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INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

IN THE WATER AND SANITATION SECTOR

lessons learned from

field assignments in Africa and Asia

by

J. Stephen Parker

The Hague

1992

[IRC COPYRIGHT STATEMENT]TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE............................................. vii

CHAPTER 1. BACKGROUND................................ 1Introduction..................................... 1Ethiopia......................................... 2Tanzania......................................... 3Philippines...................................... 4ENSICNET......................................... 5Indonesia........................................ 5Conclusion....................................... 6

CHAPTER 2. CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION PROVISION....... 7Introduction..................................... 7Project and sector information................... 7Management information........................... 8Technical information .......................... 10Information, education and communication........ 14Conclusion...................................... 14

CHAPTER 3. INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS......... 16Introduction.................................... 16Objectives of information systems and networks. . 16Strategies for information development.......... 20Functions of information systems and networks. . . 22The scope of information provision.............. 25Conclusion...................................... 26

CHAPTER 4. ESSENTIAL PRECONDITIONS TO INFORMATION DEVELOPMENT..................................... 28Introduction.................................... 28Information users............................... 28The supply of information....................... 30Conclusion...................................... 32

CHAPTER 5. PROVIDING INFORMATION TO USERS........... 34Introduction.................................... 34Access to information........................... 34Information products and services............... 37Conclusion...................................... 43

CHAPTER 6. TECHNICAL OPERATIONS..................... 45Introduction.................................... 45Identifying, selecting and acquiring information

sources.................................... 45Catalogues, indexes and databases............... 47

Conclusion...................................... 50

CHAPTER 7. RESOURCES................................ 52Introduction.................................... 52Staff........................................... 52Training ....................................... 55Local consultancy............................... 58Existing information resources.................. 59Physical facilities and equipment............... 62Finance......................................... 66Conclusion...................................... 69

CHAPTER 8. ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS............................ 72Introduction.................................... 72Organizational structures and coordination...... 72Cooperation and networking...................... 76National focal points for water supply and

sanitation information..................... 80Management...................................... 83Information policy.............................. 85Legislation and regulations..................... 87Conclusion...................................... 88

CHAPTER 9. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS...................... 91

LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ADB Asian Development BankAIT Asian Institute of TechnologyAMREF African Medical and Research FoundationCD-ROM Compact Disc--Read Only MemoryCDC-EH Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Health (CDC-EH)Directorate General, Ministry of Health,

Indonesia)CDS/ISIS Computerized Documentation Service/Integrated Set of Information Systems (Unesco)ENSIC Environmental Systems Information Centre (AIT)ENSICNET Environmental Systems Information Centre NetworkEWCCA Ethiopian Water Works Construction AuthorityEWIDOC Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre EWIDON Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation NetworkEWIDOS Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation SystemFAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsHERDIN Health Research and Development Information Network (Philippines)IDRC International Development Research Centre (Canada)IDTP Institutional Development and Training Project (Indonesia)IEC Information, Education and CommunicationIHE International Institute for Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering (Netherlands)IMU Information Management UnitIRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (Netherlands)ITN International Training Network for Water and Waste Management LIPI Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (Indonesian Institute of Sciences)LWUA Local Water Utilities Administration (Philippines)MAJI Ministry of Water and Mineral Development (Tanzania)MAJIDOC national water and sanitation information network, TanzaniaMISAD Management Information System for Administration (Uganda)MISWAR Management Information System for Water Resources (Uganda)MISWAS Management Information System for Water Supply (Uganda)NADIC National Agricultural Documentation and Information Centre (Uganda)NMSA National Meteorological Services Agency (Ethiopia)PDII Pusat Dokumentasi dan Informasi Ilmiah (National Scientific and Technological Information Centre, Indonesia)SDI Selective Dissemination of InformationUNDP United Nations Development ProgrammeUnesco United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganizationUNICEF United Nations Children's Fund USD United States DollarUWIDOC Uganda Water Information and Documentation CentreUWIDON Uganda Water Information and Documentation Network UWIDOS Uganda Water Information and Documentation SystemWAMDIS Water Management Data and Information System (Uganda)WAPSIS Water Project and Sector Information System (Uganda)WASAMS Water and Sanitation Monitoring System (UNICEF/WHO)WASIN Water and Sanitation Information Network (Indonesia)WHO World Health OrganizationWMPCU Water Master Plan Coordinating Unit (Tanzania)WRDA Water Resources Development Authority (Ethiopia)WSSA Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Ethiopia)

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PREFACEPREFACE

The IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is an independent, non-profit organization supported by the Netherlands Government, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO). Its aim is to ensure the availability and use of appropriate knowledge and information in the water, sanitation and environment sector in developing countries.

An important part of IRC's work is concerned with helping water and sanitation sector institutions in developing countries to develop their capacity to manage information. One way in which IRC provides such assistance is by sending information consultants on field assignments to developing countries, to study and evaluate the existing situation with regard to information management and make recommendations and proposals for remedial action if necessary.

In 1990 and 1991, IRC carried out a number of field assignments on information management in institutions in the water and sanitation sector in Africa and Asia, with the aim of identifying and analyzing problems in delivering information effectively to users in the sector and, where possible, suggesting solutions. This work aims to bring together the main lessons learned from these assignments in an attempt to help managers in sector institutions in other countries to identify and solve common information management problems.

Field assignments of the kind described here are not the only kind of action currently being undertaken to improve information provision in the water and sanitation sector. At the international level, a Working Group on Information Management representing a wide range of sector institutions from many parts of the world is working on behalf of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council to develop strategies and activities in support of capacity building for information management in the sector. These will include actions designed to help solve many of the problems outlined in this paper. IRC is the Convenor of this Working Group.

Within the framework of the International Training Network for Water and Waste Management (ITN), IRC has distributed a basic library of publications on water and sanitation to ITN centres in Asia and Africa. The continuing demand for this library is just one indication of the growing awareness of the need for more and better information provision to help meet the worldwide need for more and better water and sanitation facilities.

Also at the international level, the Water and Sanitation Monitoring System (WASAMS), a simplified sector monitoring system which focuses on selected performance indicators for collecting and managing data and information on the water and sanitation sector, is being developed and introduced in developing countries by WHO and UNICEF.

1. BACKGROUND. BACKGROUND

IntroductionIntroduction

In comparison with other sectors such as agriculture and health, the importance of developing information systems and services in the water and sanitation sector has, until recently, been seriously neglected, both by national governments and by donor agencies. Managers in water sector institutions are often aware of the need to organize information provision more effectively, but do not know how to go about it. Among the problems they face are:

• a lack of awareness, particularly among policy makers, of how important information and data are to the work of institutions in the sector

• a lack of clearly defined policies and responsibilities for information management in sector institutions

• a lack of well-designed modern systems for managing the various kinds of information and data

• a lack of appropriate organizational structures and coordinating mechanisms for information management

• a lack of competent information personnel

• a lack of suitable accommodation, equipment and supplies for information handling

• underlying all these, a lack of adequate financial support.

The general aim of the field assignments carried out by IRC in 1990 and 1991 was to help sector agencies and information systems to identify and overcome these problems. Two of the assignments, in Uganda and Ethiopia, made new proposals for organizing information provision in government institutions; the remainder aimed to assess or evaluate information networking activities which had already been started under existing technical assistance projects. These included national information networks in Tanzania, the Philippines and Indonesia, and a regional network, ENSICNET, which has its headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, with national focal points in China, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. This chapter describes the general background to these assignments.

Uganda

The rehabilitation of water supplies is one of several key areas identified by the government of Uganda in its national recovery programme. The country also has vital regional responsibilities for collecting and disseminating data on water resources due to its position at the headwaters of the White Nile.

Responsibility for water supply and sanitation in Uganda is divided among a number of government ministries and departments, one para-statal organization and several local authorities. A large number of international and foreign aid organizations are also active in the sector.

The lead agency in the sector is the Water Development Department of the Ministry of Energy, Minerals and Environmental Protection (formerly the Ministry of Water and Mineral Development). The Department is responsible for urban and rural water supply and sanitation throughout Uganda (except for self-sustainable urban schemes), for collecting and analyzing data on water resources and for approving proposals for water supply and sanitation projects put forward by other organizations. It is organized in six main divisions, a number of administrative sections, ten regional offices, and two project coordination units. Its headquarters are at Luzira, six miles from Kampala on the shores of Lake Victoria. The Water Resources Division and its laboratory and library are at Entebbe, twenty miles on the other side of Kampala.

Two assignments were carried out in the Water Development Department, in 1990 and 1991. Both of them focused mainly on organizing management information and technical information within the Department, although methods of providing project and sector information were also touched upon.

EthiopiaEthiopia

The assignment in Ethiopia took place a few months before the overthrow of the Mengistu regime. It is understood that the institutional framework of the water and sanitation sector remains essentially the same as it was before, except that the Ethiopian Water Works Construction Authority has been privatized.

The lead agency in the water and sanitation sector in Ethiopia is the Water Resources Commission, which has overall responsibility for ensuring adequate supplies of water for irrigation and domestic use and adequate facilities for drainage, disposing safely of human waste and industrial effluents, and control and preventing pollution and disease. The Commission's headquarters are in Addis Ababa. At the time of the assignment, its responsibilities in respect of specific aspects of water resources were discharged through three autonomous authorities, namely, the Water Resources Development Authority (WRDA), the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WSSA), and the Ethiopian Water Works Construction Authority (EWCCA); through one specialized agency, the National Meteorological Services Agency (NMSA); and one training institution, the Arba Minch Water Technology Institute.

For water resources purposes, Ethiopia is divided into eight regions. The Water Supply and Sewerage Authority and the Ethiopian Water Works Construction Authority both have regional offices, but the Water Resources Development Authority and the Water Resources Commission itself have none. The Water Technology Institute is located at Arba Minch, some 500 kilometres south west of Addis Ababa; it conducts courses up to degree level in hydraulic engineering, irrigation engineering and sanitary engineering, meteorology, basic sciences and the humanities.

___________________________________________________________

In comparison with other sectors such as agriculture and health, the importance of developing information systems and services in the water and sanitation sector has been seriously neglected.____________________________________________________________

The assignment to the Water Resources Commission took place in 1990, and was concerned with establishing a national documentation centre for water resources. A previous study carried out by a consultant provided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) in 1987 had suggested the Arba Minch Water Technology Institute as a possible site for such a centre. The aims of the 1990 assignment were to evaluate this suggestion and to provide practical advice on how to establish and develop the proposed centre.

TanzaniaTanzania

The government of Tanzania and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada initiated a joint project for a national water and sanitation information network (MAJIDOC) in December 1989. The network comprised three units of the Ministry of Water and Mineral Development (MAJI). The assignment to Tanzania took place in 1990, and aimed to reassess the original project proposals for Phase 1 of MAJIDOC, and to prepare proposals for Phase 2, in which it was intended to extend the network down to the regional level within Tanzania.

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PhilippinesPhilippines

The International Training Network for Water and Waste Management in the Philippines (ITN-Philippines) is part of a global International Training Network for Water and Waste Management (ITN), which is coordinated by the UNDP/World Bank Water Supply and Sanitation Program. The international network comprises a number of national and regional networks, each based on a Training Network Centre. The Training Network Centre for ITN-Philippines is located in the Water Supply Training Centre of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) in Quezon City, Metro Manila.

ITN-Philippines is being developed under a Dutch technical assistance project. One of the aims of this project is to improve the ability of institutions in the network to disseminate information on applying sustainable low-cost technologies in the water and sanitation sector. The International Institute for Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering (IHE), based at Delft in the Netherlands, is the Associated Institution responsible to the Dutch government for managing the project.

A total of four visits to review the information and documentation activities of ITN-Philippines were made on behalf of IHE in 1990 and 1991. An important event during the first mission was a meeting during which representatives of the institutions participating in the network were asked to record their views on various aspects of their ability to participate in its information and documentation activities, using a questionnaire prepared for the purpose. The responses provided valuable insights into the problems faced by member institutions in supplying information on low-cost water supply and sanitation to their users.

The second assignment involved an appraisal of a draft project proposal for establishing a national information centre for water supply and sanitation which had been prepared by the documentation staff of the Local Water Utilities Administration. The second and third assignments were also concerned with preparing terms of reference for a local information consultant to provide ongoing professional advice and assistance to the ITN-Philippines team. One of the main aims of the fourth assignment was to select this local consultant.

LWUA is also the national focal point of the Environmental Systems Information Centre Network in the Philippines (ENSICNET-Philippines), one of six such networks established in Asian countries under a joint project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). The need for linkages between ITN-Philippines and ENSICNET-Philippines was taken into account during the first mission, but the effectiveness of the Local Water Utilities Administration as the focal point of ENSICNET-Philippines was assessed under a separate assignment to evaluate ENSICNET as a whole, which is described below.

ENSICNETENSICNET

The Environmental Systems Information Centre (ENSIC) (known until mid-1992 as the Environmental Sanitation Information Centre) was first established at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in 1978, with financial support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). A joint project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and AIT to extend the activities of ENSIC to selected developing countries in Asia was initiated in January 1988. This project, known as ENSICNET, comprises six national environmental information networks in China, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam, in each of which there is a national focal point and a number of other participating institutions, known as 'focal nodes'. Pakistan and Vietnam also have secondary national focal points, while China has a number of regional focal points covering different parts of the country.

___________________________________________________________

Managers in water sector institutions are aware of the need to organize information provision more effectively, but do not know how to go about it.___________________________________________________________

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The ENSICNET assignment involved an evaluation of the first phase of the project in order to provide a basis for developing it further in a second phase, which the ADB had provisionally agreed to finance. Three questionnaires, designed to obtain the views of participants on various aspects of developing and operating the network, were distributed in each country in advance of the consultant's visit. The responses provided useful information on the problems faced by network participants in each of the six countries.

IndonesiaIndonesia

The Water and Sanitation Information Network (WASIN) in Indonesia was established in 1988 as a joint project of the government of Indonesia and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). It comprises five library and documentation units in the Directorate General of Human Settlements (Cipta Karya) of the Ministry of Public Works and three in the Directorate General of Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Health (CDC-EH) of the Ministry of Health. The National Scientific and Technological Information Centre (Pusat Dokumentasi dan Informasi Ilmiah: PDII) of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia: LIPI) in Jakarta also participates in the network. The Bandung branch of PDII-LIPI is the national focal point for ENSICNET-Indonesia, of which WASIN itself is also a member.

The project was originally scheduled to end in 1990; however, an extension until the end of 1992 was approved by IDRC in mid-1991. The aim of the WASIN assignment was to assess the first phase of the project in order to provide a basis for its activities during and after the extension. More or less at the same time, the Director of PDII in Jakarta carried out a consultancy to review and develop library policy in the Ministry of Public Works and its seven Directorates General (including Cipta Karya), as part of an Institutional Development and Training Project (IDTP) of the Ministry of Public Works and the World Bank. A World Bank consultant had also recently carried out a feasibility study for establishing health information systems in the Ministry of Health.

ConclusionConclusion

This brief summary of the background to the assignments highlights a number of significant features which are discussed in more detail below. In all the countries visited, there are many different institutions and organizations active in the water and sanitation sector, most of them with many branch offices at various levels scattered over a wide geographical area; and in several cases, there are a number of information networks in the water and sanitation sector, often overlapping in membership and with similar, if not identical, aims and objectives. The activities of these institutions and networks cover a broad scope, ranging from low-cost water supply and sanitation to water resources management in general and to broader environmental issues.

___________________________________________________________

There are a number of information networks in the water and sanitation sector, often overlapping in membership and with similar aims and objectives. ___________________________________________________________

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2. CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION PROVISION. CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION PROVISION


The general aim of the assignments was to help sector agencies and information systems and networks to identify and overcome the problems outlined at the beginning of Chapter 1, working within an overall framework based on four basic categories of information. These are:

• project and sector information

• management information

• technical information

• information for public awareness, education and communication.

The main characteristics of each type of information, and the general situation with regard to information provision in the institutions studied in the assignments, are outlined below. Specific aspects of the organization of information provision in these institutions are considered in subsequent chapters.

Project and sector informationProject and sector information

Project and sector information consists of general information and statistical data on the water supply and sanitation sector in a country as a whole, as well as information on completed, ongoing and proposed projects in the sector at all levels. This kind of information is used mainly by planners and policy-makers, both in institutions within a country and in external support agencies, international organizations and research institutions in other countries.

In order to develop an effective project and sector information system at the national level, it is necessary first to establish effective management information systems at lower levels, in such institutions as governmental and non-governmental organizations, aid agencies, project offices and field offices of consultants and contractors. Information derived from such systems may be processed by a project and sector information system to provide aggregations of data, indicators and analyses at the national level. Adequate documentary backup to a project and sector information system is essential if users of the aggregated data produced by the system are to be able, if they wish, to investigate specific topics in more detail.

In Uganda, it was proposed that the Water Development Department should be responsible for project and sector information, although its existing management information systems and documentation services were not yet capable of providing the support required. A phased programme of information development for the Department was prepared, which included a feasibility study for a Water Project and Sector Information System (WAPSIS) in the second phase, and the establishment of such a system in the third phase. It was subsequently decided, however, to establish a Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, with some responsibilities for project and sector information, in the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Environmental Protection, and this makes it necessary to reconsider the proposal for WAPSIS.

In Ethiopia, one of the main needs of the staff of the Water Resources Commission and its constituent bodies was for project and sector information, but there appeared to be no facilities for providing it. The management information systems were not operating effectively, and the existing documentation services were also not able to provide adequate documentary backup. As in Uganda, a phased information development programme was proposed, in which a feasibility study for a project and sector information system would be carried out in the first phase, and the system would be established and developed in the second phase.

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INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN WATER AND SANITATION

In Tanzania, although it was clear that the main need of many of the staff of the Ministry of Water and other public bodies was for project and sector information, detailed consideration of this topic was outside the scope of the assignment. The assignments in Asia were not concerned with project and sector information.

Management informationManagement information

Management information consists mainly of internally-generated information and data for use in the planning, administration, day-to-day operation, management, performance and evaluation of specific institutions, organizations, programmes and projects. Every institution needs its own management information for its own purposes, and most of the information needed will be generated within the institution itself. However, a lot may also be generated elsewhere, for example by externally-funded aid agency projects, consultants and contractors, or other central or local government bodies.

Management information systems are generally concerned with information in one or other of two main categories, namely: the information needed to manage the main resource or operational activity with which the institution is concerned, such as water or health, which may be described as 'operational information'; and the information needed to manage the institution itself, which may be described as 'administrative information'.

In the water and sanitation sector, operational information relates to such topics as: water resources (including hydrogeological, meteorological and hydrological data, information on the protection and development of water sources, etc.); water demand and water use (including population data, coverage data, service applications, records of consumption, cost recovery data, health impact data, etc.); and water supply (including borehole records, well records, design and construction records, operation and maintenance data and water quality data). Administrative information includes records relating to: personnel; equipment; stores; upkeep of buildings; and finance (including accounting records, financial plans, budget estimates, etc).

The most extensive study of management information systems among the assignments described here was carried out in Uganda. The wide-ranging nature of the assignments in the Water Development Department meant that it was possible to consider most aspects of management information to some degree.

___________________________________________________________

Management information systems are concerned with both operational information and administrative information.___________________________________________________________

Effective management information systems did not exist in the Department when the first assignment took place, and proposals were therefore put forward for developing such systems within the framework of the information development programme referred to above. The proposals provided for the Department to establish: an Information Management Unit (IMU), to be responsible for planning, coordinating and developing all information systems within the Department; a Management Information System for Water Resources (MISWAR); a Management Information System for Water Supply (MISWAS); and a Management Information System for Administration (MISAD). The establishment of the Information Management Unit was given first priority. The three management information systems would be extended to district level at a later stage. The proposals took account of work already being done, or proposed to be done, in this respect under other water and sanitation projects. Because of this, the requirements of the proposed systems were presented only in outline.

Before the second assignment, a fact-finding mission from the Netherlands Government visited Uganda and proposed that a Water Resources Data and Information System should be established within the Water Development Department. It was therefore decided that the management information systems for water resources and water supply (MISWAR and MISWAS) should be combined into one Water Management Data and Information System (WAMDIS), which could be considered the equivalent of the system proposed in the

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BACKGROUND

Dutch report. The need for the Information Management Unit to be created as soon as possible had been accepted by the Commissioner, and further proposals were made during the second mission to help ensure that this was done as soon as possible. These are discussed in more detail below.

