Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Can ICT Help Improve Local Governance?

[Edith Adera]

Dear Colleagues,

I wish to introduce myself, apologies for coming late into the
discussions. I'm Edith Adera, a Senior Program Specialist with the
International Development Research Centre (IDRC) based at our regional
office in Nairobi which covers Eastern and Southern Africa.

IDRC has been instrumental in supporting ICT programs since the early
1970s starting with the PADIS program (Pan-African Documentation and
Information System).

In the recent past, we have supported various initiatives on ICTs and
local governance. Some of the notable ones that might be of interest
include:

a) Research study on the effects of ICTs on local Governance which
includes 4-5 case studies (Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, South Africa and
Tanzania). It also includes an Africa-wide overview of the status of
ICTs and Local Governance in Africa. It's co-funded with UNECA under the
Partnership for ICTs in Africa (PICTA). The overview and 3 case studies
have been concluded with the overall study report expected in
August/September '05 and will be widely circulated (results of the study
will also be presented at WSIS).

b) This year, IDRC will support the establishment of a regional network
of African researchers (named LOG-IN Africa) who will undertake deeper,
more rigorous assessment of ICTs and local governance in Africa over
time. The network will initially span 8 countries in 4 sub-regions of
Africa.

c) In June 2004, IDRC and UNECA, in collaboration with UNCDF, convened
an "International Workshop on Innovative Applications of ICTs in Local
Governance in Developing Countries", in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  The
workshop recommended the establishment of a research network (mentioned
above) and action-research of applications of ICTs and local governance
which are currently being developed for Senegal and Bangladesh in
partnership with UNCDF and Alcatel. Proceedings of this workshop
including the papers presented can be found at:


I am pleased to join the GKD List and look forward to the discussions.


Kind regards,

Edith Adera




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Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Can ICT Help Improve Local Governance?

[Peter Burgess]

Dear Colleagues,

ICT has enormous potential for improving socio-economic conditions in
rural communities, but seeing practical results that will improve the
quality of life in rural communities requires a lot more than just a
computer with Internet access.

Almost all the ICT initiatives that have been funded by the official
relief and development assistance (ORDA) organizations have been heavy
on technology (hardware), but weak on information and communications.
But surely, it is information and communications that create the most
value from an ICT intervention.

Community centric sustainable development (CCSD) is a process that
works. It is facilitated by a thorough understanding of the
socio-economic status of the community. In general this information is
well known in the community, though it may not be written down and
organized in a particularly systematic manner. However, it is almost
totally unknown outside the community, especially within the
organizations that plan and fund relief and development initiatives.
This information would be enormously useful in establishing a systemic
way of monitoring progress of development and relating progress to
specific fund flows and development initiatives. This could be the
foundation for a system of management information for development.

At some level the logic of this information for the community is similar
to the logic behind the UN System of National Accounts that was
developed by Dr. Stone at Cambridge in the 1950s. Though rarely
discussed the UN SNA is widely used at the national level ... but in my
view is not very useful because the national level has too much
aggregation and is therefore difficult to interpret meaningfully.
Similar information at the community level has the potential to be used
in a very practical way to encourage incremental investment and funding,
and to measure results.

But communicating this information efficiently is a challenge in most
rural areas. The communications dimension of ICT is vital ... and while
today the technology is efficient and very low cost, the enabling
environment to deploy this technology and make a communications
infrastructure affordable and sustainable is absent. The rules governing
deployment of communications technology need to allow best technology
infrastructure to be deployed without the monopolistic constraints that
seem to be everywhere. This needs to change.

If there is community level communications infrastructure ... and it is
linked to the global Internet efficiently ... local governance can be
improved in all sorts of ways. In addition to the management information
already referred to, it is possible to have electronic banking and money
transfers, information flows about market prices and supplies, calls for
help and guidance in medical emergencies, support for teachers and
students, and so on. The possibilities are endless.

Practical plans to do these things exist. The enabling environment to
let plans get turned into reality is a big part of the problem. The good
news is that this may be changing for the better, but not everytwhere
and not very fast.


Sincerely,

Peter Burgess
_
Peter Burgess
Tr-Ac-Net in New York 
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Tel: 212 772 6918 
Transparency and Accountability Network
with Kris Dev in Chennai, India
and others in South Asia, Africa and Latin America




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Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Can ICT Help Improve Local Governance?

[Ken DiPietro]

Dear Colleagues,

After giving this some serious consideration I have decided to provide a
few possibly off-topic studies that seem to show dramatic changes in the
way society deals with government when a reasonable ICT infrastructure
in put in place. Please note - The following studies are all based on
experiences here in the United States but I believe the same results
could be expected anywhere this type of connectivity is put in place.

