Collecting and propagating local development content: synthesis and conclusions

This report argues that the internet can only useful for empowerment for poor people if foreign content is matched by the expression and communication of local knowledge that is relevant to local situations. Much internet content, writes the author, is foreign to users in the South. To a large extent, this means that ICTs need to be conveyors of locally relevant messages and information. They need to provide opportunities for local people to interact and communicate with each other, expressing their own ideas, knowledge and culture in their own languages.

Local content faces competition from globalised brands and knowledge. Most formal content and communication ‘channels’ in developing countries - the internet, television, universities and research networks - help to push ‘external’ content into local communities. The author asks how local content can be better promoted, whether to focus on supply or demand or to improve the attractiveness of 'packaging' to compete with global content.

The results of research into these questions are synthesised here and are summarised as follows:

• it is difficult to define local content
• concrete initiatives and expertise on this topic are scarce
• it is crucial to differentiate between ‘local content’ and local ‘eContent’: most local content is invisible to international audiences that are not connected to local ‘offline’ content channels but that does not mean it does not exist
• different 'pools' of local content need to be treated very differently. The motivations in health are not the same as those in agriculture, community development, or community radio
• the balance needs to be equalised between teaching people to access others' knowledge and creating local content