IICD makes use of a carefully compiled toolbox of approaches for making the ICT-for-Development (ICT4D) programmes sustainable. These involve capacity development, knowledge sharing, and continuous monitoring and evaluation activities. Now that most of our programmes have matured, IICD’s role is changing. This means some tools are becoming more important than others or are being adapted and deployed in different ways. IICD continued to support project implementation and the embedding of ICT in projects in 2007, but in more and more areas, IICD’s support focused on increasing the impact and outreach of existing projects. Roundtable workshops and capacity development made way for more knowledge sharing and the support of project partners to train end-users.

Making ICT4D activities sustainable
Towards sector-wide programmes (improving impact and outreach)
Telecentres
National ICT policy
‘Lessons learned’ from upscaling

In previous years, when IICD was still building up its project portfolio to demonstrate the added value of ICT, roundtable workshops and capacity development were the two main tools employed to get projects off the ground. During project implementation, knowledge sharing, advocacy and policy making were added to help project organisations learn from the experiences of other projects and to create an environment where new ICT4D activities could take off more easily. In 2007, IICD’s project portfolio was nearly complete, with each country having a group of projects clustered in two or three sectors. This resulted in a reduced need for further roundtable workshops. Instead, more attention was given to knowledge sharing and to supporting local training partners in training their end users as a way of strengthening their organisational and institutional capacities.

Making ICT4D activities sustainable

In general, capacity development and technical advice are used to help both partners and end-users enhance their organizational and technical capacities so they will be able to sustain ICTs and related information services. In 2007, IICD focused primarily on supporting project-training partners in training end-users. To a lesser extent, IICD also focused on improving technical skills. In the year under review, no fewer than 1,150 people from 183 organizations were trained, including both project partner members and end users. In most countries, women were still underrepresented in the training courses. Serious attention will be given to this issue over the next year.

As in previous years, most of the technical advice given to local partners concerned finding and implementing connectivity solutions, as well as advising on other, more appropriate ICT solutions, particularly those that support rural outreach points.

The capacity of partner organisations was further strengthened through their participation in ICT for Development networks and the monitoring-and-evaluation activities in each of the IICD countries. In 2007, more than 5,400 questionnaires were filled in with the help of IICD’s online monitoring and evaluation system, bringing the total number of questionnaires collected so far to 18,000! This number includes 7,000 end-users. The monitoring-and-evaluation system provides both the partners and IICD with regular feedback on their activities. The input from the questionnaires is fed back into discussions on how to improve both the impact of the projects and user satisfaction in the long term. The discussions are held at focus-group meetings with project teams (18 in 2007). A new development in 2007 was the introduction of enduser focus-group meetings, where – for the first time – end users could take part in discussing the evaluation results. Findings from these evaluations were published in 30 learning reports, producing lessons on projects, capacity development and ICT-for-Development networks. In addition, a first attempt was made to evaluate the policy-making processes and to monitor IICD’s approach to formulating policy. This resulted in, amongst others, a report and a paper produced by IICD and APC for the BCO alliance on ‘lessons learned’. Some of the key findings are listed below:

• Policy-making processes are dynamic, fluid and often chaotic. There is no ‘one-size fits all’ approach that can be adopted across countries, or even within countries in the various sectors.
• Leadership – should it be carried out by one lead organisation or several - is often viewed differently. Governments are generally seen as the natural leaders for driving the process of policy formulation, implementation and evaluation, and providing the resources to support the process. Their ownership of the process is crucial.
• A broad range of stakeholders need to be involved in the policy-making process. Governments, donor agencies and facilitating organisations need to ensure that specific stakeholder groups are involved, particularly grassroots organisations, which often lack resources or have problems understanding the policy-making process.
• Policy-making processes must be validated to create a credible and sustainable outcome. One important key point that needs to be validated is the ownership of the policy by government decision-makers, not only those in ICT but also those responsible for development at the national or sector levels.

The national ICT-for-Development networks in each one of IICD’s focal countries also contributed greatly to the sustainability of ICT for Development by working on awareness-raising, advocacy and the facilitation of national knowledge-sharing activities. In the year under review, each of these networks continued to strengthen its position as the representative consultative platform for ICT policy development to the national government, as well further strengthening its activities with regard to lobbying and participation in policy formulation. This clearly supports the embedding of projects and, in more general terms, the embedding of ICT.

