From Pilots to Large-Scale Programmes

At IICD, Country Programmes are not in themselves a final goal -they are the first stage in embedding and consolidating the use of ICT for Development in a country. Called the “leveraging” phase, once a Country Programme has reached completion – meaning that there is a critical mass of projects, capacity and knowledge for implementing new ICT for Development activities – IICD takes on the role of adviser and broker in the further expansion of ICT within the same sector.

Taking their experience and the input of their partners, IICD’s “leveraging” phase looks to help governments, donors and NGOs implement large-scale ICT for Development projects and programmes. Working with governments, donors and NGOs their aim is to develop and implement national or sector strategies and policies, while at the same time embarking on new projects and programmes in new countries, in close cooperation with partners.

The Uganda Country Programme has recently embarked on this ‘final’ phase, and Logon4D spoke to the Programme Manager, Marc Lepage, to find out a little more about what leveraging means, beyond the theory.

Logon4D: Hi Marc, could you tell us briefly about the Uganda country programme?

Marc: The Uganda Country program covers all of IICD’s key sectors: Health, Livelihoods, Governance and Education. It was initiated a number of years ago now and, as a result, it has gone through many changes. Some projects that were originally implemented with support from IICD, have since gone on as activities as part of the partner organisation. In other cases, projects have stopped altogether due to a lack of support (be it financial or otherwise). Some projects have morphed from the original project into something much bigger. In this case, while it may be difficult to recognise the initial IICD design, the concepts have been adopted by the partner organisation for something else, as demand adapted and evolved with the project.

Logon4D: How has the programme aligned itself with the overarching developmental goals of Uganda as a whole?

Marc: From the very beginning, the Uganda Country Programme was clearly pegged to the Ugandan national development strategy – called the PEAP: Poverty Eradication Action Plan. The entity in charge of the PEAP, the National Planning Authority (NPA), was one of the earliest IICD partner in Uganda. IICD has worked with and supported the NPA towards achieving a national ICT strategy. This has resulted in the creation of a Ministry of ICT. The NPA is committed to this end and is still working to achieve tight integration of ICT within the PEAP. This is especially apparent with its next version, which is due by June 2009.

Logon4D: The Country Programme has entered what IICD calls the “leveraging phase. In practise, for the Uganda programme, what does this mean?

Marc: There are 3 steps to the leveraging phase in Uganda: ensuring projects can be leveraged; seeking partners to do the leveraging; and then, finally, supporting the leveraging activities themselves.

The first aspect requires organisational support including preparing plans and furthering the embedding of projects.

The second phase involves developing partnerships with like-minded organisations, as well as donors, including larger ones like the EU, World Bank and USAID. Many donors now work in direct budget support, so this means that we look to meet with the Government entities that would be the recipient of large development funds to convince them of the value of the pilot projects we have set up – sometimes directly with them, sometimes with other entities.

The third phase is the actual leveraging process. At this point, we will focus on one (sometimes two) of the aspects of IICD’s work: M&E, Capacity Building, Advisory role – but not all. Most of the actual work in leveraging is done by partners, while IICD plays a role akin to a drop of oil in an engine: ensuring it runs smoothly.

Logon4D: What does that mean in practice?

Marc: What that means is that IICD’s role in the leveraging phase is to ensure that lessons learned during the pilot phase are harnessed and that scaling up to reach a larger group of beneficiaries is conducted in a sustainable, as well as efficient, way. In more concrete terms, this can mean supporting large entities to prepare their stakeholders for a new ICT enabled way of working. It can also mean putting in place Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tools and processes to ensure the larger project reflects the needs of the beneficiaries. Or, it can mean designing training courses that will provide project staff the skills necessary to roll out large projects.

Logon4D: Policies climates change, and this is true of National Government as much as it is of the larger donors you mention, such as the World Bank, IMF, etc. How does this affect the over-arching strategic goals of IICD in Uganda? For example, do the projects implemented generally still reflect the policy goals of various ministries in Uganda? Or indeed, do you see organisations like IICD informing these policy changes?

Marc: That’s difficult to say. However, because our approach is as demand driven as it can be (well, very demand driven), because we work with partners (vs. field office) who have their ear on the ground, because we do mostly grassroots work and finally because we’re good (!) - our work is always relevant. The way our projects are implemented - particularly with the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) element – means that our projects evolve in response to the evolving needs of the partner and ultimately, the end-users and beneficiaries. Furthermore, the i-network provides a forum through which to lobby the ministries and decision-makers - and this is largely based on the learning and experiences that are drawn out of the projects. Suffice to say, that all things being equal, through i-network, the projects provide examples that can inform future policy.

Logon4D: What do you see as being the main challenges in making the ‘final’ phase of the programme work?

Marc: The challenges are mostly in ensuring that projects have as many ‘leveragable’ attributes as possible. What this means is that we are looking for projects that have strong potential for a broader roll out (concept is applicable beyond the locality of the pilot phase), projects that have a good project team (able to scale up or able to support other to scale up), projects that are well documented and projects that serve needs that are seen as a priority for the national development of the country. Ideally, we want all these attributes (and a few more like availability of funds, good infrastructure, etc…) to be present.

Setting up a pilot project is quite different from a large scale project. Then there are the partnerships with donors. You have to know what they are trying to achieve, what interests them and of equal importance: how to talk in the same terms and how to network with them. This is all very important, and of course, very time-consuming.

Because of our approach of not having a permanent country presence - which is truly valuable when it comes to programme implementation – IICD itself doesn’t have a “competitive edge” compared to more “locally established” entities. However, this is where the role of the ICT4D network takes on a whole new dimension, but this is still mostly in an indirect way. The network is not a fundraising operation, and tilting them toward this is quite a distraction from their core role of knowledge-sharing hub.

Logon4D: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Marc.