Sustainable Mountain Development - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 606

FIGURE 12.4 Animals are a widely used means of transport in mountain areas; especially in countries
of the South and East, they dominate local movement of goods and people. From the Aconcagua
region, Argentina. (Photo by H. Liniger.)
In both industrialized and developing countries, ICTs are often most effectively in-
troduced to decentralized institutions, such as schools, health facilities, local govern-
ments and NGOs, or post offices. Such institutions generally find it easier than private
households and small businesses to secure the means to obtain and maintain the requis-
ite infrastructure for decentralized service centers—telecenters—which offer affordable
telephone, e-mail, and Internet facilities to local people.
ICTs are relatively new, especially in developing countries. No overall conclusion can
yet be made relating to their effect on development in general, and mountain devel-
opment in particular. Recent studies show a mixed picture. In the Peruvian Andes, for
example, telecenters only benefited specific user groups, such as teenagers and young
farmers, who could maintain social networks and improve their farming practices where
other information was not available (Heeks and Kanashiro 2009). Positive implications
of rural telecenters on farming techniques and social welfare were also reported from
Wu'an, China, but, as in the Andes, the changes observed cannot support the claims
about an overall transformative role of such centers, and ICTs in general, especially for
the rural poor (Soriano 2007).
Poverty, Out-migration, and Conflict
POVERTY
Poverty is a broad concept. While many criteria used to measure it are economic (e.g.,
per capita income in U.S. dollars), there is widespread recognition that it should refer