The funding phenomenon

I’m in the process of getting ready to move to Leeds from South Africa to undertake a PhD in communication studies. I’ll be researching the ICT policy development process in Kenya and the role of the media in that process. It’s been quite surprising to someone like me, who has an immense interest and enthusiasm for ICT policy and research, that it has been so difficult to secure full funding to pay for the tuition of the first year of study (which for a South African is practically unaffordable).

Perhaps the hype around ICT policy in the developed world has died down and there is a lack of vision for what still needs to be done in developing countries. Despite the apparent success of the World Summit on the Information Society and the Principles adopted by countries that attended, there is much to do in the developing world and especially in Africa (where my interest lies). While there is a need for practical policy processes at different levels, there is also a serious need for research in the area of ICT policy development – which is something that I hope to undertake in my research.

Many developed countries today have well established ICT policies (despite certain issues which arise from time to time such as intellectual property rights and security) and too many people take it for granted that this is the trend across the global village – it isn’t! Too many African countries are currently grappling with (or are still to grapple with) establishing their own ICT policy, while having to deal with other important policy issues (which usually means ICT policy is last in the line of priorities). Not enough research is being done in the area to ensure that ICT policy is made a top priority for developing countries and for international organizations which need to mentor and provide assistance where possible – though the challenge is to ensure that African countries don’t adopt international norms without adapting them to their unique circumstances.

There are so many issues (as the previous paragraph attests to) and so much information that should be disseminated and shared between those with the practical experience and those without. But, without the support of funders (who seem to have less of a focus on ICT policy than a few years ago) developing countries are going to have to learn from their mistakes (very costly mistakes) before getting things right – rather than learning from the mistakes and successes of others which have been researched and then adapting those lessons to their ICT, development, political and social environments.