11-13 May 1999, Windhoek, Namibia

Recommendations to Government

1.  We, the delegates, comprising representatives from

• The Namibian public and private sectors, the media, academia and civil society
• As well as international experts from Africa and abroad,
• and intergovernmental and international organizations active in the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for sustainable development in Africa,

Considering

• The increasing impact of technological convergence and globalization on the social, economic and spiritual well being of citizens, and the prosperity of organizations, nations and regions,
• The need and priority of industrialized and developing countries alike to craft and implement strategies to build globally competitive knowledge based societies,
• The historic opportunity which now exist for developing countries to benefit from new and increasingly affordable ICTs to leapfrog in extending access to information and communications facilities for their populations,
• The urgency in taking decisive steps to bridge the increasing social and economic gaps between information rich and information poor countries and sectors of societies,

Noting

• The progressive strides that have been made by the Government of the Republic of Namibia during the past decade to expand and modernize the national communications infrastructure
• Review and adapt the legislative, regulatory and policy framework progressively in order to expand access and open up the market for information and communication services,
• Plan timeously for the implementation of ICT in government to enhance the future effectiveness of public administration and government service delivery throughout the country,

Noting further

• The large disparities in access to opportunities and resources, which still exist between different parts of the population of Namibia,

• The long time required for the diffusion of technology based innovation, and

• The intention of Government to embark on a strategic process to build an equitable, sustainable and globally competitive knowledge based society in Namibia.

Commend

The government for its foresight ad leadership in calling together this workshop to advise on the process and substance of a NICI strategy for Namibia.

Record

The desire of the delegates from all sectors to support this worthy initiative,

Recommend as follows:

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2. Process

1. The purpose of these recommendations are not to provide a blue print for a Namibian NICI strategy but to enable the Namibian government to initiate a process to exploit the benefits of the information society.
2. The purpose of the process should be to build an equitable, sustainable and internationally competitive information society in Namibia in the foreseeable future.
3. The process should be participative and transparent, involving all stakeholders under the leadership of Government and should allow for experimentation and learning to take place. A green paper white paper process could be considered.
4. In view of the ongoing convergence of the telecommunications, media and IT sectors, the process should be inclusive of these sectors. This may require a restructuring of current sectoral, legal, regulatory and policy frameworks and institutions to allow coherent and pro-active strategic management of this fast evolving field.
5. The NICI strategy process should be aligned with the national development planning process to ensure that it will support national priorities.
6. Appropriate policy and strategy formulation, implementation and review mechanisms should be established and adequately resourced. This may include a Cabinet committee, and/or advisory board consisting of leaders from different sectors of society, assisted by an interdepartmental task force and project teams.
7. The process would require continuous awareness raising at all levels of society.
8. The NICI strategy and its component programmes and projects should be communicated on an ongoing basis to the international community in order to forge mutually beneficial partnerships.

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3. The institutional policy legislative and regulatory framework

1. The institutional framework refers to the roles of different stakeholder groups such as government, the private sector, non-governmental and community based organizations, academia, civil society and the international community and the institutions through which they interact and collaborate.
2. The policy, legislative and regulatory framework refers to the web of applicable policies, lows, regulations and executing institutions and mechanisms that collectively provide the framework for action by different participants in this field.
3. The role of government is to provide leadership in establishing and facilitating an enabling and incentifying framework for the actions of other participants. This framework should provide for a strong and independent regulator.
4. Policy should be directed at the effective utilization of NICI to address inter alia the following priorities:

• The development of the local market for ICT services and products;
• The development and protection of the local ICT industry; economic growth through value addition;
• The eradication over time of existing disparities in access to information and opportunities between different sectors of society, notably rural communities;
• Human resource capacity building

5. Policy should reflect the impact of technology and globalization on

• The protection of intellectual property rights and the licensing of information products and services;
• The right of free accesses to information
• The affordability and availability of information generated by the public sector;
• Issues connected with the transferred flow of information.

6. The institutional, policy, legislative and regulatory framework, and the associated institutions and mechanisms should be reviewed and adopted on an ongoing basis in view of technological convergence and other factors. This is to ensure effective decision making and action in the crucial first decade of the 21^st century.

