Ex-Post Stakeholder Analysis of National ICT Policy Subsystem

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of stakeholders of the national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy subsystem using the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). The study focused on the context of a developing country, Malawi, which was analysed using qualitative data gathered through semi-structured interviews and policy documents. The findings showed there was diversity in the stakeholders for national ICT policy who were engaged in different roles of the policy process despite being a unitary policy subsystem. The stakeholders included officials from government departments, donors, academia, private sector organisations, the media, law enforcement agents and telecom operators. Some of the roles of the stakeholders were related to policy formulation, implementation, regulation, ICT investment, and support. The study contributes towards the literature of national ICT policy in the context of developing countries. A further study is recommended to consider the interests of informal stakeholders not represented in the national ICT policy subsystem.