Performance assessment of technical reports as a channel of information for development: the Lesotho case study

The study aims to assess performance of TRs as a channel of information for development in the Lesotho context. It concurrently evaluates how a specialized information unit of ISAS has performed in its obligation to devise adequate mechanisms for managing the report literature and meeting the development-related needs of users. In order to achieve that aim, the study contextualized development as a process, state, and condition and highlighted some development indicators for Lesotho. Agriculture and gender were selected as sectors of development. Global conferences, as one of the many development strategies that generate TRs heavily, were used as a benchmark. In the performance and impact assessment methodologies, case study techniques were applied with ISAS as a site and one unit of analysis. TRs on Lesotho were studied. Triangulation approaches were applied in sourcing data. The academics, information workers, government officials, NGOs and aid agencies based in Lesotho were surveyed. Research questions that guided the study centred on the productivity, distribution of TRs, their management by intermediaries, use, non-use and the effects thereon. Seven types of TRs feature in the development process, namely Academic, Project, Conference, Survey, Enquiry, Official and Special Committee Reports. TRs are produced at varying levels depending on needs and approaches to development by producers or commissioning bodies. Academic Reports are authored mostly by the academics. The Government, Aid agencies and NGOs produce widely through external consultants/experts, who utilize centres such as ISAS where commissioning bodies do not have information services. TRs productivity is high and diverse in Lesotho, but capacity to manage the output is seemingly low, and hence under-utilization results; ISAS’s out-dated mission, lack of, or limited resources and de jure national support in the form of acts and statutes affect the Institute’s TRs’ services. Production is gender biased
PhD