[kictanet] Role of Civil Society, Private & Public Sector in ICT4D Report

[John Walubengo]

Executive Summary:
ICT for Development (ICT4D) has been the concern of various stakeholders for over two decades and has produced mixed results.  KICTAnet commissioned this discussion with the aim of establishing the role that Civil Society, Private Sector and the Public Sector played within the ICT4D arena.  In addition, the various motives and challenges each of the above stakeholders had, or experienced were explored in order to establish the areas of improvement and collaboration in terms of Private Public Partnerships.

It was shared that the Civil Society had the most prominence and presence within the ICT4D arena.  Most of its activities centred on provisioning of ICT Information Centers to marginalized communities within the rural areas.   The Challenges experienced included poor infrastructure support such as lack of reliable Internet and or electrical supply. In addition, duplication rather than synergetic collaboration from similar government initiatives was also cited as a significant challenge.

The Private Sector seemed to participate in ICT4D initiatives mainly by sponsoring Civil Society groups or through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) outfits.  There was relatively little shared in terms of Private Sector challenges but their motives were questioned by some members who felt their contributions were more self-centred than otherwise presented. 

The Public Sector (Government) was seen to have made significant strides in the ICT4D domain within the last five or so years.  This was demonstrated by the gazettement of the National ICT Policy, commissioning of the eGovernment Secretariat and the ICT Board amongst other initiatives.  The challenges cited included the relatively poor uptake or adoption of ICT usage within the wider public service and the duplication of some ICT initiatives that would preferably be executed better through Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (MSP) approaches.

With regard to the Policy frameworks governing ICT4D, the Public Sector was considered to be more established with well-defined Policy, Regulatory and Procedural structures.  The Civil Society was considered less governed -despite having an NGO Council mandated to guide their Operations.   Private Sector’s governance structures were seen to lie between the above two extremes, - setting a fertile ground for misunderstanding when the three parties attempted to collaborate on ICT4D initiatives.

In conclusion, it was also shared that whereas Public Private Partnerships (PPP) seemed to have gained much attention in recent times, Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships may provide better returns on ICT4D investments.  Another interesting observation was that Profit motives as demonstrated by Private sector need not be in conflict with the Public good and could therefore be simultaneously pursued.  Finally, it was observed that Civil Society activities within ICT4D were relatively un-governed and there maybe need to technically equip the NGO Council in order for them to provide the necessary oversight.


-more details in report.

walu.




      
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Role of Civil Society, Private Sector, PPP in	ICT4D.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 226801 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20080624/866fecec/attachment.pdf>