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Knowledge Networking for Rural Development in Asia/Pacific Region

Knowledge Networking for Rural Development in Asia/Pacific Region (ENRAP) is an Internet-based network linking 30 IFAD-funded rural development projects in the Asia and the Pacific region.

ENRAP promotes use of the Internet to improve communication between IFAD-funded projects in eight countries – China, India, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, The Philippines, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam – as well as with
IFAD headquarters and other partner organizations.

Launched in 1998, ENRAP has provided support to IFAD projects in basic connectivity, training workshops,
central web site development, local Internet applications development, and knowledge-networking pilots.

Achievements

During its first five years, ENRAP has achieved a number of successes, particularly by raising awareness of the need for effective information management among IFAD partners in Asia, and by promoting recognition of the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Project staff and partners have received technical training and are beginning to pass on their skills to colleagues and other partners.

As a result, there is now a strong foundation for networking between projects, IFAD and partners in Asia.

Lessons Learned

Key factors for successful networking are:

• face-to-face interaction to complement electronic contact
• identification of common interests to encourage discussion
• use of local languages to build up networks at the local level
• electronic information dissemination complemented by traditional methods, including written and oral communication

Challenges

ENRAP faces a number of challenges. The costs of connectivity and hardware can be prohibitive, especially in remote, poor rural communities. However, an even more important challenge is the need to provide content in local languages, in order to reach all project staff and field workers.

In order to reach rural poor people who may lack the skills needed to locate relevant information on the Internet, help is needed to filter information, test potential solutions for problems and adapt them to specific needs.

This calls for strengthening the capacity of field workers or go-betweens to gather ideas and requests for information from rural farmers, surf the Internet to find relevant information, and interpret it for the use of the farmers and rural communities.

ENRAP is funded by IFAD and implemented by the International Development Research Centre in
New Dehli, India.

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