[kictanet] Day 12 of 12 -- BPO Discussions, Wrapping Up

Wed Jun 17 07:33:11 EAT 2009

Thought I should share what I gathered when I visited Rwanda in March following the point raised by Eric here below (someone who knows more could inform the debate)

An excerpt "Major institutional reforms are currently taking place in Rwanda with consolidation of a number of government institutions under umbrella agencies within related sectors. This is expected to allow for better harmonization of efforts and efficient use of resources while providing a one-stop centre for investors and coordination of development efforts. In the ICT sector, the Rwanda IT Authority (RITA) has been brought under one umbrella body (Rwanda Development Board - RDB) along with complimentary agencies to facilitate business and a good climate for investors. The agencies under this umbrella body (RDB), in addition to ICTs, deal with investments, tourism promotion, institutional and human resource capacity development, privatization of state assets, business registration and environmental impact assessment and management. The Rwanda Development Board is governed by a council/board and reports to the President unlike in the past when individual agencies reported to a line Minister. Plans are also underway to transform the national referral hospital, King Fasal Hospital, into a state-of-the-art Biomedical Research Centre"

Edith

________________________________________
From: kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke [kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Eric M.K Osiakwan [emko at internetresearch.com.gh]
Sent: 16 June 2009 21:33
To: Edith Adera
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 12 of 12 --  BPO Discussions, Wrapping Up

Walu,

I ma be wrong but RITA's role is to implement government's ICT agenda
and not necessarily an umbrella for all. Also there is not a lot of
other bodies in Rwanda as it is in Kenya etc.

By the way, the Rwandan government has just changed it structure so
there is the Rwanda Developement Board under which comes RITA and
other competitive sector implementation institutions and they are all
in one huge building - a move towards one-stop-shop enterprise for
investment and engagement.

Eric here

On 16 Jun 2009, at 05:57, Walubengo J wrote:

>
> Thanx Nyaki for being a tremendous co-moderator and between you and
> Mwende, I now know I can retire comfortably.
>
> As for institutional overlaps u describe below - we just need to
> borrow from Rwanda. Create an oversight body like RITA (Rwanda Info
> Technology Authority) that will have a broad cordinating role over
> all the others (KICTBoard, Min Ed, eGov, GITS, etc) that have
> anything ICT.
>
> walu.
>
>
> --- On Tue, 6/16/09, Catherine Adeya <elizaslider at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> From: Catherine Adeya <elizaslider at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: [kictanet] Day 12 of 12 --  BPO Discussions, Wrapping Up
>> To: jwalu at yahoo.com
>> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
>> Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 9:06 AM
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Day 12 of 12- BPO Discussions,
>> Wrapping Up --After
>> extremely interesting discussions yesterday, where I
>> summarized once or twice
>> during the day, we would like to bring the BPO discussion
>> to a close. It was
>> very interesting to see that many of you were concerned
>> that the media is
>> portraying Kenya negatively and this could (or maybe was)
>> affecting some of the
>> decisions of potential investors. Some in the media
>> fraternity responded that
>> they really must report what is there and that their
>> priority is Kenyans not
>> foreigners first. As one said “…bottomline- the media
>> can’t just be improvised
>> to promote the interests of the business and capitalist
>> class. There are the
>> rest of us citizens whose welfare, life and worries too
>> must be reported”.
>>
>> Thank
>> you to all of you who have actively participated both
>> online and offline
>> (directly to the moderators sometimes) during the last 12
>> days. To recap, we
>> have covered the following themes:
>>
>> The policy, legal
>> and institutional frameworks for
>>     BPO sector Subsidies accorded
>> to BPO sector Human Capacity
>> Issues Youth and
>>     Gender IssuesStrengths,
>> Challenges and niches for Kenya as a BPO
>>     destination
>>
>> As
>> we wrap up today I believe we could have done more justice
>> to the institutional
>> framework issue. More specifically I draw from the
>> conclusion of the
>> institutional framework summary and the question:
>>
>>
>> In
>> conclusion for Kenya, it
>> can be observed that there is an overlap between KenInvest
>> and the Kenya ICT
>> Board when it comes to promotion of Kenya as an investment
>> destination to
>> potential investors. There could be other overlaps as well.
>> For example, both
>> KICTB and MoHEST are planning for technology/BPO parks.
>> This is likely to lead
>> to duplication of effort, differences in the messages
>> communicated to stakeholders
>> and confusion on the part of investors with respect to whom
>> to deal with,
>> amongst other problems. In addition, there is need to
>> coordinate between ICT
>> Board, KenInvest, EPC and MoEST. The big question is: Who
>> will perform the
>> coordination? Finally, the Monitoring
>> and Evaluation (M&E) Directorate in the Ministry of
>> Planning has never been
>> devolved into the ministries and public enterprises.
>> Whether it is a
>> consequence of this lack of devolution or not, the M&E
>> capacity of the
>> Ministry of Information and Communications, Kenya ICT Board
>> and all the other
>> institutions highlighted earlier is weak. At the same time,
>> the institutional
>> framework for Vision 2030 is in the
>> formation stages
>> and,
>> even if it were to develop strong M&E capabilities, it
>> may not be able to
>> marshal enough power to ensure corrective action is taken
>> by the concerned
>> institutions in a timely manner.
>>
>> This draws me to
>> the discussion question: What needs to be done
>> to
>> improve/strengthen the institutional framework in order for
>> the BPO and outsourcing
>> sector to play its planned role in the Kenyan
>> economy?
>>
>> Let us discuss this
>> today and any other gnawing
>> issues in all the thematic areas as we wrap up.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Nyaki
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
>>
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>
>
>
>
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Eric M.K Osiakwan
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