ICT in poverty reduction

27.10.2005 OneWorld South Asia will host a panel discussion with Global Knowledge Partnership on local content in the upcoming Tunis Summit. The panel discussion “Local content: an answer to global problems” provides a knowledge-sharing platform for experts from the South to provide issues around using local content for poverty reduction.

27.10.2005 Workers having problems with their employers will soon be able to complain to Dubai Police any time of the day or night by calling the 24-hour hotline number at Dubai Police Operations Room.

26.10.2005 A Farmers Internet Café, established by the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU), through support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the USA’s department of Agriculture, has helped linking the mother body with affiliates at district level, while at the same time providing access to information to individual union members. Through this café not only were the farmers able to access business opportunities, they were also able to know general marketing trends in the agricultural sector, to write letters to their relatives as well as enquire about any other services that the union or any other organisation of interest to them was offering.

26.10.2005 Around 200 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in the country are likely to go online this year, and have e-connectivity with all relevant agri research institutes.

25.10.2005 Foreign experts at a session titled 'Internet Governance and Telecom Regulation' urged the Bangladesh government, civil society and the business community to work together to provide Internet facilities to every person of the country.

25.10.2005 South Asia’s first high-tech food and vegetable market is to be set up near Makhan Majra village in Chandigarh to cater to the needs of farmers of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

24.10.2005 The tech market in Bangalore may be racing ahead, but it is a very different story for India's 700 million farmers. Spencer Kelly has been to Northern India to see how plans to bring technology to rural areas are working.In a village meeting, known as a choupal, the adults of Sabalpur are given the weekly news and discuss the pressing issues of the day.Other information such as the school exam results is online.The village is now online, and with the help of Akash, a local who has been trained to use the computer, villagers now have access to a wealth of information.
Just as the choupal is a place to meet and discuss with other villagers, this is a place to talk to other villages, and it is called e-Choupal.

24.10.2005 An information-sharing web portal Pakistan Relief and Information Systems for Earthquakes (RISE) was launched to provide information about the 4,000 earthquake-affected villages in the largely rural North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in Pakistan.

21.10.2005 Through community radio, students of Mudra Institute of Communications hope to help villagers find their voices and raise their concerns.

21.10.2005 Conservation through Public Health (CTPH) in Bwindi, Uganda has built a telecentre in a bid to empower communities around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park to improve health and livelihoods.

21.10.2005 Next year, when the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) carries out a landmark project to connect interior Africa with a lightning fast wireless internet connection, a team from the Pune-based International Institute of Information Technology (I2IT) will be in the centre of action.

20.10.2005 India has remained in the forefront in using advance technologies, including biotechnology and ICT in increasing her agricultural prodiuctivity. This artice finds the mention of several such initiatives that have already been undertaken or planned.

20.10.2005 In an event to mark the 60th anniversary of the CSIR, a group of science and technology (S&T) leaders from around the world gathered in Pretoria to find new ways for S&T to play a part in sustainable development.

20.10.2005 Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and on-board communication devices are now being used to give fishermen the necessary cutting edge to catch fish more quickly.

18.10.2005 Armed with the new Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) advanced system, Sharjah Municipality inspectors are all set to conduct their examinations of various outlets selling food including supermarkets, restaurants and groceries to safeguard the health of consumers.

18.10.2005 The district science projects exhibition of schools began in Kateel, Karnataka,with a call to improve facilities to teach science subjects in rural areas.

17.10.2005 The Bangladesh government approved the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) with a vow to alleviate poverty that bedevils half the country’s population, from different directions.

17.10.2005 Technology is slowly but steadily making a humble entry into the Indian farms. From agri-marketing software to radio frequency tags, the agri-technologies market is buzzing with action.

17.10.2005 The presentation of a simple, innovative literacy tool in use in UNESCO-supported community learning centres in Tamil Nadu was presented at a UNESCO workshop on ICTs for Community Empowerment, held in Chennai, India, last week.

17.10.2005 Umsobomvu, a government skills development fund in South Africa, is extending its outreach programme to rural youth by providing computer training and information about self-employment opportunities via its mobile youth advisory centres.