Dear Friends, I am glad to announce our conference: 'ICT Appropiation in Latin America'. A combined event that wants to sit at the same round table as the decision and policy makers with pioneering ICT initiatives and experience in Latin America.
Please read the document below or visit the web site: <http://www.rcp.net.pe/tic2002/> (sorry only in Spanish). Miguel **************************************************** ICT Appropriation in Latin America Experience-Sharing Conference and International Workshop March 17 - 24, 2002 Cajamarca and Lima Presentation Over the past few years, efforts have been made to introduce information and communication technologies (ICTs) as key elements to support development in the rural communities of Latin America. Such initiatives have presented the potential positive impact of ICTs on reducing poverty and isolation, activating local markets, supporting decentralization, improving the quality of education and introducing rural populations to the complex area of "virtual transactions " - e-government, e-business, e-commerce, etc. The question is: How much of this has come from the community itself? How many of these initiatives have actually supported local development processes? To what degree do they respond to beneficiaries' needs? Are they based on local knowledge and the community's own information-sharing and communication systems, which preceded the introduction of ICTs? To date, there is little concrete evidence of the actual impact of ICTs on development processes or of their contribution to both employment generation and poverty reduction. The argument used to justify the fact that there has been no visible impact on the most disadvantaged sectors is that these technologies have been in use for a very short time and repercussions will only be felt in years to come. Such a context of uncertainty gives strength to those who stress the risk that ICTs may aggravate social differences, poverty and exclusion in Latin America. ICT Appropriation in Latin America aims at bringing out of anonymity pioneering experiences in Latin America that demonstrate a different approach to the issue of rural development and ICT use. These experiences have emerged from the needs of people and communities and are examples of empowerment in ICTs according to people's own views on development and their own knowledge or, in the words of Scott Robinson, experiences that are entering the global sphere by using the technology as a resistance mechanism from the LOCAL SPHERE. These experiences range from the Pemon of Venezuela, fighting against the presence of pylons and power lines crossing their territory; to the National Indigenous Confederation (Confederaci�n Nacional Ind�gena - CONAIE), in Ecuador, the Pehuenche and Mapuche in southern Chile, and the Ash�ninka of Peru's central jungle. Based on these experiences, the Conference hopes to influence local and regional governments, public policy and international organizations so as to rethink together what the role of ICTs can be in supporting local development initiatives. We must reflect on how to make the use of ICTs respond to national priorities and not exclusively to technological progress and the changing needs of the global market. The Experience-sharing Conference will be followed by a series of workshops in Lima, where different Latin American social actors will meet to analyse specific issues. The conclusions of the Conference will constitute key input. With these workshops, we also plan to review the agenda established by the region's governments at the Third Summit of the Americas (Quebec, 2001) and propose concrete actions based on the lessons learned over the past years. We consider it very important to contribute to the work of the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas1 through these workshops. As an activity prior to the event, we will set up a Web page where reference material on each of the topics to be debated will be included, and open an arena for receiving contributions on these topics and on the general theme of the event: Empowerment in ICTs in Latin America. We will put special emphasis on promoting dialogue on local and national policy in order to go to the Conference-Workshop with a series of precise recommendations to be analysed in the workshops. Conference Objectives 1. To facilitate the sharing of Latin American communities' experiences demonstrating the use of ICTs in the context of a local approach to development. 2. To discuss ICT-related problems and local development processes (peri-urban and rural) in Latin America, on the basis of the Conference's central themes: Take over technology and empower the poor in peri-urban and rural Latin America. 3. To analyse different information and communication strategies for community development (peri-urban and rural) in Latin America. 4. To recommend concrete ICT policy outlines to the countries of the region. 