In the Water Resources Commission and the water authorities in Ethiopia, there were serious deficiencies and problems in supplying management information. The information development programme prepared for the Commission therefore provided, in the first phase, for further studies of the nature and extent of the need for such information and the kinds of services and facilities required. In the second phase, management information systems based on these studies would be established, and these would be extended, in the third phase, to offices at the regional level.

In Tanzania, one of the main needs of the staff of the Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals was for management information, and there was again a need for more detailed study of management information systems in the Ministry to be carried out at an early stage.

The ENSICNET evaluation was not concerned with management information as such, but the need for training in management information systems, including management information systems for libraries and for science and technology, was identified by a number of respondents to the survey questionnaires. The ITN-Philippines and WASIN assignments did not deal with management information.

Technical information Technical information

Technical information exchange may be characterized by its aims, which are to transfer information, data, knowledge and experience from one location to another in which they may be applied according to local needs. It is concerned with problems and solutions, methods and techniques, the results of research and field studies, sources of equipment, expertise and materials, and so on.

Every institution in the water and sanitation sector, at all levels, needs technical information to enable it to benefit from the experiences of others, and also generates technical information which could be of benefit to others. The assignments described here were concerned mainly with technical information exchange, with the emphasis on documentary information.

At the time of the first assignment in Uganda, there was no library in the then Ministry of Water and Mineral Development, and the only library in the Water Development Department was that at Entebbe. It was kept locked and did not appear to be used. There were no adequate alternative sources of technical information on the water sector elsewhere in Uganda to which users in the Department could turn, and the Department appeared to function almost entirely without access to technical information about activities and developments in the sector in other parts of the world.

The lack of facilities for producing and distributing publications or technical reports was a serious limitation on the Department's capacity to participate effectively in any technical information exchange programme.

CAPTION 1

... without access to technical information about developments in other parts of the world...

[Picture: reinventing the wheel (or the handpump)]?

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All agencies in the water and sanitation sector need to participate in technical information exchange activities, which need to be coordinated at the national level if they are to be effective. It was therefore proposed that the Water Development Department should be responsible for information on scientific, engineering and operational aspects of water supply and sanitation, while the Health Education Division of the Ministry of Health should be responsible for information on health and community mobilization aspects. Terms of reference for a consultant mission to study and advise on developing information systems in the health sector were subsequently prepared for the Health Education Division.

The information development programme for the Water Development Department provided, in Phase 1, for establishing a Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC), to supply technical information to Department staff and others and provide a firm basis for the subsequent development of a Uganda Water Information and Documentation System (UWIDOS) and a Uganda Water Information and Documentation Network (UWIDON). UWIDOS would be established in Phase 2 as an integrated service within the Department, centred on UWIDOC and comprising other documentation centres in the Department down to district level. UWIDON would be established in Phase 3 as a coordinated national information network on water and sanitation, comprising the constituent units of UWIDOS and documentation centres in other sector institutions in Uganda.

Phase 1 also included a feasibility study for establishing a document production unit in Phase 2. However, good document production facilities already existed in the Ministry of Health, and it was pointed out that these could be made available to the Department if required. The Department therefore decided not to proceed further with this proposal, at least for the time being.

By the time of the second assignment, significant progress had been made towards establishing UWIDOC, and the first step in developing UWIDOS had been taken with the re-opening of the library at Entebbe. Further information on these developments is provided below.

___________________________________________________________

Every institution in the sector needs technical information to enable it to benefit from the experiences of others, and generates technical information which could be of benefit to others.___________________________________________________________

The assignment in Ethiopia was concerned mainly with establishing a national documentation centre to supply technical information to the Water Resources Commission and its associated authorities, whose needs were not being met by the existing arrangements.

The Commission itself had one small library, a small registry and a small collection of audiovisual materials. Large numbers of documents, not organized in any way, were kept in individual offices throughout the Commission and the authorities. The Ethiopian Water Works Construction Authority had only one small library at its regional office in Awassa; neither the headquarters nor any of the seven other regional offices had a library. The Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WSSA) had two very small libraries and a separate documentation centre for project reports; none of its regional offices had a library. The Water Resources Development Authority (WRDA) had a small library at headquarters. The National Meteorological Services Authority (NMSA) had a small documentation centre and a data archive of climatological records, and some of its regional offices also had small document collections. The Agency was expected to become independent of

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BACKGROUND

the Water Resources Commission in the near future, and its information needs were therefore not considered further during the assignment. The best-organized library under the authority of the Commission was that of the Arba Minch Water Technology Institute.

Phase 1 of the information development programme for Ethiopia was concerned with establishing and developing, first, an Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC) at the headquarters of the Water Resources Commission in Addis Ababa and secondly, the library and documentation centre at the Arba Minch Water Technology Institute. The establishment of a document production and distribution unit for the Commission was also proposed. The Commission already had staff capable of preparing detailed proposals for such a unit, which it was suggested should be incorporated in EWIDOC. In Phase 2, following the pattern proposed for Uganda, EWIDOC was to become the nucleus of an Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation System (EWIDOS), which in turn would be incorporated, in Phase 3, in an Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Network (EWIDON), with links to the National Scientific and Technical Information and Documentation Centre and to international and foreign information systems.

In Tanzania, the MAJIDOC network was based at the library and documentation centre of the Water Resources Institute and included also the documentation centre of the Water Master Plan Coordinating Unit (WMPCU) and the library of the Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals (MAJI), all of which were located in Dar es Salaam. The Ministry was the parent institution of both the Water Resources Institute and the WMPCU. There were some other libraries or documentation centres in other branches of the Ministry and at some of the eighteen Regional Water Engineers' offices in different parts of Tanzania. Most of the libraries visited were small and in poor condition. Various technical proposals were made for improving the library and documentation units in MAJIDOC.

The libraries and documentation centres of institutions participating in ITN-Philippines had an important role to play in helping the network to disseminate information relating to sustainable low-cost technologies in water supply and sanitation. However, not all the participating institutions had libraries, and in those which had, the libraries were often either very weak or only marginally concerned with low-cost water supply and sanitation. A number of recommendations were made for specific improvements in these libraries.

The main aim of ENSICNET was to promote the collection and dissemination of technical information on environmental sanitation and related topics in the six member countries. This was to be done by creating, in each country, a national bibliographical database of documents on environmental sanitation, which could also be incorporated into the regional database maintained by ENSIC in Bangkok. This would make it possible for users to identify documents of interest which had been produced in member countries other than their own. A number of obstacles to the effective operation of the network were identified, and are discussed in the appropriate sections below.

One of the aims of the WASIN project in Indonesia was to strengthen the technical information resources of Cipta Karya and the Directorate-General of Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Health (CDC-EH). The network comprised eight libraries and documentation centres in these two organizations, as well as the National Scientific and Technical Documentation Centre (PDII). None of these, apart from PDII, had adequate accommodation or professionally-qualified staff, and none of them appeared to be very much used. A number of recommendations were made with regard to specific aspects of the development of WASIN, which are discussed in the appropriate sections below.

Information, education and communicationInformation, education and communication

Information, education and communication (IEC) formerly known as 'Public information and promotion') is in a different category from the other kinds of information outlined above. The main target audiences for IEC activities are the general public, on the one hand, and sector policy makers, on the other. It aims to develop awareness, improve motivation and change behaviour in relation to water supply and sanitation, rather than provide information for use in carrying out technical or managerial activities in the sector. The main role of

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sector professionals with regard to IEC is to act as the channel through which it is directed towards the appropriate target audience.

Information for use in IEC campaigns may be generated either locally -- for example, by a village health committee -- or at a higher administrative level -- for example, by the Ministry of Health for a national safe water campaign. Much of this kind of information is generated in dialogue with local communities and communicated both through the mass media, for example in radio and television broadcasts, and through face-face communication, for example, between community leaders and public health workers. It may also be recorded in documentary form, such as recordings of radio and television broadcasts or the typescripts of speeches given by community leaders. Information, education and communication activities were not studied during the assignments.


It is important to recognize that the four categories of information referred to above are not mutually exclusive. Project and sector information may be partly derived from the output of management information systems, while performance indicators and growth forecasts produced by a project and sector information system may be used as inputs to management information systems for planning purposes. Similarly, data derived from a management information system may be made available to others in a report or periodical article as an item of technical information, and this in turn may be used as the basis for a radio broadcast, a brochure or a poster for use in an information, education and communication programme.

The same source of information may thus be used in different ways and for different purposes; and even if a documentation centre, for example, is not concerned with disseminating management information within its parent institution, some, at least of the products of the institution's management information system may be held by such a centre and made available to its users. These considerations emphasize how important it is to adopt an integrated approach to analyzing information problems in sector institutions, and to formulating and implementing appropriate solutions.

___________________________________________________________

It is important to adopt an integrated approach to analyzing information and communication problems in sector institutions, and to formulating and implementing appropriate solutions.___________________________________________________________

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3. INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS. INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS


One of the main obstacles to organizing effective water and sanitation information systems and networks in many countries is the large number of organizations operating in the sector. Many of these are concerned with broader issues, such as water resources development, public health, rural development and appropriate technology, and are involved in water supply and sanitation -- particularly in rural or poor urban areas -- only to a limited extent. This is particularly true where low-cost water supply and sanitation is concerned.

It has to be recognized also that 'information about water and sanitation' is not the same thing as 'information of professional interest to people working in the water and sanitation sector'. Those working in this field -- or as technical professionals in wider fields such as water resources development in general -- need information not only about their professional fields of interest, but also about many other subjects, such as management techniques, vehicle maintenance, legal aspects of their work, and so on.

It is important to take these considerations fully into account when defining the objectives and functions of an information system and the strategies by means of which they are attained and carried out.

Objectives of information systems and networksObjectives of information systems and networks

It has been suggested that an information system can only be evaluated in relation to its stated objectives -- though few systems do, in fact, state their objectives precisely. In general terms, the ultimate objective of any information system must be to provide information which will satisfy the needs of its users (and could satisfy those of potential users) in terms of:

• maintaining awareness of new developments in their fields of interest

• identifying sources of information of interest

• providing access to information sources

• providing substantive information in response to enquiries.

In a documentary information system like most of those described here, these objectives may be expressed more precisely in terms of providing the required information through information products and services of various kinds. Information products and services are considered in more detail in Chapter 5 below.

The objectives and priorities of an information system should be determined in accordance with those of its parent institution and of any relevant national or local plans and policies, either for water supply and sanitation or for information provision in general. These objectives and priorities should be stated in writing and officially endorsed by the parent institution.

An information network comprises a number of individual information systems, units or services, each of which will have its own objectives and priorities. The objectives of a network should be in harmony with at least some of the objectives of all of its member institutions. The general aim, however, should be to help member institutions to attain their own objectives and, in particular, to meet the information needs of their users, more effectively. A network may be evaluated, at least in part, in terms of the extent to which it has, or is able to, achieve this aim.

___________________________________________________________

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Information about water supply and sanitation is not the same thing as information of interest to people working in water supply and sanitation.___________________________________________________________

Among the networks studied, objectives had already been established for MAJIDOC, ITN-Philippines, ENSICNET and WASIN. In the case of the two IDRC projects, MAJIDOC and WASIN, the stated objective of the project was simply to enable the authorities to establish a national water and sanitation information network. Various outputs and activities of the projects were identified, and are discussed in the appropriate sections below. In Uganda and Ethiopia, where there had been little or no previous development of water supply and sanitation information systems, and where consequently no objectives for information development had been formulated, suggestions as to possible objectives and priorities were put forward by representatives of the Water Development Department in Uganda and the Water Resources Commission in Ethiopia. These were taken into account in formulating objectives for the information development programmes for these institutions.

The overall aim of the information development programme in Uganda was to make good the existing deficiencies in information provision in the Water Development Department. Separate development objectives and immediate objectives were defined for each project in the information development programme and for the programme as a whole. The development objective of the programme as a whole was to strengthen the capacity of the Department to perform its central coordinating role in the water supply and sanitation sector, while the immediate objective was to establish efficient and effective systems for collecting, processing, storing, analyzing, retrieving and disseminating technical information, management information and project and sector information within the Department.

The development objective for the Information Management Unit was to strengthen the capacity of the Department to plan, establish, operate and maintain efficient and effective systems and facilities for collecting, processing, storing, retrieving and disseminating management information and technical information. That for the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC) was to strengthen the capacity of the Department to apply the experience and knowledge of water supply and sanitation institutions in other countries in planning, establishing, operating and maintaining effective and efficient water supply and sanitation facilities in Uganda. In the case of the Water Management Data and Information System (WAMDIS), which replaced the projects for management information systems in water resources and water supply (MISWAR and MISWAS) after the second assignment, the development objective was to strengthen the capacity of the Department to manage national water resources effectively and efficiently and to develop, operate and maintain water supplies of all types in all parts of Uganda. The development objective of the Management Information System for Administration (MISAD) was simply to strengthen the capacity of the Department to administer its routine operations effectively and efficiently.

The immediate objective of each project was to establish the unit or system concerned within the Department, so as to be capable of performing a number of specific functions efficiently and effectively. These functions are considered in more detail below.

In Ethiopia, senior staff of the Water Resources Commission suggested giving priority to establishing library and documentation units in the regional offices of the various authorities rather than in their headquarters, since headquarters staff could use the library of the Water Resources Commission. Development objectives and immediate objectives, similar to those for UWIDOC, were stated only in respect of the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC) project, and not in respect of the information development programme as a whole or of any of other projects which it included.

In both ITN-Philippines and ENSICNET, the long-term objective or general aim was expressed in terms of developing national capacities to improve water supply and sanitation investments in rural, urban and low-income areas. The short-term objectives of ITN-Philippines as a whole included improving the capabilities of

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sector agencies and educational institutions to disseminate information on sustainable low-cost technologies. In ENSICNET, the immediate objective was to strengthen information systems and data gathering capabilities and provide training in information management and low-cost technologies in six developing member countries of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in order to develop strong information systems in water supply and sanitation. A complementary objective was to strengthen information support for member countries which were not going to participate in the network proper.

In response to the questionnaire survey, most representatives of institutions participating in ITN-Philippines said they had a clear idea of what the network aimed to do in terms of library and documentation activities. However, a substantial proportion thought that the ITN and ENSICNET networks in the Philippines were trying to do the same thing in this respect.

CAPTION 2

... two networks were trying to do the same thing ...

[Picture: two network representatives trying to offer user the same document (or two fishermen with nets trying to catch the same fish]?

Most respondents to the survey of ENSICNET also felt that, in general, the objectives of the network were clear to them and were supported by their institutions, though this was not always borne out by their other responses in respect of specific objectives or activities. The ENSICNET study concluded that, if the objectives of the network had been defined more precisely at the outset, some misunderstandings might have been avoided. The general aims of the second phase of the ENSICNET project had already stated been stated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) before the evaluation began. These were, first, that it should become self-sustaining -- at least to the extent that bilateral and other donors would be willing to provide support -- and, secondly, that it should be decentralized as much as possible. It was also intended to maintain network liaison officers in China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Strategies for information developmentStrategies for information development

The broad means by which the objectives of an information system or network are to be achieved constitute the strategy for its development. Strategies for the information systems or networks which had already been established were set out in the project documents. In Uganda, appropriate strategies were defined in the information development programmes and project proposals, while in Ethiopia, a strategy was defined only for the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC) project.

The overall strategy of the information development programme for the Water Development Department in Uganda was to combine any necessary further studies of information management in the Department (particularly in respect of project and sector information and management information) with practical steps to carry out actions which were already seen to be necessary, based on a combination of foreign technical assistance and local support.

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The strategies for attaining the objectives of the individual projects were defined in detail in each project proposal. With the exception of the Management Information System for Water Supply (MISWAS), they each involved, first, seeking foreign technical assistance for providing information management experts and consultants, information handling equipment and supplies, and training for local staff, and secondly, taking local actions to complement the technical assistance, including formally establishing the Information Management Unit and the various information systems as administrative entities within the structure of the Water Development Department, providing suitable and adequate accommodation and furniture, appointing senior local information managers as counterparts to the foreign experts, and providing adequate recurrent budgets and general administrative and logistical support.

In the case of the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC), for example, foreign technical assistance was to be sought for: supplying information materials published outside Uganda, for at least three years; providing furniture, equipment and supplies for a similar period; support for a national consultant; and providing training -- including, where appropriate, training abroad. The complementary local actions included: formally establishing UWIDOC under the control of the Information Management Unit; providing suitable and adequate accommodation; recruiting a professional librarian as head of UWIDOC, as well as other appropriately-qualified local staff; providing an adequate recurrent budget and general administrative and logistical support; transferring the collections of the existing library at Entebbe to UWIDOC; and providing support at an appropriate time for developing the Uganda Water Information and Documentation System (UWIDOS) and Network (UWIDON). In the case of the Management Information System for Water Supply (MISWAS), the strategy was to develop the system within the framework of an existing project, using resources already allocated, or to be allocated at a later stage, to this project.

In Ethiopia, the strategy for the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC) project was essentially the same as that for UWIDOC, in Uganda, outlined above.

In Tanzania, the strategy for establishing MAJIDOC, as defined in the project document, was to strengthen the documentation centre of the Water Resources Institute in collaboration with the Water Master Plan Coordinating Unit documentation centre and the MAJI headquarters library.

The general strategy for attaining the objectives of ITN-Philippines as a whole was to create a network of participating institutions. One element in this strategy was to assist in establishing a documentation and information centre. Activities such as staff training and providing equipment were described as outputs of the project rather than elements of the strategy for attaining its objectives.

___________________________________________________________

The objectives of an information network should be in harmony with at least some of the objectives of its member institutions.___________________________________________________________

The general objective of ENSICNET was to be achieved by linking national environmental sanitation centres and ENSIC to form a regional information network, with ENSIC serving as the focal point for exchanging information and providing technical and information support to the national focal points, which would also receive information materials, equipment, software and training. The complementary objective of disseminating information to developing member countries which would not be participating in the network was to be attained by distributing information generated by ENSIC to users and information centres in these countries.

In the case of WASIN, the strategy for establishing a national water and sanitation documentation network was to strengthen the information capability of Cipta Karya and the Directorate-General of

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Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Health (CDC-EH) through redeploying and training the existing staff and providing equipment and a national consultant.

Functions of information systems and networksFunctions of information systems and networks

The specific functions of different information systems or networks vary in accordance with the requirements of the local situation. In order to achieve the kinds of objectives outlined above, however, any information system must be capable of performing certain basic functions effectively.

Two essential functions of any such system are, first, to identify the people who are likely to want to use it, and secondly, to find out what kinds of information they need. Following on from this, it is necessary to be able to identify the main, or most accessible, sources of the kinds of information needed. This may involve identifying both producers of information, such as research institutes or publishers, and the specific information sources which they produce, such as hydrological data banks or published reports.

The system must also be able to select and obtain the most useful information and to process it in such a way that it can be stored until needed and be retrieved when required. A record of the information which is available should be maintained and made accessible to users so that they can find out whether the system can provide the information they need.

To make information available to users in the most useful form, it may need to be analyzed and repackaged into various types of information products, such as directories or abstract bulletins, and made available through different kinds of information services, such as selective dissemination of information (SDI) services, enquiry services, photocopying services, and so on. Other kinds of services, such as translating documents in languages not generally understood by users, may also be needed. Arrangements should also be made for users to gain access to the information system, its information resources and its information products and services.

An important, but often neglected, function is to promote an awareness and knowledge, among the potential users of the information system, of what kinds of information sources, products and services it can provide. This may include, not only publicizing the system in various ways, but also training users in how best to use the facilities which it provides.

In order to perform these basic operational functions, an information system must also perform a number of functions connected with providing the necessary resources, such as recruiting and training staff, providing and maintaining physical facilities, and providing adequate financial support. It is also necessary to ensure that any existing information resources are properly organized before any new developments take place.

Over and above all this, the system must perform a number of managerial functions, including establishing cooperative links with other information systems in the sector, formulating operating procedures, and planning, coordinating, monitoring and evaluating its own activities and possibly those of other information units with which it cooperates in an information network.

The extent to which these various functions are being, or are expected to be, performed by the various systems and networks studied, is considered in the appropriate sections below.

___________________________________________________________

Two essential functions of an information system are, first, to identify the people who are likely to want to use it, and secondly, to find out what kinds of information they need.___________________________________________________________

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There was considerable variation in the extent to which the functions of these systems and networks were spelled out in project documents. As noted above, the project proposals for Uganda and Ethiopia defined the functions of the various information units quite specifically as components of their immediate objectives. The functions of the Information Management Unit in Uganda, for example, were defined as follows:

• planning and coordinating all information systems within the Department

• assuming direct managerial responsibility for the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC)

• initiating the development of the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Ssystem (UWIDOS) and Network (UWIDON)

• guiding and coordinating the establishment and development of the various management information systems

• developing, operating and maintaining the Water Project and Sector Information System (WAPSIS)

• ensuring the compatibility of these systems with each other and with other information systems

• training information personnel and users

• initiating contacts and exchanges with other information systems and organizations concerned with information on water supply and sanitation.

