ICT for Enhanced Service Delivery in Countries in Southern Africa: Case of E-Governance

1. ICT for Enhanced Service Delivery in Countries in Southern Africa: Case of E-Governance ADF V IST Focus Group Pre-event “ICT & Youth Entrepreneurship” 14 – 19 November 2006 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Presented by Luke Wasonga luke.wasonga@undp.org UNDP-RSC/SACI, Johannesburg, South Africa

2. Focus of the Session • Lessons from E-Governance Platform Assessment in Southern Africa: • Lesotho • Zambia • Malawi COVERAGE • Objectives of the Assessment • Framework of Cases Study • Findings and recommendations

3. Objectives of Case Study Assessment of e-gov platform aimed to measure, describe and Evaluate trends and changes in key ICT indicators so as to: Determine the level of readiness to exploit e-opportunities by all Develop new approaches to enhance service delivery Develop new approaches to promote participation by all • Focus: • Health • Education • Agriculture • Public service • Finance Develop new approaches to enhance individual and institutional Capacity- especially the youth

4. Generic E-governance Building Blocks Content and Applications Leadership ICT Infrastructure Human Capital Institutional Infrastructure

5. ICT Infrastructure • Communication networks conducive for youth participation • Fixed communication networks • Mobile communication networks • The Internet and related value added networks • Broadcasting networks • Radio broadcasting • Television broadcasting • Government ICT networks • Enabling infrastructure • Electrical supply • Transportation

6. Human Capital – Focusing on Empowerment of Youth • Technical capital • Comprise the tacit knowledge embedded in individual membership • Structural capital • Comprise the explicit knowledge embedded in institutional policies, systems, processes and procedures • Social capital • Comprise the cultural knowledge embedded in network of relationships and partnerships • Capacity building – for youth • Skills development • Professional and technical development • Research and development

7. Institutional Infrastructure • Policy framework that encourages youth involvement • Form the basis for government action and intervention • Legal framework – that incorporates the needs of the youth • Defines boundaries for acceptable behaviour and provide sanctions for those falling outside • Institutional framework – that is broad based • Allocates and legitimizes responsibility and accountability to individuals and organizations • E-participation capacity – that facilitate youth involvement in knowledge creation • Defined by interest, knowledge, information, and means or ability.

8. Leadership • Leadership is the cement and mortar that: • Turn blocks into a strong wall • Walls into a strong building • Determines the strength and functionality of the building. • Youth of Africa forms a key block for enhancing ICT • Both political and administrative commitment is essential for youth participation • The assessment indicated strong need to provide: • Direction to set vision, goals and strategies • Championship to inspire commitment, rally support and mobilize resources. • Coordination to ensure synergy and complementarity of efforts • Oversight to ensure harmony, shared benefits and speedy conflict resolution.

9. FINDINGS

10. ICT infrastructure: Finding

11. ICT Infrastructure: Findings … • Access to ICT is still very low and exclusive • Low levels of ICT network penetration • Skewed geographical coverage of networks: • Favours urban and peri-urban • Along major connecting routes • No deliberate efforts to incorporate needs of the youth • Ongoing network modernization and upgrading • Lack of affordable sources of electrical energy particularly in remote rural areas • Fragmented government ICT network environment

12. Content and Applications: Findings • Large number and volumes of data and information repositories (databases and registries) in government • Access to government information problematic: • Government websites are generally static with limited functionality • No official inventories of government information repositories • Government ICT application portfolios are composed predominantly of legacy applications built around financial systems and payroll. • Fragmented government ICT application environment • Different an often incompatible platforms • Limited or non-existent interoperability • Numerous ongoing ICT initiatives in each of the focal sectors • Lack of relevant local content to drive the use of ICT in development, governance and service delivery • Language and education as critical barriers to the development of inclusive information society. • Tremendous digital opportunities exist in agriculture, education, finance, governance, health and public service, governance.

13. Human Capital: Findings • Government have strong technical, structural and social capacity. Hence, capacity challenges in government are unlikely to arise from lack qualified and competent personnel, except perhaps in ICT. • Governments are the biggest and best staff developers in the respective countries. • A variety of ICT training programmes are found locally, regionally and internationally. However, training that target soft dimensions of human capital are lacking. • Governments have national R&D institutions • ICT leadership development programmes for senior administrative and political leadership are lacking. • No operational policies defining nomination for training and post training debriefing • Retention of qualified and competent staff in government is weak even when frameworks for doing so exists.

14. Institutional Infrastructure: Findings • The national policy environment is complex and crowded and at time neglect the needs of the youth • The legal systems have no provisions for cyber laws that encourage youth participation • The institutional arrangements in government remain predominantly conventional and bureaucratic. • Information management practices in government are predominantly paper-based and therefore stifle information and effective utilization. • Limitations of ongoing public sector reforms to bring about fundamental performance improvements in government

15. Leadership: Findings • Lesotho and Malawi have centralized their institutional leadership for ICT at ministerial levels, while Zambia has not. • Lesotho has finalized its national ICT policy and is now on implementation strategy. Both Malawi and Zambia are yet to finalize their national ICT policies. • No supra-governmental structures for national ICT governance. • No visible evidence of ICT championship as both individual and institutional levels. • None evidence found of national ICT steering or advisory body in the three countries • No evidence of national or regional forums for leaders to debate issues on ICT capacity needs for the region. • No leadership development programmes for top political and administrative officials. • ALL THE FIVE ELEMENT(Content, Human capital, ICT Infrastructure, and Institutional Infrastructure) ARE INTERELATED AND MUST BE TAKEN TOGETHER []

16. THANK YOU