5. To contribute input to the work of the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas. Methodology ICT Appropriation in Latin America will consist of an experience-sharing conference and workshops. The conference will be an exchange of lessons learned through 15 previously selected Latin American experiences. The workshops will be held with international experts, national and regional decision-makers, and representatives from international cooperation organizations, and will aim at recommending international strategies. Experience-sharing Conference The Conference will be held in the city of Cajamarca, North of Lima, Peru. At least 15 community-based experiences that represent the cultural and geographic diversity of Latin America will be presented and will illustrate novel uses of communication and information technology in community development processes in rural and peri-urban areas. The purpose of the conference is for participants to present different aspects of their use of the technology - not only the technological application itself - such as experiences in: management, mixed media, community participation, new methodologies for evaluation and measuring social impact. Based on an initial list, organizations will be invited to present their experiences by returning a form designed by the organizing committee. Applications from organizations not previously identified will be accepted. A Selection Committee made up of ITDG, IDRC and INFODEV will choose the 15 most relevant experiences according to the objectives of the Conference and taking into consideration the geographic and cultural diversity of Latin America. Once the selection is completed, a document presenting each experience will be requested from the organizations and distributed to all those attending the workshops. The documents will also serve as material for Conference and workshop reports. For two days, the organization representatives presenting the experiences will share lessons learned about empowerment mechanisms in ICTs and their contribution to community development. The conclusions are expected to be used as input in each one of the seven workshops constituting the second part of the Conference. Workshops Following the Experience-sharing Conference, a series of workshops will be held in Lima, in which the representatives from the experiences presented will be joined by a group of Latin American experts on the issue of ICTs used in development processes, and by representatives from NGOs, international cooperation organizations and Latin American governments. The workshops will begin with a plenary session during which the general conclusions drawn at the Experience-sharing Conference will be presented, as well as a series of talks to introduce the participants as well as the key issues in the second part of the Conference-Workshop: taking over technology and empowering the peri-urban and rural poor of Latin America. These two key issues will in turn be crossed-referenced with topics such as: gender, media integration, legislation, sustainability and management of community initiatives, during two days of thematic workshops aimed at drafting policy proposals for Latin America. The workshop themes proposed are as follows: Gender, Empowerment and ICTs; Rural Radios and ICTs: Media Integration; Informal and Illegal operators: ICT Legislation in Latin America; E-community: sustainable management of community ICT initiatives; Social impact of ICTs: Building indicators; Information and communication strategies for community development; and Universal access: utopia and reality. Gender and ICTs The rural and peri-urban communities of Latin America hold profound gender differences and, although the recent actions of development programs have taken this dimension into account, the risk that ICT application continues to ignore this issue is still latent. Gender differences also exist with regard to access to information, access to ICTs, developing skills to search for information, and the very use of these technologies. This workshop will analyse experiences in ICT application that have tackled the gender difference dimension with varying results. From the lessons learned, the workshop will formulate policy proposals on ICT use and community empowerment that address the gender perspective and produce significant change in the lives of the women and men of our communities. Rural Radios and ICTs: Media Integration The relevance of traditional media in relaying information to peri-urban and rural communities is unquestionable. Nonetheless, the pertinence of their contents, the timeliness of the news and the possibility of sharing information with similar communities remain on the agenda of thousands of rural and community-based radios in Latin America. The emergence of Telecentres and numerous State programs for the expansion of telecommunications in Latin American countries provides new opportunities for rural and community radio. An adequate information and communication strategy in rural and peri-urban communities must tend to integrate communication services such as rural radios, information services such as libraries, and new telephone and Internet services. The purpose of this workshop is to analyse experiences in which such initiatives have concurred and assess the impact they have had on the development of their communities and the empowerment of local people. Policy outlines meant to guide public and private investment in the rural and peri-urban environment will be drafted in order to encourage media integration. Informal and Illegal Operators: ICT Legislation in Latin America Over the past decades, community-based media have been fighting to