Giacomo Rambaldi, senior programme coordinator at CTA, elaborates on the role of PGIS practice in rural development. In his view participatory mapping offers opportunities for ordinary people to get a more authoritative say on how the territories they occupy and use are administered. The use of geographic information technologies coupled to the visual – easy to understand - language of maps, place grassroots in the position to entertain peer to peer dialogues with higher authorities. Being on a map, argues Rambaldi, corresponds to existing, and to being in the position to make your voice heard and negotiate access to services and utilities, so important in rural settings.