gopalakrishna

SUSTAINABILITY

Can we build a picture of good ICT sustainability from the theories and lessons learned used in other development sectors?
Definitions of sustainability

There is considerable debate over the term sustainability. According to Pretty 1998 writing in relation to sustainable agriculture ‘Sustainability is a complex and contested concept, to many it implies persistence and the capacity of something to continue for a long time’. It is also ‘ a property which arises out of the interactions among stakeholders, sustainability is negotiated.’ The notion of negotiating sustainability is useful as it addresses the ‘short term’ or ‘lack of need for’ sustainability. For example the lifetime of a project, the span of a series of TV programmes which might have been agreed by all parties. In an ICT expert discussion (Imfundo April 2002), sustainability was defined (for the purpose of the discussion) as: ‘Investments which continue to produce a return’. “Return” was defined in its broadest sense (i.e. beyond financial and including educational, social, etc.). In this definition an activity could be sustainable if it produces a return which is not necessarily financial.

The sustainable livelihoods framework (Ashley and Carney 1999) developed and used in slightly different forms by a number of agencies has as its focus four capital assets: financial, human. social and physical between which a balance has to be sought. Within this framework it is considered that sustainable systems – whether livelihoods, communities or national economies – accumulate stocks of assets; they increase the capital base over time. Unsustainable systems deplete or run down capital, spending assets as if they were income, and so leaving less for future generations. The approach differentiates between different kinds of sustainability which are useful in relation to ICTs:

• Economic sustainability; achieved when a given level of expenditure can be maintained over time.

• Social sustainability; achieved when social exclusion is minimised and social equity maximised.

• Institutional sustainability; achieved when prevailing structures and processes have the capacity to continue to perform their functions over the long term. For institutional sustainability to be achieved it is important to have in place:

• well-defined laws

• participatory policy-making processes

• effective public and private sector organisations that create a framework within which the livelihoods of the poor can be continuously improved.


Sustainability and ICTs

In bringing together these definitions and approaches for looking at the sustainability of ICTs it is important, as with all approaches to sustainability, to clarify what is being sustained, for how long, for whose benefit and at whose cost, over what area, and measured by what criteria (Roling and Jiggins 1998). Consideration of these issues formed the core premise underlying the research, for selecting the case studies and making decisions on what research questions to ask.

We considered that ICT involvement with long term development goals could not be achieved without the following capital assets:-

• Financial capital –mechanisms for (re)covering costs and replacing equipment (two separate issues)

• Physical capital – obviously the technology is one of the keys, choice of technology may well be important. As will be the infrastuctures which enable the technologies to operate.

• Social capital – social and institutional arrangements that will keep the ICT being used for its intended developmental benefit.

Issues which need special attention here include access and control. These are still critical issues, who controls what information comes in and what goes out, who controls content and how it is presented, how is that control exercised, what feedback mechanisms are in place etc. Where does information come from, is it in an immediately usable form, does it need rewriting, translating...? This will affect sustainability and needs to be investigated. (INTERMEDIA Special Report December 1997/Volume 25, No 6)

• Human capital – human resource training and skill development that not only keeps the ICT running but can plan future changes to the resources.

This is an area which needs careful consideration in relation to sustainability. Research (Norrish et al 2000, Norrish 2001) on communication strategies and dissemination has shown that the capacity and reach of GO and NGO intermediaries is a critical factor in uptake and impact of research outputs, this is directly linked to the information dissemination and support which they are able to put in place. This may sound very obvious, but capacity is often taken as read, when in fact NGOs are stretched way beyond their capacity to deliver adequately, but have to take on work because of the need for funds. Relationships with communities are not always as effective as they might be because resources are stretched and overall cover is thin.

It’s not just the organisations which need to be considered, but the working population more generally, if there aren’t enough of those skills around then projects will almost certainly fail if the key person leaves (INTERMEDIA Special Report December 1997/Volume 25, No 6 ).

Some would argue that the need for human capital goes wider than this suggesting that the pre-requisites that need addressing by countries themselves are not simply technological and economic, but also legal, political and cultural. The ‘Ability of the population to absorb, produce, transmit, in other words, manage information’ is increasingly recognised as vital INTERMEDIA (1997) .

