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AFCOM’ 99 The AISI, a joint action plan for Africa to join the Information Society By Karima BOUNEMRA BEN SOLTANE ECA-DISD Arlington, 2 June 1999 Mr. Chairperson, Honorable ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a real pleasure for me to be with you during this 1999 edition of Afcom, to share some thoughts about the development of the telecommunications sector in Africa. Indeed, we, at the Economic Commission for Africa, are determined to accelerate the application of the ICT in the context of the implementation of the African Information Society Initiative, and very keen to be part of this invaluable revolution, as part of our main goal: serving Africa better. When I’ve been invited to speak in this conference, I asked myself: what can I say that would interest major decision-makers that are committed to the development of the telecommunication sector in Africa? Shall I address Technical issues? Strategic issues? Certainly, during the last years, we all have attended conferences where the importance of the information revolution, the information society, etc… were extensively discussed and sometimes debated with passion. No one can ignore, today, the importance and potential benefits of these technologies for Africa. The real question for us now is how? How will Africa join the global economy? How can we implement the action plans that will enable the Continent to take full advantage from its positive aspects? Indeed, time has come now to focus on concrete solutions. Up to ten years ago, telecommunications meant providing telephone lines, extending the national networks, ensuring a good quality of service. Since the early 90s, the demand has moved from these basic services to more sophisticated, value added services, available in a larger scale, at any tine, more reliable, easier to access. The Telecommunication world joined the informatics world and the information society was born. We are all conscious of the ‘classic’ stereotypes related to the African Telecommunications infrastructure, such as:
Not to mention the new stereotypes, which now address the situation of the Internet. Such as: "does your ISP allow you to manage your own password"? We are all fighting to reverse this situation, and the challenges can be expressed by the following seven questions:
Just to mention the most immediate ones. This list of questions that need to be addressed is long, very long. It may even be longer. Obviously, no one really knows all the answers and there are no ‘universal’ solutions, or recipes that would magically equally satisfy all the countries. Nevertheless, a lot of progress has been made so far and several interesting initiatives that have been or are being implemented and experienced, deserve to be studied carefully as they may serve as practices to learn from. In addition, telecommunication infrastructure evolution being part of a wider developmental agenda, the process, in our view, must be a collaborative one. In fact, several stakeholders share responsibility in trying to find the right solutions to this impressive agenda and help establishing what we call the "NICIs", for National Information and Communication Infrastructure plans. Recognizing that the key role for this major planning exercise remains with Governments, it makes no doubt that others should join, mainly: the civil society, the private sector, and the development institutions, be they bi-laterals or multi-lateral agencies. Current situation of the telecommunication in Africa Even if the figures are still very low, they are improving. In 98, or because of the Y2K bug, should I better say in 1998, Africa had 13% of the world's population, but only 2% of the world's telephone lines, averaging 2 lines per 100 inhabitants. The problem is worse in rural areas, and 4 countries have more than 80% of their users in the capital cities. Estimates show 1.2 million Internet users in Africa, but 85% of these are in South Africa. In the rest of the region, the number of Internet subscribers is very small, averaging from 1000 to 5000 per country, closer to the latter if we leave South Africa aside. The possibilities of extension are further constrained by the small number of computers in the region, - with an average computer density of one per one thousand (1/1000). The cost of a computer (even with rapidly falling technology prices) is daunting in a region where seven countries have a per capita income between $70 and $160/year, and another 25 fall between $200 and $500. Nevertheless, estimates put Africa's aggregate growth rates for 1998 at 3.7 percent, one percent less than what was predicted by the International Monetary Fund, and still the continent has become the fastest growing region. In this respect, three African countries, Angola, Botswana and Uganda, have emerged in 1998 as among the ten fastest growing economies in the world. Similarly the ICT sector has shown some modest transformation with the liberalization of some aspects of the African Telecommunications market to allow private sector participation, to attract foreign investment and to improve its infrastructure and services, with the increasing recognition of the potential applications of ICT for sustainable development. In this context, by early 1998 :
