3-ICT4L research framework within the MDGs, employing MfDR techniques, within the ODI-DFID-FAO livelihoods approach. Developmental Context The Millennium Development Goals. Goal Number 1 of the MDGs is the eradication of extreme hunger and poverty. Goal Number 8 is to develop a global partnership for development through increased Internet access or penetration and the use of new

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information and communication technologies.3 These twin goals pertain specifically to ICT4L. Management for Development Results Approach. Since, development efforts worldwide are guided by the Millennium Development Goals, the international development assistance community has committed to assist developing countries in achieving these targets by 2015. Each investment made by the international development assistance community is meant to contribute incrementally to annual targets leading to 2015. The monitoring and evaluation of the progress in attaining these incremental targets should guide the management of ICT for rural livelihoods projects. Progress in attaining incremental targets is best assessed with results-based performance indicators.4 These indicators must be standardized across sectors (e.g., agriculture, education, etc.), programs (e.g., microfinance, community infrastructure, etc.) and projects (e.g., village phones, CoPs, telecenters, etc.). The yardstick by which ICT4L projects should be gauged is performance. Results or performance-based management is now the M&E approach of choice within the international development assistance community. Marrying the Millennium Development Goals with results based management (RBM) results in what is commonly referred to as MfDR or Management for Development Results. 5 Under this system, the logic behind any development intervention is considered at the very onset. How will the inputs of the undertaking generate outputs? How will these outputs lead to desired outcomes? Will these outcomes contribute to the expected impact? The MFDR approach likewise takes economic efficiencies into consideration as well as outputs stated in its logframe and their respective indicators. For ENRAP3-ICT4L, the MfDR approach should guide the development of logical frameworks, which will form the basis of the monitoring, evaluation and research efforts. Methodological Context Planning Framework. This paper adopts the logical framework approach (LFA) to planning. LFA is an analytical, presentational and management tool which can help planners: analyze the existing situation; establish a logical hierarchy of means by which objectives will be reached; identify the potential risks to achieving the objectives, and to sustainable outcomes; establish how outputs and outcomes might best be monitored and evaluated; present a summary in a standard format; and monitor and review the implementation of the plan.6 A distinction should be made 3

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/. Accessed 13 June 2008.

4

Asian Development Bank. 2007. Guidelines for Preparing a Design and Monitoring Framework. Manila 5

Asian Development Bank. 2006. An Introduction to Results Management: Principles, Implications and Applications. Manila 6

AusAID.2003. The Logical Framework Approach. Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.

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between the logical framework approach and the logical framework matrix. LFA involves problem analysis, stakeholder analysis, developing a hierarchy of objectives and selecting a preferred implementation strategy. The result of this approach is the logical framework matrix or simply, the logframe. This matrix summarizes the basis of the plan and its specific activities, as well as the key assumptions, outputs and outcomes. Table 1 is a tabular description of the Logframe.

Table 2. Logical Framework Matrix Analytical Context Sustainable Livelihoods Approach. Perhaps one of the most serious indictments of Information and communication technology for rural livelihoods is its seeming lack of sustainability. This criticism may have some merit considering the challenges faced: the prohibitive costs of new technologies; the rapid obsolescence of ICTs; the donordriven nature of most ICT4L undertakings; the lack of media literacy among stakeholders; and the need for intermediaries who cannot commit their time on a sustained basis. And yet, ICT4L needs to be sustainable in order to move up from the status of a project and assume that of a going concern. In fact, sustainability is a feature of all successful livelihood projects. These would graduate, so to speak, from being projects AGFlor

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to long-term undertakings. However, experience has shown that sustainability is a function of a complex cluster of factors. Much has been written on the sustainable livelihoods approach. However, there is a general agreement that sustainable livelihoods are guided by a set of basic principles. Sustainable livelihoods should: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

focus on people not resources, be developed and implemented through dialogue and participation, be demand-driven with feedback loops, build on strengths rather than focus on constraints, develop or support appropriate policies, institutions and processes, foster micro-macro linkages, focus on outcomes not outputs.7

Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. Chapman et al (undated) discussed DFID’s Sustainable Livelihoods Framework within the context of ICT4L.8 The framework is conceived as the interaction of capital assets, transforming structures and processes, and livelihood strategies. The interaction is situated within a vulnerability context (i.e., trends, shocks, culture and environment) that may determine livelihood outcomes. Capital assets are classified into: natural; physical; financial; human; and social capital. Transforming structures refer to levels of government (national or local) and private sector structures while institutions refer to laws and policies. Livelihood outcomes are categorized as: increased income; reduced vulnerability; improved food security; and sustainable use of natural resources. Figure 1 presents DFID’s Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. (SLF)

7

http://www.odi.org.uk/RAPID/Projects/R0176. Accessed 15 May 2008 Robert Chapman et al. (undated) Livelihoods Approaches to Information and Communication in Support of Rural Poverty Elimination and Food Security. London: ODI 8

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DFID’s SLF simplifies the outcomes of ICT4L interventions into four: increased income; reduced vulnerability; improved food security; and sustainable use of natural resources. With this Scoping Study, however, we identified specific livelihood outcomes linked with ICT:  Increase in access to information and communication technologies.  Increase in capacities of rural groups, particularly rural women, to offer marketable skills.  Increase in awareness and availing of basic services by communities as well as linkages with government service providers in the agriculture, health, education, micro-finance and disaster preparedness sectors.  Higher sales volume in users’ primary livelihoods (e.g. small retail stores, local eateries, local transport provision).  Development and evolution of support mechanisms and locally driven enterprises such as technical supply chains, marketing solutions, and other ICT-related services that assist the community and generate additional employment opportunities and incomes as well.  Increase in social capital generated through information sharing and networking among groups. For purposes of ENRAP3-ICT4L, we may classify the DFID outcomes as primary order ICT4L outcomes and the Scoping Study outcomes as higher order ICT4L outcomes. Livelihoods Wheel. Central to the framework is the concept of capital assets and how information strengthens, solidifies and builds up these assets. The contribution of information to capital assets may be illustrated through the Livelihoods Information Wheel (Figure 2). DFID classifies two types of information required in sustainable livelihoods. Firstly, core information or knowledge (A) gathered through education, training, technical support and assistance. Secondly, context-specific information or knowledge (B) that apply to the livelihoods involved (e.g., production and post-harvest technologies, weather forecasts, or market information). These include information provided by extension workers, NGOs or local knowledge within the community itself.

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As presented in Figure 2, core information or knowledge is both central and relevant to all types of capital assets. Context-specific information, on the other hand, is applicable to specific types of capital only. Implementation Context ICT Knowledge Map. As stated in the Inception Report, the Midterm Report and the introductory part of this chapter, the major sources of documentation, lessons, insights and frameworks on ICT4L is the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) based in the United Kingdom. Beginning 2001 onwards, ODI has partnered with the UK Department of International Development (DFID), the World Bank InfoDev, FAO and IDRC, jointly or separately, to undertake several initiatives on ICT4RL or ICT4L. Their undertakings ranged from regional, country and community program or project reviews capturing experiences and mining knowledge that have been published in several monographs, policy papers and websites, collaboratively maintained with its partners, the latest of which is the RAPID or Research and Policy in Development program website (Chapman et Al, undated; ODI, 2001; ODI, 2003; RAPID, 2007). The most notable contribution of the ODI initiative is the Enhancing the Livelihoods of the Rural Poor Through ICD Knowledge Map, which among other things, presents a sound framework for the implementation of ICT4L. Eight Basic Principles. The framework identified eight principles for successful ICD4L planning and implementation: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Adapt content to local context; Build on existing systems and work within existing policies; Address diversity; Build capacity; Ensure equitable access and empowerment; Build partnership networks; Adopt realistic approaches to technology; and Share information costs.

These principles have been subsequently incorporated into FAO's Bridging the Rural Digital Divide (BRDD) Program, and their leadership of the e-Agriculture working group established at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, 2005. They are not at all inconsistent with the findings of the Scoping Study that ICT4L outcomes may be influenced by the following conditions:  ICT4L projects are more likely to succeed as secondary livelihoods, that is, if it is associated with already pre-existing primary livelihoods in the community.  ICT4L projects are more likely to succeed if women groups run these.  ICT4L projects are more likely to succeed if these are linked to basic services providers such as government agencies involve in agriculture, health and education sectors.

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 ICT4L projects are more likely to be sustainable with the use of intermediaries and personalized user-friendly technologies.  ICT4L projects are more likely to be sustainable if it has a capacity building component.  ICT4L projects are more likely to be sustainable with public-private sector partnerships and cost sharing.  ICT4L projects are more likely to have better outcomes if they are not technologydriven or donor-driven. Evidenced-Based Approach. As mentioned earlier, another noteworthy contribution of the ODI initiative is the evidence-based approach to policy and operational frameworks for knowledge systems in support of rural livelihoods (Rudgard et al, 2003). Inspired by the evidence-based policy (EBP) concept promoted by the UK government since 1997, this approach ensures an empirical basis for policies and programs on ICT4L that would lead to sound investments and investment modalities. In this regard, ODI offers a series of evidence-based, sound recommendations on the conduct of ICT4L. These recommendations are based on several sectoral applications such as agriculture, healthcare, microfinance, education, land adiminstration and management, governance and disaster relief and preparedness. These are based on several country snapshots and case studies. Asia may not have been adequately represented in the research.9 However, this Scoping Study provides additional data to cover Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Summary of Framework Recommendations Compared with some of the elements of the frameworks reviewed such as the MDGs, these outcomes and conditions are perhaps more relevant to the community and grassroots level. However, these are not inconsistent with the given frameworks. Thus, the review suggests an ENRAP3-ICT4L research framework that: 1. assesses ICT4L strategies on the basis of the seven basic principles of sustainable livelihoods and the eight basic principles of ICT4L. 2. evaluates ICT4L projects on the provision of core and context-specific information and the existence of conditions identified in the Scoping Study 3. measures results and performance based on livelihood indicators specified in a logical framework, based on the DFID SLF and this Scoping Study; 4. reviews the undertaking on the basis of the Millenium Development Goals. There exists an internal logic to these conclusions: livelihood strategies lead to ICT4L projects; projects lead to results; and results contribute to the MDGs. Similarly, the basic principles lead to provision of core and context specific information; the provision of information leads to livelihood outcomes; and livelihood outcomes contribute to the eradication of hunger and poverty.

9

www.ict4l.info/HomePage. Accessed 15 May 2008

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STRATEGIES

Seven Basic Principles of Sustainable Livelihoods Eight Basic principles of ICT4L Knowledge Mapping

ICT4L PROJECTS

Provision of core information & context-specific information; Presence of conditions identified in the Scoping Study

RESULTS/ PERFORMANCE (Evidence Based)

Outcomes specified in logframes and based on DFID SLA and the Scoping Study

Goal 1. Eradication of extreme hunger and poverty.

MDGs

Goal 8. Development of a global partnership for development through increased Internet access and the use of new information and communication technologies

Figure 3. Logical Progression from ICT4L TO MDGs

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III. PROPOSED FRAMEWORKS FOR ENRAP3-ICT4L An ideal research framework for ICT4L should: be situated within the MDGs; employ MfDR techniques; be based by the sustainable livelihoods approach; and be guided by the evidence-based approach. More importantly, it should be founded on an explicit strategic framework. Furthermore, its variables should correspond with indicators identified in project designs and logical frameworks. Based on the preceding review of literature, the following frameworks for CT4L are proposed: a strategic framework; a logical framework template; a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework; and an ENRAP3 action research framework. Strategic Framework A strategic framework provides the vision, mission and goal statements of information and communication technology for rural livelihoods in the Southeast Asian and Pacific sub-regions. It enumerates the strategic thrusts and programs that would achieve the goal. Vision. The vision of ICT4L is freedom from hunger and poverty for rural and periurban communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Mission. The mission of ICT4L is to eradicate hunger and poverty in rural and periurban communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific through information and communication technology programs/ projects that provide core and context-specific information and knowledge for livelihoods. Goals. The twin goals of ICT4L are: 

to contribute to the eradication of hunger and poverty in rural and peri-urban communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific through ICT programs that support livelihoods by 2015; and



to contribute to achieving global partnerships for development through Internet access and new ICTs by 2015.

Strategic Thrusts. There are three strategic thrusts: 

Access and Infrastructure Improvement. The provision of access to ICTs that may be used as channels for core and context-specific information and knowledge.



Core Information and Knowledge Provision. The provision of core information and knowledge through ICTs, that enhance, enrich and contribute to natural capital, physical capital, financial capital, human capital and social capital through education, training, technical support and assistance.

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Context Specific Information and Knowledge Provision. The provision of context-specific information or knowledge that apply to rural and peri-urban livelihoods and converts natural capital, physical capital, financial capital, human capital and social capital to income and food security.

Programs. Three major ICT4L programs correspond with the aforementioned strategic thrusts: 

Infrastructure Development Program. Corresponding to the access and infrastructure improvement thrust, this program provides access to ICTs that would carry core and context-specific information and knowledge to rural and peri-urban communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Telecenter or Community eCenter development, rural mobile phone services, and last mile infrastructure development projects (VSATs, WiMax, cable modem, etc) may be classified under this program.



