Research

ICTs for Livelihoods Research — by Apoorva Mishra — last modified Aug 25, 2010 08:09 PM

Why ICTs for Livelihoods? Agriculture remains the predominant rural livelihood in the Asia-Pacific region. Although rural livelihoods are not exclusive to agriculture-based activities, they comprise the lion’s share of rural livelihoods in the Asia-Pacific region. Information and communication play an important role in agricultural production and rural livelihood resilience. As regions become more connected and at once exposed to the vulnerabilities of globalisation, what role can information and communication tools play in strengthening livelihood outcomes for the rural poor? Despite increasing anecdotal evidence of ICTs improving livelihoods in developing countries, this unfortunately has not translated into a proportionate body of evidence-based research to support such claims. ENRAP’s ICT for livelihoods research component seeks to build this evidence through supporting a number of evaluation and action research studies in this area and analysing the findings using a robust research framework. Through the ICTs for Rural Livelihoods Research initiative of ENRAP, it is hoped that the outcomes of this research can be shared and made accessible to enhance livelihoods. Thereby, providing opportunities for replication and up-scaling of practices and approaches, particularly in the context of IFAD projects and partners, for rural development.

Social Network Analysis — by Sucheta Rawat — last modified Feb 19, 2010 03:23 PM