SAMPLE RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Author: Nitin Jaddoo Date: 30 September 2010 Field of Research: Information and Communications Technology

Provisional Title: Assessing progress made towards building an information society in the SADC region: A Case study of Botswana. Major Objective The aim of this study is to investigate the progress made towards building an information society in the SADC region following the SADC ICT Declaration (SADC 2001). Specifically, the e-strategy of Botswana from 2001 to 2010 will be

investigated and assessed in terms of its progress in achieving the objectives of the SADC ICT Declaration. Critical Questions The critical question of this study is: How is the e-strategy of a country in the SADC region impacting the social and economic lives of its citizens? From the critical question, a number of other questions arise which are related to constraints inherent in developing countries (such as limited resources and lack of capacity): 1. What are the impediments to a speedier development in ICT in the SADC region? 2. Are the problems unique to the SADC region? 3. Why are SADC countries lagging behind other regions in their ICT performance? 4. Can the successful e-strategy models of other countries be replicated in SADC countries? 5. What are the challenges involved in monitoring and evaluating e-strategies? Background

The SADC (2001) Declaration on ICT was a policy decision directing Member States to harness the power of ICT in order to improve the social and economic development of SADC countries. The five prioritized areas identified were: a) The creation of a favorable regulatory environment and the liberalization of the telecommunications sector; b) The development of ICT infrastructure; c) The involvement of all stakeholders in ICT development; d) The development of e-commerce capability; e) The building of human resource capacity in ICT; The SADC Declaration on ICT was followed by two major SADC regional ereadiness assessments (World Economic Forum 2002, SADC 2002) which indicated that not all countries were developing at the same pace therefore different strategic approaches to ICT were recommended. In general, the slow pace of development of ICT-related policies, the non-existence of e-commerce regulations, the delay in infrastructure rollout and the lack of harmonization of regional policies have been a hindrance in the region. However on the positive side, there were some significant developments in the

telecommunications sector, liberalization has started in several SADC countries and independent regulators were being set up (James 2001). Several initiatives were being taken by African regional and continental organizations to build affordable ICT infrastructure for the continent. The SADC Regional Information Infrastructure (SRII) project was an initiative of the national telecommunications operators to build their national infrastructure and coordinate the interconnection of SADC countries through a network of broadband terrestrial, radio and optical fibre links (SADC 2003). At the continental level, a NEPAD initiative was proposing the establishment of a submarine optical fibre cable system along the east coast of Africa which will also connect landlocked countries via broadband links to the landing points (NEPAD 2004). Today the African continent has several active submarine fibre optic cables (Song 2010) for broadband connectivity and those impacting the SADC region are:

CABLE SAT3/SAFE SEACOM LION EASSy WACS ACE

REGION West & South Africa/Mauritius/Asia East Africa Indian Ocean East Africa (NEPAD initiative) Will be operational in 2011 Will be operational in 2012

Despite the successful rollout of ICT infrastructure, the cost of communications is still high in the majority of African countries as protectionism and state interference are hindering access to low price and competitive broadband communication (Southwood 2010). Botswana has several policy and legislative frameworks in place to promote the use of ICT for development which are in line with its long term national strategic vision of 2016 (Mutala, Grand, Zulu & Sebina 2010:9). The telecommunication sector has grown significantly since it has been liberalized in the mid-nineties especially in the mobile phone industry. Regarding broadband connectivity, Botswana is participating in major regional initiatives such as EASSy, SEACOM, WACS and SAT3. Despite the impressive growth of telecommunication services, Botswana has one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the world (Mutala et al., 2010:14). Progress in e-

government, e-commerce and human capacity building remain insignificant. The cost of computers and telecommunications remain high (Mutala et al., 2010:23). The correlation between ICT and economic development indicates that countries that use ICT intensively tend to have a higher standard of living (ITU 2009, World Bank 2009). In order to measure their level of economic development and their progress in ICT, the International Telecommunications Union has combined several indicators to produce an ICT Development Index (IDI) for each country (ITU 2009). Most of the SADC countries obtained low IDI scores ranging from 109 for Botswana to 151 for Democratic Republic of Congo. On the higher ends, Mauritius scores 62 and South Africa 87. The advent of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in 2003 added further impetus to the development of e-strategies in developing countries (Lanvin 3

