Understanding global diffusion of data-driven development initiatives and sustainability failure in the case of Indonesia

Aid information management systems (AIMS) have been implemented in aidreceiving countries with the hope that they will enable donors and recipient governments to share aid information, enhance data governance and aid coordination among stakeholders. Despite the global popularity of data-driven development initiatives and heavy investment in AIMS, many systems have not fulfilled the expected outcomes. This research seeks to explain this failure from an information systems perspective. Building on a historical overview of AIMS implementation, I first develop an understanding of how such systems evolved and how the visions of aid effectiveness norms that AIMS inscribed have changed over time alongside the shifting global aid governance. This overview clearly shows that, in many cases, AIMS did not attain the result anticipated, and often failed to reach sustainability. I then investigate this sustainability failure, through an interpretive case study of Indonesian AIMS. I trace the change of international and domestic aid governance that shaped the unique context of AIMS in the emerging economy. Investigating the role of state actor, I argue that understanding the failure of AIMS requires a shift of attention from the process of aid management within a country to the global level. It needs to be seen as a result of macro-level events occurring in the global field of aid. In the dynamics of global power relations, the role of technology is multifaceted—a mixture of managerial and rationalizing, as well as symbolic and political roles.