Capturing the ‘lessons learned’ from our experiences on the ground and sharing this knowledge – both cross-country with local partners and within the international development sector at large – remains an important pillar of IICD’s approach. Those lessons are re-invested in new and existing ICT for Development (ICT4D) practices and will ultimately help to improve the impact of those practices. In 2007, IICD focused primarily on capturing the ‘lessons learned’ with regard to Rural Access (i.e. increasing access to ICT in rural areas), Health, ICT4D policies and eGovernance. We also continued sharing knowledge on ICT4D topics through online platforms such as iConnect, ItrainOnline and Dgroups.

Capturing ‘lessons learned’

In 2007, considerable time and energy was invested in preparing and disseminating ‘lessons learned’ in IICD’s focal countries through various communication channels (print, online and events). The initial intention was to focus specifically on the themes of Rural Access, Health, ICT4D policies and eGovernance, but as one of the themes of the Third Global Knowledge Conference was ‘Emerging People’ (empowering people by means of ICT), IICD switched its focus from eGovernance to Education.

Publications
A number of knowledge-sharing products were produced in 2007. Not surprisingly, most of them had to do with Rural Access – IICD has many Livelihoods projects in rural areas and therefore many people stand to benefit from that information. A format was developed that all focal countries would be able to use in producing a ‘Rural-Access Report’ on the status of connectivity solutions in their country. In 2007, Tanzania and Uganda published Rural Access Reports in the year under review. The other countries will publish their findings in 2008. Work was also started on producing an impact study (a thorough analysis of the achievements and impact of IICD’s work in a specific sector or with regard to a specific issue) on rural access. That study will be completed in 2008.

On the theme Health, Cordaid and IICD jointly authored a thematic report on Health Management Information Systems (HMIS), and a student from the University of Amsterdam carried out research for her Master’s thesis on IICD’s HMIS projects to determine the 'critical factors influencing the introduction of HMIS'. Other knowledge products produced in 2007 included an evaluation of the teleradiology project together with IKON in Mali and a discussion paper on the impact of IICD’s Health projects.

Together with knowledge-sharing partners APC and the Communication Initiative, IICD started to collect and disseminate case studies and experiences on ICT policy development and ICT policy participation. With APC, monitoring and evaluation data was collected using a questionnaire specially developed for this purpose. This was later used to develop qualitative case studies on Bolivia, Uganda and Bangladesh. In February 2007, IICD and APC staff experienced in ICT policy development and participation came together for a ‘Cross-Country Learning Event’ in South Africa to distil and share ‘lessons learned’ with partners from most of IICD’s focal countries. This collaboration resulted in the development and production of a research report for the BCO alliance. Together with the Communications Initiative, IICD collected country-specific national ICT policies and made them available through the CI web portal.

Although Education was not initially a priority area for 2007, an article on IICD’s experience with applying ICTs within the Education sector in Tanzania was published for the annual eLearning Africa Conference in Nairobi, which was attended by 1,406 participants from 55 countries. A session to promote network training and enable practitioners to discuss ideas and issues relevant to their work was led by the ItrainOnline Partnership and hosted by APC, Bellanet and IICD. In addition, an impact study ‘ICTs for Education: Impact and Lessons Learned from IICD-supported activities in the Education Sector’ was published in November 2007, in time for distribution at the Third Global Knowledge Conference in December.

Furthermore, articles were produced on eGovernance in Uganda and Dgroups. Together with PSO, IICD also produced a booklet called ’I Collaborate, e-Collaborate, We collaborate: A Collection of Stories about e-Collaboration Experiences’.

Cross-Country Learning Event on Health
To promote the transnational sharing of knowledge amongst IICD’s local partners, IICD organises and promotes ‘Cross-Country Learning Events’ (CCLEs). In 2007, a CCLE focusing on the experiences of partners using ICTs in the Health sector was held. To facilitate this, a preliminary monitoring and evaluation analysis was done of IICD’s projects in that sector. The outcomes were shared and discussed with local partners online as well as during the CCLE workshop, which took place in Tanzania in October 2007.

International knowledge sharing

To facilitate effective knowledge sharing, IICD uses a variety of communication channels including printed products (like the ones mentioned above), online communication platforms (e.g. iConnect, Dgroups, ItrainOnline), and international conferences, seminars and symposiums focusing on ICT for Development.

Online communication platforms
One of the most important tools for disseminating experiences with using ICT for Development (ICT4D) is the iConnect website and the related eBulletin. In 2007, the iConnect website was updated regularly with news items – between 14 and 20 items per month – which where collected in the monthly eBulletin newsletter. The iConnect eBulletin was sent to a growing subscriber base of 2,600 people. eLearning, Technology and Local Content were chosen as the themes for the iConnect articles for the journalists in IICD’s focal countries to write about. Summaries of these articles were published in the iConnect section of i4d, the first monthly magazine for ICT4D, which appeared three times in 2007. Plans for redesigning the iConnect platform to include Web 2.0 tools and functionalities supporting the process of community building and online production were postponed until the end of 2007 as a result of delays in upgrading IICD’s corporate website.

Another important knowledge-sharing tool is Dgroups, an online space for collaboration among development partners, consisting of an e-mail and web-discussion platform. Dgroups has been developed by a number of NGOs and development agencies that are active in the field of ICT4D, among which is IICD. The number of users has increased considerably in recent years, and this growth and the increasing use of the Dgroups platform continued throughout 2007. In order to ‘control’ the growth and meet future demands, a road map was developed and a technical scoping study was carried out to inform the partnership of future options. The final decisions about transforming the existing Dgroups platform into a Web 2.0-based social-networking platform will be made in 2008.

Besides Dgroups and iConnect, IICD was also active in the eCollaboration Dgroup (an e-collaboration among Dutch NGOs) and blog (I Collaborate, e-Collaborate, We Collaborate), which is jointly facilitated by PSO, IICD and ICCO.

Strengthening capacity development through ItrainOnline and training
Capacity development remains one of the most important areas for IICD to develop expertise on. With close links to an international pool of trainers, training organisations and technical staff within its project partner organisations, IICD is well equipped to facilitate knowledge sharing across communities and countries. One of the tools to facilitate the sharing of both knowledge and materials among trainers is ItrainOnline, a website with a selection of the best and most relevant computer and Internet training resources for development and social change. Trainers can also share experiences and training materials through the ItrainOnline community. In 2007, there was a significant increase in the use of Spanish-language materials on the ItrainOnline site, while the level of use of the French-language pages unfortunately remained low. IICD’s support focused on building and enhancing community leadership by investing in Facilitating Online Communities training (with FAO) and helping iTrainers’ facilitators design and host events at the 2007 eLearning Africa Conference.

Events
In 2007, IICD helped organise the Web2forDev Conference for Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (an initiative of CTA), together with FAO, GTZ and CGIAR, among others. IICD played an active role in this conference, especially with regard to organising the training day and the follow-up after the conference.

IICD also participated in the ‘Leernetwerk Organisatieleren’, a series of workshops (in Dutch) organised by PSO for development organisations in the Netherlands with an interest – and a track record – in implementing strategies for organisational learning.