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eBrain Forum, Lusaka, Zambia
Case study summary report
Published August 19, 2003
By Maartje Op de Coul,
New Media Evaluation Manager, OneWorld International
"To set up an organisation to promote increased use and awareness of ICTs in this country, to get it on top of the development agenda of Zambia". That is the agenda of eBrain Forum, explains Mr Mwale, the chairperson and one of the founding members of the forum. The idea for eBrain was born in 2001 at an IICD (International Institute for Communication and Development) and eBrain Forum started its programme of activities around August 2002. eBrain Forum is a membership organisation and an amalgamation that connects private sector, government and NGOs. As of recently all new members have to pay a fee; the old ones have to renew their membership and start paying as well. eBrain Forum has currently one full time staff member. The Management Team (MT) counts 9 members and is the policy making body, but has implementation responsibilities as well. The 3 year budget is usd 275.000 and for 2003 it is 108.000 of which by April only 30.000 was secured (23.000 from IICD).
eBrain Forum activities
Online
The aim of the eBrain Forum website (www.ebrain.org.zm) is "to promote information and knowledge sharing and networking in issues relating to ICTs for development among individuals and institutions using ICT for development." The target group is individuals and organizations practicing ICT for development, policy makers, ISPs and regulatory telecommunication bodies. But the site still needs to be promoted, and more content included.
The newsletter is disseminated by mail and print on a quarterly basis and has about 250 subscribers. It is also published on the site. An editorial team of two people with a journalistic background is responsible for the content. The dgroup was only launched in April 2003 but already has 44 subscribers. In early May it was used as a discussion space after a workshop on "Education and ICTs in Zambia". The most important reason for starting it is to make eBrain Forum all inclusive of people with interest in ICTs for development.
Monthly offline meetings
Among the most important activities of eBrain Forum are the monthly knowledge sharing meetings where a specific theme related to ICT for development is addressed. Every month another MT member is responsible to pick a theme, do some research and invite speakers. Because of their different professional backgrounds, the topics and thus the participants differ each month. Mr Chilwesa, the coordinator of eBrain Forum, estimates that every month about 20-30 people attend from government, NGOs and private sector. The sessions are always very lively and Mr Mwale thinks they are successful because some people come back more than once.
One interesting meeting targeted Members of the Zambian Parliament to sensitize them on the possible uses of ICTs in their respective constituencies. eBrain Forum tries to convince them that even beyond elections MP's can use ICTs to work with their constituencies in rural areas. The meeting with the MP's was so successful that they invited eBrain Forum to come to Parliament and explain ICT possibilities to other MP's. But one of the problems is that the MP's were demanding to be paid allowances in accordance with their parliamentary privileges?
Lobby and advocacy
In order to get ICTs on top of the Zambian development agenda, the people involved in eBrain Forum are active networkers with different government bodies. The results up to the present (April 2003) are mixed. The officials addressed are receptive for the subject matter but at the same time there is a tendency to only refer to equipment when talking about ICTs.
Another group eBrain Forum tries to influence are international donors and the private sector. Mr Chilwesa is an important lobbying person since he used to work for a private company. He explains that "there is a lot of fear in the middle management for computers. If they themselves can't use the tools effectively it becomes extremely difficult for eBrain Forum to influence them".
Impact and Sustainability
eBrain Forum stresses the fact that it is too early to draw any conclusions on the impact of the platform and no monitoring and evaluation tools are in place yet. They do assume however that what they offer is appreciated from the fact that participants of the monthly meetings are enthusiastic and membership and newsletter subscriptions are growing.
When we take into consideration the different 'ingredients' of impact: opportunity, empowerment and security, it is not only hard to make a statement because of the recent start of the initiative. Those elements apply mainly to the local community, the eventual but indirect target group of eBrain Forum. The government, private sector and donors are the direct target group. If eBrain Forum succeeds to encourage the government to use ICTs, empowerment will take place above all, because state institutions will become more accountable, transparent and responsive.
It is early for conclusions about sustainability too. It is obviously a problem that only about 30% of the budget for 2003 is covered as yet and IICD is the only substantial supporter. But it is not only a "money matter" says Tjalling Vonk of IICD. If the related organisations would be more committed and would contribute more (money and resources), chances for survival would increase.
As far as human resources are concerned sustainability is an issue despite the little salaries to pay. The (unpaid) MT takes up a lot of implementing responsibilities while in fact they are meant to be a policy making body. The combination of policy making and implementing responsibilities of the MT is an issue as well in terms of governance.
Conclusion
To have a platform like eBrain Forum in place in Zambia seems to be essential. The use of ICTs for development is still low which makes awareness building, lobby and advocacy etc important. Since the government is very controlling in Zambia, it is an obvious choice for eBrain Forum to target influencing it. One may assume that their multi-stakeholder approach enhances the chances of success.
There are some issues though in the way eBrain Forum plays this important role. One is the fact that eBrain Forum doesn't have a monitoring and evaluation system in place yet and thus can't measure if their approach is or will be successful. Another thing is the dependency on IICD and the long way to sustainability. Lastly there is the governance issue of the unpaid MT having a lot of implementing responsibilities.
Read the full report on eBrain Forum
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