ICT4L Capacity Building Program. Corresponding to the strategic thrust on core Information and knowledge provision, this program covers education, training, technical support and assistance projects that provide core information and knowledge through ICTs, which enhance, enrich and contribute to natural capital, physical capital, financial capital, human capital and social capital of rural and peri-urban communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.



Content Development for Rural and Peri-Urban Livelihoods Program, This program corresponds with the strategic thrust on context specific information and knowledge provision. It covers projects that develops and disseminates context-specific information or knowledge that apply to rural and peri-urban livelihoods and converts natural capital, physical capital, financial capital, human capital and social capital to income and food security.

Table 3 presents the strategic framework in a single-paged matrix.

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VISION

MISSION

GOALS

STRATEGIC THRUSTS 1. Access and Infrastructure Improvement

STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR ICT4L The vision of ICT4L is freedom from hunger and poverty for rural and peri-urban communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The mission of ICT4L is to eradicate hunger and poverty in rural and peri-urban communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific through information and communication technology programs/ projects that provide core and context-specific information and knowledge for livelihoods. The twin goals of ICT4L are: 1. to contribute to the eradication of hunger and poverty in rural and peri-urban communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific through ICT programs that support livelihoods by 2015; and 2. to contribute to achieving global partnerships for development through Internet access and new ICTs by 2015. PROGRAMS Infrastructure Development Program. Telecenter or Community eCenter development, rural mobile phone services, and last mile infrastructure development projects (VSATs, WiMax, cable modem, etc).

2. Core Information and Knowledge Provision

ICT4L Capacity Building Program. Covers education, training, technical support and assistance projects that provide core information and knowledge through ICTs, which enhance, enrich and contribute to natural capital, physical capital, financial capital, human capital and social capital of rural and periurban communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

3. Context Specific Information and Knowledge Provision

Content Development for Rural and Peri-Urban Livelihoods Program, Covers projects that develops and disseminates context-specific information or knowledge that apply to rural and peri-urban livelihoods and converts natural capital, physical capital, financial capital, human capital and social capital to income and food security.

Table 3. Strategic Framework for ICTs for Rural Livelihoods in the Southeast Asian and Pacific Regions.

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Logical Framework Template Logical frameworks or logframes are project specific. Thus, a generic logframe for ICT4L is not possible. However, this section will attempt a logframe template. Narrative Summary. The elements of the logframe matrix are: the goal; the project purpose; project components; inputs; outputs. Juxtaposed on these elements are: verifiable indicators; means of verification; and assumptions or risks. As stated, the goal statement is to contribute to the eradication of hunger and poverty in rural and peri-urban communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific through ICT programs that support livelihoods by 2015. Based on the strategic thrusts, the project purpose may be one or a combination of the following: to provide access or infrastructure; to provide core information or knowledge; and to provide context specific information or knowledge. Similarly, the components may be a combination of any of the following: infrastructure development; capacity building; and content development. However, inputs and outputs are project specific. Indicators. On the other hand, the indicators may be specified according to level. At the level of the Goal, verifiable indicators would be impact on livelihoods and sustainability in the use of natural resources. This may be verified through an external post-evaluation conducted two years after the end of the project. At the level of purpose, the list of outcome indicators includes: increase in income; reduced vulnerabilities; and improved food security. This is verified through an external terminal evaluation conducted at the end of project. Input indicators and output indicators are project specific. However, there are a number of assumptions insofar as the project inputs are concerned. Firstly, the project focuses on people not resources. Secondly, the project is designed and implemented through dialogue and participation. Thirdly, the project is demand-driven with feedback loops. Fourthly, it builds on strengths rather than focus on constraints. Fifthly, it supports appropriate policies, institutions and processes. Sixthly, it fosters micro-macro linkages. Lastly, it focuses on outcomes not outputs. Assumptions. There are also a number of assumptions taken with regard to project purpose of components. These assumptions correspond with the eight basic principles of ICT4L. Firstly, the project adapts content to local context. Secondly, the project builds on existing systems and work within existing policies. Thirdly, the project addresses diversity. Fourthly, the project builds capacity. Fifthly, it ensures equitable access and empowerment. Sixthly, it builds partnership networks. Next, it adopts realistic approaches to technology. And lastly, information costs are shared. Template. Table 4 gives the ICT4L logframe template.

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NARRATIVE SUMMARY GOAL: to contribute to the eradication of hunger and poverty in rural and peri-urban communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific through ICT programs that support livelihoods by 2015. PURPOSE: 1. To provide access or infrastructure 2. To provide core information or knowledge 3. To provide context specific information or knowledge COMPONENTS: A. Infrastructure Development B. Capacity Building C. Content Development OUTPUTS: Project Specific

INPUTS:

Project Specific

VERIFIABLE INDICATORS

MEANS OF VERIFICATION

Impact Sustainability

Post Evaluation

Primary Order Outcomes

Terminal Evaluation: Input-Output Analysis

Increase in income Reduced vulnerability Improved food security Higher Order Outcomes  Increase in access to ICTs  Increase in capacities  Increase in awareness and availing of basic services.  Increase in incomes among families.  Higher incomes in primary livelihoods  Development of support mechanisms and technical supply chains  Increase in social capital

Mid-Term Evaluation: Mid-Term Input-Output Analysis; Pilot Studies

Ex-Ante Evaluation: Benchmarking Baseline Study

Table 4. Logframe Matrix Template for ICT4L

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RISKS AND ASSUMPTIONS

The project:  adapts content to local context;  builds on existing systems and work within existing policies;  addresses diversity;  builds capacity;  ensures equitable access and empowerment;  builds partnership networks;  adopts realistic approaches to technology; and  shares information costs The inputs/ implementation strategies:  focus on people not resources,  are decided and implemented through dialogue and participation,  are demand-driven with feedback loops,  build on strengths rather than focus on constraints,  support appropriate policies, institutions and processes,  foster micro-macro linkages, and  focus on outcomes not outputs.

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework Ex Ante Evaluation. Ex-ante evaluation is the most neglected aspect of monitoring and evaluation process. Usually referred to as baseline studies, many projects miss the opportunity for meaningful benchmarking analysis and design evaluation. Methods. Baseline data is gathered through secondary data analysis and surveys. Rapid rural appraisals are often employed as the method of choice at community level projects. Benchmark data on incomes, vulnerabilities and food security should be established. The design of the project should be evaluated on the basis of the seven basic principles of the sustainable livelihoods approach. Research Questions. During the ex-ante phase, the following benchmark research questions should be asked: 1. What is the current income of the beneficiaries? 2. What are the vulnerabilities of the community and their extent? 3. What is the level of food security in the community? Moreover, the following evaluation questions should be answered: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

As designed, does the project focus on people not resources? Was the project developed through dialogue and participation? As designed, is the project demand-driven with feedback loops? Does the project build on strengths rather than focus on constraints? Will the project develop or support appropriate policies, institutions and processes? 6. Will the project foster micro-macro linkages? 7. Does it focus on outcomes not outputs? Midterm Evaluation. As the term suggests, midterm evaluations are conducted midway into the project to determine adequacy of inputs, monitor outputs, establish the progress towards targets, and determine adjustments required. Methods. Midterm evaluation data is gathered through key informant interviews and focus group discussions. A midterm input-output analysis is done to determine progress towards meeting the objectives of the project. Depending on the scale of the project, pilot studies are conducted to test interventions that may be introduced to improve project performance. Oftentimes, process documentation techniques are used to record best practice.

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Research Questions. The key research questions for the midterm evaluation are as follows: 1. Were the project inputs adequate? 2. What are the project outputs to date? 3. Have there been discernable increases in income, reductions in vulnerabilities and improvements in food security? Additionally, the following midterm evaluation questions should be asked: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Does the project adapt content to the local context? Does the project build on existing systems and work within existing policies? Does the project address diversity? Does the project build capacities? Does the project ensure equitable access and empowerment? Does the project build partnership networks? Does the project adopt realistic approaches to technology? Does the project share information costs?

Terminal Evaluation. Terminal evaluations are done at the end of the project, to determine whether or not a project has achieved its purpose. Methods. Terminal evaluations employ a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods such as one-shot surveys, documents analysis, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and input-output analysis. Benchmark data is compared with end-of-project data. Research Questions. The following research questions are most relevant in terminal evaluations: 1. Did the project lead to increased incomes? 2. Did the project result in reduced vulnerabilities? 3. Did the project improve food security? The following set of questions, similar to those asked in the midterm evaluation, should also be studied: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

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Did the project adapt content to the local context? Did the project build on existing systems and work within existing policies? Did the project address diversity? Did the project build capacities? Did the project ensure equitable access and empowerment? Did the project build partnership networks? Did the project adopt realistic approaches to technology? Did the project share information costs?

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Ex-Post Evaluation. Ex-post evaluation is conducted at least two-years after the end of the project. This exercise determines the overall impact and sustainability of the project as well as its contribution towards the overarching goal. Methods. As in the terminal evaluation, post evaluations make use of a variety of methods including: one-shot surveys; the analysis of secondary data; documents analysis; key informant interviews; and focus group discussions with project stakeholders. Research Questions. The following research questions are asked by and answered through post evaluations: 1. What is the overall impact of the project on income, vulnerabilities, and food security of the community? 2. Are these impacts sustainable? 3. How did the project contribute to the eradication of hunger and poverty? 4. What are the lessons learned? 5. Were there best practices? M&E Framework Matrix. Table 5 summarizes the proposed M&E framework for the ENRAP3-ICT4L component.

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M&E PHASE

METHODS

RESEARCH QUESTIONS CRITICAL

KEY As designed, does the project focus on people not resources? Was the project developed through dialogue and participation? As designed, is the project demand-driven with feedback loops? Does the project build on strengths rather than focus on constraints? Will the project develop or support appropriate policies, institutions and processes? Will the project foster micro-macro linkages? Does it focus on outcomes not outputs? Did the project adapt content to the local context? Did the project build on existing systems and work within existing policies? Did the project address diversity? Did the project build capacities? Did the project ensure equitable access and empowerment? Did the project build partnership networks? Did the project adopt realistic approaches to technology? Did the project share information costs?

Ex-Ante Evaluation

    

Baseline Study Benchmarking Rapid Rural Appraisal Documents Analysis Secondary Data Analysis

What is the current income of the beneficiaries? What are the vulnerabilities of the community and their extent? What is the level of food security in the community?

Midterm Evaluation

        

Focus group discussion Key informant interviews Input-output analysis Process documentation Pilot studies Documents Analysis Secondary Data Analysis One-shot survey Input-output analysis

Were the project inputs adequate? What are the project outputs to date? Have there been discernable increases in income, reductions in vulnerabilities and improvements in food security? Did the project lead to increased incomes? Did the project result in reduced vulnerabilities? Did the project improve food security?

Terminal Evaluation

Ex-Post Evaluation

What is the overall impact of the project on income, vulnerabilities, and food security of the community? Are these impacts sustainable? How did the project contribute to the eradication of hunger and poverty? What are the lessons learned? Were there best practices?

Table 5. Proposed Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for ENRAP3-ICT4L

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A Research Framework for ENRAP3-ICT4L Parallel to the non-specific M&E studies recommended above, ENRAP3 should also implement an action research agenda focusing on specific research questions that would validate the observations made and explanations forwarded by this Scoping Report. Research Questions. The questions asked in action research may differ substantively from M&E research questions. While answers to M&E questions provide information, research questions provide explanations and predictions. Thus action research questions tend to begin with “why” and “how.” Among the research questions that may be forwarded are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

How is gender related with technology utilization? How is gender related with ICT4L outcomes? How is gender related with social capital formation? How is gender related with participatory content provision? How is gender related with networking variables (integrity, mutuality and reciprocity)? 6. How are networking variables related with technology utilization? 7. How are networking variables related with ICT4L outcomes? 8. How are networking variables related with social capital formation? 9. How is networking related with participatory content provision? 10. How are ICT4L outcomes related with technology utilization? 11. How are ICT4L outcomes related with social capital formation? 12. How are ICT4L outcomes related with participatory content provision? 13. How does ICT4L develop support mechanisms and value chains within the community? 14. How is a critical mass of ICT4L users formed? Variables. The action research studies may relate, correlate or test the following variables: 1. Gender 2. Networking variables: 2.1. Network Integrity 2.2. Network Mutuality 2.3. Network Reciprocity 3. Technology utilization 4. Social capital formation 5. Critical Mass formation 6. ICT4L Outcomes 6.1. Increase in access to ICTs 6.2. Increase in capacities 6.3. Increase in awareness and availing of basic services. 6.4. Increase in incomes among families. 6.5. Higher incomes in primary livelihoods AGFlor

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6.6. Development of support mechanisms and value chains 6.7. Increase in social capital

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS VARIABLES HYPOTHESES  How is gender related with technology utilization? Gender is positively correlated with:  How is gender related with ICT4L  technology utilization outcomes?  ICT4L outcomes  How is gender related with social GENDER NETWORKING  social capital formation capital formation?  participatory content provision  How is gender related with  networking variables participatory content provision?  How is gender related with Networking variables are positively networking variables (integrity, correlated with: mutuality and reciprocity)?  technology utilization  How are networking variables  ICT4L outcomes related with technology utilization? ICT4L OUTCOMES  social capital formation  How are networking variables  participatory content provision related with ICT4L outcomes?  How are networking variables ICT4L outcomes positively correlated related with social capital with: formation?  technology utilization  How is networking related with  social capital formation participatory content provision? TECHNOLOGY  participatory content provision  How are ICT4L outcomes related UTILIZATION with technology utilization? Technology utilization is positively  How are ICT4L outcomes related correlated with: with social capital formation?  social capital formation  How are ICT4L outcomes related SOCIAL CAPITAL  participatory content provision with participatory content FORMATION provision? Social capital formation is positively  How does ICT4L develop support correlated with participatory content 6. Proposed Asia and the Pacific mechanismsTable and value chains ENRAP3-ICT4L Action Research Conceptual Framework for Southeast provision. within the community? AGFlor 49  How is a critical mass of ICT4L users formed?

