:: AISI Briefing Papers

The AISI briefing papers focus on issues related to promoting ICTs for development and aim at sensitizing African policy makers about ICT trends and developments in the continent.

The first issue of the AISI briefing papers series was made possible with funding from the Africa Region of the World Bank.

(Note: The documents are in PDF) To view PDF files, download the Adobe Adobe Acrobat Reader.

AISI Briefing Paper, No. 1, January 2003. Towards an Information Society in Africa: The Case for National Policies

Document d’Information de l’AISI, No. 1 janvier 2003. Vers une société de l’information en Afrique: la question des politiques nationales

AISI Briefing Paper, No. 2, October 2004. Government with an e - The potential of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in the African Public Sector

AISI Policy Briefs (Nov 2005)

• The Information Society and the role of Academia
• Building an Information Society - the case of Rwanda
• Democratizing Access - Initiatives in Ethiopia
• e-Commerce challenges in Africa: issues, constraints, opportunities
• e-Government - the case of The Gambia
• The case for e-Strategies in Africa
• Libraries and the Information Society in Africa
• e-Strategies for Poverty Reduction and the Millennium Development Goals
• Measuring the Information Society for Development: SCAN ICT
• Using Geoinformation for Policy Formulation
  

AISI Policy Briefs (Dec 2008)

In today's global, information-driven society, economic success is increasingly based on the effective utilization of intangible assets such as knowledge, skills and innovative potential as key resources for competitive advantage. Knowledge has become the key driver of economic competitiveness and success and has added massive value to economic production through increases in productivity. The rise in knowledge intensity continues to be spurred by the twin forces of the information technology revolution that brings with it worldwide interdependency and connectivity and the increasing pace of technological change. The application of new technologies and new ideas, both in the form of new inventions and innovative applications of existing knowledge, has heralded revolutionary change to virtually all markets and sectors. Technology and knowledge are now the key factors of production and new knowledge increases the efficient use of resources that are in finite supply. The knowledge revolution manifests itself in many different ways, which include, closer links between science and technology, innovation and competitiveness, education and life-long learning and increased investments in intangibles such as research and development (R&D), software etc. Policy briefs will analyse the KE in Africa based on these pillars.

The following thematic policy briefs have been finalized:

• Mobile-Commerce development in Africa: the case of Kenya, Senegal, South Africa
• A policy framework for Cyber security: the case of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique

For a copy of the policy briefs, please contact:

Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah
Director, ICTs, Science and Technology Division (ISTD)
UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
P. O. Box 3001, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Email: aopoku-mensah@uneca.org