INTERGOVERNMENTAL COUNCIL

OF THE INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION

(IPDC)

IPDC Bureau Uh Meeting

Paris, g-9 April 2002

Table of contents

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Country Page No

Argentina 01 Bangladesh 02 Burundi 03 Cameroon 04

Egypt 05

Egypt 06

Egypt 07 Guatemala 08 India 09 Iran 10 Iran 11 Jordan 12 Kenya 13 . Mauritius 14 Mauritius 15 Mauritius 16 Mexico 17 Palau 18 Palestine 19 Peru 20 South Africa 21 South Africa 22 Saudi Arabia 23 Solomon Islands 24 Syria 25

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Background: The Lavalle desert today extends over more than 90% of the province of Mendoza. It covers the districts of San Miguel, Lagunas De1 Rosario, San Jose and Asuncion. The desert is at the root of the Huarpe culture. Today, because of the destruction of the natural forest, the lack of water and the closure of the railway line, it is a vast dry wasteland with sparse vegetation and few wild animals. The encroaching desert has made the area uninhabitable and as a result it has been abandoned by the farmers whose main source of income was animal husbandry.

Activities: The purpose of the project submitted for the Prize is to integrate the community of the region and all the schools of the desert in the north of the province of Mendoza via communication networks using appropriate technology and improve the quality of life of the local populations through the development of activities. l Revitalize the Huarpe culture and provide the population with all the necessary

information on the techniques of bovine production. l Provide access to local, national, and international general news and information. . l Broadcast educational and literacy programmes prepared by the students with the

participation of the whole community.

Impact: l Since the appearance of the Radio Huanacache network, the process of integration

of the regional community (11 communities in this case) and the entire group of schools in the Lavalle desert has begun.

l The radio network strives to rehabilitate various aspects of the local culture: farming techniques, traditional dress and art forms, namely music and literature.

l The broadcasting of programmes on issues such as education, health, food and nutrition, farming techniques and legal matters contribute to improving the living conditions of the populations concerned.

l Development of the oral and writing skills of the students. l Trainer training through courses taught within the framework of distance learning

programmes. l Development of socio-cultural and socio-economic activities by encouraging the

participation of the inhabitants of the region, cooperatives and various organisations and associations.

Conclusion: This project is clearly useful and fits well with the type of IPDC priority activities.

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Background: Mr Abu Sattar Mohammad joined Radio Bangladesh Betar as an Assistant to the Director in June 1971. Since then, he has worked in various areas. Today, he is the Deputy Director General, Programmes. Radio Betar was established to build awareness among the rural population of the negative effects of early marriage, pregnancies at short intervals and superstition as well as to encourage women to take responsibility for themselves, and inform the population on public health matters and the problems of society. The candidate is the first to publicise and extend foreign programmes organised in his country. These programmes made direct communication with listeners possible.

Activities: Bangladesh is a farming country in which 70% of the population lives in rural areas. Bangladesh Radio Betar, the country’s largest electronic media, takes this fact into consideration in its programmes. The Bangladesh nutrition unit and Radio Betar produce programmes that deal specifically with the problems listeners encounter in their daily lives, particularly those living in rural areas. These various programmes include: family planning, mother and infant health, male participation in family planning, the rights of the child and of the mother, public health, STD and AIDS-related issues, Bangladesh Radio Betar also broadcasts programmes on farming activities.

Mr Abu Sattar plays a major role at Radio Betar Bangladesh. His main Impact: objective was to impact positively on lives of the population. He has achieved his goal through his programmes, which have led to a decrease in the population growth rate.

Conclusion: Although the activities described in this project are all praiseworthy, what means have we of gauging their impact? On what basis can one assert that these programmes “ . . .have led to a decrease in the population growth rate....“?

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Background: The objective of the programme “Reflect” is to eliminate illiteracy in rural communities by an oral approach. The main activity of the programme consists in teaching the population to read and write.

Activities: The instructor in charge of the literacy programme is himself a member of the community and can, thus, communicate and relate with ease to the population. The Association, ReJlect, focuses mainly on community life and the problems encountered in day-to-day living. It is particularly aimed at women who deal with issues related to the home and the community on a daily basis. The various themes discussed during the literacy sessions are passed on by the women during traditional informal conversations and on festive occasions. In this way, the message is transmitted by word of mouth, in keeping with tradition. ,

Groups come together and form associations to create income-generating Impact: activities such as businesses with a view to improving their living conditions. These associations tackle various health problems, including AIDS and STDs. These literacy campaigns have brought the Hutu and Tutsi components of the population closer together through a common interest.

