| Appendice 2. Obstacles to information
sharing and their management 1. What are
the obstacles to information-sharing?
Human resource problems
- Insufficient skilled management in information-gathering and retrieving information
- Insufficient trained personnel at all levels
- Insufficient communication skills
Technical resource problems
- Need for modern information systems
- Difficulties in setting up information programme
- Problems in data processing
- Technical constraints to reproducing or copying documents
- Decoding statistics collected and the structure of statistical reporting
- Time factor in the collection and updating of information
- Need for qualitative aspects of information
Physical resource problems
- Need for publishing houses
- Need for documentation centres
Financial problems
- Need for funds for processing, printing and dissemination of information
Communication problems
- Production of incomprehensible information
- Insufficient understanding of the objectives, goals and aims of programmes
- Top-down approach
- Languages: media of communication
- Information-filtering
- Untargeted information
- Insufficient understanding among interest groups
Operational problems
- Need for co-ordination and networking among professionals and educational institutions
- Need for supportive policy to release information
- Insufficient access to information source
- Confidentiality
- Redundancy of information
- Nature of policy directives
- Need for identifying sources of information
- Centralization of activities
- Need for systematic documentation
Psychological and other problems
- Need for mutual trust between professionals and administrators
- Need for trust in information-sharing
- Need for of goodwill
- Competition between organizations
- Censorship
- War
2. How can these obstacles be effectively managed?
Human resource development
- Training
- Other capacity-building
Technical resource development
- Establish documentation centre (independent non-governmental institution for processing
and disseminating information ?)
- Install modern information technology
- Create database
- Encourage small-scale publishing
Physical resource development
- Improve infrastructure
- Build documentation centre
Operational improvement
- Set clear policy guidelines on information dissemination
- Encourage government to have depository laws and enforce them
- Introduce information system
- Use mass media
- Follow a bottom-up approach
- Develop grassroots level inventory of information
- Create awareness of the value of information
- Identify user information needs
- Consult target groups
- Develop target-oriented and useable information
- Develop effective system of information management and dissemination; information should
be simple, understandable and manageable
- Institute efficient and effective co-ordination and networking
- Encourage a free flow of information — horizontally and vertically
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