Beyond sustainability: towards an implementation outcomes framework for ICT4D community projects

Abstract

A significant challenge of ICT4D community initiatives is that they tend to fizzle out after a few years. To overcome this challenge, most research work has focused on sustainability. This research drew on the theory of implementation outcomes from public health to identify other community implementation outcomes that might contribute towards the sustainability of ICT4D community initiatives. The study was conducted in the qualitative-interpretive paradigm using three well-known South African ICT4D initiatives, namely: the Siyabuswa Educational Improvement and Development Trust (SEIDET), the Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Cyber Security Awareness Project. The key findings revealed that (a) although efficient training was offered to community members at the commencement of the ICT4D initiatives, the vision for the initiative remained with the initiative champion; (b) people move and the technology changes, which necessitates a review of the relevance of the initiative and adapting current technology; (c) initial sponsors from different sectors who supported the initiatives when they commenced withdrew support with time; (d) the running of day-to-day operations of these initiatives requires formal policies and procedures for acceptable behaviour transparent to all the role players; (e) transferring the appropriate skills to the staff taking over the project, which imposes a fresh way of documenting the skill-transfer process. The findings were then used to create an ICT4D implementation framework utilizing Actor Network Theory (ANT) because of the sociotechnical and non-linear nature of the findings. The thesis recommends that ICT4D initiative leaders should continually broaden the community awareness of the positive impact of the initiatives; and to continually identify emerging digital technology and new sponsors who advocate for how such emerging technology could result in human development in the communities. The research study makes a contribution to the theory and practice of ICT4D. For theory, the thesis draws on Implementation Outcomes literature, mainly garnered from the public health sector. For practice, the research recommends adopting the Implementation Outcomes framework as an appropriate instrument to enable longer standing ICT4D initiatives.