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ROUNDTABLE
E-Leadership: What Role Can it Play in Development?
Two Perspectives on How E-leadership can Accelerate Development
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Compelling, creative and effective leadership is scarce in all fields. It is particularly scarce in mainstreaming ICT in development, given the recent emergence of this challenge and the pace of change in ICT. This presents special challenge to developing countries where investments in ICT are growing exponentially and failures in ICT projects are relatively high.
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 What are some examples of developing countries that have managed
to integrate national ICT strategies with development strategies? |
 Nagy Hanna: Some countries have been
actively using and integrating ICT to enable their development strategies, and
have increasingly mastered the process of integration. Others are at very early
stages, if at all. I may consider Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, and Chile as good
examples of advanced integrators. Finland, Ireland and Taiwan are also early
leaders in leveraging ICT for national competitiveness and economic
transformation. Other countries are following these examples and have started to
give ICT central stage as driver for growth, productivity and even social
inclusion: Sri Lanka, India, Costa Rica, China, and Ghana, among others. At
times, the best examples may come from states, rather than federal governments,
as is the case with Andhra Pradesh under former chief, Chandra
Naidu.
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Peter Knight: Perhaps the clearest example
is Singapore, which in the 1980s made computerization (informatics) a central
part of its development strategy, and then in the 1990s ICTs and e-government.
Singapore set out to become the “Intelligent Island”, and since 2000 has been in
the top three countries in the annual e-government rankings done by Accenture.
In its fourth IT plan, covering the first five years of the 21st century,
Singapore over 20 years has actively sought to increase its competitiveness and
its citizens’ quality of life, creating a first world e-society, a premier ICT
hub in the Internet age with e-government, e-business, and e-learning with a
pro-business and pro-consumer regulatory environment. Korea is another example,
perhaps best know for having the highest penetration of broadband Internet of
any major country, and a rapidly progressing e-government.
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| What traits does an e-leader need to excel in his/her
work? |
Nagy Hanna: An e-leader must be first and
foremost a leader, with all the qualities of an effective leader, to inspire,
mobilize, plan, coordinate and manage change. The knowledge base of an e-leader
must span many dimensions: from guiding and aligning economic and business
strategy with ICT strategy; to defining key information and communications
challenges in development, to generating a coherent national vision of
e-Development; to translating the vision to specific Ministry, Business
Association and NGO policies, action plans and programs. An e-leader must have
strategic and integrative understanding of the potential of technology and how
it works.
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Peter Knight: E-leaders need above all to
be driven by a unifying powerful vision of ICT-enabled government and have
strong political and diplomatic skills. If they also possess technical expertise
in ICT, that is an asset, but it is not necessary. It is sufficient that they
understand the potential of the ICT revolution to accelerate socio-economic
development and be able to locate and motivate the needed scientific and
technical expertise.
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| What steps can developing countries take to train
e-leaders? |
| Nagy Hanna: Developing countries should formulate
strategies to develop cadres of e-leaders through appropriate curricula and
certification schemes, capacity building programs, support to communities of
practice, exchange of experience within and outside the country, and partnering
with leading academic institutions at the regional and global levels, among
others. Countries may also consider support to professional associations and
recognition of excellence among e-leaders. Awareness programs may be targeted at
policy makers and societal leaders to enhance their role in leveraging ICT for
their own development and business strategies. ICT multinationals and business
associations may engage in educating the market and potential leaders. Business
and public management schools should also gear to address this leadership gap
and prepare new leaders for the information age. |
| Peter Knight: Many national and even
sub-national governments have schools of public administration modeled on the
France’s Ecole Nationale d’Administration. These public training institutions
for civil servants can be important loci for e-leadership training. But private
sector schools of public and business administration can also perform this
function. The government can help such private institutions by providing support
in the form of research funds, curriculum development grants, and fellowships
for both public and private sector students. The prestige of such schools,
whether public, private or mixed, is enhanced when national leaders award prizes
to their professors and graduates, praise the work of e-leaders and their cadres
in speeches, and provide other such “moral incentives.” When potential students
can perceive that studying e-leaderhsip will lead to exciting jobs, good pay,
prestige, and the opportunity to contribute to national socio-economic
development, they will be attracted to this kind of study.
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 How did Development Gateway members respond to our Information
Society Survey questions?:
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- Nov
3, Fill-the-Gap!, Netherlands
- Nov 9-Nov 11, World Summit of Cities
and Local Authorities and the role Information Society, Spain
- Nov 10 -11, Libraries and the
Information Society in Action, Egypt
- Nov 13-15, Past, Present and Future of
Research in the Information Society
- Nov 16-18, World Summit on Information
Society, Tunisia
- Nov
17, Creating Transformations: Intel at WSIS, Tunisia
- Nov 28-Nov 30, IEEE International
Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education, Japan
- Nov 28 - Dec 5,
GKP/MSSRF South-South Exchange Traveling Workshop 2005, India
- May 25 – May 26, First
International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and
Development, USA
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