1. The use of ICTs to Facilitate Collaboration in a Multi-stakeholder
Partnership: a Case Study of the Mauritius Breadfruit Sector
Consortium
Nawsheen Hosenally
Consultant and Facilitator on Agriculture and Youth Related Projects
Reduit, Mauritius
Email: nawsheen.hosenally@gmail.com
Krishan J Bheenick
Programme Manager (Production Systems incl. IT Systems)
Food and Agricultural Research Council
Reduit, Mauritius
Email: kjbheenick@yahoo.com
1. ABSTRACT
Mauritius can pride itself of a high rate of telephony and internet connectivity, among one
of the highest in Africa. The small size of the country is now enabling the dissemination
of broadband technology across the island, and the country has even recently launched its
National Broadband Policy. ICT is also considered as the fifth pillar of the economy of
Mauritius. Nevertheless, agriculture still plays an important role on the island of
Mauritius. The food crisis of 2008 has prompted the government to establish a Food
Security Fund to support agricultural research and development projects that help to
strengthen food security. Among the crops that have been earmarked as having the
potential to contribute to food security in times of crisis, while enjoying a good potential
for export as fresh product to the European market, is the breadfruit.
The Food and Agricultural Research Council of Mauritius has established a Breadfruit
Sector Consortium of public and private agricultural institutions to collaborate on the
development of breadfruit production in Mauritius. The initiative has been able to attract
support from funding organizations to develop project proposals that can submitted to
donors. The value chain approach and analysis is being applied in the process of
elaborating the plan of action for the consortium. As part of the set of coordination and
collaboration tools, the consortium the consortium has chosen to implement a wiki as an
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2. online collaboration tool to enable collaborators to access and handle the information
being shared.
This paper presents the conceptualization of the wiki, the stages of its development since
December 2011 and the prospects and challenges for the use of the wiki as a tool to
facilitate a multi-stakeholder partnership in Mauritius. The consortium has so far carried
out a series of meetings and a workshop where the stakeholders have been able to get to
know each other, and they have also been exposed to the wiki as the online collaboration
tool. Adoption of the wiki has been slow to pick up, and the consortium leaders have even
tried to involve members of the public in some its activities as a ‘crowd-sourcing’
experiment. Lessons are already being learnt about planning and implementation of such
web 2.0 tools among agricultural research and development stakeholders. The process is
also being compared to the process of adoption of innovations. The lessons learnt on the
implementation of ICT-based tools in Agriculture, within a context such as Mauritius, can
be useful in the planning and design of similar projects in other countries in Africa.
2. INTRODUCTION
ICTs in Mauritius
Mauritius is a small tropical volcanic island of about 2040 km2 situated in the Indian Ocean,
with a population of 1.28 million (CSO, 2010). Having successfully shifted from a middle-
income mono-crop economy relying mainly on the sugar industry at the time of its
independence to a middle-income country with a more diverse structure, the country’s
economy is currently relying on 5 main pillars, which are tourism, manufacturing, sugar,
financial services and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Over the past
decade, the government of Mauritius has recognized the importance of the ICT sector for the
development of the country and acted on its vision to make ICT the 5th pillar of the economy
and transform Mauritius into a regional ICT hub.
A National ICT Strategic Plan (NICTSP) prepared by the Ministry of Information and
Communication Technology has guided areas of interventions for achieving the
government’s vision (MICT, 2007), and a new plan has been released in 2011 (MICT, 2011).
Development of the ICT sector is expected to contribute to the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) of the country, employ more Mauritians, make available skilled manpower, and bring
about an increased usage and adoption of ICTs among Mauritian citizens, which can be
applied in different sectors. Investment in infrastructure is expected to enable Mauritius to
emerge as a leader in ICT, hence a Regional ICT Hub having both the required infrastructure
and manpower that is not available in the region. The small size of the country is now
enabling rapid dissemination of broadband technology across the island, and a National
Broadband Policy has recently been launched (2012).