IV. AN ENRAP3-ICT4L RESEARCH AGENDA The foregoing research and M&E frameworks may provide a basis for an ENRAP3ICT4L Research Agenda for Southeast Asia and the Pacific made up of both action research projects and ex-post evaluations. Proposed Action Research Pilot Projects The proposed action research projects will attempt to answer research questions listed in earlier sections and will study the relationships between identified variables, mainly social in nature, with ICT4L outcomes. The projects will be implemented in grassroots communities on a pilot basis with the end view of replication in other communities across countries within Southeast Asia as well scaling-up at the district, provincial and national levels. Action Research Number 1. Please refer to Annex E for the Concept Note of this proposed action research pilot project. Title. Broad-based Networking through ICT for the Promotion of Sustainable Agricultural Livelihoods in the Pacific Islands Key Concepts: Metcalf’s Law or the Network Effect Abstract. The Mainstreaming of Rural Development Innovations (MORDI) Program seeks to support sustainable livelihood opportunities in remote and rural communities, with a focus on youth and women, in the Pacific Islands. One of its strategic thrusts is the sharing of information and knowledge on best practices and innovations on sustainable livelihoods among communities, NGOs and other agencies. This concept paper proposes the establishment of an electronic (Webbased) cum institutional cum community network under the MORDI Program, initially on a pilot basis, to test the influence of networking variables (such as mutuality, reciprocity and integrity) on sustainable livelihood outcomes. It will attempt to answer the following questions: How is network integrity related with technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable agricultural livelihood outcomes? How is network reciprocity related with technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable agricultural livelihood outcomes? How is network mutuality related with technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable livelihood outcomes? How is networking related with participatory content provision? The objectives of the pilot project are: to design, develop and test an online network platform for the sharing and reuse of best practice and lessons learned on sustainable agricultural livelihoods; to design, develop and test a system protocol that would interface electronic, institutional and community networks; to document the development, testing and primary order as well as higher order outcomes of this network into a case study; to determine the relationship between network integrity, AGFlor

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technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable agricultural livelihood outcomes; to determine the relationship between network reciprocity , technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable agricultural livelihood outcomes; and to determine the relationship between network mutuality, technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable livelihood outcomes. This will be an action pilot research employing the case study design. It will be conducted in three phases: design and development phase; testing and documentation phase; and analysis and write-up phase. Action Research Number 2. Please refer to Annex E for the Concept Note of this proposed action research pilot project. Title. Social Capital Formation and Agricultural Livelihood Outcomes Among Women Users in Lao Telecenters Key Concepts: Gender, Capacity Building, Social Capital Abstract. Casual observation reveals that rural women’s groups, particularly in Southeast Asia, tend to be more closely knit than farmers’ groups or youth groups. Active telecenters based in Lao districts with good connectivity are often converging points of women. Is there also a gender dimension in the dynamics of telecenter use, particularly in ICT for agricultural livelihood? This proposed study would answer the following research questions: How is gender related with social capital formation within the context of a transitional economy such as Lao PDR? How is social capital formation related with ICT4L outcomes? How is gender related with networking variables (integrity, mutuality and reciprocity)? How is gender related with ICT4L outcomes? Its objectives are: to initiate a capacity building program for rural women users of telecenters; to determine if gender is related with ICT4L outcomes within the context of a transitional economy such as Lao PDR; to observe and document how capacity building contributes to agricultural ICT4L outcomes; to observe and document the gender dynamic in social capital formation; and to assess the relationship between social capital formation and agricultural ICT4L outcomes. This study will contribute to an understanding of gender and social capital within the contest of sustainable livelihood outcomes. This will be an action pilot research employing the case study design using a variety of data gathering procedures. The main intervention of the project is ICT4L capacity building and assistance to peer-to-peer training among women’s groups. Trainors and peer-to-peer trainees will be women users of three Lao telecenters based in the districts. At the beginning of the project, a benchmarking survey will be conducted to determine current utilization levels and incomes. Group representatives will then be trained on the use of information and communication technologies to increase livelihoods. The groups will then be observed, their ICT utilization levels and peer-toAGFlor

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peer training will be documented. FGDs will be conducted on a monthly basis for twelve months. Simultaneously, ICT4L outcomes will be assessed for one year. Data on ICT4L outcomes will be compared with benchmark data, Action Research Number 3. Please refer to Annex F for the Concept Note of this proposed action research pilot project. Title: Mobile Phones as a Web 2.0 Platform in the Philippines. Key Concepts: Critical Mass Theory, Web 2.0, Participatory Content Provision Abstract. Web 2.0 has revolutionized how people think of the World Wide Web from a collection of individually owned static websites with published content into a body of collectively owned dynamic websites with user generated content. The 3G mobile phone may provide ICT4D, in general, and eAgriculture, in particular, the much needed platform for Web 2.0. This study will examine possible factors that enable mobile phones to assume this unique role. It will attempt to answer the following research questions: How can mobile phones be used as a Web 2.0 platform among rural online communities? What factors may be associated with mobile phone utilization among rural online communities? This will be an action pilot research employing the case study design. Three organizations from these three baranggays will be engaged for involvement in the project. A common website utilizing a learning management system (LMS) platform will be established for the three organizations. The website will feature chatrooms/discussion forums and rich media, specifically audio and video. Initial content will be uploaded by the researcher. Henceforth, content will be provided by the members of the three organizations. The project will provide one GPRS enabled mobile phone, with video-audio capture and Internet functionalities, to each organization. Mobile phone service providers will be approached to sponsore more phones for the three organizations. The researcher will train representatives of the three organizations on mobile phone Internet browsing, discussion forum posting, video capture and content uploading. Content development and utilization by the participants will be monitored, quantitatively and qualitatively. Focus group discussions (FGDs) will be organized once a month for five months. During the FGDs, factors contributing to the levels of content provision, utilization and online participation will be elicited from the participants.

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PROJECT TITLE Broad-based Networking through ICT for the Promotion of Sustainable Livelihoods in the Pacific Islands.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS How is network integrity related with technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable livelihood outcomes? How is network reciprocity related with technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable livelihood outcomes? How is network mutuality related with technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable livelihood outcomes? How is networking related with participatory content provision?

Social Capital Formation and Livelihood Outcomes Among Women Users in Lao Telecenters

Mobile Phones as a Web 2.0 Platform in the Philippines

OBJECTIVES  to design, develop and test an online network platform for the sharing and reuse;  to design, develop and test a system protocol that would interface electronic, institutional and community networks;  to document the development, testing and primary order as well as higher order outcomes of this network into a case study;  to determine the relationship between network integrity, technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable livelihood outcomes;  to determine the relationship between network reciprocity , technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable livelihood outcomes; and  to determine the relationship between network mutuality, technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable livelihood outcomes.

How is gender related with social capital formation? How is social capital formation related with ICT4L outcomes? How is gender related with networking variables (integrity, mutuality and reciprocity)? How is gender related with ICT4L outcomes?

 to initiate a capacity building program for rural women users of telecenters;  to determine if gender is related with ICT4L outcomes;  to observe and document how capacity building contributes to ICT4L outcomes;  to observe and document the gender dynamic in social capital formation; and  to assess the relationship between social capital formation and ICT4L outcomes

How can mobile phones be used as a Web 2.0 platform among rural online communities?

 To test mobile telephony as a Web 2.0 platform for rural farmers, housewives and out-of-school youth.  To develop a protocol for online participation and content provision for rural online communities using mobile Internet and rich media,  To identify and validate factors that are correlated to levels of participation in Web content provision

What factors may be associated with mobile phone utilization and participatory content provision among rural online communities?

Table 7. Proposed Action Research Pilot Studies for ENRAP3-ICT4L for Southeast Asia and the Pacific AGFlor

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KEY CONCEPTS The Network Effect

Gender Capacity Building Social Capital

Critical Mass Theory

Ex-Post Evaluation The ENRAP-ICT4L research framework presented in the preceding chapter may be tested in a series of post evaluation case studies that include: the Poor Farmers Income Improvement through Innovation (PFI3) in Indonesia; the China Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School (CABTS); the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives - Agricultural Information Network (BAAC-AIN) in Thailand; and the Grameen-sponsored Dungganon Village Phone Operators (VPOs) in the Philippines. Another possible subject is and the Development of Sustainable Agriculture Project (DSAP) in the South Pacific. PFI3. As described in Chapter II of this report, the Poor Farmers Income Improvement through Innovation or PFI3 Project is an initiative of the Government of Indonesia to improve agricultural livelihoods through innovation and information dissemination. A large component of PFI3 is the Information Management component under AARD (Agency for Agricultural Research and Development) and CADI ( Center for Agricultural Database and Information). The latter is respnsible for the provision of market information while the former focuses on the dissemination of agricultural information. Both use Web-based and stand alone information and communication technologies. Financed by the Asian Development Bank, PFI3 is closely linked with another undertaking, Farmers’ Empowerment through Agricultural Technology and Innovation (FEATI) financed by the World Bank. PFI3 would be an ideal subject for ex-post evaluation particularly because of its focuses on what this report has classified as context-specific information and knowledge under the DFID Sustainable Livelihood Framework: production and postproduction tehcnologies; and market information. Additionally, its use of a variety of ICTs from rural radio to digital video and Web-based technologies provide a comprehensive platform for research findings. Furthermore, the project has been piloted in five provinces in Indonesia with differing agro-ecological systems and cultural landscapes. Lastly, the timing is dieal. Considering that PFI3 is now in its fifth and final year of implementation, the conduct of an ex-post evaluation exercise may synchronize with the timeframe of ENRAP3. CABTS. While the previous case focuses on context-specific information, the CABTS case pertains to core information and knowledge. It likewise deals with the world’s biggest agricultural nation and fastest growing economy. China is Asia’s most powerful country with a population of 1.25 billion. However, rural dwellers account for 78 percent of its population. Agriculture is still the main source of livelihood in the rural areas. In fact, this sector accounts for a substantive portion of China’s GNP. Chinese agriculture is diverse and technology driven. Yet, it has reached less than half of its potential because of poor education (FAO, 2001). As discussed in Chapter II, CABTS or the Central Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School was established in 1980 with a mandate for providing education AGFlor

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and training to enhance agricultural production. Its target audiences are farmers, rural youth, rural women, leaders of rural communities and agricultural extension workers. CABTS, which has been called the “cradle of competent farmers,” is now the world’s largest educational establishment for agriculture and rural development catering to an average of 900,000 enrollees per year (FAO, 2001). To say the least, the CABTS Network is huge. It has: one central school in Beijing administering the network; thirty eight provincial schools; three-hundred and thirty prefecture schools; two-thousand four hundred and eight county schools; twenty-three thousand township training centers; sixty virtual classrooms, which will soon increase to five hundred and sixty with Israel’s donation of VSAT units; two-thousand seven hundred and fifty administrators; and forty-five thousand one hundred and seven staff. Since it was established in 1980, CABTS has been employing traditional print, radio and TV-based distance learning delivery. In 2001, however, it began migrating to online teaching and digital learning environments employing broadband and wireless technologies. It will make full use of the noncommercial Internet backbone and will eventually establish two thousand virtual classrooms all over China. In other words, most of the CABTS network is now linked. In the past few years, CABTS have begun venturing into learning programs dealing with non-agricultural livelihood. The shift is becoming more pronounced since ruralurban migration has become a dominant trend in most provinces. This shift would definitely be worthwhile monitoring under ICT4L. BAAC – AIN. Thailand has a National Information Infrastructure Action Plan, which is divided into three components: the SchoolNet; public Internet services by CAT and TOT; and PubNet. Telephone density is pegged at 8 lines per one hundred persons for terrestrial services and more than 9 lines per one hundred persons for cellular services. There are a total of 24 Internet Service Providers: 18 commercial, 4 noncommercial and 2 domestic hubs. The National Electronics Technology and Computer Center (NECTEC), a quasi-governmental think-tank, provides government agencies with ICT solutions. However, bandwidth availability continues to be a pressing concern among field-level extension workers and farmer users. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has an IT Master Plan upon which the Department of Agriculture’s IT Master Plan is built. The DOA has an Information Service Center (DISC) that serves as the support unit to the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Information Officer. The Department of Agricultural Extension, on the other hand, has established an ICT Center exclusively devoted to the agency and extension services. It has likewise embarked upon a five-year Master Plan dubbed eExtension dovetailing the GOT’s eProvince initiative. The Master Plan, which began implementation in 2000, is now on its second phase. One of the most prominent stakeholders in the ICT for extension arena is the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. BAAC initiated its Agricultural Information Network (AIN) in 2002 offering several innovative products and services. Among these are: an agricultural information gateway that provides unified access to AGFlor

