These are the slides of the presentation made at LISA12 https://www.usenix.org/sustainable-model-ict-capacity-building-developing-countries System administrators are often asked to apply their professional expertise in unusual situations, or under tight resource constraints. What happens, though, when the “situation” is a foreign country with only basic technical infrastructure, and the task is to bauild systems which are able to survive and grow in these over-constrained environments? In this paper we report on our experiences in two very different countries – Cuba and Ethiopia – where we ran a number of ICT projects. In those projects we assisted local universities to upgrade their ICT infrastructure and services. This included skills and process building for local system administrators. Based on our experiences we formulate a model for sustainable ICT capacity building. We hope this model will be useful for other organizations doing similar projects.

1. A sustainable model for ICT capacity
building in developing countries
Rudy Gevaert
Ghent University

2. About me
GNU/Linux sysadmin
Postmaster
Devops
ICT for development
in Ethiopia and Cuba
http://webworm.org
@rgevaert
Rudy Gevaert 2/22

3. A sustainable model for ICT capacity building
in developing countries
Context and background of our programmes
Overview of the ICT projects in Cuba and Ethiopia
What did we learn?
Table of contents Rudy Gevaert 3/22

4. I’m not going to talk about. . .
Rudy Gevaert 4/22

5. Background and Context
Overall objective: academic capacity building in developing countries
Background and Context Rudy Gevaert 5/22

6. Overview of the ICT projects in
Cuba and Ethiopia
Projects in .cu and .et Rudy Gevaert 6/22

7. Cuba
La Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas
http://www.uclv.edu.cu
Santa
Clara
Projects in .cu and .et Rudy Gevaert 7/22

8. Ethiopia
Mekelle
Mekelle University
http://www.mu.edu.et
Jimma University Jimma
http://www.ju.edu.et
Projects in .cu and .et Rudy Gevaert 8/22

9. Objectives of the ICT projects
Help the local university expand and
professionalize their ICT services
Projects in .cu and .et Rudy Gevaert 9/22

10. Accomplishments
Establishment of a solid network infrastructure and associated
services
E-administration system developed
Internet access improved and managed
Establishment of a central data center
Human capacity building in software engineering, system and
network administration
Apply bandwidth management and optimization techniques
University e-mail system created
Capacity building in Free Software technologies
Projects in .cu and .et Rudy Gevaert 10/22

11. What did we learn?
Sustainable model Rudy Gevaert 11/22

12. Bandwidth is limited, manage it!
Improve and manage Internet access by applying bandwidth
management and optimization techniques
Sustainable model Rudy Gevaert 12/22

13. Capacity building is more important than
infrastructure building
Iterative train the trainer process
Be prepared for high staff turnover
Sustainable model Rudy Gevaert 13/22

14. The level of knowledge is limited,
but the people aren’t!
Level of education is different
Adapt to local cultures
Failures happen due to external circumstances
Sustainable model Rudy Gevaert 14/22

15. Establish a good relationship with local
management
Otherwise they won’t use the systems you helped with
Development cooperation is big business
Selection of trainees is tricky
Sustainable model Rudy Gevaert 15/22

16. Purchase of IT equipment is difficult
Purchasing procedure:
Locally? Painful procurement
Abroad? Painful shipment and customs clearance
Add spare equipment
Choose Free Software
Sustainable model Rudy Gevaert 16/22

17. Small is beautiful
Don’t over engineer!
KISS
Don’t become a dependency
Sustainable model Rudy Gevaert 17/22

18. How to handle project follow up
Two visits a year are the minimum
This is when you get things implemented
Experience conditions where you partners work in
Sustainable model Rudy Gevaert 18/22

19. Conclusions
Model: keep sustainability in mind
Projects: Variable success
For myself: Don’t panic: Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Sustainable model Rudy Gevaert 19/22

20. What’s next?
Ethiopia
Mekelle: programme finishes March ’13, after that ?
Jimma: half way the programme, 5 years to come
Cuba: from April ’13, two new 10-year programmes:
University of Oriente (Santiago De Cuba)
ICT network Cuba
What’s next? Rudy Gevaert 20/22

21. Thank you
Gracias
Rudy Gevaert 21/22

22. Questions?
Rudy Gevaert 22/22