Dear Peter Baldwin, I would very much like to see the data that you are able to collect about ICT demand patterns in Africa, and have a chance to do some analysis on the data.
There is a huge need for information, but most of the information that is available in the "north" about the "south" including Africa is either too detailed or too macro. There is very little of management information that can be used to control and help make best use of scarce resources. An enormous amount of community information never gets beyond the community because it is often assumed that this information does not exist. In this connection, I often remind myself that if I don't know it, it does not mean that it is not known. There is a huge need for communications. Very little of the available information is communicated. I would very much like to know the history of all the ICT projects that have been funded by the official relief and development assistance (ORDA) community ... how much was disbursed and how much value was realized ... and while this information is almost certainly available, there is hardly any mechanism for this information to be communicated. I don't think this is any accident; the ORDA community is apparently not very interested in transparency and accountability when it comes to looking at development performance. If any such communication process exists I would like to know about it. With respect to technology, there exists low cost and very powerful technology. But why is so much regulated so that the best cannot be deployed. Why is/was VOIP so difficult to deploy? Why is/was radio regulation the way it is? Why is monopoly use of technology the preferred way to "develop" when it is no longer technologically and economically favorable for national development (at any rate from a people perspective). >From my limited knowledge and understanding of development it seems that there is a huge gap in the information needed to make a success of development and very limited transparency and accountability. Good things are not being identified enough and funded, meanwhile bad things are not being made transparent and visible and appropriate accountability and sanctions applied. Sincerely, Peter Burgess Peter Burgess Transparency and Accountability a global not-for-profit Network [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: 212 772 6918 ___________ Kris Dev - Tr-Ac-Net in Chennai India [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://Tr-Ac-Net.blogspot.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
