Youth-led Poverty Reduction through Digital Opportunities (YPRDO)
| Location |
In Sitakund Upazilla in Chittagong District, Mohadepur village |
| Duration |
From 2003 to 2004 |
| Situation |
As a youth-focused organization YPSA recognizes that deprived youths and adolescents in rural areas show as much potential as those in urban centres. Rural youths have less access to information, and to narrow the "digital gap" these youths should get the chance to access and benefit from ICTs in order to learn more effectively and to participate more fully in an increasingly knowledge-based society. |
Goals
Youth-led Poverty Reduction through Digital Opportunities (YPRDO) was a UNESCO-supported project seeking poverty reduction and development through the innovative use of information and communication technologies. UNESCO and YPSA jointly piloted this initiative to innovate and research combined technological and social strategies to place ICTs in the hands of the poor. The project focused mainly on local youths and adolescents in this particular working area.
This project wanted to encourage such a use of ICTs so that deprived rural people, especially youths are adolescents, could also reap the benefits of ICTs. This project can also be considered as a learning experience that allowed us to gain knowledge on ways poor people can use ICTs for their own development and empowerment.
Undertaken activities
- Basic and advanced computer training for local disadvantaged youths and adolescents.
- Ethnographic action research to identify the impact of ICTs on poor people's life.
- Continuous awareness raising activities on ICTs among rural people, public representatives and civil society organizations.
- Collection and compilation of locally relevant information for content development.
- Platform for the rural disadvantaged youths and adolescents to increase their access to digital opportunities and bridge the digital gap.
- Sharing of experience with other organizations and interested individuals to replicate the idea to other parts of the country.
- Networking with national and international organizations working in the field of ICTs for poverty reduction.
Accomplishments of YPRDO:
- Set-up of a well-equipped ICT centre (YPSA ICT Resource Centre) to provide digital opportunities to the local people especially youths and adolescents.
- Provision of basic and advanced computer training to a total of 200 people including local youths, YPSA staff, local government officers and people with disabilities.
- Awareness-raising activities like workshops, meetings, and group discussions with civil society, community-based organizations, etc.
- Publication of posters and brochures to raise awareness about the potential use of ICTs for poverty reduction.
- Networking with various national and international organizations working with ICTs.
- Ethnographic action research under direct supervision of UNESCO and disseminated results regarding the impact of ICTs for poverty reduction.
Impact on poverty:
- In a nation with only 1.5 computers for every thousand people, rural areas are almost completely devoid of ICT skills or awareness. Although there is little evidence of direct impact on poverty, at least in strictly economic terms, the YPSA Youth ICT Centre has made an important foothold for ICT usage and experimentation and a start in bridging the digital divide between the rural and urban Bangladesh .
- The initial objective of the centre was to train youths in IT skills that would lead them to employment. Although the project provided marginalized youths with more marketable skills, the market remains small and largely inaccessible. In addition, participants generally have a greater practical understanding of the world of computers and information and communication technologies, and with it greater confidence to face the challenge of earning a living.
- The centre is gradually increasing the capacity of the local community, not just through the availability of new ICT facilities, access to information and skills among the area's youths, but also through the creation of new and markedly different social spaces and networks that have the credibility and organizational support of YPSA behind them. The network fosters an equitable and non-prejudicial environment that spans a range of participants, boys and girls from different religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups, forging unique horizontal linkages across the community's youth populations and their families.
- Though largely unintended in the original design, the centre has developed important cultural and social functions. Participants are encouraged to create and participate in a variety of activities under the centre's banner, from debate and drawing competitions to music sessions. Weekly entertainment programs like movie shows and computer games go some distance in ensuring that disadvantaged rural youths and adolescents have access to a healthy recreational facility and activities.
- The centre provides a unique platform that brings together disadvantaged rural youth, to a great extent overcoming gender, caste, religion and social barriers, in a cooperative, participatory network. Following their exposure to the centre, with greater confidence, new skills and higher levels of awareness of local development issues, young people are increasingly active as voluntary, self-motivated participants in local development activities. As active participants in the initiative's research process, the youths are in a better position to analyse their own poverty situation, propose solutions and to utilize the information and communication tools and resources at their disposal.
- Participants' interest in the communicative possibilities of ICT as media tools and the demand for multimedia training is a good indication of the significance and value placed on the type of opportunities for socialising, creativity and expression that the centre provides. Through their exposure to new tools, activities and interactions at the centre, young participants are gradually developing articulation skills and greater confidence to use them.
- Education represents another emerging priority focus. The centre's training program complements local school and college curricula, which include both compulsory and optional computer science courses. In contrast to most schools and colleges, which lack sufficient infrastructure and are largely theory-based, the centre uses a hands-on approach to training and provides opportunities for participants to practice, experiment and apply their skills in a multipurpose facility.
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