Framework For The Assessment Of ICT Pilot Projects Beyond Monitoring and Evaluation To Applied Research
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Type of work: Handbook/Primer/Guide
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ICT4DAbstract:
This handbook, commissioned by infoDev and prepared by a team at GAMOS, reviews the experience of infoDev and others in supporting ICT pilot projects in developing countries, and proposes a framework for assessing the effectiveness of these pilot projects. It provides guidance not only on how to design effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) components of ICT pilot projects, but also on how to go "beyond" traditional M&E to develop more forward-looking evidence of the potential broader impact of such pilot projects if taken to a larger scale. In this way, it provides policy makers, donors and other key stakeholders with tools for assessing when, and under what conditions, seemingly successful ICT pilot projects are likely to prove effective and sustainable once taken beyond the pilot stage.
In the past few years, ICT for development initiatives have proliferated and the resources devoted to ICT in development portfolios have expanded in the hope that ICt can help developing countries reach the Millennium Development Goals. Yet rigorous, field-tested knowledge about what works and why in ICT for development, and a deeper understanding of the enabling conditions and success factors in ICT for development initiatives, have been relatively scarce.
As a result, there is a growing consensus in the development community that ICT will only become an effective and mainstream tool of poverty reduction and sustainable development if the proponents of ICT for development can provide more rigorous evidence, strategies, benchmarks, indicators, and good practices that are directly relevant to the core poverty-reduction and development priorities of developing countries and their international partners.
This publication is designed to contribute to this goal by providing a framework for the monitoring and evaluation of ICT pilot projects. Our hope is that this framework will help all stakeholders in ICT pilot projects to gather rigorous evidence we all need to make forward looking judgements and decisions about ICT for development projects.
