So Few Lessons Learned?

Sitting in on a workshop in rural Costa Rica with 45 or so information and communications technology (ICT) and telecentre activists, supporters and host organizations, was Yacine Kheladi, an Algerian by birth and a telecentre practitioner and consultant living and working in the Dominican Republic. The session was called ‘Lessons Learned’, and speaker after speaker recounted their experiences in starting telecentres and then, almost without exception, concluded their presentations with one or two PowerPoint slides headed ‘Lessons Learned’. Kheladi was a veteran in this field. He had seen so many national governments, international development agencies and foreign donors announcing major new telecentre initiatives with a curious sense of hubris-fuelled self-discovery. No account was ever taken of what had gone before and had, or had not, worked in attempting to bring digital skills and tools to the developing world. Kheladi couldn’t help but ask what was on his mind, ‘why are so few lessons learned from the “Lessons Learned?”’ The room went quiet.