2005:47). All SADC countries are currently implementing e-strategies and each country is at different phases of implementation. Using a country in the SADC region as a case study will provide a rich source of data to help understand why SADC is lagging behind other regions in adopting ICT for development. Research Design and Methods The aim of this study is to examine one country (Botswana) in the SADC region so as to identify the reasons behind the poor ICT performance of SADC when benchmarked against other regions. For this purpose a qualitative research method is preferred over a quantitative one. A case study format covering a period from 2001 to 2010 is appropriate to help us understand the complexity of applying ICT in a region that has its own peculiarities. SADC is a grouping of 15 countries with a majority of them belonging to the low-income group and the others to the middle-income. The estrategy of one SADC country, in particular, that of Botswana will be examined in terms of its impact on social and economic development. The study will review ICT related reports and publications from various sources in Botswana, the SADC Secretariat and the Economic Commission of Africa (UNECA) which has been actively promoting e-strategies in Africa. Final Note This research work will help guide researchers and policy-makers better understand the challenges SADC countries are facing in their quest for an information society. Each SADC country will have to be researched in terms of its achievement in ICT and a comparative social and economic impact analysis be conducted in the future. Today SADC stands at a crossroad, having spent a decade building broadband ICT infrastructure it is obvious that the focus of the next decade of ICT development will be a multitude of applications using this infrastructure to transform the lives of the people of Southern Africa. Review of Literature The review of literature for the topic under study focuses on e-strategy issues and the challenges encountered during implementation especially in developing countries.

Lanvin (2005) argues that researchers have shied away from defining e-strategies in order to avoid promoting the one-size-fits-all approach as each country has its own specificity and development priorities. He defines e-strategy as a set of coordinated actions and policies that seek to accelerate the social, economic and political development of a given country or region through the use of ICT. He further argues that e-strategies are not the priorities of policy-makers and donors as they are perceived to be distractions from other pressing development objectives. Therefore countries embarking on an e-strategy must ensure that: (1) their e-strategy falls within the broader framework of national development goals and objectives and (2) that the e-strategy has a strong monitoring and evaluation component. The latter will provide the much needed data and measurement for policy-makers to assess the development impact of resources invested in ICT. He cautions that without monitoring and evaluation, corrective actions are not possible and e-strategies run the risk of becoming blueprints or white elephants. According to Yoon & Chae (2009) it is evident that the implementation of an estrategy contributes to economic growth. However they argue that it is still difficult to identify the critical success factors for e-strategies as the definitions, interpretations and context differ from country to country. Therefore the e-strategies that are in place in several developing countries might not yield the expected results as most of them are modeled on developed countries. They further identify 15 critical success factors for e-strategies and investigate the possibility of prioritizing the factors by the scale of economy through a Delphi survey. The outcome of the research indicates that the priority factors in poor countries are not the same as those of rich countries. Therefore they conclude that the priority factors for poor countries should be focused on the development of adequate ICT infrastructure, the need for strong leadership, reduction of illiteracy, and locating source of funding. Labelle (2005) argues that any successful ICT policy formulation and strategy development must be focused on human development. ICT is the empowerment tool and the agent of change providing access to information to enable people to identify and seize opportunities to grow, develop, and change their lives and that of their communities. He further argues that developed countries are leaders in cutting edge technological innovation as they have built on the widely diffused old technology the

like electricity and the telephone. In developing countries on the other hand, the diffusion of the old technology is slow and incomplete. Many communities in these countries are illiterate and they do not have access to reliable power or telecommunications infrastructure. In addition, other factors contributing to poverty in developing countries could be instability due to conflict and diseases. Therefore the scale and the pace of implementing e-strategies in developing countries must take these realities into consideration.

