The role of ICT tools in the access of climate information by rural communities

Abstract

This paper, seeks to explore how rural communities especially women in Kitui county use ICT tools to access localized climate information and how Digital Capital facilitates or impedes the process. Our view is that the continued access to, and use of, ICT tools like the mobile phone and radios offer diverse opportunities for rural communities to use timely and relevant climate information to enhance their livelihood strategy. We hypothesize that rural communities’ use ICT tools such as mobile phones and the community radios to access localized climate information (weather, seasonal forecasts and agro-advisories). A household survey of 419 respondents was adopted for data collection and analysis, guided by the sustainable livelihood framework. The research findings disclosed that the radios combined with the mobile phone are commonly available, accessible and cost-effective ICT tools that have played a role in improving rural women’s access to real-time, relevant climate and agro-advisory information reducing information asymmetry in rural settings. The study is motivated by the increasing challenges of climate variability and climate change that are global. Kitui County has had its share of climate variability and climate change related problems such as drought which create problems such as food insecurity.