AISI - Home

What is AISI?

The African Information Society Initiative (AISI) is an action framework that has been the basis for information and communication activities in Africa since 1996. AISI is not about technology. It is about giving Africans the means to improve the quality of their lives and fight against poverty.

Resolution 812 (XXXI): Implementation of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI)
Adopted by the 22nd meeting of the ECA Conference of Ministers, May 1996, Resolution 812 (XXXI) States:

The Conference of Ministers, Recalling resolution 795 (XXX) on building Africa’s information highway which requested the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa to constitute a high level working group to develop an action plan on information and communication technologies to accelerate socioeconomic development in African countries; ...

Vision

The African Information Society Initiative aims at supporting and accelerating socio-economic development across the region. Driven by critical development imperatives, it focuses on priority strategies, programmes and projects which can assist in the sustainable build-up of an information society in African countries. This is in accordance with the regional integration goals of the Treaty establishing the African Economic Community, which foresaw the necessity of information networks and of regional databases, information sources and skills capacities.

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Celebration of the African Information and Communication Technology Week (AICTW)

The African Union Conmission announced that the African ICT week (AICTW) will take place from 16th to 22nd of November 2009, which will mark the commemorattion of Africa's involvement in the Information Society. This African ICT week answers the desire and the commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive, and development-oriented information society and inline with the outcome of WSIS, the decisions of the AU CIT Ministerial Conference and relevant AU Summit decisions.

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The Oliver Tambo Declaration - AU Conference of African Ministers in Charge of ICTs

The Oliver Tambo Declaration was adopted by the Extra-Ordinary Meeting of the Conference of African Ministers in charge of Information and Communication Technologies on 5 November 2009 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Pursuant to the Assembly of the Heads of State and governments decision (Assembly/AU/Dec. 232(XII)), the main objective of the meeting was to prepare the 2010 African Union January 2010 Summit on the theme “Information and Communications Technologies in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Development”.

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Launch of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) “Information Economy Report 2009”
22 October 2009

unctad-ier09 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The UNCTAD Information Economy Report (IER) 2009 was launched today, the 22nd of October at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa. The report was launched in collaboration with the ECA’s ICT, Science and Technology Division (ISTD) at a function attended by the Africa Union Commission (AUC) Human Resources, Science and Technology Division, international media personnel, media institutions in Addis Ababa, statisticians from the Ethiopian National Statistics Office (NSO), academics from the University of Addis Ababa, representatives of IT institutions, representatives from UN Agencies in Ethiopia (WHO and UNDP) and ECA staff. The report takes stock of recent trends with regard to extending connectivity worldwide, monitors developments in enhancing the use of ICTs among enterprises and analyses how international trade in ICT goods and in IT and ICT-enabled services is evolving..

"The e-SADC initiative launch meeting” opens in Gaborone, Botswana, 05-06 October 2009
05 October 2009

Opening eSADC is a joint United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) initiative. Twenty-five participants drawn from NICI National Focal Points from eight SADC member States, Southern African Postal Operators’ Association (SAPOA), Southern Africa Telecommunications Association (SATA), Communications Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (CRASA), NEPAD e-Africa Commission, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and e-SADC consultants are attending a two-day technical meeting to launch the e-SADC initiative - a framework for the implementation of the Information Society in the sub-region at the Grand Palm Hotel in Gaborone, Botswana. The member States in attendance are Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia..

ECA and its partners building ICT measurement capacity in Africa
13 July 2009

ECA and its partners building ICT measurement capacity in AfricaAddis Ababa, Ethiopia - A two-week training course on “Measuring ICT Use and Access in Households and Business” opened in Addis Ababa today to build the capacity of African National Statistical Offices (NSOs) in measuring ICTs. The main objective of the training is to strengthen the capacities of the NSOs in the African region to produce national statistics on the access and use of ICT in households and by individuals, as well as on ICT use in business and the ICT sector. The ICT statistics and indicators will allow Governments to elaborate and evaluate their ICT policies for development and to take measures to bridge the digital divide within and between countries.

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