Local knowledge is often scattered among community members. It is in general poorly documented and passed on through speech and experience. This prevents the sharing of information to a larger community but it also increases the risk that knowledge, that in many cases was accumulated and perfected during long periods, is being lost in a fast changing world. A major objective of this of the Rural Universe Network Pilot Project (RUNetwork) is the improvement of the availability of local knowledge and information as well as the communication-system.

The Rural Information Cafés will facilitate the development of up to three in each of the participating countries (South Africa, Benin, Caribbean Islands and India). The pilot project started on 1 January 2000 and has funding for one year. In the Caribbean Region it is a co-ordinated effort of Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), under the auspices of the Caribbean Agricultural Information Service (CAIS) and the German Center for Documentation and Information in Agriculture (ZADI). The collaborating local institutions identified during the implementation of the project include the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) and Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA).

After initially considering pilot sites on separate islands, the Programme eventually agreed that one island would be used for the pilot project; Jamaica has been selected as a pilot site. After a mission to visit potential sites undertaken by Information Resources Manager, with responsibilities for CAIS Claudette de Freitas, Information Resources Advisor Mr. Gabriel Canacoo, and RUNetwork Coordinator Marc Bernard, two rural communities in Wait-a-bit and Orange River were selected as the farmer communities where Information Cafe will be located

A RUNetwork café is a "shop" (Information Café) in a rural community that has the capability to connect to the Internet and has a library of CD’s with appropriate information for the community. A Regional Information Broker (RIB) will be responsible for the exchange of information and the consolidation of local knowledge base. He/She will help farmers/community members to get information that they request to improve their livelihood. The RIB will also facilitate communication of the rural population with the Internet, provide computer training and other computer based services. Each site will be equipped with two desktop personal computers, with printer, scanner, digital camera, audio-visual recorder to facilitate the collection of information in the form of print, video and voice recordings, as well as sufficient infrastructure to connect to the Internet. Sufficient Information and communication technology (ICT) training to empower the community and RIB to make efficient use of the equipment and the Internet will be provided as necessary.

Basically the project follows a demand driven ‘bottom up’ approach from the farmers point of view, to encourage ownership and sustainability at the community level. Farmers, communities and RIBs are responsible for the operation of the RUNetwork café and should use their local resources and creativity to solve problems and to work out regulations that lead to a sustained growth of the RUNetwork cafés. Ownership of the equipment is with ZADI, and possibilities and modalities for the transfer of the ownership have to be worked out at the end of the pilot phase.

Funding for the pilot project is supplied by the German Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF) in the frame of the EXPO2000 world faire at Hannover. Presentation at the EXPO2000 and the preparation of a proposal for a larger project are important expected outputs of the pilot project and funds will be provided to finance special events and feature topics required to populate the initial WEB pages, to kick start multilateral communication and to document the participating communities.

IRM
March 2000.