iREACH: Lessons from a Community Owned ICT Network in Cambodia

Cambodia is for various reasons a challenging environment for ICT development. This did not deter IDRC (Canada) from funding an ambitious and ground-breaking project designed ultimately to influence ICT policy in Cambodia but initially to establish two pilot community-owned networks in poor rural areas. Each comprises both a cluster of local telecentres (10 in each area), and a mini telecoms enterprise run by the communities. Begun in May 2006, with initial funding of USD1.3 million the project runs to May 2010 when the question of sustainability comes to the fore. Additional support is likely to be needed. iREACH‘ experiences are being fully documented and lessons are emerging around community capacity building and empowerment; technical challenges in a rural environment; developing relevant and appropriate services; creating a community based enterprise; deploying a range of participatory monitoring and evaluation approaches; and working within a centralised and fluid political contex

Chapter 13

The Informatics for Rural Empowerment and Community Health (iREACH) project in Cambodia invited community members to become active participants in the production of the ICT environment, including the physical infrastructure, management, training, capacity building, content development and use. Two pilot community-owned networks in poor rural areas comprise both a cluster of local telecentres (10 in each area) and a mini-telecoms enterprise run by the communities. The paper describes the iREACH approach which focuses on capacity building in all aspects associated with operating a telecommunications business. Gender equality, livelihood matters, and governance issues also characterise the project

Choosing interventions to eliminate forest malaria: preliminary results of two operational research studies inside Cambodian forests

International audienceBackground Rapid elimination of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Cambodia is a goal with both national and international significance. Transmission of malaria in Cambodia is limited to forest environments, and the main population at risk consists of forest-goers who rely on forest products for income or sustenance. The ideal interventions to eliminate malaria from this population are unknown. Methods In two forested regions of Cambodia, forest-goers were trained to become forest malaria workers (FMWs). In one region, FMWs performed mass screening and treatment, focal screening and treatment, and passive case detection inside the forest. In the other region, FMWs played an observational role for the first year, to inform the choice of intervention for the second year. In both forests, FMWs collected blood samples and questionnaire data from all forest-goers they encountered. Mosquito collections were performed in each forest. Results Malaria prevalence by PCR was high in the forest, with 2.3–5.0% positive for P. falciparum and 14.6–25.0% positive for Plasmodium vivax among forest-goers in each study site. In vectors, malaria prevalence ranged from 2.1% to 9.6%, but no P. falciparum was observed. Results showed poor performance of mass screening and treatment, with sensitivity of rapid diagnostic tests equal to 9.1% (95% CI 1.1%, 29.2%) for P. falciparum and 4.4% (95% CI 1.6%, 9.2%) for P. vivax . Malaria infections were observed in all demographics and throughout the studied forests, with no clear risk factors emerging. Conclusions Malaria prevalence remains high among Cambodian forest-goers, but performance of rapid diagnostic tests is poor. More adapted strategies to this population, such as intermittent preventive treatment of forest goers, should be considered