iassist quarterly - 25

A Network
System

For the Flow of

African

Administrative

Information

Materials

by Edward Seth Asiedu, '

Chief.

Division of Documentation, CAPRAD,
Tangier, Morocco.

Introduction

Nearly three decades ago, the "wind of change"

which blew over the African continent left in its

wake spates of political agitation, and social

movements and pressure groups seeking

autonomy from their, then, metropolitan and

colonial masters - namely, the British, the

French, the Belgians, the Portuguese, and the

Spanish.

The granting of independence to these countries

brought with it great challenges to their civil

services. A consequent change in the variet)'.

number and complexity of government functions

has emerged, necessitating a thorough

examination not only of the administrative

machinery to facilitate the required expansion

and modernization for accelerated economic and
social development, but also, of training and

orientation policies so that civil servants would

be belter able to meet the challenges posed by

the accelerated momentum of change.

Durable administrative reforms and innovations,

however, often depend upon research in theories

and practices of government Through

administrative surveys, observations, analysis of

research questionnaires, interviews, experiments,

etc., data concerning inefficiency and corruption

can be obtained. Data-collection or fact-finding

is the first step towards bringing about

administrative reform and creating innovations.

If modem government in a developing setting is

to accomplish its task and mission effectively

and successfully, the administrators who will be

required to assimie these new governmental

responsibilities should have adequate access to

organized information to broaden their outlook

and training in order to equip them with the

capabilities they need.

Studies have shown that administrative sciences

are basic to national development. The

development of adminisuative and managerial

skills and the application of modem
management techniques in an African society

faces a lack of adequate and reliable

administrative information for making policy and

administrative decisions and for analysis of

problems. In most cases, the proper

administrative information and documentation

channels are lacking, thus hindering the uansfer

of the right amount and kind of information at

the right place, to the interested user.

'Presented at lASSIST/IFDO International

Conference May 1985, Amsterdam

fall/Winter 1985



26 - iassist quarterly

Sources of administrative information

What is administrative information? Briefly, let

us defme the parameters of administrative

information. "Administration" may be defined

as the achievement of an organizational

objective through the use of men, money,

materials and machines. "Information" is "a

statement that describes an event (or an object

or a concept) that helps us distinguish it from

others".' By extension, therefore, "administrative

information" is a meaningful statement about

how men, money, materials and machines are

managed to achieve the objectives of an

organization. In other words, administrative

information could be described as information

related to administration, designed in general

terms, as a set of data necessary to understand

institutions, make decisions and to participate in

them, in order to produce the goods and

services required by the community.

In the African context, however, information on

Public Administration is in reality attached to

information on "Development Administration".

Despite the disagreements on an exact deTmition

of "development administration", most students,

scholars, and practitioners involved in the

development process in Africa agree that

information on the following subjects fall within

the mandate of "Development Administration:

namely.

development planning and plans;

administrative reform;

public enterprise management;

training of administrators;

research in adminisuative systems; and

socio-economic data.

It would also include materials dealing with the

administrative and management aspects of the

functional areas of the productive sectors e.g.

agriculture, industry, eonomic development, etc...

Administrative information sources are usually in

the form of pamphlets and report literature,

surveys, statistical data, case studies, issuances

and other such like documents. A large number
of these forms are government publications.

Government documents or publications are the

living record of the efforts of people to govern

themselves. The responsibilities of government

extend over many aspects of a citizen's life,

work, and leisure and, in the course of

administrative control, the agencies of the

government collect a vast amount of

information. Much of this collected data is of

potential value to research workers in

economics, social, scientific and technological

subjects. Government publications range, in

size, from pamphlets to ponderous volumes; and

in content, they vary from articles with popular

appeal to technical treatises of value. Taken as

a whole, they constitute a great library covering

almost every Held of human knowledge and

endeavor. Some of these publications may be

transcripts of original records and therefore

constitute primary source material in the history

of government administration and activities.

Others contain accounts by administrative or

executive officers on the work and activities

under their direction, e.g. annual reports of

departments, bureaux, etc... Voluminous series

published by other agencies also present

statistical pictures of socio-economic conditions

and afford bases for measuring social and

economic change.