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most of the agriculture-related databases of the GOI; eLearning for farmers; and the Pocket PC Project, that makes available a DA-powered decision support system (DSS) for farming/livelihood options. One of its high-end applications is the Global Mapper geospatial information systems (GIS) using CONUS satellite-generated base maps (Flor and Hazelman, 2004). BAAC has gone beyond credit provision services into information, education and communication services to farmers and housewives. Providing technical assistance to specific components of the bank’s AIN Program are the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the U.S. Trade Development Agency (USTDA), and the European Union (EU). It makes their products and services available via satellite through their network of 370 branch-based nodes all over Thailand. It has entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with Kasetsart University for the provision of technical content. Furthermore, it interfaces with the MOAC Department of Agricultural Extension for selected agricultural information and field level activities. Content provision is the least of the Thai agricultural extension sectors problems. Research institutions and the academe provide technology and innovations. Economic, credit and financial information is provided by BAAC. There may be a need, however, for up-to-date reliable market information. VPOs. Project Dungganon, which means “Honorable”, is a Grameen-based project with an ambitious vision, to give a permanent solution to the problem of poverty. It offers poor women an opportunity to be self-reliant and in the process move on to a better life. The Project provides a credit line for small women entrepreneurs whose ventures and financial background will not merit a chance in the present financing system. It is designed to serve women in rural households that belong to the lowest 30 percent of the poor population. Women in groups of five undergo rigorous training and education in the ideals and procedures of the project before they can apply for loans. These loans should be for productive use only as they work together to ensure that the business ventures of their group members are viable. The progress of each member is monitored through weekly meetings of the group and supervised by trained loan officers of the project. Upon admission, the members make a conscious decision to commit themselves to the principles and ideals of the project and to the improvement in the quality of their lives. This commitment is verbalized through a member's pledge that they are required to recite at the beginning and end of their weekly meetings. It is through the project that women can finance small business ventures, earn extra money to purchase food and necessities, and save enough points to qualify for a bigger credit line. From the project, poor women also learn the value of saving incremental amounts.

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This project has already reached out to thousands of poor women in establishing micro-enterprises, thereby augmenting their family income, and thus relatively improving social and economic conditions. Project Dungganon now serves over 67,000 clients in almost 100 cities and municipalities, managing a portfolio of over PhP 350 million, handled and monitored by its 37 branches all over the islands of Negros, Cebu, Palawan and Samar. The impact of the Project can be observed throughout the areas covered, with at least 28 percent of clients moving out of poverty, five years after entry. Dungganon Village Phone Direct. The Village Phone started in Bangladesh where access to communication in far-flung areas was non-existent. To address the problems of telecommunication gap in rural villages, they looked for a sustainable solution by using the existing infrastructure of the telecom in Bangladesh, with the use of an external antenna attached to the home of an existing Grameen bank client. With this program, they came up with a solution not only for its convenience and affordability but also to serve as an income-generating tool for the poor. Being a micro-finance institution catering to the very poor segment of the population, NWTF is determined to implement the Village Phone Program as it has seen the impact that it can do to rural communities with little or no access to telecommunications. This system was replicated in Uganda and Rwanda around five years ago with the same notion of reaching the poor and accomplishing its goal. The Dungganon Village Phone Direct is one of the projects under the Project Dungganon. Roughly 84 percent of the lower income population of the rural areas of he Philippines find it difficult to access various advanced and efficient means of telecommunication such as the telephone and mobile phones. This condition hinders the way to progress in the rural areas because it directly affects their capacity to acquire market information, to efficiently offer their products and services in the market. Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF) finds this reality as a challenge and opportunity in its quest to realize its social goal of poverty alleviation. In July 2006, NWTF piloted the Village Phone Program in partnership with Grameen Foundation USA in four towns namely: 10 sites in Cauayan, 5 sites in Hinobaan, 5 sites in Bayawan and 5 sites in Dumaguete. The pilot project was a success that proved to NWTF, indeed, there is a market for the village Phone in the Philippines despite the fact that there are 40 million phone subscribers in the country. They are all successful with a 100 percent repayment and an average increase in income of PhP 200-300 net per week. Moreover, because of auto-loading, there is additional income of PhP 400-500 per week. In relation to the full implementation of the Dungganon Village Phone, NWTF is set to deploy more phones to saturate its network of local branches. Business Opportunity. A Village Phone Operator (VPO) earns money by renting out the use of his/her mobile phone to members of the community. A customer goes to the place of the Operator to avail himself of a call or text service through the VPO's SIM and load. He may rent the phone and use a personal SIM. The price that the AGFlor

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Village Phone Operator charges customers is higher that the price paid for the airtime. A village Phone Operator earns money in 3 ways: 

The basic retail margin is on a per minute basis for all domestic calls. For a five-minute call to a telecommunications operator phone number, the Village Phone operator makes a profit.



A Village Phone Operator may also charge for additional services, such as traveling to tell an individual that they have received a call. Pricing and definition of these services is at the discretion of the Village Phone Operator.



Village Phone Operators may also sell airtime credits directly to mobile phone users. Customers purchase airtime credits in cash.

Summary Table. The following table gives a summary of proposed post evaluation cases.

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COUNTRY Indonesia

China

Thailand

Philippines

South Pacific (PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati)

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE/NAME Poor Farmers Income Improvement Through Innovation Central Agricultural Broadcasting and TV School Agricultural Information Network (AIN)

Village Phone Direct

LEVEL

OBJECTIVES/GOALS

THRUST

Provinces, To improve farmers’ income through Access and Districts andthe provision of information Infrastructure Towns Provision of Context Specific Information National To educate farmers, housewives, out Access of school youth and extension Provision of Core workers on agriculture and nonInformation agriculture related livelihoods. District To increase farmers’ productivity in Access selected districts through access and Provision of Core provision of relevant information. and Context Specific Information Community To allow virtually any microfinance Access institution (MFI) to directly develop Micro-financing and implement a Village Phone product for their clients and to select the local telecommunications provider from which to purchase the pre-paid airtime.

KEY CONCEPTS

FEATURES

Missing Link hypothesis; Intermediaries

Government and private sector linkages to support poor farmers.

Network Effect

Use of a broad spectrum of distance learning technologies from village loudspeakers, radio, satellite television to online learning.

Private Public Sector partnerships

Linking research, extension, financing and marketing services to farmers of selected districts through PDAs, market information systems, and the use of participatory geographic information systems (PGIS).

Gender and The Village Phone Operators (VPOs) found their new social dimensions phone businesses to be useful sources of extra income. Average earnings increased by around $5 to $6 per week, in addition to a higher volume of sales in small retail stores, local eateries and the like. Village Phone Direct was also announced as a finalist in the 2008 GSMA Global Mobile Awards for the "Best Use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development” Development of Community To increase sustainable agricultural Access Missing Link Improved linkages between diverse information Sustainable production of farm families. Provision of Core hypothesis; providers including local agricultural offices, health Agriculture in and Context Intermediaries offices, schools and NGOs the Pacific Specific (DSAP) Information

Table 8. Proposed Post Evaluation Subjects for ENRAP3-ICT4L for Southeast Asia and the Pacific

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V. IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISM: ICT4L SOUTHEAST ASIAN RESEARCH NETWORK This paper proposes a network of institutions to implement the ENRAP3-ICT4L research component. This chapter identifies research projects, agencies and institutions that may bond together into such a research network. Furthermore, it provides an enumeration of existing research networks and presents what may be the most appropriate body for ENRAP3-ICT4L purposes. Entities Involved in ICT4L Research in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Entities currently specializing in ICT4L research in Southeast Asia and the Pacific may be categorized under the following: specialized research agencies; academic institutions; and ICT4D projects. Specialized agencies may be international, regional or national agencies involved in ICT4D research. Academic institutions are colleges and universities whose trilogy of functions covers instruction, research and extension. Lastly, ICT4D projects are time bound undertakings with specific objectives to fulfill. Each of these categories may have distinct advantages in a given national milieu. For instance, specialized agencies may prove to be the most appropriate type of entity for the proposed research network among transition economies such as China, Cambodia, Lao PDR and VietNam. Among countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, however, academic institutions usually are most appropriate. ICT4D projects, on the other hand, have built-in research components usually adhering to the participatory research approach and can thus be an active part of the proposed network. The following provides proposed focal entities or nodes listed alphabetically on a country basis that may form the core of an agricultural ICT4L research network. A list of focal persons and/or researchers in these focal nodes and their contact addresses is found in Annex G. Cambodia. The National Information Communication Technology Development Authority or NIDA is the clearinghouse of ICT4D projects in Cambodia. It is a supracabinet body reporting directly to the Office of the Prime Minister. Given that Cambodia is transitioning from central planned to decentralized governance, NIDA would be most appropriate for the proposed network. China. Action research projects on sustainable agricultural outcomes of ICT3L can best be implemented by the Central Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School (CABTS) of China. CABTS has a network extending from Beijing to the provinces down to the districts and the townships and villages.

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Indonesia. Universiti Pertanian Bogor has pioneered in development communication instruction, research and extension in Indonesia. Recently, it has implemented research and training programs on the provision of agricultural information through ICTs. Many of its graduates man the AARD and CADI, the focal institutions for PFI3. Lao PDR. Much of the agricultural information projects conducted in Lao PDR is implemented by the National Agriculture and Forestry Extension Service or NAFES. The agency has the mandate for ICT4D, specifically pertaining to the agriculture sector. However, research-wise, the National University of Laos may possess the track record to become part of the research network. Malaysia. Universiti Putra Malaysia is the primary agricultural university of Malaysia. It has likewise pioneered in the provision of agricultural communication instruction and research. It is now focusing on an ICT4D program for Malaysian farmers. Pacific Islands. Mainstreaming of Rural Development Innovations (MORDI) Program is a Pacific Islands initiative that seeks to support sustainable agricultural livelihood opportunities in remote and rural communities, with a focus on youth and women. The Program is financed by the IFAD and is implemented by the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific-International (FSPI). The MORDI Program Phase I (2006-2008) is currently implemented in three Pacific Island Countries: Fiji; Tonga; and Kiribati. The possibility of progressive expansion will be explored for Phase II (2009-2011) to include the Cook Islands; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Solomon Islands; and Timor Leste. Philippines. The University of the Philippines has seven constituent universities all of which have track records in the conduct of ICT4D research. Thailand. Kasetsart University is the premier agricultural university of Thailand. It has a very strong agricultural extension and communication program involved in research and instruction on ICT4D. VietNam. The Ministry of Posts and Telematics (MPT) would best be suited to represent VietNam in the research network primarily for protocol purposes. Apart from the aforementioned institutions, regional or international agencies may form part of the research network. A listing of focal persons from FAO, IFAD and SEAMEO SEARCA is also found in Annex G, Existing Networks with ICT4D Portfolios Alternatively, ENRAP may want to consider tapping an existing network for the ICT4L Research component. With IDRC at the helm, this network of research institutions should be a firmly established entity, with a firm grasp of the attendant issues and solid track record in applied research and ICT4D.

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Southeast Asia and the Pacific have several existing networks that may serve as a platform for an integrated research program on ICT for rural livelihoods. These networks range from loosely structured informal associations to formal intergovernmental treaty organizations. Most of them are closely associated with the agriculture sector. Others are founded on the education sector. Some are research networks. Others are project implementation groups. Each of them has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages. AGRIS Network. The oldest agricultural information network in Southeast Asia and the world, for that matter, is the Food and Agriculture Organization AGRIS initiative of the seventies. AGRIS was created in 1975 as an international program aiming to build a common information system on agriculture and related subjects. This system employed a collaborative network of institutions composed of a global center in FAO Rome, regional centers, national hubs and sub-national nodes. One of the first AGRIS nodes to be instituted was the Southeast Asian regional center at SEAMEO SEARCA. A national hub for the Philippines was set up simultaneously at the University of the Philippines Los Baños Main Library, literally next door to the regional center. Actually the Southeast Asian regional center and the Philippine national hub shared the same office for two years. In other words, the regional and national hubs enjoyed institutional as well as physical proximity at the very onset. This arrangement worked perfectly for almost twenty years. However, in the early-nineties, AGRIS activity within these two hubs waned. The advent of the Internet, the increasing popularity of the World Wide Web as a platform for information exchange, and the possibility for decentralized encoding and uploading may have been responsible for the disruption of the system. This trend was true not only in the Philippines but in other countries as well. Thus, to revive regional, national and sub-national participation, the first Consultation on Agricultural Information Management (COAIM) conducted in 2000 suggested a new vision for AGRIS that mirrored current networking technology and protocols. The revival of the AGRIS initiative would go far beyond creation of bibliographical databases, and would aim to reach new partners beyond the traditional documentation centers. The vision for a new AGRIS has been operationalized in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Lao PDR, however its institutional network extends to national agricultural research centers in other Southeast Asian and the entire globe as well. The advantage of tapping AGRIS as an ICT4L research network is that it is made up of institutions that have solid research credentials. The disadvantage is that these institutions are focused on agriculture and that not all countries in the ASEAN are represented in the network. APAARI – APAARIS. The Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions or APAARI is composed of international agricultural research centers (IARCs) and national

