Electronic decision-making for developing countries

Abstract

Political, economic and social development requires "good governance" and intelligent decision-making. Development decision centers (DDC) equipped with appropriate information technology (IT) can help to improve development decisions, increase effectiveness and efficiency of public and private administration and support democratization and political stability.

DDC provide IT-based facilities for brainstorming, discussion, organization and evaluation of ideas, objectives, strategies, projects, etc. They can be integrated into community information centers or established within government agencies, business corporations, universities and other institutions of higher learning to offer assistance in solving complex development problems that require close collaboration of decision-makers and experts.

The paper analyzes political, socio-cultural and economic development problems, and suggests to use appropriate IT and group support systems as an innovative strategy to overcome such problems. It demonstrates the proposed approach by presenting typical steps and results of development planning in a DDC, the author has built up at the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. This center is believed to be the first in Africa and may be considered as a prototype of a DDC which could become a standard facility in community information centers to help integrate improve effectiveness, efficiency, transparency and accountability of development decision-making.