be officially recognized in various areas of Latin American legislation. However, the results of these initiatives have been diverse and rather disappointing. With ICTs becoming more and more popular and accessible and many telecommunication monopolies having ended, the scope of the problem now reaches community-based communication and information initiatives. To what degree does a rural radio station have the legal status that ensures its existence? To what degree is it legal to constitute rural telecommunication companies that share a single telephone line? How do tax and technology laws designed with the urban commercial sector in mind affect rural and collectively managed initiatives? This workshop aims at reviewing Latin American legislation in the field of radio communication as well as in data transmission networks, so as to draft policy outlines that ensure the recognition of rural and community radios, and guarantee/y community diversification of communication and data-transmission services. E-Community: Sustainable management of community ICT initiatives Making community-based communication and information initiatives sustainable continues to be a challenge for those who promote them, and a problem for beneficiaries who are confronted with the question of how to maintain the service once the donor's intervention has ended. Alternative solutions to these problems have been developed in different countries of the region and the main experiences will be analysed in this workshop, in order to propose very clear policy outlines and, at the same time, a series of recommendation to be considered in ongoing experiences. The social impact of ICTs: Building indicators Can the impact of ICTs be measured in the short term? What needs to be considered in order to ensure the positive social impact of an ICT intervention? Which indicators are most adequate? What is the perception on the part of the benefiting population? These are only a few of the questions that a select group of social researchers have been asking under the auspices of the OLISTICA project. In this opportunity, the workshop is meant to open discussions on the issue, contribute to sharing the progress made in Olistica and collect opinions from other social actors that do not have the opportunity to take part daily in the analysis - including those presenting their experiences and from their perspectives. Information and Communication Strategies and Methodologies for Community Development Community-based information and communication experiences are implemented with strategies and methodologies on which their success depends. Generally, these instruments are not clear even to those who use them. The purpose of this workshop is to analyse the experiences presented throughout the Conference and draft outlines to improve our actions and make the most of the experience of others for the benefit of our own communities. Universal Access: Utopia and Reality Several countries in the region are adopting concrete policies to facilitate access to ICTs, but interlearning from these experiences is very poor, not to say inexistent. This workshop is intended to analyse the issue and propose a series of recommendations on concrete policies for countries and international organisations operating in the region to implement efficient programs to spread access to ICTs. This must be done in the framework of the agreements reached at the Third Summit of the Americas by proposing actions not only to national and sub national governments, but also to the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas, for example. Based on the work done in each workshop and further plenary discussions on it, the assembly is to approve the Lima Declaration: Toward a community-based strategy for empowerment in information and communication in local development processes. The organisers plan for this Declaration to serve as an instrument for countries in the region to begin to reflect on their ICT-dissemination strategies and to ensure that ICT use respond more to national priorities than to technological progress and the changing needs of the global market. In order to do so, it is fundamental that, alongside the people presenting their experiences, the presence of representatives from Latin American governments, NGOs, and international cooperation organisations, as well as other researchers and activists in the field of ICTs and community development, be secured. To ensure the presence of NGO members, ICT researchers and activists from Latin America, a public announcement of the Conference will be made, after which the organisers will select at least 15 participants who will be asked to present a paper that will be used as input in workshop discussions. Panelists Each of the main speakers has been asked to address the issues of ICTs as they relate to empowerment, community participation and the role of national governments and international cooperation. The principal speakers will be: * Scott Robinson Social Anthropologist and chief professor of the Department of Anthropology of the Universidad Metropolitana (UAM), Iztapalapa, Mexico City. Since 1994, Professor Robinson has been working on the adaptation of information and communication technologies to social development processes. He has studied issues relating to