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agricultural research centers (NARS) in the Asia Pacific Region. The organization has also established an information system, the APAARIS. A personal observation is that APAARI is dominated by IARCs, specifically the members of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Not all ASEAN countries are represented in the Association. ASEAN. During the 2002 Senior Officers Meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry (SOMAMAF) held in Lao PDR, the 10-member nations agreed to establish the South East Asian Forum on Agricultural Research (SEAFAR) under the auspices of ASEAN and linked with the ASEAN Center for Agricultural Research Databases (CARD) initiative of Brunei Darussalam. SEAFAR aims to facilitate knowledge flow and exchange on agricultural research for development in the Southeast Asian sub-region under the ASEAN framework of mutual cooperation. Since 2002, however, SEAFAR has not taken off the ground. Should the ASEAN seriously pursue networking arrangements in agricultural information and formally establish SEAFAR, then this network would have the formal backing of all ten Southeast Asian nations thus ensuring continuity. However, its intergovernmental nature may in itself prove to be a disadvantage because of still diplomatic protocols and bureaucracies. SEAMEO. In 1965, Ministers of Education from seven Southeast Asian nations banded together to form an organization that would enhance educational and cultural exchange within the region. The organization was named the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization or SEAMEO. SEAMEO precedes the ASEAN by a good ten years. It has a well-established network of SEAMEO Centers in the ten Southeast Asian countries including Myanmar. It has a well-oiled secretariat based in Bangkok, SEAMES. Furthermore, its centers are considered to be trailblazers in ICT4D, such as SEAMEO SEARCA. The advantage of tapping SEAMEO as a research network is its institutional stability and access to resources. However, being an intergovernmental organization, it may thus be prone to the same inertia as the ASEAN. AAOU. The Asian Association of Open Universities or AAOU is a network of educational institutions all over Asia and the Pacific who adhere to the open and distance-learning (ODL) model. The advantages of tapping AAOU as a possible platform for ICT4L research are: it is represented by and in all Southeast Asian and many Pacific island countries; it is made up of institutions whose functions include scientific, rigorous research; it carries with it, the track record of many prestigious institutions of higher learning in Asia; and it is an academic body, which may not be as much encumbered by diplomatic protocol as in intergovernmental organizations. The disadvantage is that AAOU is an association. As such the individual commitment of member institutions may not be as binding as that of the association’s. Furthermore,

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ICT for livelihood research in rural and peri-urban areas is more applied than basic research, which may be the emphasis of the academe. University of South Pacific. The USP is a sub-regional university with campuses in all major South Pacific countries. It has a fairly strong research faculty and a good grasp of ICT4D. By their nature, the Pacific islands are very much dependent on information and communication technologies. Proposed Research Network Perhaps the best option is to form a research network exclusively devoted to ENRAP3ICT4L but facilitated by an institution with an established research track record, a solid background on ICT4D and strength in agriculture. Such a network can effectively implement an integrated ICT4L research program in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, along the lines of the MDGs. Furthermore, it would have access to manpower support and financial resources for counterpart contributions or prefinancing purposes. A clear institutional advantage would be a highly rated standing in the international development assistance community. A Subregional Approach. Additionally, it may be argued that ENRAP3 should adopt a subregional approach to ICT4L research. There are clear advantages to the subregional approach insofar as research agendas, research management and consolidation of findings are concerned. Thus, this paper proposes a network made-up of the agencies enumerated in the initial part of this chapter. This network may be facilitated by an organization such as SEAMEO SEARCA. SEAMEO SEARCA. The SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture or SEARCA was established in Los Baños in 1966. Its first Director harbored a vision to make SEARCA the center for documentation of agricultural sciences in Southeast Asia. It was this vision that prompted SEARCA to build the UPLB Library as its initial contribution to the University’s Five Year Development Program. Nineteen seventy-four was a landmark year for SEARCA. In that year, the Center established the Agricultural Information Bank for Asia (AIBA) sponsored by IDRC. The entire west wing of the SEARCA building was financed out of IDRC funds supporting AIBA. In the same year, AIBA became the regional hub of the Food and Agriculture Organization Agricultural Information System. SEARCA is not an academic institution but an intergovernmental organization much respected in the international development assistance community. However, it operates a consortium of academic institutions, the SEARCA University Consortium. Four of the focal institutions proposed – the Universiti Pertanian Bogor (Indonesia), the Universiti Putra Malaysia, the University of the Philippines, and Kasetsart University (Thailand) – are part of this Consortium. This provides a clear institutional advantage. In the eighties and nineties SEAMEO SEARCA became the regional hub of the IDRCinitiated Asia-Pacific Information Network for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

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(APINMAP). It became the first Southeast Asian institution to establish a Knowledge Management Program in 1998. However, its ICT4D research dates back to 1983 with a landmark study on the Digital Divide in the Philippines.

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VI. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusions This section will answer the Scoping Study research questions laid down in Chapter 1. Research Question 1: What specific livelihood outcomes, if any, can be directly linked with ICT interventions at the grassroots? Specific livelihood outcomes that can be directly linked with ICT4L interventions in rural communities are:  Increased access to information and communication technologies.  Increased capacities of rural groups, particularly rural women, to offer marketable skills.  Increased awareness and availing of basic services by communities as well as linkages with government service providers.  Increased incomes among families.  Higher sales volume in users’ primary livelihoods such as small retail stores, local eateries, local transport provision.  Development and evolution of support mechanisms and locally driven enterprises such as technical supply chains, marketing solutions, and other ICT-related services that assist the community and generate additional employment opportunities and incomes as well.  Increased social capital generated through information sharing and networking among groups, particularly women. Research Question 2. Under what conditions are these ICT interventions likely to produce these livelihood outcomes? The Scoping Study found that ICT4L interventions are likely to produce these livelihood outcomes under the following conditions:  ICT4L projects are more likely to succeed as secondary livelihoods, that is, if it is associated with already pre-existing primary livelihoods in the community, such as small retail stores, marketing cooperatives, food service providers, transport providers, micro-finance establishments, and others. The demand for ICT services increase with the presence of these primary livelihoods.  ICT4L projects are more likely to succeed if women groups run these.  ICT4L projects are more likely to succeed if these are linked to basic services providers such as government agencies involve in agriculture, health and education sectors.  ICT4L projects are more likely to be sustainable with the use of intermediaries and personalized user-friendly technologies such as mobile phones in the VPO Project (Philippines).

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 ICT4L projects are more likely to be sustainable if it has a capacity building component.  ICT4L projects are more likely to be sustainable with public-private sector partnerships and cost sharing.  ICT4L projects are more likely to have better outcomes if they are not technologydriven or donor-driven. Research Question 3. How does gender and social dimensions factor into these interventions and outcomes? Casual observation reveals that rural women’s groups, particularly in Southeast Asia, tend to be more closely knit than farmers’ groups or youth groups. Perhaps this is a function of their circumstances since women have more time to spend with one another during work and leisure times. Furthermore, they can relate and empathize with one another’s roles and challenges. It is clear that rural women’s groups tend to possess more social capital. Social capital has been defined as the capacity of groups to work together for the common good (Montgomery, 1998) or as the ability to draw on relationships with others especially on the basis of trust and reciprocity (HDR, 1998). It has been theorized that social capital may increase exponentially through networking and connectivity. Metcalf’s Law (the Network Effect) states that the total value of a network where each node can reach every other node grows with the square of the number of nodes. David Reed, a sociologist and community development expert, applied Metcalf’s Law to social networks and arrived at a similar conclusion. Due to: the synergy produced in working together as a group; the use of a common platform; and the knowledge resources in the World Wide Web available to them individually and as a group, the potential social capital of a group increases exponentially. Thus, women’s networks appear to benefit more from the so-called Network Effect A third social dimension is education. How does education contribute to positive ICT4L outcomes? The obvious answer is that it builds up knowledge and skills that capacitates an individual or a group to earn a living. However, there is more to education than capacity building. A higher social goal of education is conscientization, made possible through video capture and playback, functionalities found in most mobile phone models nowadays. Participation initiates social reflection, which results in collective action or mobilization. Nowadays, this is made possible in the participatory content provision of Web 2.0 Insofar as social dimensions are concerned, a final consideration should be the impetus that drives ICT4L undertakings. There are concerns related to current ICT4L program rationale and design. What are the determinants of the elements of a program design? Are these based on assessed needs or are these donor-driven? Are these determined by a social agenda or are they technology driven? The relevance and sustainability of an undertaking would be immensely enhanced if the impetus for the project came

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from a real and felt need. Donor-driven or technology-driven initiatives tend not to foster project ownership within the community. Research Question 4: Are these interventions and outcomes replicable in other grassroots communities across Southeast Asia and the Pacific? Technology is merely one of five dimensions in the development process, the others being: economics; values; social structures; and culture (Flor, 2002). Thus, ICT4L cannot exist and be treated separately from other development initiatives within the community. In fact, it has to be closely linked with other initiatives. Unfortunately, many of us involved in ICT4D, in general, and ICT4L, in particular, treat this as exclusive development initiatives. To ensure replicability of ICT4L initiatives, ENRAP3 should ascertain that these go beyond the provision, sharing and reuse of information or knowledge. These initiatives should lead to action and community mobilization. They should be closely linked with other nodes involves with such, particularly agencies that provide basic services to the community. Another related consideration is the Critical Mass Theory, which drives home not only the possibility of replication but also the desirability and necessity of such to achieve larger impacts. In physics, a critical mass is that amount of radioactive material necessary to produce nuclear fission. Since the eighties, social scientists have been applying this term to refer to the number of early adopters necessary to steer the rest of the population into collective action. Research found that sustained collective action is triggered when a core of members (10 -15 %) within a group or community engages in mutually reinforcing reciprocal behavior. When such conditions are achieved within a given population, a so-called critical mass is formed, ensuring the spread of such behavior throughout the population. Hence, the above interventions and outcomes must be replicable in order for these to reach the critical mass of users that would produce desired impacts at a societal scale. Research Question 5: Are these interventions and outcomes scalable at the local and national levels? These interventions and outcomes must likewise be scalable at the provincial and national levels. In fact, the larger the scale, the bigger the impact these may have on countryside development. Again, the impact and sustainability of ICT4L will only be assured if critical numbers of participant-users are reached.

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Recommendations ENRAP3-ICT4L Research Framework and Agenda. The Scoping Study recommends the adoption of an ENRAP3-ICT4L action research framework (Table 6) and agenda (Tables 7 and 8), which will attempt to answer research questions listed down in this Report and study the relationship of identified variables, mainly social in nature, with ICT4L outcomes. These projects will be implemented in grassroots communities on a pilot basis with the end view of replication in other communities across countries within Southeast Asia as well scaling-up at the district, provincial and national levels. Implementation Mechanism. Furthermore, this Report recommends that the action research agenda be implemented in Southeast Asia and the Pacific by a research network composed of specialized agencies, academic institutions, as well as ICT4D projects. The network would be facilitated by an organization with a clear institutional advantage, and considered as a key player in the international development assistance community. Revisiting the MDGs. Finally, this Report recommends an ENRAP3-ICT4L strategic framework (Table 4) based on the Millennium Development Goals and supplemented by a monitoring and evaluation framework (Table 5) guided by MfDR/ ODI approaches. These frameworks provide the bases for ex-post evaluations of key ICT4L projects that would assess impact and sustainability via a vis the overarching goal of poverty reduction. Since the “information society” concept was introduced in the seventies, the correlation between access to information and poverty has been widely acknowledged. The main propositions given were as follows: information leads to resources; information leads to opportunities that generate resources; access to information leads to access to resources; and access to information leads to access to opportunities that generate resources. In pursuit of the MDGs, we have reached the halfway mark and the prevailing perception is that ICT4D has had little to show for it. Now more than ever, the ICT4D community should provide solid evidence that ICT can contribute in the eradication of hunger and poverty. The ENRAP3-ICT4L component must continue adopting an evidence-based approach to research and establish the links between ICT and poverty alleviation, between ICT and the Millennium Development Goals.