The functions of UWIDOC, also stated as components of the immediate objective of the project, were defined as follows:

• identifying, locating, selecting, procuring, recording and preparing for use both national and foreign documents of various kinds

• providing both direct and indirect access to these documents

• providing query-answering services, literature searching services, current awareness services and document delivery services

• creating and maintaining computerized bibliographic records

• preparing input to other information systems

• developing and controlling UWIDOS, and developing and coordinating UWIDON.

The functions of the Water Management Data and Information System (WAMDIS), which replaced the original projects for management information systems for water resources and water supply (MISWAR and MISWAS) after the second assignment, were stated as being: to collect reliable, accurate and up-to-date data on groundwater, surface water and rainfall and the construction, operation and maintenance of all types of water supplies throughout Uganda; to process, store and analyze these data and disseminate the results of these analyses on a regular basis; or retrieve these results, or the original data, in response to specific demands. The functions of the Management Information System for Administration (MISAD) were to collect, process, store and disseminate the records needed for the internal administration of the Water Development Department.

In Ethiopia, the functions of the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC) were spelled out in the same terms as those for UWIDOC.

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In ENSICNET, the Memorandum of Understanding between the project and the national focal point in each country identified a number of tasks to be performed by the latter. Most of these were, indeed, isolated tasks, such as 'obtaining customs clearance for equipment'. but some might be more correctly described as ongoing functions. These included: marketing and promotion of ENSICNET; collecting, repackaging and disseminating information, and preparing a newsletter.

The scope of information provisionThe scope of information provision

Among the systems and networks studied, only ITN-Philippines and ENSICNET were specifically concerned with low-cost water supply and sanitation in rural, urban fringe and low-income areas.

In Uganda, the Water Development Department was responsible for a much wider field than low-cost water supply and sanitation, and the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC), System (UWIDOS) and Network (UWIDON), as well as the Information Management Unit, would need to be concerned with all areas of interest to the Department.

In Ethiopia, also, the Water Resources Commission and its associated authorities were responsible for all aspects of water management in the country, and the proposed national information and documentation centre would need to provide information on all these topics.

In Tanzania, the Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals was concerned not only with water resources in general, but also with other quite different areas. One question which arose in this connection was how information units concerned with these other areas, such as the library of the Geological Survey, should relate administratively to MAJIDOC. The scope of the MAJIDOC project itself was defined only in terms of establishing a 'national water and sanitation information network'.

In the case of ITN-Philippines, only two institutions participating in the network were concerned exclusively with water supply in rural and depressed areas. Others were concerned with environmental issues in general, with family issues, including domestic water supply and sanitation, and with broader fields such as public health, civil engineering, urban planning, and so on. Even the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) itself, the focal point of the network, was not involved in water supply and sanitation at the lowest levels of service, but only with urban areas above a certain level. The health aspects of water supply and, in particular, of sanitation, were already covered, in principle, by the Health Research and Development Information Network (HERDIN). There was no network dealing with the technical, managerial and social aspects of water supply. It was concluded that there was a need for a national water and sanitation information network in which access to literature on health aspects would be provided through a link with HERDIN, while the network itself would concentrate on technical, managerial and social aspects, especially of water resources and water supply.

The main consideration with regard to the scope of ENSICNET was a proposal by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that it should be extended in the second phase to cover information on environmental impact assessments. Information users in many of the focal nodes in the national networks were also interested in broader environmental issues. However, the ADB also proposed to restrict the geographical coverage of the network to only three of the six original member countries, namely, China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Some participants in the national ENSICNET networks expressed interest in extending their scope to include non-bibliographical information.

The precise scope of WASIN had not been clearly defined. Some participants were concerned that emphasis was being placed on the design and construction aspects of water supply and sanitation at the expense of the health and operation and maintenance aspects. The kinds of information being provided were relevant to the needs of only those staff members in Cipta Karya and the Directorate-General of Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Health (CDC-EH) who were involved in water supply and sanitation, and project staff suggested that the scope of the network should be extended to meet the needs of staff involved in other aspects of health and public works such as housing and urban planning and industrial, food and pesticide

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sanitation. It was pointed out that it was up to the members of WASIN themselves to define its scope. However, it was suggested that, to maintain the identity of the network and ensure that it could become recognized as a reliable source of information in a specific subject field, its scope should not be broadened too much. The needs of users working in other fields would best be met by improving general library and documentation facilities and by joining or establishing specialized information networks in the subjects concerned. It was important for the longterm future of the project that these issues be resolved. It was therefore recommended that the WASIN team take steps to define the scope of the network more precisely and in writing, as soon as possible.


Information is meant to be used for a particular purpose or to a particular end. The basic objective of any efforts to provide information to users in the sector through any kind of information system or service should be to make it easier for that information to be applied in pursuit of the defined purpose or end; but the objectives of information systems and services are rarely stated in such a manner. If they were, it might help to clarify thinking about their strategies, activities and resource requirements.

The proposals for information development in Uganda and, to a more limited extent, in Ethiopia, attempted to identify both development objectives, linked to the overall aims and activities of the parent organizations concerned, and immediate objectives, which were expressed in terms of establishing information systems of different kinds capable of performing certain specified functions efficiently and effectively. Strategies for achieving these objectives were spelled out in some detail within an overall framework combining foreign technical assistance with local support.

The studies of existing information projects revealed a marked difference of approach between the MAJIDOC and WASIN projects, on the one hand, and the ITN-Philippines and ENSICNET projects, on the other. In the two International Development Research Centre (IDRC) projects, the objective of the project was simply to establish the network, while in the other two cases, establishing the network was the strategy by means of which a more general objective was to be attained. In general, the objectives and functions of the various projects were not expressed in very precise terms. In the case of ENSICNET, at least, this was seen to be the cause of several of the difficulties being experienced by the project, emphasizing how important it is to define the objectives, strategies and functions of an information system or network clearly at the outset.

___________________________________________________________

It is important to define the objectives, strategies and functions of an information system or network clearly at the outset.___________________________________________________________

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4. ESSENTIAL PRECONDITIONS TO INFORMATION DEVELOPMENT. ESSENTIAL PRECONDITIONS TO INFORMATION DEVELOPMENT


Two factors, or groups of factors, which are of fundamental importance in relation to the need for information systems and the possibility of establishing and operating them, may be regarded as essential preconditions which must exist before an information system can operate effectively in any sector, institution or community. They are: a population of actual or potential information users, with information needs which can be satisfied, at least in part, by an information system; and a supply of information appropriate to these needs.

Information usersInformation users

The potential users of information in the water and sanitation sector are often widely scattered and sometimes difficult to identify. It is essential, however, to know what kinds of people are likely to need what types of information, how many of each kind there are, and where they are located, if information systems capable of meeting their needs are to be developed.

Differences in the information needs of different groups of users can sometimes give rise to problems. In Ethiopia, for example, the needs of users at the Arba Minch Water Technology Institute and those of users working in the Water Resources Commission and its associated authorities were quite different, and called for different responses in terms of information materials, facilities and services. Academic staff, students and researchers at Arba Minch mainly needed information from external sources, such as foreign books and journals, with an occasional need for reports, studies, and other information generated locally, whereas the reverse was the case for managerial and technical staff in sector agencies. The report emphasized that these differing information needs had to be taken into account in deciding where the proposed national documentation centre for the water sector should be located.

In Tanzania, also, the needs of users at the Water Resources Institute and those of users working in the Ministry and other public authorities in the sector were different, and would eventually require separate provision. The MAJIDOC project document identified the main groups of potential information users in government ministries, regional development directorates, local authorities, industry, training and research institutions, and so on, and defined their information needs, in very general terms, as being for up-to-date information on the available knowledge and experiences applicable in preparing and executing development schemes. Estimates of the numbers of users in different sectoral institutions in Tanzania were given in the project document, but were not thought to be very reliable.

One of the activities to be carried out under the MAJIDOC project was an assessment of the needs of the network's main users, and project staff had prepared a draft questionnaire to be used for this purpose. This focused on the research activities of respondents and their use of libraries and published documents, rather than their information needs as such. A methodology for carrying out a comprehensive information survey, which could incorporate a survey of users and their needs, was outlined in the report on the assignment.

___________________________________________________________

The potential users of information in the water and sanitation sector are often widely scattered and sometimes difficult to identify.___________________________________________________________

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In the Philippines, also, one of the initial activities proposed for the ITN-Philippines project was a survey of documentation and information needs. A similar survey already carried out under the ENSICNET-Philippines project had provided some data on information users, but these were considered to be incomplete, inconsistent and unreliable. In particular, the survey had ignored the large numbers of students in academic institutions, as well as members of local water and sanitation organizations in rural areas. Although the potential user population for water supply and sanitation information seemed likely to be very large, there was almost no information available about its true size, characteristics and geographical distribution. While many institutions in ITN-Philippines had very few 'experts' on low-cost water supply and sanitation on their staffs, interest in the subject among other staff members was thought to be quite widespread. It was considered essential for the ITN-Philippines network to create an accurate and up-to-date profile of the potential user population and to assess its information needs at regular intervals.

According to the ENSICNET project document, the main users of the information facilities and services to be provided under the project were expected to be people working in the field of rural water supply and sanitation. One of the tasks laid down for each national focal point was to identify the information requirements of line agencies in the sector, but none of them had yet been able to do this. Apart from distributing an initial questionnaire like that used by ENSICNET-Philippines, little effort had been made by any of the national focal points to identify the information needs of any group of users on a systematic basis, or, indeed, to find out how many potential users the national networks might be expected to serve. It was recommended that all participating institutions make greater efforts to identify information users and their needs. Although most ENSICNET participants thought there were many potential users of water and sanitation information in their institutions, only a few considered that many of them actually used the library of the institution to obtain such information.

The primary beneficiaries of WASIN were expected to be technical and professional staff in the network's parent ministries working in water and sanitation, and similar staff in other institutions. Other potential users mentioned by project staff included: occupational health specialists; staff of the Ministry of Manpower; the public works, human settlements, health and planning departments of twenty-seven provincial governments; universities and training institutions; consultants and contractors; aid organizations and non-governmental organizations, as well as students and members of the general public. The numbers of potential users in these categories were not known, but it was clear that there must be very many in a country as large as Indonesia. No systematic attempt had been made to determine the information needs of either actual or potential users of WASIN, and it was therefore proposed that a survey of the main groups of potential users should be carried out, perhaps in collaboration with ENSICNET-Indonesia, to identify their information needs and create an accurate profile of the potential user population.

The supply of informationThe supply of information

It is impossible to meet the information needs of any group of users unless the required information already exists and is available at the right levels of presentation and in the right formats and languages, and is appropriate, in terms of timeliness and of the means by which it is communicated, to the needs of the users. The term 'information sources' may refer to: institutions or individuals which produce and distribute information; guides, indexes, lists or catalogues of such information; or specific kinds of information media, such as databanks, files, reports, books, videotapes, and so on.

The Uganda and Ethiopia studies were concerned mainly with information generated within the institutions visited rather than in the country as a whole, and in both cases, the host institutions initially pressed for the inclusion in the report of proposals for document production units because they felt that their capacity to generate information in a useful form was severely limited.

In Uganda, a substantial proportion of the operational information relating to managing water resources was not generated within the Water Development Department itself, but by externally-funded projects managed by aid agencies, consultants or contractors or by other central or local government bodies, including, for example, regulations relating to public health, environmental pollution and water quality. A somewhat smaller

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proportion of the administrative information needed for managing the Department itself was also generated externally. This included government legislation and regulations relating to personnel, accounting, registry and stores procedures, use of vehicles, and so on.

In Tanzania, the supply of information generated within the country was mentioned briefly in the MAJIDOC project document, which referred specifically to the need to collect locally-produced, but unpublished, 'grey' literature. The importance of this kind of literature, and the problems of identifying and collecting it, are discussed in more detail below. It was pointed out that, while MAJIDOC should certainly be particularly concerned with locally-produced information of this kind, it would also deal with information generated in, or supplied from, abroad. Some of this information was already available in other libraries and documentation centres in Tanzania, and it was therefore proposed that MAJIDOC carry out a survey of these sources in order to provide a firm basis for developing its own collections of local information materials, for compiling and publishing a national directory of information sources, and for eventually creating national union lists and catalogues of relevant library holdings.

___________________________________________________________

It is impossible to meet the information needs of users unless information appropriate to those needs already exists and is available.___________________________________________________________

Similar proposals were made in respect of the other systems and networks studied, and an outline methodology for the conduct of a comprehensive information survey, which could include a survey of information sources, was presented in this and several of the other mission reports.

Among members of the ITN-Philippines network, there was some divergence of opinion as to how much local information was available and how easy it was to find out about both local and foreign information sources. However, respondents were in no doubt that foreign information sources were very important.

In ENSICNET, while most respondents to the questionnaire thought there were many potential users of water supply and sanitation information in their institutions, a much smaller number said that their institutions were producing many documents on these subjects. About one third of all participants, including several national focal points, seemed to be participating in the network mainly as users of information generated by other organizations, and not as information producers. Many respondents thought that their own library staff did not know enough about information sources in water supply and sanitation, but only a few, all from Indonesia, considered that their staff needed training in this respect.

In the case of WASIN, the project had not made any attempt to estimate the numbers of relevant documents produced by network members within Cipta Karya and the Directorate-General of Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Health (CDC-EH), let alone to try to estimate the numbers produced by other institutions in Indonesia. Without such information, it was impossible to forecast how quickly the national database was likely to grow or how big the published products, such as bibliographies, which were derived from the database, would need to be. This made it impossible to estimate what hardware, staff and consumable materials would be needed to maintain the database and produce information products from it, or to assess how successful the database and its products were in providing an accurate and comprehensive record of the documents produced by network members.


If information is to be used, it must be useful -- or at least, interesting -- to potential users. The first consideration in undertaking any plans, projects or other activities relating to providing information in the water

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and sanitation sector should therefore be the information user and his information needs, while the second should be the availability of information relevant to those needs.

In the information systems or networks studied, two common features with regard to information users and their needs were noted. First, if target groups of users were identified at all in projects, plans or other documents, they were either described in very vague terms, such as 'those working in the field of rural water supply and sanitation', or listed exhaustively, from top managers and policy makers to pump mechanics and members of the general public. Secondly, most of the systems or networks studied had almost no information about how many potential information users they were supposed to serve, what their main characteristics were, where they were located, or what kinds of information they needed.

Similar problems existed in relation to the supply of information. While the importance of both foreign information sources and 'grey' literature produced within the country were often recognized in general terms, there was a general lack of knowledge about what information sources were actually being produced, even, in some cases, by the national institutions themselves.

While persons in all categories, from policy makers to members of the public, may be potential information users in the sector as a whole, it is questionable whether they can or should all be considered as targets for a given information system or service, or all given equal priority when providing information services. Whatever target groups a given information system or network aims to serve, its ability to meet their needs depends upon whether or not the kinds of information they need are, in fact, being produced and made available.

It is difficult to underestimate the importance, for managers of information systems and networks, of a thorough knowledge of their potential information users, their information needs, and the availability of information able to meet those needs. Unfortunately, on the evidence of the studies described here, most information managers do not have this information, do not know how to obtain it, and, worst of all, do not appreciate its fundamental importance to the success of their efforts to develop effective information systems.

___________________________________________________________

It is difficult to underestimate the importance, for managers of information systems and networks, of a thorough knowledge of their potential information users, their information needs, and the availability of information able to meet those needs.___________________________________________________________

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5. PROVIDING INFORMATION TO USERS. PROVIDING INFORMATION TO USERS


If, as noted above, an information system can only be evaluated in relation to its objectives, and if the ultimate objective of a documentary information system is to provide information products and services to meet the needs of users, it should be possible to assess the overall effectiveness of the information systems and networks described here in terms of the ease with which their users can obtain access to information and, in particular, in terms of the range and quality of the information products and services they provide -- even if the needs of actual and potential users have not been clearly identified in most cases.

Access to informationAccess to information

Before users can use the information sources which have been acquired by an information system, they need to know that the system exists and have access both to information about the kinds of information and the types of information products and services it can provide, and to individual information sources. They may obtain this information either as a result of the publicity and public relations activities of the system, or through information products and services of the kinds described below. The newsletters provided for under the MAJIDOC, ITN-Philippines and ENSICNET projects, for example, were intended in part to promote the information services which the networks themselves were offering.

Some information products and services, such as lists of newly-acquired documents or subject bibliographies, may be regarded as a means of providing indirect access to the information the documents contain, whereas decisions on such matters as when a library should be open for use, what kinds of users should be admitted, whether documents in the collections may be borrowed or photocopied, how the document collections should be arranged, or what kind of database software should be used, are all concerned with helping the user to have direct access to the information the system can provide. The functions of the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC), for example, as stated in the project proposal, included providing access to national and foreign documents, both indirectly, by means of lists of new acquisitions, catalogues, indexes, etc; and directly, through various arrangements for access to the centre itself and to its document collections.

In an information network, member institutions must not only provide information about the information sources they themselves can offer, and provide direct access to those sources for their own users; they must also allow users from other participating institutions to have access to those sources if the full benefits of participating in a network are to be realized. In ENSICNET, for example, the basic objectives of the project, its anticipated benefits and the tasks to be performed by the project and the national focal points -- though expressed in different terms -- are all essentially concerned with providing better access to information on water supply and sanitation to users in all participating institutions.

All the information networks studied relied on creating and maintaining computerized bibliographic databases to provide information about their documentary information resources. The effectiveness of a catalogue or database in this respect is intimately connected with the technical operations of cataloguing and of developing the database, which are considered in Chapter 6 below. In WASIN, for example, due to weaknesses in the procedures for maintaining the network's database, access to information about the collections of member libraries was very restricted, and certainly not good enough to encourage users to regard WASIN as a reliable source of such information.

___________________________________________________________

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It should be possible to assess the overall effectiveness of information systems and networks in terms of the ease with which their users can obtain access to information.___________________________________________________________

Some problems with regard to direct access to information systems were encountered in the various studies. In Uganda, for example, the library at Entebbe was closed during the first visit, though it had been reopened by the time the second assignment began.

In ITN-Philippines, most respondents to the questionnaire said that their libraries were open at times convenient to users, although two said this was not the case.

In ENSICNET, only two respondents, both in Vietnam, said that users from other participating institutions were not welcome to use their libraries. All the respondents from national focal points said that other users were welcome. One of the tasks of the ENSICNET national focal points was to market and promote the network, in part by producing a newsletter; however, it was pointed out that promotional efforts cannot succeed if basic information resources, facilities and services are inadequate. Promotion can also be very time-consuming, creating the risk that national focal points might regard it as yet another task to be carried out without any concomitant return or reward. The basic problems of the management, financing, staffing and operation of the network needed to be resolved before further efforts were made to promote it, and major promotional efforts should postponed until products and services were good enough to deserve to be promoted.

In Tanzania, there were serious obstacles to gaining access to the MAJI library, which was located on the tenth floor of the Ministry headquarters. The lift stopped on the eighth floor and there was neither natural nor artificial lighting in the staircase from the ninth to the tenth floor. At the time of the visit, the ninth floor was flooded, and visitors had to pick their way on wooden planks laid in the water, and in semi-darkness.

CAPTION 3

... there were serious obstacles to gaining access to the library ...

[Picture: illustrating description of MAJI library in text]?

In WASIN, there were few, if any, regulatory restrictions on direct access to member libraries by either internal or external users. However, direct access to some libraries was difficult due to the lack of signs indicating where they were or when they were open, and even more so by cramped and overcrowded accommodation or the fact that some libraries were located in offices which were regularly used by senior staff. There had been no systematic attempt to promote WASIN up to the time when the assignment took place. In general, the project team had relied on distributing the information products of the network as a means of

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promoting it, but since these contained only minimal information about WASIN and its other information products and services, they were not very effective in achieving this aim. A proper marketing strategy and programme for the information products and services of WASIN was needed to ensure that they were disseminated and used effectively. As in the case of ENSICNET, it was emphasized that the problems of managing the network, providing it with adequate resources and ensuring the efficiency of its operations and services had to be resolved before it could be promoted effectively.