Conclusion The stated aims and objectives that seek to bring the Hutu and Tutsi communities closer together can but gain our support. However, no concrete information is provided on the results obtained, for instance, the degree of penetration in relation to the population as a whole.

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Background: Since its inception in 1988, SAILD has developed two tools aimed essentially at the rural community within the framework of its communication programme: a monthly general news and information publication, called La Voix Du Paysan, and a documentation centre for rural development. The mission of the two activities is to make information more widely accessible, particularly in the rural environment, so as to enhance rural socio-cultural and economic development.

Activities: La Voix Du Pay.san is a monthly publication featuring news, training and education, debate and exchange of views on the rural world. It is apolitical, non- denominational, and non-tribal. The publication is distributed periodically in Central and West Africa and Europe. In association with La Voix DU Paysan, SAILD publishes fact sheets, comic books, guides and other documents, all aimed at increasing the availability and accessibility of information to foster socio-cultural and economic development at grassroots level.

Thanks to the information disseminated, its operating accounts and market Impact: studies, La Voix DU Paysan has helped to double and even triple watermelon and pepper production at sub-regional level. The editorial department of La Voix Du Paysan receives letters of encouragement and praise from its readers, a testimony of its audience in the field.

Conclusions: Notwithstanding the conclusions at the end of the document, important data are missing. As the project involves a printed press publication, the document could usefully have included details on readership, print run, number of unsold copies and the literacy rate of the target population. Further, details on the actual countries in “ Central and West Africa and Europe” should have been provided. The information supplied is very vague. Does this constitute innovation?

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Background:. Through the Ministry of Communications, the Colombian Government started the Compartel Programme in 1999. This has become one of the broadest and most ambitious social telecommunications project in all Latin America. Its three main objectives

aim at:

l expanding telephone service coverage in all rural areas in Colombia, l providing Internet access to low-income Colombians, l disseminating and implementing the mass-use of information technologies.

The COMPARTEL programme provides community-oriented telephony solutions in remote rural areas with over 250 inhabitants, and community centres equipped with Internet access in all of the country’s municipal seats. The Programme is also installing equipment to provide switched Internet access in all cities with over 30,000 inhabitants currently lacking this service. As of November 2001, 95% of the total 6,745 Compartel Community Telephony Sites contemplated in the programme have already been installed and have started to operate. As for what concerns the remaining 5%, installation has not yet been implemented due to violence and public law and order problems. A total of 670 Compartel Internet Access Sites have already been installed in the smallest municipal seats with less than 8,000 inhabitants. Additionally, 270 Community Internet Access Sites are being installed in 261 municipal seats with over 10,000 inhabitants, and Local Switched Internet Access Centres in 40 of these cities.

Activities: The COMPARTEL Programme has provided telephone service to the 23% of Colombians who live in rural areas; it has provided 25% of Colombians living in rural and urban areas with Internet access in their municipal seats; it has offered affordable rates to Colombia’s low-income population so that it may enjoy the benefits of community telephony and community Internet access sewices.

Impact: COMPARTEL has built a technological platform that affords the rural and urban population greater access to the regional and national press and that facilitates content generation for increased and specific production of radio and TV programmes. It allows any Government agency or NGO to develop projects having a cultural, economic or educational impact. For example, such is the case in the creation of the web page of the Wayuu’s website, in the Guajira Department.

The Compartel Programme for Rural Community Telephony has made it possible for over 3,750,OOO Colombians to have access to a telephone service reasonably close to their homes (fess than 5 knz.). The Compartel Social Internet Programme establishes community Internet access centres in all of Colombia’s municipal seats; their use extends local knowledge on new

ways and new technologies used to communicate and exchange experiences with the web pages of other organisations in Spanish-speaking countries.

Conclusion: The enclosed supporting documents provide all desirable additional precisions: videocassettes, CD-ROMs including web sites and web pages and a catalogue of photographs. The activities of this project comply with most of the criteria requested for the IPDUUNESCO Prize for Rural Communication.

However, it should be pointed out that COMPARTEL seems exclusively dedicated to the implementation of telephone and computer networks. It is regretted that the activities described allow no place for the traditional hertzian media : radio and television, which are not the least important vectors of the development of communication.

