On the 19 December 2015, Enrico Calandro graduated from the University of Cape Town, Faculty of Commerce, Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration, programme on Managing Infrastructure Reform and Regulation, under the supervision of Prof Alison Gillwald.
As part of the initiative to build African ICT policy skills, and in remembrance of RIA partner Amy Mahan, in 2010 Enrico Calandro was awarded a scholarship to undertake his PhD in the area of ICT policy and regulation in Africa. Amy ran Communica together with Bruce Girard and co-ordinated global south umbrella network, under which DIRSI, LIRNEasia, and RIA fell. Committed to understanding how ICT could be used for social and economic inclusion Amy was a rich resource and friend to RIA prior to her tragic death in 2009.
Thesis Title: Governing regional telecommunication networks in a developing region: the SADC case.
Enrico’s thesis examines the political economy underlying the development and implementation of ICT policy at a regional and national levels through a case study of regional ICT policy-making in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Constructing a conceptual framework that draws together the idea of capacity-building as a tool for foreign affairs, with that of a global network of epistemic communities of consultants and multilateral agencies that operationalise reform, he explains why SADC protocols and declarations have largely failed to meet their stated objectives, despite the accepted rationale and logic of market integration and harmonisation. The institutional analysis undertaken through the detailed coding and triangulation of findings from a series of in-depth interviews with those involved in the creation of regional ICT structures and processes produces a rich case study which contributes to the field of knowledge in the area of regional communication reform.
