Improving research management: institutionalization of management informations systems in national agricultural research organisations in Sub Saharan Africa

Agricultural research management in the public sector in Sub Saharan Africa suffers from a lack of relevant, timely and accurate information on which to base decision-making. Developments in Management information systems over the past several years have been dramatic and can offer research managers in developing countries a great deal of help in the orderly capture, processing and presentation of information for decision-making. This thesis describes case study research on institutionalization of a MIS in National Agricultural Research Organizations in Sub Saharan Africa. Full MIS institutionalization is defined as the continuous and integrated use of MIS by NAROs' staff for data collection, and data processing into information and decision-making in NAROs' research management processes.The MIS software package INFORM (Information for Agricultural Research Management) was designed and developed by ISNAR (The International Service for National Agricultural Research) in the early 1990s in collaboration with developing countries' NAROs and implemented in several countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.The institutionalization of the latest version INFORM-R and INFORM- Light in the annual research management cycle of priority setting, planning, budgeting, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of Sub Saharan African NAROs was found to be inadequate. Issues such as data collection and use, adequacy of the MIS software packages, leadership, information management capacity, organizational structure etc. were initially considered as problem factors. The goal of the study is to get insight into factors affecting positively and negatively institutionalization and the continuous and integrated use and maintenance of the MISin NAROs in Sub Saharan Africa. The objectives are fourfold: to evaluate the extent of institutionalization, to identify factors that promoted (critical success factors) and frustrated (critical failure factors) institutionalization,to evaluate the contribution of MIS to agricultural research management, and to recommend a method of working for institutionalizing MIS.Based on the goal and objectives, we attempted to answer three questions: (1) to what extent is MIS institutionalized in Sub Saharan African NAROs? (2) What key factors promoted (critical success factors) and frustrated (critical failure factors) institutionalization of the MIS in Sub Saharan African NAROs? (3) How does institutionalization of MIS improve research management and performance of Sub Saharan African NAROs? Based on our literature review, a causal model for MIS institutionalization was developed and used to design a questionnaire and face-to-face interviews in four countries (NAROs) in Sub Saharan Africa: CSIR Ghana, DRD Tanzania, NARO Uganda and ZARI Zambia. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from managers and researchers in these NAROs. The quantitative data were analysed by statistical means, frequency, correlation and regression in SPSS, and the qualitative data were analysed using (a self designed) MIS institutionalization database.Regarding the question on critical factors of success and failure, we conclude that leadership involvement is the most important critical success factor that strongly and significantly correlates with institutionalization of MIS in Sub Saharan African NAROs. This implies that the more NAROs' leaders (especially the Director General, Permanent Secretary or Minister of Agriculture) get involved in the institutionalization of MIS, the greater the chance of success. Other critical factors such as adoption, adaptation, government support, ICT Infrastructure, organizational structure and culture, and transparency in information sharing also contribute to the success of institutionalization. The major critical failure factors that frustrate institutionalization are lack of funds, user resistance to change and lack of MIS policy/strategy guidelines. Based on these results an impact model for institutionalization has been designed.Considering the results of the question on how MIS improved research management, we conclude that MIS enables NAROs to organize their data and generate information for timely decision-making on their annual research management cycle. Annual reports generated from MIS improve NAROs internal performance, in terms of NAROs being able to show accountability, relevance and sense of continuity to their stakeholders and beneficiaries. Website publications generated from MIS improve NAROs external performance, in terms of NAROs being able to show their achievements to the world. With respect to the results of the question on the extents of institutionalization, we conclude that MIS is still not fully institutionalized in Sub Saharan African NAROs. Zambia and Uganda NAROs scored high while Tanzania and Ghana NAROs scored low. We therefore strongly recommend that the Zambian and Ugandan NAROs can serve as benchmarks of good practices to other NAROs in Sub Saharan Africa wishing to introduce MIS in their organizations.Based on these conclusions, we recommend that the Director General, or Permanent Secretary or Minister of Agriculture (depending on the organization structure of a NARO) be the continuous champion of MIS in order to ensure full and continuous institutionalization of MIS in Sub Saharan African NAROs.The champion should: include MIS in their organizational vision and support MIS policy and strategy development in NARO, allocate special funds for MIS institutionalization, support and spearhead efforts to acquire funds from partners, donors, governments, or clients, participate in the stages of introduction, adoption, implementation, adaptation and institutionalization of MIS and encourage teamwork, support and finance the procurement of ICT infrastructure (especially Local Area Network) and connectivity of NARO headquarters with remote research stations, support MIS training (especially training of institute/station managers and program leaders, reward MIS coordinators and practitioners by promotion or higher degree training, ensure clear link between NAROs and ministries of agriculture and finance so as to enable funds to reach NAROs in a timely fashion.Finally, the above-mentioned recommendations for a MIS champion and other useful recommendations for research managers at stations/institutes, governments (ministries of agriculture and finance), donors, MIS coordinators, and researchers, were used to design a flow chart model for planning and managing MIS projects in NAROs.