Though information technology (IT) is increasingly touted as an effective tool
through which governments may enhance their development efforts, to date, many IT-related deployments
have remained in a pilot stage, which does little to aid governments in understanding macrolevel
IT policy approaches to confronting development challenges. To address this shortcoming, this
article presents a unique nationwide initiative: Macedonia Connects, a multipartner, scaled IT-foreducation
project wherein every school in the country was equipped with both computers and wireless
Internet connections and through which the Internet was made available to citizens across the entire
country. A number of policy-related aspects of the project are identified and discussed, including the
predeployment training of teachers in IT adoption, the equality of technology and training provision
across the entire country, the long-term focus on the part of all stakeholders in terms of outcomes, and
the business model employed in the public–private partnership. Although it is too early to discuss
long-term outcomes, there are many aspects of this case that will be applicable to governments and
practitioners alike in future IT-for-development endeavors. Some of Macedonia’s neighboring states
have already indicated interest in following this model.