In most literature evaluating ICT4D projects in education, the yard stick used to evaluate ICT implementation in business which seeks to establish value is used. As a result most of the projects are in our opinion, wrongly deemed to have been failed. We propose that a better measure of success should consider the context in which the project exists and the perception of the intended recipients -for example a similar objective measure of project outcome could be perceived differently by people of different economic and social status. In this paper, we will demonstrate this concept by evaluating the perception of success of the implementation of an e-learning strategy in disadvantaged areas in South Africa. Data for the study was collected through various qualitative means in selected disadvantaged areas of Cape Town. Even though a number of existing evaluations point to general failure of implementation of the e-learning strategy, our study showed that the teachers in the disadvantaged areas considered the system a success based on the intangible benefits they derived from the implementation. Therefore this paper calls for a different way of evaluating ICT for education systems. James and Miller (2005), evaluation looks at performance against set goals. Where the ICT implementation is evaluated against policy goals there were two predominant approaches. The foundationalism and the constructivist approaches. These have however have been progressively merged as the current approach is to have evaluation establish the extent to which the goals and intentions of the policy have been achieved and the level of policy support. Within information Systems (IS), approaches to evaluation of information Systems is diverse. There are approaches which posit that IS evaluation should assess and inform economic returns, or assess social costs, political and social dimensions, power relationships or evaluate primary goods, mental states and those things that an individual attaches value to or craves in relation to the Information Technology (Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 1996;Hirschheim and Smithson, 1998;Wilson and Howcroft, 2000;Sen, 1999) All these perceptions on what IS evaluation should focus on have led to different approaches to the evaluation process. There are evaluation approaches that take cognisance of value as the prime driver of Information Technology (IT) evaluation. There are several of these, namely the value scorecard evaluation technique which was developed by Remenyi (2002). Value under this approach is evaluated by establishing the consensus amongst stakeholders of the requisite changes needed for the overall implementation objective to succeed and the extent to which these have taken place. Information systems actability was developed by Agerfalk (2003). This evaluation approach evaluates the social actions of the users of the information system. This is called the real use context. The other approach is the constructivist IS evaluation where the belief is that IT evaluation has to take into consideration ...

Despite the fact that it has been established that contextual factors affect implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects, there is a dearth of information on how these were addressed in the implementation of the whitepaper on e-education in schools in previously disadvantaged areas in South Africa. This interpretive study, guided by contextual interaction theory, examines the impact of contextual factors in the implementation of ICT in schools in previously disadvantaged areas. The findings show that the implementation context and the history of the implementers and other issues that are in no way related to the implementation process affect the implementation process and outcomes. The results of this study offer those who carry out ICT in education implementation projects in disadvantaged areas in South Africa and similar contexts elsewhere insights into the Information Systems implementation dynamics. Key Words: ICT Implementation; Impact of Contextual Factors on Implementation; EGovernment Strategy; Policy Implementation; Education 1RESEARCH PROBLEM Despite the noble intentions and efforts driving implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) in education, the integration of ICT's into teaching and learning has been wrought with challenges (Ford and Botha, 2010). Researchers have evaluated the adoption of ICT's in education from different dimensions such as community informatics, digital divide, adoption barriers and self-efficacy issues. Studies show that there are problems realising the associated benefits of the ICT investments, inadequate ICT resources, limited access to the Internet, technophobia and age related adoption issues as older teachers have been found to struggle to adapt to using ICT for teaching and learning; shortage of skilled teachers to teach ICT subjects and security issues. Social status of the potential users of ICT's has also been found to have a bearing on computer use and experience. It has also been established that there are issues with the high costs of acquiring and setting up ICT-based Management Information Systems (Wilson-Strydom and Thomson, 2005;Ford and Botha, 2010;Hodgkinson-Williams et al., 2007; Ng'ambi and Brown, 2004; Tas and Tatnal, 2010). Studies that have looked at the implementation process of the whitepaper have established that the implementation process is besieged with "dispersed and uncoordinated" implementation programmes and projects (Ford and Botha, 2010 p.1). These findings are not surprising as literature shows that planning and management of ICT projects is poorly done in developing countries (Galliers et al. 1998;Heeks, 2002).Predominantly, existing studies have not focused on how the implementation process and context could have affected the implementation outcomes. The studies evaluate the successes and challenges faced by teachers in using ICT for teaching and learning. Whilst evaluation of ICT projects is problematic and subjective, research has shown that evaluation studies ought to investi...

Land Information Systems are touted to be critical for efficient land management and administration. If properly used and updated, they can inform decision makers in a timely fashion on land resources utilisation. The Government of Botswana has consequently implemented a Tribal Land Information Management System (TLIMS) at Mogoditshane SubLand Board. This study seeks to evaluate the extent to which the TLIMS meets its intended purpose of improving land management and administration. The study also tries to establish the factors that affect usage of the TLIMS. The findings of the study show that there is no records consolidation amongst Land Boards. The main recommendation of the study is that information systems used by various Land Boards need to be standardised to ensure ease of integration of systems. This study contributes to research on information Systems in Developing Countries.

Media discourse is one way in which social reality is shaped. The media has the power to influence public perceptions on ideologies and innovations and hence their adoption and success. It is, therefore, of academic interest to understand media discourse on Information Technological innovations, especially those which are affected and affect the public. This paper analyses the media discourse on ICT for Development ICT4D projects in developing countries. The study uses as a case the media discourse of the Khanya Project -a flagship ICT for education project in South Africa. Using the Habermasian Theory of Communicative Action as a theoretical lens, the study notes that the media discourse on the project is fraught with distortions. The findings substantiate previous research on media discourse that found that media discourse pushes propaganda to the effect that technological uptake and adoption is crucial and inevitable. The paper further explores the potential causes of the distortions. The findings of this study could form part of the recommendations for agencies responsible for implementing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects for education.

Livestock Identification and Trace-back System was implemented by the Botswana Government to meet the traceability requirement imposed by the European Union. To date, no study has been done in Botswana to explore the extent to which the Livestock Identification and Trace-back System is used to support farmers in cattle management. This study established that although the LITS database has the potential to be used to meet local needs of cattle farmers and other stakeholders, it is not. The researcher argues that the LITS database can be used for other cattle management related purposes such as cattle tracing within Botswana and proposes that those in charge of stray cattle and the police, be allowed limited access to the database for work related purposes.