Electronic Networking for Rural Asia-Pacific Projects (ENRAP)

IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations which was created to mobilize concessional resources for programs that alleviate rural poverty and improve nutrition. The Fund's mandate is to combat rural hunger and poverty in developing countries. IFAD is the supporting agency for ENRAP.

IDRC is a public corporation created by the Canadian government to help communities in the developing world find solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems through research. IDRC is the executing agency for ENRAP.

ENRAP is a three-year pilot project intended to help bring the Internet to IFAD-supported rural development projects in the poorest parts of ASIA and the Pacific, aiding them to use the technology effectively to address their development objectives.The project has helped IFAD project stakeholders in several Asian countries to gain Internet skills, plan for locally appropriate applications (e.g. GIS, web-databases, email newsletters, etc.), and make better use of the Internet for sharing project information. Now in its final phases, the project is likely to be expanded and re-launched in 2001.

Problem/Need

Communication among IFAD's project offices throughout the Asia-Pacific region, as well as among the local stakeholder groups in IFAD project areas, is poor. The factors for this include poor telecommunications infrastructure in the host countries, and an unfulfilled ability to share the local information resources which currently exist among local groups. This results in an ineffective use of time and resources which are available to further rural development in the areas served by IFAD projects.

Solution

TDG consultants were involved in ENRAP from its outset, assisting in the assessment and identification of appropriate IFAD country projects which could serve as possible testing grounds for ENRAP. Three countries, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Nepal were selected as preliminary countries for the project based on the participatory, multi-stakeholder approaches which were built into their design; China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan were selected for later participation. The Philippines was chosen as the initial project country to benefit from a variety of creative networking applications and tools that could be developed and used by diverse groups of stakeholders. TDG established the need for consultative meetings and workshops for IFAD stakeholders within the host countries, and developed a preliminary format for the preparation and design of ENRAP's consultative workshops. In conjunction with another implementing partner,Nexus Ireland, TDG established the framework with which to proceed with the three-year project, and has been responsible for assisting stakeholders in developing local Internet applications, and developing tools and strategies for knowledge management between IFAD projects in Asia.