Background	Plan and Budget	Anticipated Changes	Documentation
pilot location development priorities Reflect structure social make-up of groups communication practices information resources	information needs the system activities personnel management logistics	objectives impact beneficiaries indicators anticipated problems accountability and power sustainability	networking documentation

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

The project is located in Bukuuku sub-County in Kabarole district, in western Uganda.Its 45km away from the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The sub-County contains the Rwenzori mountains that provide the area with rich volcanic soils that are good for the growth of beans, potatoes, carrots,etc. The area enjoys two rainy seasons in a year and is ever green. Bukuuku has a number of water streams that have their origin in the Rwenzori Mountains. The eastern part of the sub-county is largely flat making it ideal for livestock rearing. The area has 25 Villages and a total population of slightly more than 25,000 people. The majority of these are women.

The population in Bukuuku sub-County is largely composed of peasants. They live on subsistence farming with little produce for sell. The major food crops grown in the area are bananas, maize, potatoes, cassava, beans, and groundnuts. These often are also cash crops on the local markets. They rear animals like goats, cattle, pigs and poultry. However, this is on a small scale. There are three major seasonal markets that serve the area. Traders come from as far as Kampala city-the capital of Uganda to buy food crops from the area. These often give the farmers little pay for their crops and yet they (traders) charge double the amount once in Kampala. Virtually all homesteads are engaged in petty trade based on agricultural produce.

During the ICT community Dialogue it was revealed that in most areas of the sub-county Households earned an average of 8000 Ugandan shillings in a month(Equivalent to $4).Thus most homesteads live in absolute poverty. During the poverty analysis in the community, the reflect participants identified the poor as those who earn less than 1000shs per day.The area is dominated by two ethnic groups namely the Batooro and Bakonzo. On average each homestead has 5 to 8 children, a number that overstretches the meagre income of the household, This has led to a high number of school dropouts. There is a high birth rate in the area with 8 girls out of 10 currently having a baby conceived before they were the age of 16.

The government has introduced the plan for the Modernisation of agriculture which aims to improve farming practices geared towards commercial farming. Under this programme there is the National agricultural Advisory services(NAADS) which is present and active in the sub-county. Among other things it has introduced a number of new crops in the area, namely; vanilla and Apples. This programme will be of great use to the communication system especially in collaborating in areas of disseminating agricultural information for agricultural modernisation and training of farmers in new agricultural techniques. NAADS is currently using the circle participants as the entry point to the community.

KEY DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES OF POOR PEOPLE IN THE AREA

The key development priorities as identified by the circles are:

Under sustainable agriculture they want agricultural extension services and improved yield. In addition they also mentioned the control over land especially those in the mountainous area. During several transect walks and during the Reflect process, the peasants mentioned and cited lack of markets that can offer competitive prices as a cause for abandonment of agricultural activities hence low agricultural production. One of the crucial and mostly requested for services is provision of credit facilities. Many circles have developed action points but lack funding to implement these.

On Health, HIV/AIDS was reported as the biggest problem. The people have developed local coping mechanisms and also created a system of using local herbs that are very effective in fighting off opportunistic diseases. They have created a data bank on local herbs, which they want, further developed and shared. Currently the poor have formed several groups either to access funds from local government or to help themselves in copping with the numerous problems they face.

The key issues identified by the community are in line with the government PEAP programme. Government places emphasis on the areas of agriculture, education health and water and sanitation. Its important to note that the identified key development demands of the community and cognisant of the government priority areas. This therefore helps bring in complimentality of programmes at the sub county level thereby avoiding duplication and wastage of resources.

REFLECT STRUCTURES IN THE PILOT AREA

There are a total of 12 Reflect groups in the area. Each consists of an average of 30 members with regular attendance of circle sessions the numbers fluctuating from 18 to 25. Most of the participants in these groups are women. In addition there are six school health clubs that are used as entry points for analysing issues related to the school going youth.

Literacy and Empowerment, the implementing organisation, has a total of 24 Reflect facilitators who are trained in Reflect and were recently trained in Information and Communication tools and processes for transformation. These facilitators have established their own forum, which meets monthly. The forum is an effective point for sharing information on best practices and seeking solutions to problems they face as facilitators. Since the introduction of the Reflect/ICT project, two new circles have been introduced and the demand to have more circles is increasing. Literacy and Empowerment provides basic administrative support to the reflect circles in terms of paying facilitators' allowance, provision of training and supply of the required stationery. In addition the organisation also provides support in linking the circles to other development partners. Actionaid Uganda on the other hand provides technical support to L&E in terms of training materials and linkage to other national partners in the Reflect processes. .

