Isolated physically and symbolically by the Great Wall, rural communities in Northern China have not been able to benefit much from the country's burgeoning IT industry. Most of the huge rural population have never seen a telephone, let alone used the internet. A joint project between United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Chinese government means to address this and help alleviate poverty by creating an infrastructure so that the rural poor can access vital information via information and communication technologies (ICTs).

See The Digital Revolution - Information and
Communication Technologies for an overview on the global picture on ICTs.

While the level of poverty in China has dropped dramatically since 1978, of the country's 800 million peasants, 30 million still live below the national poverty line, surviving on less than US$0.70 per day (Common Country Assessment, UN Country Team in China, 2003 ) . China is currently facing massive problems of transient poverty and rural migration from poor rural areas to the more developed urban areas, particularly in coastal regions. This is caused by endemic poverty, lack of funds for rural development, lack of educational resources and the extraordinary differences in wages in the cities compared to the rural areas. A key strategy to stem the flow of migration is to create a stable, sustainable economy in rural areas, and to do this it is necessary to open up access to the rest of the world.

Science and technology have been identified as a means of helping the poor help themselves. The rapid development of China's information and telecommunications industry and the internet in China provides a window for consumers to widen access to knowledge, information and education. (UNDP Project brief) This can have a direct positive impact on people's livelihoods. For example, producers often receive only a tiny percentage of the final value of the product. Access to market information will allow them to: sell goods at a correct market value; understand the chain in which products are sold and therefore sell more directly; monitor trends, assess demand and plan accordingly, diversifying products and applying best practice techniques where appropriate.

Breaking New Ground

In December 2001, the China International Center for Economic & Technological Exchange (CICETE) and China Rural Technology Development Center (CRTDC) co-launched 'Poverty Alleviation through Science & Technology in China' with the aid of UNDP.

Over a period of three years, five regions were chosen upon application, each representing different geographical and socio-economic conditions including groups who fall below the poverty line.

Yuyang district of Shaanxi Province;
Wu'an city of Hebei Province;
Huoshan County of Anhui Province;
Shangcheng County of Henan Province; and
Tongnan County of Chongqing Municipality.

The project has several objectives:

to identify the most appropriate mechanism in each of the selected counties, through which information and knowledge needed to improve living conditions of poor households and communities will be generated, delivered and exchanged at all levels: county, township, village and household;
to develop institutional and human capacities to innovate, operate and manage information services meeting the needs of rural poor households and communities at all levels, particularly county, township and community;
to integrate the use of information and ICT technologies as effective means to reduce rural poverty; and
to make a contribution to the formulation of national policies and programmes.

A total of US$2.5 million in funding was provided, predominantly from the central government Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), then UNDP and the counties themselves. Local governments were actively involved in every stage of implementation and the centres are located in a mix of government-provided facilities and village school buildings.

Four levels of telecentres were established, aiming to reach all households (how) including the poorest and most disadvantaged.

1. MOST centra
A central website run by the Beijing office with links to each county centre

2. Five counties
Internet centre, with high-speed access to the internet and about ten computer terminals, for provision of training to village and town project staff

3. Ten townships
Reporting to each county are two township internet centres, providing training and services to local townspeople and surrounding villages

4. Twenty villages
Every project town then has two village telecentres under it for provision of training and services to local villagers.

In each village and town telecentre, two to five staff are assigned by the local government. One person manages the operation while the others provide training and solicit suggestions from local users on types of information or services that would most benefit them. Staff conduct searches for farmers who cannot type. Each village centre has a dial-up line for accessing the internet from one or sometimes - in the case of town centres - from two PCs. Visitors may use non-wired PCs for learning or practising typing skills or to watch and listen to videos.

Every centre has a phone and fax machine for sending periodic reports to its respective county centre. Some town centres, like the county centres, have ISDN or faster connections to the internet. Most village and town centres also have a separate room for viewing videos where users can watch training programmes about, for example, new agricultural technologies.
(Source: A Project to Reduce Poverty through Access to ICTs in Rural Areas)

Building Capacity

Training was delivered at several levels to build staff capacity to operate the centres effectively. Village staff, including women, undertook training in Bejiing in awareness raising, how use information effectively, and telecentre management and equipment operation. Newsletters and other materials were published to promote the centres. Project accountants were trained in correct financial procedures. Some county-level managers and government officials went on study tours overseas. Management manuals, operation and training guidelines and applied in all telecentres so that they all follow the same procedures. For instance, centre staff are required to maintain a publicly available log showing the date of visits by users, the purpose of the visit, and the result of the internet search. Each centre posts a similar log report recording the date and nature of any technical problems and how they were resolved. Local staff were able to run the centres and provide information services within three months of the networks being connected.

Consulting with the villagers
Copyright CRDTC

An information needs assessment was conducted at the start to identify the categories of information and distribution methods needed. Relevant contents and services were developed on the basis of this analysis and the centres are predominantly used as information sources rather than for communication such as e-mail. The centres are widely used by both men and women, meeting basic education needs and filling a large gap in information on market goods, education, health and job availability.

