IICD /Jamaica findings 2001

Monitoring and evaluating ICT activities

This report presents the results of the IICD monitoring and evaluation instrument for the Jamaica Country Programme in 2000. The instrument used is intended to monitor and evaluate:

1. The impact of the ICT Country Programme in terms of awareness, empowerment, economic and socio-cultural impacts on development.

2. The quality of the assistance in project formulation and implementation provided by IICD, NCST, JCSEF and local consultants.

The monitoring and evaluation exercise included the following projects:

1. Education: Instructional Technology Institute (ITI) - Jamaica Computer Society Education Foundation/Joint Board of Teacher Education/HEART Trust/NTA

2. Education: Global Teenager Project (GTP) - Jamaica Computer Society Education Foundation/IICD

3.Agriculture: Agricultural-Business Information System (ABIS) - Rural Agricultural Development Agency

4. Agriculture: Central and Satellite Information System (CSAIC) - St. Elizabeth and Manchester, Vegetable Growers Association

5. Music: Caribbeat - Caribbeat Entertainment Limited

The report presents the results of 1) questionnaires among project managers, project staff and end users and 2) a focus group meeting among project managers. It should be recognised that the results are based mainly on responses from project managers and project staff, because most projects are still in the development phase. Therefore the projects do not yet have many end users.

Development impact

In general, the project and assisting partners recognise that there has been much progress since the start of the projects in 1998. They confirm that, although limited, an impact on development is present right from the start of project implementation. As such, this evaluation provides a starting point, as the projects are not at a point where strong indicators of their development impact could be identified. A more general development impact is expected in 2001.

Awareness and empowerment impact: The main impact on the project managers and team members is found in the area of awareness. In addition, an impact on empowerment is found, especially with regard to decision-making.

Economic and socio-cultural impact: As a result of the project, the participants foresee new economic opportunities for their sector. No impact on socio-cultural issues was found.

Catalytic impact: it is recognised that the projects are designed in such a way that they improve or to strengthen existing types of activities in the sector and are as such expected to have a catalytic impact on sector level.

Main recommendations in the area of enhancing the development impact of the Country Programme concern the improvement of the catalytic impact of the programme: There should be more synergy between the projects so that the impact can be experienced beyond partners, to the nation.

In addition, more promotion of projects would assist in enhancing the catalytic impact of the programme. Individual organisations have promotied their projects, both in the print and electronic media. Project partners should continue to plan strategies for promoting their projects and should inform other project partners about their efforts. Project meetings should continue, and should focus on one key issue at each time. Partners should also collaborate to identify points of synergy among the projects and efforts made to promote projects on a sector-by-sector basis as well.

Project managers were encouraged to bring the projects to a stage where their usefulness could be demonstrated to the wider society, and to use available fora such as conferences, seminars, and meetings organised by different groups to do this. Special meetings targeting decision makers or donor agencies were also suggested. Presentations could also be made to high-level groupings such as the relevant parliamentary sub-committees.

Assistance by IICD, NCST and supporting partners

On the basis of the questionnaires and focus group meeting, the following conclusions and recommendations can be made concerning the assistance provided by IICD and partners in the project formulation and implementation phases.

Assistance project formulation: The project managers have found IICD assistance to be satisfactory in the area of project formulation.

Assistance fundraising: There is unwillingness among funding agencies to offer funding to small projects and so project managers are encouraged to demonstrate how the projects can be part of a bigger project. They were also encouraged to solicit funding by getting involved in national programmes that relate to their project. Projects that have already accessed funding are now being affected by the unstable Jamaican dollar and so it is recommended that a request be made for funding to be held in US currency in a separate account. It was suggested that the NCST or the IICD could make a formal representation on behalf of the project partners, to funding agencies and government ministries. The Netherlands Embassy could act as a facilitator in this regard.

Capacity Development: The JCSEF has been identified as the training partner of IICD. Infrastructure is now being put in place to develop a more effective capacity development programme. The training partners in collaboration with the project partners will try to identify the training needs and key persons to be trained. Plans are now being put in place for the hosting of two technical update seminars during the next two quarters on e-commerce and web development.

There will also be collaboration of expertise from Jamaica and abroad to meet highly technical needs. The approach being taken is to train trainers so that the skills could be passed to the workers involved in each project. Project managers indicated that there was great need for various types of training for example in the use of project management software.

Assistance at operational level: It is found that in some project cases, the active search for agreement and understanding at the decision making level of the organisation is an important element of assistance in the project formulation and implementation phase. Without sufficient commitment at decision-making levels it is difficult to ensure effective project implementation.

Project partners also requested that IICD have a stronger presence in Jamaica and that they offer more technical assistance. It was however suggested that Information Technology be used to increase IICD presence. While project partners were encouraged to use the information services of IICD, many persons indicated that they were not aware of the nature and level of services offered.

This is a summary of a longer report prepared by Sonia Gatchair and Claudette Thorpe of NCST in Jamaica. The methodology and approach used are described in an IICD Research Report 5. Request a copy by sending an email to communications@iicd.org or download the full text in word or pdf format.