SOCIAL MAKE-UP OF THE REFLECT GROUPS IN THE PROJECT:

The Reflect groups consist of mainly women. These are mostly married women. In addition these groups also consist of widows and widowers who have lost their loved ones to AIDS. During the poverty assessment study by the Project, it was found out that the majority of circle participants are in the category of the poorest of the poor. According to their analysis the Reflect process has made them more critical of the situation thereby making them better Agents of change than the other members of the community. Male participation in these circles has been limited as a result of varying reasons including shyness. However, all circles have both men and women as participants. The majority of the circle participants are very poor who already are in other forms of groupings as a means of combining their energies and resources to stem off poverty. These circles also consist of local leaders( Local council(LC). In 10 out of 12 circles, the local leaders do not have leadership roles at the circle level instead they are given the responsibility of monitoring the facilitators and ensure proper reporting mechanisms are in place. The average age of the participants lies within 27 to 35 years.

EXISTING COMMUNICATION PRACTICES OF POOR AND MARGINALISED PEOPLE IN THE AREA:

Information from outside the area is received through mainly two sources: Radio and the local leadership. In many circles, it was mentioned that the local leadership is the biggest source of information next to the radio.

Information within the area mainly flows through oral means. However it was noted that in the process of sharing this information it gets distorted. The poor have therefore identified and tended to trust specific individuals. These information gatekeepers are of two types:

• those that basically provide information on development issues and often will traverse large areas seeking information from higher authorities and in addition are of a slightly higher social standing in terms of incomes and exposure and level of learning. Those who provide information on development are more respected and their word is taken as absolute truth. Because of this they also are good mobilisers and are listened to, by the authorities in the area. Some of these information gatekeepers are Reflect facilitators in the circles.
• Those of a lower social standing who often gather information from bars and from gossips doing the rounds in the area. Many a peasant faced with say theft of her crops in the garden or accusing a neighbor of witchcraft, will buy alcohol for the latter information gatekeeper who will then spread the information in the area. This is done in such a way that the perpetuator of the antisocial behaviours gets to hear of the information personally and realise he or she has been found out. While in most cases this information may be offending, there are no reported incidents of the information gatekeepers being harassed. Instead they are dismissed as merely drunks Once the information has leaked the strong social network in the area, makes people mindful of their conduct. So when people start asking who it is, the perpetuator of the crime will go into hiding thereby stopping the commission of the crime for sometime or in some cases permanently. So while these information gatekeepers are respected for the role they play they are entrusted with local leadership roles because of their personality.

Information flow from the community to the authorities is usually through the local councils and local government structures and from reports compiled by government workers during meetings held with the community. Under the Local government ACT 1997 the local councils are the governance structure through which the people elect their representatives. It is a hierarchical system where the Local council (LC)1 chairperson heads the village level. The LC 2 heads the parish level and the LC 3 heads the sub county level. At each of these levels there is an executive committee that includes a secretary for information, whose purpose is to gather and disseminate information to the different stakeholders in the governance structure. These are therefore crucial in the spread of information and the project is already working with them. Previously they have not been trained in this role and the project expects to undertake some capacity building in addition to the training already extended to them. A more detailed mode of collaboration is still under negotiation and review.
Within the community there is the use of signage language-the use of symbols to denote presence of activity or to give meaning specific to a particular issue or thing. For instance a cup placed on top of a stick by the roadside or pathway indicates the presence of alcohol. This way of communication is common in the area and useful as a tool for communication for the illiterate. These tools give common meaning in the whole area.

Markets provide the major point for social interaction and sharing information. Traders from different parts of the country converge in the markets to trade and alongside this activity there is a lot of sharing and disseminating of information about various issues pertinent to the consumer or receiver of the information. Many peasants after the sale of their merchandise hang around the markets seeking information on market prices in the different parts of the country. Others go to the local bars, wherein they gather information related to social aspects of their lives. It is usually in these places that information, on who is say infected with HIV/AIDS, is easily accessed. A peasant returning home is not only expected to take back money from sales, but also expected to share news of what he saw and heard. These therefore spread information to the outlaying rural areas.

