Rural Communication at the center of a Regional Workshop in Latin America

A regional workshop called La Onda Rural (Rural Wave) on rural radio, information and communication technologies (ICTs) and food security will take place in Quito, Ecuador from 20-22 April.

The event, organized by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), in cooperation with the Latin American Association on Broadcasting Education (ALER) and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), seeks to place on the agenda of rural radio stations, specialists in ICT for development and policymakers, the advantages of combining radio and new ICTs. In the past, initiatives of this sort in the Latin America were focused mainly towards urban populations and their access to ICTs to fight poverty. The Onda Rural workshop is a regional effort that will bring together rural communication experts and practitioners to tackle four main themes included in the agenda: content, networks, capacity building and rural communication policy.

Discussions on strategies and policy proposals regarding a strengthened and sustainable use of ICTs and radio will provide valuable information on how to overcome poverty and isolation in rural and disadvantaged communities. Enabling the poor to have access to the information available in internet through the radio will help enhance their knowledge and build their capacities.

The outcomes of the workshop are expected to be available and disseminated in both electronic and print format and will be used as an important input for FAO's Twenty-Eighth Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2004 as well as the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society to be held in November 2005.

A similar initiative involving rural communication and farm radio broadcasting was developed by FAO in Africa during February 2001, to visit the site please click here.

For more information on the workshop please click here to visit their webpage.

To visit FAO's Rural Radio webpage please click here.

For more information on the activities organized at UN headquarters please click here.