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Frequently Asked Questions About Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in ICTs for Development: A Guide for National ICT Policy Animators

Association for Progressive Communications (APC) (2007), 31 pp.

ISBN 92-95049-42-X

CC BY-NC-ND

Signature commbox: 70-Rights-E 2007

"Partnerships between the public sector, the private sector and particularly civil society in promoting information and communication technology (ICT) policy are a relatively new venture. The mechanisms, management and governance of such partnerships, from loose arrangements to more formal mechanisms, are still relatively new and not always fully understood. This guide is an attempt to add to the growing body of knowledge and experience on multi-stakeholder processes and partnerships, based on the practical experiences encountered during the three-year CATIA programme on ICT policy advocacy. It presents guidelines that may assist national ICT policy facilitators in coming to grips with the complexities of multi-stakeholder relationships and the attainment of common goals and objectives. It considers practical issues for the establishment of a multi-stakeholder process for ICT policy and looks at how multi-stakeholder partnerships work, what has been successful and what has not, and offers some practical suggestions on how to make them more effective. Practical experiences from two African countries – the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Kenya – are used to illustrate two possible approaches." (About this guide, page 4)
1 About this guide, 4
2 Background, 4
3 What are multi-stakeholder partnerships for ICT policy? 5
4 What are the goals of a multi-stakeholder partnership? 7
5 What are the benefits of multi-stakeholder partnerships? 8
6 How do you deal with the challenges of multi-stakeholder partnerships? 10
7 What are the roles of stakeholders in a multi-stakeholder process? 11
8 What are the guiding principles for multi-stakeholder partnerships? 14
9 How do you drive a multi-stakeholder process? 16
10 What communications and advocacy activities are needed? 19
11 How do you monitor and evaluate your ICT policy process? 21
Selected useful reading materials, 22
Case study: The multi-stakeholder process for ICT policy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 23
Case study: KICTANet: A multi-stakeholder process for ICT policy in Kenya, 26