and the electronic _Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries_ . Moreover, broad ICT journals such as the _Journal of Global Information Technology Management_ often include papers on IS in developing countries, and there are general IS research conferences that include panel and paper sessions on developing countries. General IS journals also frequently publish papers on research in developing countries, including special issues on this topic.

Our paper is about the sustainability of IS in developing countries, especially assessments of what factors are important for system survival. This literature has much broader coverage than the scope of our project management IS‐focused assessment. The literature assesses many information and communication systems with widely different functions, aims, sectors, implementers, and users,<sup>1</sup> but there are many useful lessons to be learned about why systems survive or not. We first focus on proposed, general explanatory factors for the failure and success of IS projects and components because this helps identify common characteristics. The material presented here is manly taken from reviews and broader studies. Second, we present the existing evidence in a structured way according to this categorization, including a range of case studies in developing countries.

The sustainability of IS solutions in developing and developed countries is much discussed in the literature because sustainability is critical to the steady future flow of benefits from these projects (Yogesh et al. 2015; Pires and Fernández 2016). The literature notes an extraordinarily high incidence of failure rates of IS projects and components, which suggests that IS projects and components to a large degree have been a waste of resources. A striking example is World Bank investments in financial MIS, which amounts to approximately US$2.2 billion from 1984 to the 2010 to finance 87 projects in 51 developing countries. Only approximately half of the projects completed by 2010 were rated as likely or highly likely to be sustainable (Dener et al. 2010).

There are many well‐known examples of large, complex IS in developed countries on which hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on planning and development that never came into operation (Nelson 2007). The focus on the lack of sustainability in the literature on developing countries is not so much on the investment and preparation phase. The general impression seems to be that, with the right support, relatively simple systems can be made to work in the initial phase, albeit with substantial delays and changes to the original design (IEG 2011). The critical phase for sustainability seems to be after the system has been put into daily operation, particularly after donor financial and technical support has ended.

Because the continued high failure rates of IS are a common theme, the literature contains many assessments of what factors need to be in place for the systems to survive and function, although in developing countries, the literature is to a large extent anecdotal, focusing on achieving individual aspects of sustainability that by themselves may not solve the problem because the reasons for failure can often be a combination of factors (Pires and Fernández 2016). Moreover, it is sometimes

> 1 Dener at al. (2010) provide many examples. In service delivery, for example, one would find IS in health projects with objectives ranging from strengthening medical statistics systems to setting up an integrated bio‐ behavioral surveillance system for HIV/AIDS. In disaster management, IS systems are used to develop better digital elevation models and obtain supporting satellite imagery. In social protection, pension projects use IS to improve efficiency of government services by financing IT improvements for pension offices and providing training for staff and management. In education, IS projects have been used to prepare for modern technology in the recipient country. In water and sanitation, a project intended to supply and install IT equipment to allow for regular, efficient monitoring of utility performance and program implementation.

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