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whole village communities have been involved in problem formulation and
discussion and in agreeing on priorities for action. At the other end of the
technological spectrum, participants in the 'America Speaks' project are
provided with electronic polling equipment and can debate issues round
the table face-to-face with decision makers.
Another outcome identified from the analysis of the case material is ca-
pacity building - which is the change and development which takes place
in individuals and thus in their communities as they participate in projects,
learning new skills of many kinds and growing in confidence as a result.
For example, a participative
Reflect
ICTs pilot in India (Beardon 2005) re-
ports that the main objective of participating villagers has been to acquire
information relevant to their needs. The pilot helped them to work out who
has the information, where the information is and how much of it is rele-
vant. Radio has been the most popular tool for information acquisition and
advocacy. This has enabled the villagers to articulate proposals for ex-
pressing their needs and demands. Using ICTs to collect, store and analyse
information is the next phase planned for the projects. Such capacity build-
ing provides the foundation for empowerment - in this case,
enabling
mar-
ginalized groups to
become aware of their rights and to access information
they need in order to improve their lives. Promoting learning and the de-
velopment of skills and capabilities in this way are explicit objectives of
the
Reflect
ICTs projects led by ActionAid. This institution regards capac-
ity building as the key to achieving improvements in the quality of life of
very poor communities. Investment in capacity building appears to far ex-
ceed expenditure on electronic resources, including ICTs.
A further outcome from the citizen engagement process is mutual res-
pect and understanding between different groups. As an illustration of this,
in consultations, K-Net received many requests for provision of a forum
where aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples across Canada could share
information and discuss their views so that a respectful view of the
aboriginal way of life could be promoted. Consequently, K-Net established
'Turning Point', which offers cyber-space for aboriginal and non-
aboriginal people in Canada to have open and direct communication with
each other (see: http://www.turning-point.ca/).
Other beneficial outcomes identified in several of the case study reports
relate to major improvements in the effectiveness of economic and com-
mercial activity. These have resulted from citizens communicating their
needs, e.g. for information on prices at the markets where they sell com-
modities. A valued outcome of particular significance in some very poor
communities is a direct result of having access to ICTs which enable peo-
ple to monitor market prices and judge when they are likely to achieve a
favourable return on the sale of their goods. They can therefore make an
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