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Background: Dr Elkamel has devoted the last 20 years to studying the widening communication gap between urban and rural areas. The findings of his research were published (2) as a communication model called (Knowledge and Social Change)) in 198 1. The main characteristic of this model is to help communicators understand and overcome the inequalities between different strata of society. Since then, Dr. Elkamel has published books and research documents around the main theme c<Communication for Development)), aimed at the most disadvantaged population groups.

Activities: One of Dr Elkamel’s activities consists in doing research on communication for adolescents. UNICEF published this study in 2001 with the title ((Dialogue with the future)). The publication was designated as the best programme for young people and adolescents

Impact: This programme has helped parents gain a better understanding of the language used by young people and adolescents, their ambitions and their problems, such as: puberty and its effects, friendship between girls and boys, parent-child relations. Further, the programme was used to assist in creating television programmes for teenagers.

Conclusions: What was the real impact of a study published by UNICEF? What makes it innovative?

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- Background: The mobile clinic programme was created to promote better communication in remote rural zones in the fields of health and education. Egypt is faced with several challenges, particularly in the most disadvantaged rural regions situated farthest away from the cities. Lacking in health services, these regions are more exposed to health problems and have the highest death rates in Egypt.

Activities: The objective of the mobile clinics programme is to assess the needs of the population in terms of health and to facilitate communication between patient and doctor. Its goal is also to provide the population with an efficient health services and exemplary level of healthcare so as to eliminate the socio-economic differences between communities. The programme began with 250 regions equipped with mobile clinics and run by qualified doctors who train their support teams. Today, there are 30 mobile clinics for dental care, 30 for cardiovascular care, 40 for minor surgery and 40 for emergencies. The medical and social welfare staff is for the most part composed of women, which is in conformity with the accepted practices in these regions.

Impact: The health clinics have been turned into holistic health centres and institutes. Targeted mainly at women, health and literacy programmes are offered as well as social welfare training programmes. Special attention was paid to the most disadvantaged rural populations. It has been acknowledged that women are major players in society, in so far as they play a decisive role in bringing about societal change particularly regarding socio-economic development and progress in their status.

Conclusions: This activity clearly provides an essential service to the population concerned. It is also clearly a medical and social initiative. Can it, however, be deemed to serve the cause of furthering the development of rural communication?

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Background: The main activity of IDP is the recruitment and training of village leaders to preserve a political, social, and environmental framework for defending the population. It also implements policies, regulates the system and meets the needs of all the communities, identifies the real problems facing the populations and takes positive steps to solve them. These are the objectives pursued by the IDP. The groups of leaders comprise women, young people and religious leaders from the villages.

Activities: The focus of the Institute is to defend the position of the populations on major issues affecting them. The activities take place in 180 villages, some of which, are very densely populated, have no health care facilities and an extremely low standard of living. Each village selected the women and young people to serve as their representatives and speak on their behalf. In collaboration with the Population and Public Health Ministry, the Institute has established 16 family planning clinics, 11 clinics for couples planning marriage and 65 classrooms have been set up in the villages.

Conclusion: The activities described in this project are undoubtedly very interesting. Nevertheless, only an evaluation of their real impact would make it possible to assess their contribution to rural communication.

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Background: Professor Mario Alejandro is the only person to take an interest in the activities of the radio station directors, journalists and hosts of the different rural radio stations in his country. He is seeking to introduce rural radio stations to the new information and communication technologies by supplying them with equipment.

Activities: Professor Mario Alejandra coordinates the work of the Ministry of Education by giving material support to the different rural radios in his country by purchasing communication and information equipment.

Professor Alejandro’s support for the directors of rural radios has led to Impact: the creation of an Association of Announcers of Rural Radio stations, and the creation of entertainment programming. The new equipment has facilitated the establishment of programmes on education and health for the well being of the communities.

Conclusions: The impact of the abovementioned activities cannot be assessed on the basis of the information given. The description is too insubstantial to give a true picture of the value of the project.

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Background: Radio Tinka Sukh has the largest radio audience in India. Research carried out by the Universities of Ohio and New Mexico in the United States, shows that there is a regular listening audience of some 36 to 40 million people to programmes in Hindi.

Activities: The station has broadcast a series of programmes on adolescence and sexuality, issues related to marriage, adolescent life in India and answers questions from listeners. The station also broadcasts programmes that make it possible to identify the concerns of the radio audience on social, religious, and economic issues; The radio organises debates in which the audience can express themselves on crucial issues affecting them.

