|
|
|
|
Sustainability
There is of course considerable debate over the sustainability of ICT in development interventions. ‘In any discussion on sustainability it is important to clarify what is being sustained, for how long, for whose benefit and at whose cost, over what area, and measured by what criteria.’ REF. The accompanying paper “What is Sustainability?” discusses the background review the team undertook for this project. Accordingly the complexity of sustainability was taken as a core premise behind the research. Sustainability was taken to be more than just “ongoing financial cost recovery”. While this should play a part in the use of ICT in development, there are many occasions where the development benefits, or “non direct cost recovery”, may justify expenditure on ICT by Government, donors or NGOs from central budgets.
The accompanying paper draws upon lessons learned in other sectors. Experience from technology orientated interventions intended to serve the poor, has found that there are a number of factors which contribute to sustainability. Using lessons and principles from the water, agriculture, environmental and livelihood sectors a framework was created to guide the case study writers.
The research framework was developed through an iterative process with the project collaborators. A draft research framework, developed from the literature, was used to categorise the key sustainability factors and develop a guiding set of questions for local consultants to work through with the case study interviewees. In most cases, a selection of people were interviewed both those who were directly involved (e.g. project staff, users of the ICT or ICT output) and indirectly (authorities who knew of the project but were not involved).
20 case studies were identified and interviews were some basic interviews were conducted. These were called level 1 case studies. 12 of the 20 were identified for further investigation, and these have been designated Level 2 studies. The paper analyses the 12 Level 2 Studies only, although the remaining 8 Level 1 Studies are presented on the web site for visitors interest.
The initial framework was developed after piloting and the final list of factors is given below.
·Objectives Hypothesis : - Clear objectives are which are held by the majority of stakeholders are needed to ensure organisational aspects of the activity are effective . The sustainability paper differentiates between Economic, Social and Institutional sustainability. The objective clarifies where the benefits may be found, what is the intended sustainability and whether these are intended to be based on direct or indirect cost recovery. ·Target groups Hypothesis : - the groups of people to whom information will be made available need to be clearly identified - the target group of the activity may not be directly the poor. Some target groups may be institutions that support development processes. Sustainability may therefore be affected by whether the institution significantly contributes to the development process and whether the institutional factors are in place. ·Intermediaries Hypothesis : - ICT are said to “disintermediate”, ie to provide the poor with more direct access to information. Potentially this removal of the “middle man” in transactions (both information and economic transactions) would credit the ICT activity with enough value to ensure its sustainability. · Policy environment Hypothesis : - ICT activities cannot be in isolation from the policy environment. ICT policies may restrict the ICT activity. Other policies may encourage or discourage the application of ICTs. If ICTs are to be part of a sustainable activity there will need to be a suitable policy environment. · Institutional arrangements Hypothesis : - Institutional sustainability is said to be achieved when prevailing structures and processes have the capacity to continue to perform their functions over the long term. What are the arrangements for the case study? · Key linkages Hypothesis : - Any development activity cannot be undertaken in isolation, and any organisation cannot work without links to the relevant authorities and other organisations working in connected areas. Links are needed to external sources of information. ·The project process Hypothesis : - Sustainability is said to be closely associated with the planning process of an activity, and its inclusion of both the target group and in some cases the long term indirect beneficiaries. ·Capacity Hypothesis : - The sustainability will be affected by the human capital available – the capacity of staff, volunteers and users to undertake the ICT activity. This may be technical capacity but is likely also to include organisational and management capacity. · Technology Hypothesis : - Sustainability of an ICT activity is likely to be strongly influenced by the technology used e.g. operation and repair may be critical to the success of the activity. In other sectors it has been found that some form of standardisation of a technology instrument has helped development ensuring a sufficient use to encourage a market that can supply spares and technology support. · Finance Hypothesis : - Replacement costs will form part of the economic sustainability, and cost recovery will encourage institutional sustainability. · Development benefits Hypothesis : - overall benefits of the ICT activity justify the costs.
The premise was that all these factors would have to be in balance for a project to be in some form sustainable. The analysis therefore considered these factors and draws some of the common points arising from them.
During the analysis it became clear that this framework did not present all the significant factors and the sections on content and language completed the analysis.
|
|
Send mail to research@gamos.org with questions or
comments about this web site.
|
