Collecting and Propagating Local Development Content

From the Introduction...

This report was commissioned by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) to explore how action point 8 of the DOT Force Plan of Action could be implemented (see full report link at bottom of page).

The DOT Force report, and many others, point to local content development as being critical to the local appropriation of ICTs for development purposes.

However, they give little insight into exactly what content, for what purposes, and with what expected development impacts. Nor do they indicate how exactly the processes of local content creation, adaptation, and sharing can best be supported.

This report resulted from a consultation exercise to examine and illustrate how local content in developing countries is created, adapted, and exchanged. It draws from 60+ case stories, analyses prepared by partners, and a workshop held in Tanzania in March 2002. A preliminary 'taxonomy' and working definition of local content is presented and discussed in relation to the various types of local content and people's motivations to share it. Some steps to be taken to support and promote local content are suggested.

In line with the 'biodiversity' perspective adopted, a broad approach was followed in which many different types of content and eContent were looked at as well as many old, new, and traditional media and ICTs.

Why Local Content?

One of the strengths of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as the Internet is the way they can help unlock distant expertise, knowledge and markets. However, this access - usually to 'foreign' content with foreign perspectives - has its limitations. Easier access to globalised knowledge is fast turning us into 'consumers' of distant and potentially irrelevant information. More worrying perhaps, developing countries are being 'invaded' by foreign ideas and values that may undermine or overwhelm local cultural heritage and economic livelihoods.

If we are serious about the use of ICTs as an empowerment tool - so poor people can shape decisions that affect their lives, so they can grasp economic and social opportunities, and so they can deal with misfortunes and disasters, then this foreign content must be matched by the expression and communication of local knowledge that is relevant to local situations. 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.

This is not an easy task. As this report shows, content does not flow of its own accord; it needs owners or originators with the motivation to create, adapt or exchange it. As well as vision, these pioneers need to have the creative, technical and people skills to transform an idea into something that can be disseminated or exchanged. Moreover, since few of us have all the necessary capacities to create and communicate content, partnerships are essential to get the job done. There need to be very strong incentives for all the elements to come together at the right time and place.

Beyond these critical capacity and incentive issues, local content faces intense competition. Even in remote areas, the powers that 'push' global or just non-local content are often much stronger than those 'pushing' local content. This can be seen in television programming, in advertising, in the spread of global brands, in classrooms using imported curricula and examinations, in the use of foreign languages in schools and universities, in the lowly status of local languages, on the Internet, in research, in the dissemination of 'reliable' scientific information, and even in the reliance on foreign technical assistance. With a few exceptions (phones, community radio, or indigenous knowledge systems), most formal content and communication 'channels' in developing countries help to push 'external' content into local communities. Counter efforts to push local content on to global stages, such as African film, African research publications, 'southern voices' in the media, or the e-trading of crafts face an uphill struggle.

In a search for ways to promote local content, we have few guidelines to follow. Should we create more effective 'push' mechanisms, increasing and improving the supply of content? Should we focus on the demand side, so that local content is more highly valued? Should we look at the containers in which content is packaged, making them more attractive and accessible? Should different content types get different treatment?

Drawing from a consultation process to examine how local content in developing countries is created, adapted, and exchanged, this report provides some answers to these questions. It is a synthesis of lessons; the case stories reproduced in a companion report provide details on actual experiences and lessons from the ground.

Summary of Conclusions

First, a definition of local content is difficult to find. Some people define it as content for people in a certain locality, or content for people speaking a language or for people from a cultural tradition. Others suggest it is content that is relevant to, or consumed by a given society or community. In the media industry, local content refers to the proportion of programming that is not imported. In this study, we propose that local content is the expression of the locally owned and adapted knowledge of a community - where the community is defined by its location, culture, language, or area of interest.

Second, while the importance of 'local content' has often been raised in international meetings, concrete initiatives and expertise on this topic are scarce.

Third, in the course of this study, contacts were established with people working in most development sectors and representing public, private and not for profit groups. Similarly, efforts were made to link up with different media traditions. The underlying issues and challenges are a core interest of people in many disciplines and sectors.

Fourth, it is crucial to differentiate between 'local content' and local 'eContent'. Just because little eContent from developing countries is found on the Internet, it is wrong to conclude that there is a 'local content' problem. Most local content is invisible to international audiences that are not connected to local 'offline' content channels.

Fifth, while the ICTs and other media are converging and provide many opportunities to strengthen local content creation and exchange, different 'pools' of local content need to be treated very differently. The 'drivers' and motivations in health are not the same as those in agriculture, community development, or community radio. A good understanding of these is necessary before any interventions are formulated.

Sixth, while everyone is impressed by the potentials the new ICTs offer to share and exchange local content, in many cases the 'new' technologies are tape recorders, radio, television, newspapers, or telephones. ICTs and the Internet are currently rather small parts of the 'toolkit' used to create and communicate local content.

Seventh, most content initiatives using ICTs tend to 'push' external content towards local people. In other words, they mainly provide 'access' to other people's knowledge. With a few exceptions, new technologies are not used to strengthen the 'push' of local content from local people. Generally, the balance between 'push' and 'pull' - or supply and demand - is heavily weighted towards non-local rather than local content...

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