In his report reviewing the project Paul Ulrich identified some of the best-practice techniques at each of the county centres. Tongnan's exemplary practices include the following:

An excellent often-visited website offering free e-mail accounts
A 50-page manual developed especially for training staff and town staff but also a separate page of agricultural technology video clips for those with high speed access
A practice of paying staff according to results, based on monthly in-person reviews, conducted in conjunction with half-day training sessions
A well-planned advertising campaign including wall posters, sign boards, and bus banners describing the project
A well-thought out training programme that includes final exams to see whether staff have properly absorbed the lessons
A close working relationship with provider, despite using the cheaper Internet access services of Unicom in the village and town centres
Choice of four service providers (elsewhere counties had no choice of provider).

Yuyang's close cooperation with the county broadcasting bureau has resulted in an important and popular innovation for households lacking cable TV. The bureau copies useful site data from the internet and develops its own programmes for regular broadcasts, which can be viewed at the information centres via cable TV, on VCD, or received at home via a low-cost receiver or through cable TV. Sound and pictures are especially important for those with limited reading skills, and in remote areas relying on slow internet connections, microwave broadcasts or delivered VCDs are the most appropriate delivery vehicles for key development programmes.
In the relatively advanced Wu'an, every demonstration village had cable TV, so the project has copied 'useful' internet content to TV broadcasts for viewing at home via cable TV. In rural China, household TV penetration, whether black-and-white or colour, is very high (70 per cent or more), so this is an especially suitable vehicle for information dissemination.
In Huoshan, best practices were the government's commitment to the concept, as demonstrated by its setting up seven additional non-project village information centres and constructing a five-storey building which will house a county information centre with extra space for training information staff.
From Shangcheng, best practices include its designation of ten 'model households' per village. These households have benefited from the information centre and in return share their experiences with neighbours and visitors.

Learning From Experience

The project has been reviewed by a consultative committee and international experts. The socio-economic conditions of pilot communities at the beginning and the end of the project have been thoroughly assessed through two comprehensive surveys.

"It has a clear organisational structure, highly motivated staff, strong government support at all levels, and a commitment to training, as detailed in instructional manuals. The project has shown exemplary cooperation with, among others, academic institutions who have often provided consulting and advice at little or no cost. Throughout the project there are also numerous examples - at both the individual and collective level - of large increases in income or in savings on cost, attributable to market-price or agricultural information gleaned from the internet." (Report by Paul Ulrich ).

Other issues identified were:

To replicate the project elsewhere and ensure the ongoing success of the existing centres, capacity must be built to manage the operation of the centres and provide ongoing funding.
It is more difficult to set up appropriate infrastructure in more physically isolated areas.
It is important to share experiences between the centres, which they could do via the internet. Seminars were organised to exchange experiences of the project both nationally and internationally.

Visitors at the Husohan Centre
Copyright CRDTC

Conclusion

This project has successfully connected rural poor in China to the wider world. It has exposed them to an information intensive society where they have been trained to use information to their advantage and improve the overall quality of life. It shows how ICTs can play a vital role in supporting economies in rural areas and hopefully stem a global problem of migration from rural to urban areas. The information gap between women and men has narrowed at the households and community levels within the pilot counties and it has informed China's national strategy for poverty alleviation. Sustainable knowledge networks will play a growing part in providing appropriate information to meet needs of communities all over China.

Acknowledgements

ITDG would like to thank Daniel Wang Dexiang from UNDP for help in producing this case study. It also draws extensively from the reports produced by Paul Ulrich reviewing the project.

China Rural Technology Development Center (CRTDC) Official host of ICT rural poverty project information
http://www.cstap.org.cn/
Address: 573 room, 5 floor, south building of China Science Academy, Sanlihe Road, Beijing
Postal address: P.O. Box 2143-2, 54 Sanlihe Road, Beijing, China 100045
Tel: +86-10-68516510
Fax: +86-10-68516510
E-mail: cstap@263.net.cn

China's Rural Internet Information Centers: A Project to Reduce Poverty through Access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Rural Areas
by Paul Ulrich
This report can be downloaded at:
http://www.ejisdc.org/
The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries
Volume 12 April 2003

UNDP Project Brief
http://web.mit.edu/mit-ceti/www/undp2003.htm

Article China harnesses the Internet to reduce
rural poverty by Abid Hussain

UNDP Kyrgystan Project
http://unescap.org/stat/meet/povstat/pov7_chn.pdf
Poverty statistics in China

China Internet Information Centre offers broad access to up-to-date news about China, with searchable texts of government position papers and a wealth of basic information about Chinese history, politics, economics and culture.
http://china.org.cn/

TVE/ Practical Action gratefully acknowledge support for the HANDS ON programmes from the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), the European Commission (EC), the UN Foundation and UNDP/The Equator Initiative in collaboration with the Government of Canada, IDRC, IUCN, BrasilConnects and the Nature Conservancy.