Despite severe deficiencies, at the level of the technological infrastructure as well as of the human resources needed to run and properly use the networks, that are hampering the region, we may say that Africa is ready for a better place in the information Society. In several occasions, African leaders - but also ordinary citizens - have urged their countries to take the necessary actions for Africa to be part of the information revolution. Role of the ECA in this context ECA and its partners have been working with African countries on these issues for several years now,
However, with each passing day, the gap between Africa and the rest of the world, in this area, increases. That is why systematic efforts must intensify in order to meet efficiently the enormity of the challenge. The AISI constitutes an action framework for building African’s information and communication infrastructure. Connectivity represents one its the several fields of implementation. Through PADIS, ECA began its connectivity-related activities by working to assist member States set up low cost electronic communication nodes. However, it soon realized that Africa had to move to more up to date technology, to fully enter the Information Age. After several years of work in this area, we came to the conclusion that comparative advantage of the Commission resides mainly in the policy domain. Our first aim is to help the countries raise the awareness of their policy- and decision-makers about ICT as a development tool. ECA is supporting African Member States in the development of their ICT policies, strategies and plans that would make connectivity, with its incumbent advantages, a reality for hundreds of millions of Africans.
Mr. Chaiperson Ladies and Gentlemen, Before concluding, allow me to say few words about an ECA forthcoming major event, the African Development Forum, or ADF. The African Development Forum is an ECA initiative that aims at positioning an African-driven agenda that reflects a consensus among major partners and stakeholders on the continent’s development and that leads to specific Government programmes for implementation. The objective of the African Development Forum will be to present the key stakeholders in African development with the results of current research and opinion on this issue. ADF will permit to jointly formulate shared goals and priorities, draft action programmes and define the policy environment that will enable African countries to implement these programmes. In this context, the participants will be representatives of governments, civil society, researchers and academics, private sector, intergovernmental organizations and donors. The idea of an ADF was adopted at the October 1998 meeting of the high level panel on African Development that the UN Secretary General established. The initiative encountered then a warm welcome. Similarly, in February 1999, the Chief Executives of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and African Development Bank (ADB), met in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and issued a Joint Statement expressing their full support, to ADF. Since then, ADF has not ceased encountering encouragement and support from ECA’s partners and we do hope that most of the eminent participants who are with us today will join us in October in Addis Ababa. Indeed the first ADF is to take place in Addis, on 24-29 October 1999, and will be devoted to the challenge to Africa of globalization and the Information Age. By concentrated activities at both national and regional level, ADF ’99 proposes to assess the progress of ICT in Africa and enhance AISI implementation, three years after its adoption. What are the issues that will be discussed? Four sub-themes, for which a group of recognized ICT experts is preparing position papers, will be considered:
The forum will also concentrate on the following three crosscutting issues:
In addition, an exhibition will be organized, as a part of the Technology Center for Africa, TCA. It will be an opportunity to display African so-called best practices, as well as demonstrate most recent ICT products, and here the participation of the private sector is vital. At ECA, we like to say that we consider ADF as a process, not an event. For its first edition, the main objectives that we plan to implement are fully consistent with our on-going work programme and aim among other things at an assessment of what has been accomplished so far, and a better planning for what remains to do:
We do not work alone a strong partnership is needed, in addition to an on-going consultation with all those who are interested in the process, through an open discussion list to be operational soon and for which Bellanet is providing technical support. ADF 99 fits into a wide range of activities that we, at ECA are implementing, or that ECA’s partners are conducting. Some examples are:
Mr. Chairperson Ladies and Gentlemen My presence today at this opening session is an expression of ECA’s support to Professor Raymond Akwule in his organisation of this important annual event: AFCOM’99. My presence aims also at inviting you all, representatives of Governments, private sector, development agencies, to continue joining our efforts to improve the implementation of the wonderful vision that was set by the AISI, three years ago. Because of your strong commitment, and by working harder together,
I thank you for your kind attention. |
