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This paper looks at Rural-ICT Service Providers (telecentres alongside with community radio)
and agro-pastoralists interface in rural Tanzania. Specifically, the paper aim to provide an
assessment of the processes at the interface and examine how these processes influence
decisions, behavior, actions and livelihoods among actors. The focus is to understand whether
these processes provide enabling environment at the interface, with particular emphasis on
institutional arrangements, rules and regulations, power relations, conditions and policies which
are crucial in shaping agro-pastoralists' livelihoods. This assessment is imperative because it
provides a better understanding on how different institutional arrangements influencing delivery
of ICT services in rural areas. The study adopted a combination of cross-sectional and case study
designs. Purposive and random sampling techniques were employed to select the representative
sample. Data collection methods comprised of household surveys, focused group discussions
(FGDs), and key informants' interviews. Agro-pastoralists were directly administered with
questionnaires. In addition, FGDs and key informants' interviews were conducted. F-statistics
was used to test for significance of data and One-Way ANOVA used to analyse 5-points Likertscale
information.
The study findings show that there are government failures at the interface due to structural
weaknesses and conflicts in the implementation of policies and guidelines. The findings
underscored the importance of effective processes for sustainable agro-pastoralists' livelihoods.
The processes in the form of contractual arrangements play an important role for effective
access, use and delivery of ICT services in rural areas. The study recommends that in order to
ensure access, use and delivery of quality and effective ICT services in rural areas, the
government should make sure that there are clear mandates and responsibilities among actors to
reduce structural weaknesses and conflicts. |
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