This is a detailed report of the workshop ICT for Rural Knowledge Management and Sharing: An input into poverty reduction strategy? that was held in Uganda 11th 15th April 2005.
The workshop emanated from the C3Net dgroup and was sponsored by Hivos . The host organization was BROSDI . Participants were composed of members of the C3Net dgroup, Hivos representatives, facilitators from India, Uganda and Canada, and guests from IICD.
In October 2002, twenty-five people from eleven different countries participated in the first South-South traveling workshop on ICT-enabled development, organized by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF). The participating practitioners, project managers, government officials and researchers were united by their keen interest in the contributions of multi-purpose knowledge centers in rural development. The visitors concluded that rural ICT centers, if properly designed and managed, can be much more than just access centers. They can become community owned knowledge centers that directly and indirectly empower people living in rural areas .
A discussion group, C3Net Community Creation Content was formed as a platform where more and upcoming issues on ICT for rural development would be discussed. Today, a number of projects have directly or indirectly benefited out of the discussions.
Amongst the issues widely discussed by the members of the C3Net, was that information is a vital tool in enhancing poverty reduction provided the information is packaged to suit the user. Hence it is important to understand what constitutes useful data/information and knowledge. The identification process in rural settings is not well-formulated or shared among practitioners, more often ICT has been equated to provision of hardware, software and connectivity. There has been little attention as to what content is relevant for the target community.
After identification of useful/relevant data, the next question is how this data/information can be managed and the knowledge henceforth derived be shared in order to attain the project objectives. Information Management is frequently confused by ICT people with data processing it is a wider subject under which data processing is but a part. There is need for rural ICT players to develop, equip themselves with the necessary framework, skills and tools of IM.
IM & KS is about a system with components/elements that form subsystems and subsystems form systems and systems that could in turn form supra-systems, etc. Lack of two-way flow mechanism among system nodes only leads to its confinement to an individual or community thereby retarding development. Information management is a critical element in the activities of a large number of social, governmental and law-enforcement agencies. It involves the discovery, propagation, and aggregation of information shared by multiple participants in these activities. IM & KS is all about what you know and what you choose to pass over to others.
The moderators then proposed a workshop that would address the pertinent issues on ICT-enabled information sharing and knowledge management for (rural) development. The workshop would enhance participants ability to facilitate formulation and implementation of IM & KS system in rural areas as well as enhancing information sharing among C3NET members. This forum builds on two previous workshops that were focused on rural access to ICT as a social, economic and political empowerment facility. The IM&KS workshop is intended to focus on content rather than access, as such; it will be a working workshop where members will laterally learn from each other, from experts as well as from communities. Emphasis will be on African perspective to IM & KS. Participants will also discuss ways to enhance online C3NET role.
It is hoped then that this would: -
o Lead to the participants having increased knowledge on how to manage information and share knowledge effectively. This information will trickle down to the rest of the C3Net participants who will in turn use it in their respective communities to reduce the abstract poverty levels in the rural communities
o From the participants sharing knowledge in the thematic areas selected both on a local, national and global perspective there will be increased learning and solutions to prevailing challenges back home. These experiences also will be documented and shared with the C3Net d-group and perhaps others as well.
o There will be learning new, practical and better ways of preparing and conducting knowledge sharing platforms that are result oriented.
o Also, increased learning on how to manage thematic and sectoral knowledge
o The d-group will have a reference book from which they can refer to for prevailing challenges
o Specialized knowledge will be generated and shared, stored and disseminated for future use
Link: Report.
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