According to the Human Development Report 2004 of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Union of Comoros ranks 136th over 177 countries. This indicates a low level of development hampered by problems which are related to small island countries, such as small market, long distances from the hinterland, insufficient agrarian land and limited natural resources, compounded by lack of institutional capacity and dependency on external markets.

To overcome the above difficulties, the Government has put in place a Poverty Reduction Strategy framework on which is based the NICI Plan. The Government has decided that any national strategic document should be rooted in the PRSP framework.

The Government, with the belief that ICTs are essential for economic growth and improvement of life of the population, embarked on a deliberate information society development process supported by a national strategy and plan taking into account the physical, economic and social context of the Union of Comoros.

Hence, a request was sent by the Government of the Union of Comoros to ECA which started the NICI development process in October 2003 with a sensitization workshop. The framework and Policy documents were finalized and submitted to a stakeholder’s consultation workshop held in May 2004.

According to the draft framework, ICTs would contribute to the rapid development of the Comoros by making technology and knowledge accessible to the entire population through:

• Easy access to rural areas which concentrate 70% of the population;
• Creation of multipurpose community telecentres;
• Improvement of the dissemination of televison and radio programmes;
• Deployment of tele-education to disseminate educative and socio-cultural programmes;
• Promotion of e-health;
• Development of e-government;
• Development of e-commerce;
• Empowerment of the private sector;
• Integration of the Comoros in the economies of the region and in the globalization process.

Following a national baseline survey, sectoral studies and desk research on ICT international and regional trends, a draft Action Plan based on the following 7 pillars was prepared for validation:

• Infrastructure development
• Enabling regulatory environment
• Human resource development
• E-governance
• E-applications
• Content development
• Investment promotion and Private sector development

The following participatory and consultative methodology was used through 4 different phases to develop the draft framework document and the draft NICI plan. All the stakeholders (government, civil society, private sector, NICI Committee) took part, during discussions, meetings and focus groups, in the NICI development process.

Phase 2: Setting up of the National NICI Plan Committee for follow up and monitoring. This would ensure better coordination and accountability in the entire process to which all stakeholders are represented. The Committee is also used to validate all the draft documents before they are made public or adopted by Government officials.

Phase 3: Undertaking sectoral studies on the state of ICTs in the country in relation to growth perspectives and carrying out an analysis of using ICTs in the Comoros macroeconomic context in relation to the DRSP.

Phase 4: Validation of the draft NICI Plan through several stages including:

• Consultations with the NICI Committee, extended to other experts to validate the major NICI pillars
• Comments by development partners and high level technical officials to ensure the plan would be implementable
• Review by a team of national sectoral experts to ensure incorporation of the needs of the PRSP
• Review of the comments by the NICI Committee together with national consultants to produce an improved version of the Draft NICI Plan

Phase 5: Adoption of the NICI Policy and Plan by the Government

Following the consultation workshop, the NICI plan was finalized in June 2004. The Council of Ministers adopted the document - LETTRE DE POLITIQUE DE DEVELOPPEMENT DE DES NOUVELLES TECHNOLOGIES DE L’INFORMATION ET DE LA COMMUNICATION (NTIC) 2004-2008 - on August 26, 2004.

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