2003
eRiding Pilot Program (Project Details)
6 month pilot program to
bring eRiding ICT support services to Southern African civil society
organisations and explore new sustainable long-term ICT support
structures in the region.
Service and Program Area:
Regional Support Hub
Status: Completed (Feb
2003 - July 2003)
Contact Person: Toni Eliasz
Supporters: Open Society Initiative for
Southern Africa (OSISA)
Partners: AIESEC
Between Feburary and July 2003, the
Ungana-Afrika initiative
completed a six-month nonprofit ICT support pilot in Southern Africa.
The goal of this project was to introduce the eRiding model of ICT
consulting to the African civil society, and customize it to this
unique context. This pilot, the first full-scale project for the
Ungana-Afrika initiative, proved that there is a great niche for
eRiding (and similar technology support and capacity building concepts)
in southern Africa, and delivered clear impact to numerous
organisational beneficiaries. It further set the stage for the
establishment of Ungana-Afrika as a key ICT support hub and nonprofit
technology "centre of excellence" in Southern Africa.
Detailed Project Info
Ungana-Afrika addresses the reality of a
"Capacity Crisis" in
Africa. Civil society organizations working in a variety of
developmental capacities often suffer from a lack of ICT
infrastructure, connectivity and skills. Limited access to these
resources prevents such organizations from reaching their maximum
efficiency, coverage and impact. In mid 2003 Ungana-Afrika team manager
Toni Eliasz summarized the concept of the "eRiding" as a support tool
within this reality, "eRiding is basically mobile consulting - our
eRiders travel within the region and help NGOs in the field of
information technologies. The eRiding model was developed and tested in
the USA and Eastern Europe, and is now being implemented in over 20
countries worldwide, so we can draw on the extensive experience of this
global network of projects."
Read more about the eRiding model at the
global portal eRiders.net
A Big Start For Ungana-Afrika
This eRider pilot was the first full-scale
project for the
Ungana-Afrika team, an autonomous group of diverse international
volunteers, recruited through OSISA and AIESEC in 2002, and based in
Johannesburg. This new team was tasked to re-evaluate support models
(through pilot efforts and collaboration with the international
nonprofit ICT support community) that could better mobilize technology
support efforts within Southern Africa's development community. Because
of the success the eRiding model showed in projects elsewhere in the
world, piloting the concept in Africa was the team's first logical
step.
Success Stories from the Pilot
eRiders working
in Zimbabwe during the pilot
During this six-month period, Ungana-Afrika
started providing
customized ICT services to NGOs in 6 countries within southern Africa,
using the logisitic models and tools of eRiding. Though these services
were always client specific, the greatest demands were often for skills
training and capacity building. "We have found a huge niche for this
kind of services among southern African NGOs. The demand has been
bigger than we were able to satisfy, " says Toni Eliasz. The
accomplishments of the first phase confirm his words:
- 117 participants
received formal training in computer operations, office productivity
tools, Internet use etc.
- 15 major
implementation and development projects were
completed including: backup policy implementation, network setup,
formal technology plan development, website strategy development etc.
- Formal infrastructure and staff skill
assessments and recommendations finalized for a majority of client
organisations
With this effort, Ungana-Afrika also
re-shaped several concepts
related to Organisational Technology Planning, ICT training, and
support logistics, better adapting them to the unique needs of
development organsations in Southern Africa.
Janet, an employee of one of the Swaziland
NGOs visited by
eRiders, talks about the benefits for her organization: "They really
listened to what we want, not just what they might think we need. The
language was less technical, easy for us to understand. We really
appreciated the training and basic computer information they provided."
Looking Ahead, Evaluations After the
2003 Pilot
As a result of the positive feedback and
great demand after the
pilot, Ungana-Afrika was determined to continue providing ICT support
and eRiding services in southern Africa. In addition, two critical
evaluations took place (one internal and one by a professional external
evaluator from Groundworx), to determine how Ungana-Afrika could best
carry the momentum it built into the future.
According to the external evaluator, "Within
the context of
broad educational challenges there is a dire shortage of labour for
operating information technology. The [project results] confirm that
there is a need to establish ‘centres of excellence or
specialization’
to build ICT skill capacity." Given the impact of the pilot, and the
ambitions of the Ungana-Afrika team, the evaluator continues to say,
"Within this environment, a network structure like Ungana-Afrika has
the ability to draw on international resources and to coordinate highly
flexible and scarce resources across a range of Civil Society
Organisations in Southern Africa. Dealing with the digital divide is
beyond the scope of any single initiative. However, Ungana-Africa is
well placed to do so."
eRiders
working from the new Pretoria Office
In mid-2004, acknowledging the need for a
sustainable nonprofit
technology support hub in Southern Africa, Ungana-Afrika registered as
an independent non-profit organisation and moved to an office in
Pretoria, South Africa. With continued core support from OSISA, and
several project-specific funders, the growing team continued delivering
support, researching new support solutions and tools, and strengthening
links to the international community of nonprofit technology support
providers, through eRiding and other scalable support structures.
Toni Eliasz summarized the post pilot and
evaluation time in
late 2003 and early 2004 by saying, "We have defined our strategy for
the future and we're looking for partners and additional donors to
support our mission, so that we can keep building the most exciting
non-profit ICT organization in southern Africa."
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