La Onda Rural: Radio, New ICTs and Rural Development

From the website

Organised by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation), in cooperation with the Latin American Association for Radio Education (ALER – Asociación Latinoamericana de Educación Radiofónica) and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), "La Ond@ Rural: Radio, New ICTs and Rural Development" was a regional workshop held in Quito, Ecuador from April 20-22 2004. In the workshop's final document, the 89 participants from twenty countries recognised the expanding role of information and communication in rural development initiatives. However, they emphasised that "in order to be really useful, information has to [be] available in appropriate languages and formats and to be distributed via channels and media that are appropriate for and available to rural people." Broadcast radio was singled out as a particularly powerful tool for closing the digital divide, especially in rural areas.

The workshop focused on three main themes: i) public policy and practices in rural broadcasting and telecommunication; ii) content for rural development, and iii) training, including both the training needs of rural communities in ICT use and the use of ICTs as a support for more traditional training initiatives.

In addition to a number of specific recommendations related to the above themes, the declaration calls for the creation of the Latin American Initiative on Communication for Rural Development, to be known as La Ond@ Rural. Envisaged as an inter-institutional platform, this initiative will work with existing regional and national networks, training centres, research institutes and governments to focus attention on the specific information and communication needs of rural communities in the region.

Workshop participants addressed an invitation to all interested organisations to join the Latin American Initiative on Communication for Rural Development: La Ond@ Rural and mandated FAO, ALER and AMARC to further develop the initiative as a platform, a forum, a common agenda, and a series of shared activities to support and encourage the use of a information and communication technologies, including traditional broadcast radio and new digital technologies, for the benefit of rural, indigenous and Afro-American communities throughout the region."

Click here for the full article online or to download the article in PDF or Word (.doc) format. The full article is only in Spanish.

Click here to read a summary of the event announcement.