Acknowledgements First and foremost, we owe special thanks to than 1.000 people in Nsawam-Adoagyiri and Suhum who participated in this study and gave us insights into the meaning of ICTs in their everyday lives ander the commuication between rural communities and local public bodies. The ultimate apprecation goes to Engagement Global North Rhine-Westphalia for funding this project on behalf of the Government of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Special thanks to collegues at the Centre for Planning and Development of Social Services (ZPE), and the Chair for Information Systems and New Media, University of Siegen, Germany, for their contributions and teamwork. We are grateful to the Municipal Coordinating Directors (MCD) of the Nsawam-Adoagyiri and Suhum Manicipal Asselblies for their cooperation. We also want to thank Josephine Dzokota, Matilda Gatseku, and Sakina Adams who played the gatekeeper role in the Municipalities. To everyone who contributed in one way or the other toward the successful completion of the first phase of this pilot project, we say thank you.