E/ECA/ADF/99/11

The ADF ’99 programme contains a number of different strands designed to contribute to the overall outputs of the conference. These outputs themselves will serve as the basis for inputs to the Post-Forum Summit and will thus be key to ensuring political commitment in the region to the measures considered by ADF participants to be essential to building the African Information Society.

Outputs have six dimensions. They must be both concrete and strategic. Some must lead to concrete action within countries to establish planning processes, build and extend infrastructure or develop and test new applications. Others must offer, to policy-makers in the region, proposals for action at the national, sub-regional and regional levels, to enhance the economic and social development impact of the new technologies. In all cases they must specify the most effective partnership models to implement the projects, plans or policies proposed.

The Conference will only achieve its targeted outputs with the full cooperation of chairs, panelists, rapporteurs – and participants. In particular we ask all speakers to keep to their allotted times (detailed in the sections below). Frustration can build up very quickly if participants feel that debate is being stifled by over long presentations.

ADF will lead to:

• Draft national action programmes that demonstrate different approaches to creating national information and communication infrastructure plans and policies and include concrete proposals to address sectoral development problems in areas of national priority.

• Recommendations from gender and youth focus groups on the types of projects and policy mechanisms needed to incorporate women and young people into decision-making processes on the design and application of ICTs.

• Recommendations from the private sector on policies needed to stimulate the ICT industry in the region and increase investment from outside the region; and a realistic assessment of the scope for public/private sector partnerships.

• A plan for bringing diaspora expertise to bear on issues related to the development of the African information society at all levels: project and policy; national, sub-regional and regional.

• An assessment from policy research and analysis institutes in the region of the potential for programming related to the African information society and the impact of ICTs on development; a research agenda on electronic commerce.

• An identification of the key issues to be addressed, on a sub-regional basis, to promote ease of communication, optimal market size, the development of a skilled labour force and investment opportunity.

• Identification of the key needs that can best be met regionally: for policy support, building inclusive public debate on ICTs in the region, training, inter-connection, the development of an effective African position within international forums etc.

Together these outputs will indicate the shape of the African Information Society and indicate the paths to be taken to achieve it. They will thus contribute to a redefinition of AISI.

How will ADF achieve these outputs?

The ADF programme contains three major blocks of substantive debate and a number of supporting sessions.

The three major blocks are:

• The four theme areas (Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning): information economy; strengthening infrastructure; ICTs for improved governance; and democratisation of access to the information society; theme sessions move from general presentation and debate to the more specific breakout session presentations and discussions of concrete issues and examples of applications.

• The activities of the focus groups (throughout ADF ’99) that will assess all the proceedings from the perspectives of gender, youth, the private sector, the diaspora and African think tanks, reflect within the groups and produce their own recommendations and plans.

• The national information and communication infrastructure session (Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning) that will provide a regional overview, outline national approaches to building the information society and engage development agencies and the private sector in debate on aspects of the programmes.

A number of more specialised panels and workshops will shed light on specific issues and opportunities.

Poster sessions will highlight best practices.

Pulling together the strands from these different blocks of activities will be the task of the team of rapporteurs assigned to ADF ’99 and headed by a Conference Rapporteur.

Responsibilities of Rapporteurs

All rapporteurs will be asked to keep in mind the six dimensions mentioned above that are key to the realisation of ADF outputs:

• Identify concrete projects that can be implemented at the country level;

• Identify strategic issues (and potential responses) that need to be addressed by policy makers;

• Distinguish between activities and strategies targeted at:

• National;
• Sub-regional; and
• Regional levels;

• Indicate appropriate partnership models.

Rapporteurs will prepare reports for presentation at two sessions: the Feedback session scheduled for Wednesday morning, October 27 and the Way Forward session scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Feedback reports may be more descriptive in nature; the Way Forward reports must be structured into a coherent and focussed set of recommendations.

Rapporteurs may use the ADF CyberCafe to produce their reports. Reports should be produced using Word and filed in designated directories, with a backup file. Hard copies should be given to the Theme Rapporteurs in the case of theme and breakout group reports and to the Conference Rapporteur in all other cases. A room will be set aside for rapporteurs to hold meetings and consult each other.

The Conference Rapporteur will have overall responsibility for co-ordinating the reports to the feedback session on Wednesday morning and for preparing the final report for consideration in the Way Forward session on Thursday afternoon. The Conference Rapporteur will be identified by the ADF ’99 Secretariat.

Theme Rapporteurs will be responsible for ensuring that the reports of the theme presentations and breakout sessions form a coherent whole for each theme. Theme Rapporteurs, and the rapporteurs assigned to the theme presentation sessions, have been identified by the ADF ’99 Secretariat. Theme rapporteurs are:

The NICI Rapporteur will be responsible for highlighting progress with respect to the development of national information and communication infrastructure within the region and for reflecting the perspectives of the development agencies and private sector panels which will respond to the NICI presentation and discussion. The NICI Rapporteur has been identified by the ADF ’99 Secretariat.

NICI Rapporteur: Alioune Camara/Lishan Adam

Focus Group Rapporteurs will be responsible for ensuring that relevant issues, opportunities and problems emerging in conference sessions and reflected in the discussions of the groups themselves are included in reports to the feedback session and in the final recommendations to the Way Forward session. Focus Group Rapporteurs will be identified by their focus groups.

Breakout groups will assign their own rapporteurs. They will be responsible for reporting discussion against the same six dimensions and ensuring that participation in the group is recorded.

The ADF Secretariat and the convening organisations will identify rapporteurs for the specialised panels.

The Conference Rapporteur will organise daily meetings with the theme and focus group rapporteurs and the rapporteurs of that day’s sessions.

Responsibilities of Chairs

All chairs should make their sessions as participative as possible by ensuring that speakers do not over run their time allocations.

Session chairs are requested to contact members of their panels on Sunday, October 24 or Monday, October 25 in order to finalise organisation of the panels.

Theme and Panel chairs

Main Tasks

• Introduce the issue
• Introduce presenters
• Highlight key issues from the presentation: focus on recommendations
• Introduce panelists
• Keep panelists to a maximum speaking time of 5 – 10 minutes
• Guide and sum up the debate from the floor

Each theme session should allow 30 minutes for introductions and presentation, 30 for panel comments and 30 for discussion.

Breakout session chairs

The breakout sessions have a number of formats:

• Issue presentations of 20 minutes - with panel responses of 5 - 10 minutes each; the chair is responsible for introducing presenter and panelists, keeping them to time, guiding the discussion and summing up.

• Moderated panels with short panel presentations of 5 - 10 minutes each; the chair is responsible for introducing the panel, keeping them to time, guiding the discussion and summing up.

• Workshop format; the chair(s) is responsible for outlining the issues for discussion, leading the discussion and summing up.

In all cases the chair should ensure the selection of the rapporteur, keeping in mind the need for knowledge in the matter to be discussed and language skills.

Speakers and panelists

All speakers and panelists should ensure that their presentations and interventions stay within the time limits; these are:

Remember that your audience is not an academic one: it is made up largely of policy makers and practitioners with different levels of experience.

Remember to speak slowly and clearly for both the audience and the interpreters. Keep in mind that for many participants, English or French may be the second or third language.

NOTE: THERE WILL BE A MEETING OF ALL CHAIRS, SPEAKERS, PANELISTS AND RAPPORTEURS FROM 13.30 to 15.00 ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24