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REFERENCES ADB RETA 6004 CAMBODIA: GMS Telecommunications Sector Policy Formulation and Capacity Building. Amos Aked Swift (NZ) Ltd, October 2003. ADB RETA 6004 LAO PDR: GMS Telecommunications Sector Policy Formulation and Capacity Building. Amos Aked Swift (NZ) Ltd, December 2003. ADB RETA 6004 VIETNAM: GMS Telecommunications Sector Policy Formulation and Capacity Building. Amos Aked Swift (NZ) Ltd, January 2004. Asian Development Bank: Connecting Nations, Linking People. GMS Economic Cooperation Program. 2002. Asian Development Bank. 2004. Proceedings of the Sixth Subregional Telecommunications Forum. Hanoi, Viet Nam, 27-28 October 2004. Asian Development Bank. 2003. Report to the Senior Officials Meeting on the Telecommunications Sector. Greater Mekong Subregion 12th Ministerial Conference on Subregional Economic Cooperation. Dali City, Yunnan Province, Peoples Republic of China. Bestle, Lars. 2004. Improving Basic Social Service Delivery with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam. Manila: Asian Development Bank. Calvano, Michael A. 2002. The Missing Link Hypothesis. Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, Bangkok. Chapman, Robert, Tom Slaymaker and John Young. Livelihood Approaches to Information and Communication in Support of Rural Poverty Elimination and Food Security. Bridging Research and Policy. Overseas Development Institute (undated). http://www.odi.org.uk/rapid/Publications/Documents/SPISSL_WP_Complete.p df Cox, Eva. 1995. A Truly Civil Society, Boyer Lectures, New York: ABC Books. Flor, Alexander G and Michael Riggs. 2007. PHILAGRINET: A Case Study on the Online Consortium Model Applied in Agricultural Research and Development. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. Flor, Alexander G. 2005. Assessment of the Demand for Access to Information and Communication Technologies in Rural and Remote Areas of Cambodia, Lao PDR and VietNam. RSC C51303 (REG) Sector Study/ TA6186 (REG) Strengthening the

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Grater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program. Asian Development Bank, Manila. Flor, Alexander G. 2005. Information Management Needs Assessment of Indonesian Agricultural Research, Development and Extension with Emphasis on Poor Farmers’ Empowerment. PFI3, Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development, Ministry of Agriculture and the AHT Consulting Group, Jakarta. Flor, Alexander G. 2005. Case Study for the Philippines: The Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture. ODL for Agricultural Development and Rural Poverty Reduction: A Comparative Analysis of Innovation and Best Practice in Asia. Commonwealth of Learning, Canada. Flor, Alexander G. 2004. Social Capital and the Network Effect. in Building eCommunity Centers for Rural Development (J.K. Lee, Editor). Bangkok: UN ESCAP and the ADB Institute. Flor, Alexander G. and Malcolm Hazelman. 2004. Rapid Assessment of Extension Applications of Information and Communication Technology in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok. Flor, Alexander G. 2004. Final Mission Report. Strengthening Distance Education for Agricultural and Rural Development in China. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok. Flor, Alexander G. 2002. ICTs and Poverty: the Indisputable Link. Paper presented during the 2002 Asian Development Forum. Bangkok. Matthews, Paul and Maggie Ibrahim. Enhancing the Livelihoods of the Rural Poor: The Role of Information and Communication Technologies. InfoDev, 2007. Mitter, Swasti. Exploring Employment and Livelihood Opportunities for Women in the ICT Sector in South and Southeast Asian Countries. Draft Unpublished Paper, 2003. Montgomery, John D. 1998. Social Capital – Research Notes, Cambridge: Pacific Basin Research Center, John F. Kennedy Center, Harvard University. Overseas Development Institute. UK Department of International Development and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ICT for Rural Development Project - Framework. http://www.odi.org.uk/RAPID/Projects/R0176/Framework.html Last Modified 20 December 2005. Accessed 10 May 08

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Overseas Development Institute – Research and Policy in Development (ODI-RAPID). ICT for Rural Livelihoods: Home Page. http://www.ict4rl.info/HomePage. Accessed 5/11/08. Overseas Development Institute – Research and Policy in Development (ODI-RAPID). ICT for Rural Livelihoods. http://www.ict4rl.info/ICTsForRuralLivelihoods/print. Accessed 5/11/08 Overseas Development Institute – Research and Policy in Development (ODI-RAPID). Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning: An International Development Perspective. http://www.odi.org.uk/rapid/Publications/Documents/WP224.pdf. Overseas Development Institute – Research and Policy in Development (ODI-RAPID). Linking Sustainable Rural Livelihoods to Information and Communication. http://www.ict4rl.info/SustainableRuralLivelihoods/print Overseas Development Institute – Research and Policy in Development (ODI-RAPID). Annotated Bibliography: Livelihoods and ICTs in Rural Areas. http://www.ict4rl.info/AnnotatedBibliography?v=1as6 Riggs, Michael and Alexander G. Flor. 2004. Lao PDR Training Report: Information Component, Special Program for Food Security Asia. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Robinson, Lindon J. and Steven D. Hanson. 1995. Social Capital and Economic Cooperation, Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 27(1), pp. 44-58 Rudgard, Stephen, Dylan Winder, S. Janakiram and John Young. 2003. A Collaborative Program for Evidence Based Policy and Operational Frameworks for Knowledge Systems in Support of Rural Livelihoods. Overseas Development Institute. UK Department of International Development, the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. United Nations Development Programme.1998. Human Development Report, New York: United Nations Development Program

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ANNEX A TASKS OF THE CONSULTANT Under the supervision of the IDRC Regional Office in New Delhi and in consultation with the FAO, the ICT4L Scoping Study Consultant will: 1. undertake a systematic review of the literature relevant to the area of ICTs and livelihoods in developing countries (making reference and ensuring no overlap with the InfoDev/ODI endeavor). Sources will include monographs, journal articles and grey literature (e.g. development agency outputs); 2. write a State of Play or State of the Art paper that: 2.1. lists key projects and activities in the area of ICTs and rural livelihoods, with a special emphasis on Asia 2.2. identifies entry points and areas of intervention, key opportunities and demands for specific interventions enabled by ICTs across the region, and characteristics of the ICTs used in these cases that has led to successes or failures; 2.3. identifies the key stakeholders and actors including international development agencies, national and local governmental organizations, civil society groups, or private corporations that are experimenting with village-level deployment of ICTs for livelihood; and 2.4. outlines areas of focus and methodologies 3. recommend the composition and partnership modalities for a research network on ICTs and livelihood 3.1. identify main researchers working in Southeast Asia and the Pacific; 3.2. enumerate the existing networks; and 3.3. recommend how best to convene a group of researchers to identify specific areas of research. 4. develop a conceptual framework and design the methodology for ex-post evaluations 4.1. conduct a literature review of existing frameworks for evaluation that look at ICTs and livelihood improvement at the community level 4.2. compile a short list of case studies for ex-post evaluations 4.3. recommend a framework for evaluation from a livelihoods perspective incorporating the following indicators: economic impact and income distribution, sustainability, appropriateness of technologies, inclusion (or exclusion), potential for scalability and replication, contributing factors towards success/failure, etc. 5. draft concepts notes for possible action research projects to be executed at the ground level, framing the needs and hypothesis to be addressed 6. identify interventions and technologies to be tested may include: mobile phones

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and personal digital assistants (PDAs); market information systems; and the use of participatory geographic information systems (PGIS) and other spatial decisionmaking tools.

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ANNEX B ODI ICT4L BIBLIOGRAPHY Program for Information on Sustainable Livelihoods Project Overseas Development Institute Arunachalam, S. (1999) Information and Knowledge in the Age of Electronic Communication: A Developing Country Perspective. Journal of Information Science, Vol.25, No.6, 1999, pp465-476. Ashley, C. & Carney, D. (1999) Sustainable Livelihoods: Lessons from early experience. Department for International Development, London. Ashley, S (2000) Pro-poor Livestock Development. Paper prepared for Livelihoods Connect Website by In-Development Ltd. Ballantyne, P., Labelle, R., Rudgard, S., (2000) Information and knowledge Management: Challenges for Capacity Builders; ECDPM, Policy Management Brief 11. Bebbington, A. and Thiele, G. et al (1993) Non-Governmental Organization and the State in Latin America. Rethinking roles in sustainable agricultural development. Routledge, London. Berdegué, J. and Escobar, G. (2001) Agricultural knowledge and Information Systems and Poverty Reduction. Discussion Paper. Berners-Lee (1999) Weaving the web. Harper, San Francisco. Bridges.org (2001) Spanning the Digital Divide: Understanding and Tackling the Issues. A report by Bridges.org. Durbanville/Washington. Burke, A (1999) Communications and Development: A Practical Guide. Social Development Division Guidance Series Fact sheet, Social Development Division, Department for International Development, London. Carney, D., Drinkwater, M., Rusinow, T., Neefjes, K., Wanmali, S. and Singh, N. (1999) Livelihoods approaches compared: A brief comparison of the livelihoods approaches of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), CARE, Oxfam and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Carter, I. (1999) Locally generated printed materials in agriculture: Experience from Uganda and Ghana. DFID, London.

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Chambers, R (1994) Knowledge and power: All power deceives in Knowledge is power? The use and abuse of information in development. IDS bulletin Vol 25 no.2. April 1994. Chapman, J. (2001) Joint analytical study of the application of sustainable livelihood approaches in the FAO Special Program on Food Security. Rome desk study January 2001, Oxford Policy Management, UK Chastenet, M (1998) Plantes et paysages d'Afrique. Une histoire a explorer. Karthala, Paris. Christoplos, I, Farrington, J. and Kidd, A. (2001) Extension, Poverty and Vulnerability. Inception Report of a Study for the Neuchatel Initiative.ODI Working Paper 144, London Christoplos, I., Farrington, J. and Kidd, A. (2002) Extension, Poverty and Vulnerability: The Scope for Policy Reform. Final Report of a study for the Neuchatel Initiative. Working Paper 155, ODI, London. Coldevin, G (2000) Participatory Communication and Adult Learning For Rural Development. FAO Crede, A. and Mansell, R. (1998) The importance for sustainable development: ICTs in Developing Countries. IICD. CTA (2001) ICT Update: A current awareness bulletin for ACP agriculture. Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, Wageningen, Netherlands. Dagron, A. (2001) Making waves: Stories of participatory Communication for Social Change. Rockefeller Foundation. Davies, S (1994) Information, knowledge and power in Knowledge is power? The use and abuse of information in development. IDS bulletin Vol 25 no.2. April 1994. DFID (1997) Eliminating World Poverty: A Challenge for the 21st Century. White Paper on International Development. Department for International Development, UK. DFID (1999) Sustainable Livelihoods Guidance Sheets, Section 2 The Livelihoods Framework. Department for International Development, UK. DFID (2000a) Eliminating World Poverty: Making Globalization Work for the Poor. White Paper on International Development. Department for International Development, UK. DFID (2000b) The media in governance. A Guide to Assistance: developing free and effective media to serve the interests of the poor. Issues series. DFID, London.

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DFID (2001a) The Significance of information and communication technologies for reducing poverty. Draft 3 September 2001. Unit for Policy Studies, Development Policy Department, DFID. DFID (2001b) The challenge of universal primary education. Strategies for achieving the international development targets. DFID/NEDA (1999) Agricultural Extension. Sustainable Livelihoods Service Delivery Key Sheet No. 2, May 1999. Overseas Development Institute, London. Dixon, J, Hall, M. Hardaker, J. and Vyas, V. (1994) Farm and Community information use for agricultural programmes and policies. FAO Farm Systems Management Series. FAO, Rome. DOTForce (2001) Global Bridges, Digital Opportunities. Draft report of the DOTForce consultations. DOTForce, London Dragon, A. (2001) Making Waves: Stories of Participatory Communication for Social Change, Rockefeller Foundation Ernberg, J. (2001) Multipurpose Community Telecentres (MCTs) - a business case? International Telecommunications Union. Downloaded from UNESCO webworld August 2001. Escobar, A (1995) Encountering development. The making and unmaking of the third world. Princeton, New Jersey. FAO (2000d) Inter-agency Experiences and Lessons: from the forum on operationalizing sustainable livelihoods approaches. Pontignano (Siena) 7-11 March 2000. DFID/FAO, Rome. FAO (1989) Guidelines on Communication for Rural Development: a brief for development planners. FAO, Rome. FAO (1996) State of the World's fisheries. FAO, Rome. FAO (1998) The first mile of connectivity. Advancing telecommunications for rural development through a participatory communication approach. FAO, Rome, Italy. FAO (1999a) The Strategic Framework for FAO 2000-2015. Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome, November 1999. FAO (1999b) Sustainable Livelihoods Fisheries Program in West Africa. A DFID/FAO Partnership for the application of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.

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FAO (2000a) Communication for Development Report 1996-1997. Communication for Development Group. Extension, Education and Communication Service. Research, Extension and Training Division. Sustainable Development Department. FAO, Rome. FAO (2000b) FAOs Corporate Communication Policy and Strategy. FAO (2000c) Fisheries Department Information Strategy: Supporting Informed Decisions and Actions. FAO (2000e) Medium term Plan 2002-2007. FAO, Rome. FAO (2000f) Program Implementation Report. FAO, Rome. FAO (2000g) Reforming FAO. Into the New Millennium. FAO (2000h) Report of the First Consultation on Agricultural Information Management (COAIM), Rome 5-7 June 2000. Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome, June 2000. FAO (2000i) Guidelines for National FIVIMS. Background and principles. IAWG Guidelines Series No.1.FAO, Rome. FAO (2001a) Evaluation of FAOs Policy Assistance (Cooperation with Member Countries in the Development of National Policies (1994-99) with particular attention to FAO-TCP). FAO Program Committee, Eighty-fifth Session, Rome 7-11th May 2001. FAO, Rome. FAO (2001b) Improving Support for Enhancing Livelihoods of the Rural Poor. Draft program memorandum. FAO (2001c) Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Facility. Fostering the Policy Dialogue in Support of Equitable, Safe and Clean Livestock Farming. Summary Project Memorandum for DFID. FAO (2001d) Strengthening Participatory Approaches in Forest Management in Uganda, Ghana, and Guyana. Forestry Department Program Memorandum. FAO (2001e) Report on the development of FIVIMS to the 27th session of the CFS.IAWG 5/6. FAO/CTA (2001) International Workshop on Farm Radio Broadcasting; Rome, 19-22 February 2001. Information and Communication Technologies Servicing Farm Radio: New Contents, New Partnerships. Final Report.