Information products and servicesInformation products and services

The information products and services produced by an information system or network should aim to satisfy the information needs of its users (and be capable also of satisfying those of potential users), in terms of:

• current awareness

of general developments in the sector, organized events, research and development projects and their results, new technical products and services and new information materials, sources, products and services

• literature searching

of published and unpublished records of documentary production, to identify specific documents or sets of documents

• document delivery

of originals or copies of complete documents or parts of documents held by the information system or available from elsewhere

• answering enquiries

ranging from quick reference services to research services.

Some products and services -- for example, a list of newly-acquired documents or an online public access catalogue -- aim to provide information about the information sources available, and thus help to provide access to the information system and its resources, as noted above. Others -- for example, a press cuttings bulletin, a photocopying service for periodical articles or an enquiry service -- aim to provide substantive information, often, but not always, in documentary form. In some areas, both approaches may be combined in a single product such as a general bulletin reproducing press cuttings and listing new acquisitions.

The relative importance of different kinds of information products and services in a given situation will vary according to the needs of users. Information products and services may be made available either to all users, or only to some of them -- for example, only to staff of the parent institution to which the information system belongs. They may be free of charge or supplied on subscription. Staff of the parent institution may receive them free of charge while a subscription to cover costs may be charged to outsiders.

CAPTION 4

Original engineering drawings were often removed and not returned.

[Picture: engineer making paper dart from drawing]?

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In the Water Development Department in Uganda, at the time of the first assignment, no products or services were being offered in respect of any kind of information. Engineers wishing to access hydrological data, for example, were simply given the files containing the field records and invited to find the records they needed, and perform any necessary calculations, by themselves. There was no proper system for retrieving borehole drilling records. Original engineering drawings were often removed from the files and not returned. Files from the Central Registry were not circulated properly, and staff were unable to locate documents or even complete files which they needed due to the lack of indexing and retrieval facilities. The only library in the Department was closed.

The project proposals included in the information development programme indicated that the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC) should provide the four basic types of information products and services referred to above, and that the output of the UWIDOC project would be

the provision of technical information, original documents or copies of documents containing technical information, or bibliographical details of documents containing technical information, originating from anywhere in the world, to users in the water and sanitation sector anywhere in Uganda or in other countries.

The output of the Management Information System for Water Resources (MISWAR) was to be a regular supply of accurate, reliable and up-to-date data on the water resources of Uganda, while the Management Information System for Water Supply (MISWAS) would supply information on the construction, operation and maintenance of all types of water supplies in all parts of Uganda. The Management Information System for Administration (MISAD), would supply information on the internal administration of the Water Development Department. After the revision of some of these project proposals during the second assignment, the proposed outputs of MISWAR and MISWAS were combined as the output of the Water Management Data and Information System (WAMDIS), while the revised project proposal for the Information Management Unit indicated that it would now be responsible for consolidating and repackaging information generated by the internal information systems of the Department and other sources in the form of reports and papers for use by the Commissioner and other senior staff.

In Ethiopia, the undeveloped condition of the existing libraries and documentation centres in the Water Resources Commission and the three water authorities meant that, with the exception of the library at Arba Minch, most of them were unable to provide even a reasonable level of service to users. The proposals for the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC) therefore specified that it should provide the four basic types of service referred to above, and produce the same kinds of outputs as UWIDOC. In recommending that the proposed national documentation centre be located in Addis Ababa, and not in remote Arba Minch, the report pointed out that, whereas academics and researchers could often afford to wait for a document to be supplied from another location, or travel to other locations to consult information sources, sector practitioners needed information -- particularly internally-generated information -- immediately to solve pressing operational problems, and could not wait for days or weeks to receive it.

In Tanzania, the poor condition of the collections and the lack of staff, accommodation and equipment in the existing documentation centres made it impossible for MAJIDOC to offer even the most basic services at a satisfactory level. The project itself provided funds for the publication of four issues of a newsletter, while the project staff were also to receive help from an International Development Research Centre(IDRC) consultant in conducting literature searches and producing two national water and sanitation bibliographies. The project document made no mention of document delivery or enquiry services. Other information products provided for

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under the project included translating working manuals into Kiswahili for technicians working in the field, and a directory of professionals working in water and sanitation in Tanzania.

It was suggested that the content of the MAJIDOC newsletter should be based directly on the information resources, products and services of the system, rather than aiming to disseminate current technical information and serve as a professional forum, as was currently proposed. It might include, for example: information about new and forthcoming publications; information about publications recently acquired by MAJIDOC (including, for example, abstracts, photocopies of the contents pages of current periodicals, etc.); information about new products and services for the water sector, especially information products and services; extracts from the text of publications recently acquired by MAJIDOC, (including, for example, photocopies of press cuttings); news of forthcoming events, including training courses; information about current research projects; and general news about MAJIDOC, the Ministry and the water supply and sanitation sector in Tanzania. It was pointed out that the essence of a newsletter was that it should disseminate news, -- i.e. recent, up-to-date information -- and that the proposed production schedule allowed far too much time for producing each issue.

A major problem with regard to the information products and services of MAJIDOC was that far too little money was provided for them in the project budget. The unit costs appeared to have been seriously underestimated, and needed to be revised before anything was produced. It might be necessary, as a result, to revise the programme for producing the proposed publications.

The survey of ITN-Philippines revealed that, while services in many member libraries could be improved, several participants considered that their libraries were already being well-used. It was important for the network to begin offering services to users, even on a limited scale, as soon as possible. This would give credibility to the project and make it easier to obtain support from participating institutions and other sources. The responses to the survey seemed to show a clear correlation between the up-to-dateness of library catalogues and the extent to which library services were considered to be adequate. Most libraries with out -of-date catalogues were considered by respondents to be unable to provide adequate services to users.

Although many participants in the national ENSICNET networks believed that participating in ENSICNET helped them to provide better services to their users, this did not, in fact, seem to be happening. The evaluation noted, as a matter of serious concern, that a high proportion of participating institutions were not very active in providing information products or services -- and, in particular, that many of them either did not use ENSIC information products, such as its printed abstract bulletin, to help them provide services to their users, or did not know whether their institutions used these products or not.

The situation appeared to be particularly bad in Vietnam, which accounted for a substantial proportion of the negative responses on information products and services, and where one or both of the respondents from national focal points gave negative replies to all the statements on this topic. In China, the ENSICNET national focal point had not been able to offer any information services based on the use of the database for several months, while in ENSICNET-Indonesia, only a partial service was possible because part of the database had been lost. All the national focal points except that in Pakistan were producing a newsletter of some kind at the time of the evaluation; in the Philippines, the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) was producing two, one for ENSICNET-Philippines, the other for ITN-Philippines.

___________________________________________________________

The relative importance of different kinds of information products and services will vary according to the needs of users.___________________________________________________________

Very little use seemed to be made of the document delivery services provided by most focal points and focal nodes in ENSICNET member countries. In Indonesia, only twenty-seven requests for documents on water supply and sanitation had been received through the general science and technology SDI service provided by the national documentation centre (PDII-LIPI) since the inception of the project. The national focal point in Indonesia frequently received requests for hard copies of the ENSIC microfiche, but these were often cancelled

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when users were informed of the cost, which was six times that of a normal photocopy. In Nepal, only four or five focal nodes were active in requesting copies of the ENSIC microfiche; fifty or sixty such requests had been received in the previous year. The national focal point of ENSICNET-Philippines had received sixteen requests for ENSIC microfiche from eight different users in three institutions during an eleven-month period, and had supplied forty-seven microfiche in response. This appeared to be the only national focal point to maintain a detailed record of user requests, which was very necessary if the use made of the facilities provided through ENSICNET were to be properly monitored.

While it might appear desirable, from the point of view of the project, to introduce better monitoring mechanisms to assess the use made of ENSICNET and of ENSIC information products and services, there were practical difficulties in the way of achieving this in situations where the ENSICNET activity was only one of many activities of the library or documentation unit housing the focal point, which might also be a member of several other networks, all making similar demands on limited staff time and other resources.

The inadequate information products and services offered by the national ENSICNET networks were a serious reflection on the effectiveness of the project in Phase 1, since the provision of products and services to meet the needs of users was the ultimate aim of the networking activity. Participants needed to be given more detailed guidance on the kinds of products and services needed, and on methods of providing them.

CAPTION 5

The library received less than one visit a week.

[Picture: sleeping librarian woken by irate user waving calendar]?

The WASIN project aimed to enable the network to produce three current awareness products, namely, an accessions or holdings list, a bibliography of national documents, and a newsletter, and to provide literature searching services. Project staff in both Cipta Karya and the Directorate-General of Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Health (CDC-EH) also produced regular bulletins of press clippings which were circulated to senior staff.

When the project began, the staff had no previous experience of creating current awareness products, and early editions of the holdings list and bibliography were neither well-organized nor well-produced. Recent editions were much better, but could still be improved. None of the issues gave any explanation of the layout or content of the entries, nor of the scope of the lists, which included general works -- e.g. English dictionaries and books on management and computers -- as well as material on water supply and sanitation. Some of the entries, even in recent issues, were for documents which were several years old. Some documents were listed more than once, either in different sections of the same issue or in different issues. It was pointed out that, if the database were properly managed and if entries were only added after being checked and approved at a central point, such duplication would not occur.

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The bibliography had recently been greatly improved by including abstracts and by using a better method of production. However, it still suffered from some of the same problems as the holdings list, including poor indexes and frequent spelling and typographical errors. Neither publication referred to the existence of the WASIN database or other services provided by WASIN members, nor did they include order forms to make it easier for readers to request copies of listed documents from member libraries.

None of the WASIN member libraries conducted literature searches for users on a systematic basis. The usual response to a request for an individual document was to search the library card catalogue, not the database. The project document did not mention document delivery or enquiry services. In most WASIN member libraries, lending service was provided only to the staff of the unit within which the library was located, or to other staff of the parent institution who were known personally to the library staff. As far as could be established, none of the member libraries provided an organized query-answering service at any level.

Only one library in WASIN could provide any kind of statistics of the use made of it. On average, this library received only 3.5 visits from users each month, or less than one visit a week. If this figure were typical of member libraries in general -- and there seemed no reason to assume otherwise -- the use made of any of them must have been very low indeed. Considering that most of the libraries covered other subject fields as well as water supply and sanitation, the use of the water and sanitation information sources which were being provided within the framework of the WASIN project seemed likely to be infinitesimal.


If, as suggested in the Introduction to this chapter, it should be possible assess the effectiveness of the information systems and networks studied in terms of the ease with which users can obtain access to information and the range and quality of the information products and services provided, it has to be concluded that most of them are not very effective.

Virtually no information products and services were being offered in Uganda or Ethiopia at the time of the assignments, though the project proposals included in the information development programmes for both countries spelled out in detail the kinds of products and services which should be provided. In Tanzania, the difficulty of obtaining physical access to one of the three members of MAJIDOC was compounded by the fact that the network was unable to offer even basic services at a satisfactory level, partly because there was not enough money for this purpose in the project budget.

If the situation was not quite so bad in the three Asian networks, there was still room for improvement. The products and services provided by ENSICNET and WASIN, for example, were very little used, and this was a serious reflection on the ability of these networks to attain their objectives.

One important reason for this situation was the widespread lack of knowledge of the size and characteristics of the population of potential users of these information systems and their information needs. Without such knowledge, it is impossible to design information products and services able to meet those needs satisfactorily and so encourage people to make more use of the system. Another factor which has to be taken into account is that, in order to provide effective information products and services, a number of technical operations or tasks, such as acquiring information materials, cataloguing and indexing them, and so on, also have to be performed effectively. The effectiveness with which these technical operations were carried out in the systems studied is discussed in Chapter 6 below.

___________________________________________________________

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Without a knowledge of the characteristics of information users, it is impossible to design information products and services to meet their needs.___________________________________________________________

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6. TECHNICAL OPERATIONS. TECHNICAL OPERATIONS


In order to create the information products and services through which information is provided to users, an information system must perform a number of technical operations, including identifying, selecting and acquiring information in appropriate formats, recording the existence of this information within the system, and storing, conserving and protecting the information until it is needed.

In documentary information systems of the kind studied in most of the assignments, the main technical operations comprise: identifying, selecting and acquiring documents; cataloguing, classifying and indexing documents; and the physical processing and repair of documents. These last two operations were not examined in any detail in the studies.

While all these technical operations may be performed satisfactorily using manual methods, there is a growing tendency to computerize at least some of them, particularly cataloguing and indexing. Many of the problems associated with technical operations in the systems studied arose from the introduction and use -- or misuse -- of computers.

Identifying, selecting and acquiring information sourcesIdentifying, selecting and acquiring information sources

The ability to identify information sources relevant to the needs of its users, and then to acquire them, or at least gain access to them, are fundamental requirements of an effective information system. A documentary information system must be able to identify documents suitable for addition to the collections and then to acquire them, by purchase, gift, exchange or interlibrary loan.

In Uganda, the systems for recording hydrogeological, hydrological and meteorological data in the field had largely broken down due to the years of disturbances in the country. Borehole drilling records were incomplete and unreliable because the forms used to record drilling data were often not available. Many boreholes had not been mapped due to lack of money to buy the basic maps from the Ministry of Lands and Surveys. Collecting and processing data on water quality was also hampered by lack of funds.

The project proposal for the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC) specified that its functions should include identifying, locating, selecting and procuring national and foreign documents. When the second visit took place, donations of books had been received from foreign organizations, and it was agreed that one of the tasks of the national consultant would be to begin collecting technical documents from different offices within the Department.

In Ethiopia, the libraries of the Water Resources Commission and the Arba Minch Water Technology Institute also depended heavily on donations to build up their collections.

In Tanzania, it was noted that one of the most difficult technical operations for MAJIDOC to carry out effectively would be to identify and collect 'grey' literature produced within the country. To make it easier to collect documents produced by the Ministry itself, it was suggested that the Minister should issue a directive requiring every Ministry unit concerned with water supply and sanitation to designate an officer to be responsible for collecting and supplying to MAJIDOC, at least once a month, a specified number of copies of all documents in certain categories (for example, annual reports or technical reports, but not correspondence or financial records) which had been produced by that unit during the preceding month. Alternatively, all such units of the Ministry might be required to add MAJIDOC to their distribution lists for specific kinds of documents. In either case, the Director of MAJIDOC should be empowered to check at regular intervals to ensure that all documents issued were being supplied, and should report cases of non-compliance to the Minister or a senior official of the

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ministry. The chosen method could be extended to other ministries and public bodies if the ministers concerned were willing to cooperate. Donor agencies, consultants and contractors might also be required, through appropriate clauses in official agreements and contracts, to supply copies of suitable documents to MAJIDOC. The main problem with regard to acquiring foreign literature in MAJIDOC was simply that of finance.

In ITN-Philippines, about three-quarters of the participating libraries said they were unable to acquire most of the materials needed by users, even though most of them had good access to sources of information about new information materials, had at least some staff with a good knowledge of information sources on water supply and sanitation and -- though there was less agreement on this point -- said they found it easy to select information materials to meet users' needs. Good access to sources is essential if a library is to be able to select materials to meet the needs of its users, but the ability to select materials does not necessarily mean that the library can acquire them. There was a clear correlation in the responses to the survey between the adequacy of library budgets and their ability to acquire materials.

Some ENSICNET national focal points, even those producing few documents, admitted to having difficulty in identifying the documents they themselves produced. Many participants believed that many documents on water supply and sanitation were being produced in their countries, but only a few thought it was easy to find out what they were. A basic aim of the ENSICNET project was to create adequate records of national documentary production and make them available to network participants, but this had not yet been achieved, as far as many of them were concerned, at the time of the study. Many ENSICNET participants thought that foreign documents on water supply and sanitation were useful in their countries, but very few thought it was easy to find out about them. Although the bibliographical tools produced by ENSIC, which had been distributed to all focal nodes, provided information on foreign documentary production, many participants did not use them to identify new publications.

___________________________________________________________

The ability to identify relevant information sources and to acquire them or gain access to them are fundamental requirements of an effective information system.___________________________________________________________

It was not possible to obtain accurate information on the numbers of documents acquired by each unit of WASIN each year. Some foreign publications had been purchased for WASIN member libraries from project funds and donations of books had been received from foreign organizations. Due to the lack of regular budget allocations for library purposes, and of qualified information staff, little, if any, systematic development of document collections had taken place in most WASIN member units.

Catalogues, indexes and databasesCatalogues, indexes and databases

In Uganda, records relating to the operation and maintenance of water supply systems were incomplete and unreliable due to difficulties in communicating with field operators, lack of standardized systems and forms for recording data, and inadequately-trained operators.

There were no proper records of other materials associated with water supply, such as manuals, specifications, correspondence, and so on. Officers were unable to locate documents or files in the Central Registry due to the lack of indexing and retrieval facilities. The Stores Section used a card system to record and control stocks. There was no link between this system and the purchasing records maintained by the Accounts Section. Cards were easily lost, mislaid or altered, and the Head of the Section suggested that a ledger system would be more secure. The processing of hydrogeological, hydrological and meteorological data was confined to the sporadic calculation of five- or ten-day means, recorded on the backs of the daily log sheets.

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Steps were being taken to improve the water resources data system with foreign technical assistance, and by the time the second mission took place in 1991, a start had been made on computerizing the hydrological and hydrogeological records. A hydrological data management software package, together with the necessary hardware, training and technical advice had been offered by the British government, and a recent fact-finding mission from the Netherlands had proposed that the Dutch government should assist in the rehabilitation of the hydrological network and the establishment of a Water Resources Data and Information System. Also by the time of the second assignment, a databank of water sources, including not only boreholes but also wells, protected springs, and so on, had been created under a foreign technical assistance project. This was designed to be capable of being applied throughout Uganda.

The functions specified for the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC) included recording and preparing for use both national and foreign documents of various kinds. The computerized bibliographic records to be created included: a database of national documents, both retrospective and current; a record of UWIDOC's own document collections; a union list of periodical holdings on water supply and sanitation in libraries and documentation centres in Uganda; and a union catalogue of national documents on water supply and sanitation held in various libraries and documentation centres in Uganda. UWIDOC would also prepare input to other national, regional and international information systems.

In Ethiopia, the earlier Unesco consultant's report had outlined a workplan which involved collecting project reports and including them in a computerized bibliographic database, using the bibliographic data input sheet used by the National Scientific and Technological Information and Documentation Centre and the CDS/ISIS software developed by Unesco. None of these proposals had been implemented at the time of the mission. The only record of the contents of the library of the Water Resources Commission (a record which was, in any case, incomplete) was a simple listing, without indexes, on sheets of paper. There were no records of the many documents kept in individual offices in the Commission and the water authorities, and no catalogue or index of the collection of project reports in the documentation centre of the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WSSA), although the Chief Engineer considered it a pressing need to create such a record to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort in repeating studies which had already been carried out in the past. The library in one regional office of the Ethiopian Water Works Construction Authority (EWCCA) was creating a bibliographic database of its collections using a laptop computer.

The proposal for the establishment of the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC) specified its functions with regard to creating records of its document collections in the same terms as those proposed for UWIDOC, outlined above.

In Tanzania, the level of activity in respect of technical operations in MAJIDOC appeared to be very low. Although they were acquiring very few new documents, the catalogues of all three members of the network were considerably in arrears -- that is, many of the documents which had been acquired in the past had not yet been catalogued. The project was to supply a microcomputer for use in computerizing catalogue records and developing a national water and sanitation bibliographic database, but this had not yet been acquired at the time of the assignment. The MAJIDOC project also included provision for training staff in technical operations, including organizing the collections, cataloguing, basic indexing and abstracting, with special attention being paid to collecting, organizing and cataloguing unpublished 'grey' literature produced in Tanzania.

In ITN-Philippines, the overall situation with regard to indirect access to document collections through existing library catalogues was generally very unsatisfactory. Nearly three-quarters of the participants considered their library's catalogue to be out-of-date to some degree. Only four members of ITN-Philippines, including the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), already had, or were in process of establishing, computerized library and documentation systems at the time of the first visit. All but one of them were using the Unesco CDS/ISIS software.

__________________________________________________________

Many of the problems with technical operations arose from the introduction and use -- or misuse -- of computers.

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___________________________________________________________

In ENSICNET, nearly one third of respondents to the survey, including two national focal points, said they did not have up-to-date library catalogues. Although each national focal point was supposed to establish and maintain a national bibliographical database on water supply and sanitation, and to operate the regional ENSIC database, these activities were not clearly spelled out in the project documents. Only one Memorandum of Understanding, that between the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and Vietnam, referred specifically to creating a national bibliographic database. However, all the national focal points were trying to create such databases using the Unesco CDS/ISIS software, and using -- or trying to use -- the existing ENSIC database. The staff of several national focal points were experiencing difficulty in this respect. Despite having received training, staff in many ENSICNET participating institutions, particularly in Indonesia and Vietnam, and including the staff of the national focal point in Nepal and one of the two in Vietnam, still had difficulty in completing the worksheets used to record bibliographic data prior to input.

