Document(s) 1 of 16

In the process of seeking permanent space in the dual world of technology and governance, a process driven as much by equipment, applications and services vendors as by administrators, fresh opportunities are being created daily for the deployment of the tools of Information and Communication Technologies and the infrastructure that provides the platform on which they perform. Significantly, the systemic arena for e-government has advanced from global and regional, to in-country national, state, provincial, county and local levels of government. Not surprisingly, the field has also panned out to infuse itself with the by now predictable dichotomies of ICTs and e-government in industrialized countries versus in developing countries, for the rich versus the poor, the haves and the have-nots. An inevitable by-product of this process is e-government in Africa as a sub-sector, and here, many questions have been raised and attempts made to answer them. Already, there are more questions than the field can provide answers for, which is as it should be in a dynamic process that is driven by the search for answers to ever emerging questions, and the innovation and creativity that result.

In such an environment, e-governance in Africa, From Theory to Action: A Handbook on ICTs for Local Governance by Gianluca Carlo Misuraca, is a timely and significant effort to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the theme of e-governance in Africa, its many challenges and opportunities, and the state and dynamics of the fast evolving situation on the ground. Together with the handful of similar works before it, this book offers a very valuable synopsis of the scholarship to date on the subject, especially as it seeks to provide the author's own definitions of key concepts in e-government and e-governance, and his interpretations of those of other scholars.

e-governance in Africa, From Theory to Action is presented in three parts: In Part I, "Conceptual Framework: Towards a Multi-dimensional e-governance", the author diligently and successfully seeks to provide a summary of the key positions in the debate on the theoretical framework for examining the real or potential (or, for that matter, the absence of) impact of the deployment of Information and Communication Technologies and their applications for the administration of governance, otherwise, e-governance. He attempts to track the conceptual migration from e-government to e-governance, seeking to demonstrate a distinction between the two. In the process, Misuraca presents his own evolution of the conceptualisation of e-governance, and offers what he calls a "working definition" of e-governance as:

The use of ICTs, and especially of the Internet, to adopt a new conception and attitude of governing and managing where participation and efficiency are required of all partners linked in a network.

He goes on to call e-governance "a new way of coordinating, planning, formulating and implementing decisions and operations related to governance problems, using ICTs as a medium of communication and partnership-development," or simply, " Governance with and of ICTs".

Misuraca argues forcefully about the benefits of e-governance, specifically for local government (what the trade calls Local e-government or e-Local Governance), and especially in Africa. He postulates that this process can enable local governments to "re-invent" themselves, and maintains that a good deal of the promise of democratic governance can be more readily accomplished through the embodiment of networked electronic facilities in local government administration.

These claims are by no means self-evident or universally accepted. There are those who argue equally coherently that the cost of migrating local governance (and perhaps all government administration) to an e-governance platform in a context of competing demands of abject financial resources cannot be justified. I for one also maintain that the unmitigated deployment of e-governance can inadvertently serve to undermine direct contact between the people and those who govern them, a crucial, fundamental and non-negotiable pre-requisite of good, representative, responsive and responsible governance. If nothing else, the efficacy of the claims of the de facto incontrovertible benefits of e-governance is clearly yet to be proven, given the still questionable success of e-governance even in materially much richer regions of the world. In common parlance, the jury is still out on this subject. But the presentation of much of the argument on the subject by Gianluca Misuraca is very informative and most useful in providing support or fodder for either side of the argument.

Which is what makes Part Two of the book, "Case Studies on ICTs for Local Governance", a summary of four case studies in Africa, and the core of this book, most relevant. The selection of the locale of the case studies, with one in French-speaking West Africa (Senegal), one in English-speaking West Africa (Ghana), one in East Africa (Uganda), and one in southern Africa (Cape Town, South Africa), attempts to provide a representative continental sampling. Each case study differs significantly from the other, providing a broad spectrum of experience even if, for the same reason, this limits the authority or justification to draw cross-cutting conclusions from such disparate experiments.

