On education and training appropriate information technology for developing societies

A research paper on education curriculum for appropriate Information Technologies (ICT's) for developing countries.While information technology' (IT) potentially holds promise in the technological advancement of developing countries, it is a revolution whose diffusion needs to be assessed. With the advent of IT in developing societies, education and training should play a significant role in IT policy dissemination and initiatives. Education and training towards appropriate IT remains crucial for the viability of a developing nation or region. Such viability is based on the effective use of material resources for public and private infrastructure. This paper focuses on the applicability of IT in developing countries. It presents some issues of appropriateness that need to be considered in formulating IT policies. It identifies education and training as crucial means of harnessing the potential of the emerging IT in developing societies

Global Diffusion of the Internet XII: The Internet Growth in Africa: Some Empirical Results

This study identifies the significant factors affecting Internet growth levels at an early stage of growth in African nations. The average growth levels of Internet users for 1995 and 2003 are calculated and the associations between Internet growth level and several types of factors such as econ¬omic, educational, institutional, infrastructural, innovation-related, and environmental factors are examined. Human development, higher education, technology availability, and computer growth levels explain more than 84 percent of the variance in African Internet growth levels. When compared to non-African nations, Africa lacks the influence of institutional variables. Compared with a set of economically similar developing nations (bas¬ed on similar GDP per capita and income inequality levels), Africa has different Internet growth levels, even though the number of Internet hosts per 1,000 and delays in starting Internet diffusion are similar. These differences are probably due to lack of education, human development, infrastructural and environmental variables

Health informatics in developing countries: An analysis and two African case studies.

This thesis relates informatics to the problems of health and medicine experienced in less developed countries. It evaluates the potential of health informatics and investigates the issues that constrain successful implementations. This serves as a basis for establishing a generic description of viable computer applications in the developing world. The thesis contains two case studies from sub-Saharan Africa. The first, undertaken in The Gambia, is based on a computer-assisted data collection system used in a longitudinal child health survey. The second, undertaken in Kenya, relates to a medical decision-aid system used in an out-patient clinic of a district hospital. In each case, an outline is given of the background to the application domain, and an analysis is made of some comparable prior systems that have been developed and evaluated. The two case studies provide interesting investigatory comparisons since both systems are used by health personnel with little computer experience, and exploit some state-of-the-art technologies despite the identified constraints that exist in developing countries. The context, system design, methods, and results of each case are described. A generalised evaluation approach is proposed and is used to summarise the case study findings. The evaluation framework employed includes components related to functional and human perspectives as well as the anticipated benefits to the health care system. The thesis concludes by suggesting some guidelines for the design and evaluation of future health information systems

Reflexões sobre a adopção de tecnologias e sistemas de informação por instituições da administração pública em Moçambique

Fazer uma reflexão sobre a adopção e uso de tecnologias de informação por instituições da administração pública em Moçambique foi a razão deste trabalho. A procura de uma solução de como fazer esta reflexão constituiu a finalidade deste projecto. Para a sua efectivação foram estudados modelos que permitissem a investigação do estado da tecnologia numa instituição e feitas pesquisas de como outros países fazem uso da tecnologia, para quê e que tecnologia. As pesquisas incidiram essencialmente sobre países em vias de desenvolvimento, por Moçambique ser um deles, e, porque transferência tecnológica entre países similares pode ser mais efectiva do que de países desenvolvidos para países em vias de desenvolvimento. De entre os modelos estudados foi escolhido o modelo para avaliação da maturidade do alinhamento estratégico negócio-TI, devido à sua actualidade e por permitir investigar problemas e oportunidades de melhoria nas instituições. O modelo é constituído por seis critérios, cada um com um número variável de atributos que os qualificam em cinco níveis de maturidade consoante as caraterísticas que possuem. O modelo foi validado no Ministério da Administração Estatal, em Maputo, Moçambique, por ser o órgão central do governo. Esta validação teve por finalidade verificar a utilidade e aplicabilidade do modelo neste tipo de instituições e num país em vias de desenvolvimento. O estudo consistiu em fazer entrevistas para se responder a um questionário que reproduzia os critérios e seus atributos, com as respectivas características. Foram inquiridos 13 funcionários, sendo 10 directores e chefes de departamento e 3 chefe e gestores de informática. A investigação permitiu concluir que o modelo pode ser usado para estudo de instituições públicas de países em vias de desenvolvimento e perceber os problemas existentes e as oportunidades de melhoria. Este modelo pode constituir uma ferramenta de auto avaliação para gestores do negócio e de informática.To think about the adoption and use of information technology by public administration, at Mozambique, was the reason of this work. The demand of the solution on how to solve this thinking was the principal objective. To carry out this, models that allow investigate the status oh technology at institutions, was studied, and investigation on how others countries use technology, to do what and what technology. This investigation did occur, essentially, at developing countries, because Mozambique is one, and because technology transfer among similar countries could be more effective than from developed countries to developing countries. Among the studied models, it was selected one to assess the business-IT alignment maturity, because it allows knowing the problems and identifying opportunities for enhancing the harmonious relationship of business and IT. The model has five levels of maturity, each one focused on six criteria, characterized by attributes. The model was validated at Ministry of Public Administration, at Mozambique, a central minister. The end of this validation was to verify theutility and applicability of the model at this kind of institution and in developing countries. The study did consist in doing interviews to respond one questionnaire. It was interviewed 13workers, being 10 directors and department’s chief and 3 from informatic department. The study allowed to conclude that the model can be used to study public institution at developing countries and to know the existing problems and the opportunities to do well, the actions to pass the problems. This model could be a tool to auto evaluation for business and IT management

