APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: NICI II: KEY LESSONS LEARNED AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. NICI Pillars and Projects The large scope of NICI strategy & plan demands an organising principle. However, the link between pillars and lead agencies became more tenuous during NICI II implementation process and this was pointed out as a possible reason why the project status varied considerably between different pillars. It also may explain lack of coordination under NICI II. In the evaluation, some lessons learned for overall plan implementation include: • Lack of a committed leader in each pillar, with the responsibility and authority to guide implementation of all the projects within his or her brief. • Lack of involvement of pillar/focus area communities that constantly monitor and support the implementation effort. • Lack of ownership of initiatives by stakeholders. • Lack of close coordination across areas, which would have ensured that dependencies and sequencing of activities were appropriate. 2. NICI Outcomes and Impacts While there are many positive stories from NICI II projects, there have been little objective and verifiable evidences to verify these claims. NICI II projects had clear outputs but almost no indicators to measure outcomes and impacts. One result of this has been real difficulty on carrying out an independent evaluation of NICI II. But more importantly, the lack of measurement at output and outcome levels prevented effective monitoring of progress, financial and operational, and evaluation in relation to ultimate goals. This needs to be remedied under NICI III implementation process. 3. NICI Governance During NICI I and II implementation, the institution mandated to manage the process (RITA) underwent considerable institutional and management change. While in 2008 the mandate and functions of RITA was transferred to the new Rwanda Development Board under RDB/ICT, organizational restructuring was not complete until recently. This has made it challenging for the smooth and coordinated NICI II project implementation. The NICI II evaluation pointed out this fact and called for a stable and clear governance structure to be put in place and made clear to all stakeholders. At the operational level, NICI II evaluation pointed out several challenges in Governance which include: • Detailed project selection and sequencing based on dependencies were not clearly defined. • Lack of staff and changing relations with collaborating MDAs made it very difficult to manage and execute an ambitious set of projects. • Project analysis and design was not elaborated – need for results based framework (or logical analysis framework) with objectives, inputs, outputs, practical indicators of successful achievement of outputs and outcomes, targets for achievement etc. • Lack of information sharing and weak project management – consolidated project management information was not shared among stakeholders to improve relevant projects. Page 79 of 85   © No part of this document can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise - without the permission of Rwanda Ministry in charge of ICT in the Office of the President.