Royal Agricultural

College

Rural empowerment through access to

knowledge: a comparison of two projects on two

continents

With some reflections in 2011

Julian SwindellPrincipal lecturer

Royal Agricultural Collegejulian.swindell@rac.ac.uk

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Royal Agricultural

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Knowledge access for the rural poor• The first UNMG is “… to eradicate

extreme poverty and hunger…”• Knowledge access is fundamental to

poverty alleviation• Paradigm shift possible through

knowledge acquisition:– Why are they poor?

>>– Why am I poor?

• The barrier of ignorance is immense• ICT may help overcome that barrier

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Royal Agricultural

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The impact of ignorance

• What is my crop really worth?• What big are the waves?• How can I learn?• What jobs are there?• What’s wrong with my crop?• What’s wrong with my child?• What’s wrong with me?

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Honduras-India (Pondicherry)

• 7.5 million– 53% BPL

• GDP $25 billion• $3,100 PPP• 80% literacy• 25/1000 IM• 69.3 years LE

• 1,130 million– 25% BPL

• GDP $4.2 trillion• $3,800 PPP• 61% literacy• 34/1000 IM• 68.6 years LE

Source: CIA World Fact Book, 2007

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Royal Agricultural

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The “Honduran Project”

• “Methodologies for integrating data across geographical scales in a data-rich environment: examples from Honduras”

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• “Methodologies for integrating data across geographical scales in a data-rich environment: examples from Honduras”– Instigated and driven by an

international NGO, CIAT– Stakeholder participation invited

after the instigation– Stakeholders at lower level were

not really interested

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College

Honduran stakeholders 1

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Project outcomes

• Research papers• Final project report for funding

agency• Final project workshop in 2000• Funding ceased, the consultant

team dispersed• Honduran farmers carried on

much as before.

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Royal Agricultural

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Village Knowledge Centres of Pondicherry• A local project instigated

within India by an Indianresearch foundation, MSSRF– Acquisition and sharing of

knowledge by rural villages– Use of ICT to empower the disadvantaged.

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Royal Agricultural

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Local knowledge, local people 1

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Royal Agricultural

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Comparison of the projects

• International instigation CIAT

• Significant project funding

• Top-down, institution/government led

• Participatory during the running of the project

• Outputs claimed by the consultants

• Finite timescale– 1997-2000

• Local instigation MSSRF

• Start up funding, plus user contribution

• Bottom up from what the villager needs

• Participatory from the outset. No participation, no VKC

• Outputs claimed by the villagers

• Open ended– 1997-continues

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Honduras Pondicherry

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College

Which approach is best?

• International, top down, closed projects are unlikely to have clear, perceptible local impact outside of the project team

• Locally instigated projects aimed at establishing a local service can become embedded if adopted by the stakeholders

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Royal Agricultural

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Recommendations

• Development funding should be channelled in two directions: – Developing localised NGOs which

instigate and support development in their own environment

– Developing international projects for knowledge transfer and coordination

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Knowledge transfer• International knowledge transfer

may be the better realm for major international development funding

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But things change…

• In the first decade of the 21st century.– Desk top computing was seen as

the target– Access to knowledge was seen as

access to managed data in a managed way

• In the second decade…

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College

Mobility is the key word

• Mobile phones changed everything– Almost everyone who wants one

can get one– Mobile telephony has lead to

mobile computing– A modern smart phone can

access everything offered by the Village Knowledge Centres, and it sits in your pocket

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College

Assam 2009- NE India

• No power or water• Mobile phones

common• Charged vi solar

panel

Royal Agricultural

College

Nagaland 2010-NE India

• Some power• Mobile phones

universal• Charged via solar

panels and in shops• Facebook and email

very common

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College

Summary

• Technology changes

• What is cutting edge will be ordinary

• Access to electricity is the major blockage

• Social networking and mobile ICT can bring more benefits to emerging economies than to developed economies

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College

Organisation summary

• CIAT, Cali, Colombia– Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical

www.ciat.cgiar.org • MSSRF, Chennai, India

– M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation www.mssrf.org

• RAC, Cirencester, United Kingdom– Royal Agricultural College

www.rac.ac.uk• Contact

julian.swindell@rac.ac.uk

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