Introducing a complex health information system in a developing country : Case: The Gambia

The District Health Information System, version 2 (DHIS 2) is a complex health information system for collecting, analyzing and reporting health related data. DHIS 2 is free and open source and is implemented in many developing countries, such as Sierra Leone, Zanzibar, India and Vietnam. The Gambia implemented DHIS 2 autumn 2009/spring 2010 and is the case I’ve used for my research. It was the decided that DHIS 2 should be the official reporting tool for health data from January 2010. I had two field trips to the country during the spring 2010 and helped the Ministry of health in the implementation process. The research goal of this thesis is to explore how a complex health information system can successfully be implemented, maintained and used in a context with poor ICT knowledge. In this thesis I show that conception-reality gaps when implementing a health information system play a vital role. Extensive training of health workers and computer technicians is also important to secure sustainability of the system. I also show that data quality has been significantly increased after the implementation of DHIS 2 and that quality can be further increased. DHIS 2 has proved more user-friendly than previous reporting tools and thus contributed to ease the data entry task

Organisational politics and information systems implementation: the case of the Indian public administration.

Today, many developing countries are embarking on ambitious programmes to develop large computer-based information systems within their public administration to promote socio-economic development. However, the overall objectives of these investments remain unfulfilled. Success and failures of information systems are largely determined by the performance of organizational members associated with the development and use of information systems. Performance of these members is primarily determined by individual competencies and the environment in which the activities of these members are taking place. Information systems related education and training to create competent individuals has always been a matter of great concern to almost all developing countries. However, public administration in developing countries is an intensely political affair. Organizational politics very often give birth to a number of macro and micro environmental conditions, which constrain certain courses of action of competent individuals. Therefore, individuals, however competent, cannot perform to the best of their abilities. This invariably results in information systems that are ineffective and inefficient. Systematic empirical studies that can increase our understanding of this domain are virtually non-existent. The current research aims to rectify this issue. The research methodology adopted for the current research assumes that organizational members, when involved in a particular activity in a particular context, interpret the situation, and act accordingly. Researchers, by immersing themselves in the members' world can understand their actions. Focusing on two cases within the public administration of India and adopting a hermeneutic approach, the study interprets the actions of different organizational members associated with the implementation of information systems. By relating the performance of these members to the strengths and weaknesses of the information systems, the study makes broad recommendations. Findings of the study reveal that Indian policy makers and implementers have always given significant consideration to information systems related education and training. However, on the other hand, the very factors that India has been trying to address through successive administrative reforms since national independence happen to be the same factors that constrain the performance of competent individuals

A model and prototype for a community-related information retrieval system for public libraries in Brazil

This research was aimed towards the planning, design and evaluation of an experimental prototype for the systematic organisation, access and retrieval of community information and local studies, henceforth defined jointly as community-related information, for public libraries in Brazil. Community-related information services were identified as areas of modern public librarianship still to be developed in that country. To raise relevant theoretical issues that could be discussed in practice, applied prototyping was chosen as the core methodology for this project. The model proposed was built upon a software especially designed by Unesco for library applications available in Brazil called CDS/ISIS - Computerised Documentation System/Integrated Set of Information Systems. The resulting Automated Library and Community-Related Information System (ALTS) was designed based on a theoretical framework which suggested 1) information repackaging of community-related information concerns represented as A-Z listings with corresponding definitions aimed at encouraging public librarians to create their own community-related information systems; 2) a reference function implicit in the self-defining element of information repackaging and by referring the user to wider library resources to complement a community-related information query, thus encouraging the use of wider library resources, and 3) a referral function to direct users to resources external to the library capable of helping him/her with a community-related information concern and to encourage the inhouse creation of local resources files. This conceptual and practical framework was aimed at encouraging indigenous resources-building and a degree of autonomy for Brazilian public libraries to define and create their own community-related information systems based on their perceptions of community needs. ALTS prototype was made of six menu-driven modules or databases (CITYOR, AZHEAL, AZJOBS, AZLAW, LOCAL and LIBRY), related to one another in content and structure, accessed by a top menu via one-key options. Prototype specifications, database maps, data entry, master file maintenance, information retrieval services and user interfaces were described and illustrated with examples. System evaluation was carried out in Brazil in two selected public libraries which agreed to participate in the evaluation exercise. Evaluation consisted of individual interviews on perception of concepts, self-administered questionnaires on system use and implementation and data collection of real users' queries in Brazil to check whether ALTS could respond to present community-related information needs. Finally, the prototype was reviewed and discussed in the light of trends and developments for community-related information supply worldwide, validity of applied prototyping as the core methodology for this project and the setup of a national infrastructure for community-related information supply based on this research findings. Conclusions and recommendations were also drawn to encourage the development of community-related information activities in Brazil and further implementation of CDS/ISIS