Each innovation needs a social carrier and it needs enough space for change. The initiator and main motor behind the programme has been leaders of CSO in the region with personal commitment of John Silco, who as the head of the Chairperson of RIC-NET from the 2005 onwards.
The CSO in the region had recognized the special potential of ICT for organisations and for rural development. Several people in the region have shared vision that the specific opportunities which ICT provides fit very well into the activities and the philosophy the Rwenzori region CSO (access to information as an enabling tool, individual responsibility, organizational transparency, individual accountability, individual participation in collective decision making, …)
It is much less disputed now than it was five years ago that partner institutions in region have all gone information and stresses a need to make a good use of ICT in order to work efficiently and to achieve their own strategic objectives.
The Council for Economic Empowerment of Women (CEEWA) in Uganda probably describes the original situation in many women organisations in an appropriate way. CEEWA acknowledges that for most women who participate in the projects, the immediate problem is not information. They prefer receiving tangible services like credit and material gifts or grants rather than information. However, they have realised that the Internet provides a channel through which they can get access to services which they urgently need (if the infrastructure allows so).
Cfr. Pg 18
Rural information centre have often been put forward as a means to reduce the urban – rural divide. The Rwenzori region has an information centre a member of RIC-NET in almost every Sub County in the region.