As quoted from the report I have linked to below, 
"75 million Americans used the Internet in the last campaign to get
political news and information, discuss candidates and debate issues in
emails, or participate directly in the political process by volunteering
or giving contributions to candidates."

This report can be found here:
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/150/report_display.asp

As quoted from the report I have linked to below,
"The July 2003 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows
that 97 million adult Americans, or 77% of Internet users, took
advantage of e-gov in 2003, whether that meant going to government Web
sites or emailing government officials. This represented a growth of 50%
from 2002. At the same time, citizens who contact government said they
are more likely to turn to traditional means - either the telephone or
in-person visits - rather than the Web or email to deal with government.
Of the 54% of Americans who contacted government in the past year, the
telephone or in-person visits were preferred to the Web or email by a
53% to 37% margin."

This report can be found here:
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/128/report_display.asp

As quoted from the study I have linked to below,
"As wired Americans increasingly go online for political news and
commentary, we find that the Internet is contributing to a wider
awareness of political views during this year's campaign season."

This report can be found here:
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/141/report_display.asp

I would also like to offer one more report (again, if this is completely
off-topic I apologize) that I feel is very important. This report deals
with the measurable effect ICT can have on raising the poverty level
when implemented correctly.

http://www.muniwireless.com/reports/docs/CivitiumPEC.pdf

I sincerely hope you find this information useful.

Respectfully,

Ken DiPietro
New-ISP
NextGenCommunications




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Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Can ICT Help Improve Local Governance?

[Kris Dev]

Dear Colleagues,

As a part of the citizens' local empowerment, we have recommended to the
local government to create a database of citizens grievances and the
status of the grievance, so that any citizen can make a local call and
access the database and know the status of their grievance redressal
through an automated voice announcement system.

This is one of the best uses of ICT at practically no cost to the
citizen to empower them and introduce Transparency and Accountability,
eradicate corruption, create a level playing field, etc.

For more details, please contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Kris Dev, 
Tr-Ac Net, 
Chennai, India


On Monday, May 2, 2005, GKD Moderator asked:

> Which ICT interventions deliver the greatest benefit in improving local
> government services?



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Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Can ICT Help Improve Local Governance?

[Barbara Fillip]

Dear GKD List Members,

Last January, dot-ORG attended a USAID workshop on Decentralization and
Local Governance for the Asia and Near East Region and presented some of
dot-ORG's activities in support of local government.

I think some of the materials that were produced for that occasion can
be of some value to this discussion. Here are the links:

**An article in the DOT-COM e-Newsletter of March 2005, highlighting the
potential of ICT in supporting local government and decentralization
URL: 
http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/newsletter/article.php?article_id=117

**The dot-ORG powerpoint presented at the USAID workshop
URL: 


**A list of web-based resources (links) related to ICT and local
governance
URL:


**The website of the USAID workshop with links to all presentations and
background materials
URL: http://www.localgovernance.org/

Best regards,

Barbara Fillip, Ph.D.
Communication Specialist
DOT-COM Alliance
http://www.dot-com-alliance.org
(202) 884-8003




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Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Can ICT Help Improve Local Governance?

[Cornelio Hopmann]

Dear GKD Members,

With all respect (but based on my almost 20 years of experience) what
was missed in the catalogue of Key Questions is whether there are
social-cultural contexts that condition success or failure? (i.e.,
[il]literacy, ethnic, cultural or religious [un]homogeneity at the local
level, local power structures based on resource-ownership of land, water
or other resources).

I suspect that in many cases it's not ICT nor ICT-related subjects that
make the same approach successful at one place and a complete failure at
another, but rather these unaccounted-for context-conditions.

Yours,

Cornelio




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Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Can ICT Help Improve Local Governance?

[Sylvie Siyam]

I don't have any successful cases, but as I see in our context in
Cameroun, Access is a critical success factor. Access in terms of
infrastructure, access in terms of cost of service and access in terms
of literacy rate of the populations, access in terms of cultural
barriers.


On 5/2/05, Global Knowledge Dev. Moderator asked: 

..snip...

> Key Questions:
> 
> 1) What are the 'critical success factors' for using ICT to support
> decentralization and improve local governance?
> 
> 2) Which ICT interventions deliver the greatest benefit in improving
> local government services?
> 
> 3) What cases demonstrate the use of ICT to support successful
> decentralization, empower local communities and improve local
> governance?
> 
> 4) What actions are essential for using ICT to support successful
> decentralization, i.e., what are the 'critical success factors'?
> 
> 5) What are the risks and pitfalls of using ICT to support
> decentralization?
> 
> 6) Are there particular local government functions (e.g., fiscal
> management, service delivery, procurement) that lend themselves
> particularly well to using ICT?
> 
> 7) How can ICTs in the hands of citizens help empower them to enforce
> responsive local government?



