The bridges.org IICD Case Study Series on ICT-Enabled Development sets out to illustrate how information and communication technology (ICT) contributes to development in Africa. The aim of this series is to help ground level initiatives imagine the possibilities of what can happen if they use ICT successfully to overcome development obstacles, and to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the digital divide.

I. Overview

Initiative: The Environmental Information Network (EIN) Project of Ghana uses ICT to link the databases of two national environmental agencies. The database is publicly available for free use. Local and international researchers, government agencies and other environmental organisations can use its information to support decision-making, intervention strategies, and awareness campaigns about environmental protection, and they can also contribute to this knowledge pool.

Implemented by:The Ghanaian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG).

Funding or financial model: The International Institute of Communication and Development (IICD) provided equipment and training in web development. The Ghanaian Government provides grants to EPA that fund the salaries, allowances and basic operational costs of the project.

Timeframe: The EIN Project was the result of roundtable discussions between IICD and the Internet Society of Ghana in 1998, where EPA highlighted the need for a centralised database of environmental information for Ghana. The project was launched in July 1999.

Local context: In its Vision 2020 strategy, the Government of Ghana sets out its hopes for the country to be among the middle ranking developed nations in 2020. This will be no easy task. 44.8% of Ghana's population of 19.9 million earns less than US$1 a day (2001)[1]. The GDP per capita is US$239 (2000)[2] and the country is heavily indebted. Ghanaians have always relied on the country's abundant natural resources to provide them with a livelihood. However, in the process of exploiting these resources to meet socio-economic needs, adequate care has not been taken to guard against their depletion. Although Ghana has over 15,000 km of tropical rain forest, today this area represents just 25% of Ghana's original rain forest area. The main reasons for deforestation and concomitant desertification have been commercial logging, shifting cultivation, and mining. Loss of Ghana's rain forests not only leads to flooding, loss of topsoil and a loss of species diversity, but will also impact on the whole region as deforestation is associated with global warming.

The development problem/obstacle addressed: The EPA realised that information relevant to environmental management was available in many government departments, but that it was scattered and unsystematically managed. Ironically, various local environmental agencies were connecting with international information-sharing groups, but they did not have ready access to each other's data and experiences, neither did staff from different agencies communicate or collaborate on a frequent basis. Each agency had its own libraries and researchers, and they had to travel to different libraries to perform basic searches. This situation hampered the quality of environmental research and also prevented Ghana from developing a unified strategy to protect the environment.

How ICT is used to overcome the problem:As part of the EIN Project, librarians systemised bibliography entries from EPA and FORIG's libraries, scanned documents and records and uploaded these onto an electronic database. The EPA central office's Local Area Network (LAN)[3] was connected to the Internet, EPA and FORIG were connected by telephone and e-mail, and the EPA's ten regional offices were connected to the unified database via a Wide Area Network (WAN)[4]. EPA and FORIG also established their own website. Selected staff from the two agencies received extensive training to help them manage the in-house environmental information database.

The EIN project now enables partner organisations to access information from each other's databases at the click of a mouse. It has reduced costs because traveling time and expenses have been cut out of the equation. The project improved the quality of data used as well as the speed at which it can be retrieved. As a result, the quality of EPA and FORIG's research has improved and the two agencies are now able to take on larger and more sophisticated research projects. Furthermore, the network provides access to international sources and facilitates collaboration between researchers and agencies. The EIN Project benefits all sectors of the Ghanaian economy since it provides up-to-date information on the environment for industry, commerce, and management for research and other purposes.

Next steps: There are still some minor problems in the system that need to be sorted out. For example, the computer in the EPA library designated for public use is broken; clients cannot search the database themselves, but have to rely on librarians to do this; and a more detailed customer satisfaction and impact assessment is needed. Fortunately, EPA is planning to fix and expand its laboratory so that the public can have better access to these electronic resources. This initiative will also have a bigger impact if it links up with more agencies such as the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI), but it will need to develop the necessary capacity in those agencies to make the network run smoothly.

The next phase of the EIN Project will focus on upgrading information services at the regional centres and the development of the same facilities at the partner organisation, FORIG.

Geographical area targeted: Ghana, with international potential.

Contact Information:
Agnes Adjabeng (Project Coordinator)
Tel: +233 21 664 697 (persevere - you will eventually get through!)
Eml:aadjabeng@epaghana.org
URL:www.epa.gov.gh/projects.html

II. Gauging Real Impact

This section considers whether and how the EIN Project has made a Real Impact at the ground level by looking through the lens of basic best practice guidelines for successful initiatives. The bridges.org's 7 Habits of Highly Effective ICT-for-Development Initiatives are used here as a framework to highlight what the EIN Project has done well.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective ICT-for-Development Initiatives

