<\/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>\nIn 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\n- IT industries development and innovation \u2013 creating 50,000 jobs, 500 organisations and 20 global facing innovations, and<\/li>\n
- ICT in industry \u2013 it should contribute at least 25% to GDP, and local SMEs should have at least 60% automation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
2. Measure performance regularly.<\/b> Regardless of the goal, it is important for countries to gauge their progress regularly to determine, among other things, whether or not, or the extent to which current activities are yielding the desired results, or whether any additional interventions might be necessary. It is therefore critical from the outset that the appropriate indicators are identified and tracked.<\/p>\n
In a similar vein, especially when competitive goals have been established, it is also important for countries to measure or validate their performance against other locations, in order to determine whether, relative to those countries, the overall outcomes are being achieved. For example, although Country X may implement a suite of improvements that should reflect favourably in an international assessment, other countries are also making improvements. Hence when the countries are all compared, Country X\u2019s efforts might appear negligible relative to those of other countries, which could result in no improvement, or even a lowering, in its ranking.<\/p>\n
3. Encourage private sector execution.<\/b> Recently, Caribbean governments have been regularly encouraging private sector involvement in a number of their programmes and initiatives. Frequently, the impetus for these solicitations from governments is the fact that they are unable to finance many of those projects, and are hoping for private investors support.<\/p>\n
Although financing challenges may still need to be resolved, Mr. Kukubo focussed on project implementation, and recommended that countries establish systems that fostered private sector execution for important initiatives.<\/p>\n
While many Caribbean governments might baulk at this approach, due to the loss of control that would result, in highly competitive environments, such as ICT investment and development, it is crucial for key sector organisations to be agile, responsive and empowered to make speedy decisions. To do otherwise would be not only counterproductive, but also counterintuitive for organisations that are supposed to be on the cutting edge of dynamic industries, and spearheading critical national projects, to be unduly mired in government bureaucracy, protocol and processes.<\/p>\n
4. Secure cheerleaders.<\/b> For any transformative project that is being undertaken, it is absolutely critical that it has cheerleaders. To be clear, these \u201ccheerleaders\u201d should be senior government officials that can, among other things,<\/p>\n\n- drive the policy development and implementation processes<\/li>\n
- advocate for and defend the project<\/li>\n
- ensure that the project receives the support it needs at the highest political levels<\/li>\n
- lobby for the removal of roadblocks and bottlenecks that could affect the project\u2019s success.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
5. Ensure there is sufficient political will.<\/b> Finally, although it might appear somewhat redundant to emphasise the need for political will for government-initiated projects, the focus of this learning is the impact of, and the ways in which that support is demonstrated. Too frequently across the Caribbean, governments initiate or develop certain projects that are considered critical for the countries they serve. However, issues such as, a true lack of ownership of and accountability for the project by the political directorate, government bureaucracy and process inefficiencies, etc., derail successful and timely implementation.<\/p>\n
In the Kenyan situation, there was a sense that the country\u2019s ICT development programme not only had the highest political support, but perhaps more importantly, the will <\/b>of the government to address or manage roadblocks and other challenges that could affect successful realisation of its goals. Hence the government and its functionaries were prepared to act with requisite focus and alacrity, and considerable successes have resulted.<\/p>\n
In summary, most Caribbean countries have recognised ICTs as important drivers of economic and social development, and to varying degrees have developed plans or strategies through their goals can be realised. Although much of what Mr. Kukubo shared was not new, it reiterated the fact that with the appropriate focus, drive and commitment developing countries can make transformational changes in their economies. Too often, we stand in the way of our own greatness.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image credits: Caribbean Open Data Conference<\/a> (logo); ICT Pulse<\/em><\/p>\n_______________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[82,17,97,11],"tags":[45,71,32,204,43,54,86],"class_list":["post-12599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-caribbean","category-events","category-ict-tech","tag-applications","tag-businesses","tag-information-society","tag-innovation-2","tag-internet-governance","tag-jamaica","tag-meetings","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Caribbean-Open-Data-Conference-Logo.jpg?fit=163%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-3hd","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12599"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12599"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12617,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12599\/revisions\/12617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}