The Process of Developing National Information and Communications Infrastructure

The emergence and convergence of information and communication technologies (ICT) remain at the centre of global social and economic transformations. The ICT sector is a gamut of industries and service activities – Internet service provision, telecommunications equipment and services, information technology (IT) equipment and services, media and broadcasting, libraries and documentation centres, commercial information providers, network-based information services and other related information and communication activities. These technology-based components which used to be accounted as separate activities have converged to characterise all aspects of information society [1]. This has also led to the introduction of the concept of national information infrastructure (NII) and global information infrastructure (GII) defined as the "technologies, organisations, and capabilities that facilitate the production and use of ICTs"[2].

In this regard, the Vice President Albert Gore’s National Information Infrastructure (NII) project announced in 1992 and started in 1993 sparked world-wide activities on development and use of ICTs. Most of the funding of Al Gore’s project would come from the private sector while the American Administration was to put in place the necessary mechanisms to enable proper planning and implementation, including creation of the Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) which was "to provide leadership in integrating information technology into systems that support government's operation" [3]. This task force was responsible for articulating and implementing the President's vision for advanced telecommunications and computing technology, and was "uniquely positioned to help develop the governmental aspects of America's information infrastructure". Several committees and working groups were also established by IITF, and participants were drawn from state and local government’s representatives as well as the private sector. Also, a high-level Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure has been established by the President to provide advice to the IITF.

At almost the same time, in 1993 the Japanese Government created the Telecommunication Council to define a national strategy which was enacted in 1994 and which gave priority to the development of a fibre optic backbone around Japan. The aim was to enable adequate access to the Information highway to all Japanese households by the year 2010.

In Europe, the Bangemann report on the Global information Society [4] was adopted by the European Commission in June 1994 and selected 10 projects for immediate financing. 8 months later, in February 1995, the G7 Group of countries held in Brussels, a special ministerial meeting on the Information Highways.

In Canada, the Government developed in 1995, through its "Information Highway" Project [5], a national policy on new information and communication technologies aimed at generalising usage of ICT in every part of life anywhere in the country. Indeed the objectives of the policy were to achieve universal access to the "Information Highway" in all public places like educational services, community networks, libraries and information banks; and to give free email addresses to any user which would like to have one. The Policy recognized that "some form of subsidization will likely be required to assure affordable access to the information highway" and that "this was necessary because telecommunications had become a principal engine of economic and social activity".

Like all continents, Africa has defined a strategy to assist its member States to accelerate transition towards a new economy and a new industry based on information and knowledge. This was recognised as the only way Africa’s economies would become competitive and participate in the globalisation process. It was in this context that the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) was developed. AISI had its origins in the "African Regional Symposium on Telematics for Development" organised in Addis Ababa in April 1995 by ECA, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), UNESCO, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and Bellanet International. The Regional Symposium urged the ECA Conference of Ministers to consider the importance for Africa of the global information revolution. In May 1995, the twenty-first meeting of ECA Conference of Ministers responsible for economic and social development and planning passed resolution 795 (XXX) entitled "Building Africa’s Information Highway" that called for work on national information and communication networks for planning and decision-making as part of Africa’s information highway and for the establishment of a High-level Working Group made up of African experts on Information and Communication Technologies to prepare Africa’s entry into the information society. In May 1996 through its resolution 812 (XXXI) the twenty-second meeting of ECA Conference of Ministers approved the plan of action prepared by the High Level Working Group entitled: "the African Information Society Initiative: an action framework to build Africa's information and communication infrastructure".

As a result, the definition of National Information and Communications Infrastructure (NICI) plans and strategies has become high on the agenda, and African countries, like countries in the developed world, are confronted with the challenge to be responsive and flexible to the convergence of telecommunication, audio-visual and computing technologies. NICI plans and strategies need to reflect overall development priorities, redefine sectoral policies and support the introduction of new regulatory frameworks so as to improve the efficiency, and to mobilise resources, for building national information and communication infrastructure. Attempts are made in this paper to define the NICI development process, to outline the pressing need to build up NICI plans and strategies, to indicate the various steps to be taken to enable countries to be part of the information society and finally to prepare the status of NICI development in African countries.

