The African component of the Global Development Learning Network

The Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) is a partnership that uses advanced ICT to connect learning centers in a global network that offers learning, exchange of knowledge, and dialogue on topics and issues that are central to the management of development. The main clients of the GDLN centers worldwide are therefore mid-level and senior-level managers, decision makers, as well as policy makers from governments, civic organizations, academia, or the private sector working on development issues.

The Network was launched in 2000 by the World Bank and currently links 120 development learning centers in Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, North Africa and the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Some of the centers are affiliated with national institutions for training and capacity building – universities, management, and administrative-training institutions, etc. Others are free-standing operations in both the public and private sectors. Most of the centers depend to a greater or lesser degree on the technological backbone and managerial services that are provided by the World Bank.

www.gdln.org

By Mwangi Machira, Washington D.C., USA.

The Global Development Learning Network offers member centers interactive, multi-channel connectivity and related services that are used to engage their clients from government, civic organizations, the private sector, and academia in capacity-building events such as workshops, seminars, courses, and dialogues of knowledge exchange.

While other knowledge networks are designed to supplement learning in academic institutions leading to diplomas, degrees, or certificates, GDLN was envisaged to provide support to practitioners in the management of the development process by offering knowledge, information and skills training that are applied directly in the implementation of development initiatives.

The creation of the Network was driven by a desire to improve the performance of development initiatives by updating or upgrading the knowledge and skills of practitioners. As a result, and by design, member centers are encouraged to meet the capacity-building needs of individual institutions through interaction with the public sector because of the dominant role it plays in development in many countries. In this manner the Network and the Centers are clearly part of the Bank’s underlying goal of reducing the scope of poverty by improving the performance of development initiatives.

Courses, workshops, seminars, and dialogues on some of the most challenging contemporary issues in development are popular GDLN events. These are usually supplemented by asynchronous inputs - videos, CD ROMs, and internet-based activities. At any given moment, somewhere in the GDLN there is a capacity-building event in progress where practitioners are trying to improve their understanding of keys to successful management of HIV/AIDS, strategies for good governance, workable designs for e-government or pension schemes, policies that discourage corruption in the public sector, experiences with e-learning, or options for managing urban waste.

Of course in their simplest form, the centers in the Network can and have been used as venues for meetings or negotiations between officials of the host country and development partners in other countries, thereby saving time and money and, in the process, expediting work on development initiatives. GDLN centers, furthermore, have offered their services to multinational enterprises seeking cost-efficient ways to conduct consultations between the local affiliate and headquarters or other affiliates. In other instances, GDLN center facilities have been used by private-sector entities to offer distance learning in the form of internal training among affiliates. However, the mainstay of the Network is the public sector.

To date there are ten operational GDLN centers in Sub-Sahara Africa, with an additional five in varying stages of completion. The operational centers are in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. The World Bank is collaborating with the governments in Cameroon, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, and Nigeria, and work is advanced in these countries; it is expected that the centers will be operational fairly soon. Beyond this, there are at least a dozen countries where only the expression of interest has been registered and little else. Nevertheless, it is conceivable that in the not-too- distant future, the Network will have affiliates in most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In this regard, it is gratifying that the organizers of the eLearning Africa organized the first event in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in May 2006, where we have one of the oldest African centers. That conference created invaluable business opportunities for the GDLN center in Addis, and all the other GDLN centers that were represented. We are happy to announce that the Kenyan center will be formally inaugurated within days of the eLearning Africa conference in Nairobi. As the GDLN expands the number of centers on the Continent, a more robust collaboration between GDLN and eLearning Africa may be worth exploring.

The African experience in GDLN over the last six years points to successes, challenges, as well as opportunities. The African GDLN centers work with others in the Networks, as well as with other distance learning facilities worldwide, to access state-of-the-art knowledge from experts, development partners, or simply other professionals facing similar challenges in other parts of the world.

The centers thus facilitate learning from one’s own country, minimizing both travel costs and work disruptions. Over the years since 2000, African development practitioners have used the GDLN centers to gain timely exposure to knowledge on the latest strategies and tools for addressing such complex issues as poverty reduction, the management of HIV/AIDS, and strategies for good governance, but also on less eye-catching topics of critical importance to Africa’s development such as strategies for promoting girls’ education. The range of capacity-building events that the Africa centers have brought to Africa development professionals over the last six years has been limited only by the resources available to the centers and the clients.

GDLN centers in Sub-Sahara Africa are all country-owned and have been established on the basis of loans or grants, usually of the order $2-3 million, which includes operation costs for four years. The centers are thus ensured operational viability for at least four years, during which time they are expected to develop a stable clientele from all sectors, but mainly from the public sector.

Success in this regard ensures that the centers will be sustainable after the initial four-year period and will need minimum local support thereafter. This yardstick – the ability to cover operating costs by the fourth year - is our measure of success. Depending on the country, this can be a challenge, and ensuring their sustainability has therefore been one of the main challenges to the Africa centers. While the results have been mixed, some centers, such as Senegal and Tanzania, have had positive experiences in this regard.

Besides the ability to respond to local demand for capacity building events without undue interference so as to position the center as a source of choice for professionals wishing to sharpen their skills, African experience suggests that one of the key factors for success is the degree to which the staff and management of the centers can be creative and entrepreneurial in attracting clients. Centers have, therefore, been supported in developing business plans and are encouraged to organize marketing campaigns that sell their services to governments, development partners, and local training institutions.

In addition, the Network suggests to local authorities that possession of critical business skills – besides technical competence in e-government, e-learning, e-commerce or ICT, and experience in distance learning – should be key criteria in recruiting staff for the centers. Experience shows that given the nature of the service – capacity building for development – a staff that has a strong background in, and orientation towards, business practices is likely to lead a center to success. In this regard, the African governments have been cooperative, perhaps as a reflection of growing appreciation of the role that ICT can play in accelerating development. We therefore expect that those centers that are currently experiencing difficulties in ensuring their own long-term sustainability will also succeed.

Finally, I would like to mention an area in which the African GDLN centers have faced a significant challenge. This is the area of technology. Compared to other regions of the world, Sub-Sahara Africa is still relatively weak as regards the availability of the information and communication technology that is needed for video conferencing and connectivity. Thus although the situation is changing very rapidly, there are still many parts of the Continent where broadband and satellite linkages are either not available altogether or are prohibitively expensive, rendering centers such as GDLN centers economically impractical.

Whereas the ICT environment in some other regions such as Latin America or East Asia-Pacific offers a richer array of choices for connectivity and video conferencing, the options in some countries in Sub-Sahara Africa are limited, which is one of the major reasons for the slow growth of African centers in the Network as compared to other regions. Given the very large number of public and private ICT initiatives that are currently under way in Sub-Sahara Africa, it is safe to say that in a few years, this will not be an obstacle to the growth of networks such as GDLN

About the author:
Mwangi Wachira is a Consultant with the Global Development Learning Network of the Africa Region in the World Bank.

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