' Eilon. S. Management control. New York,
MacMillan, 1971, pp. 98.

fall/ IVinter J985



iassist quarterly 27

The flow of administrative materials

Data cannoi exist if not generated. There is

evidence tJiat African governments are becoming

more and more prolific in their output of

official documents, published and unpublished.

The remarkable transformation of postwar

Africa, accelerated in the past two decades or

so, has created many problems in the field of

government publications. There have been

extensive constitutional, governmental and

administrative changes, ministerial and

departmental "re-re-organizations", and

alterations in policies governing publishing of

official documents. It is becoming increasingly

difficult to identify what is available. Whilst in

the colonial days, it was easy to acquire the

bulk of the official publications from African

countries, now it is quite a problem to trace,

not to mention acquire, a government document
from each other. The reason is obvious - the

absence of a plausible, systematic bibliographic

control. In-depth research^ carried out by the

speaker in 1977 aimed at studying the

generation, production, control, availability and
utilization of African Government Documents
provides ample information on the situation

referred to above.

Another research survey*, carried out on the

provision of library facilities in government

departments in a typical African country

identified one major draw-back to the

improvement of the situation - namely, the lack

of financial support and/or importance accorded

by African government's to this area. An

' Asiedu, E.S. African governments: the case of
West African english speaking countries:
Gamiba, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria & Sierra Leon.
Tangier, Morocco, CAFRAD, 1978.

* Asiedu, E.S. "Organizing the flow of
Administrative Information in a developing
setting: a proposal for the Ghana Public
Services". In Greenhill Journal of
Administration, Vol.1, #3, OcL-Dec.74,
pp.39-56.

examination of budget estimates^ for a four-year

period (1971-72/1974-75) revealed some
interesting facts. Whilst a few of the Ministries,

Departments etc... had huge amounts respectable

enough for the establishment, maintenance and
running of a library, many others run on votes

which look very miserable indeed. In most
cases the library votes are hidden under such

headings or codes as: "other ofTice

expenditures"; "office expenses";

"newspapers";... Worse still, others are found

under "toilet papers, stationary and library";

"newspapers and rent of office soap" - a clear

indication that libraries, or for that matter the

organization of administrative information and
literature, are very much frowned upon by the

civil service - the very people who need data in

their day-to-day occupations. Albeit, it is

encouraging to observe that in the last five or

so years some improvements have been made in

this direction.

The financial situation alluded to above explains

the paltry and disorganized condition of the

libraries of African government departments.

With such an appalling state of affairs, how can

proper information be obtained, which

information may be vital for the formulation of

a major governmental policy? It is pathetic that

often most Ministries and Departments lack

complete collections of their own publications!

Very often, a belter organized library outside

the governmental system is called upon to

satisfy inquiries from Ministries about their own
publications! It is amazing to find that a

foreign library has everything that African

governments have issued - published or

unpublished - from the earliest times to the

present African scholars and research fellows

have had to travel outside the continent to

consult such materials, at great expense to the

taxpayer. This situation cannot continue

forever; the time is overdue for something more
concrete to be initiated.

^ See Annexure

Fall/Winter 1985



28 - iassist quarterly

The "ANAI" concept

The last twenty five years have witnessed a

continued growth of educational and training

institutions of public administration and

management. Also Civil Service Commission

and agencies have been inaugurated to carry out

different phases of administrative reform in

their respective countries. These are manned by

capable African experts who are mainly involved

in applying and disseminating their know-how,

experience, and knowledge to the African

administrative environment Over the past few

years their activities have resulted in the

production of vast quantities of documents -

often mimeographed reports, government

documents and other sorts of publications.

These documents describe existing conditions,

define goals, describe programmes and projects,

and evaluate the consequences of any

adminisiiative action and decision. In addition,

African administrative science researchers and

trainers study administrative processes, generate

training materials and publish their findings and

conclusions in journals, research reports and

other media issued in Africa and elsewhere.