The advent of the information technology revolution and its unprecedented capabilities to process, store, refine and disseminate data, information and knowledge in a variety of ways across borders has dramatically changed the ways in which Governments and the public and private sectors operate world-wide. Most African countries have embraced the IT revolution, though the ability to effectively harness the technology varies from country to country. The elaboration of IT policy, an integral part of NICI development activities, is a major determinant factor in setting-up the underlying supporting infrastructure and enhancing the optimal use of the technology. Development of an IT policy is an important exercise and hence should receive the support of all citizens and institutions in a country. Once established, the policy should aim at sustaining the country’s vision and goals. It should embrace strategies and action programmes which will ensure the building of information, knowledge, and decision support systems to enhance Africa’s socio-economic growth and policy formulation utilising information, and communications technologies [6]. ICTs may be used as the main engine for Africa’s socio-economic development and growth thus enabling African countries to be part of the information and knowledge economy.

"Information and communication technologies can no longer be seen as a luxury for the elite but as an absolute necessity for the masses. The global movement to an information age and the world-wide technological innovations of recent years, along with other structural and economic developments, have led to rapidly falling costs for information and communication technologies. These have combined with changes facing global and national telecommunication regimes to present a clear window of opportunity for appropriate "leapfrog" strategies to accelerate the development of the continent. The creation of the African information infrastructure is both a necessity and an opportunity to accelerate development in all spheres of African economic and social activity " [7]. This entails the need for a complete re-examination of traditional national information and IT policies to account for the new emerging technologies and the need to formulate broad and coherent national ICT plans and strategies to advance the development of national information and communications infrastructure. It is important to recognise that the process for setting-up ICT policies and strategies is a work in progress as it requires concerted efforts from all parties, mainly from national governments for effective leadership and direction.

AISI calls for the preparation and implementation of national information and communication infrastructure plans in all African countries and the pursuit of priority strategies, programmes and projects which can assist in the sustainable build up of an information society in member States. The impact from new information and communication technologies is no longer confined to the communications and information sectors. It has become a pervasive mass technology with a much wider scope of influence, affecting virtually all sectors of society. Thus, development of NICI plans will enable African countries and funding partners to have in hand a framework which will guide them throughout the process of programme planning and project development and implementation. It will also enable coordination between various stakeholders and funding agencies and will prevent duplication of activities which is anavoidable whenever there is no NICI development plan in a country. The NICI Plan constitutes also an evaluation tool for decision makers as it encompasses criteria for follow up and monitoring. The AISI framework (presented in Annex 2) indicates the various steps to follow when defining NICI plans.

Implementation of AISI is to be carried out at the countries level by building Africa's information and communication infrastructure through development of NICI policies, plans and strategies. This activity must be seen as an on-going process through the planning, implementation and regular evaluation of programmes and pilot projects developed according to the needs and priorities of each country. NICI includes more than just the physical infrastructure and the equipment which are used to host, process, transmit or display data, text, voice and image. Also, it concerns regulations, enabling environment and procedures which may lead to the development of NICI activities and content. NICI encompasses also development of human resources – public and private sector, civil society – which develop the infrastructure, create applications and value added services, develop training programmes and train students and users, acquire and sell equipment as well as provide Internet and other ICT services. Finally it is to be noted that the developers, administrators, users and the population at large are an integral part of the NICI process and should be involved in its development since the beginning [8].

Development of NICI policies and plans is being sponsored by African Governments, ECA, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, the latter through its Acacia-Communities and information society in Africa- programme. Other partners such as UNDP, UNESCO and the World Bank together with the "Partners for Information and Communication Technologies in Africa"(PICTA) are also supplementing ECA’s efforts in developing NICI activities in member States. Development of NICI plans received input from the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) Round Tables in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania where the Round Tables have already organised several workshops and defined national projects; some of those projects were updated and fed into the NICI development process.

Twenty two African countries are taking part in the NICI development process, as a core group of pilot countries. Some of those countries have in place their national policies, plans and related programmes and projects; some have earmarked funding from the ACACIA program or other financing sources and are implementing their national strategies while others are still in the planning stage. The efforts of ECA and IDRC are geared to both types of countries, working with them in the planning, fund raising, implementation and evaluation process. In all cases, the policy development process cannot be finalized in a short time but goes beyond several months or years after the sensitization and validation workshops are held.