The Senegal Case, is a study of the impact of ICTs on the decentralization of government based exclusively on a review of the Senegal ACACIA Strategy (SAS), which is a project of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, and which was begun in 1996. The author reviews various phases of this project, and concludes that despite initial gains, after a decade of effort, there is no significant impact of the introduction of electronic resources on the decentralization of governance in Senegal. The reasons for this are perhaps as important as the outcome, perhaps significantly more so. Misuraca identifies a good number of questions that need to be answered in seeking to deploy ICTs for the decentralization of government and empowering local administrations.

The Ghana Study, which examines ICTs and Traditional Governance, reviews a number of projects that seek to use Information and Communication Technologies to enhance the effectiveness of governance by traditional chiefs and their collaboration and coordination with the central (elected) government. These include the locally-developed ICTs for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) strategy, the Chieftaincy, Governance and Development project developed by the Institute of African Studies at Ghana's premier tertiary institution, the University of Legon, and sponsored by the Ford Foundation, and in particular the Governance, Culture and Development project, funded by the Open Society Initiative of West Africa (OSIWA).

This case study is a particularly complex one to seek to draw conclusions from because the core tension in the experiments involved in the projects is not so much e-governance as it is the dynamics between traditional governance and authority as represented by traditional chiefs (who remain very powerful in Ghana) and the contemporary state governance as led by elected officials. The struggle for power between traditional rulers and elected officials was a major challenge at Ghana's Independence in 1956 as it was in that of Nigeria (1960) and other West African states in which traditional chiefs once represented the prime authority of governance. Seeking to ascribe kudos for a greater working relationship between the two to the use of ICTs risks being far-fetched. Nonetheless, Misuraca offers some sound observations, including, for example, that traditional leaders need to acquire a working knowledge of modern instruments of public administration while securing the benefits of long-standing trust by the people that is inherent in chieftaincy.

The Ugandan case study is of the District Administrative Network Programme (DistrictNet). DistrictNet came out of the Roundtable Workshop on "ICTs for Rural Development" held by the Government of Uganda in March 2001 as a pilot project in four districts of the country's administrative system. Sponsored partly by the International Institute for Communication Development (IICD) and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the government of the United Kingdom, DistrictNet's purpose was to promote the establishment of facilities and capacities for adopting data management and the use of electronic communication to enhance the delivery of administrative services. Misuraca highlights the achievements of this programme and its promise as it migrates from pilots to nationwide implementation.

He, however, identifies several challenges that will need to be carefully managed in order for this transition to be successful.

In the last case study, the author reviews the extensive efforts made by the City of Cape Town in South Africa, to create a "Smart City" through a series of projects, some internally driven, other externally, but all aimed at streamlining the administration of government services while promoting business. He provides good descriptions of the various projects and the results that have emerged from the effort. He concludes that the class (and, in South Africa, therefore, racial) distinctions that are part of the social fabric remain essentially unaltered despite the ICTs programmes, mainly because of the imbalance in the relative ability of people and enterprises to pay for the cost of access and service.

In Part III, "Conclusions and Way Forward", Gianluca Misuraca provides his own conclusions from the case studies and his views on the overall challenges of the use of ICTs for local governance. Amongst them are that: no one strategy fits all; local content is important; engaging large numbers of the focus population is difficult but important; the high cost of ICTs equipment, applications and services remains a deterrent to the adoption or successful implementation of Local e-government programmes; and local conditions must be considered rather than seeking to import external models wholesale.

The final chapter in this section, "One Way Forward: LOG-IN Africa", presents the Local Governance and ICTs Research Network which "Project Idea" was formulated by the author himself. LOG-IN Africa is funded to the tune of 1.5 million Canadian dollars by IDRC and was successfully established under the leadership of Gianluca Misuraca as Project Leader and Research Network Coordinator in 2006.

