{"id":12599,"date":"2013-04-12T08:56:01","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T13:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=12599"},"modified":"2013-04-12T09:23:48","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T14:23:48","slug":"5-key-takeaways-ict-development-caribbean-silicon-savannah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2013\/04\/5-key-takeaways-ict-development-caribbean-silicon-savannah\/","title":{"rendered":"5 key takeaways for ICT development in the Caribbean from Silicon Savannah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Within the last seven years, Kenya, which has been dubbed \u201cSilicon Savannah\u201d, has become one of the leading ICT destinations in Africa, and is being increasingly recognised globally as a hotbed for tech innovation. This post highlights five takeaways from the Kenyan experience.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Caribbean<\/a><\/em>Yesterday, 11 April, was Day 1 of the two-day Caribbean Open Data Conference, which concludes later today. The event, which is themed \u201cDeveloping the Caribbean\u201d, is in its third year and focuses primarily on Open Data \u2018as a catalyst for regional development, and the role of software development as a locus of innovation\u2019 (Source: event website<\/a>). The conference also includes a 24-hour Code Sprint or hackathon, where within 24 hours, teams of programmers compete to develop software applications using publicly available datasets. Similar to last year, conferences and\/or hackathons are being held in: Cuba; Dominica Republic; Guyana; Jamaica; Suriname; Trinidad & Tobago.<\/p>\n

At the Jamaica leg of the conference, the keynote speaker was Mr. Paul Kukubo, Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya ICT Board, a statutory corporation under the Ministry of Information and Communications that oversees the development of the marketing of Kenya as and ICT investment destination. Mr. Kukubo gave a riveting talk in which he shared some of Kenya\u2019s strategies to become the ICT hub of East Africa. Outlined below are five learnings that Caribbean countries should consider in order to realise their own ICT-related development goals.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/a>

Paul Kukubo at Caribbean Open Data Conference (Jamaica)<\/p><\/div>\n

1. Have specific and measurable goals.<\/b> Although this point might seem obvious, many countries still use considerable rhetoric when framing their initiatives: \u201cwe aim to be the best ____<\/em>\u201d, or \u201cour goal is be a leading destination for ____<\/em>\u201d. Effectively those statements do not say much. More importantly, they in no way highlight any of the critical requirements that must be satisfied in order to achieve the desired goals.<\/p>\n

In the case of Kenya, its vision, as per its National ICT Masterplan 2012\u20142017, is that \u201cKenya becomes Africa\u2019s most globally respected knowledge economy\u201d<\/i>. However, underpinning that overarching outcome, a number of specific and measurable goals have been articulated, such as with respect to:<\/p>\n