Knowledge sharing was also greatly improved thanks to an increase in the number of both the member organisations involved and public events organised. In 2007, the nine networks together included over 150 member organisations and 650 individual members, thus enabling learning between IICD-supported and other experienced ICT practitioners in the countries. Furthermore, the networks also expanded the number of specialised thematic groups (Education, Health, Gender, etc.), allowing partner organisations to share experiences with their peers in specific thematic areas. Any ‘lessons learned’ were ‘captured’ and shared with others through newsletters, articles and the websites of the individual networks. A new development in 2007 was the use of Web 2.0-based blogs and Dgroups to support collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Partial financial sustainability was achieved by having end-users absorb the operational costs of ICT, in particular the costs of running and maintaining information centres. On another level, partner organisations such as government institutions, hospitals, schools and farmer associations integrated ICT costs within their annual budget.

Towards sector-wide programmes (improving impact and outreach)

In 2007, IICD booked progress in its efforts to increase its scale to include the sector level in order to increase the impact and outreach of its ICT for Development activities. To achieve this, two approaches were taken:

• Lobbying and participation in the formulation and implementation of ICT policies.
  IICD is facilitating the formulation of sector-wide ICT policies and strategies in five countries. The formulation processes are based on a multi-stakeholder approach, involving the different Ministerial departments as well as other stakeholders from civil society and the private sector. IICD’s project partners and the ICT-for-Development networks participate in the formulation process as much as possible, contributing their knowledge and on-the-ground experiences. In many cases, this allows project partners to expand their programmes directly in collaboration with government or development partners.

• Implementation of larger-scale ICT programmes in collaboration with project partners, ICT-for-Development networks and development partners.
  In all nine of its focal countries, IICD collaborates in the implementation of larger-scale ICT programmes, which are either initiated and funded by governments or funded by development partners. Depending on the needs of the government or development partners, IICD and local partners perform different tasks in implementing sector-wide programmes. These can include giving strategic or technical advice, facilitating capacity development or knowledge sharing, or carrying out evaluation activities.

In the year under review, IICD was able to expand its support to sector programmes in most of its focal countries.

Education
IICD advises the Ministry of Education in Bolivia on the implementation of a national programme for the Education sector, which is funded through the sector-wide approach of the Netherlands Embassy, SIDA and DANIDA. In coordination with other advisery agencies – such as GESCI – IICD provides assistance in the areas of capacity development and monitoring and evaluation. Project partners AYNI, CEPAC and COGNOS are also actively involved and are co-implementing part of the capacity-development programme for educational telecentres. Project partner APCOB has signed an agreement to provide interactive materials for intercultural education to secondary schools.

The Jamaica Collaborative for Universal Technology Education is formulating a national teacher-training programme through a public–private partnership. A large variety of organisations are participating in this, including the Jamaica Teachers Association, Digicel, the Grace Kennedy Foundation, the Infoserv Institute of Technology, the Joint Board of Teacher Education, the HEART Trust/National Training Agency, American Friends of Jamaica, the Cable and Wireless Foundation and the Ministry of Education and Youth.

Education policies are currently being formulated in Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Zambia. The policy in Burkina Faso focuses on secondary education with the active participation of project partner, TIC Education. In Tanzania, IICD and project partner TANEDU are currently supporting awareness-raising and the capacity development of staff at the Ministry as part of the broader ICT policy process. The most advanced example can be seen in Zambia, where the Ministry has successfully finalised its strategy and implementation plan for the integration of ICT in the Education sector. At the time of writing, the programme was up for final approval by the Cabinet.

Governance
In the Governance sector, two successful eGovernance projects have become role models for the future integration of ICT at the district level. In Tanzania, a project in the Kinondoni district now serves as a benchmark, and delegations from other interested districts frequently travel there on fact-finding missions. Plans to support replication projects are being considered in districts such as Mwanza, where IICD is already active in other sectors. Similarly, the District Net project in Uganda now serves as a model for various development partners and the Ministry of Local Government. On the basis of the pilot experience in four districts, a model for upscaling to the national level is currently being formulated.

