Kobia, I noted you mentioned BPO as one of the upcoming discussions at the Summit. I therefore take this opportunity to upload the summaries of the BPO discussions held mid last year. More specifically, there was heavy and pending Government interventions as copied below in the Executive summary. Maybe if the Permanent Secretaries can commit to implementing on some them during your meeting, then those of us not invited will begin to feel it wasnt after all purely pleasure at Leisure Lodge ;-) walu. ----begins--- Executive Summary A team of Researchers (BPO Researchers) were commissioned by IDRC to do a study titled: Development of a Business Process Outsourcing Industry in Kenya: Critical Success Factors. The aim of this study was “to undertake comprehensive research in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sub-sector in pioneer, emerging and mature markets to provide evidence and a deeper understanding of the imperatives for success in this industry to better inform Kenya’s policy decisions and investment choices”. The studies were conducted in two client countries, namely United Kingdom and the United States of America and four vendor countries, namely Kenya, South Africa, India and Mauritius. After the above study was completed, the Researchers had preliminary Results/Reports (Synthesis) that they felt needed to be discussed by Stakeholders with the aim of cross-checking and validating some of the preliminary conclusions. KICTAnet, a multi-stakeholder forum was chosen as the platform to subject the preliminary findings of the study to the Stakeholders. The Stakeholders discussed the Research Synthesised findings under various BPO themes that included: Policy, Legal and Institutional (Governance) Frameworks, Subsidies, Human capacity Issues, Youth & Gender issues and Strengths & Challenges facing the BPO sector. Notable feedback on the BPO Governance Frameworks was the lack of enabling legislation specifically the Data Protection and the Freedom of Information Acts. Lack of enforceable Standards for BPO Training and Operations in the industry was also cited as a barrier to provisioning high quality standards of service. Negative publicity, general insecurity and unreliable Utilities (power, road, telecommunication) presented institutional challenges that made it difficult to sell Kenya as a favourable BPO destination. With regard to Human Capacity, the lack of a standardized BPO curriculum, lack of a National Skill-set Register and little or no experience for the BPO Operators made Kenya's BPO labour market less competitive. Domestic "outsourcing" both from Government and Private Sector was proposed as the best way to demonstrate confidence while providing experience to the emerging BPO industry. The question of Subsidies for the sector was highly contentious with some participants pushing for an array of benefits - Tax-holidays, Utility and Training Subsidies, Government Contracts, amongst others. Those against subsidies argued that BPO is a sub-sector just like any other and therefore should not enjoy Government-subsidies at the exclusion of the others. The Youth and Gender discussion revealed that lack of clear, career-path progression meant that most youth in the BPO sector considered their jobs as a stop-gap measure to a better opportunity elsewhere. It was also observed the that Kenyan Labour law that afforded mothers 3months maternity leave meant that employers implicitly preferred male employees. Finally, participants discussed the Strengths and Challenges, noting the advent of the undersea cable as the biggest strength while Negative Publicity as the biggest weakness. ---ends--- walu. --- On Wed, 3/31/10, Kaburo Kobia <kkobia@ict.go.ke> wrote: From: Kaburo Kobia <kkobia@ict.go.ke> Subject: [kictanet] Presentations from Connected Government Summit 2010 To: jwalu@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 12:14 PM Dear all, Presentations from Connected Gov Summit 2010 are now available online. We are also taking questions from twitter and the Connected Gov website (click on Comments/Question and post your question or comment). Presentations include: - Opening speech by the Minister of Information and Communications Hon Samuel Poghisio - From reform to transformation by Emmanuel Lubembe Head Public Service Transformation Department - Transforming Company registry by Wanjuki Muchemi, Solicitor General - and several presentations from private sector. Today we expect to hear from more government departments on their digitization projects, some local SMEs and BPO companies. Please view the program here. Visit: www.ict.go.ke/connectedgov Track on twitter: #connectedgov Regards, -- Kaburo Kobia Kenya ICT Board Project Manager: Local Digital Content Kenya ICT Board Telposta Towers, 12th Floor, Kenyatta Avenue P.O Box 27150 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya t: + 254-020-2093040 | m: + 254 (0)729466260 | w: www.ict.go.ke --------------------- The Kenya ICT Board Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: jwalu@yahoo.com Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/jwalu%40yahoo.com