Finally, the Annex, "Review of Key Experiences of ICTs Impacting on Governance in Africa", serve as very useful research tools as much for the student and scholar, as for the practitioner and the administrator.

This book is by no means a comprehensive or exhaustive study of e-governance in Africa, but a case study of selected experiments on e-governance in local government in Africa. This notwithstanding, the author is to be congratulated for what he has addressed, without being held responsible for what he has not. To get the most out of this book, the reader might wish to focus a bit more on what it covers and offers, and the value of the conclusions that the author has extrapolated from these case studies (even as focus points for debate) rather than on what it has not but might have offered or covered. This is particularly important because the permutation of what could be addressed is so vast that no one book, not even in electronic form, can be fully comprehensive and yet comprehensible. This is why the author proscribed the scope of the work in the subtitle of the book, as a handbook. What it does do that is important, is that it provides a valuable compendium of the debate on the subject.

A major obstacle to gaining useful and meaningful value from the output of research on matters concerning Africa, derives in serious part from the nature of their sponsorship. Unfortunately, more often than is acceptable or desirable, many such research tend to be advocacy and agenda-driven, and the footprints of such a pedigree tend to be strewn all over the reports and their recommendations. These what one might call "sponsor imprints" vary from subtle suggestions to heavy-handed pre-determined "institution self-serving" conclusions which often fly in the face of evidence, and often of common sense. This often not only subjects the results of the studies to what one might call "benign notice", but more often than not leads to the corresponding benign neglect of their recommendations, and to their failure if implemented.

In this regard, IDRC, especially through its ACACIA initiative, has had an illustrious and consistent track record of promoting ICTs in Africa for a long time. This study, sponsored by it, inevitably would seek to provide justification (and justifiable reinforcement) for the efforts and investment. Significantly, to the credit of both the author and to IDRC, Misuraca has delineated numerous challenges, obstacles and even failures in the once presumed self-evident and incontrovertible benefits of ICTs for accelerating governance and overall development, especially in Africa. He may not have covered the reasons for this shortfall in efficacy. But one might suggest that they possibly lie, at least in part, elsewhere in global strategic, intellectual, cultural and policy assumptions that are eminently questionable, even though loud in their advocacy, and compelling in the power behind them. But providing a comprehensive explanation for such shortfalls may not belong to the purview and context of this book.

e-governance in Africa, From Theory to Action: A Handbook on ICTs for Local Governance is a important contribution to the literature on the subject of e-governance in general, and e-governance in Africa in particular, as well as of ICTs and Development in Africa.

This volume reflects Gianluca Misuraca's vast knowledge of the field, including his practical experience while working for UN-DESA on secondment to the Tangier-based African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development (CAFRAD), domicile of the e-Africa Initiative of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) of the African Union. Misuraca himself originally formulated the e-Africa Initiative on behalf of CAFRAD and UN-DESA in 2002.

I highly recommend it, as a significant work at an important phase in a scholarship process that is still in its puberty, with much debate and maturation, and the corresponding adjustment in the conceptual framework, yet to come.

Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., PhD
President and CEO
Telecom Africa International Corporation
New Rochelle, N. Y. USA

Dr. Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., President and CEO of Telecom Africa International Corporation, is a globally renowned expert in teleCommunication, Information and Communication Technologies, Strategic Development and Governance. He has lectured and is extensively published worldwide on the subject of ICTs, Governance and Development, including eGovernment for Results: A Programme Document for the Implementation of the Tangier Plan of Action for the e-Africa Initiative on Good Governance; Creating a Desirable 21st Century Africa: The Role of Leadership and Governance; Knowledge and the Translucency of Government: The Opportunities and Challenges of eGovernment for Strategic Development; SMART e-GOVERNMENT---Adopting Information and Communication Technologies to Enhance Strategic Development Without Undermining Fundamental Human Priorities, and Information and Communication Technologies for African Development: An Assessment of Progress and Challenges Ahead (ed.).

Document(s) 1 of 16