Evaluating ICT for Education in Africa - Royal Holloway, University of ...

collaboration towards a shared objective. As Unwin (2005b p.38-39)summarises:„The essence of partnerships is that they bring togetherorganisations and people with differing skills, expertise andresources to enable something to be achieved that either couldnot otherwise be undertaken, or which would be of lowerquality, less efficient or of greater cost without the partnership.They are therefore intended to create situations in which allpartners benefit, and where the whole is great than the partsthat make it up.‟The impacts of partnership-based interventions are of specific significanceregarding collaboration in ICT for education in Africa, a sphere dependentupon cross-sectoral cooperation (Tennyson 2003). Indeed, within this arena,a positive approach to partnership has the potential fundamentally to alterconceptions of how ICT for education initiatives should be approached(Unwin 2005b, Arndt 2000). Despite this potential there is much researchrequired in identifying „the key success criteria for multi-stakeholder ICT4Dpartnerships in different contexts‟ (Unwin 2009a p.367). This chaptercontributes in this regard, through the context of the ICT for education casestudy partnerships in Malawi and Ethiopia.6.2.2 JustificationAs previously noted, significant attention, enthusiasm and scepticismsurround the role of partnership in development, especially in the context ofeducational initiatives (Cassidy 2007) and academic research (Heyman 2000,Gibson 1998). Although pertinent concerns, the legitimising of private sectoragendas is not an inevitable consequences of operating in partnership.Maintaining a critically engaged stance is possible and bridging disparateworlds through collaboration does not suggest that value systems andmotivations are either homogenous or fully compatible. Neither does mychoice of approach imply that I endorse partnership as an overarchingsolution in development approaches. Rather, the choice was made in order to226