Health
Great progress was made in upscaling activities in the Health sector in 2007. In Ghana, for example, IICD is funding an ICT policy formulation process as part of the wider support it provides to the national ICT policy there. In Uganda and Tanzania, IICD is implementing a large-scale ICT-for-Health programme with major faith-based health providers in collaboration with CORDAID. Taking these programmes as a starting point, IICD and the local partners are supporting the Ministry of Health in these countries in the development of sector-wide ICT policies.

Livelihoods
In the Livelihoods sector, IICD is advising Bolivia’s Ministry of Agriculture on the formulation of a land-use information system and on upgrading an agricultural portal. These activities are follow-ups to earlier ICT components that the Ministry implemented under IICD’s guidance. As a new activity, the Departmental Government of Santa Cruz in Bolivia is formulating a programme for agriculture information in 15 provinces. This programme will build on a successful pilot project that project partner ICO set up and began implementing in 2003.

IICD is helping Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture develop an ICT policy for the Agriculture sector, which also involves assisting in the development of a national ICT policy. In Uganda, a series of programmes are being formulated for the executive agencies that operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry. At the same time, the replication of a pilot project set up by the Uganda Commodity Exchange has started in collaboration with the Dutch organisation SNV. This programme focuses on having farmer associations provide other farmer associations with information on prices and on the supply and demand of certain commodities.

Telecentres

In most of IICD’s focal countries, its project partners have gained experience in setting up rural information centres that provide access to participation and governance, agriculture, health or education services. At the same time, many project partners have indicated that affordable and reliable Internet connectivity remains a key obstacle to expansion. IICD and its partners have therefore decided to use their experience in this area to advise and provide support in the implementation of national telecentre programmes in a number of countries. To ensure direct benefits for the project partners, funding partners are being sought to co-implement the project with them.

In Ecuador, IICD and a number of its project partners are advising the national government on the implementation of an initiative to set up 1000 telecentres. The initiative is being funded by the Ecuadorian government and the World Bank and implemented by a private-sector consortium. The main areas of advice include sustainable connectivity models and content models deriving from experience gained in Ecuador and other countries. Where possible, project partners will collaborate in the programme in those sites where their particular target groups are located.

The Centre for Information and Communication Technology is a similar initiative currently being pursued by the Ministry of Communication in Ghana. In this case, the government is implementing community telecentres in all districts. IICD supports the programme with strategic advice, capacity development, connectivity solutions at community level and content development, particularly in the northern part of Ghana. Project partners active in this area are directly involved as local consultants.

In Jamaica, the ICT4D Jamaica network is involved in the Communities Without Borders Initiative, which was set up by the Ministry of Industry, Energy, Technology and Commerce. A pilot site for this programme began in 2007. A newer initiative is receiving support to set up a telecentre network in Tanzania: IICD is providing organisational advice and will also undertake a pilot using wireless-based community networks.

National ICT policy

IICD is focusing its attention on sector-based policies and programmes. Yet, on request, it also provides support with the formulation of national ICT policies. In such cases, the advising and the facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes are primarily done through the national ICT-for-Development networks. In Ghana, IICD’s support in connection with for example health and agriculture policies is limited to funding. In Uganda, IICD and I-Network Uganda are also facilitating multi-stakeholder processes in collaboration with the National Planning Authority, which is leading the process. Efforts are being made in this process to integrate ICT within key national development policies, allowing easier linking of ICT initiatives to the government’s national development programmes in the various sectors. The Jamaican ICT4D network is actively assisting the government agency CITO in updating its national ICT policy.

‘Lessons learned’ from upscaling

In general, IICD has learned that applying the experience gained in local projects to larger-scale ICT programmes assumes a long-term commitment from IICD and its partners. The experiences thus far have been very diverse, including some successes but also many challenges. The challenges have to do with the strong political dimension of programmes that involve partnerships with both governments and development partners, as a consequence of the long-term decision-making processes at that level. Furthermore, the complicated administrative processes involved in programmes with a larger financial dimension often cause delays or a temporary stalling of formulation and implementation processes.