Local content in agriculture and rural development

In 2002, IICD, OneWorld, DFID and others examined the issue of 'local content'on - and beyond - the Internet. The project defined 'local content' to be: "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" [see linked reports below].

As the definition sought to capture, local content is important as it represents the culture and knowledge of a community - rather than the the content that is often configured by outsiders for a community. It was argued that digital opportunities for rural communities would be enhanced when their own knowledge 'content' was valued and applied to the search for any solutions.

With the IKM Emergent project, Pete Cranston is now updating this work - to see what has happened since then, to see if the notions have advanced. He seeks contact with people interested in this area... Contact him via the CommunityContent blog.

The original reports:

Collecting and propagating local development content: Synthesis and conclusions

Collecting and propagating local development content: The case stories

Creating and communicating local development content [INASP newsletter]

by Peter Ballantyne