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3. ICTs in Agriculture: e-Agriculture
Over the years, Agriculture has been and is still playing an important role in Mauritius. The
use of ICT in agriculture has been encouraged in Mauritius through policies developed by the
government, namely documented in the Blueprint for a sustainable diversified Agri-food
strategy for Mauritius (2008-2015) and the National ICT Strategic plans of 2007-2011 and
2011-2014 (Bheenick, 2011). While the agricultural policy focuses on the establishment of an
Agricultural Information System (AIS) that will benefit stakeholders in the agricultural sector
(including farmers and Policy makers) in their decision making process, the National ICT
Strategic plan (2007-2011) stresses on promoting an integrated adoption of ICTs in
Agriculture through collaborative working for which a comprehensive e-Agriculture Action
Plan has been designed. However, despite the existence of these policies and strategic plans
to encourage the use of ICTs in Agriculture in Mauritius, their implementation has taken
more time than expected and many of the strategic objectives have not yet been met.
Meanwhile, as the technologies are becoming more accessible and popular, institutions and
stakeholder groups are already experimenting with some of these tools, in preparation for the
large-scale projects to materialize.
Establishment of a multi-stakeholder partnership in the breadfruit sector
Following the global food crisis in 2008, The Government of Mauritius decided to increase
investment in agriculture through the Food Security Fund to promote Agricultural Research
for Development to improve food security. The Agri-food strategy developed around the
same time, identified breadfruit as a potential alternative source of carbohydrate which can be
used as staple food in times of crisis.
In 2011, the Food and Agricultural Research Council (FARC) established a Breadfruit Sector
Consortium of public and private agricultural institutions to collaborate on the development
of breadfruit production in Mauritius. The initiative has been able to attract support from
development projects (PAEPARD, 2011) for the consortium to develop project proposals that
can be submitted to donors. The value chain approach and analysis is being applied in the
process of elaborating the plan of action for the development of the breadfruit sector and
interventions of the consortium. Soon after the first meeting of the consortium, it was realized
that a platform for communication and information sharing among stakeholders was required
since a lot of information were being exchanged during each consortium meeting, which
needed to be documented and shared for further discussion. In addition to this, weekly
physical meetings were not possible since not all partners were available. Thus, it was
suggested that a Web 2.0 tool such as a wiki could be useful as an online, accessible platform
for information sharing and collaboration. This paper highlights the experience of using a
wiki for collaboration in a multi-stakeholder partnership, its benefits, challenges and the
lessons learnt.
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4. 3. METHODS
Choice of platform
Among the different Web 2.0 tools that were available, one that would meet the needs of the
consortium had to be chosen. The suggestion of using a “wiki” was investigated through a
review of its functions and practical experiences, including of members who had used such a
tool before. Indeed, a review of literature on the fundamentals of a wiki and through analysis
of the features offered on websites that enable wikis to be set up, it was found that a wiki
offered several useful features which correspond with the requirements of the consortium.
A “wiki” is a website on which its users can add, modify or delete its content via a web
browser, using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor. In general, wikis are
powered by wiki software and are usually created collaboratively by multiple users. Different
types of wikis include community websites, corporate intranets, knowledge management
systems and note taking. The first wiki was created in 1995 by Ward Cunningham and was
known to be the “simplest online database that could possibly work”. Over the years, wikis
have been increasingly adopted in enterprises as collaborative software and the common uses
include project communication, intranets, and documentation. Presently, some companies use
wikis to enhance group learning (Wikipedia, 2012).
The main arguments for selecting a wiki was that it would allow the consortium to interact,
share and store knowledge/ information, participate in discussions and be an improvement
over the more traditional approach of sending e-mails to the whole group and copying
everyone. The latter approach was considered as one that did not promote inclusiveness or
transparency, especially to new members of the consortium or its stakeholder group.
