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Researcher: Dr. Ananya Raihan
With the shift in the development paradigm the current
global emphasis is on market economy. In a market economy
framework access to information is crucial in terms
of having access to market and getting price advantage
in the production process. Unfortunately, there is no
separate market for producers of goods and services
who belong to the poverty groups. Access to information,
however, may drastically change the situation in favor
of these producers within and for a country in the global
context. Accessing ICT-carried information requires
a lot of overt resources including a telecommunications
infrastructure to provide network access, an electrical
infrastructure, existence of a certain degree of computational
skills, provision for training, literacy skills and
money. The poverty groups simply do not have these resources.
The main objective of the project is to contribute to
the improvement of the rural livelihoods through better
access to information. This will be done specifically
through understanding and identifying information needs
for the rural livelihoods from supply and demand perspectives
and through assessing the effectiveness of current information
delivery channels for their improvement. The project
will also assess the effectiveness of new delivery channels
by developing the taxonomy of contents and by experimenting
their appropriateness and suitability in order to develop
an alternative business model with Information Intermediary
Concept for improving access to information for rural
livelihood. Five rural locations in different parts
of Bangladesh have been selected where the pilot village
information centers will be operated. Viability analysis
of Information Intermediary through this action research
is expected to lead to the development of an effective
and replicable model of Information Intermediary for
rural livelihood in developing countries.
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