It is quite fair to say that this growing literature

of adminisuative sciences is not yet under

adequate bibliographic control and it is

exceedingly difficult to know how to obtain

access to the information and experiences which

have been investigated in prinL With this

growth of African administrative information

comes an increasing demand to know about

African experiences in the various aspects of

administrative and managerial development

It is an awareness of this situation, as well as

the realization that no one African country can

ever hope to become self-sufficient in the face

of an expanding universe of administrative

information, that the African Training and

Research Centre in Administration for

Development (CAFRAD) has, in keeping with

one of its constitutional mandates, and in

concert with African governments, initiated the

African Network of Adminstrative Information

(ANAI) - a description of which follows:

Objectives of ANAI

ANAI is aimed at bringing together materials

from different African perspectives on

administrative sciences as they relate to the

African continent and bringing together

literature which may have been gathered by

different African libraries and/or documentation

centres, but which provide in their combination

a new and much greater resource, and

synthesizing and disseminating the collected data

at regular intervals and upon request

Thus, the objectives of ANAI are:

to improve co-ordination between the

existing African administrative information

services - i.e. libraries/ documentation

centres of institutions and agencies of

public administration and management;

to foster the improvement and building of

national administrative information

services or systems;

to supplement local collections by drawing

more effectively on African external

resources;

to avoid unnecessary duplication and

waste of resources;

to provide a referral service for enquiries

from organizations both inside and outside

the African continent;

to serve more users and improve national.

Fall/Winter 1985



iassisi quarterly - 29

regional and iniemalional access to

African adminisualive and managerial

experience and knowledge;

10 make administrative information

uniformly available and

to change the image of the African

library from that of a store of books to

that of an active and dynamic information

centre.

ANAl, as proposed, would imply a degree of

diffusion and popularization of administrative

information services, a steady increase in the

ability to serve at all points of service, and

co-operative sharing without constraint of time,

distance or form of data. Also, it is intended to

minimize the financial pressures which are

facing African administrative information

activities, and to consider ways of sharing rather

than duplicating materials and other resources.

It encourages building appropriate local

administrative collections to meet immediate

needs. It is also devised in such a way as to

make readily available distant collections in

other African countries. ANAI is aimed also at

motivating the utilization of modem
miniaturization and computerization techniques

in the storage and retrieval of administrative

information.

research workers in the domain of the

administrative sciences. Also, it is expected that

the system will extend its services to any user

interested in African administrative and

managerial development anywhere in the world,

without any restriction on access.

With regard to the subject coverage, ANAI is

designed to deal with specialized materials on

public administration and management with

respect to the African continent It will

encompass data pertaining to topics such as:

local government, rural and urban development,

administrauvc reform, project management,

financial management, human resources

development, etc... As a mission-oriented

system, ANAI would have to include relevant

multi- and inter-disciplinary information sources

in as much as it has a role in the amelioration

and improvement of African administrative and

managerial development.

The administrative information materials to be-

fed into ANAI may be recorded in a wide

range of media formats: printed forms;

audio-visual forms; machine-readable forms

(punched cards, magnetic tapes);

microphotographic forms (fiches/films). These

materials should be mainly generated in Africa,

or elsewhere if they are confined to the subject

coverage in the African context

Scope and coverage

ANAI, as seen from the preceeding paragraphs,

is a specialized system limited to special

categories of users and confined to specific

locations. It is anticipated that ANAI will serve

a wide variety of users who fall into many
categories such as: governmental and other

administrative managers; policy makers;

educators and trainers; tramees and students;

Organizational structure

ANAI is envisioned to function as an African

region-wide decentralized information system

with a network of (for the time being) three

interrelated lines of operation, namely:

Fall/Winter 1985



30 - iassist quarterly

1. regional central clearing-house (CAFRAD)

2. national administrative information focal

points

3. local libraries and documenialon centres of

ministries, departments, bureaux etc...

It is envisioned that a fourth operational line or

organizational level could be inserted between

regional and national levels to represent a

"sub-regional" level, but this development will

depend on the magnitude of growth of ANAI in

the future.