Moreover, other reasons why a wiki was a suitable tool for collaboration in the multi-
stakeholder partnership were that:
a) It would enable the consortium activities to be transparent to all partners involved
b) It would allow the user to edit any page, add content including files (from Microsoft
office) or other multimedia (pictures, videos and other embedded links)
c) Tracking of activities could simpler when compared to e-mails/blogs/websites/Google
Documents and other web 2.0 tools
d) It supports other web 2.0 tools which could be used for various purposes
Once it was clear about how a wiki may be useful for collaboration in a multi-stakeholder
partnership, a wiki for the Mauritius Breadfruit sector consortium was created.
Adoption of a new technology
Since a wiki was a new to most of the consortium partners, it was expected that different
partners would adopt the technology in different phases. According to Van den Ban and
Hawkins (1996), the adoption of innovations or new technologies by users takes place in
phases, such that they can be grouped into 5 categories: innovators, early adopters, early
majority, late majority and laggards.
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5. Throughout its implementation, the wiki was closely monitored by the administrators, who
assisted the users in collaborating on the platform and intervened as and when required to
facilitate the process.
4. FINDINGS
The wiki (accessible at http://paepardmauritius.pbworks.com) created for the Mauritius
Breadfruit Sector Consortium contains links to several pages, each having specific objectives
and functions. The contents of the wiki are visible to all internet users, but only partners of
the consortium and approved users have access rights to edit and share content on any page.
The Front Page of the wiki, which is the point of entry and also the “core part” of the wiki,
contains information and guidelines about how to use the wiki, and all the links to the other
pages of the wiki, as summarized in table 4.1.
Table 4.1: Description of different pages of the wiki
No Name of page Objective(s) of page
1. About PAEPARD To provide information about the
PAEPARD Project, its objectives, activities
and how the Mauritius Consortium is
involved in the project
2. Consortium Partners and roles To know who are the partners in the
consortium and what is the expected
contribution and role of each partner in the
consortium
3. Consortium meetings To have a page where all consortium
meetings are documented and can be
accessed by anyone at any point in time
4. Documents or links on breadfruit To add and share links or upload files
related to breadfruit for information sharing
5. Discussion Forum To have a page where partners in the
consortium can discuss on different
discussion topics that may be initiated by
any partner of the consortium
6. Editable map of breadfruit trees in To have a map where breadfruit trees are
Mauritius located over the island, which can be useful
to the partners in the consortium, as well as
anyone from the web who is accessing the
wiki
7. Individual partner pages To enable each partner in the consortium to
share the work presently being done by their
organization on breadfruit and it also allows
other partners to ask questions or
clarifications on their work. By being
transparent, duplication of work can be
avoided
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6. Wiki interface and use
Soon after the creation of the wiki, the consortium leaders and facilitators started to upload
files and share links on breadfruit. This information was very useful in producing materials
for the Partnership Inception Workshop of the consortium, which had as aim to create a
knowledge-base on breadfruit. However, despite the fact that the administrators and
consortium leaders found no major difficulty in adapting to the interface of the wiki, it was
not the case for other consortium partners. A few had difficulties with basic aspects like how
to log in on the wiki or how to add content and needed assistance. A visual tutorial (slides)
was developed on each stage of the process of accessing the wiki and managing contents. The
slides were also posted on the wiki for all users to consult. While it was clear for some
partners about how to use the wiki after being assisted, it still remained a challenge for a few.
Content management and interactions of the wiki
As described in Table 4.1, different pages of the wiki contained specific information. The
partners involved in the consortium shared information about the work that their organization
is doing on breadfruit in a phased manner, similar to the adoption process. Once the early
adopters started adding information on the wiki and were recognized for their efforts during
meetings, others were more motivated to develop contents for the wiki. This enabled all
stakeholders to know who is working on which aspect and hence duplication of work is
avoided. In addition, all activities of the consortium were transparent through the wiki since
all the meetings and workshop proceedings were documented. Interactions and discussions on
the wiki were mainly initiated and maintained by the wiki administrators, the consortium
leader and facilitators. It was observed that although some partners visited the wiki regularly,
but they were not sharing information or engaging in discussions through the wiki. The
contents of the wiki that were shared by partners were mainly about general work that is
being done by their organization, without getting too much in depth into the subject to reveal
confidential issues. Findings and results of their work that was not yet in the public domain
was not shared on the wiki, however these were discussed during the face to face meeting.