In the mainly Christian mountainous area the church is an important source of information. This is very common among the seventh Adventists who are the majority in the mountains. Those who attend church services often are the source of information to their surrounding neighbourhood. As a result of this role they are also involved in leadership roles.

TABLE 1: sources of information in the area: matrix prepared by Bulera Reflect Group

Alarm features as the first largely as a communication tool that was adopted during the Rebel insurgency that characterised the place two years ago. Likewise the drum is also considered highly more as a mobilization tool. This was the case because the churches calling for people to congregate commonly use the drum. The community poor are strong Christians mainly of the catholic faith. So Music, Dance and Drama is one the strong communication tool in the area that is used for development. Community radio then is the next best alternative communication tool to use for development. Meetings are one of the best tools for communication but the scope and urgency of the message will determine its usage. The local leaders convene most of these meetings.

While the internet does not feature in this matrix, it is important to expose the community to hitherto unknown technologies. Under the rural communications initiative of government, internet is an important feature as a one stop point for sharing all the relevant information. Its therefore prudent that internet services be part of the communication system so as to share and also get as much information as possible.

Table 2: communication channels - direct ranking matrix done in schools

According to "The Uganda Poverty Assessment Process", a study conducted by the Ministry of Finance and Economic planning in 2000, it was discovered that channels, preference of medium and the level of influence of communicated messages differed with differing levels and source of information. It noted that a top-bottom pattern of communication was common. " Information from the top still wielded a lot of influence on the decisions made at local level ". This is one of the key issues the project wants to reverse.

INFORMATION RESOURCES/COMMUNICATION MEDIA AVAILLABLE IN PILOT AREA.
The community poor have access to the local Radio station in the area. Voice of Tooro as it is commonly referred to, is 5 km from the project area. It is a commercial private FM Radio station having a number of programs aired in the local languages of Rutooro and Rukonzo. Other Radio stations that can be listened to are the national Radio Uganda and Radio West all far away from the area. Thus the local Radio is easily accessible and the most ideal in transmitting messages to the rural poor.
Kichamba Technical College, an institute that offers engineering courses is to begin a Cisco Networking Academy Program and connectivity to the internet. The institute is within the sub county but not accessible by the rural poor. The institute can be of importance to the communication system by providing training for volunteers and project staff and a having a lab for equipment repair. Preliminary meetings have been held to chart the way forward for cooperation between the project and the institution.

There is also a network of telephone lines both landline and cellular. MTN a trans-national company provides points of presence (POP). Among these include public pay phones. Uganda telecom is another major cellular phone provider in the area. It is envisaged these could be useful in increasing information flow especially concerning market information. Although no formal negotiations have been held, the project envisages in the early implementation of the system, to hold talks on sponsorship especially in the establishment of hotlines to specifically provide information on health and agriculture.
Actionaid Uganda is implementing a system called RANET, which provides information on agriculture and weather. This is to help the farmers to know when to plant and avoid disasters. It has been useful to the farmers in the eastern parts of the country. However there are plans to transfer the system to Mubende a town nearer the project area. Once this is done then the project can collaborate in sharing information and also drawing lessons on the applicability of the system
The Uganda Export and Trade promotion council in collaboration with MTN have developed a communication process where using a cellular phone you can log in a request to know the price of particular produce in various places in the country and in a few seconds the information is displayed on the phone. The project will certainly benefit from this system in terms of receiving information for the Resource centre and for dissemination to the circles.

Bundibugyo District that borders the Democratic Republic of Congo is only accessible via the project area. The District is very rich in Oil, Cocoa, coffee and other items hence attracting a number of traders and travellers. These bring in a lot of information to the area. Bukuuku being the transit route can tap on this information quite easily.

PLAN AND BUDGET

KEY INFORMATION NEEDS OF TARGET GROUPS

During the analysis stage in developing these proposal, women often focussed on two major issues namely on their rights in order to be able to attain gender equity and the other issue was on reproductive health especially on how to cope with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. On the other hand men were more concerned with how to increase their income levels and paid lukewarm priority to the issues of health. According to the Reflect participants (Male) diseases are caused by poverty.

