This brief describes the impact of IDRC's Acacia Initiative in Mozambique, where the programme has successfully influenced national ICT policy. The programme initiated two pilot projects to establish telecentres, and worked through key 'ICT champions' to achieve policy change
Can people remain healthy in a world that is sick? Many ecological disasters can be directly traced to careless exploitation of the environment, with human beings as first perpetrator and then victim. Our health closely mirrors the health of our surroundings: this is the basis of the Ecohealth approach. It recognizes the links between humans and their biophysical, social, and economic environments, and that these links are reflected in the population's state of health. This is a new area of research, requiring input from scientists, community and interest groups, and decision-makers. This book describes this new approach, providing lessons and recommendations from various IDRC-supported research activities. It demonstrates how decision-makers, in particular, can use the ecohealth approach to formulate policies and solutions that are both immediately visible and sustainable over the long term
This research analyzes the impacts of ICT on poverty reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean and proposes strategies to plan policies for sustainable development and poverty reduction using IS, with a view to reduce social and gender inequalities. It presents a diagnosis of ICTs use in poverty reduction based on research developed from 1995 (year of introduction of Internet in most of the region) to June of 2003. A short version is available in English
This book reviews recent experiences in strengthening local institutions, governmental and non-governmental alike, in six countries on five continents. It examines various aspects of the tensions between international initiatives to save lives or to reconstruct the fabric of societies, and the parallel and sometimes competing international commitment to "capacitation" - to building longer term skills locally. The last chapter reviews the case studies and attempts to draw out the learning in terms of conceptual, operational, political and motivational issues
This study was designed to test some of Acacia's assumptions about the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in development by extracting lessons from previous project experiences. The overall objective was to provide input that would help shape the design and implementation of the Acacia programme initiative by answering questions about policies, organisations and interactions, resources, barriers, innovative solutions, empowerment, community involvement, and jobs and economic activity