|
Workshop breakaway and report-back session: Pro Poor policy pitfalls: harnessing ICTs for development Report by Charley Lewis Four clusters of issues emerged. · Policies · Implementation · Research · Human resource development Policy The group agreed there is a need to have policies adopted at a national level. An integrated ICT policy framework is necessary for the benefits of ICTs to reach everyone. Research needs to feed back into policy formation. There is a need for stakeholder involvement in policy formulation—the full range of stakeholders need to be involved. Policy makers must make sure that the full scope of economic sectors becomes involved, for example tourism, education, industry, labour, and other sectors. The outcome of the policy should not fall short because this betrays expectations. A conducive environment is needed. Finally, policy is policy, not driven by the agendas of donors and other agencies, but driven by national structures and the interests of the countries in the region. Implementation It is important to test implementation and build awareness of possibilities. Again there is a need for a national rollout, demonstration projects need to be built out at a national level. Implementation should not curtailed because of current realities—for example, not being affordable—and therefore has to be carefully planned. We need to find ways of implementing that circumvent the constraints. Also, those responsible for implementation must have the courage to push through a policy. There are gaps between people on the ground and the policy wonks. There is a need to bridge those gaps. Research A solid body of research needs to be available in the public domain, with lessons learnt by all. The issue of research and delivery is that we need to move quickly from research to implementation, people should not be a victim of the gap between the two. We must finish with pilots. We are trying to move to national level issues because the pilots have demonstrated how to deliver to the poor. Often bridging the gap is a timing issue. It is vital to have government integrated into the process and listening to the researchers. Human Resource Development This is a really critical factor. There are essentially four levels of development. · Basic information needs to be provided, and literacy and skills must happen across the board but particularly at a grassroots level. · A second level is that people need the skills to implement policies. · Thirdly, human resource development skills are needed to be able to formulate policy based on research processes that work. · Lastly, human resource development is needed around information management, knowledge management and ICTs. Questions and discussion A questioner pointed out that the group did not appear to have discussed the content of a pro poor policy framework. This was a key element of the World Summit. The policy must benefit the disadvantaged. Commenting, a group member said it was certainly impportant to deal with pro-poor policy processes. A lot of the discourse has been around specific application of ICTs for the most marginalized. But, one has to realise that success often depends on integration at other levels. Policy at the pro-poor level has to extend into the broader policy—not, say, just for the unemployed. This was why it was vital to make sure that sectoral policies are conducive to economic development. New technologies can make your policies irrelevant. Make your policy as broad and general as possible and as divorced from technology as possible. It was conceded that the issue of the content of pro-poor policy was not really discussed in the group. A group member said it was all very well to talk about policy, but once you put pro-poor in front, you are putting the content of policy on the table. This is very important, it needs to be discussed. Do we choose school nets or telecentres? All kinds of specific content and measures need to be put in place and we have not even begun to debate those measures. Another question: while policy making goes on, what happens in the interim? Commenting on this, a group member said people should not hold their breaths and await policy developments. The sector is now informed by multiple policies. We need to make good policy by co-ordinating and focusing policy efforts. See the raw notes on the Pro Poor policy discussion. |
|
Send mail to
mediaman@worldonline.co.za with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
