Introduction
In 2002, UNESCO initiated a programme to innovate and research social and technological strategies to explore the potential of ICTs to contribute to poverty reduction. Spread across nine sites in five countries in South Asia, the programme is working with a range of poor individuals and communities and a variety of technology mixes. Each one is trying to develop social and technological access models that address both the fundamental poverty issues and key barriers to ICT usage by the poor.

The programme was designed to integrate research at the beginning of the implementation process as a strategy for both innovative project development and building a wider understanding of the role of ICTs in poverty reduction.The programme’s ethnographic action research approach is based on combining two research methodologies: ethnography and action research. Ethnography is a research approach that has traditionally been used to understand different cultures. Action research is used to inform and adapt strategies through the ongoing process of reflection, planning and action. We use ethnography to guide the research process and we use action research to link the research back to individual initiatives’ planning and implementation. Ethnographic action research aims to integrate broadly qualitative research methods within specific project development.

Each initiative employs a full-time, on-site researcher who is involved on a daily basis with the work of the project, generally combining both project development and research responsibilities. The researchers are trained and supported through workshops, on-line facilities (a shared website, chat and email), and field visits from the research team. Researchers were trained to use the normal repertoire of ethnographic research that are (interviews,participant observation, diaries, surveys) to address the structures of both poverty and media use in their locality. Researchers seek to understand how poverty is experienced and managed by their target groups rather than to approach it through measurement or indicators. They are also encouraged to look and work within at the complete ‘communicative ecology’ of their area, that is to investigate the full range of means of communication that are employed and the local social networks through which information and communication flow.This gave them the detailed understanding necessary to see how ICT interventions fit into local poverty and communications, and how these interventions might be more effective.