COMMUNICATION SYSTEM TO BE IMPLEMENTED

THE PLANNING PROCESS:
The premise for the community dialogue on ICT was the problems the circle participants identified as the most crucial and priority and key priority areas for development in the area. These are issues the participants had already done in the previous reflect processes. The dialogue therefore began with understanding the flow of information in the area and how this affected or impacted on the identified problem. Further discussions were then held on how if the opportunity allowed more access to information would lessen or eradicate the problem. A number of questions helped to stimulate debate:

• What are the solutions to the identified problem?
• What information needs is discernable at this level?
• Where can we get this information required, from?
• How can we access more information regarding these solutions?
• Who is involved in the process of accessing and sharing the information needed?
• What challenges are we likely to encounter and how can we go around this?
• What information and communication technologies have we been using or can we use to help get the information needed?

Once the participants had internalised how information flows in the area and how the whole process can be enhanced towards problem solving, they were then taken through the process of preference ranking so to compare and further appreciate which ICTs are best suited to the conditions. The process was repeated for every particular problem identified or in some circles it was done per sector say agriculture. After the participants were requested to list all the ICTS identified in the various sectors where the problems were identified.

At this stage a question was then posed to the participants: what issues do you consider before you choose to use an ICT to help you access information? A number of responses were given namely;

• Accessibility( ie whether the participant is able to reach the ICT in terms of sending and receiving information);
• Affordability (i.e whether the participant can be able to pay to use the ICT or be able to pay for access to a place were the ICT maybe in use e.g a radio in a bar e.t.c);
• Availability (is it found in the area or are its frequencies easily received in the area in the case of a Radio for example);
• Appropriateness (is the ICT effective and does it transmit the information in the manner intended and taking into account the nature of the targeted audience?);
• in other two circles they identified the last as being reliability of an ICT (in other words can the identified ICT keep the information from going to the un intended audience?

Once the participants had given their criteria, they did a direct ranking matrix as to be to see which ICT was more favourable in terms of use than the other. They were also told that this should be in line with the problems and issues of great concern to them.

Discussions then revolved around the matrix regarding; what should be done to improve information flow and sharing in the area using the identified ICTs? They were also told to be critical of what ICTs they can have at circle level and what they can request or leave to the stakeholders identified in the first part of this analysis. It was then agreed by consensus that a resource centre be created but with different functions and involving all the important stakeholders. Its management was also agreed upon.

The identified communication system then become a basis of further discussions with the local council leadership especially on their role and how they can help to reinforce the proposed communication system to be more meaningful and effective. This consultation involved all the leadership at the sub-county level. In order to ensure compatibility with government programme, discussions were held with the District Information Officer to see how the project can fit into and also work alongside the communication strategy of the District.

THE OPERATION:
The Reflect groups proposed a central place where information can be shared and the graphics, developed at circle level, can be processed into pictorials/materials for sharing with the wider community. The proposed centre should also be the one stop centre for sharing information among the partners namely, the local government, the community, facilitators, LC leadership and the District as a whole. Thus the communication resource centre should according to them do the following:

(a) RESOURCE CENTRE

• develop materials from the Reflect circles for sharing
• provide information from the internet( Useful messages decoded and translated to suit the needs of the community)
• information and communication design e.g Recordings of MDD materials, training materials e.t.c and dissemination
• an interface point for the community and development partners to share information through the facilitators and local leadership.
• data bank for traditional medicine and their application
• training centre
• provide information on agriculture, health, market prices and job opportunities available etc to satisfy their information needs
• a centre to champion the needs of the poor to the higher authorities
• analysing the information needs of the poor and come up with participatory derived solutions

(b) REFLECT CIRCLES:
These will be the main points for gathering information and analysing the community information needs and feeding the resource centre. On the basis of the developed action points the Resource centre then comes up with the communication strategy of how the information needs can be met and develop the relevant materials. According to the participants, these circles should be improved and equipped with notice boards, adequate stationery and generally improve their infrastructure. Another recommendation is that there should be systems of where the analysis at circle level is recorded and eventually aired on radio so as to share information as well learn from others. They equally want to have a small radio at circle level to listen to their program at one central location. Those in order to further improve the efficiency/productivity of the circles, have a number of resource persons visit them and provide support in identifying the information needs of the poor. Music, Dance and Drama groups will be established and where already in existence trained in more skills.

(C) IDENTIFIED INFORMATION GATEKEEPERS (MOBILE INFORMATION PERSONS)
The Reflect practitioners also decided that both types of information gatekeepers whom they already know, should be encouraged as much as possible to attend the Reflect Circle meetings. Where they are unable to attend deliberate efforts be made to pass the information onto them, as this is likely to increase the flow of information in the area.

