Author : Miguel Saravia
Date added : 2000-01-24

Brief Project Background

The purpose of the activity is to design and implement a system to provide information to rural producers and local government (municipalities) in two rural provinces in Cajamarca (Peru). The objective is to promote local development improving the access of producers -peasants and manufacturers- and authorities (Mayors or Alcaldes) to useful information for their respective activities. The information system will be administered by the Cajamarca Municipality and/or the Local Producers association, with the support and technical supervision of ITDG.

Results

RURAL INFORMATION SYSTEM: PILOT PROJECT IN CAJAMARCA, PERU.

As a result of information being concentrated in large cities and due to the lack of information and communication facilities, rural areas in Peru neither have direct access to information nor the instruments to take advantage of existing data. Consequently, the state of abandonment in the rural sector becomes increasingly worse day by day.

The opposite occurs in large cities, however, where the daily production of information is commonplace, so much so that the new technological breakthroughs are making information accessible to an increasingly greater number of people.

The purpose of our project is to take advantage of the supply of information concentrated in department capitals and make it accessible to rural entrepreneurs, the rural population and local authorities. To this end, information infrastructure is being designed, based on information technology but under a scheme that will make the service sustainable over time.

During the project’s first year, methodologies were defined and the funds required to develop the human and technological infrastructure were established. We stumbled upon many challenges along the way and obtained lessons that we should like to share with our readers.


1. Working with local authorities

Any investment in rural areas always attracts the attention of local authorities, therefore it is easy to establish a relationship with them; the key aspect of our project is to make the local authority (the Mayor) a natural ally.

Obviously, some of our relationships with local authorities have been successful and others have failed. The following table clearly shows the factors that we believe were instrumental in the success or failure of our efforts.

Factors of success
* Close relationship with other local institutions
* Authority with initiative and the capacity to understand the project (suitable advisors)
* A joint venture clearly defined from the beginning
* Strictly honouring our commitments
* Agreements ratified by higher authorities (council of mayors, association of municipalities, etc.)

Factors of failure
* Authority with other priorities
* Unclear agreements and misunderstandings regarding investment amounts and responsibilities.
* Dependence on political factors
* Poor relationship with other local institutions capable of exercising pressure


It was easy enough to solve the problems, thanks to the legal co-operation framework referred to as Inter-institutional Co-operation, which enabled us to solve conflicts and establish responsibilities. It is important to have this document approved before effectively starting the work. Doing it the way we did caused considerable delays in achieving the project’s goals.


2. Working with local counterparts

In projects of this nature, it is very important to understand that other institutions have similar initiatives, therefore it is fundamental to prevent duplicating efforts. By nature, such projects should complement one another and their success will depend on our ability to co-operate and work closely with local institutions.

It is helpful to obtain the commitment of other institutions in the project in order to ensure the future sustainability of the initiative. Undoubtedly this can reduce costs, avoid duplicating efforts and prevent confusion among the public who will realise that instead of various isolated initiatives, the same one is being supported by different institutions.

It is worth bearing in mind that working alongside counterparts or partners improves the negotiating capacity with local authorities and public officials; the success or continuation of a project often depends on such negotiations.

3. Experimentation Platform

The development of information and communication infrastructure in rural areas, both in human and technological terms, makes it easier to experiment with new services that can be suspended from the above mentioned platform without much problem.

To make this possible, local institutions, authorities and the public in general must realise the system belongs to them and should consider it an instrument that will make it easier to solve concrete problems. That will be the only way for medical posts to consult with other posts or with national hospitals; for rural schools to participate in continuous education programmes; for students to exchange experiences with students of other schools whose teachers promote the use of the technology; for rural municipalities to automate some of their administrative procedures or simply distribute the minutes of their assemblies more rapidly; or to encourage the public’s participation in provincial and departmental decisions.

Once the platform is consolidated, local agents must promote experimentation. Every pilot experience must be documented so that it can later be repeated in another community.

The message that must be clearly transmitted is that the technology will ease other processes which, in the long run, will provide the solutions required or meet specific needs. Also, that the technology is dependent on the public and that we are in control. In very depressed rural areas, there is a tendency to look upon information technology either as a salvation or as the source of future problems.


4. Technological Convergence

A rural information system must make the most of the current convergence of information technologies. We are still experimenting in this respect and the main problems are the swiftness of access and the quality of the telecommunication facilities promoted by the State, private companies and international co-operation agencies.

Under the present circumstances, we considered it advisable to promote the installation of state-of-the-art telecommunication facilities to ease data transmission at a reasonable speed, thus taking advantage of the converging Internet technology and promoting audio, video and text transmissions from the information centres themselves. In that way, we are encouraging the communities to become producers of their own information and disseminators of their own experiences, instead of mere consumers of other people’s experiences.

Convergence has made it easier to generate local information through various means, giving the underprivileged population a chance to express their own views.

The above is all the result of the experiments we would like to share in order to receive comments and improve our knowledge. Undoubtedly some of our statements may raise some questions as the project develops, new lessons will be obtained and some of our theories will be confirmed. The important thing is for other colleagues to take advantage of our experience, in the same way as we took advantage of the experience of others.

Lessons

http://www.itdg.org.pe/

Project Information

Contact Information