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