Sylvie SIYAM, 

PROTEGE QV Coordinator, 

P.O. Box 4888, YAOUNDE, CAMEROON,

Vous souhaitez participer a une grande oeuvre? Visitez www.protegeqv.org

Want to help improve local development? Go to www.protegeqv.org




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Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Can ICT Help Improve Local Governance?

[Kris Dev]

Dear Colleagues,

I don't recollect making a posting on our e-Administration, Transparency
and Accountability Tool (Tr-Ac Tool), a paper-less office communication
tool that has helped empower local governments to render better service
to citizens and help citizens realise the benefits of ICT in
transforming the way governments respond to the needs of citizens.

e-Administration is a web enabled, platform neutral, paper-less
intra-office and inter-office communication tool, to introduce
Transparency and Accountability in the working of the Local Governments.
This creates a sense of ownership among the internal and external
customers to the Government and helps minimise the incidence of
corruption; it also helps create a level playing field, etc.

More details and case studies can be seen at http://ll2b.blogspot.com.

Anyone interested can contact the following, for more details.

-- 
Kris Dev, for Tr-Ac Net, Chennai
Transparency and Accountability
A global, not-for-profit, Network
http://Tr-Ac-Net.blogspot.com
http://TrAcNet.blogspot.com
http://ll2b.blogspot.com
---
With Peter Burgess, 
Tr-Ac Net, New York
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

"You are not going to have moral people until you have moral
institutions. You will not have moral citizens until you have a moral
government."


On 5/2/05, Global Knowledge Dev. Moderator asked:

> How Can ICT Support Decentralization and Help Improve Local Governance?
 
..snip...
 
> Key Questions:
> 
> 1) What are the 'critical success factors' for using ICT to support
> decentralization and improve local governance?
> 
> 2) Which ICT interventions deliver the greatest benefit in improving
> local government services?
 
..snip...
 
> 7) How can ICTs in the hands of citizens help empower them to enforce
> responsive local government?




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[GKD-DOTCOM] How Can ICT Help Improve Local Governance?

[Global Knowledge Dev. Moderator]

How Can ICT Support Decentralization and Help Improve Local Governance?

"Decentralization increases the opportunities for citizens to take
interest in public affairs; it makes them get accustomed to using
freedom."
  - A. de Tocqueville 

De Tocqueville's optimism seems utterly naive in light of widespread
failures of decentralization to improve local governance in developing
countries. Yet many studies point to one factor as pivotal in
determining the success or failure of decentralization: information
flows. This is precisely the type of problem that ICT should address.
Yet examples of ICT helping ensure successful decentralization are rare
-- or at least under-reported. Far more prevalent are stories of
failure: local power-holders use decentralization to consolidate their
control over resources, and evade the transparency that ICTs are
intended to enforce. Or local governments simply lack the wherewithal --
money, skills, equipment and software -- to use ICT to handle new
responsibilities successfully.

Nonetheless, there are cases illustrating the benefits ICTs offer. For
example, a GKD member described the positive impact of UNDP-supported
PFNet email stations in the Solomon Islands, which use packet radio to
support decentralization of government services, and de-militarization
and re-integration of former combatants into community service and
entrepreneurial activity. Another member, from Zimbabwe, described the
Kubatana Project website, which they describe as "electronic activism,"
that provides users with information on new legislation, the electoral
system and voter registration procedures, as well as major social issues
confronting the country, such as HIV/AIDS.

This week's focus is on identifying successful cases and drawing lessons
from them. In an era of shrinking development funding, we want to
understand exactly how ICT can help improve decentralization and empower
local communities, and what must be done to achieve success.


Key Questions:

1) What are the 'critical success factors' for using ICT to support
decentralization and improve local governance?

2) Which ICT interventions deliver the greatest benefit in improving
local government services?

3) What cases demonstrate the use of ICT to support successful
decentralization, empower local communities and improve local
governance?

4) What actions are essential for using ICT to support successful
decentralization, i.e., what are the 'critical success factors'?

5) What are the risks and pitfalls of using ICT to support
decentralization?

6) Are there particular local government functions (e.g., fiscal
management, service delivery, procurement) that lend themselves
particularly well to using ICT?

7) How can ICTs in the hands of citizens help empower them to enforce
responsive local government?





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