Document(s) 14 of 16

One of the way to respond to the above mentioned questions is by the development and conduct of pieces of research to analyse the impact of ICTs on local governance, through evaluating projects and initiatives and applying the results of research to concrete cases, eventually developing pilot projects to be further replicated broadly.

This should also involve the definition of a monitoring and evaluation system and the identification of guidelines (Road Map) for implementation of ICTs Projects at local government level. In addition to evaluating the social impact of incorporating and using ICTs for both management purposes in local governments and communicating with citizens, as well as conforming citizen networks that attempt to become valid representatives of these governments, there is the need to develop a consolidated system of indicators, relevant to the African context, which will be updated on a frequent basis and serve as a reliable and current data source for stakeholders at local, regional, national and global levels.

In this regard, the preliminary findings of this research together with further discussions on the issue of ICTs and local governance in Africa, were presented to the "International Workshop on Innovative Applications of ICTs for Local Governance in Africa" jointly convened in June 2004, in Addis Ababa, by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), also in collaboration with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). The main output of this workshop, attended by some 60 participants from Africa and elsewhere, was a proposal to establish a regional research network to design and undertake applied research on the impact of ICTs on local governance in Africa.

In response to a proposal I presented to the Workshop, I was requested to further elaborate on the research network, proposing that this would eventually be coordinated through the African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development (CAFRAD).

I therefore conducted further research in this area on behalf of the IDRC. This, combined with other discussions about the development of the research network, provided impetus to the development of the "Project Idea" for the establishment of a "Local Governance and ICTs Research Network for Africa (LOG-IN Africa)" that I prepared and submitted on behalf of CAFRAD to IDRC on 4th. August 2004.

The LOG-IN Africa "Project Idea" was subsequently presented for discussion at the 2004 PICTA meeting in Mauritius, the African Development Forum 2004, and the African preparatory meetings for WSIS-II, which all endorsed the idea. Ultimately during an Acacia team meeting in Dakar in 2005, the proposed network was officially included in the IDRC pipeline for support. Subsequent to the team meeting, funding was made available by the IDRC to support pre-project activity and to enable the collaborative development of a proposal including the identification of appropriate institutions and researchers.

I was therefore asked to lead the Pre-Project activities and coordinated, in collaboration with the IDRC Offices in Dakar and Nairobi, the selection of the research institutions. This was done on a competitive basis resulting in the identification of nine research institutions from nine African countries including from almost all of Africa's major sub-regions¹.

This resulted in the "LOG-IN Africa Pre-Project Consultative Workshop", held in Nairobi, 3rd. – 5th. September 2005, attended by the identified researchers and institutions. Each selected institution prepared a preliminary analysis of "The Current State of ICTs and Local Governance" in their respective countries in order to identify knowledge and information gaps and research priorities for discussion during the Workshop. In the course of this meeting, researchers agreed on common research issues and methodological approaches, and prepared draft documents upon which the "LOG-IN Africa Project Proposal" was based.

I was then requested to act as Project Leader/Research Network Co-ordinator for the establishment of the LOG-IN Africa Research Network.

Following the Nairobi workshop, I further elaborated the LOGIN Africa Project proposal, with the support of Dr Michael Gurstein, as a Research Adviser, and in consultation with IDRC, and submitted for official approval on behalf of CAFRAD to IDRC on 11th. November 2005.

The Project Proposal was further discussed during the WSIS-II in Tunis, in November 2005, and finally approved by IDRC in January 2006. A Memorandum of Grant Conditions (MGCs) between IDRC and CAFRAD was finalized on February 2006, and LOG-IN Africa started in March 2006 (www.loginafrica.net).

LOG-IN Africa has the general objective of informing, supporting and orienting African countries and other stakeholders in their policies and practices concerning the application of ICTs to local governance.

The research projects intends to assess the current state and outcomes of e-local governance initiatives in Africa, and in particular how ICTs are being used to realise good local governance at four levels:

1. the internal organizational processes of local governments;
   
   
2. the provision of information and service delivery;
   
   
3. the promotion of the principles of good governance; and
   
   
4. public participation and consultation.