Several newspapers in India have reported on these programmes which Impact: have a wide audience. Books have been published on the subject of the programmes and they have also been discussed at several conferences.

Conclusion: The impact of these activities on the population cannot be assessed because of insufficient information on the project. Running a rural radio station cannot be considered an innovative project. The dossier does not provide any concrete information on the results obtained.

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Background: TCI plans to improve the existing telecommunications systems to satisfy the demand generated by a very high population increase. Given its scale, the project is of national importance. The organisational chart of the company will be adjusted to include rural telecommunications. TCI has a public calling office in every village with a population of over 80,000 inhabitants.

Activities: Establishment of a new communication system in rural regions, enhancement of communications in these areas by introducing mobile communication capacity.

Impact: The new system facilitates communication between the country’s rural areas and major urban centres. With more than 151 starter systems and 3,200 peripheral systems, villages were connected to the wireless communications system of the national network. This makes it possible to add new subscribers in neighbouring villages using the same connection system.

Conclusions: The documents provided do not indicate whether a project evaluation was conducted. Thus, its impact on the rural population cannot be assessed. The project itself is ambitious but what of its implementation? No concrete details of its implementation are provided, thus its impact cannot be ascertained.

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Background: The radio programme ccPeopZe Culture~~ is specially designed for village listeners. The primary aim of the radio station is to be a major communication tool for village populations. The programme has been in existence since 1963. The project refers to the second broadcasting phase of the programme running from 1983 to today. The programme ((People Culture~~ is broadcast over the entire network of the Broadcasting Company of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Activities: The main activity of the ((People Culture~~ programme is to promote culture and a sense of national pride. Cultural promotion takes the form of activities such as the conservation of traditional art and craft, art and handicraft, oral and written literature. The programme also provides an opportunity to honour the memory of artists and men of culture who have made an important contribution to their communities as well as to gather information of cultural interest and disseminate it through the programmes.

Impact: Young people from the various communities are becoming increasingly interested in the culture of their ancestors and that of their country as a whole.

Conclusion: -Although the author of the project provided programmes of the broadcasts, it is not possible to assess the impact of the project on the populations concerned. The response given under the heading “Impact)) is inadequate for assessment purposes.

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Backwound: The project revolves around a radio programme called CA success story)), which focuses on rural development and the lives of women, men, and young people. The programme also provides an opportunity to discuss various societal problems such as unemployment and poverty and the specific difficulties facing women. The project is mainly concerned with the story of (<Urn Abdullah)), a woman who first made a living rearing cattle and then set up a business, which in the long run became an important activity in her community. Widowed at a very young age, she had to take on the responsibility of finding an income-generating activity in order to look after herself and her children.

Activities: Listeners participate in the programme by phoning in. They talk about their view of society and unemployment emerges as their prime concern. The woman featured reared cattle and used the milk to manufacture dairy products, which she sold in the towns. As her business flourished, she had to employ workers to help her in the production and sale of the dairy products. Using the income generated, she was able to bring up her children.

The author of the project states that this type of programme influences Impact: people’s behaviour by affording them an opportunity to talk about their situations openly in the hope of finding a solution to their problems. This is particularly true for women who are often marginalized in communities.

Conclusions: The documents provided lack the necessary elements for assessing whether the programme had any impact on the populations concerned apart from Urn Abdullah’s own family. Although the idea for the programme is a good one, it is far from innovative. This method of conveying information to disadvantaged populations through co-called “contact” programmes has been around for decades. Furthermore, its impact cannot be assessed.

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Background: The mobile library project was set up by KLNS in 1996. The interest of this library is to enable the nomad and pastoral populations of northeast Kenya to have access to information and diversify their activities. The lifestyle of nomadic population makes the creation of traditional libraries virtually impossible.

Activities: Camel Library has enabled nomadic populations to have access to literature, to have an information service, to promote their culture and an open society. The use of motorised transport has made it possible for the nomadic populations to have a library at their disposal. This has enhanced the participation of the population in building their culture and in the socio-economic activities of their regions.

Impact: Camel library provides an additional means of communication and information to the traditional oral form of communication. This library service is the sole means of mass communication in this community

Conclusion: The impact of these activities on the population cannot be assessed because of insufficient information. As is the case for all projects of this kind, their impact cannot be assessed without a reference to the geographical scope of the activities and to the level of literacy of the population concerned.

