Effective information service delivery to rural dwellers in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This paper is deliberately designed to be thought-provoking. It reiterates the importance of effective information service delivery to rural communities. Adopting the desk research method, available literature on rural information sources and services to rural dwellers in various countries in the Sub-Saharan region of Africa was extensively reviewed and descriptively analysed to showcase the effectiveness of various information delivery channels to the rural dwellers. This led to the identification of six major channels through which rural information delivery is generally anchored. These channels are made up of the mass media, information service systems, education and training programmes, change agents, personal contacts and miscellaneous channels. The strength and weaknesses of each of these channels in terms of delivering information services to rural dwellers were analysed in the light of contemporary realities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although libraries, especially public libraries, are expected to be at the centre of rural/community-based information services, these libraries and their staff contend with several challenges which, inevitably, undermine their effectiveness. Worried about the situation, the researcher calls for field experiment studies towards designing rural-oriented, practical and replicable models that will be effective for rural information delivery across Sub-Saharan Africa.