1. Implement and disseminate best practice.The EIN project builds partly upon a INFOTERRA[5]bibliographic database. EPA is sharing details about its project via the web with other institutions and researchers. The Ghanaian EPA is one of the oldest environmental agencies in Africa and has assisted a number of other African countries to establish environmental management programmes. By sharing project details with African countries that have a similar historical and developmental background, the EPA helps them to avoid reinventing the wheel.
2. Ensure ownership, get local buy-in, find a champion. The project was designed and implemented by its primary stakeholders -- the research staff. From the start of the project, EPA and FORIG displayed a strong level of commitment and involvement. Administrative directors readily accepted the ideas behind the EIN Project and gave the institutional support needed to make the project succeed.
3. Do a needs assessment.The project was based on needs expressed at a round-table discussion of stakeholders. FORIG also conducted an extensive needs assessment among its researchers to establish what they wanted from such a network.
4. Set concrete goals and take small achievable steps. A proposal for the Environmental Information Network, tabled in September 1998, set out the initial ideas for what was needed. In February 1999, a five-year-agreement was signed between the IICD and EPA, which specified the steps to fully develop the EIN Project. The development of the Project has systematically moved forward, starting with the migration of existing information to electronic formats for use with the database, then connecting partners and making the database widely accessible. The EIN Project became operational in August 1999. More work is needed, but a clear strategy for next steps is set out.
5. Critically evaluate efforts, report back to clients and supporters, and adapt as needed. The pilot phase of the project - in which the infrastructure for the network was laid down - was evaluated by IICD after the first year and found to be a success.
6. Address key external challenges.The project deals with a range of problems -- from congested telephone lines to bureaucratic red tape and a general lack of ICT awareness. An unstable power supply and an expensive, unreliable Internet connection also pose major obstacles. EPA and FORIG switched to a radio-link system to avoid these problems. Updating computers also proves to be very expensive because most of the equipment has to be imported.
7. Make it sustainable. The EPA is trying to ensure sustainability of the project by investing a lot of time and money in training in-house information managers to upgrade the website and electronic information services. At the moment some revenue is created by providing photocopier services and charging for online services. They hope to raise more funds by offering tailor-made services to get more people to use the network.

III. Lessons Learned

We invited Agnes Adjabeng, project coordinator of the EIN Project, to share her views on the EIN project's greatest success, the challenges they have faced, key constraints and dependencies that affect the initiative, opportunities for future improvement of what they do, and other lessons they have learned:

"On a technical level, the most important lessons that we learnt were that it is important to:

• acquire some knowledge about the equipment to be purchased;
• know what equipment and products are available and what their prices are before drawing up a budget;
• have training in product and equipment specification.

From a management perspective, I think the EIN project has been successful, because it was seen as an integrated part of the work of the EPA, and not as an add-on. To make the project succeed, the skills of various staff members were drawn in. Regular meetings were also held between EPA and our main partner, FORIG, to exchange information and share our experiences about the project."

IV. The Story

This section presents a narrative description of the EIN project that highlights why this use of ICT for development is particularly interesting.

Describing Ghana's Environmental Information Network sounds bookish and a lot less glamorous than Dian Fossey's adventures in the movie "Gorillas in the Mist".However, it is hoped that the impact of Ghana's environmental network will eventually have a more lasting impact.

The Environmental Information Network (EIN) has electronically linked the databases of two key environmental agencies in Ghana: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -- one of the oldest environmental agencies in Africa -- and the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) -- which deals extensively with deforestation issues but has also been mandated by the Ghanaian Government to do research into forest products. Important documents and records related to environmental management were scanned into an electronic database that can be accessed via local computer networks that connect the agencies' offices. Researchers from the two agencies are also linked by telephone and e-mail, and connected to the World Wide Web to give them access to international research.

The need for well-supported environmental management reached critical proportions in Ghana during the 1990's. Ghana had already lost most of its tropical rain forest over the last decade. Commercial logging, mining, and shifting cultivation have eaten away 75% of the original rain forest. Although the country has implemented a ban on log exporting, roads into the forest made by miners and commercial loggers have opened up previously inaccessible areas. This led to an increase in the bush meat trade. Of particular concern is the trade in large apes, such as gorillas and chimpanzees, both of which are in danger of becoming extinct. Deforestation has also led to a decrease in species diversity, which could mean that plants that might have some medicinal value might be lost even before they have been discovered. The loss of forest topsoil -- which can take over thousand of years to accumulate -- can cause disastrous flooding because there is no soil to soak up rain water.

The EIN has gone a long way to boost environmental management in Ghana. Although government agencies within Ghana gathered environmental information for their particular purposes, previously the information was held within each agency and was not easily shared. Information resources were not systematically managed, and collaboration between staff members of the two agencies was limited. When researchers from FORIG and EPA wanted to access each other's libraries, they had to travel 450 km. Once at the other's library, they had to spend a lot of time making notes as the books they consulted were not issued on a lending basis. Today, researchers from the two agencies access each other's databases at the click of a button. Because they can communicate with each other via e-mail, they are in more regular contact. Taken together, these factors have not only improved the quality of environmental research in Ghana, but have also helped the environmental agencies to work together on a more unified strategy to save the environment.

It is not only researchers that are benefiting from EIN, but also decision-makers, consultants, students, private companies and the general public. The EIN database is accessible through ten regional EPA offices, which enables widespread access to the information. This gives local people and community leaders the opportunity to input their knowledge about the environmental situation in their area into the system by sending up-to-date information to the network via telephones, fax or e-mail from the regional offices. Involving community leaders in environmental management has been an important step, since they represent the level of government closest to the people and are best placed to reflect local concerns and implement practical action programmes.

The impact of deforestation is seriously jeopardizing the future of the country, especially since in 1995 tourism surpassed the timber industry to become the fourth largest generator of foreign currency in Ghana. The implementation of EIN is central to preventing the destruction of Ghana's natural resources and developing them in a sustainable way. Perhaps linking environmental researchers and librarians computer networks sounds somewhat geekish, but if one bears in mind that increasing their effectiveness could prevent the deforestation of Ghana -- and help to slow down global warming -- geeks suddenly become hip.

[1] ICT at a glance: Ghana. World Bank (2003).
[2] Basic indicators, International Telecommunications Union (2001)
[3] A Local Area Network is a communications network that is usually contained within a building or a complex. It is made up of servers, workstations, a network operating system and a communications link.
[4] A Wide Area Network is a communications network that covers a wide geographic area, such as state or country.
[5] INFOTERRA is the global environmental information exchange network of the United Nations Environment Programme. The network operates through a system of government-designated national focal points which at present number 177. An INFOTERRA national focal point is essentially a national environmental information centre usually located in the ministry or agency responsible for environmental protection. The primary function of each centre is to provide a national environmental information service.