In November/December 2005 Danish ICT Management were asked to conduct an appraisal for the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nicaragua. The project in question was named “Integration of ICTs in the sector of Municipal Management and Decentralisation in Nicaragua”.

The objective of the undertaking was to appraise the existing project document, which had been produced by a consortium consisting of COWI and a local consultant. 
 
The specific purpose of the mission was to finalise the intervention plan/project document with priority areas, institutional set-up, organisational location(s) according to the guidelines of the Ministry in cooperation with the Nicaraguan counterpart INIFOM (Nicaraguan Institute for Municipal Development), whose task it is to promote municipal institutional development, strengthen local governments and promote citizen participation; and finally to incorporate new initiatives to the project if deemed feasible.

The EUR 3.7 million project was professionally interesting and involved ICT as a means of promoting local democracy in 20 Nicaraguan municipalities in two departments/provinces and one of the autonomous regions of Nicaragua.

During the appraisal mission, the Danish ICT Management team held meetings with stakeholders in Managua and in the departments/provinces Boaco and Chontales, and all the local stakeholders (specifically the main target group: the mayors) were overwhelmingly interested in the process and willing to contribute to the process. The draft findings from all consultations and interviews at the municipalities were presented at a multi-stakeholder meeting at the Finnish Embassy in Managua.

Subsequently to the mission in Nicaragua, at the end of November, we went to Helsinki to present our draft report to the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and our final report for the Finnish client was delivered only a few days before we were leaving for the Maldives. Happily, MFA Finland was very satisfied with Danish ICT Management’s work and our ability to meet the complexity of the project and the challenging deadline.