Advancing knowledge sharing in development organisations: barriers, enablers and strategies

This paper aims to examine the obstacles and enablers of knowledge sharing in development organisations and determine how each factor affects knowledge sharing in different organisations. It also highlights strategies for successful deployment of knowledge sharing techniques. The paper opted for a mixed-method approach with a sequential explanatory design. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires administered to development practitioners (n=331) and in-depth interviews with key informants (n=11). The paper provides empirical insights on different knowledge sharing barriers and enablers encountered in development organisations. Overall, eight categories of knowledge sharing enablers emerged from the study. These include culture, strategy, reward system, trust, strong social capital, motivating staff, inspirational leadership and training opportunities. The most significant individual challenges included: lack of time to share knowledge, low awareness of the value of sharing knowledge, and cultural differences. Organisational barriers included: poor integration of knowledge sharing, poor organisational leadership, and failure to recognise knowledge-sharing initiatives. The most significant technical obstacles included: lack of integration of ICTs, lack of technical support, and mismatch between individuals’ needs and ICTs. The most significant strategies included getting support from top management, fostering a knowledge sharing culture and developing knowledge sharing policies. Best practices for using ICTs to enhance knowledge sharing included collaboration, providing quality information, management support, using the latest technology and engaging subject matter experts. This research is valuable in identifying the knowledge sharing barriers and influencers unique to development organisations. By examining and discussing specific facilitators and hindrances encountered by development organisations, this paper contributes to the growing body of literature in knowledge sharing for developmen

Digital Transformation in Government: A Bibliometric Scoping of African Aspirations and the Realities

African countries have persistently ranked poorly in the United Nations E-Government Development index (EGDI). This study therefore sought to make sense of the nature and form of digital transformation (DX) in African governments. It used a bibliometric analysis and a critical realist lens to explore some of the underlying structures and generative mechanisms that influence DX. The key findings from 606 scholarly publications over the three decades of DX research reveals marked sharp contrasts, with South Africa dominating the research on DX, an underrepresentation of DX research from most African nations, and some influence from non-African nations, particularly the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands. These realities reflect deeper underlying structures including economic power dynamics, infrastructural disparities, and potential neocolonial influences. Challenges such as digital literacy, data sovereignty concerns, and the absence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the discourse highlight tangible obstacles. Despite these complexities, DX\u27s primary objective, improving lives and delivering efficient government services, remains integral to its potential success. The study underscores the need for a nuanced understanding of DX\u27s multi-faceted nature in Africa, advocating for future research to explore economic power dynamics, capture underrepresented experiences, address digital literacy, and integrate AI into the DX discourse

Unleashing Africa's Entrepreneurs: Improving the Enabling Environment for Start-Ups

The research and policy arm of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the Africapitalism Institute, released a groundbreaking study on Africa's entrepreneurial ecosystem at the sixth Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kenya where President Obama gave the keynote address.The 86-page report, titled Unleashing Africa's Entrepreneurs, based on original research leveraging the Foundation's pan-African network of early stage African businesses, identifies and analyses the factors inhibiting the potential of entrepreneurs across Africa.Key findings from the report include:87 percent of respondents indicated that obtaining the necessary seed capital was their primary challenge. Only 3 percent of those surveyed had a commercial bank loan, while 69 percent used personal savings to finance their business.53 percent of entrepreneurs indicated that it was "not at all easy" to obtain the necessary machinery, equipment, technology or raw material needed to operate, citing the high cost of land and office space as the primary cost concern. The second most costly operating expense is electric power.63 percent of respondents said that government needs to "improve the general quality of infrastructure" as a key to reducing overall costs which are hurting their competitiveness.82 percent of entrepreneurs said that access to a business start-up accelerator or resource center was "very important" to their business, while 66 percent indicated that they are currently part of a business incubator or accelerator

