Country Programmes serve to help local partners implement and develop their own ICT-enabled development projects and policies within key development sectors.

IICD is currently implementing nine Country Programmes, in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Ghana, Jamaica, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. They focus on the sectors education, environment, governance, health and (agricultural) livelihoods.

Each Country Programme incorporates several components, including the development of networks, policies, and projects, alongside capacity building, knowledge sharing and monitoring & evaluation activities

IICD Country Programmes are long-term investments covering a 5-7 year period. However, the nature and intensity of IICD's support changes over time as local partners become more self-reliant.

Country Programme activities

The starting point in a Country Programme is to identify – and work with – a small network of committed local organisations. In each country IICD focuses on two or more of the key development sectors where it brings together stakeholders and helps them to formulate and execute ICT-enabled development projects and policies.

Within the framework of a Country Programme, IICD assists local partners to use ICT on their own terms. Below is a summary of the main types of support provided and activities carried out within a Country Programme.

Roundtable workshops

A Roundtable workshop is often one of the first joint activities to be developed, and forms part of the Roundtable process. National and sector Roundtable workshops are facilitated in each focal country. These workshops enable local stakeholders - public, private and non-profit - to analyse the potential of ICT in development and set priorities for future actions. Consequently, after each workshop, project partners formulate policy plans and project proposals.

Projects

Each Country Programme has a project portfolio, developed in cooperation with IICD’s local and enabling partners. The projects help local partners to understand and successfully apply ICT in their own setting. Projects also inspire other organisations to follow suit and develop their own ICT projects and activities, multiplying the positive effects of the original project.

National ICT for Development Policies

In a mature Country Programme we provide support to partners and National ICT for Development Networks that better enable them to provide input into policy processes in their country.

Capacity development

Capacity development plays a key role in Country Programmes and cuts across all activities. The primary vehicle for this is a series of collaboration agreements with national training partners. Two levels of capacity development are addressed: individual capacities and organisational capacities.

Capacity development contributes greatly to the process of integrating projects and programmes within existing institutes, to ensure their long-term sustainability, and where appropriate feeding into policy processes, and national ICT policies. You can find out more about how these capacities are addressed on the capacity development pages.

Knowledge and skills sharing

Knowledge sharing, through National ICT for Development Networks (formerly referred to as Information Exchange Networks), plays a role in ensuring that lessons learned are widely shared for the benefit of both IICD’s partners and the wider ICT for Development (ICT4D) community. This includes helping to empower local organisations to become involved in the policymaking process. You can read more about this approach, and the current activities, on the knowledge sharing page.

National ICT for Development Networks

In each focus country, IICD strengthens local partners by facilitating information networks. Where appropriate, IICD creates formal National ICT for Development (ICT4D)Networks. Currently, members of the networks are all IICD partners. Once established, the network's role is to determine priorities, share responsibilities and tasks, act as a platform for the exchange of ideas among participants, seek areas of collaboration, mobilise resources, and monitor planned results.

Monitoring and Evaluation

To ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the Country Programmes, it is essential that IICD's activities are evaluated, and that all partners learn from such experiences. Once monitoring and evaluation activities are initiated within a country, the feedback they generate provides valuable information for both existing and future projects. This approach strengthens local institutional capacities, enabling them to manage their own ICT for Development (ICT4D) programmes.

Partnerships

While striving for knowledge to become accessible to everybody, partnerships between public, private and non-profit organisations are critical. Collaboration with each of these sectors adds value to the work of IICD and its local partners in many ways.

Country Programmes in practice

IICD’s work is defined by a set of guiding principles that influence all our activities. These are: capacity development, multi-stakeholder involvement, partnerships, local ownership, demand-driven, learning by doing, and gender equality. Even though they are automatically applied at all levels within IICD, they are continually re-evaluated and reviewed to ensure their relevance to development cooperation.

Evolution of a Country Programme

To achieve locally owned ICT for Development (ICT4D) programmes and policies, IICD takes a systematic approach whereby each Country Programme passes through four pre-defined phases: initiation, expansion, consolidation and shared dialogue.

The initiation phase consists of setting up projects and establishing a capacity development programme, a knowledge sharing network and an independent monitoring and evaluation process. A Roundtable workshop usually acts as the starting point for a Country Programme, during which participants are encouraged to formulate project ideas for one priority sector.

In the expansion phase, this process is repeated, and additional Roundtable workshops help to formulate projects for other priority sectors. With sufficient projects in implementation, a Country Programme advances to the consolidation phase.

In the consolidation phase the emphasis is no longer on creating new projects but on embedding existing projects in institutions and sectors and harvesting the lessons learned.

The final phase – shared dialogue – marks the end of IICD project funding. IICD does, however, continue to provide support for the national ICT for Development network, whose role is to independently carry out advocacy, advisory, and networking activities, and to influence policy processes.

By the end of 2006 Bolivia, Tanzania and Uganda have moved into the shared dialogue phase, like Jamaica, meaning that the local partners had taken full ownership of the programme, gradually relinquishing the support they received from IICD. The other Country Programmes are still in the consolidation phase.