Brief descriptions of the functions of these

levels follow;

Regional central clearing-house:

will function as a coordinating agent of the

whole network. It will develop and set out

technical methods, procedures and standards

for the whole network. It will also develop,

revise, maintain and unify its indexing

language in thesaurus of administrative

informatin descriptors; forms for input data,

and dissemination channels for output

products. It will maintain a data base of

information needed, perform miniaturization,

microfilming and microfiching of textual

input data; and issue guides, directories,

abstracts and indexes. It will develop

training programmes for the information and

documentation personnel of member states

and also provide specialist consultancy

services to governments as and when

required.

National administrative information focal

points:

These national focal points represent the

national participants of ANAI. They would

be libraries and/or documentation centres

designated by their governments. The role

of these national focal points will be to

furnish the Regional Clearing-House with

local data on administrative and managerial

development These will include input data

on institutions and agencies, training

programmes, consultants and trainers, training

materials, and current research activities

which will constitute the data base of the

Regional Central Clearing-House.

Each National Focal Point would assist in

mobilizing and co-ordinating the national

resources and services of administrative

information systems. This policy is in

conformity with the recent recommendation

promoting the creation of national

information systems (NATIS) made by the

"Inter-Governmental Conference on National

Libraries, Documentation and Archives

Infrastructure" which was organized by

UNESCO, IFLA and FID and held in Paris

in September 1974, and also with the

UNECA Conference of Ministers' resolution

N" 359 (XIV) of the 14th Session held in

Rabat, Morocco.

National Focal Points will be the main

suppliers to the Regional Clearing-House of

the relevant textual documents, acquisition

lists and abstracts. In return, the NCPs will

get all ANAI publications, directories, guides,

bibliographies, indexes, microfilming services

and other dissemination tools pertinent to

administrative information.

Local libraries & documentation centres:

These will include libraries and other such

information units within the civil service

organizatons like ministries, bureaux,

departments and other stale agencies and

institutions of public administration and

management These local centres will feed

the National Focal Points with their

materials and also collabourate with them to

Fall/ Winter J 985



iassist quarterly - 31

idcnlify and supply Ihcir inpul coniribulions

to the Regional Central Clearing-House.

Diagramalically. the organizational structure of

ANAI looks like this:

REGIONAL LEVEL
REGIONAL CENTRAL

CLEARING-HOUSE
(CAFRAD)

INTERNATIONAL
INFORMATION SYSTEM e.g.
DEVISIS.PADIS, ETC.

NATIONAL
LEVEL

NATIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE
INFORMATION FOCAL POINT

( Country " A"

)

LOCAL
LEVEL

\

S

>

V

\

\

LOCAL
LIBRARY

LOCAL
LIBRARY

LOCAL
LIBRARY

NATIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE
INFORMATION FOCAL POINT

(Country "B" )

NATIONAL
ADMINISTRATIVE
INFORMATION
FOCAL POINT
(Country "C"

)

LOCAL
LIBRARY

LOCAL
LIBRARY

LOCAL
LIBRARY

This kind of organizational relationship could

assist in bringing together the African

administrative literature under national and

regional bibliographic control and this in turn

will surely assist and facilitate the identification

of resources and access to them. It will also

ensure the success of co-ordinating, managing

and operating ANAI.

fall/Winter J 98

5



32 - iassist quarterly

ANAI output

ANAI would ensure output of required data in

the required form at the required time to a

specific user. This would include the production

of specialized guides and directories represented

in the different data files stored in tlie data

base, as well as periodic regular abstracts,

indexes and specialized bibliographies which

represent the current awareness services to users.

It will also furnish answers to multiple queries.

There will be back-up service of microfiche

copies of the full texts of documents identified

in the indexes, abstracts and other bibliographies

disseminated through the output operation.