(d) FACILITATORS
These will be the major conduits for information flow from the community and circles to the resource centre and vice versa .Through their monthly forum meetings design the best strategies to facilitate the Information and communication process and also help one another to mobilise the circle participants to gather information. They will also act as the lobby group for the community. In addition they need their skills reinforced through training and exposure visits. They are also expected to develop the content for the Radio program.

(e) LOCAL COUNCIL LEADERSHIP
Using the secretaries of information at the different levels of the hierarchy of the LC system and also the chairpersons of women councils help do the following to promote the communication system:

• calling general meetings to collect peoples views for forwarding
• inviting sub-county leaders to villages and collect information/ suggestions directly.
• Special announcements in markets and places of worship.
• Inviting well informed (resource) persons to address the people.
• LCI to make home visits (mouth to ear).
• Organising music and drama.
• Arranging videos, cinemas etc.
• Information through council meetings in which desired authorities are invited.
• Directing the community to the authorities.
• Inviting the authorities for music, drama and dance clubs on the desired information.
• Through the media (radios, mews papers, etc).
• Using mobile phones.
• Different sounds agreed upon by the community eg (drumming/shouting).
• Through writing.
• Holding meetings and informing them
• Creating a central place for meetings accessible to all
• Identify the poorest of the poor and identify their information needs
• Calling regular zone meetings
• Creation of zone message notice boards
• Training information secretaries at village level on ICT for transformation
• Enacting by-laws that encourage people to gather and share information
• Monitoring and evaluation of the activities of the resource centre and communication system as a whole

(f) RADIO PROGRAMS
The Reflect circles also came up with radio programs as a major communication tool for development. Content for the radio program will be developed at circle level based on the identified information needs of the circle participants and scope of coverage needed to spread information. It therefore expected that airtime would be periodically purchased on the local radio.

Complimentary to this, is to develop audio visual materials like CDs based on local materials and setting in order to develop educative and informative materials for the youth especially on issues concerning HIV/AIDS and reproductive heath in general. These could also be useful in passing on information concerning agriculture. It is expected that the expertise of Radio personnel would be sought in coming up with the best way of developing the programs.

ACTIVITIES AND EQUIPMENT FOR THE COMMUNICTION SYSTEM

NEW PERSONNEL:
The project will recruit two technical persons. The resource centre coordinator will offer technical input in the development of materials and ensure that a mechanism is in place for sharing the information. Ideally the candidate for this post should have a degree in information science or librarianship or mass communication with at least three years experience in a similar setting. The other technical person will be a specialist in computer science with proficiency in IT equipment technology and its maintenance. In addition have demonstrable competence in IT networking mechanisms.

PROJECT MANAGER
The project already has a project Manager (MAISO GRACE WILLIAM) who has been instrumental in conducting the community dialogue on ICTs and shaping the outcome of this proposal. In the communication system the project Manager will continue to do the following:

• Train facilitators and participants in the Reflect/ICT process including developing training materials for use at circle level
  
• Provide strategic leadership and vision to the project staff, actionaid, partners and Reflect groups and ensure they work towards attaining the overall objective of the communication system
• Conduct analysis at circle, facilitator, partner, community and organisational levels in Reflect/ICT process and document lessons learnt for wider sharing with others.
• Continuously with facilitators facilitate the process of identifying community information needs and come up with the best strategies of meeting those needs
• Design protocols with others for the effective implementation of the communication system and the project as a whole
  Negotiate and come up with memorandums of understanding in ways of collaboration with partners in the ICT process including government.
• Manage the Finances of the project, inventory control and asset management and procurement of project equipment and materials.
• Prepare progress reports for onward transmission to actionaid uk and actionaid Uganda
• Prepare the final Research report for sharing at the international level (CIRAC).
• Evaluate periodically the progress of the project

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MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE OF THE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM:

A committee of nine members shall manage the resource center. It will consist of the following representation:,

• LC official 1
• Local Government Official 1
• Secretary For Information 1
• Community Members 3
• Resource Centre Co-Ordinator 1
• Reflect ICT Manager 1
• Facilitators Representative 1

These will select the chairman and treasurer amongst themselves. The resource centre co-ordinator shall be the secretary. The committee is expected to perform the following:

• Oversee the management aspect of the resource centre.
• Participate in the review of the resource centre team.
• Advise on the operation of the resource centre.
• Develop fundraising options for the resource centre operation.
• Ensure that the strategic communication plan for the centre meets the needs of the community.

