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

this aspiration towards an equitable sharing of power, the promotion andmaintaining of transparency is a key factor in sustaining cooperative activityand partnership (Bratman 1992).The notion of fully shared values between partners is often identified as beingone of the foremost prerequisites for collaboration (Tennyson 2003).Although this is undoubtedly of some significance, the experience of thefieldwork would suggest, in contrast, that the issue of transparency is theprimary requirement for effective partnership (Unwin 2005b). Once this wasin place via the formulation of a MoU it provided a foundation for effectivefuture collaboration. This constitutes a more pragmatic foundation forpartnership and the challenges likely to be faced than the notion of values,which one cannot realistically expect to be fully shared, especially whenoperating across different sectors (section 6.3). Indeed, transparency can bethe foundation that enables those with fundamentally different values toengage and collaborate effectively. Whilst this is true, engineering atransparent partnership is a difficult task and the challenge should not beunderestimated. Ensuring that transparent partnership can operate in themidst of contrasting value systems is dependent on effective monitoring andevaluation. Communication regarding rationale and objectives is of centralimportance and helps facilitate a context where the mutual distrust betweensectors can be deconstructed, promoting an understanding of difference andpursuing increased transparency.The promotion of transparency allows partners to be explicit incommunicating what they hope to gain from participation in a partnership(Unwin 2009). Once the foundation of transparency is established and allparties are clear regarding anticipated outcomes, then it should be ensuredthat that each party has „intentions in favour of the efficacy of the intentionsof the other‟ (Bratman 1992 p.335). This promotes the place of sustainedflexibility and mutual responsiveness throughout the course of thepartnership. Indeed, the need to embrace diversity and spontaneousdeviations from the planned partnership progression was a recurringcharacteristic of the field research. In contrast to the orthodox cyclical model252