The ACACIA group of countries

The ACACIA group comprises the following countries:

The countries have put in place the ACACIA Program which is the implementation arm of AISI at the community level in member States. Members of the ACACIA group have adopted national strategies in 1997 in each of the four countries; the national strategies are available at the Acacia web site (www.idrc.ca/acacia).

It should be noted that the NICI strategy in the above four countries was developed under the umbrella of the national authorities in charge of IT policy planning and implementation and in closer cooperation with all the stakeholders. Approaches are very different in the four countries. But all national strategies were rooted in the National development priority and plans of the concerned countries through the following themes areas:

The above countries were officially requested in July 1999 to join the NICI development process as part of a group of countries whose experience would be shared among participants attending the African Development Forum (ADF’99) (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 24-28 October 1999).

The NICI development process followed in the above countries can be summarized as follows:

The following 10 member States constitute the group of countries whose NICI development process is directly followed by ECA staff members. The above countries joined the process from 1997, and NICI activities have been carried out in each of them:

The NICI development process followed in the above countries can be summarized as follows:

Since the ICT sector extends beyond the traditional boundaries of the industrial and services sector, the formulation of ICT policy can only be achieved through a broad-based participatory process. The following major stakeholders are invited to participate actively in the policy process:

Development of NICI plans is not only a series of procedures and technical prescriptions but it should also be seen as a new phenomena and culture for information sharing to reduce the information gaps between different parts of the population. Hence adhesion of decision makers and all stakeholders to the information society concept is essential for the success of the NICI plans to be developed in member States, because those plans are global in nature and embrace all walks of life be they economic, social cultural or technical. In order to include all stakeholders, African countries are requested to establish task forces [9] or commissions responsible for the development of NICI policies, plans and strategies, the identification of priorities and the setting-up of mechanisms and procedures for follow up and implementation. Hence, development of NICI plans is undertaken by national teams working with the major stakeholders listed above with the aim of reaching a consensus among the various sectors on the needs, priorities and actions to be undertaken.

It is recommended that the NICI development team be composed of a coordinator and several other experts in order to carry out the following assignment:

In preparing the NICI plan, the team may take into consideration the following suggested list of documents:

The national team will define the strategic objectives of the NICI development plan based on development priorities as well as needs and aspirations expressed by national stakeholders. For each strategic objective, the team is requested to:

It is recommended that the NICI plan document follows the outline below; its form may vary, but the teams are requested to retain the substance:

The NICI plan might be completed with an annex for each of the major priority projects giving a short description of:

Once the NICI plan document is developed, the Team Coordinator is requested to circulate it for comments to all stakeholders. Finally, it could be brought to a national Validation Workshop and finalized before being adopted by the relevant authorities which may be a Ministry, the Cabinet, the Parliament, the Office of the President, etc.

Sectors and activities

Objectives

Research

Creation of a National ICT Resource Centre

To enable African countries to undertake research activities on ICT;

To enable African scientists to participate in software and IT engineering development

Administration

Digitization of personal files, documents and holdings

Development of a Government Intranet

Integrating voice and data circuits

Better management of Government employees and public administration;

Better coordination;

Improving accessibility to public administration information for all citizens;

Bringing transparency to Government procedures

Improving sharing and circulation of information between Government Officers;

Better coordination

Maximizing use of telephone lines by incorporating text, voice, data and video;

Reducing communication costs;

Improving communication between Government Officers

Justice

Digitization and creation of legal data banks

To make available all data related to the Justice Department and Court ;

Improving juridical procedures

Education

Creation of virtual networks

Linking universities and schools into a virtual network for information exchange, research and video conferencing;

Creation of on-line data bases and data banks for research;

Providing access to on-line education for all;

Providing non formal learning facilities via Internet

Trade and commerce

Development of a Virtual gallery

Trade and customs procedures

Development of On-line banking

Creation of a Network of chambers of commerce and trade points

Selling African goods via the Internet;

Boosting foreign exchange earnings and promoting trade;