Overall the communication system operations shall be overseen at two levels - Literacy and Empowerment (LE) monitoring and ensuring the programme activities of the reflect circles are functional. It will therefore provide further trainings in Reflect methodology and general support. On the other hand the steering committee set up to monitor the progress of the Reflect /ICT project will continue to provide general guidance on the course of the project. The steering committee consists of all the identified stakeholders of the project. The emphasis in the management structure is to allow more community ownership and participation. These management structures will work alongside other mechanism to be developed by the local government (negotiations are still going on) The overall management of the communication system will be the responsibility of the Reflect/ICT manager. The two new staff of the project will report to the Reflect/ICT manager. The three project staff will work closely with the programme manager and staff of L&E to ensure the success of the system.

LOGISTICAL DETAILS FOR THE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM:

The equipment procured is to be placed in a facility provided by the Catholic Church. The building was built with the purpose of serving the community but unfortunately it has been lying idle. The building is at Balya Theological College half a kilometre from the project office. It is centrally located and easily accessible by the community poor. It has electricity and water facilities available. It also has a telephone landline thus making it user friendly for the proposed resource centre. It is expected that the new staff will be stationed and housed within the premises. The building will have to be reinforced with burglarproof materials and the specialists may recommend the required security specifications. To access the centre, the RC co-ordinator shall put in place Protocols that allow and encourage the marginalised of the community to access the centre. Specific designated days for access to the centre by particular targeted groups would be idealistic

ANTICIPATED CHANGES AND BENEFITS

OVERALL GOAL OF THE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM:

The overall goal of the project is: to establish a functional communication system using community identified ICTs that promotes the flow of information in the area to satisfy the participatory identified information needs of the marginalised and community poor so as to take informed actions to fight against poverty and injustice

ANTICIPATED PROJECT IMPACT

The Reflect groups identified the following as the likely benefits of the communication system to the community poor:

• It will promote the wide spread use of Music, Dance and Drama to promote information flow and increase the skills of the actors.
• Increase the number of development projects in the area
• Develop and further strengthen the culture of working in groups
• More people trained in ICT Programme
• Our circles are fully recognised by opinion leaders
• Increased household income
• Increased flow of information on HIV/AIDS.
• Increased friendship
• Proper planning at household level
• Improved hygiene and health of the community in general
• More respect from leaders for the community poor

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OTHER BENEFICIARIES OF THE PROJECT

The other beneficiaries of the project will be the different researchers that frequent the area conducting studies on bio diversity, behavioural research etc. local CSOs and NGOs and local government in the area are likely to benefit and learn. Facilitators' skills will be enhanced in the use of ICTs and documenting traditional knowledge

IMPACT INDICATORS

ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS

• When the technology identified is overtaken by time-develop contingency plans in case of such emergencies
• Failure to meet the information needs of the community in time.
• when the current leadership is not re-elected in the forth coming elections thus delaying the program
• raising new expectations in the community thereby creating new problems eg increased demand for financial services
• when funding for the project ceases - remain flexible allowing room for adjustment- develop a communication strategy with local government on the means to meet these demands on a timely basis

Properly articulate the overall goal of the project and help link the community to other service providers.

ACCOUNTABILITY AND POWER

PROJECT IMPACT ON POWER RELATIONS IN THE COMMUNITIES

The project is likely to have impact on or change the current power dynamics existing in the community. However, during the community dialogue the participants found it difficult to clearly envisage the likely changes. During a monitoring and evaluation workshop on ICT recently the participants noted that one of the greatest impacts of the system would to be to increase the respect for the facilitator and thus increase his opportunities for income generation. They noted that holding accountable facilitators would be easy if the circles paid them. They also noted that mechanisms to hold them accountable would come along the process on a " FIRST SEE" basis. During the analysis the community poor noted that the local leadership was the most influential to the communication system and all of them hold elective posts, which inadvertently make them accountable to the electorate who the majority are the community poor. Since the local leaders are participating also at the circle level they are asked to highlight their contribution to the participants periodically. Facilitators have also been accountable to the committee through the established Village Reflect Committee (VRC). The new information gatekeepers will be called to attend the circle meetings.

