National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) policies and plans Next week in Addis Ababa ECA is holding the Technical Advisory Committee preparatory meeting for the African Development Forum ' 99. The focus is clearly on policy. Thus, we would like your views focused on this area, with particular concentration on the elaboration of national policy from now through 10 September. Many African countries have now embarked on a process to elaborate a national information and communication infrastructure policy (although this goes by many names) in order to give their country the necessary policy direction to cope with the global Information Age. There is a great deal of variation from country to country over the content of such a policy. Some governments favour emphasis on problem areas such as control of their own information, legal aspects such as privacy, copyright, classified information, freedom of information and press laws. Others are concentrating on liberalization of telecommunications, the management of frequency, etc. seem to be on the agenda of development aid agencies. A majority have realized that new policy directions should focus on societal gains and involve a broad range of interests (user departments from government, particularly education and health, provincial governments, the university, NGOs, including those working at the community level, etc.) to ensure increased access to educational, scientific and development resources. Some questions for our discussion: Do you see the elaboration of national policies on how to deal with ICTs as necessary and important for African countries? If yes, what do you think the core of national information and communication policy should be? Are any of you involved with the elaboration of national information and communication policy and plan in any African country or elsewhere? Telecom reforms? Are these sufficient in themselves to constitute a policy? Are they a sine qua non? What institutions should be involved in defining and executing national policy and plans in the ICT area? What role do you see for the private sector in this process?
Nancy Hafkin, ECA hafkin.uneca@un.org__________________ If you have friends or colleagues who are interested in participating in the list, inform them that they can register by sending an e-mail message to lyris@lyris.bellanet.org , with the following typed in the body of the message: SUBSCRIBE aisi-hitd-l name (name is your full name)
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