About 90 percent of the 6,359 records in the ENSIC database were in English. In most member countries, all or most of the records were contributed by the national focal point itself. In the Philippines, for example, 95 percent of all documents entered in the database were acquired by the national focal point and only 5 percent by focal nodes. The national focal point had prepared and input the records for all these documents.

Several member libraries of WASIN had catalogued only part of their collections. One of the activities of the WASIN project during the first phase had been the creation of a computerized water and sanitation documentation database. This contained 506 records, representing only a small proportion of the total collections of documents relating to water supply and sanitation in member institutions, which were provisionally estimated at about 13,500 titles. Many of the records in the database were inaccurate and incomplete. There was also a marked discrepancy between the number of records in the database and the number included in the published holdings list, though the reason for this could not be discovered. Considerable difficulty was being experienced in persuading WASIN members to prepare either worksheets or computerized records for the documents in their libraries and submit them for inclusion in the database. Problems had been experienced in producing abstracts of the documents added to the database, due mainly to the lack of suitably-qualified staff with enough time to prepare them.

It was recommended that the WASIN database should be completely revised. Duplicate entries should be removed and inaccurate or incomplete entries corrected or completed. Records submitted by member libraries for inclusion in the database should be checked and edited by a senior staff member before being finally incorporated into the database. An authority list giving standardized forms of name for Indonesian and other corporate bodies was needed to ensure consistency in entering and indexing corporate bodies, and it was pointed out that such lists might already be available from other organizations in Indonesia, such as the national documentation centre (PDII-LIPI). Manual catalogue entries, whether in card or book format, should be produced by computer directly from the database, not by manual retyping. Worksheets should be prepared only by staff who had been properly trained in this task and who could commit sufficient time to it; other staff members could use a simpler 'notification sheet' rather than a worksheet to notify those responsible for preparing worksheets of the existence or acquisition of new documents. One way of solving the abstracting problem, at least in part, was to use author abstracts whenever possible; another was to use freelance abstractors.


The general ineffectiveness of technical operations in the systems and networks studied must be a major cause of the unsatisfactory situation with regard to information products and services. Difficulties in identifying and acquiring information materials are widespread, and while computers are being used, or intended to be used in future, in all the projects, the staff concerned often do not know how to use them properly and have great difficulty in creating and maintaining the bibliographic databases which, in most cases, are one of the key features of the project -- particularly in the case of those for information networks.

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The ability of a library or documentation centre to contribute regularly and promptly to such a database is likely to be conditioned by its ability to maintain a conventional card catalogue up-to-date. Network members, particularly national focal points, which cannot keep their library catalogues up-to-date may also be expected to experience difficulty in contributing bibliographic records promptly to a database; and the cataloguing arrears noted in MAJIDOC, ITN-Philippines, ENSICNET and WASIN member libraries thus give serious cause for concern as to the ability of these institutions to develop and maintain their network databases properly.

One of the reasons why many institutions have difficulty in acquiring information materials is lack of money -- particularly, in some cases, a lack of foreign exchange. It is clear also that one of the main reasons why so many institutions have difficulty in maintaining their catalogues and databases up-to-date is a lack of trained staff. The lack of these and other resources is thus a fundamental cause of many of the weaknesses in technical operations and the supply of information products and services; and the provision of resources -- the infrastructure of an information system -- is therefore the subject of the next chapter.

___________________________________________________________

The general ineffectiveness of technical operations must be a major cause of the unsatisfactory situation with regard to information products and services.___________________________________________________________

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TECHNICAL OPERATIONS

7. RESOURCES. RESOURCES


There are a number of elements in the overall structure of an information system which are not part of the technical operations or services to users which constitute the essential functions of the system, but without which these functions cannot be performed. These elements constitute the infrastructure of the system and comprise the basic resources of staff, existing collections of information materials, physical facilities and finance. Among these, the most crucial is the human resource -- staff. A vital aspect of staff development, training, must also be taken into consideration.

StaffStaff

No information system or network can function without an adequate supply of suitably-trained and qualified manpower. Creating and maintaining a cadre of competent, highly-motivated and well-qualified personnel is therefore one of the most crucial tasks to be undertaken in developing efficient and effective information systems and networks.

In Uganda, the lack of suitably trained and qualified information staff was identified as one of the main reasons why the existing arrangements for the management of data and information in the Water Development Department were completely ineffective. The worst situation was in the Data Analysis Section of the Water Resources Division, where only one post out of an establishment of twenty-one was filled -- a vacancy rate of 95 percent. There were no trained staff in the registry. There was a post for a librarian on the establishment, but it was vacant.

Other studies had already put forward proposals for the appointment of specialists in management information systems and data preparation and analysis. The project proposals in the mission report called for an information management specialist for the Information Management Unit, a water resources data specialist and an administrative information and records management specialist to be provided under foreign technical assistance, and for the appointment of suitably-qualified local staff as counterparts, including a qualified librarian as head of the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC).

The Department was still suffering from manpower problems when the second assignment took place; for example, one newly-recruited systems analyst had simply failed to report for work and was later found to be working in the private sector. There was an urgent need for qualified database managers to help set up the proposed Water Management Data and Information System (WAMDIS), ensure its compatibility with other such systems, and produce output. One welcome development was the appointment of an expatriate financial management adviser whose responsibilities included training staff in the use of financial and information management systems. Although the Department had agreed to create the post of head of UWIDOC and recruit a suitably-qualified person to fill it, it had not yet been possible to do this. In order to avoid delay in implementing the development proposals, it was proposed that, for the time being, the functions of the Information Management Unit and UWIDOC could be combined, with the Director of the Unit being responsible initially also for UWIDOC.

In Ethiopia, the earlier Unesco report on information provision in the Water Resources Commission had identified a need to recruit scientific and technical professionals, as well as librarians, and suggested that a graduate project manager with a water resources background, managerial experience and a good knowledge of information and documentation processing techniques should be appointed. The remaining staff could be recruited from among the existing staff of the Commission. Engineers and other professionals could also be involved in the indexing and abstracting of documents. The report gave no indication of the numbers of staff required at different levels or in different units.

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___________________________________________________________

No information system or network can function without an adequate supply of suitably-trained and qualified manpower.___________________________________________________________

While some libraries in the Water Resources Commission and the water authorities were run by staff with para-professional diplomas in library studies, in others the staff had no library or documentation training at all. Only the library of the Arba Minch Water Technology Institute was run by a professionally-qualified librarian -- a Canadian volunteer. The regular librarian was studying for library and information science qualifications abroad, and most of the library assistants had para-professional diplomas in librarianship. The German government was proposing to provide a library expert to the Institute for one year to assist in planning the layout of the new library, establishing the library system and training counterpart staff. The proposals for the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC) provided for an information management specialist and a national consultant, both to be funded by foreign technical assistance, and a professionally-qualified librarian as head of EWIDOC, together with other local staff with appropriate qualifications.

In Tanzania, the MAJIDOC project document had referred to 'a general lack of trained expertise and personnel' in the existing documentation units, and made provision for three documentalists (one in each unit), a data entry operator, a project secretary and a documentation assistant to work full-time on the project. Three staff members with higher educational qualifications were only expected to work on the project on a part-time basis. With one exception, none of the project staff with higher educational qualifications had received any kind of library or documentation training, while none of those who had been trained in librarianship and documentation had received any post-secondary general education.

It was emphasized that, if MAJIDOC were to be successfully established and be able to extend its activities, it must have an adequate staff complement of fully-qualified information professionals. Expecting a national water information system to be successfully managed by staff with only technician-level training in information work was like expecting a national rural water supply programme to be successfully managed by a pump mechanic. It was suggested that existing library and documentation posts should be transferred to the proposed new MAJIDOC unit in the Ministry. At least one new post, for the Director of the unit, would also be required.

There was an urgent need also to improve staffing levels in almost all libraries participating in ITN-Philippines. The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) library itself was staffed by only one professional librarian and one library assistant. This was completely inadequate to meet the needs of LWUA itself, let alone the additional needs arising from the library's role as the focal point of two information networks. An additional staff member, responsible mainly for abstracting, was appointed before the second visit. Although a total of seventy library staff were employed by the eleven ITN-Philippines institutions for which data were available, few, if any, of them were working exclusively with information on low-cost water supply and sanitation.

Experience in Health Research and Development Information Network (HERDIN) had shown without doubt that, in order to develop an information network successfully -- and, in particular, to create a computerized bibliographic database for it -- it was essential to recruit additional staff for this purpose. The chief librarians in HERDIN were unanimous in declaring that, without two additional staff provided with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), it would not have been possible to begin developing the network. There was no reason to believe that the situation with regard to networks in the water supply and sanitation information sector was any different.

Lack of properly trained and qualified staff was also a problem for many institutions participating in ENSICNET, but most of those responding to the survey felt that they had enough staff to cope with existing demands for information on water supply and sanitation. In some national focal points, the lack of trained staff

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was due to the fact that those who had originally been trained under the project were either no longer employed, or had been assigned to other duties.

In WASIN, also, the lack of qualified staff was a serious obstacle to developing the network according to plan. Only two staff in member institutions other than the national documentation centre (PDII-LIPI) had professional qualifications in library or information science. Frequent changes in the project management team were also a serious problem; after the assignment, and after three of the five senior project staff had received further training in the Netherlands, two of them, and the Project Head, all from Cipta Karya, were transferred to other positions, leaving responsibility for the project in Cipta Karya in the hands of staff who had only had limited training in information work.

___________________________________________________________

Expecting a national water information system to be successfully managed by staff with only technician-level training in information work is like expecting a national rural water supply programme to be successfully managed by a pump mechanic.___________________________________________________________

To develop WASIN successfully, it was suggested that at least one staff member with full professional qualifications in library or information science at the degree or postgraduate level should be assigned responsibility for network activities in each of the two principal member institutions. In view of the difficulty of creating new positions in the public service, it might be necessary to recruit suitable persons from among the existing staff and give them the opportunity to obtain professional qualifications either in Indonesia or abroad.

Training Training

In Uganda, while it was hoped that foreign technical assistance would be available to support the training of information staff for the Water Development Department, some training was already being organized locally. Three of the library assistants were given training in basic library techniques at a workshop organized in Kampala by the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), and arrangements were made for them also to receive inservice training at the National Agricultural Documentation and Information Centre (NADIC), which had recently been established with the help of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). A senior management team from the Water Development Department also planned to visit NADIC in order to see how a computerized technical information and documentation centre worked and what kinds of services it could provide.

The kinds of training required for the staff of information systems and networks in the water and sanitation sector may include:

• general orientation to information work

• basic technical training in library and documentation methods

• specific orientation to water-related information

• general training in the use of computers in information work

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• specific training in the use of the CDS/ISIS software and of databases on CD-ROM (Compact Disc--Read Only Memory)

• formal training for professional qualifications in information science

• management training

• development training (in interpersonal relationships, etc.).

In Tanzania, it was emphasized that all library and documentation staff in MAJIDOC should be encouraged and helped to pursue training to an appropriate level. The training proposals in the original project document were concerned with basic technical training only, and made no reference to the need for formal training for professional qualifications in library or information science. The mission report made proposals with regard to staff training similar to those for Uganda.

In the Philippines, although it had earlier been suggested that training in CDS/ISIS should be provided under the ITN-Philippines project for information staff in participating institutions, there did not seem to be a real need for this because the participating libraries which had computers were already using this software and their staff had been trained in how to use it. The need for training in how to set up a library or documentation unit dealing specifically with low-cost water supply and sanitation also appeared to be limited, but it was thought that there might be a demand for training dealing with sources of information on water supply and sanitation. However, this was not borne out by responses to the ENSICNET survey, where only five respondents, all from Indonesia, thought there was a need for training in this area -- despite the fact that many respondents in other countries said that their library staff did not know enough about information sources in the sector.

The only specific references to staff in the ENSICNET project documents were those concerned with training, which had formed a significant part of the activities of the network during the first phase. Despite this, many survey respondents did not think their library staff had been trained enough to enable them to participate effectively in the network. Although the training had placed considerable emphasis on the use of computers in information work, including how to prepare bibliographical worksheets, staff in many of the participating institutions still had difficulty in completing worksheets, and many respondents to the survey still thought that information technology was an area in which training was required.

CAPTION 6

Staff who had been trained had subsequently been removed.

[Picture: staff member being thrown out by boss]?

As noted above, one problem encountered in ENSICNET was that, in several national focal points, staff who had been trained under the project had subsequently been removed from their positions -- in some cases, it was thought, to enable other staff members to have the opportunity of participating in the workshops which were supposed to be organized in other member countries under the project. This defeated the purpose of organizing the workshops, since the idea was that the staff who were trained at the outset would continue to exchange their experiences in successive workshops, thus helping to make the whole network more effective.

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The ENSICNET survey asked participants what kinds of training they needed themselves, and what kinds they thought were needed by other members of their library staff. Very few respondents had either training or qualifications in library or information science, and many of those who had received training had only attended short courses. Nearly all the respondents thought they needed more training to be able to perform effectively. The main demand was for training in technological aspects of information work, with management aspects in second place. Interest in training in sources of information on water supply and sanitation was negligible; as indicated above, only five respondents, all from Indonesia, thought there was a need for training in this field.

The report on the ENSICNET survey emphasized that, in every member country, the successful development of the network depended on adequate training being provided for network staff, in the subjects in which they themselves felt they most needed to be trained. This was one field in which the project staff should take a strong lead -- not necessarily in actually organizing all the training required, but at least in helping participants to identify training opportunities and obtain the financial support they needed to be able to take advantage of them. In particular, the project should take the lead in providing training designed to help information staff in participating institutions to acquire a better knowledge of the aims, objectives and activities of the network.

In WASIN, no less than thirty-three staff in the two main member organizations had received training under the project, but only two of them were working on the project full time. Most of the training was in the form of short courses organized within WASIN itself. The training component of the Institutional Development and Training Project (IDTP) provided for staff to be sent for full-time professional education in appropriate subjects, including library and information science, and it was proposed that one of the existing co-project managers of WASIN (who has since been transferred to other duties) should be encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity.

Local consultancyLocal consultancy

In several of the assignments it was suggested that, wherever possible, local information consultants should be appointed to provide advice and assistance to project staff who lacked training and experience in information work.

In Uganda, for example, following a recommendation made during the first assignment, the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) paid for a local consultant to help in establishing the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC). In Ethiopia, it was proposed that a local consultant be appointed to advise on and monitor the planning, establishment and operation of the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC) and the eventual development of the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation System (EWIDOS) and Network (EWIDON). In the case of MAJIDOC, it was suggested that local consultants might be available from the Tanzania Library Service, which had considerable experience in providing such support for library and information systems in the country. In the Philippines, following on a recommendation of the first report on ITN-Philippines, and in accordance with terms of reference formulated during the second and third missions, a local consultant was selected and appointed during the fourth mission.

Existing information resourcesExisting information resources

The information resources of an information system comprise both its internal resources -- i.e. its own databanks, files, administrative records, document collections, etc. -- and the external resources -- other information systems and services, etc. -- to which it can provide access through cooperative arrangements, such as participating in an information network.

No matter how effective a network may be in providing information about the information resources of its member institutions, or in supplying information from other sources to users in those institutions, for most

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users the first requirement is to be able to find as much as possible of the information they need, when they need it, in their own information system. An institution whose own information resources are inadequate to meet the immediate needs of its own users is unlikely to be able to participate effectively in networking activities, which necessarily require that some, at least, of this information be made accessible to users in other institutions.

___________________________________________________________

An institution whose own information resources are inadequate is unlikely to be able to participate effectively in networking. ___________________________________________________________

In most of the institutions visited during these assignments, the existing document collections and other information resources were far from adequate to meet the needs of the institutions themselves, let alone provide a firm basis for them to participate effectively in an information network.

In Uganda, for example, most of the documents in the library at Entebbe were old, worn-out or damaged, though there were a few reasonably new books on relevant topics and some on clinical medicine, which were of no relevance to the work of the Department, but had apparently been retained because they were received as gifts.

In Ethiopia, the document collections in most of the libraries and documentation units in the Water Resources Commission and the three water authorities, apart from those in the libraries of the Arba Minch Water Technology Institute and the Water Resources Commission itself, were very small. The Commission's own library had a collection of about 10,000 books and technical reports which, though neither comprehensive nor up-to-date, was still a valuable information resource. Many of the books in the library of the Water Technology Institute had been received from foreign donors, and it was hoped that another donor would provide subscriptions to foreign scientific and technical journals in the near future. The lack of current foreign periodicals was a problem in all the libraries. There was a small collection of audiovisual materials and equipment in the Public Relations Department. Throughout the offices of the Commission and the authorities, large numbers of documents of all kinds, not organized or recorded in any way, were to be found on the desks or bookshelves of individual officials.

CAPTION 7

Some books on clinical medicine ...

[Picture: puzzled mechanic trying to fix broken pump with aid of book on heart by-pass valves (or something similar)]?

In Tanzania, many of the books and documents in the documentation centres in MAJIDOC were in poor physical condition. The project document had made various suggestions as to how information materials should be processed in the future, but said nothing about the condition of the existing collections; yet in the Ministry library, for example, there were piles of documents of all kinds which had not been recorded, processed or even

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counted. If MAJIDOC were to be able to offer satisfactory services to users in the future, particularly in terms of providing access to documents produced in Tanzania, the existing collections needed to be sorted out, physically rehabilitated if necessary, properly recorded and stored in conditions which would not contribute to their further physical deterioration. This was an urgent and essential task which should be started and completed as soon as possible. The basic aim should be to create within MAJIDOC one 'master collection' of national documents, supplemented by separate institutional collections containing duplicates of those which were appropriate to local needs.

In ITN-Philippines, too, there was an urgent need to take action to improve library collections in member institutions. A problem here was that even libraries with computerized catalogues found it difficult to provide accurate information on how many documents on low-cost water supply and sanitation they had, partly due to the problem of defining the precise scope of this term. However, it was clear that most libraries had very small collections on low-cost water supply and sanitation as such. Although some of the academic institutions in the network had fairly large libraries, they had very few documents on low-cost water supply and sanitation. One library with a collection of 46,000 volumes and 200 current periodicals had only thirty-five documents on low-cost water supply and sanitation -- less than 0.08 percent of the total collection. Another large academic library had only two documents on low-cost water supply and sanitation in its collection.

The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) library contained about 3,600 publications of various types, including local publications and LWUA reports. LWUA itself was not involved in water supply and sanitation at the lowest levels of service, and it was not possible to determine how much of the collection might be of interest to people working in low-cost water supply and sanitation. In its role as the focal point of ENSICNET, the LWUA library held a collection of 6,400 microfiche on environmental sanitation and related topics supplied by ENSIC in Bangkok. The best library collection on water issues in the Philippines appeared to be that of the former Water Information Centre of the Philippines, which contained some 14,000 items. However, this library had been inactive since being taken over by the National Water Resources Board.

The difficulty of defining what kinds of literature should be considered as relevant to the needs of people working in low-cost water supply and sanitation made it impossible to find out exactly how much relevant literature each library possessed. However, the responses to the survey indicated that not one participating institution considered that it had enough library materials on low-cost water supply and sanitation to meet the needs of its users. There was an urgent need to improve library collections if the aims of the ITN-Philippines project were to be achieved. One way of doing this might be for the project to supply lists of recommended publications on low-cost water supply and sanitation from which the libraries could select titles of particular interest to their own users, rather than supplying each institution with exactly the same 'basic library', as was being done at that time.

Library collections in many ENSICNET participating institutions were also not adequate to meet the needs of users. The lack of current periodicals, in particular, was a serious problem. Many participants did not know enough about the collections of other libraries in their national networks to be able to refer users to libraries which may be able to help them, or to identify the libraries which may be able to supply documents on interlibrary loan. This seemed likely to be a major cause of the gap between the numbers of potential and actual users in many institutions.

Each of the twenty focal nodes planned for each national network was meant to receive a supply of ENSIC publications for a period of three years. After the network was extended to include more than twenty members in some countries, the project found it difficult to meet the resulting demand for more copies of these publications. Each of the national focal points, in addition, was to receive the ENSIC microfiche collection referred to above. This was supposed to help participating institutions to save foreign exchange on periodical subscriptions by making relevant periodical articles available on microfiche. However, many respondents did not know whether or not the collection contained anything useful, and many still considered the lack of current periodicals -- often due, indeed, to a lack of foreign exchange -- to be one of their major problems.

