Update on the feasibility study for ICT infrastructure development
- Details
- Created: Friday, 09 March 2007 18:59
The data collection for the long awaited feasibility study on ICT infrastructure development, Internet connectivity and on human and organisations e-readiness commenced on the 6th of March 2007. The process of data collection started with the Science and Technology Subcommittee meeting on the 20th of February 2007, where the seven enumerators were selected for the exercise.
As a selection criteria, gender was strongly emphasised. This led to selection of 4 females and 3 males for the exercise. The main idea for setting a criteria that included many women was to :
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Guard against the traditional way of always selecting man when it comes to such exercises.
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To equip women with the enumeration skills.
The selection of enumerators was subsequently followed by a two days training on the following aspects:
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Code of conduct,
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Data collection,
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Time management,
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Research ethics and elimination of biases,
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Daily reporting,
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Data capturing and analysis.
The entire process of data collection is expected to take 10 days and it will be followed by data capturing or entry. Please note that the study is not only meant for the tonga.online project but also for other development agencies such as the Government, Rural district Council, Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and Non Governmental Organisation whose vision is to venture into Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for development.
However, the out come of the study, will enable tonga.online to design the appropriate and suitable approaches for the integration of ICT in the district, identify ICT infrastructure development and Internet connection options for the district and come up with appropriate packages for addressing the training and technological needs of the community. On the side of the other development agencies, it is envisaged that the study results will assist them in their decision making process and ensure proper planning as far as the development of ICT is concerned.
Meanwhile the data collection process for the feasibility study is progressing well. As at the 8th of March 2007, the third day of the study, 236 subjects out of 700 total study population were interviewed. This translates to 34% of the coverage. If the whole process sails through smoothly, then the data collection will end as planned.
Meet you at the next stage of the study.
Pottar Muzamba
Project Director
Tonga.Online Project.
Update on Progress and Feasibility of data Collection process.
On the 14th of March 2007 which was day seven of the feasibility study data collection process, a total number of 473 subjects were interviewed as compared to 576 sampled subjects. This represent 68% of achievement attained, while in actual fact, 82% was supposed to be realised by the day in question (see graph 3.0). This entails that the feasibility data collection process is lagging behind by 14% which represent 103 subjects as not yet being enumerated. According to the daily statistical reports, there were 33 heads of the departments and 70 workers mainly at Binga centre who were not enumerated. The drastic drop in progress was witnessed in day 5 and 6.
This was attributed to the following reasons:-
Some of the organisations which were supposed to be enumerated in day 5 and 6 were not interviewed due long distances involved to the places. The distances to those places ranged from 5 to 10 km. The distance factor inhibited the enumerator to reach those places because the only vehicle had gone with other enumerators to the subjects in rural areas.
Secondly, some of the organisations could not be enumerated because the organisation heads were not present to give a go ahead to the enumeration process. The employees found on site could not assist much.
Thirdly, most employees especially the uniformed forces such as the Parks and ZRP had gone on patrols at the time of the interviews. As a result, the staff present at the station at the time of the interview could not suffice for the designed sample size.
Fourthly and final, some organisations refused to be enumerated for unclear reasons, despite the fact that tonga.online was granted permission by the District Administrator to access and interview all people in all organisations.
This being the state of affairs, it implies that all these subjects who where not interviewed as from day 1 to day 7, except those from the organisations which refused to be interviewed, will be slotted in day 9, after the data collection in rural areas have been completed. Also the final sample population is predicted to decline because of the unwillingness of other organisations to be interviewed.
In conclusion, despite the short comings in terms of the achievement, I am still very optimistic that the data collection will be completed on day 10.
Stay blessed
Pottar Muzamba- Project Director-tonga.Online Project.
Update on 22nd March:
The data collection for the feasibility study ended as planned on the 17th of March 2007, which was day 10 of the exercise. A total of 663 subjects were enumerated against the 700 planned subjects. This represent 95% of total coverage. The data coding subsequently started on the 18th of March. This was followed by the data capture on the 19th. The data capture was supposed to be completed by the 20thth at Binga town, procrastinated the completion of the activity to the 21st. Currently, all is set for the data analysis and report writing. of March 2007. However, the power outage which was experience the whole day of the 20
Next on the update will be the data analysis and findings of the feasibility study.
Stay blessed
Pottar Muzamba-Project Director-tonga.Online Project.