Frequently Asked Questions About Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in Icts for Development
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Frequently Asked Questions about Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in ICTs for Development A guide for national ICT policy animators Lishan Adam Tina James Alice munyua wanjira September 2007 APC dedicates this guide to the people with whom we worked on national ICT policy advocacy in Africa from 2004 to 2006. Most of them are still contributing to national policy change. Lishan Adam Goretti Z. Amuriat Dawit Bekele Fatima Bhyat Abebe Chekol Willie Currie John Dada Anriette Esterhuysen Coura Fall Lina Gjerstad Tina James Michel Lambert Alice Munyua Jean-Claude Mwepu Johnson Nkuuhe Claire Sibthorpe Jummai Umar Kate Wild David Woolnough Frequently Asked Questions about Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in ICTs for Development A guide for national ICT policy animators Published by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) © 2007 ISBN: 92-95049-42-X APC-200710-CIPP-T-EN-P-0040 Creative Commons Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ Graphic Design: moNoCromo [email protected] Table of contents 1. About this guide / 4 2. Background / 4 3. What are multi-stakeholder partnerships for ICT policy? / 5 4. What are the goals of a multi-stakeholder partnership? / 7 5. What are the benefits of multi-stakeholder partnerships? / 8 6. How do you deal with the challenges of multi-stakeholder partnerships? / 10 7. What are the roles of stakeholders in a multi-stakeholder process? / 11 8. What are the guiding principles for multi-stakeholder partnerships? / 14 9. How do you drive a multi-stakeholder process? / 16 10. What communications and advocacy activities are needed? / 19 11. How do you monitor and evaluate your ICT policy process? / 21 SeleCTed uSeful reAdIng materIAlS / 22 Case study The multi-stakeholder process for ICT policy in the democratic republic of the Congo / 23 Case study KICTAnet: A multi-stakeholder process for ICT policy in Kenya / 26 1. About this guide 2. Background recent years have seen significant interest in the The public sector has been the major force behind development of multi-stakeholder partnerships and most ICT policy and national ICT strategy initiatives in multi-stakeholder processes that aim to address vari- Africa over the last decade. However, it is becoming ous developmental challenges. These have spanned a increasingly clear that the success of ICT in develop- range of application areas, from environmental protec- ment cannot be met without the active participation tion to social inclusion; from global initiatives to local of civil society, the media and the private sector. and national partnerships; from alliances between The main ingredients of ICT for development include the private and public sectors to the inclusion of a a range of areas that need to be addressed – an broader range of partners from civil society, grassroots enabling policy and regulatory environment, access organisations and the media; in policy development to basic infrastructure, accelerated development of but also implementation and service delivery. basic ICT skills, development of appropriate content, Partnerships between the public sector, the private ICT applications for development, and advanced ICT sector and particularly civil society in promoting in- research and development to provide innovative solu- formation and communication technology (ICT) policy tions applicable in developing country contexts. Such are a relatively new venture. The mechanisms, man- a wide range of requirements needs strategic alliances agement and governance of such partnerships, from between different actors at national, regional and loose arrangements to more formal mechanisms, are international levels. No single sector in society can still relatively new and not always fully understood. deliver services to address the complexities of sus- This guide is an attempt to add to the growing body tainable development; nor can public initiatives alone of knowledge and experience on multi-stakeholder meet ICT for development challenges. As a result the processes and partnerships, based on the practical multi-stakeholder approach has become preferred experiences encountered during the three-year CATIA to a traditional top-down approach for promoting programme1 on ICT policy advocacy. It presents guide- policy changes and managing accountability in the lines that may assist national ICT policy facilitators in implementation of ICT programmes. The understand- coming to grips with the complexities of multi-stake- ing that the “voices of the commons” are a strong holder relationships and the attainment of common catalyst for change and a key for meeting these ICT for goals and objectives. It considers practical issues for development challenges has given rise to the increas- the establishment of a multi-stakeholder process for ingly pivotal role of civil society organisations (CSos) ICT policy and looks at how multi-stakeholder partner- drawn from non-governmental organisations, faith- ships work, what has been successful and what has based institutions, grassroots organisations, profes- not, and offers some practical suggestions on how to sional associations, trade unions, consumer groups, make them more effective. Practical experiences from research institutes, think tanks and the media. Their two African countries – the Democratic republic of the involvement in multi-stakeholder processes with the Congo (DrC) and Kenya – are used to illustrate two private sector and policy-makers has given rise to a possible approaches. new form of multi-stakeholder partnership that has created a positive force for driving forward ICT policy and ICT for development (ICT4D) programmes around the world. Some governments have launched their own partnership programmes, reaching out to other stakeholders in order to enhance their work in ICT policy, planning and programme implementation. 1 The CATIA (Catalysing Access to ICTs in Africa) programme ran from 2003 to 2006, supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), with additional support from the International Development research Centre (IDrC) and the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). The experiences in this handbook are based on the ICT policy advocacy component, which was implemented by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) in five countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Senegal, Nigeria and the Democratic republic of the Congo). 4 Frequently Asked q u e s t i o n s A bout Multi- s t A k e h o l d e r P A r t n e r s h i P s i n i C t s F o r d e v e l o pm e n t 3. What are multi-stakeholder partnerships and experience, to more formalised structures based for ICT policy? on the creation of a legal entity with appropriate governance structures to ensure transparency and multi-stakeholder partnership is a very broad term accountability. The multi-stakeholder partnership is that describes groupings of civil society, the private often viewed as a network approach. However there sector, the public sector, the media and other stake- is a substantial difference between networks and holders that come together for a common purpose, multi-stakeholder partnerships. Networks rely on the which here refers to the intent to drive changes in membership of like-minded institutions that share ICT policy development and ensuing implementa- a common purpose for core activities, while multi- tion. In such partnerships the partners have a shared stakeholder partnerships aim to band institutions understanding that they with different agendas to- play different roles and gether to address com- Partnerships are defined as voluntary and have different purposes, collaborative relationships between various mon issues that may affect but that they can pursue parties, both state and non-state, in which all them or their stakehold- collective goals through participants agree to work together to achieve ers. Networks tend to be collaboration and common a common purpose or undertake a specific task self-organising, evolving and to share risks and responsibilities, activities to achieve such resources and benefits. in response to complex goals. These partnerships realities facing them or are voluntary, with par- UN General Assembly, 60th session, Report of the their constituents. They are ticipation driven by the per- Secretary General. UN Doc A/60/214. highly dependent on infor- ceived benefits they may mal leadership to achieve see emerging from the process. Such partnerships their purpose. multi-stakeholder partnerships can be are increasingly being used to challenge and lobby regarded as networks with some formal element (e.g. for change in policy processes. This is, in a number of a name or collective identity, guiding principle and cases, underpinned by collective research funding to small secretariat). multi-stakeholder partnerships are support a particular position in the policy process and often created by agents (champions, external donors, to raise general levels of awareness and knowledge etc.) to address specific policy challenges. about the issues under consideration. Table 1 shows some of the similarities and differences multi-stakeholder partnerships show a range of between networks and multi-stakeholder partner- modalities – from loose forum-like structures allow- ships. ing for active debate and the exchange of knowledge Table 1. CHAracteristics oF networks and multi-stakehoLDEr partnerships CHAracteristics Networks Multi-stakehoLDEr partnerships membership Institutions with somewhat similar core objectives Institutions that