1. Rural empowerment
through access to
knowledge:
a comparison of two projects on two
continents
With some reflections in 2011
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Julian Swindell
Principal lecturer
Royal Agricultural College
julian.swindell@rac.ac.uk
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2. 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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3. 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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4. Honduras-India (Pondicherry)
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• 7.5 million
– 53% BPL
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GDP $25 billion
$3,100 PPP
80% literacy
25/1000 IM
69.3 years LE
• 1,130 million
– 25% BPL
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GDP $4.2 trillion
$3,800 PPP
61% literacy
34/1000 IM
68.6 years LE
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Source: CIA World Fact Book, 2007

5. The “Honduran Project”
• “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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6. Honduran stakeholders
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7. 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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8. Village Knowledge Centres
of Pondicherry
• A local project instigated
within India by an Indian
research foundation,
MSSRF
– Acquisition and sharing of
knowledge by rural villages
– Use of ICT to empower the disadvantaged.
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9. Local knowledge, local people
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10. Comparison of the projects
Honduras
• 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
Pondicherry
• 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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11. 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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12. 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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13. Knowledge transfer
• International knowledge transfer
may be the better realm for major
international development funding
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14. 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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15. 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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16. Assam 2009- NE India
• No power or water
• Mobile phones
common
• Charged vi solar
panel
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17. 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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18. 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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19. 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
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julian.swindell@rac.ac.uk
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