Accurate and comprehensive data on the document collections of WASIN member units were not available at the time of the survey. It is important to collect such data, and keep it up to date, in order to assess

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the extent to which document collections are able to meet the needs of information users and are recorded in the network database and associated information products. The effectiveness of a database and its information products as guides to the documents available in member libraries can only be assessed if it is known how many documents, of what kinds, these libraries possess. Most of the libraries in WASIN were suffering from a lack of current periodicals. Although the number of periodicals specifically concerned with water supply and sanitation is not very large, few of the institutions visited had more than one or two titles.

Physical facilities and equipmentPhysical facilities and equipment

Even the smallest information unit needs a reasonable amount of space to house its collections of documents and other information sources and to allow users to consult them as well as to provide adequate working space for its staff and equipment to help them to do their jobs effectively. The amounts of space required for specialized information centres of the kind needed by most institutions in the water and sanitation sector are not large, and the requirements in terms of equipment are not very great. Nevertheless, in many sector institutions, the physical facilities and equipment provided are quite inadequate.

In Uganda, the headquarters of the Water Development Department at Luzira were housed in cramped and unsuitable accommodation in a former car showroom with little scope for expansion and improvement. The Water Resources Division, laboratory and library at Entebbe were housed in buildings which, while basically better suited to their purpose, badly needed to be rehabilitated.

During the first visit, plans for constructing a new headquarters for the Department, with financial assistance from the World Bank, had seemed to offer an opportunity to provide purpose-designed accommodation for the proposed new information facilities, including the Information Management Unit and the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC). However, by the time of the second visit, it had been decided instead to renovate and extend the existing building, in which an area of 265 square metres was provided for UWIDOC. This was sufficient to accommodate UWIDOC, but not the Information Management Unit as well, at least during Phase 1 of the development programme. The conditions under which engineering drawings and administrative and accounting records were stored had improved as a result of the renovation of the headquarters building.

The project proposals for the Information Management Unit and UWIDOC included provision for furniture and equipment, including microcomputers, printers, microform equipment, and so on. The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) subsequently agreed to provide all the wooden furniture required for UWIDOC. Some computing equipment for management information systems was being supplied under other projects.

In Ethiopia, all the libraries of the Water Resources Commission and its associated institutes in Addis Ababa were housed in very cramped and overcrowded conditions. The library of the Arba Minch Water Technology Institute was housed in temporary accommodation pending completion of a new library building, which was then under construction. The new building had a floor area of about 1,800 square metres on two floors. This was considered adequate to meet the Institute's needs for some time to come, but the internal layout of the building left much to be desired. Suggestions were made as to how the layout could be improved before construction was completed and without the need for major alterations. As in Uganda, the project proposals included detailed schedules of the furniture and equipment required for the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC).

In Tanzania, the existing library building at the Water Resources Institute was being renovated and extended to give a total floor space of about 250 square metres. This would be adequate for the proposed national documentation centre, but not for the library of the Institute itself, and certainly not for both. Minor revisions to the layout were proposed and schedules, outline specifications and drawings of the main items of furniture required were provided. It was noted that the plans for the renovated building did not include toilet facilities for either staff or users.

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The MAJIDOC project did not provide for renovating or extending the other libraries in the network, although the Ministry library was housed in very bad conditions. The main library room was very small and extremely overcrowded, and during wet weather, rain was blown into the room through broken windows. The library of the Water Master Plan Coordinating Unit, by contrast, though rather overcrowded, was equipped with imported steel shelving and was generally in good physical condition.

Two-thirds of the MAJIDOC project budget had been allocated to purchasing furniture, equipment and supplies. Although these included a microcomputer, the project staff were not very clear as to exactly how it was meant to be used. The basic functions which the computer was intended to perform were therefore spelled out in the report on the assignment, in which it was also suggested that a Compact Disc--Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) drive and subscriptions to appropriate databases on CD-ROM should be provided in Phase 2. It was also suggested that savings could be made in the equipment budget by not acquiring items which were not needed. One of these was a motor cycle, which only two members of the project team, neither of whom was employed on the project full-time, were either able or willing to ride.

CAPTION 8

The plans did not include toilet facilities.

[Picture: desperate staff and users in need of toilet]?

In the Philippines, the space occupied by the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) library was totally inadequate for its own needs, let alone for its role as the focal point of two national information networks in water supply and sanitation. The library needed at least 300 square metres of floor space to be able to function properly, to provide adequate accommodation for both staff and readers, and to allow for the document collections to be expanded to meet the increased demand which could be expected to result from its networking activities.

ENSIC had provided LWUA with equipment, including a microcomputer and a microfiche reader-printer, which was also being used for ITN-Philippines purposes. The ITN-Philippines project had provided two microcomputers for use by the project as a whole. It was recommended that one of these should also be allocated to documentation work, so that one computer could be dedicated to data input and to maintaining the ENSICNET and other databases, while the other could be used for carrying out literature searches for users.

The libraries of all ITN-Philippines member institutions needed suitable information-handling equipment if the network were to function effectively and expand as planned. To create and use bibliographic and other databases, they would each need a microcomputer and ancillary equipment, while to provide document delivery services, they would require a photocopier. They would also be able to make better use of the ENSIC microfiche collection if they had their own microfiche readers rather than depending on the LWUA library to produce paper copies of required documents. A survey of library and documentation resources was needed to provide precise information on the equipment held by each of the libraries surveyed and so make it possible to determine their future needs.

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Each national focal point in ENSICNET had been supplied with one or more microfiche reader-printers, a microcomputer and appropriate computer software, including CDS/ISIS. Although most of the national focal points felt that this equipment was both useful and frequently used, all of them also felt that they needed more equipment to be able to participate effectively in the network -- as did many focal nodes in the national networks. Although the national focal points had been supplied with modems, they could not yet be used effectively, since in some countries the necessary telephone lines were not available, and even when they were, few of the participating institutions could afford to pay the costs of online searching of foreign databases and none of them was yet able to provide online access to its own databases for other institutions within the country.

The WASIN member libraries in Jakarta were located in rooms which were either very small and overcrowded or mainly used for other purposes. None of the libraries provided adequate seating for readers or adequate workspace for staff. The consultancy report on the Institutional Development and Training Project (IDTP) project had proposed that an area of between 300 and 400 square metres should be provided for the library in each Directorate-General of the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, including Cipta Karya.

The WASIN project had provided a computer, the CDS/ISIS software, a photocopier and a microfiche reader to Cipta Karya and the Directorate-General of Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Health (CDC-EH), but one of the photocopiers had been damaged beyond repair and the microfiche readers were each used only about once a month. It was suggested that, given the weaknesses of the WASIN database, the small number of documents on microfiche currently available and the limited use being made of them, there was little need to provide more computers or microfiche readers to other network members which did not already have them. However, the level of service to users could be improved by providing a CD-ROM reader to a member institution whose staff were able to make good use of it on behalf of the network as a whole, as long as appropriate information sources on CD-ROM were also supplied.

FinanceFinance

Even the most basic information system needs money to acquire information sources or obtain access to them, to buy and maintain furniture, equipment, and supplies, to pay for the upkeep and maintenance of premises and equipment, to provide information products and services to users, and to pay staff salaries and associated costs. Provision needs to be made for both capital and recurrent expenditure. An information unit which acts as the focal point of a network, or has other coordinating responsibilities, also needs money to support these activities.

The costs of establishing and maintaining an information system will vary, depending on such factors as: the objectives of the system; its geographical location; how much information it collects, stores and retrieves, and at what rate these activities are expected to increase; the relative proportions of information from local and foreign sources; how much the system is used, and by whom; what kinds of information products and services it provides; and how many staff it has and what their qualifications are.

A recent analysis of Latin American information networks 1 by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) noted that, while a key factor in successfully establishing and maintaining an information network is the provision of assured and adequate funding, networks should not be expected to become self-financing on a commercial basis. This emphasizes the need for adequate financial support from regular budgetary sources, and, in appropriate cases, from project funds. In most of the systems and networks studied, however, financial support from the parent institution or other official body to which the information system was responsible was extremely limited. Another problem was that the amounts allocated under the existing project budgets were often not sufficient to permit the objectives of the project to be attained. None of the project documents gave any indication of the amounts of money needed to maintain and develop the information activity after the end of the project.

In Uganda, both recurrent and development expenditure would be incurred in the work of the technical coordinating committee on information management as well as in the operations of the Information Management Unit and the various technical and management information systems which comprised the overall information

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development programme. However, to determine the precise costs involved would require detailed study by the Water Development Department and potential donors, supported by quotations from local and foreign suppliers.

The Water Resources Commission in Ethiopia had no recurrent budget for acquiring books and periodicals (apart from local newspapers); in the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WSSA), the lack of foreign exchange for acquiring documents from abroad was a major problem. As in the case of Uganda, the project proposal for the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC) noted that further study would be needed to determine the cost of the project.

In Tanzania, apart from staff salaries, the three documentation units in MAJIDOC were receiving negligible financial support from their parent Ministry. It was vitally important for the Ministry to make a proper contribution, under its regular budget, to the costs of operating and maintaining the network after the end of the project. This would be essential if MAJIDOC were to be established as a separate section within the Ministry, as was proposed in the mission report.

The documentation units in MAJIDOC did not have adequate budgets for buying new publications, nor enough foreign exchange to buy foreign books and periodicals. The unit costs of the current awareness services, literature searches and publications which the project was meant to provide seemed to have been seriously underestimated, while the amount provided in the project budget for buying reference materials was sufficient for only about 500 books at current prices. Given the poor condition of the existing collections, this would barely begin to meet the needs of the initial users of MAJIDOC, let alone support its development up to the end of Phase 1.

___________________________________________________________

The amounts allocated under information project budgets are often not sufficient to permit the objectives of the project to be attained.___________________________________________________________

It was hoped to obtain donor support for a further project to continue to develop MAJIDOC and extend it to include documentation centres in other institutions. In view of the difficulty of obtaining adequate financial support from regular sources, another way of obtaining regular funds might be to include, in all project proposals, contracts and agreements with donor agencies, consultants and contractors, mandatory provision for a proportion of the budget to be allocated to information and documentation.

In the case of ITN-Philippines, it was emphasized that, unless the level of financial support from the project budget for library and documentation activities could be increased, the project would not be able to achieve its objectives in this respect. If the entire amount provided in the budget for library and documentation activities were spent only on information materials, it would be enough to buy only about 430 books over the five-year life of the project -- an average of 86 books a year, or seven books a year for each participating institution over the five-year period. The impact on any of the member libraries would thus be negligible; yet the urgent need to develop document collections had been emphasized by the responses to the questionnaire, which had been unanimous in stating that existing library collections on low-cost water supply and sanitation were not adequate to meet the needs of users.

It was impossible to determine what proportion of the budget of any of the ITN-Philippines member libraries was being spent on providing information on low-cost water supply and sanitation. In the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) itself, only a small proportion of the regular budget requested by the library was approved each year, and the proportion varied so much from year to year that the librarian could not plan the development of the collections or the provision of information services even for the staff of LWUA itself, let alone develop the library as the focal point of two information networks.

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In ENSICNET, the budgets of many of the focal nodes in the national networks were so poor that they felt they could not afford to participate, even though most of them did not think the cost of participating was very high. Many respondents did not, in fact, know whether it cost a lot of money to participate or not, nor whether or not their library's budget was adequate to meet the cost. This suggested that many people associated with the networks were not involved in financial matters and probably had little influence on the size of their library's budget or how it was spent.

The poor regular budgets of many institutions participating in ENSICNET inevitably increased their dependence on support from the project; but the project budget itself was not adequate to ensure success. Allowing for headquarters costs, including visits to member countries by project staff, and training costs, including both the cost of bringing focal point staff to the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) for the initial training and the contributions made to national workshops, the balance of the project budget, if divided equally between the six national networks, would provide perhaps USD 25,000 per network during the life of the project. It was clear that, once the costs of the information-handling equipment supplied to each network had been accounted for, there was little or no money left to support other activities, such as travel by national focal point staff to visit focal nodes and promote the development of the network.

One of the basic problems in ENSICNET was that the financial responsibilities of the project itself, on the one hand, and of network members, on the other, had not been clearly defined at the outset. National focal points had not been given any guidance as to how to finance their national networks, particularly in terms of the local contributions required to complement the amounts provided by the project itself. The lack of a specified local financial contribution may have encouraged some national focal points to think that it would not cost them anything at all to participate, while the fact that neither external nor local contributions were expressed in financial terms made it difficult to assess their relative importance. There seemed to be limited scope for network members to sell their information products and services, even at cost, because most users could not afford to pay for them.

None of the member libraries of WASIN had a regular line item in the annual budget of its parent unit, and there was a general lack of money for library and documentation purposes within the two ministries concerned. It was proposed that the operating and development costs, and the contributions required from network members, users and other sources, should be presented in a separate annual budget for WASIN, to be prepared by the network management. The limited scope for the sale of information products and services was also noted.

To develop WASIN further, strong financial support from external agencies would be needed. Suggestions for increasing the chances of obtaining such support included: presenting proposals for the development of WASIN within a broader framework, for example, in the context of proposals for developing general information management capabilities in Cipta Karya and the Directorate-General of Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Health (CDC-EH) or their parent ministries, which in turn might form part of still broader sectoral development projects; providing adequate counterpart funds for the proposed developments; making specific provision in the regular budgets of the institutions involved for information and documentation activities in general and for participating in WASIN in particular; and making provision for at least a nominal degree of cost recovery through introducing charges to users for information products and services.


The lack of all kinds of resources in the information systems and networks studied is a major reason for their failure to perform technical operations effectively and to provide satisfactory information products and services to users.

There is a general lack of trained staff, particularly professionally-qualified information specialists, while in too many cases staff who have received training have only been on short courses, and still do not know, for example, how to complete bibliographical worksheets, how to create and maintain a database, or how to plan

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and create information products and services. Local consultants, provided they are professionally-qualified in information work, can do much to help poorly-trained project staff by providing continuing advice and support after a foreign consultant has departed.

Existing information resources are in most cases very limited, often in poor physical condition and badly housed. There are, nevertheless, one or two strong collections of information materials, for example in the Water Resources Commission in Ethiopia or the former Water Information Centre of the Philippines, but these are generally not being properly used due to the lack of other resources, particularly of trained staff.

While in many institutions it is difficult to find out exactly how many documents on water supply and sanitation (or of interest to people working in the sector, which is not necessarily the same thing) their libraries have, many quite large libraries, particularly in academic institutions, have very few documents of this kind. Not one of the libraries in ITN-Philippines thought it had enough documents on water supply and sanitation to meet the need; and in many libraries, the lack of current periodicals was a major problem.

The conditions in which these inadequate collections, inadequately staffed, are kept are also, in most cases, very unsatisfactory. Many libraries are housed in cramped and overcrowded conditions, sometimes in inaccessible parts of the building, and lacking furniture and basic equipment. Computer equipment, on the other hand, is to be found in at least the focal points of all the projects, though it is not always well-maintained and the staff do not always know how to use it properly.

Underlying all these problems is the lack of finance. Most of the systems studied are seriously affected by lack of money, not only from regular budgetary sources, but also from project budgets. The provision made in several project budgets is totally inadequate to support even a minimal level of information activity, and most of the information systems studied receive little or no financial support from their parent institutions, apart from the payment of staff salaries.

The lack of financial support from the regular budget of the parent institution creates a tendency to rely solely on project budgets (including both the technical assistance and local contributions) for funding information activities, often without providing for continuing financial support after the end of the project. In extreme cases, this can lead to a situation where it is not in the interests of the recipient institution or the project staff to achieve the objectives of the project and bring it to a satisfactory conclusion with its activities being fully integrated into those of the parent institution. In such cases, projects may be repeatedly extended or renewed, or new projects initiated to achieve objectives which should have been achieved under the original project. It is essential to make proper provision for information systems and services in the regular budgets of sectoral institutions, as well as within the overall budgets of general sector projects.

Lack of basic resources is a fundamental problem affecting the development of almost all the information systems and networks studied. The amounts required are not large, but they need to made available within an appropriate organizational framework and applied in implementing well-planned and well-managed information activities if information systems are to achieve the overall objective of providing information users with the information they need when they need it and in the right place and format. The final area of information activity to be considered here is therefore that of the organization and management of information provision.

References

1. Akhtar, Shahid. Regional information networks: some lessons from Latin America. Information Development, vol. 6, no. 1, January 1990. 35-48.

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___________________________________________________________

The lack of all kinds of resources is a major reason for the failure of information systems and networks to perform technical operations effectively and to provide satisfactory information products and services to users.___________________________________________________________

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8. ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS. ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS


Any information system or network requires an appropriate organizational structure through which its resources can be applied in performing technical operations and providing services to users. This structure is influenced by administrative and organizational background factors and by the organizational arrangements for the supply of information in the sector as a whole. It also overlaps and interacts with the internal organizational structures of individual information units which may participate in the system, and with those of various other systems, institutions and organizations. This gives rise to questions of coordination and cooperation, including networking.

Organizational structures and coordinationOrganizational structures and coordination

Responsibility for information and records management in the Water Development Department in Uganda was divided, at the time of the first visit, between the Planning, Design and Documentation Division, which was responsible, in principle, for all technical data, records and documentation, including the library at Entebbe, and the Central Registry, which was mainly responsible for records produced by the various administrative sections and for general correspondence. Some records dealing with accounts, personnel, stores and training were handled separately by the appropriate sections. It was proposed that, in future, responsibility for coordinating information management within the Department should be assigned to the Information Management Unit, which would report directly to the Commissioner for Water Development.

The need to coordinate information management activities in the water and sanitation sector as a whole was also recognized, and by the time of the second assignment, it had been decided to establish a technical coordinating committee on information management for the sector. This committee would report to an existing Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee which was responsible for coordinating the activities of large scale water and sanitation projects at the policy level. The technical committee would be chaired by the Commissioner, with the Director of the Information Management Unit as secretary. Other members would represent the main national, international and bilateral governmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations in the sector. The actions which the Director of the Information Management Unit would need to take to establish this committee were spelled out in the report on the second assignment.

In Ethiopia, senior staff of the three water authorities made a number of suggestions for organizing information management more effectively. The need for the overall planning of library, documentation and information facilities was emphasized, and it was suggested that, if information units were to be established in the regional offices of the different authorities, the risk of overlap and unnecessary duplication of effort between them could be minimized by designating one unit as the principal centre, and the others as subsidiary centres. There was a pressing need to rationalize the many different document collections, and it was proposed that a central reference library for the whole headquarters organization should be supplemented by smaller specialized collections in the headquarters of each authority and by desk reference collections for use by specific working groups.

The report on the assignment agreed that the technical information activities of the Water Resources Commission had to be fully coordinated if they were to be effective, and proposed that this should be achieved by establishing the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Centre (EWIDOC), System (EWIDOS) and Network (EWIDON), as outlined above.

In Tanzania, apart from the fact that the three members of MAJIDOC were all units of the same ministry, the only other mechanisms for coordinating their information activities were the Project Advisory Committee and the project team, neither of which was intended to continue after the end of the project. A major weakness of the project document was that it made no proposals for establishing MAJIDOC as an administrative entity, for

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setting up its internal organizational structure or for defining its place in the organizational structure of the Ministry. If MAJIDOC were to continue and to expand after the end of the initial project, it was essential to create a permanent administrative structure for it at an appropriate place in the overall organizational structure of the Ministry. Experience suggested that MAJIDOC should be attached to a higher level unit whose staff were likely to make good use of it and to support its development. One possibility would be to attach it to the Planning Unit of the Ministry, which would provide a more suitable home for it than a unit concerned purely with administration.

One of the main aims of Phase 2 of the project would be to extend MAJIDOC to include other water-related information units in Tanzania. Those which were part of the Ministry would be fully integrated into MAJIDOC in the same way as the existing units, to create a single, unified library and documentation system -- possibly to be known as MAJIDOS -- for those elements of the Ministry concerned with water supply and sanitation. Information units belonging to other organizations would be linked to MAJIDOC less formally, through cooperative arrangements for the exchange of bibliographic data, interlending of documents and so on. This broader structure would form an information network -- perhaps to be known as MAJIDON -- in the true sense of the word. Information units in the Ministry which were not water-related, such as the former Geological Survey Library, could be brought together with MAJIDOC for administrative purposes under an Information Management Unit along the lines of that proposed for Uganda. It was not suggested that these libraries should be combined administratively, though they could work towards standardizing their methods.