Diagramatically this output will look like this:

Direciones. & Files - Insuiuijons/Agencies

- Training Programmes

- Training Materials

- Consullanis & Tramers

- Current Research Projects

Ouipui Producis Current Awareness - Monthl> Indexes

Service

- Quarterly Absiracls

- Specialized Bibliographies

Reprography Services - Photostats/Xcros

- Microriching

- Pnnung

Conclusion

An improved network of African administrative

and managerial development needs a

high-speed, reliable information system. The
conventional means of professional

communication, i.e. libraries, provide coverage

that is neither complete nor timely, especially as

regards research proposed or on-going, as well

as decision-making process.

The evolution of a voluntary association of

existing libraries and documentation centres of

administrative information services in Africa,

each preserving its own management autonomy,

offers a realistic basis for creating ANAI.
Therefore, the ANAI project can be viewed as a

regional movement towards increased voluntary

cooperation among national partner focal points

with varying degrees and modalities of

interconnection.

This regional network could be further

developed into a world administrative

information system that provides cunent reports

on all significant findings, activities and planning

affecting any part of the network. For that

ultimate goal, the development of ANAI could

emerge in conformity and in line with

experience gained from the existing international

information systems and within the conceptual

framework of UNESCO's Worid Science

Information System (UNISIST) programme.

Early this year (January 1985) I.D.R.C. (editor's

note: International Development Research

Centre) of Canada responded to C.AFRAD's call

for financial support to enable it to implement a

pilot project code-named "ANAI
EXPERIMENTAL" for a three-year period to

test the operational system of ANAI. We are

very grateful to the centre for this

demonstration of confidence in us. However,

there is room for further assistance.

May I, therefore, crave your indulgence to make

an appeal, on behalf of CAFRAD: to this

august body; to development institutions here

present; to other donor agencies world-wide, to

collabourate with CAFRAD, to assist CAFRAD,
to share with CAFRAD their expertise and

financial resources to ensure the germination,

growth and fruition of the ANAI seed.

Fall/ IVinter J985



[assist quarterly - 33

Library Note Statistics

Depanmem 1971/72 1972/73 1973/74 1974/75 Remarks

Transport & Communication

Auditor-General

Trade & Tourism

Agriculture

Town & Country Planning

National Fire Service

Social Welfare & Com. Dev.

Police Service

Internal Affairs (Central Admin.)

Prison Service

Foreign AfTairs

Posts & Tele-communications

Local Government (Cent. Admin.)

NRC (General Administration)

NRC (Press Secretary)

NRC (Chieftaincy)

National Council for Higher Edu.

NRC (Annex)

NRC (MSD)
NRC (PIB)

Regional Organizations

Parliament House

Establishment Secretariat (Training)

Public Service Commission

Information (Central Admin.)

Information Services Department

Informaion Services (Regions)

Attorney-General's Department

Judicial Services

Registrar-General's Department

Central Revenue

Finance and Economic Planning

1000.00

100.00

500.00

600.00

300.00

130.00

2000.00

800.00

100.00

1250.00

3500.00

55.900.00

100.00

70.000.00

100.00 6000.00 6000.00 Including Regions

146.00 3400.00 4400.00

1700.00 5000.00

3000.00

800.00

700.00 760.00 2000.00

500.00 500.00

900.00 1500.00 2200.00 Including education

instruction materials

400.00 400.00 400.00 Subscription to

Ghana Library Board

& Prison Library

Service

12000.00 8800.00 10000.00

660.00 4000.00

3000.00 3000.00 10000.00 Includes Capital vote

of 2730.00

5000.00 5000.00

1000.00 3000.00 4500.00

5000.00

1300.00 . 4000.00 6000.00

6000.00 4000.00 2000.00

380.00 1000.00 1400.00

1920.00 5220.00 6600.00 No vote for Ashanti

& Upper Regions foi

1974/75

500.00 1000.00 -

3200.00 1000.00 -

200.00 200.00 For Newspapers onl>^

1900.00 1900.00 2000.00

2800.00 7640.00 6000.00

1400.00 1000.00 3000.00

32,000.00 8000.00 8000.00 Including Regions

53.000.00 22,140.00 25,820.00

400.00 1.000.00 1,000.00
- 1.410.00 10.000.00

60.000.00 9 9 56.500.00 Including 3 other

Divisions

Fall/ Winter 1985