LOG-IN Africa is currently an emergent pan-African network of researchers and research institutions from nine African countries. The Network research partners is drawn from the following institutions:

1. Al Akhawayn University, Morocco (http://www.aui.ma)
   
   
2. Cairo University, Egypt (http://www.cu.edu.eg/default.asp);
   
   
3. LINK-Centre/Witswatersrand University and the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), South Africa (http://link.wits.ac.za and www.cpsi.co.za);
   
   
4. Makerere University, Uganda (http://www.cit.ac.ug);
   
   
5. Societé Africaine d'Education et de Formation pour le Développement/African Society of Education and Training for Development (SAFEFOD), Senegal (www.safefod.org);
   
   
6. University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (http://www.aau.edu.et);
   
   
7. Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique (http://dmi.uem.mz);
   
   
8. University of Nairobi, Kenya (http://www.uon.ac.ke);
   
   
9. University of Technology of Mauritius, Mauritius (http://ncb.intnet.mu/utm).

As a network of research peers, it is coordinated through the African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development (CAFRAD), ensuring effective implementation; a pan-African outlook; and high-level policy dissemination of research results.

The "First LOG-IN Africa Kick-Off and Methodology Workshop" was held in Tangier, 8th–10th June 2006, and gathered together a total of 30 participants, from 9 African countries, and representatives of CAFRAD, IDRC, UNDP and UNECA, as observers.

An intention of the first LOG-IN Africa Workshop was to facilitate the creation of a "research network" with considerable degrees of mutual support, research synergies and ultimately collaborative research activities and research outcomes. The Network as currently established, consists of a range of researchers, each with their own professional background, training and experience, working in a variety of locally specific institutional and national contexts. However, through the Workshop, the beginnings of a common baseline was established and directions set for a variety of common data elements (outcome indicators) to be collected.

While respecting the individuality of the respective researchers/research teams the intention of the project has been to create a common overall e-local governance framework within which each of the individual research activities could be "nested" and through which the individual projects could be linked to the variety of other on-going projects. In this way they would be constituted so as to provide a broader basis for moving towards an empirically grounded e-local governance "Roadmap" of value both nationally and on a Pan-African basis.

As a research network its objective is to provide a broad framework within which individual research may be coordinated and integrated in support of knowledge creation and knowledge integration. As a network of researchers its objective is to support the activities of the individual researchers as they undertake their individual research activities.

The broad intention with the creation of LOG-IN Africa, in fact, is to overcome the isolation of individual researchers in the area of ICTs as applied to local governance in Africa. More importantly, it aims to strengthen the quality and significance of applied e-governance research in Africa so as to support the on-going development of e-local governance in the region. The Network begins with a broad understanding that research has a necessary role in social and economic development both as a means to inform policy concerning the outcomes of practical developments and interventions and as a means to inform practice concerning the effectiveness and efficiency of practical interventions and developments.

Through collaboration among the networked research partners, a modular "outcome assessment framework", with specific indicators linked to a conceptual framing of the characteristics of good governance, will be developed. This will be adapted to local contexts in conjunction with training of local researchers. Specific data collection and analysis will be conducted at the local level in large part based on locally determined research priorities, strategies and methods broadly coordinated within the LOG-IN Africa research framework and research objectives.

An integrative process will allow for comparative cross-national and regional assessment of the outcomes of current e-local governance activities.

The Network will generate research findings contributing to more effective policy making and implementation in e-local governance in Africa. National and regional guidelines and an implementation "Roadmap" for how to proceed in this area is also to be developed.

During the two-year of its implementation (March 2006-March 2008), the Research Network is intended to contribute to improved project management and evaluation capabilities of the participating institutions.

The direct outputs of the research project, the outcome assessment framework and the Road Map for e-local governance, will shape the landscape in the theory and practice of ICTs for local governance. The establishment of the Network will also facilitate the gaining of support for e-local governance from the international community as for example, through the framework of the WSIS and the recently inaugurated Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF). The Network, in fact, was also intended to serve as a possible channel for resources from the North to the South, in this area as well as supporting South-South partnerships, and decentralized cooperation. A particular emphasis will be put on the leveraging role of ICTs in supporting local economic development through e-local governance activities as for example, promoted by the African Diaspora and through local-to-local connections (e. g. cooperation among Regions and Cities).

In the longer term, in addition to reinforcing the research capacities of partner institutions in the area of ICTs and local governance and facilitating the sharing of knowledge and experience, the Research Network will reinforce the capacities of local governance institutions and grassroots communities. In this way the project will potentially have an additional impact through building the skills of young leaders and ICTs professionals, thus supporting the development of human resource capacity at the local level for the implementation of ICTs projects and in turn creating job opportunities and stimulating economic growth in Africa.

Document(s) 14 of 16