Editable map of breadfruit trees in Mauritius
Since the wiki supported other Web 2.0 applications, a Google Map was added to one of the
pages of the wiki. The function of this Google Map was to enable users to add breadfruit trees
in Mauritius onto the map, and additional information on the tree could also be shared. To
facilitate collaboration from stakeholders, a tutorial was made and shared by email to
consortium partners and on other social media networks like D-groups, Facebook and
Twitter. Thus, the concept of ‘crowd sourcing’ through voluntary contribution from the
members of the public and web enthusiasts worked to a certain extent but not to the level
desired. The initial response to the Google Map was low because it was a new collaboration
tool for them, and it took time to understand its importance and how to use it. Eventually, this
initiative has proven to be working quite well since stakeholders within and outside the
consortium have been collaborating to add breadfruit trees in Mauritius on the map.
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7. 5. DISCUSSION
The wiki of the Mauritius Breadfruit Sector Consortium has been useful to the various
stakeholders in terms of transparency, coordination and tracking of the consortium activities
and meetings, as well as information and knowledge management. However, when it came to
collaboration and interaction of consortium partners on the wiki, a few challenges were faced,
which are partly related to the adoption process of new technologies but also to other factors
such as skills and ease using the computer as a means of communication.
With the use of a wiki has demonstrated that such a platform can be effective in facilitating
collaboration among partners involved in a team to coordinate projects, and organize events,
the Mauritius breadfruit sector consortium has not been able to achieve the same level of
success. It has been observed that the effectiveness of a wiki is very much dependent on the
extent of collaboration by partners. In a team where a bonding already exists, team members
collaborate more easily since they trust each other, and more collaboration implies more
discussions and interactions, which keep the platform active. It is hoped that continuous
interactions among members of the consortium, through face to face meetings can enhance
the team-building process, which will further facilitate online collaboration through the wiki.
The experience from the Mauritius breadfruit sector consortium also showed that different
institution and staff in different ways and the wiki administrator/facilitator has to adapt to the
level of the consortium partner in terms of his/her education or ICT skills. In this case, a
tutorial was developed and complementary information had to be given through a
demonstration on how to use the tool. The administrator needs to be active and constantly
encourage participation from stakeholders in order to foster collaboration.
Existing perception on the use of ICTs among stakeholders can also influence the extent and
form of collaboration: some partners considered ICT tools as being something meant for
youth and preferred to collaborate via emails. This category of users was sending their
contribution to the wiki administrator by email, who was then uploading it to the wiki. Thus,
the facilitation process of collaboration using web 2.0 tools requires a very flexible and
accommodating approach, especially among the initiators of the technology implementation.
6. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
From the case study of the Mauritius Breadfruit Sector Consortium, it can be concluded that
the use of a wiki can certainly be beneficial in facilitating collaboration in a multi-stakeholder
partnership, but its success is very dependent on the level of interaction on the platform. One
of the ways to encourage participation from different partners to collaborate is for the wiki
administrator to intervene and assist them as soon as they are having difficulties to
collaborate on the wiki and also adapt to the different situations that may arise. It can also be
said that the concept of e-Agriculture has not yet been adopted by professionals and
organizations in the agricultural sector in Mauritius and there are several factors behind it.
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8. Nevertheless, these challenges can be overcome through encouragement of the use of Web
2.0 tools and other ICT applications by professionals in agriculture. After training, proper
tracking and monitoring should be carried out to ensure that they are applying what they have
learned in their work or in other activities. It should also be ensured that there are
opportunities for them to apply these tools. The latter emphasizes the role agricultural
institutions to encourage their staffs to adopt these tools in their work, and if this has been
successful to recognize their achievements, such collaboration among stakeholders using
ICTs may be improved. Further exposure to these tools would certainly enhance their
appreciation of the benefits that Web 2.0 tools can bring them, especially where their own
contributions are made more visible and contribute to a participatory process.
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