For the past 18 years I have advocated, studied/researched, written, worked, sacrificed to see our COUNTRY turn into a “KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY; AN INFORMATION SOCIETY; but most of all, A DIGITAL LIBERIA. Achieving any of what I just mentioned requires BRIDGING the glaring and unfortunate DIGITAL DIVIDE that exists in Liberia. During those 18 years, I have come to learn that there is a tendency of certain individuals or firms to retrogress strides made in our ICT sector by intentionally ignoring policies set by the Government through the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. This usually happens when a new regime (change of heads of institutions or government) takes over, where families and friends of new heads often persuade them (new heads) to award contracts or work that literally “RE-INVENTS the WHEEL” In “re-inventing the wheel” the policies and regulations of the sector are often advertently ignored. Another instance of this is when a new regime that lacks familiarity with initiatives of previous regimes takes over. Both lead to a waste of tax papers’ money, donor funding, and what is now known as donor fatigue in the sector. In today’s article, I discuss the need to align ALL ICT projects with the GoL ICT policies to ensure that we achieve President Weah’s Pro-Poor Agenda in an effective and efficient way. Hopefully, all stakeholders will take note of this as we move forward.
The Need To Empower the Chief Information Office(r)-RL (CIO-RL)
Over the years, we have been striving to achieve a robust e-government program, that seeks not only to benefit the Government of Liberia or GoL, but also the citizens and residents of Liberia. There have been a plethora of challenges that seem to be hindering our efforts to achieve this goal. The lack of resources both human and financial, the lack of infrastructure and the “absence” of political will, are a few of the many challenges that have been strangulating our efforts to achieve our goal. Despite these challenges, significant progress has been made, even though the impact of such progress may not have been felt by the Government and the people of Liberia as we had anticipated. It is safe to say that the impact was not felt because of the absence of an effective “e-Government Champion”; a “champion” with “carte blanche” to make decisions at the senior level. This “champion” would be a person who reports directly to the Office of President of Liberia, thereby giving him/her the much needed authority to drive the GoL’s e-government programs. This article attempts to make the case for a strong e-government “champion” for the achievement of a robust e-government program.
Read more: A Successful E-Government Program Requires an E-Government Champion
Thomas Wesseh Doe, founder and chief executive officer of WESAGROCOM, Inc., an ICT (information communication technology) and real estate company, says there is the need for a national network that would ensure connectivity in all fifteen counties of Liberia.
In a recent interview at the Daily Observer office in Paynesville, Mr. Doe said the implementation of a national network will ensure effective communication across counties as well as improve government’s service delivery.
Read more: LI: National ICT Broadband Backbone Will Expedite Development
The chief of party of Digital Liberia E-Government Project is emphasizing here that if Liberia will be a better place, it means every citizen should be honest, trustworthy and sincere in whatever position he or she occupies in public service.
Madam RieLukowski spoke recently at the 5th ConsultativeMeeting of KvinnaTilKvinna or TK Liberia, urging Liberians to become standard bearers of building integrity, because it’s very significant to the rebuilding process of the country.She explains that the aim and objective of the meeting was to learn more about integrity, understanding the importance of being a person with integrity and how integrity is linked to unity and culture.
At a recent gathering of Liberian dignitaries – the big names, including the US Ambassador accredited to Liberia, USAID Executives, line Ministers and others – at a local hotel, with the Honorable, Dr. Fredrick Norkeh, Minister of Posts & Telecommunications, R. L.., the host in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, the funding partner. They launched what is called the E-Government and Digital Liberia Project, or the Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
In a major statement as Head and most senior management executive of the Information and Communication Technology sector in Liberia, Dr. Norkeh “called on policy makers to join (him) his Ministry (of Posts & Telecommunications)” and the funding partners (USAID) “in championing technological transfer in the country” (Analyst Liberia, March 23, 2017).