References ITU. 2009. Measuring the Information Society: The ICT Development Index 2009. Geneva: ITU. ITU. 2010. National e-Strategies for Development: Global Status and Perspectives 2010. Geneva: ITU Hanna, N. 2006. From Envisioning to Designing e-Development: The Experience of Sri Lanka. Washington DC: World Bank. James, T. (Ed). 2001. An Information Policy Handbook for Southern Africa : A Knowledge Base for Decision-Makers. Ottawa: IDRC. Labelle, R. 2005. ICT Policy Formulation and e-Strategy Development: A Comprehensive Guide. New Delhi: UNDP-APDIP. Lanvin, B. 2005. e-Strategies for Development: Efficient e-Strategies Require Strong Monitoring and Evaluation. In R. Schware (Ed), e-Development: From Excitement to Effectiveness (pp. 47-63). Washington DC: World Bank Manhia, S. (Ed). 2002. ICT Policy Implementation Strategy: Toward the Global Information Society. Maputo: ICT Commission. Mutula, S., Grand, B., Zulu, S.,Sebina, P. 2010. Towards an Information Society in Botswana : ICT4D Country Report. Presented at the Botswana Thetha ICT Discussion Forum held on March 10 2010 in Gaborone, Botswana. NEPAD. 2004. Backbone Telecommunications Infrastructure Development Initiatives in Southern and Eastern Africa. Retrieved on September 10 2010 from http://event-africa-networking.web.cern.ch/event-africanetworking/cdrom/Worldbank/RegionalRationalizationStudyEastandSouthernAfrica.pdf Rahman, H. 2008. Developing Successful ICT Strategies: Competitive Advantage in a Global Knowledge-driven Society. London: IGI SADC. 2001. Declaration on Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Presented at Heads of State or Government Summit held on 14 August 2001 in Blantyre, Malawi. SADC. 2002. SADC e-readiness Review and Strategy: Recommendations of the SADC e-readiness Task-Force. Gaborone: SADC SADC. 2003. Background Paper on Communications Investment, Policy and Regulatory Harmonization in the SADC Region. Paper presented at the SADC Communications Investment Forum in March 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique. 7

Song, S. 2010. Map of African Undersea Cables. Retrieved on 20 September 2010 from http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/ Southwood, R. 2010. The imminent arrival of fibre heaven in Africa spoiled by a number of nagging questions. Retrieved on 20 September 2010 from http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/en/issue-no-499 Suh, J. & Chen, D. 2007. Korea as a Knowledge Economy: Evolutionary process and lessons learned. Washington DC: World Bank. UNDP. 2005. National and Regional e-strategies. A Blueprint for Action. In A.B. Haqqani (Ed), Role of Information and Communication technology in global development: Analysis and Policy Recommendations (pp. 27-70). New-York: UN. UNECA. 2007. National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) e-strategies : Best practices and lessons learnt. Addis Ababa : UNECA World Bank. 2006. Information and communications for development 2006: Global trends and policies. Washington DC: World Bank. World Bank. 2007. Building knowledge economies: Advanced strategies for development. Washington DC: World Bank. World Bank. 2009. 2009 Information and Communications for Development: Extending Reach and Increasing Impact. Washington DC: World Bank. World Economic Forum. 2002. SADC-WEF Consultation Report on e-readiness: Better, Faster, Cheaper: Developing and Leveraging World Class ICT Networks for Social and Economic Development. Geneva: WEF. Yoon, J. & Chae, M. 2009. Varying criticality of key success factors of national e-strategy along the status of economic development of nations. Government Information Quartely, 26(1):25-34.

Acronyms

SADC NEPAD

Southern African Development Community New Partnership for Africas Development

Table 1 SADC Countries

Country Mauritius South Africa Botswana Namibia Seychelles Angola Swaziland Lesotho Zimbabwe Madagascar Malawi Tanzania Mozambique DR Congo IDI Rank 62 87 109 112 113 123 126 133 141 145 148 151 e-strategy Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y In progress Income Group Upper Middle Upper Middle Upper Middle Upper Middle Upper Middle Lower Middle Lower Middle Lower Middle Lower Lower Lower Lower Lower Lower

10