Government vs Civil Society Organisation/ Private Sector supported telecentres/ networks

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Permalink Reply by Niranjan Meegammana on September 26, 2009 at 1:31pm

Dear Shipra
Thease three questions, each has different mix of answers based on Telecenter Network and country. In Sri Lanka, we have 587+ Government setup TCs and few setup by private and Non profits, (here I do not count cyber cafe's and school labs)
The role of the government (ICTA) is to setup and assist with conectivity and invest in capacity building, promotion and other improvements. Although government do not own Telecenter, the equipment and connectivity are under government partronage. Government has contracted private & non profits to procure equipment, train operators, M & E and capacity building.

At the same time Shilpa Sayura like initiatives funded by governement (ICTA e-SDI) operate as partnerships developing Telecenters and rural communities. There are other non profit initiatives like Telecenter Family. There are other initita

Therefore in Sri Lanka, we have a blended senario where government has taken the leading role, which I see as a great strength as it provides the linkages and a common platform. The involvement on private sector in partnership/contract brings in innovations and efficiency in operations.

Given above senario I can try to answer three of your questions

a) Are these initiatives compatible or essentially different from each other in their respective countries?
Quite not compatible, and different in each country on implementation model

b) How they rate these models, i.e., which one is better from community development point of view?

Government leadership has positive outcomes in community acceptance, but creates false hope on sustainability and sometimes beaurocracy hinder development. Yet government lead models can integrate into state development programs and build TC networks which is essaintail for sustainability.

c) Which sector is best positioned to implement telecentre initiatives in terms of resources, content, capacity building, partnership, networking?
I think government is better equipped with finances and networking due to governement's high position and acceptance. My Sri Lankan experiences show that private sector is stonger in content and capacity building due to their freedom of operations.

Conclusion
Government and Private Sector partnered models would do better

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Permalink Reply by Shipra Sharma on September 30, 2009 at 1:28am

Thanks Niranjan for sharing your views on this subject. More or less, the same is true in India as well. As far as my experience goes, the private sector telecentre initiatives have a stronger profit making orientation than the government or CSO ones. This is partly because, in the previous case, the profit making values are transferred and there is little or no handholding offered by the organisations. On the other hand, the latter initiatives get a lot of support from donors as well as the government itself.
It would be interesting to understand the Latin American and African experiences in this regard!

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Permalink Reply by Sandra Nassali on September 30, 2009 at 4:21am

As we all know, freedom is conducive to creativity (development). Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are less bound by rules, traditions, interests, and procedures than governments and private businesses. Therefore, they can more easily engage in social ventures, untested enterprises, and projects involving considerable risks. A great deal of freedom derives from the fact that the majority of Civil Society Organizations are, by their very nature, single-issue organisations, which enables them to concentrate their resources on that single issue without much compromise and without trade-offs. Governments must balance among competing interests. They must be ready to compromise and make trade-offs all the time, if for example they want to be reelected or they want to pass certain policies.

Since Civil Society Organizations are often driven by issues the public considers to be worthy causes, they generally enjoy a good reputation and trust among the public. In many cases, their independence from business interests and government influence gives them high standing in terms of un-compromised moral and professional authority. Impartial information on controversial issues, from human rights violations to corruption, is more likely to be expected from an independent CSOs than from a government agency or a business corporation. The latter might have other interests. In their monitoring and watchdog role, CSOs have a comparative advantage because of their professional and moral authority.

Especially in the development industry,the grassroots experience of CSOs can be very valuable partners for government agencies and businesses. They can provide vital linkages between local communities and funding agencies because both partners trust them. CSOs also can provide development and aid agencies with vital feedback about what works on the ground and what does not.

Therefore, since telecentres go beyond the issue of connectivity as they provide an opportunity for accessing and using appropriate digital technologies to solve problems and to promote human development; for instance by supporting the community's economic, educational, and social development so as to bridge the digital divide, promote health issues and create economic opportunities, they can perform best if they are managed by CSOs because there objectives and visions for the grassroots/ communities are mutual.

Their main focus is not installing equipment and connections, but rather organising a community so that it can resolve its specific problems, which may vary from one setting to the next.

Other profit motivated ICT access points (Private sector supported telecentres) frequently offer basic training on how to use e-mail, how to surf the web or how to chat so that their customers keep coming back so as to enable them make more profits.

And when it comes to government supported telecentres, management and impact is most likely to get tricky as govts tend to use these public information access points to promote their interests rather than those of the community. This is actually one of the major problems being faced by government supported telecentres in Africa.

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Permalink Reply by Shipra Sharma on October 1, 2009 at 12:18am

Dear Sandra,
Thanks for your wonderful thoughts on this subject. I fully agree with you that the CSOs have strong commitment towards community empowerment and development and this is evident in the projects that they undertake including telecentres. But a lot of them face problems in financially sustaining their telecentres. They also have to depend upon donors for funds to implement such projects. Sometimes, they have to compromise in order to tailor their telecentre projects according to donor requirements or to suit their program objectives.
On the other hand, the private sector and government are better placed in this respect. Funds are not a problem with them. Moreover, in countries like India, eGovernance is growing very fast and the governmnet had to step in to establish telecentres at a very large scale to deliver these services. It was beyond the capacity of the CSOs and the private sector to do it on such a massive sacle.
Regarding your last comment, "when it comes to government supported telecentres, management and impact is most likely to get tricky as govts tend to use these public information access points to promote their interests rather than those of the community," I wonder if the form of government (like, democratic) has something to do with it. In my opinion, a government elected by the people will always like to protect their interests in order to come back in power the next time. No matter, how corrupt they are, they can't override public interest absolutely. Moreover, eGovernance, as seen in India, is a step towards corruption free governance as well. Therefore, it is also resented by many in the bureaucracy!

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Permalink Reply by homeless worldcup-association on October 1, 2009 at 6:01am

Thanks very much even here in zambia have problem were government is against the NGO were the come up with NGO Bill.
So us small NGO and get funds through donation suffers.
Update

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Permalink Reply by homeless worldcup-association on October 1, 2009 at 6:15am

Thanks very much for joing the group will be in touch to share the knowlege.
Were have problem here same government vs Ngo.

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Permalink Reply by Shipra Sharma on October 5, 2009 at 6:27am

Thanks for your comments. I agree that NGOs face a lot of problems in finding donors and when they find one there are a lot of obstacles in getting the clearance from the government.

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