The ITN-Philippines network as a whole was coordinated by a Network Coordinating Council chaired by the Administrator of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA). The organizational structure of information provision in the network was complicated by the fact that the Water Supply Training Centre of LWUA was the focal point of both ITN-Philippines and ENSICNET-Philippines. The Head of the Training Centre was the Project Head for ENSICNET-Philippines, while ITN-Philippines had its own Project Head, who was also on the staff of the Training Centre. In theory, ITN-Philippines also had its own documentation staff. In practice, however, the Documentalist-Trainer of the ITN-Philippines project and the Librarian of LWUA, along with other members of the library staff, worked closely together on ITN-Philippines, ENSICNET-Philippines and LWUA library matters as required.

___________________________________________________________

Any information system or network requires an appropriate organizational structure through which its resources can be applied in performing technical operations and providing services to users.___________________________________________________________

The report on the first assignment proposed that a national water and sanitation information network should be established, with an organizational structure modelled on that of the Health Research and Development Information Network (HERDIN), which had a high-level advisory body responsible for formulating policy and a technical committee responsible for implementing it. ITN-Philippines would delegate most of its documentation activities to this network, which would also incorporate ENSICNET-Philippines and provide access to literature on health aspects through links with HERDIN. ITN-Philippines would be directly responsible only for helping to strengthen the library collections of its own member institutions, and would, in effect, be contracting with the national information network to develop and organize other documentation activities in and among ITN member institutions.

The Documentalist-Trainer for ITN-Philippines and the LWUA Librarian subsequently prepared a project proposal, under the direction of the ENSICNET-Philippines Project Head, for a national information centre for water supply and sanitation to be established at LWUA. This would be the focal point for a national network with links to ENSICNET, ITN-Philippines and HERDIN as well as other national and international information networks. It would be located in the Water Supply Training Centre, and a Network Advisory Council would be set up to formulate and direct policies for the operations of the network and to prepare

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legislation to authorize these activities. In addition to LWUA itself, the network would comprise the remaining members of ENSICNET and four others, one of which was HERDIN.

This proposal was very much in line with the recommendations of the report on the first assignment, and it was considered essential to ensure that the information and documentation activities of the ITN-Philippines, ENSICNET-Philippines, the LWUA library and the proposed national information centre should be fully integrated and carried out by the same group of staff with support from the same international and local consultants. Keeping these activities separate could only lead to a waste of scarce resources and retard the development of effective mechanisms for delivering information on water supply and sanitation to users.

When the terms of reference for a local information consultant to advise on the documentation activities of ITN-Philippines were being prepared, therefore, it was proposed that one of the main tasks should be to help to revise the proposal for a national water and sanitation information centre and to implement the project when funding was secured. However, the Project Head of ITN-Philippines was concerned that, in this case, the ITN project might see no results from the work until funding for the information centre project had been secured. The terms of reference were therefore revised so as to restrict the activities of the local consultant to ITN-Philippines. The problem of how best to coordinate the activities of ITN-Philippines and ENSICNET-Philippines with those of the LWUA library has still not been resolved.

It was originally intended that the ENSICNET project should be guided by an Advisory Technical Committee of Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) staff. This committee met a few times during 1988 and 1989, since when ENSICNET matters were discussed at meetings of the management of ENSIC itself. An International Board of Review for the project was also established. This was not to meet, but would communicate through existing channels. Two ENSICNET member countries were represented on this Board, though not in their capacity as members of the network. Each of the national focal points of ENSICNET was also supposed to establish an advisory board for the network, but only China has done so up to now.

Although the ENSICNET project had aimed for flexibility and responsiveness to the local situation in selecting national focal points, it was less flexible in determining the size of the national networks, each of which was expected to recruit an initial membership of twenty institutions, irrespective of the size of the country or the capacity of the national focal point. The analysis of Latin American information networks referred to in the previous chapter emphasized that this approach has consistently led to failure. Following adjustments in network membership made by the national focal points in various countries, the numbers of focal nodes in the national networks now ranges from only three in the Philippines to nearly fifty in China.

The organizational structure of the WASIN project comprised an Advisory Group, consisting of representatives of the various departments involved and of the national documentation centre (PDII-LIPI), and the project management team, comprising the Project Head, a Project Leader and a Project Manager from Cipta Karya and a Co-Project Leader and Co-Project Manager from the Directorate-General of Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Health (CDC-EH). The report emphasized that this structure was not necessarily the most appropriate for developing the network in the long term, particularly if it were to expand to include information units in other government and non-governmental organizations and in other parts of Indonesia. The lack of a firm conceptual foundation for the network structure was considered by the Co-Project Manager in CDC-EH to be a major obstacle to developing the network successfully.

In the organization of government activities in Indonesia, a distinction is made between 'structural' units, such as directorates, divisions and sub-directorates, and 'functional' activities carried out by, or within, these units. WASIN, as an interinstitutional cooperative activity involving various units of Cipta Karya and the Ministry of Health, is a functional activity without a formal place in the structural hierarchy. However, the units most directly involved in WASIN, the libraries and documentation centres of Cipta Karya and CDC-EH, are themselves considered to be only functional activities, and have no place in the structural hierarchy. Library and documentation activities in Cipta Karya and CDC-EH are thus not institutionalized and are unable to provide a firm base for developing WASIN.

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Since WASIN had been conceived of as an activity involving more than one institution, a decentralized, democratic and cooperative network structure, providing a high degree of flexibility in accommodating new members and in sharing responsibilities among them, seems to provide the most suitable basis for its future development.

Cooperation and networkingCooperation and networking

Cooperation may be defined as: 'working together to the same end, purpose or effect': and effective cooperation requires, among other things, a broad measure of agreement on the end, purpose or objectives of the cooperative activity. For any such activity to succeed, participants must be able to feel that the benefits which they expect to derive from it are at least equal to, and preferably greater than, the costs -- whether financial, human or material -- of participating. However, it is often difficult to measure either the costs or the benefits of participating in cooperative activity in the information field, and the likelihood of success of a new cooperative venture such as establishing a new information network can often only be assessed in terms of the participants' attitudes towards cooperation, which in turn may be influenced by their previous experience of such an activity. The attitudes of network members towards cooperating with other member institutions, and their ability to do so, are crucial elements in the success or failure of a network.

A feature of most of the information networks described here was that many of their members were also members of other networks in similar or related subject fields. In some cases, such as that of ITN-Philippines, the same institution was the focal point of more than one network.

The analysis of Latin American information networks by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) emphasized the importance of proper network design at the outset. It noted several constraints or difficulties that should be kept in mind when designing a network. First, it is essential to carry out an adequate analysis of the existing situation and of the need for the network; if this is not done, it may lead to the formulation of inappropriate objectives which could conceal fundamental weaknesses in the network structure. Further constraints included the lack of good planning, the lack of a continuing education programme for staff, and the lack of a well-conceived organizational structure, all of which may prevent effective resource-sharing. Also, mechanisms designed to monitor the performance of the network will be useless if monitoring capabilities are inadequate. A common constraint is the failure to recognize that resource-sharing usually costs money and that the benefits may not be seen immediately, but may only become apparent in the medium and long term. Next, poor transport and communication facilities may inhibit the development of networks. Finally, changes in personnel may give rise to a lack of momentum or commitment, leading network members to become unresponsive to new initiatives. All these constraints appeared among the networks studied.

The IDRC analysis pointed out that every member of a network, by agreeing to participate, assumes certain obligations with respect to managing and financing the network's operations. Members also have certain rights, namely, to receive the results of joint effort and to benefit from the services provided by the network. While informal networks may be easier to set up, they tend to decline rapidly because of lack of continuity among personnel, a weak sense of obligation or reliability among members, or the disappearance of some of the participating organizations without arrangements having been made to carry over their responsibilities to other bodies. In particular, the analysis emphasized that regional information networks should not begin by insisting on the same level of participation by each member country. Each country has its own needs and characteristics, yet many networks start out aiming to establish national focal points in all member countries and expect them all to participate at the same level. This approach has consistently led to failure.

The responses to the ITN-Philippines questionnaire showed clearly that there was a positive attitude among members towards library cooperation in general and to participating in the network in particular, and it was recommended that full advantage be taken of this in initiating actions to establish and develop the network. There was a strong consensus of opinion among participants that their libraries would benefit a lot from participating in the network, as well as being able to make a useful contribution to its activities. However, it was possible to identify two distinct groups of participants: those who were actively involved in cooperative activity and considered it to be worthwhile, even though it created more work and they felt that they gave more than they received; and those who were not very active, or not active at all, in this respect.

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___________________________________________________________

The attitudes of network members towards cooperating with each other, and their ability to do so, are crucial to the success or failure of a network.___________________________________________________________

A high proportion of respondents to the ENSICNET questionnaire thought that the staff of their national focal point were very cooperative, but many of them did not know whether the staff of other libraries participating in their national networks were cooperative or not. This seemed to reveal a surprising degree of ignorance of their fellow network members, and suggested that there was a serious lack of contact and communication among members, particularly in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. However, it was also possible that there had been so little cooperative activity in these networks up to that point that it was not yet possible for respondents to judge how cooperative their partners really were.

Although the general attitude to the benefits to be expected from participating in ENSICNET was very positive, not all respondents, even in national focal points, were really clear as to precisely what the benefits were supposed to be, nor how far they were being realized. Those who were able to identify specific benefits referred, in the main, only to the sharing of information, particularly from abroad, and to finding out what others have been doing in the same field. Other potential benefits identified in the basic project documents either received only adverse comment or were not mentioned at all.

In some countries, the ENSICNET focal nodes (and to some extent, the national focal points) did not think that the benefits they received from participating in the network were commensurate with the effort involved. Many of the anticipated benefits of the project had yet to be realized, partly due to the lack of well-defined objectives at the outset. The report on the survey emphasized that it was essential that everyone involved should be clear as to how they could expect to benefit from the project -- and what they had to do to receive these benefits.

CAPTION 9Any who are unwilling to accept their obligations should be encouraged to leave the network.

[Picture: sulky network member being expelled by colleagues]?

About two thirds of the respondents to the ENSICNET survey said that their libraries could make an effective contribution to the network, but only half said their libraries cooperated a lot with other members. It was difficult to see how a library could make an effective contribution if it were not able to cooperate.

A suggestion from one ENSICNET national focal point that focal nodes should be paid for preparing bibliographic worksheets seemed to be at variance with the basic concept of the network as a cooperative activity. This national focal point did not seem to realize that it was expected to supply information to focal

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nodes in return for their input. There was a need for participants to be made more aware of their obligations to each other and for these obligations to be spelled out in detail. Any who were unable or unwilling to accept their obligations should be encouraged to leave the network.

Many respondents to the ENSICNET survey said that there were many potential users of water supply and sanitation information in their institutions, but only a few said that their institutions produced many documents on water supply and sanitation. As in the case of ITN-Philippines, participants could thus be divided into those who were able to contribute actively to enhancing the documentary resources of the network, and those who were essentially passive users of the facilities and services provided by the network. It may be inappropriate to treat passive users as full participants in the network, either in terms of the inputs they are expected to provide or the outputs they may expect to receive -- or the conditions under which the outputs are made available to them. In such cases, the criteria for membership of the network should be reviewed and passive members either removed from membership altogether or allowed to use the facilities and services of the network on different terms from those who able to participate fully.

Proposals along these lines were also made in respect of the possible expansion of WASIN to include other kinds of institutional members, either in Jakarta or in other parts of Indonesia. While the attitudes of existing members of WASIN to cooperating with each other were generally positive, their ability to do so, in terms of the human and material resources at their disposal, and the way in which these resources were employed, was more doubtful. It was important to ensure that both existing and potential members were able to participate fully in the network in terms of enhancing its human and documentary resources and of extending and improving the services provided. Strict criteria for full membership of WASIN should therefore be established. Institutions which were able to fulfil these criteria should receive in return at least the following benefits: the complete database on diskette, if they had suitable computing facilities; regular updates of the database; copies of all other WASIN publications and products; access to all WASIN services; and regular training programmes for staff and users. Different criteria, possibly involving the payment of a membership fee or subscription, should be established for institutions which wanted to use the network's products and services but which were unable or unwilling to participate fully in its activities.

National focal points for water supply and sanitation informationNational focal points for water supply and sanitation information

Although the idea of a national focal point, as a mechanism for organizing and coordinating the activities of an information network, may seem attractive from the administrative or organizational point of view, in terms of operational effectiveness the experience of many information systems and networks with national focal points has not been very satisfactory. There are various reasons for this, including, for example:

• the value of the information which members receive from the network is not sufficient to compensate them for the time and effort involved in supplying information to the network (for example, by preparing input sheets containing bibliographical data)

• the institution in which the national focal point is located may be unable or unwilling to allocate sufficient resources to the national focal point for it to function effectively

• the institution where the national focal point is located may not have the legal authority, the administrative competence or the political or professional status to enable it to perform its role properly

• the function of acting as national focal point may be only a minor one in terms of the objectives of the parent institution, and may thus receive an inadequate share of attention and resources

• especially in smaller and poorer countries, one institution may act as national focal point for several different international and national information systems, each using different

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procedures and having different requirements and thus collectively placing a heavy burden on the often already overburdened staff

• institutional, professional and personal rivalries can lead different organizations to compete for the title or role of national focal point

• institutional or personal self-interest can lead institutions to seek to be nominated as national focal points in order to attract extra funding, foreign aid, scholarships or opportunities for foreign travel, rather than because of a genuine interest in, or capacity to fulfil, the role.

The primary role of a national focal point, whether defined as such or not, is to coordinate the activities of the information network of which it forms the hub. However, the role of the national focal point in the networks described here was rarely clearly defined. The geographical or institutional location of a national focal point also has an important influence on its ability to fulfil its role satisfactorily.

The national focal point should be the institution best equipped to participate in a network because it is usually the first to receive equipment and training. Its effectiveness may have a strong influence on the way in which other participants perceive the network and the benefits to be derived from membership. A national focal point which is itself unable to participate effectively in network activities -- for example, because it does not produce many documents in water supply and sanitation -- will not be able to exert much influence, and the development of the network will thus inevitably be retarded. A problem with many of the national focal points studied was that they did not have enough staff, enough space or enough money to enable them to meet the internal information needs of users in their own parent institutions, let alone to perform effectively as the focal point of a national network.

In Ethiopia, it was recommended that the proposed national water and sanitation documentation centre, which would eventually become the national focal point for the Ethiopian Water Information and Documentation Network (EWIDON), should be located in the Water Resources Commission in Addis Ababa. The earlier Unesco report had suggested that the 'focal point for information and documentation activities in the water resources sector' should be the Arba Minch Water Technology Institute (without specifying exactly what its role or functions should be), but the Institute was felt to be too remote and too isolated from most potential information users to be able to perform this role properly.

The original project proposals for MAJIDOC in Tanzania did not say that any one of the three participating institutions should be the focal point of the network, although it was tacitly assumed that the library of the Water Resources Institute would fulfil this role.

___________________________________________________________

The experience of many information systems and networks with national focal points has not been very satisfactory.___________________________________________________________

In the ITN-Philippines, the role of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) as national focal point for the documentation activity of the network had not been clearly defined, particularly in relation to its other role as the focal point of ENSICNET-Philippines.

The ENSICNET survey tried to determine how effective the various national focal points were in coordinating the activities of their national networks, and found that, while many representatives of focal nodes in the national networks thought that the staff of their national focal point were very cooperative, not many thought that the national focal point as such was effective in coordinating the network -- while even fewer thought that it provided them with adequate advice and assistance. This seemed to suggest that the goodwill of national focal point staff in many cases exceeded their ability to organize the network effectively or to offer the

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advice and assistance they would like to provide. In Indonesia, one of the survey respondents who did not know whether or not the national focal point was coordinating the network effectively was the national focal point itself. This response may have reflected modesty on the part of the national focal point, but was more likely to be due to a lack of suitable criteria for assessing the effectiveness of its efforts at coordination.

A number of specific tasks which each ENSICNET national focal point was meant to perform were spelled out in a Memorandum of Understanding between the focal point and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). However, a clear statement of the role of the national focal point in relation to other members of the national network and to ENSICNET as a whole was lacking. Only in Nepal and the Philippines were the national focal points located in institutions specifically concerned with water supply and sanitation. In Pakistan, both the main and the subsidiary national focal points were in an institution concerned with water resources information in general. The national focal point in China was in an academic institution concerned with environmental studies and those in Indonesia and Vietnam were in scientific and technical information institutions.

All the national focal points in ENSICNET experienced some difficulties in participating in the network, and some of them could be unsuitable as focal points because of this. Before Phase 2 began, it would be necessary to consider whether or not national focal points should continue to be the basic mechanism for implementing the project. If so, the ability of some of the existing national focal points to perform their role effectively would need to be reviewed.

Like MAJIDOC, WASIN lacked a designated focal point as such, although most of the technical work of establishing the database was done in the Sub-Directorate of General Planning of the Directorate of Programme Development in Cipta Karya.

ManagementManagement

The IDRC analysis of Latin American information networks emphasized the need for all members of a network to participate in its management. It was important for an information network to have an explicit organizational structure which defined the responsibilities, obligations and rights of each member in providing and disseminating data and collaborating in the management and administration of the network. The network coordinating centre or focal point itself must be accountable to other network members. The management of a network must be essentially democratic if the participants are to see themselves as equals. Clear and consistent policies regarding participation are also critical to the efficient operation and development of a network.

Among several managerial problems which were foreseen for ENSICNET at the outset was that of evaluating the performance of the network. This was said to be because 'it was not possible for the Project to keep a very close watch on the ENSICNETs', and because 'most countries will be establishing information centres for the first time, [so] progress will be slow'. In most member countries, in fact, the ENSICNET focal point was located in an existing information centre, which in some cases was already the focal point of another information network.

Representatives of some ENSICNET national focal points, particularly in Pakistan and China, felt that there had been a 'top-down' approach to the establishment and management of the network, deriving in part from the conviction of people at the centre that such national networks were a good thing, rather than from a demand by those at the national level for assistance in establishing them. The proposal by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that ENSICNET should focus more attention on fewer countries and extend its scope to include environmental impact assessments seemed to indicate that the 'top-down' approach to the project was in danger of being continued in Phase 2. There was no indication that any of the network members had been consulted about these proposed changes.

___________________________________________________________

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The management of an information network must be essentially democratic if the participants are to see themselves as equals.___________________________________________________________

Project staff and the staff of national focal points in ENSICNET had different perceptions of their respective roles. Project staff commented that the project had supplied the 'basic components' or 'basic tools' to the national focal points and that it was now up to them to get on with the job, whereas national focal points felt they still needed advice and assistance from ENSIC. This was subsequently acknowledged by the project staff. The focal nodes also needed advice and assistance from national focal points. This need was not being met.

Only in China, which was the only national network to have established the advisory committee required by the Memorandum of Understanding with AIT, was it possible for representatives of some focal nodes to participate in the management of the network. None of the national focal points was able to participate in the management of ENSICNET as a whole. It was concluded that the management of the project needed to be more democratic. The management responsibilities of different elements of the network should be clearly defined, and the attitudes of project staff towards providing continuing advice and assistance to network members needed to be reviewed.

A number of respondents to the survey were unable to provide even the most basic information on the information activities of their institutions. This suggested that, in some cases, either the wrong person had been chosen to represent the institution in ENSICNET, or communication between that person and those directly responsible for running the institution's library or information service needed to be greatly improved.

In WASIN, it was felt that, if the network were to continue to develop after the end of the existing project, it would be necessary for its members to agree upon broader long term objectives, taking account of the activities of other agencies in this respect.

Information policyInformation policy

Objectives and strategies for water and sanitation information systems, and the scope of such systems, should be defined within a framework of realistic and clearly-defined policies for information provision in the institution or group of institutions which the system or network is designed to serve. In particular, a national information policy for the sector can provide a framework for planning, developing and operating information systems at all levels which will be complementary and compatible and will thus help to reduce wasteful duplication of effort and expenditure of resources.

A national information policy for the sector should be concerned with:

• identifying information users and their needs

• promoting awareness of the usefulness of information and data

• assessing the existing information management capacities of sectoral institutions and identifying strengths and weaknesses

• promoting the introduction of modern information management systems designed to build on existing strengths and make good existing weaknesses

• establishing appropriate organizational structures and coordinating mechanisms for managing these systems

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• recruiting and training competent information personnel

• ensuring the provision of suitable accommodation, equipment and supplies for information management

• ensuring the provision of adequate financial support for information management.

Formulating and implementing information policies at any level requires appropriate policy-making machinery, which should function in close cooperation with related policy-making bodies and operate within the framework of any existing sectoral or national information policies. It must be based on a thorough study and analysis of the existing information situation and on close consultation with information users, information specialists, managers and policy makers.

