ASSESSING THE FEASIBILITY OF ICT AS A DEVELOPMENT INSTRUMENT FOR RURAL-URBAN LINKAGES IN NEPAL (Completed)

Opening of Rural Telecommunication
Centre

In the context of Nepal's rapid urbanisation, the principal objective of RUPP is to increase the involvement of both rural and urban poor, and to improve livelihoods and strengthen local economies through enhanced rural-urban linkages. UN-Habitat was requested to assist UNDP under its SPPD and relevant governments to produce a set of operational modalities by demonstrating the usage of ICT as a development tool in the Rural-Urban Linkages context through demonstration.

A refined Feasibility Study on the use of ICT was developed with a particular focus on the poor and on women through an assessment on the use of e-governance and e-commerce tools in a rural-urban setting. An agreed Strategic Plan of Action for pilot-testing at RUPP developed guided the implementation of e-governance and e-commerce for development at municipal and VDC level. 8 Telecentres were set up and became operational, despite the insecurity by Maoist insurgents. It was learnt that the institutional infrastructures built by RUPP project were essential for these telecentres to be owned by regional market centres and TLOs. A National Workshop was organised jointly with the newly established High Level Commission for Information Technology to share these lessons learnt for future replication at the national level. A website for the initiative was launched and a Refined Strategic Plan of Action was developed. A concept note identifying the way forward was developed.

Related article:
RUPP: Key Areas of Activities and Achievements