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FAO/PAIA (2001) A Spatial Information Management and Dissemination Strategy, "GEO-NETWORK" A Report of the Sub-Working Group of the PAIA on Spatial Data Management. FAO/WAICENT (2000) WAICENT Outreach Program - Outline Strategy. World Agriculture Information Centre. Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome, 2000.FAO/WAICENT/SDR (2000a) FarmNet Farmer Information Network for Agricultural and Rural Development. Research, Extension and Training Division (SDR), WAICENT. FAO, Rome. FAO/WAICENT/SDR (2000b) VERCON Virtual Extension, Research and Communication Network. Research, Extension and Training Division (SDR), WAICENT. FAO, Rome. FAO/World Bank (2000) Agricultural knowledge and Information Systems: Strategic Vision and Principles. Rome, Italia. Fardon, R. & Furniss, G (eds.) (2000) African Broadcast Cultures: Radio in Transition. James Currey, Baobab Publishing, Harare. Farrington, J., Carney, D., Ashley, C. & Turton, C. (1999) Sustainable Livelihoods in Practice: Early Applications of Concepts in Rural Areas. Natural Resource Perspectives 42, June 1999. Overseas Development Institute Farrington, J., Chapman, R. & Slaymaker, T. (2001) Sustainable Livelihoods approaches in practice: Potentials and constraints. Paper prepared for the SIDA Poverty Workshop, 8 May 2001. London: ODI Fraser, C. & Villet, J. (1994) Communication - a key to human development. FAO, Rome. Gills, B. and Rocamora, J. (1992) Low Intensity Democracy. Third World Quarterly. Vol.13 No.3 Girard, B. (2001) The Challenges of ICTs and Rural Radio. Paper presented at the First International Workshop on Farm Radio Broadcasting, 19-22 February 2001, FAO, Rome. Goldman, I. (2000) Micro to Macro: Policies and Institutions for Empowering the Rural Poor. Paper prepared for the Livelihoods Connect Website. Khanya. Gomez, R, Hunt, P & Lamoureux, E (1999) Telecenter Evaluation and Research: a global perspective. Report of an International Meeting on Telecenter Evaluation September 28-30th 1999. International Development Research Centre, Canada.

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Grace, J., Kenny, C. & Qiang, C (2001) Information and Communication Technologies and Broad-Based Development: A Partial Review of the Evidence. Draft paper prepared for the World Bank. Gurstein, M (2001) Rural Development and Food Security: a 'Community Informatics' Based Conceptual Framework. Paper prepared for COAIM expert workshop on the role of ICTs in rural development and food security. June 2000, FAO, Rome. Heeks, R & Baark, E (1998) Evaluation of Donor-funded Information Technology Transfer Projects in China: A Lifecycle Approach. Paper No. 1, Development Informatics Working Paper Series. Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM), Manchester, UK. Heeks, R (1998) Information Age Reform of the Public Sector: The Potential and Problems of IT for India. Paper No. 6, Information Systems for Public Sector Management Working Paper Series. Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM), Manchester, UK. Heeks, R (1999) Information and Communication Technologies, Poverty and Development. Paper No. 5, Development Informatics Working Paper Series. Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM), Manchester, UK. Hilliard, RL. (2001) Farm and Rural Radio: Some Beginnings and Models. Paper presented at the First International Workshop on Farm Radio Broadcasting, 1922 February 2001, FAO, Rome. Hoffmann, V., Lamers, J. & Kidd, AD. (2000) Reforming the Organization of Agricultural Extension in Germany: Lessons for Other Countries. Agricultural Research & Extension Network Paper No. 98, January 2000. Overseas Development Institute, London. Hussein, K. (2000) Farmers' Organizations and Agricultural Technology: Institutions that give farmers a voice. Paper drafted for livelihoods connect website www.livelihoods.org. Overseas Development Institute. IFAD (2001) Rural Poverty Report 2001: The Challenge of Ending Rural Poverty. International Fund for Agricultural Development. Oxford University Press Ilboudo, J-P. (2000) Prospects for rural radio in Africa in Fardon, R. and Furniss, G. (2000) African broadcast cultures. Radio in transition. Currey, Oxford. ISG & TDG (2000) Internet Use and Diagnostic Study - East Africa (supporting innovation in the provision of agricultural support services through Linked Local Learning). A collaborative project of the International Support Group, Netherlands and TeleCommons Development Group, Canada.

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Sutton, R. (1999) The policy process: An overview. Working Paper 118. London: ODI. TDG (2000) Rural Access to Information and Communication Technologies: The Challenge for Africa. Final Report prepared by TeleCommons Development Group for the African Connection Secretariat, with support from the Information for Development Program (InfoDEV). IBRD/World Bank, Washington. TechKnowLogica (1999) International Journal of Technologies for the Advancement of Knowledge and Learning Volume 1, Introductory Issue 1, September/October 1999. Thomson, AM. (2000) Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches at Policy Level. Paper prepared for FAO e-conference and Forum on Operationalizing Participatory Ways of Applying a Sustainable Livelihoods Approach. March 2000, FAO. UN (2000) Report of the High-level Panel on Information and Communication Technology, New York, 17-20 April, 2000, United Nations. UNDP (2001) Human Development Report 2001. Making Technologies Work for Human Development. Washington, D.C. UNESCO (1999) World communication and information report, 1999-2000; Unesco, Paris. Warren, P. (2001) Survey at-a-distance on Assessment of Stakeholder Participation in FAO Field Program. Final report prepared for the FAO, Rome November 2000. World Bank (1999) Knowledge for Development. World Development Report 1998-99. Oxford University Press. Zjip, W. (1994) Improving the Transfer and Use of Agricultural Information: A Guide to Information Technology. World Bank Discussion Paper 247, The World Bank, Washington

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ANNEX C ODI RAPIDS BIBLIOGRAPHY This bibliography builds on the review undertaken by ODI for the earlier DFID/FAO/WB study, and focuses specifically on documents, which provide recent analysis or evaluation about the application and impact of ICT projects on Rural Livelihoods. There proved to be very few documents that do this. Those that were found are included below: Beardon, H., Munyampeta, F., Rout, S., and Williams, G. (2004) ICT for development: empowerment or exploitation? Learning from the Reflect ICTs project, Action Aid. Chand, A., Leeming, D., Stork, E., Agassi, A., and Biliki, R. (2005). The Impact of ICT on Rural Development in Solomon Islands: The PFnet Case USP Project. Creech, H., Berthe, O., Assubuji, A., Mansingh, I., and Anjelkovic, M. (not dated) Evaluation of UNESCO’s Community Multimedia Centers Final Report, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Conroy, C. (2006) Telecenter Initiatives in Rural India: Failed Fad or the Way Forward? Natural Resource Institute. Duncombe, R. (2006) Analyzing ICT Applications for Poverty Reduction via Microenterprise Using the Livelihoods Framework, Development Informatics Group, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM) Garai, A., and Shadrach, B. (2006) Taking ICT to every Indian village: Opportunities and challenges, Open Archive Initiative, One World South Asia Gerster, R., and Zimmermann, S. (2005) Up-scaling pro-poor ICT-policies and practices: a review of experience with emphasis on low income countries in Asia and Africa, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC/DSC) Greenberg, A. (2005) ICTs for poverty alleviation: basic tool and enabling sector, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) Harris, R., and Rajora, R. (2006) Empowering the Poor. Information and Communications Technology for Governance and Poverty Reduction: A Study of Rural Development Projects in India, UNDP Asia-Pacific Development Information Program IICD (2006) ICTs for agricultural livelihoods: Impact and lessons learned from IICD supported activities, International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD)

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Meera, S.N., Jhamtani, A., and Rao, D.U.M. (2004) Information and communication technology in agricultural development: a comparative analysis of three projects from India, Agricultural Research and Extension Network (Ag REN) Molina, A. (2006) The Village Phone Constituency in Bangladesh. A Case of a Sustainable e-Inclusion Enterprise, Paper for SPRU 40th Anniversary Conference. Ó Siochrú, S., and Girard, G. (2005) Community-based Networks and Innovative Technologies: New models to serve and empower the poor, A report for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Panos / SDC (2005) Information and communication technologies and large-scale poverty reduction: lessons from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Panos / Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC/DSC) Parkinson, S. (2005) Telecentres, Access and Development: Experience and Lessons from Uganda and South Africa, ITDG Publishing / Fountain / IDRC Richardson, D. (2006) ICTs: Transforming agricultural extension?, Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) Souter, D. (2005) The economic impact of telecommunications on rural livelihoods and poverty reduction: a study of rural communities in India (Gujarat), Mozambique and Tanzania, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO). Talyarkhan, S. (2004) Connecting the first mile: a framework for best practice in ICT projects for knowledge sharing in development, Practical Action. Torero, M., and von Braun, J. (Eds.) (2006) Information and communication technologies for development and poverty reduction: the potential of telecommunications, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) / Johns Hopkins University Press. UNCTAD Secretariat (2006) Information Economy Report 2006: The development perspective, UNCTAD Vodafone (2005) Africa: The Impact of Mobile Phones. Moving the debate forward, The Vodafone Policy Paper Series, Number 3.

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ANNEX D CONCEPT NOTE TITLE:

Broad-based Networking through ICT for the Promotion of Sustainable Agricultural Livelihoods in the Pacific Islands.

RATIONALE: The Mainstreaming of Rural Development Innovations (MORDI) Program is a Pacific Islands initiative that seeks to support sustainable agricultural livelihood opportunities in remote and rural communities, with a focus on youth and women. The Program is financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and is implemented by the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific-International (FSPI). The MORDI Program Phase I (2006-2008) is currently implemented in three Pacific Island Countries: Fiji; Tonga; and Kiribati. The possibility of progressive expansion will be explored for Phase II (2009-2011) to include the Cook Islands; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Solomon Islands; and Timor Leste. One of the strategic thrusts of the MORDI Program is the sharing of information and knowledge on best practices and innovations on sustainable livelihoods among communities, NGOs and other agencies. Information and knowledge sharing and reuse can best be implemented through electronic, institutional and community networks that cut across sectors and levels. This concept paper proposes the establishment of an electronic (Web-based) cum institutional cum community network under the MORDI Program, initially on a pilot basis, to test the influence of networking variables (such as mutuality, reciprocity and integrity) on sustainable livelihood outcomes. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: This action research project will attempt to answer the following questions:    

How is network integrity related with technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable agricultural livelihood outcomes? How is network reciprocity related with technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable agricultural livelihood outcomes? How is network mutuality related with technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable agricultural livelihood outcomes? How is networking related with participatory content provision?

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the pilot project are: 1. to design, develop and test an online network platform for the sharing and reuse of best practice and lessons learned on sustainable agricultural livelihoods;

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2. to design, develop and test a system protocol that would interface electronic, institutional and community networks; 3. to document the development, testing and primary order as well as higher order outcomes of this network into a case study; 4. to determine the relationship between network integrity, technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable agricultural livelihood outcomes; 5. to determine the relationship between network reciprocity , technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable agricultural livelihood outcomes; and 6. to determine the relationship between network mutuality, technology utilization, social capital formation and sustainable agricultural livelihood outcomes. SIGNIFICANCE: The South-Pacific island nations are geographically dispersed along thousands of square miles of ocean. Yet many of these island nations share the same conditions and challenges with regard to sustainable livelihoods. Under these circumstances, networking becomes an imperative to address these challenges. The theoretical and practical basis for proposing this action research project is networking. Perhaps the most popular IT adage is found in Moore’s Law, which states that, technology-wise, computing power doubles every eighteen months. A lesserknown IT principle is the Network Effect. Otherwise known as Metcalf’s Law, after the head of the Ethernet development team, the Network Effect states that the total value of a network where each node can reach every other node grows with the square of the number of nodes. This may be illustrated in the following hypothetical scenario. Consider that an NGO has five stand-alone Pentium IV PCs worth US$ 1000 each. The total hardware resources would amount to US$ 5000. The MIS administrator then installs a local area network. Once the LAN is installed, the potential value of the system increases exponentially. For a system whose hardware resources total US$ 5,000, the potential value reaches up to US$25,000 when it is networked and connected to the Internet. Presumably, this exponential increase in value is due to the synergy produced by the interconnectivity of the nodes. More so, the potential value reflects the access to computing resources in the Internet. David Reed, a sociologist and community development expert, applied Metcalf’s Law to social networks and arrived at a similar conclusion. Social capital may increase exponentially through Intra and Internet connectivity. How may social capital increase in a networked environment? The following reasons are given: 1. Superimposing electronic networks on social networks allow individuals to cross easily between these networks 2. Electronic networks provides “doors” between online community infrastructures

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3. Access to the World Wide Web increases the potential social capital of a community through the augmentation of its knowledge capital. Due to: (a) the synergy produced in working together as a group; (b) the use of a common platform; and (c) the knowledge resources in the World Wide Web available to them individually and as a group, the potential social capital of a group increase exponentially. This study will contribute to an understanding of the Network Effect and how Metcalf’s Law may be harnessed to arrive at sustainable livelihood outcomes, particularly within the context of the Pacific Islands. METHODOLOGY: This will be an action pilot research employing the case study design. It will be conducted in three phases: design and development phase; testing and documentation phase; and analysis and write-up phase. The design and development phase will in turn be divided into three major activities: network development; platform development; and content development. Netwrok development pertains not only to the Web-based electronic network but to its institutional and community counterparts and interfaces as well. The Network should be multi-level, multi-sectoral and as broad-based as possible involving: communities at the grassroots level; government service providers across sectors (education, health, transportation and utilities, trade and industry, etc); civil society (socio-civic organizations, the Church, media, schools); and registered non-government organizations or community-based organizations. The testing and documentation phase involves the activation of the Network, its facilitation and documentation. Particular focus should be given on the operationalization of the following variables: network integrity; network mutuality; and network reciprocity. The testing and documentation phase also includes a series of focus group discussion (FGDs) that would allow the users to relate the above variables to sustainable livelihood outcomes. The analysis and write-up phase completes the proposed project. The analysis addresses the research questions put forward by the study, which will be studied item by item. It is expected that the Network will continue after this study and assume a life of its own. Its impact and sustainability will be assessed in a couple of years as an expost evaluation.