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Background: SPES is a Non Governmental Organisation that provides training for children, by professionals, in the use of information and communication technologies. Marginalized adolescents, categorized as “at-risk children”, who need lifelong learning support, receive training specially tailored to suit their needs. This helps them build self-confidence, become respectable citizens and take their place in society.

Activities: The activities of this NGO consist in providing computer-based teaching for children from different parts of Mauritius. The website of this NGO, shows the work done by these children who were initially illiterate but responded positively to multimedia learning. ,

Impact: These children gained self-respect and the required skills to develop their intellectual capacity. SPES considers its applied multimedia-based research unique and innovative. It consists in a computer-based teaching method using films, television, satellite radio and dedicated computers.

Conclusions: Has there been a study conducted to determine the percentage of “at- risk” children who really benefited from this project? On that score, the document is incomplete.

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Background: Motorcyclists make up 48% of the motorised population of Mauritius. This is quite a sizeable proportion. Last year there were more than 163 fatal road accidents of which 63 involved motorcyclists, representing 37% of the total number of accident victims. Most of the accidents were due to bad driving and non- compliance with the highway code. An awareness campaign was launched to reduce the number of road accidents.

Activities: A survey containing 1,500 questions was carried out in several villages and towns. So as to make a major impact on the behaviour of motorcyclists on the road, the awareness campaign mobilised all the various media. Television and radio stations as well as the printed press all participated in the campaign giving advice on the highway code and on using the means at the disposal of motorcyclists to save lives. For instance, how to use headlights at night for their own safety and to protect other motorists and pedestrians.

The awareness campaign for motorcyclists was launched to reduce the Impact: number of road fatalities caused by insufficient knowledge of the highway code and other factors.

Conclusion: Can a road safety campaign qualify as an innovative “rural communication” project?

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Backwound: L ‘Express is the most widely read newspaper in Mauritius. It is also the only paper that is always available at newsstands. With priority given to reporting national news, the press has generally neglected coverage of news from village communities. With the launch of its four regional supplements, L ‘Express aimed to provide regular coverage of events in villages with a view to sensitising the public to the life of village populations who also have a message to share.

Activities: Since July 23 2001, L ‘Express has been appearing with a supplement for each region. This pioneer in the Mauritian media landscape is now publishing regional news. Consequently, the population of the north that stands at 350,000 inhabitants currently has access to exclusive information on issues of particular. interest to them and their environment. The same applies to people living in the other regions of the country. A team of four journalists was assigned to cover the whole island. Each supplement appears once a week with the daily newspaper.

Impact: Today, after more than 14 weeks of regular presence in the villages, the four Express supplements have built up a solid reputation for being the voice of the rural hinterland. An increasing number of regional businesses are buying advertising space in the supplements. The growth in popularity over the period has been impressive. While in the initial stages, between July and early August, journalists were having difficulty in getting villagers to express themselves, the latter quickly realised that the simple fact of relating their problems could be the start of the process of finding solutions. The volume of letters to the editor bears testimony to this fact.

Conclusions: This is an excellent example of rural communication that is certainly effective but also very conventional.

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Background: The use of radio for the education of indigenous peoples dates back to the establishment of the Mixteca Alta de Oaxaca bilingual radio schools in the 1950s. Convinced of the importance of the use of the mother tongue in teaching, Professor Ramon Hemandez decided to fight the exclusive use of Spanish by teachers. He, therefore, embarked on a campaign to sensitise local authorities and populations to the need to value local languages and cultures, which had been devalued by schoolteachers in rural Mexico.

Activities: The Directorate General for Education of Indigenous Peoples authorised the creation of a unit for the promotion of bilingualism in schools for young students having to pass a test at the end of their primary schooling. The project started in 1957 and today there are over 50 educational units situated mainly in the municipalities of Tlaxlaco, Putla and Juxtlahuaca. The activities consist in teaching pupils through radio broadcasting units. Via the radio, pupils are taught in local languages.

Impact: These learning and instruction broadcasts in local languages helped promote literacy in 20 languages spoken in 17 towns of the Republic. Today, this is an asset to the population as they go about their everyday social, educational and commercial activities. The satellite television network is currently being considered as an alternative to the radio broadcasting system. There are over 7,000 reception teams in the work centres spread across the 23 towns that offer indigenous education services.

Conclusions: The activities of the project are carefullydescribed and its impact clearly defined. This project fits perfectly with the priorities set by the IPDC for innovative rural communication.