Reducing travel cost of economic operators

Facilitating trade procedures;

Removing bottlenecks in trade procedures;

Facilitating customs declaration, and clearing and forwarding of goods

Speeding up commercial transactions;

Facilitating money transfer

Facilitating exchange of trade opportunities;

Boosting African trade

Agriculture and Food Security

Development and access to forecasting and meteorological networks

Development and access to distribution networks and data bases of food stocks

Development of Alert and monitoring systems

Improvement of food production;

Access to on-line agricultural information techniques;

Facilitation of food distribution and commercialization;

Hunger prevention

Prevention of drought and eradication of locaust attacks and other national disasters

Culture

Digitization

Development of virtual galeries

Electronic networking of cultural institutions and galeries

Safeguarding of manuscripts;

Preservation of cultural artifacts;

Promotion of African culture;

To make available all cultural heritage in a country

Health

Telemedicine, telediagnosis and health information networks

Network of pharmacies

Bringing medical expertise to remote areas;

Exchange of medical data and information between various hospitals and specialists located in different parts of the world or in a country;

Identification and monitoring of endemic zones;

Distribution of health resources

Ensuring availability of medicine throughout a country

Decentralization

On-line access to information

Developing Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Making Government information available at the local level

Making local information available nationally and worldwide;

On-line participation of population to Government programs

Availability of a tool for the day to day management of local population and local amenities;

Better planning and forecasting for the development of local infrastructure

Tourism

Setting up on-line tourist activities

Promote tourist activities and sell African tourist circuits;

Attract more tourists;

Facilitate hotel reservation

Environmental management

Creation of environmental networks

Establishing problem monitoring information systems using GIS technologies, remote sensing and satellite early-warning systems

Access to telecommunications in areas threatened by environmental degradation and natural disasters;

Availability of tools to anticipate environmental problems in advance and enable governments and international organizations to be more proactive and to respond more effectively when the need arises;

Creation of a "new" Post Office

Promotion of electronic wire transfer

Hosting of rural telecentres;

Creation of mailboxes for all;

Transportation of goods for electronic commerce;

3rd party certification for electronic commerce

Disadvantaged groups

Creation of a National ICT Centre for children and women

To initiate children and women in ICT development and usage

Youth, Sport and Leisure

Creation of on-line web sites and CD ROM on sports and leisure

Creation of virtual youth centres on sport, art and leisure

To monitor and follow up African sportsmen and women in Africa and outside the continent

To undertake research and training of youth;

To exchange information between youth centres

The following status report is based on information sent to ECA by teams which are developing the NICI policies and plans in member States listed in paragraph 14 above. Comprehensive information and data are available for all member States in the document containing NICI profiles of African countries (Document E/ECA/ADF99/1: African Country Profiles: National Information and Communication Infrastructure).

National ACACIA strategies for Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda are part of the overall ACACIA strategy mentioned in paragraph 17 above. However the four countries do not have the same planning strategy for global ICT issues, and besides the ACACIA program, there are several other national ICT policy strategies and sectoral initiatives being implemented nation-wide in each country. (See Document E/ECA/ADF99/1: African Country Profiles: National Information and Communication Infrastructure). Also these countries have put in place several successful IT applications such as:

Reports on the planning and implementation of the ACACIA Strategy for the four above countries are available at IDRC and at the ECA secretariat.

The challenge to governments in African countries is the re-examination of their role, their regulations, and their national policies in the Information era, so that they can exploit to the fullest potential the positive benefits of the information society. The challenge to the private sector is to be innovative and to spearhead the creation of an African information economy. The challenge to the civil society is to ensure that all stakeholders take part in the development of NICI policies, plans and strategies, and that the needs of the disenfranchised groups are taken care of by the government and the private sector. The challenge to the partners is to work closely with African countries in the planning and implementation of NICI activities in accordance with the countries needs, aspirations and priorities. This entails a challenge to clear vision and leadership from the governments on how NICI could serve their national interests, and to promote the necessary organisational change. Putting in place of NICI plans and strategies is a 'key building block' required to meet those challenges. The AISI framework and the PICTA mechanism have been put in place to assist African countries to build their respective information societies.

Annex 2 Guidelines for developing National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) Plans