COMMUNICATION SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DECISION MAKING

The basis of information contained in this proposal was got from the Reflect circle. ICT community dialogue was facilitated using the Reflect methodology. Starting with an analysis of their community problems the participants were asked to rank their problems. Once the problems were ranked then dialogue continued on the root causes of these problems and possible solutions. In most of the problems cited lack of information was mentioned. The Reflect groups were then asked to show how information flows in the area and identify information needs and gaps by category. An important question was also asked; who are the critical players in the flow of information in their areas? How can these be made to serve the purpose of the community poor? The Reflect groups then ranked the sources of information based on availability; affordability; accessibility; and appropriateness of the technology in view of the problems they previously identified. In the identified area of the problem they were also requested to come up with the workloads of the different category of people and their information needs. Then a final decision is made on what technology they would want used and promoted in the area to promote the flow of information.

Once this was done then other stakeholders like the local leadership were placed in a meeting with the facilitators and examined how, using their powers they can promote the communication system identified by the community poor. Their suggestions were then incorporated.

REFLECT GROUPS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
At the centre of the operations of the communication system are the Reflect groups. They will act as the rural knowledge centres where discussions and analysis on community problems take place. The wider community will be able to take part in the system at the Reflect group circles and contribute to the generation of information and materials for sharing including radio content generation. While the Resource centre will allow direct accessibility, many of the developed materials for community education will be placed at circles. These Reflect groups will also be the entry points for community development initiatives by other development partners as has previously been the case.

SUSTAINABILITY
During a brainstorming session with the local leadership on how to ensure the continuity of the system they proposed the following:
- A committee is put in place at the end of 2004 to start soliciting for the funds to run the resource centre.
-that the Reflect groups continue to lobby the local government to participate in the running of the resource centre and eventually include its operation expenses in the sub-county budget.
-that L&E uses the resource centre as a training centre and seeks funding for its operations.

DOCUMENTATION AND SHARING LEARNING

NETWORKING:

PARTNERSHIPS DEVELOPED: During the planning process of this proposal the following partnerships were developed:

• Kabarole District Local Government- especially partnership with the district information department that has developed a communication strategy for the whole district.
• Actionaid Uganda's Human resource department and IT department.
• PAMOJA Africa Reflect network
• Kichwamba Technical College CISCO Network academy- further negotiations are underway on how we can work together
• Uganda information and communication commission. We have had preliminary meetings with the corporate affairs officer- Mr FRED OTUNNU, to see how they can help the project. UCC says it can assist the project in providing capacity building for project staff under the Rural Communications Strategy of the government.
• Kasangati telecentre whom we have paid a visit to share the problems they have in implementing the telecentre
  
• Kabarole Research Centre IT department, which helps to meet the ICT needs of the institute in its research work.
  - the legal fraternity in general
  

TARGET AUDIENCE FOR THE KEY LEARNINGS OF THE PROJECT

The main audience for the learning and outcomes of the project are:

• Policy Makers at the National Level- this is largely the government and its various arms. They will be reached through direct reports sent to the particular ministries and departments and through lobbying and advocacy in forums, news articles, radio etc so as to influence the development of policies that are rights based and promote the flow of information from the local government level down to the community poor and vice versa. In addition the implementation of article41 of the 1995 Ugandan constitution that promotes the right to information.
• Civil Society Organisations -through sharing information on the project website promote the strengthening of the CSO alliance in championing the causes of the poor.
• The Local Leadership-through meetings influence the local leadership to realise the importance of community driven development initiatives to fight injustice and poverty.

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DOCUMENTATION

METHODS AND MEDIA:
The lessons learnt from the project will be presented in a report form for sharing with the partners. The Actionaid international education magazine will also be very useful for publishing salient features of the project. Major graphics developed that are used to help identify the information needs of the poor will be published in the magazine. The project will have its own website which will be uploaded periodically with major findings and activities taking place. Where funds permit the project intends to start an informative newsletter that helps to inform partners and stakeholders what is happening in the community. Where deemed appropriate the local press will be useful for sharing the debates on community development. In addition the project digital camera will be useful in presenting the activities taking place in pictorial form.

STRATEGY FOR APPROPRIATE SHARING OF LEARNING:
To ensure that all partners and stakeholders are informed of the findings and share lessons the project will adopt the following:

• A data bank of all partners and stakeholders is created and a mailing list developed and reports mailed to all members on the list
• attend all major meetings on ICT related activities with a view of sharing information
• Develop public information and educational materials on the ICT activities in collaboration with the actionaid Uganda communication department.
• Link up with media houses to ensure adequate publicity.
• Contributing articles to international journals.