• Content capital – the information communicated by the ICT seems to be one of the key capitals that prompt sustainability. If the information becomes out of date or irrelevant then as this capital fails so too the whole “ICT project”.

Content capital is a vital issue with many dimensions which need to be considered when considering ICT case studies. In particular it raises questions to do with information and knowledge and the differences, however crudely expressed, between the two. Information and Knowledge are often used interchangeably. There is a significant difference, a difference which may be crucial to the understanding of sustainability. The definitions all suggest that something needs to be done to turn information into knowledge, something active that leads to learning. This will be an important component of sustainability.

For information to be really useful and usable and for people to be able to act on it organisations need capacity to determine needs, to manage and process information (understanding and knowledge of topic, language issues - both level and choice of language, ability to select and produce illustrations, design and deliver training???), provide backup where needed (or be able to pass people on to whoever can provide back up .

The critical question in all this is where is information to come from if it is to be relevant and usable to local populations and where is the support to come from if information is to become knowledge? Are information only projects sustainable? Or is the step to knowledge vital for sustainability?


Typology of ICT projects

Having noted the complexity of the sustainability question, a framework is required within which to collect and analyse the data. The initial typology evolved further after piloting. The following typology was developed based on the discussions around sustainability above and after application.

From the typology and questions given in the table below, and from the literature, a set of hypotheses was proposed, against which the case study could be assessed.

The hypotheses were:-

The initial framework was developed after piloting and the final list of factors is given below.


bullet

Objectives

Hypothesis : - Clear objectives are which are held by the majority of stakeholders are needed to ensure organisational aspects of the activity are effective . The sustainability paper differentiates between Economic, Social and Institutional sustainability. The objective clarifies where the benefits may be found, what is the intended sustainability and whether these are intended to be based on direct or indirect cost recovery.
bullet

Target groups

Hypothesis : - the groups of people to whom information will be made available need to be clearly identified - the target group of the activity may not be directly the poor. Some target groups may be institutions that support development processes. Sustainability may therefore be affected by whether the institution significantly contributes to the development process and whether the institutional factors are in place.
bullet

Intermediaries

Hypothesis : - ICT are said to “disintermediate”, ie to provide the poor with more direct access to information. Potentially this removal of the “middle man” in transactions (both information and economic transactions) would credit the ICT activity with enough value to ensure its sustainability.
bullet

Policy environment

Hypothesis : - ICT activities cannot be in isolation from the policy environment. ICT policies may restrict the ICT activity. Other policies may encourage or discourage the application of ICTs. If ICTs are to be part of a sustainable activity there will need to be a suitable policy environment.
bullet

Institutional arrangements

Hypothesis : - Institutional sustainability is said to be achieved when prevailing structures and processes have the capacity to continue to perform their functions over the long term. What are the arrangements for the case study?
bullet

Key linkages

Hypothesis : - Any development activity cannot be undertaken in isolation, and any organisation cannot work without links to the relevant authorities and other organisations working in connected areas. Links are needed to external sources of information.
bullet

The project process

Hypothesis : - Sustainability is said to be closely associated with the planning process of an activity, and its inclusion of both the target group and in some cases the long term indirect beneficiaries.
bullet

Capacity

Hypothesis : - The sustainability will be affected by the human capital available – the capacity of staff, volunteers and users to undertake the ICT activity. This may be technical capacity but is likely also to include organisational and management capacity.
bullet

Technology

Hypothesis : - Sustainability of an ICT activity is likely to be strongly influenced by the technology used e.g. operation and repair may be critical to the success of the activity. In other sectors it has been found that some form of standardisation of a technology instrument has helped development ensuring a sufficient use to encourage a market that can supply spares and technology support.
bullet

Finance

Hypothesis : - Replacement costs will form part of the economic sustainability, and cost recovery will encourage institutional sustainability.
bullet

Development benefits

Hypothesis : - overall benefits of the ICT activity justify the costs.



The premise was that all these factors would have to be in balance for a project to be in some form sustainable. The analysis therefore considered these factors and draws some of the common points arising from them.