University students as digital migrants

This is a copy of the published version of an article published by the University of Alberta Libraries in Language and Literacy, 14(2): 41-61. Available on: http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/langandlit/article/view/18003/14221.South African university students are on the frontline of a global world. Whether they are attending university in the rural Eastern Cape or urban Johannesburg, the social practice of using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has enabled virtual global mobility. The internet has opened up an opportunity for them to easily cross beyond the borders of South Africa and become part of an experience in another part of the world while the cellphone has facilitated this mobility anytime any place. This paper focuses on the students who are migrants into this digital world through analysis of their technology discourses and the role this has in how they engage with and within this digital environment. Using Gee's notion of big 'D' and little 'd' D(d)iscourses (1996), I have examined the meanings held by students in relation to technology. This analysis of language provides insights into students' educational and social identities and the position of globalisation and the information society in both facilitating and constraining their participation and future opportunities

E-Government in South Africa: A Perspective on Initiatives, Readiness and Developmental Issues.

Public Administratio

Telecentre functionality in South Africa: re-enabling the community ICT access environment

Despite the availability and capabilities of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in low and middle-income countries, the use of these constantly evolving tools remains limited for the majority of resource-poor citizens. This is especially the case for internet-based tools. In South Africa, an upper middle-income country, the percentage of the population categorised as individual 'internet users' increased from 5.4 percent in 2000 to just 18.0 percent in 2010 (ITU, 2011). In order to overcome these low percentages, government intervention is frequently adopted, especially in rural areas, where it is not profitable for telecommunication operators to build infrastructure as a means to promote the uptake of internet use in poorer communities (USAASA, 2009: 47). In South Africa and elsewhere, government sponsored telecentres are a common non-profit mode of delivery, however there is much evidence of recurring problems (Gomez et al., 2012). Telecentres have many structural components (human, political and technical) which need to support each other in order to create a functional telecentre (Benjamin, 2001a; Heeks, 2002; Proenza, 2002). The failure of one or more of these components, as detailed by Roman & Colle (2002), Hulbert & Snyman (2007), and Parkinson (2005) can render telecentres non-functional. Such failures continue to plague the delivery of Public Access Computing (PAC) services in South Africa and elsewhere; and in the light of the growth of smartphones, it could be argued that telecentres are not a meaningful mode through which internet access can be delivered (Chigona et al., 2011; Gomez et al., 2012). However, ICT4D has lacked a robust theoretical base (Flor, 2012; Urquhart et al., 2008) and the literature has been dominated by a rather 'structuralist' and supply-side approach with less attention to individual agency and the demand-side. By considering how elements of agency and structure combine in relation to ICTs, the Choice Framework (CF) developed by Kleine (2010) is a step forward. This approach facilitates the analyses of people's varied ability to empower themselves and improve their quality of life (QoL). Using this Framework, this article analyses the operational experiences of telecentre provision of computer and internet access, alongside user experiences that reveal how telecentre and other structural issues interact with the characteristics of users and their various sets of resources. Based on this analysis, we suggest that PACs should remain a part of the ICT debate, although we question the business model that has come to dominate their operation.International Bibliography of Social Science

YALJOD Full Issue 4.1

The Young African Leaders Journal of Development (YALJOD) is a biennial journal and an official publication of the Young African Leaders Forum (YALF). It was established in 2015 to host scholarly analysis and competing viewpoints about the development of Africa; and it’s multidisciplinary approach makes it more formidable. YALJOD accepts papers from varied disciplinary areas — including Social Sciences, Physical Sciences and Humanities — that show direct relevance to the development of Africa. It publishes researches understood as the social, economic, political, cultural and technological processes of change in Africa. The intended audience of the journal remains the entire African people. Howbeit, for effectiveness, special emphasis is given to African leadership operators, development academics, researchers and youths — who appear to be the next African leaders

Gender and the information revolution in Africa

French version available in IDRC Digital Library: Inégalité des sexes et la révolution de l'information en Afriqu