Interdisciplinary Alliances to Deploy Telemedicine Services in Isolated Communities: The Napo Project Case

Abstract

Rural telecommunications projects in developing regions have a long history of unsuccessful experiences due to the complexity of such projects: Practically none of the dimensions of integral sustainability are straight forward in such projects. When sustainability becomes a priority, it is difficult for traditional alliances of development to account for all critical success factors. In the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, some institutions have developed rural telecommunications projects along the Napo River during the last 10 years. The experience has shown at each stage what aspects of sustainability were not taken into account because the partners involved did not have all the needed capacities, and this has made the alliances of partners evolve in a sustainability-driven manner. This paper analyzes these cases and assesses how sustainability has evolved in relation to the structure of such alliances.