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Backwound: Alfonso Diaz runs the only radio station that broadcasts throughout the Republic of Palau. He is the owner and sole journalist of the WWFM radio station. He uses his own financial resources to run the station. The other radio stations broadcasting from Palau are FM stations, which only play music. WWFM radio broadcasts information features on issues affecting society, such as communication, education and transport. His is the only radio station used by the political leaders to express their views and is also the only one whose transmissions can be heard in the rural regions, mainly in the towns of Babeldaob and Youldaob.

Activities: Every Wednesday, presidential press releases are read on radio WWFM. Political leaders and members of the government, members of congress, ministers and other senior officials all give interviews on the station. Programmes cater for listener participation thus providing an opportunity for people to air their views and opinions on subjects of concern to them.

Listeners respect and love this radio station, as they are able to participate Impact: in the programmes and communicate with their political leaders. The performance of leaders has been improving in response to the demands of listening audiences on radio WWFM.

Conclusions: This project describes the nature of the activities of a radio station. Even if it is the only station, its real effects on Palau society need to be more clearly demonstrated. It would have been desirable for the supporting documents to give more detail in this regard.

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Background: The PBC was the number one voice in Palestine serving farmers. Programmes designed for farmers were broadcast very early in the morning. These radio broadcasts were aimed at improving farm production. The population of a community is battling to save the olive tree, its main source of revenue.

Activities: The programme (Starting a Business)) concerns all Palestinians living in the established or little-known villages of Palestine. Under Israeli occupation, villages were completely destroyed and their inhabitants need to rebuild the infrastructure of their villages. The programme has many aspects.

Impact: The documentary focuses on a Palestinian community whose main economic activity revolves around olive orchards, against the backdrop of a challenging political situation.

Conclusion: The cassette provides no information other than what is already known about the political conditions facing Palestinian people living close to Israeli regions. The populations of these regions are struggling to continue living off the land they occupy and work.

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Background: The Quispillaccta community has for many years constituted an Association based in the town of Ayacucho. The members of the Quispillaccta farming community as the conceptualisers, operators and beneficiaries of radio Quispillaccta, wanted, through the radio, to reconstitute, maintain and communicate Andean wisdom and culture in the Quechua language. This radio is located in the centre of Ayacucho and has more than ten years experience as a community organisation. Its aim is to put the knowledge inherited from the past to use in productive activities.

Activities: The main objective of the project is to revive Andean farming traditions and culture. The people of Quispillaccta took the initiative of finding a means of disseminating and exchanging information within their community on agricultural and cultural practices. They also used this medium to revitalize their identity and consolidate their social structures as well as to restore the sense of dignity and confidence of a people whose participation in world affairs has thus far been limited. Various types of programmes are aired. Programmes designed to safeguard farming techniques, music programmes, information programmes, radio announcements and advertisements.

Impact: As soon as its first programmes came on the air, Radio Quispillaccta aroused a lively interest among listeners from rural areas and won many friends among people living in urban and peri-urban regions. Radio Quispillaccta has established its own style, which is distinct from the more conventional stations, by encouraging participation from members of its community through “contact” programmes. In 2001, an audience survey was conducted to assess the impact of Radio Quispillaccta. The findings showed audience ratings of 80 to 85 per cent in rural areas within its catchment area, the Department of Ayacucho, which has 450,000 inhabitants.

Conclusions: This is one of the rare projects that is well presented, with ample supporting documentation and a properly conducted evaluation. This project deserves to be supported.

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Background: Biblionef of South Africa is a Non Governmental Organisation, which donates books to children’s organisations. Since its creation in 1998, this NGO has donated more than 65,079 books to more than 487 organisations. More than 50,000 children have benefited. These donations of books to South African children have opened up a whole new world to them, different to the one they knew under apartheid.

Activities: Biblionef offers these books as a priority to children who cannot afford to buy them and those who live in remote rural regions. Books are also given to schools, hospitals, libraries and homes for abandoned children.

Impact: The books donated to children’s associations have also been used in literacy programmes. The children’s reading ability is determined and those with reading difficulties are given books more adapted to their level. Now that the young people from the communities are busy participating in more constructive activities for their future, the crime rate has dropped by 50% The libraries built up through these donations belong to the whole community.

Conclusions: It is regrettable that a project as interesting as this one and whose activities meet the criteria set by the IPDC was not presented in a more rigorous manner and, particularly, with more substantial supporting documents. It is all the more regrettable as the idea is clearly an innovative one.

