ABSTRACT
This chapter covers key learnings from the research and development journey and the contribution to community with a view to sustaining rural development with the help of information technology. The technology partnership between Econet and Chinyika has enhanced the Chinyika self-sufficiency model, giving the potential for replication in other parts of the country and the rest of the rural areas in the developing world. This technology partnership consolidates Chinyika valley's position as an integral research hub. Mobile telecommunications is coming up as one of the areas of technology with a significant and visible impact on people's socioeconomic realities especially in rural areas. The mobile phone is emerging as a key tool of communication, which has also evolved from basic communication to be a source of information and key transactional tool, which has altered socioeconomic dynamics in the developing world. Technologies are developed for people and there is need to ensure that people can use them as necessary and in full.