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WORK PLAN: This pilot project will be implemented in one and a half years. Proposed activities and schedules are given in the following Gantt Chart: TASKS

Q1Y1

Q2Y1

Q3Y1

Q4Y1

Q1Y2

Q2Y2

Coordination meetings Identification of network nodes Network development Platform development Content development Network testing and facilitation Focus Group Discussions Process Documentation Protocol adjustments Analysis Write-up of Report Presentation and submission

OPTIONS FOR REPLICATION AND SCALING UP Results of this pilot study will serve as a basis for the replication of this undertaking in other coomunities and townships as well as its scaling-up to the national and regional levels.

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ANNEX E CONCEPT NOTE TITLE:

Social Capital Formation and Livelihood Outcomes Among Users in Lao Telecenters

Women

RATIONALE Casual observation reveals that rural women’s groups, particularly in Southeast Asia, tend to be more closely knit than farmers’ groups or youth groups. This may be a function of their circumstances since women have more time to spend with one another during work and leisure. Furthermore, it may likewise be attributable to a woman’s sensitivity and innate ability to relate and empathize with one another’s roles and challenges. It is clear that rural women’s groups tend to possess more social capital. Active telecenters based in Lao districts with good connectivity are often converging points of women who would want to send messages to relatives abroad or retrieve information from Lao and Thai websites. Is there also a gender dimension in the dynamics of telecenter use, particularly in ICT for livelihood? This proposed study will explore this theme. RESEARCH QUESTIONS This project will attempt to answer the following research questions:    

How is gender related with social capital formation within the context of a transitional economy such as Lao PDR? How is social capital formation related with ICT4L outcomes? How is gender related with networking variables (integrity, mutuality and reciprocity)? How is gender related with ICT4L outcomes?

OBJECTIVES The study has the following objectives: 1. to initiate a capacity building program for rural women users of telecenters; 2. to determine if gender is related with ICT4L outcomes within the context of a transitional economy such as Lao PDR; 3. to observe and document how capacity building contributes to ICT4L outcomes; 4. to observe and document the gender dynamic in social capital formation; and 5. to assess the relationship between social capital formation and ICT4L outcomes.

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SIGNIFICANCE The theoretical and practical basis for proposing this action research project may be found in the concepts of gender, capacity building and social capital. In recent years, economists and sociologists alike have been closely studying a factor, which has been deemed as a necessary element in the development equation. This factor is called social capital as distinguished from financial capital, resource capital and intellectual capital. Social capital has been defined as the capacity of groups to work together for the common good (Montgomery, 1998) or as the ability to draw on relationships with others especially on the basis of trust and reciprocity (HDR, 1998). The sociological definition of social capital is trust, reciprocity and mutuality that are inherent in social relationships (Cox, 1996). Robinson & Hanson (1995) forwarded an economic definition that describes social capital as the institutional dimension of transactions, markets and contracts. To these definitions, we would venture to add another, which may be considered as communicational in nature. Simply put, social capital is the economic value obtained in institutional or individual networking (Flor, 2004). Note that reciprocity and mutuality, two concepts contained in the sociological definition, are variables central to networks and network analysis. However, social capital must be measured in economic terms. This study will contribute to an understanding of gender, capacity building and social capital within the contest of sustainable livelihood outcomes. METHODOLOGY This will be an action pilot research employing the case study design. However, several data gathering procedures – benchmarking, participant observation, process documentation, focus group discussion, economic assessment of livelihood outcomes – at different stages in the project will be used to measure or document social capital formation, gender dynamics and livelihood outcomes. Nevertheless, the Project’s main intervention is ICT4L capacity building and provision of peer-to-peer training among women’s groups. Trainors and peer-to-peer trainees will be women users of three Lao telecenters based in selected districts who would eventually becomes the subjects of research. At the beginning of the project, a benchmarking survey will be conducted to determine current utilization levels and incomes. Group representatives will then be trained on the use of information and communication technologies to increase livelihoods. The groups will then be observed, their ICT utilization levels and peer-to-peer training will be documented. FGDs will be conducted on a monthly basis for twelve months.

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Simultaneously, ICT4L outcomes will be assessed for one year. Data on ICT4L outcomes will be compared with benchmark data. WORK PLAN This pilot project will be implemented in one and a half years. Proposed activities and schedules are given in the following Gantt Chart: TASKS

Q1Y1

Q2Y1

Q3Y1

Q4Y1

Q1Y2

Q2Y2

Identification of Telecenters Benchmarking/ TNA Engaging Participants Training of Trainors Participant Observation Process Documentation Training (Peer to Peer) Assessment of ICT4L Outcomes Focus Group Discussions Analysis of Data Write up of Report Presentation/Submission of Report

OPTIONS FOR REPLICATION AND SCALING UP Results of this pilot study will serve as a basis for the replication of this undertaking in other villages and districts as well as its scaling-up to the provincial, national or even the sub-regional (Greater Mekong) levels.

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ANNEX F CONCEPT NOTE TITLE:

Factors Correlated to the Use of Mobile Phones as a Web 2.0 Platform for Philippine Rural Online Communities

RATIONALE: Many observers are of the opinion that the future of information and communication technology for development or ICT4D rests upon mobile phones. During the IAALDWACC Summit on 27 August 2008 conducted at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, the following predictions were made by the eAgriculture Keynote Panel:10     

 

Mobile phones will make spell the death of the telecenter movement and will drive the final nail in the coffin of the 100-dollar laptop initiative. Mobile service providers will solve the first mile/ last mile linkage challenge that has plagued the ICT4D community for the past decade. Mobile phone users in agricultural communities will reach a critical mass before 2010. Mobile phone functionalities will force the networking and collaboration issue, thereby rendering intermediaries unnecessary. Mobile phone content will efficiently address issues such as a universally acceptable language medium, auto-translations, relevance and the lack of local knowledge. Mobile phone handsets will make ICT services affordable to agricultural communities Mobile phone applications will provide the eAgriculture community with an effective Web 2.0 platform.

This proposal focuses on the last statement. Web 2.0 has revolutionized how people think of the World Wide Web from a collection of individually owned static websites with published content into a body of collectively owned dynamic websites with user generated content. The 3G mobile phone may provide ICT4D, in general, and eAgriculture, in particular, the much needed platform for Web 2.0. This study will examine possible factors that enable mobile phones to assume this unique role. Some of these factors may be: reciprocity; mutuality; userfriendliness; mobility; immediacy; interactivity; ownership; and cost.

10

Flor, Alexander G., Manish Pandey, Michael Riggs, Roxanna Sammii and Stepehn Rudgard. 2008. eAgriculture Keynote Panel Presentation. 2008 IAALD-WACC Summit, 25 to 27 August 2008, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Atsugi, Japan.

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS: This project will attempt to answer the following research questions:  

How can mobile phones be used as a Web 2.0 platform among rural online communities? What factors may be associated with mobile phone utilization and participatory content provision among rural online communities?

OBJECTIVES The study has the following objectives: 1. To test mobile telephony as a Web 2.0 platform for rural farmers, housewives and out-of-school youth. 2. To develop a protocol for online participation and content provision for rural online communities using mobile Internet and rich media, 3. To identify and validate factors that are correlated to levels of participation in Web content provision SIGNIFICANCE The theoretical basis for proposing that 3G mobile phones may lead to the active participation of rural online communities as ICT4D Web content providers is founded on critical mass theory. In physics, critical mass is that amount of radioactive material necessary to produce nuclear fission. Since the eighties, social scientists have been applying this term to refer to the number of early adopters necessary to steer the rest of the population into collective action. The Critical Mass Theory developed by Oliver, Marwell & Teixeira (1985) attempts to answer: the following questions: 1. What are the conditions for sustained collective action? 2. When does a development intervention assume a life of its own? The theory was tested through empirical research on, among others, early adopters of rice production technology. In 1987 Markus applied the Critical Mass Theory to interactive media. In general, these research found that sustained collective action is achieved when a core of members (10 -15 %) within a group or community engages in mutually reinforcing reciprocal behavior. When such conditions within a critical mass are achieved, then one is assured of a practice spreading throughout the population. Can we apply the Critical Mass Theory on ICT4D and Web 2.0? Can a critical mass of rural mobile phone users eventually trigger large-scale utilization of ICT in the

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countryside? What would be the policy implications of this to traditional development sectors such as agriculture, natural resources management, and others? This study will contribute to an understanding of the Critical Mass Theory and how it may be harnessed to arrive at sustainable livelihood outcomes. METHODOLOGY This will be an action pilot research employing the case study design. Three baranggays will be identified in San Aquilino, Mindoro Oriental. Three organizations from these three baranggays will be approached for involvement in the project: the municipal agriculture and fisheries council (MAFC); the mothers' club; and the Sanguniang Kabataan (SK). All three organizations from the three baranggays will be encouraged to participate in this pilot study. A common website utilizing a learning management system (LMS) platform will be established for the three organizations. The website will be titled Pulong-Sulong San Aquilino. The website will feature chatrooms/discussion forums and rich media, specifically audio and video. Initial content will be uploaded by the researcher. Henceforth, content will be provided by the members of the three organizations. The project will provide one GPRS enabled mobile phone, with video-audio capture and Internet functionalities, to each organization. Mobile phone service providers will be approached to sponsore more phones for the three organizations. The researcher will train representatives of the three organizations on mobile phone Internet browsing, discussion forum posting, video capture and content uploading. Output generated during the training will be uploaded. The researcher will facilitate the online discussion forums and will manage the video content uploaded. Content development and utilization by the participants will be monitored, quantitatively and qualitatively. Focus group discussions (FGDs) will be organized once a month for five months. During the FGDs, factors contributing to the levels of content provision, utilization and online participation will be elicited from the participants.

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WORK PLAN This pilot project will be implemented in one and a half years. Proposed activities and schedules are given in the following Gantt Chart: TASKS

Q1Y1

Q2Y1

Q3Y1

Q4Y1

Q1Y2

Q2Y2

Mobilization of Research Team Engaging Participants Website Development Training Content Development Content Provision/ Utilization Monitoring Protocol Adjustments Focus Group Discussions Analysis of Data Write up of Report Submission of Report

OPTIONS FOR REPLICATION AND SCALING UP Results of this pilot study will serve as a basis for the replication of this undertaking in other municipalities, provinces and regions as well as its scaling-up to the provincial and national levels.

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ANNEX G FOCAL PERSONS/ RESEARCHES FROM PROPOSED RESEARCH NETWORK NODES Cambodia Sec. Leewood PHU Secretary General National Information Communications Technology Development Authority Phnom, Penh email: [email protected] China Ms. Li Fanghong International Cooperation Division Central Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School Beijing, email: [email protected] Indonesia Dr. Djuara Lubis Department KPM University Pertanian Bogor, Darmaga Campus email: [email protected] Lao PDR Dr. Bounthene Phasiboriboun Head, Department of Watershed Management and Land Use Planning Faculty of Forestry, National University of Laos email: [email protected] Malaysia Dr. Md. Salleh HJ. Hassan Professor, Department of Communication Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia email: [email protected] Pacific Islands Mr. Siale Bainvete ENRAP-IFAD Pacific Islands Email: [email protected]

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Philippines Dr. Erwin Alampay ICT Research Program Coordinator National College of Public Administration and Governance University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City email: [email protected] Thailand Dr. Jumnongruk Udomsade Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Communication Faculty of Agriculture, Kasetsart University Jatujak, Bangkok 10900 Thailand email: [email protected] Viet Nam Ms. Nguyen Thi Dao Head of Bilateral Section, International Cooperation Department Ministry of Posts and Telematics (MPT) Tel No.: 844 822 6622, Fax No.: 844 822 6590 email: [email protected] International/ Regional Organizations Mr. Yolando Arban IFAD Philippines Country Programme RCBC Plaza, Makati City, Philippines email: [email protected] Mr. Michael Riggs Information Management Officer Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Bangkok email: [email protected] Mr. Lope Santos III Project Development Officer SEAMEO SEARCA Los Baños, Laguna email: [email protected]

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