Dear GKD Members, I agree with much of what Stella Hughes has said with regard to scaling up. However, we must not forget that communication for development is a social process, and the technology is only a tool, a means to reach the objective of increasing participation, sharing information, knowledge and skills and improving the quality of life of people in developing countries. What is important is the process... Discussions on the potential of ICTs for development often concentrate only on the technology.
Also, the past decades of experience in communication for development, making use of many different media, have provided much experience and lessons learned, as well as guiding principles and knowledge of critical factors for success. All this experience should not be forgotten when planning for the future of ICTs in development. I agree with Stella that one has to strive for support and committment at different levels, from communities as well as policy makers. However, I believe that one of the essentials for sustainability and scaling up will also be capacity building and the training of a sufficient critical mass of communication specialists as brokers/mediators and facilitators to assist with the use of ICTs, especially with illiterate rural audiences. Silvia Balit ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. 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 For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
