Citizen Engagement in Practice - Informing Digital Futures: Strategies for Citizen Engagement - page 70

(ii) Reflect ICTs Project - India Pilot
The Reflect ICTs pilot in India was located in Balangir in Orissa, (Eastern
India). Major contributing factors to the extreme poverty in the region are
the alternating droughts and floods which occur with increasing frequency.
In addition, a complex array of social, economic and political factors (in-
cluding a strict and active caste system) impact on the quality of life ex-
perienced by most of the population. The poor do not participate in local
decision-making and lack access to information which would enable them
to improve their lives.
Following the same process described in the Ugandan pilot, information
needs were identified in the Reflect circles. The needs identified related to
sustaining the basic livelihoods of the participants - as listed in Table 4.5.
Table 4.5. Reflect ICTs India Pilot: Prioritised information needs
Information Need
- Citizens rights
- Available benefits
- Schemes to ensure food security
- Agricultural practices
- Water conservation
- Seasonal employment opportunities
- Local governance
Documented records of the pilot report that, as a result of participation
in the first stage of the pilot, people have become more aware of their
rights - e.g. the benefits and services to which they are entitled. The com-
munications system under development in the second phase of the project
is informed by the information needs analysis conducted in the Reflect cir-
cles. The emerging system is being designed to strengthen existing com-
munication patterns through the preferred channels explicitly specified by
the participants. It is therefore developing as a sociotechnical system,
rather than simply a technical system. This means, for example, that the
system will offer facilitators support and information in recognition of
their acknowledged status as trusted and reliable sources of information.
The system has been designed to provide a wide range of information us-
ing electronic media, including video, audio and television and paper-
based records. These will be located at district level for use by participants
of all Reflect circles on request. Where it is available (e.g. in the offices of
some partner organisations) the Internet will be an additional resource to
feed information into the system. Local village resource centres will house
materials generated locally and developed by Reflect groups (newspapers