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Background: The University of Pretoria is the largest residential university of South Africa, with over 26,000 residents. In 1995, the university set up a multipurpose study wing, broadening its curriculum to include telematic education. This development makes it possible for any individual, regardless of age and school background, to pursue a university education at his/her own pace.

The University programme is a community project. The project aim is to Activity: focus on study areas that fit with the needs of the labour market. It is an open and free service, offered to all schools and any individual with access to a DSTV system. The training consists in providing teaching courses by television to persons and schools that subscribe to the system. The training supplements courses taught by educators, by offering extra lessons in subjects like mathematics, physical sciences, biology, English, geography and accounting. Career guidance counselling and advice on the opening of primary healthcare services facilities is also offered, while issues such as the prevention of AIDS and STDs are also broached.

Impact: Companies and business people make financial contributions, thus ensuring the success of the programme. To date, 40 schools have been equipped by sponsors. The effectiveness of this project is due to the fact that it improves the quality of the teaching and learning experience offered to students.

Conclusions: The IPDC has always been particularly interested in university programmes aimed at developing communication. This project is very much in line with those concerns and what is more has the added advantage of being sustainable.

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Background: Nawal Bakhsh joined Radio Riyadh when it was set up in 1964. Today, she is the head of programmes for family and children. She prepares and presents several programmes, which focus on the development of the family, women and children. She is the only reporter at the radio station specialized in social issues. Nawal Bakhsh is the first female journalist to occupy a senior position in the administration, as a social worker, in women’s organisations at the ministry of health, and as director general of education for girls.

Activities: The goal of the project is to train qualified female social workers, to improve family welfare standards and provide social services that meet the needs of the society; to enable women to play their role, which is very important for the development of society and to improve the status of women in all its aspects.

Impact: Radio Riyadh broadcasts programmes dedicated to families. This radio station is the main source of information for the Kingdom’s village populations. The programme helps women play their vital family and social roles more efficiently and effectively. The project links rural areas to urban areas and provides them with information for the development of society. The programme is very successful among families.

Conclusions: The project has been very summarily presented and does not appear to represent an innovation in the field of rural communication.

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Background: The Solomon Islands is a nation made up of an archipelago covering 800,000 square kilometres in the Pacific Ocean. The country has over 900 islands and atolls. Eighty-five per cent of the population lives in rural areas. Following the armed ethnic conflict, which broke out in 1998, the country finds itself facing serious economic, social and political problems.

Activities: The Solomon Islands media landscape consists of one radio station and one print works. There is also a weekly, which is published only in English. There is no television service, except for the retransmission by Solomon Telecom of news from BBC World, which started this year. The radio service comprises the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation, which is a national radio station, Radio Hapi Isles. of Honiara, which has two provincial stations, one in the west and the other in the east of the country, each broadcasting local programming. During the ethnic conflicts of 1998, the SIBC played an important role in stopping the fighting in the country. It created a programme in which women and children would come to talk to their husbands and fathers, with a view to putting an end to the confrontations.

The project promoter believes that, despite the lack of a formal survey to Impact: determine the impact of these radio programmes on the peace process, all the organisations concerned are of the opinion that the role played by the SIBC, in informing the population of the various activities aimed at achieving peace, contributed to the present peace process in the country.

Conclusions: The political and social aim of the SIBC and particularly its role as an influential media in the easing of a crisis situation is laudable. This is, however, part of the normal role of a public service media faced with this type of situation. It is difficult to consider this an innovative activity in rural communication. The authors of the project also state that no impact assessment was carried out.

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Background: STE has developed telecommunications throughout Syria and replaced the manual system with an automatic system based on modem technology. Management aims to develop and modernise the system in the countryside to bring it on par with that of the towns.

Activities: The first rural project completed has a capacity of 337,000 lines distributed in 300 rural telephone centres. The second project carried out has a capacity of 255,000 lines distributed in 196 telephone centres.

Impact: The availability of telecommunications services throughout rural areas’ helps stabilise rural populations and also facilitates reverse immigration from towns to the rural regions. It encourages the relocation of several industries to rural areas, which makes it possible to build and develop various types of activities and facilitates the sale of farm produce.

Conclusions: The dossier does not include sufficient detail to allow for an assessment of the impact of this project on the populations concerned. Although this is obviously a worthwhile undertaking, it still appears to be ongoing, which makes it difficult to evaluate its impact.

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