forced migration and, more recently, the political participation of Native communities. Professor Robinson also coordinates a Network of Rural InfoCentres in Mexico and has taken a decisive part in the debate on empowerment in information and communication technology and rural development. * Alfonso Gumucio Expert in Communication for Development with experience in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. For over seven years, Dr. Gumucio has worked with UNICEF in Nigeria and Haiti and as an international consultant for the FAO, UNDP, UNESCO and other United Nations agencies. He has been Director of Tierram�rica, a regional project on sustainable development, funded by UNEP/UNDP. He has also worked as Communications Advisor at Conservation International (Washington, D.C.). Since 1997, he has been a member of the discussion group on Communication for Social Change of the Rockefeller Foundation. * Andrew Scott MA Economics, University of Edimburg, 1976. Policy and International Programmes Director of ITDG. Responsable for strategies development, knowledge management, policy and influence and ICT for Development. * Juliana Martinez Franzoni PhD en sociolog�a, University of Pittsburgh, 1998. Investigadora, docente y consultora en pol�ticas sociales y p�blicas. Ha cumplido tareas de investigaci�n en la Universidad de Pittsburg, el Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios del Uruguay (CIESU), la Universidad ORT y la Fundaci�n Acceso, y tareas docentes en las Universidades de Costa Rica, Pittsburgh, ORT Uruguay, y Universidad de la Rep�blica, Uruguay. A select group of experts has been put together for the workshops. Together with the Conference-Workshop moderators, they will plan the methodology to be used in each one of the workshops and ensure that their objectives are achieved. * Workshop on Gender, Empowerment and ICTs Karin Delgadillo is a librarian and the Executive President of Chasquinet. From her first experiences developing Telecentres in Ecuador up until now, as head of one of the most important projects in Latin America on the issue of ICT use and empowerment (TELELAC Project), Ms. Delgadillo has put emphasis on the Gender perspective and women's participation in community-based technological innovation processes. * Workshop on Rural Radios and ICTs: Integration of Community Media Bruce Girard is a Canadian researcher and reporter. He founded the Information Agency Pulsar and has taken part in numerous international initiatives on community media (especially radio). He is currently Director of Comunica.Org, where he does research on and promotes the link between ICTs and traditional media. * Workshop on E-community: Sustainable management of community ICT initiatives Ernesto Lamas is an Argentinean social communicator and has been the President of the Asociaci�n Mundial de Radios Comunitarias Am�rica Latina y Caribe (AMARC-ALC) from 1997 to 2000. He has specialised in issues of community radio management and is currently the Director of AMARC's community radio management program. He is a Professor of Communication Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. * Workshop on Informal and Illegal Operators: ICT Legislation in Latin America Gustavo G�mez is the Director of AMARC-ALC's Program on Legislation and a promoter of the debate on legislation concerning the media in Latin America. * Workshop on the social impact of ICTs: Building indicators Michel Menou is a visiting professor from City University (UK) and an independent consultant in information and knowledge management. He graduated in Public Administration and Information Sciences in developing countries, and has more than thirty years of experience in the area of information systems in developing countries. In Latin America, he has been working with SNIDA and IBICT in Brazil, as well as with other organisations in Mexico and other countries, mainly in the area of agricultural information. He took part in the project titled, "El Salvador, sociedad de aprendizaje," and is currently working with the IDRC of Canada on the impact of information technologies. * Information and Communication Strategies for Community Development Manuel Calvelo (to be confirmed) is in charge of developing the proposal on Mass Audioviual Pedagogy for rural sector training. In 1985, he was the recipient of the SEN Award, presented by the FAO to the best field expert, for his contribution in the area of communication for rural development. He currently heads a Master's program in Communication for Development at the University of Tucum�n, Argentina. * Universal Access: Utopia and Reality Ricardo G�mez, Senior Program Officer at IDRC, is an expert an on the social impact of ICTs. Dr. G�mez has worked for over 15 years in communication technologies (Internet, video, radio, photography) for community development in Latin America. He received his Ph. D. from Cornell University (1997) and holds a Master's from the Universit� du Qu�bec � Montr�al (1991). Before joining IDRC, he worked as an international consultant in the area of communication for development and headed the audiovisual department of a Colombia-based NGO. http://www.summit-americas.org/Documents%20for%20Quebec%20City%20Summit/Que bec/Institute-Connect-span.htm ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