The extent and depth of such studies will be determined largely by the level at which they are carried out. For example, a study of information management in a single institution at the local level will often be able to take account of all aspects of information provision and of the specific information needs of individual users, whereas a study covering the water and sanitation sector as a whole, at the national level, will necessarily have to be concerned with broader issues, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of entire institutions and the major obstacles to effective information management, and at the same time establishing methodologies for the conduct of more detailed studies which can be applied by individual institutions to their own information management problems.

___________________________________________________________

A national information policy for the sector can provide a framework for developing information systems which will be complementary and compatible and can help to reduce wasteful duplication of effort and expenditure of resources.___________________________________________________________

One of the main reasons why the arrangements for information management in the Water Development Department in Uganda were so ineffective at the time of the first assignment was that the Department had no clear policy for information management.

The question of information policy was not raised directly in the report on the assignment in Ethiopia, though the need for the Water Resources Commission to formulate a policy with regard to establishing a national documentation centre for the water sector -- the main concern of the assignment -- was implied in the statement that any proposals for establishing such a centre would depend on exactly what kind of centre, serving which target groups of users, the Commission desired to create.

Information policy as such was not considered in the MAJIDOC or ENSICNET assignments, either in the original project proposals or in the study itself.

In the ITN-Philippines the Network Coordinating Council was explicitly assigned only one duty -- to meet regularly for the purpose of formulating policies for operating and managing the network. By implication, such policies would include the information activities of the network, but no specific mention was made in the original project documents of information policy as such. It was recommended that the proposed national water and sanitation information network should have a policy-making structure similar to that of the Health Research and Development Information Network (HERDIN), which comprised both an advisory committee of senior representatives of the participating institutions, which acted as the policy-making body for the network, and a technical working group of the heads of the participating libraries, which was responsible for implementing these policies.

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In the case of WASIN, while no mention of information policy as such appeared in the original project documents, the report on the assignment proposed that the network management should prepare and submit to network members for approval a written policy statement defining its aims, objectives and scope. This could form part of a general statement of information policy for WASIN. It was also proposed that network policies with regard to the kinds of documents to be included in the collections of member libraries, and to payment for information products and services, should be defined. One of the specific responsibilities of the head of the library in each member institution should be to formulate a documentary information policy for the parent institution.

Legislation and regulationsLegislation and regulations

The term 'legislation' in this context, is taken to include all kinds of laws, decrees, regulations, administrative orders and instructions regulating or influencing the establishment and operation of information systems. It is through legislation of some kind that information systems obtain their authority to provide services to their users. Legislation provides formal recognition by the authorities of the need for information systems and of their general purposes and objectives. It also authorizes the pursuit of these objectives through establishing appropriate organizational structures and providing resources. The establishment and operation of an information system in any field is also affected by legislation in other fields, such as employment, censorship, or copyright.

In Tanzania, it was pointed out that establishing MAJIDOC as a separate unit of the Ministry, with its own staff establishment and head or subhead in the budget estimates, would require administrative action on the part of the Minister with regard to transferring to the new unit the existing staff, records of the collections, furniture and equipment of the documentation centres which were to be incorporated in MAJIDOC. The Minister would also need to be empowered to make regulations for the establishment and operation of MAJIDOC, including its relationships with other information units.

Participation in ITN-Philippines as a whole was regulated by a Memorandum of Agreement between members of the Network Coordinating Council. In the Health Research and Development Information Network (HERDIN), the three participating institutions had signed a Memorandum of Understanding which defined the objectives, organization, operational procedures and obligations of participants in detail, and which provided a good model for similar agreements for other networks.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the ENSICNET project and the national focal point in each member country listed tasks to be carried out by the project and the national focal point respectively. There were no formal agreements between the national focal points and the focal nodes in each country.

The WASIN network had no legal structure as such. To provide a firm foundation for the future, a formal network structure should be established on a decentralized, democratic and cooperative basis. This structure, the rights and responsibilities of members in general, and the specific contributions to network activities or finances to be made by individual members, should be defined in a formal Memorandum of Understanding to be signed by all present and future network members.


One the main problems encountered with regard to organizing information provision in the sector is the way that responsibility for it is scattered among several institutions, or departments within institutions. Often the only mechanism for coordinating information provision has been one created specifically for managing a technical assistance project for an information system or network. Such mechanisms are rarely appropriate for managing information provision in the long term, and project proposals tend to neglect the need to establish permanent organizational structures for information management which will enable the activity to be carried on effectively after the end of the project.

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While members of most of the networks studied had a positive attitude towards cooperating with each other and with the network management, they were often not clear as to exactly what this should involve, and unaware that, to obtain the benefits of participating in the network, they must also contribute to its activities. Many network participants were not really able to participate effectively in this way, and most of the networks studied needed to formulate clear criteria for membership which would distinguish between institutions which could participate actively and those which would only be able to adopt a passive role and simply make use of the available facilities and services without being able to contribute to improving them.

One way to avoid the problems associated with establishing national focal points -- though it may bring problems of its own -- is for projects to be designed to support individual network member institutions in ways which are appropriate to their capacity and their willingness to contribute to networking activities. Thus, for example, technical advice on setting up and maintaining a database might be offered to one institution, while another may be helped to develop training courses and a third to produce an inventory of information sources -- all for the benefit of the network as a whole. Such an approach has already proved its effectiveness in some countries, and seems likely to create better prospects for success while minimizing the consequences of failure.

The management of an information network must be participatory and democratic if the network is to function effectively and if all members are to be able to contribute to its planning, development and operation. ENSICNET provides a good example of the problems which can arise if this requirement is not met, with network members and management having different perceptions of their own and each other's roles and responsibilities, and a lack of communication and understanding between them of the problems which each one faces.

Providing adequate human, material and financial resources, developing efficient technical operations and supplying appropriate information products and services will not, of themselves, ensure the effective provision of information to those who need it if the organizational and managerial aspects of information provision are neglected.

In most of the information systems and networks described here, a key problem is the lack of central responsibility for information management at a sufficiently senior level within the parent institutions concerned. An important step towards solving this problem is to assign responsibility for information management within an institution to a specific unit or individual. This 'information management unit' should plan and coordinate all kinds of information provision within the institution, ensure the compatibility of information systems, plan and promote the training of staff, and so on. Such a unit will develop an intimate knowledge of the information resources and activities of the institution, and will thus become the element within the institution which is best equipped to make this information available to users in other institutions through both formal and informal information networks. A national network of similar units could do much to facilitate the informal exchange of information between specialists by identifying those with similar interests in different institutions and helping to put them in touch with each other -- a means of information transfer which is often more effective than more formal methods such as the exchange of documents.

The person in charge of such an information management unit need not, and probably should not, operate any kind of information system as such (though the unit may, in some cases, be responsible for repackaging information for top managers and policy makers); his or her role should be to manage and coordinate information activity within the institution as a whole. Since the aim should be to integrate information provision and use into the managerial and operational activities of the parent institution, and promote the use of information in achieving the institution's objectives, the head of the information management unit should be a member of the senior management team of the institution. Such an 'information manager' will thus be able to foresee changes in the information needs of the institution which are likely to arise from changes in its objectives and activities, to plan appropriate responses to these changes in terms of information service, and to improve the information systems and services in response to feedback from other top managers. The information manager should therefore be either a sector professional with orientation, training and qualifications in information management or information science, or an information specialist with orientation, training and qualifications in an appropriate sector-related discipline.

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___________________________________________________________

A key problem is the lack of central responsibility for information management at a sufficiently senior level.___________________________________________________________

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9. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS


The foregoing analysis of the findings and recommendations of recent field assignments concerned with information management in Africa and Asia has tried to draw together the main findings and results of these assignments in relation to a number of common information management problems, such as the provision of information products and services to meet the needs of users, the performance of technical operations, the provision of the necessary resources, and the organization and management of information systems and networks. This final chapter aims to review some of the main lessons learned and to identify some key issues in information management typified by the various assignments.

Summary of lessons learned from the assignmentsSummary of lessons learned from the assignments

Although the importance of developing information systems and services in the water and sanitation sector has been seriously neglected in comparison with other sectors, managers in many sector institutions are aware of the need to organize information provision more effectively, but do not know how to go about it.

Many of the problems of organizing information provision in the sector are due to the fact that there are often many different institutions and organizations involved, whose activities may range from low-cost water supply and sanitation to water resources management in general and to broader environmental issues. Also, most people working in the sector, whether technical sector specialists or members of other professions, need information about a wide variety of subjects, not only about water supply and sanitation as such.

Providing different kinds of information to such a wide variety of institutions, and within these institutions, to users with such a wide range of interests and needs, requires an integrated approach to information management in which project and sector information, management information systems, technical information exchange and information, education and communication activities are planned and carried on within a common framework.

While the general objective of any information system must be to provide information to satisfy the needs of its users and potential users, the specific objectives and priorities of individual systems have to be determined in accordance with those of their parent institutions and of any relevant national or local plans and policies. In general, the objectives and functions of the various systems and networks studied were not expressed in very precise terms. In at least one case, that of ENSICNET, this was the cause of several of the difficulties being experienced by the project. It is most important to define the objectives, strategies and functions of an information system or network clearly at the outset.

If the objective of an information system is to satisfy the information needs of its users, it is clearly essential for managers of such systems to know as much as possible about the actual or potential users of their systems and about their information needs. Because of the multiplicity of institutions of different kinds in the water and sanitation sector, the potential users of information systems are often widely scattered and sometimes difficult to identify; nevertheless, it is essential to know what kinds of people are likely to need what types of information, how many of each kind there are, and where they are located, if information systems capable of meeting their needs are to be developed.

Most of the information systems or networks studied did not have accurate information about their actual or potential users, and the target groups of users to which their activities were directed were either identified only very vaguely or listed exhaustively, from top managers and policy makers to pump mechanics and members of the general public. While many kinds of people may be potential information users in the sector as a whole, they cannot all be given equal priority by a particular information system because of differences in their information needs. Failure to distinguish between the differing information needs of different groups of users can make it difficult to provide effective information services to any of them.

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The other essential precondition to the establishment of effective information systems is the existence of a supply of information capable of meeting the needs of users and potential users. The required information must be available at the right levels of presentation and in the right formats and languages, and be appropriate, in terms of timeliness and the means by which it is communicated, to the needs of the users. If this information is to be used, it must be useful, or at least, interesting, to potential users. In the systems and networks studied, the importance of information was recognized in general terms, but there was a general lack of knowledge about what information sources were actually being produced, even, in some cases, by the national institutions themselves.

In terms of the ease with which users can obtain access to information and of the range and quality of the information products and services provided, most of the information systems and networks studied were not very effective. Where information products and services were provided, they were often very little used. One reason for this was the lack of knowledge, on the part of system managers, of the size and characteristics of the population of potential information users or their information needs. Without such knowledge, it is impossible to design information products and services able to meet those needs and so encourage people to make more use of the system.

Another cause of the unsatisfactory situation with regard to information products and services is the ineffectiveness of technical operations in most of the systems and networks studied. Staff have difficulty in identifying and acquiring information materials and often do not know how to use the computers which have been supplied under information projects.

The failure of many of the systems to perform technical operations effectively and to provide satisfactory information products and services to users is in turn due largely to the lack of resources of all kinds, including staff, information resources, physical facilities and equipment, and finance.

No information system or network can function without trained and qualified staff. One of the most important tasks of such a system or network must therefore be to create and maintain a cadre of competent, highly-motivated and well-qualified staff. There was a general lack of trained staff, particularly of professionally-qualified information specialists, in the systems and networks studied, while in many cases those staff who have received training have only attended short courses and still lack technical and managerial skills. In such cases, professionally-qualified local information consultants can often help poorly-trained information staff by providing continuing advice and support as needed.

The existing information resources in most of the systems and networks studied were generally very limited, often in poor physical condition and badly housed. The lack of adequate internal information resources makes it difficult for an institution to participate effectively in an information network, which requires that the resources of all members of the network should be made accessible to users in other member institutions.

Specialized information centres of the kind needed by most institutions in the water and sanitation sector do not require large amounts of space or large quantities of equipment; but in many of the institutions studied, the physical facilities and equipment provided for information activities are quite inadequate. Many information units were housed in cramped and overcrowded conditions, sometimes in inaccessible parts of the building, and lacked basic furniture and equipment. Although computers were provided under several of the information projects examined, they were not always well-maintained and the staff did not always know how to use them properly.

The lack of money is the main cause of the lack of other resources. Most of the systems and networks studied received little or no financial support from their parent institutions, while the provision made in project budgets was often totally inadequate. While in some cases it may be possible to recover some of the costs of information provision by charging for information products and services, information systems and networks in the sector should not be expected to become totally self-financing on a commercial basis. There is no substitute for making adequate financial provision for supporting information systems and services in the regular budgets of sectoral institutions, as well as within the overall budgets of general sector projects.

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Providing adequate human, material and financial resources, developing efficient technical operations and supplying appropriate information products and services will not, of themselves, ensure the effective provision of information to those who need it if the organizational and managerial aspects of information provision are neglected.

As noted above, one the main problems encountered with regard to organizing information provision in the sector is the way that responsibility for it is scattered among several institutions, or departments within institutions. Often the only way of coordinating information provision in such cases is through a steering committee or other mechanism created specifically for a technical assistance project in the information field. Such temporary mechanisms are no substitute for the permanent organizational structures for information management which are needed to ensure that the information activity is continued effectively after the project comes to an end.

The attitudes of network members towards cooperation, and their ability to cooperate, have a vital influence in determining the success or failure of an information network. While members of most of the networks studied had a positive attitude towards cooperation, they were not always clear as to exactly what this should involve, and were often unaware that, to obtain the benefits of participating in the network, they must also contribute to its activities. Many institutions were not able to participate effectively in the networks to which they belonged, and most of the networks needed to formulate better criteria for membership which would help them to distinguish between active and passive participants and make separate provision for them.

The role of the national focal point in these networks was rarely clearly defined, and many of them did not have enough staff, space or money to perform their tasks effectively. This problem might be avoided by distributing these tasks, and the resources required to support them, among individual network member institutions in accordance with their capabilities.

A key problem in most of the information systems and networks studied was the lack of central responsibility for information management at a sufficiently senior level within their parent institutions. One solution to this problem is to assign this responsibility to an information management unit, which should plan and coordinate information provision within the institution, ensure the compatibility of information systems, and plan and promote the training of staff. Such a unit should become the focal point within the institution for contacts with both formal and informal information networks. The head of the information management unit should be a member of the senior management team of the institution.

The management of an information network must be participatory and democratic if the network is to function effectively and if all members are to be able to contribute to its planning, development and operation.

The objectives and strategies of water and sanitation information systems, and their scope, need to be defined within a framework of realistic and clearly-defined policies for information provision in the institution or group of institutions which the system or network is designed to serve. At the national level, a national information policy for the sector provides a framework for planning, developing and operating complementary and compatible information systems which will help to reduce wasteful duplication of effort and expenditure of resources. Formulating and implementing such policies requires appropriate policy-making machinery to be established.

Key issues in information managementKey issues in information management

While each of the systems and networks studied has been analyzed in terms of the common framework referred to in the Introduction to this chapter, each of them as a whole also exhibits some characteristics which reflect in a more general sense some of the key issues in information management in the water and sanitation sector.

The situation in the Water Resources Commission and the three water authorities in Ethiopia, for example -- at least as it was in 1990 -- may be taken as typical of that in many sector institutions in many developing countries. Some facilities for organizing technical information within the organization did exist, but

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they were not provided with adequate resources, in terms of information materials, staff, physical facilities and finance, to meet the real needs of sector managers and practitioners for up-to-date information on technical developments both in Ethiopia and elsewhere. Management information systems were weak and uncoordinated, and there were no proper facilities for providing project and sector information.

The situation in the Water Resources Commission was also fairly typical in another respect, however: the senior staff of the organization, including the Commissioner for Water Resources, were aware of the need to improve information management and determined to do something about it. The problem -- again, a typical one -- was that they did not know how to do this, and had no colleagues with suitable qualifications or experienced in information work to advise them. In such a situation, there is no alternative but to rely to on outside advice, particularly from local sources and at least in the short term, to ensure that any steps which were taken to improve matters were steps in the right direction.

Some of the problems which may arise from relying too much on outside advice and assistance were exemplified by the two projects sponsored by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for setting up national water and sanitation information networks in Tanzania and Indonesia. In both cases, the project did not make satisfactory provision for establishing a permanent organizational structure for the network, giving rise to a real danger that the whole activity would collapse when the project came to an end. Both projects placed considerable emphasis on the supply of equipment -- particularly computing equipment -- which the project staff, despite having received appropriate training, did not always know how to use properly. The provision of some items of equipment, such as the motorcycle for MAJIDOC and the microfiche readers for WASIN, did not always seem to meet a real need.

The need for even short-term projects to make proper provision for the continuance of their activities in the long term by taking steps to integrate project activities into existing organizational structures, was clearly evidenced by these two IDRC projects. The dangers of excessive staff turnover, often due to the insecurity of project positions which are not integrated into the establishment of the organization, were also shown in these projects. In MAJIDOC, at least, this has not prevented one member of staff from continuing to develop project activities through preparing plans for marketing its products and services.

Problems of project management are also exemplified by the ENSICNET and ITN-Philippines projects. In ENSICNET, many of the difficulties now being faced by the network are due to the desire to attain over-ambitious goals within too short a time span. The first phase of ENSICNET lasted for only two years, during which time six national networks, each comprising twenty member institutions, were supposed to be set up and to begin supplying bibliographical data to the network as a whole. The difficulty of achieving such an ambitious goal in so short a time was compounded by problems of staffing, staff training and equipment similar to those noted in MAJIDOC and WASIN. Staff turnover in some national ENSICNET networks was high, the training provided did not always seem to produce the desired results, and the equipment provided was not always properly installed or used. As in the IDRC projects, in most cases the activity of the ENSICNET national focal point was not properly integrated into the work of its parent institution, giving rise to difficulties in staffing, budgeting and planning for future development.

The ITN-Philippines network also reflected many of these problems, but faced additional difficulties due to the overlap between its own goals and those of ENSICNET-Philippines and the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) library itself. A cautious attitude towards cooperation on the part of some of the staff involved -- who were all members of the same small unit within LWUA -- was making it difficult to achieve a rational solution to these problems.

The progress made in Uganda, where the Water Development Department initially faced many of the same problems as the Water Resources Commission in Ethiopia -- only in a much more severe form -- shows what can be achieved when the authorities concerned take information management seriously, are determined to act to improve information provision, and are able to work in close cooperation with both foreign and local advisers and foreign aid agencies to implement realistic proposals step-by-step within a reasonable timeframe.

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Following on the recommendations of the two assignments, modified as time went by in accordance with changes in the general situation, and supplemented by the recommendations and practical assistance of the local consultant and foreign aid agencies, in the two years since the first assignment took place the Department has: established the Information Management Unit and appointed an existing senior staff member as its head; established the Uganda Water Information and Documentation Centre (UWIDOC) and provided it with adequate accommodation and furniture; introduced computerized systems for the management of water resources and water supply data; and organized training for information staff and orientation to information services for senior managers. Discussions have been initiated with the Netherlands government which are expected to lead to the eventual development of an integrated information system for the Department along the lines proposed in the mission reports.

Not all the recommendations of the two assignments to Uganda have been implemented, and some of them may never be. The Department has shown, however, that under the leadership of a Commissioner with a genuine interest in information management problems and a clear understanding of the importance of well-managed information in its daily work, positive steps can be taken, without enormous cost, towards providing its own staff, and those of other sector institutions in the country, with the information they need to do their jobs properly and achieve the government's aims for the water and sanitation sector.


Although the water and sanitation sector still lags behind some other sectors in terms of the level of development of information systems and networks, there are encouraging signs of a growing awareness, on the part of sector policy makers and managers at various levels, of the need for improved information provision in the sector and of the contribution which it can make to the development of specific projects and institutions in the sector, and of the sector as a whole.

The resources required to make significant improvements in information provision in the water and sanitation sector are relatively modest; what is essential, however, is a clear commitment, on the part of both national governments and external support agencies, to providing these resources -- not merely within the short life-span of a technical assistance project, but over extended periods of time sufficient to ensure that information systems and services are firmly established and thus capable of meeting the undoubted need for more and better information among sector policy-makers, managers and technicians.

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The progress made in Uganda shows what can be achieved when the authorities take information management seriously.___________________________________________________________

1 . Akhtar, Shahid. Regional information networks: some lessons from Latin America. Information Development, vol. 6, no. 1, January 1990, 35-42.

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