Many developing country leaders have embraced information and communications technology (ICT) as an engine for growth and development. However, translating a grand vision into practical steps that fit the local context, and then executing it effectively, is easier said than done. Decision-makers need to know where the country stands in terms of ICT availability and use, so they can plan toward their goals. Governments and development professionals often frame this discussion in terms of “e-readiness", or how ready a country is to gain the benefits offered by ICT in terms of policy, infrastructure and ground-level initiatives.

A range of assessment tools have been developed to measure a country or economy’s e-readiness. They use widely varying definitions for e-readiness and different methods of measurement; assessment reports vary considerably in the topics covered, level of detail, and results. Generally, e-readiness assessments look at different social, political and economic aspects of physical infrastructure, ICT use, human capacity, policy environment and ICT economy. Bridges.org has updated its Comparison of E-Readiness Assessment Tools, to highlight the different options available.

E-readiness assessments are intended to guide development efforts by providing benchmarks for comparison and gauging progress. They can also be a useful tool for judging the impact of ICT, to replace exaggerated claims and anecdotal evidence with concrete data. A plethora of e-readiness assessment projects have been completed, and more are underway or planned. Bridges.org’s recent update on Who is Doing What and Where in the Field of E-Readiness reports that:

• A total of 1506 e-readiness assessments have now been conducted.
• A total of 188 countries have been assessed by at least one tool.
• 68 countries have been assessed between 5-10 times by different organizations, while a further 69 countries have been assessed over 10 times.
• Only four countries have never been assessed: North Korea, Tuvalu, Monaco and Nauru.

While e-readiness assessment can inform ICT-based development, these figures represent an unacceptable level of duplication and wasted resources. And these numbers do not even tell the full story, because many assessment results are not publicly available or easily accessible.

However, many ICT-development professionals disagree, saying that e-readiness assessments must necessarily be replicated in order to build a valuable knowledge base for benchmarking. They point out that surveys need to be repeated to show progress over time. But in practice, this only happens when the same methodologies, using precisely-defined indicators, are implemented each time. And that is rarely the case.

The costs to support an e-readiness assessment vary. Competitiveness or “ranking” reports (such as the Economist Intelligence Unit’s E-Readiness Rankings and the World Economic Forum’s Networked Readiness Index) provide quick, rough guides to e-readiness that track changes over time and enable comparisons between countries. These high-level overviews are often conducted by companies for free as business development. But usually their coverage does not include many developing countries, and their use is limited because they do not give much detail.

However, most e-readiness assessments are carried out by consultants or government bodies, and are frequently funded by national governments or international donors for USD $50,000 or more. Most assessment tools are designed to be flexible so they can be interpreted and applied in particular ways relevant to the country and timeframe. But the specific methodologies employed by assessment teams are rarely captured in sufficient detail to allow replication. This means that each assessment is only useful in and of itself.

And even if assessors wanted to build on the prior work of others, they may not be able to. In some cases, assessments are proprietary to the company or organization that conducts them, and the results are published for sale at high prices. Sometimes only the government agency or organization that commissions the assessment gets the results and they are either not published, or not well-publicized. There is no central listing for such assessments.

Another common complaint about resources wasted on e-readiness assessment is that the target audience is ICT professionals, but the reports usually only confirm what they already know. Where reports are intended to inform ICT project and policy implementation, a lack of political will and funding often condemns them to gathering dust on a shelf.

WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Broader debate and coordination are needed for an improved approach to the digital divide in East and Southern Africa. CIPESA has launched a discussion forum that aims to achieve just this.

• Do you know whether your country has ever had an e-readiness assessment?
• Is it available? Do you know how to obtain a copy?
• Would an e-readiness assessment be useful to you? How?
• Have you ever used your country’s e-readiness assessment in your work?
• Are there other areas in the ICT policy field where you see duplication of effort?
• What impact does duplication have on ICT projects and policies?
• What can be done to coordinate instead of duplicate?

Please share your views with us via email to cipesa@bridges.org or post them in the “comments” box under this commentary. (Email responses will be posted to the website too.)

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REPORTS WORTH READING:

• Bridges.org (2005 update), E-Readiness Assessment Tools Comparison
• Bridges.org (2005 update), E-Readiness Assessment: Who is Doing What and Where