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4. Technological infrastructure

1. Namibia has a relatively well developed telecommunications infrastructure. Plans are in place for the expansion of infrastructure. However, even under accelerated development of the infrastructure, universal service will not be attainable in the short run. Innovative strategies to extend access will have to be introduced. Namibia should consider a multi-level concept of universal access, defining access needs at individual, community and institutional (schools, hospitals etc.) level.
2. Government should foster the spread and use of information infrastructure through the introduction of appropriate incentives e.g. tax-reforms, soft loans, etc.
3. One way of extending services to rural communities which is increasingly used worldwide is the introduction of t’telecentres’ or multi-purpose community information centres providing access to telephone, fax, internet and information services. These telecentres should be adopted to the local context and could be developed and should be adopted to the local context and could be developed and linked to existing infrastructures such as schools, post-offices and community centres.
4. To foster the development of the sector, new forms of public/private partnerships and relationships have to be established. Telecommunications reforms establishing commercialization(sometimes through some form of privatization) under independent regulation is online way of organizing the sector. Unfettered. Competition in the small market of Namibia may not be sustainable in the long run. Regulation should be armed at ensuring sustainable performance of the sector.
5. Lack of capacity in managerial and technological areas, could apart from investment in HRD, be addressed by fostering strategic partnerships with regional and international institutions in the private as well as public sector. In the long run transfer of knowledge and capacity has to be assured.
6. In the area of infrastructure development Namibia may be confronted with a lack of economies of scale. Regional cooperation in testing, monitoring, standardization, procurement. Adaptation and even in development of technology could strengthen technological capacity in the Southern African region and be of considerable profit for Namibia.

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5. Information resources (content and applications)

1. In this area the major issue is, on the one hand t ensure affordable and easy access to global information and on the other hand to assure the generation, utilization and commercialization, where applicable, of local information and knowledge resources.
2. Government at all levels, as probably the largest generator and processor of local information, should take the necessary steps to ensure the accessibility and dissemination of government information, which affect the daily lives of citizens. Internet and Worldwide Web technologies as well as depositories of government documents in geographically distributed centers could be considered.
3. Sectoral applications such as tele-education, electronic government service delivery, electronic commerce in support of SMMES and industry, tele-health, etc should be prioritized according to national objectives and introduced as pilot projects. Such projects should be monitored, assessed and reviewed on the basis of experience to ensure sustainability and cost effective replicability.

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6. Human resource capacity Building

1. Whereas technological infrastructure has traditionally been regarded as the most critical component of the NICI, leaders and experts worldwide increasingly recognize human resource capacity development as potentially the most crucial constraint in the effective deployment as potentially the most crucial constraint in the effective deployment of NICI to build sustainable information societies.
2. Therefore Namibian government should draw up a national education and training program in the ICT area on two levels: firstly on the level of Research & Development, to be able to build up knowledge on how to create and implement effective local infrastructures and technologies and relevant local content, secondly on the level of education and training to empower Namibian citizens to make effective use of these ICTSs.

• Regarding the first level, government should consider building up "a network of excellence" , to mobilize national, regional and international research, development and educational resources cost effectively in support of capacity development in Namibia. These networks of excellence should use telematics to train ICT trainers and execute collaborative R+D programmes as well as monitoring, assess and evaluate projects.
• At the second level capacity development should be focused, the training and information needs of different influential groups Eg. Women, the youth, community leaders especially rural communities, professional and technical workers in the ICT industry, professional workers in information intensive sectors, and policy makers.

3. Plans should be put in place to counter act the brain drain in the ICT sector which effect most developing countries and to expand the skills pool by mobilizing the support of international organizations and experts.

7. Specific recommendations

1. Government should take the lead in devising and implementing a strategy to address the year 2000 issue in a coherent way in conjunction with all stakeholders.
2. In order to provide the supporting infrastructure for human resource capacity building (see par.6) it should be considered to establish an "Information and Communication Infrastructure Resource Network" in partnership with interested international organizations. This resource network, based in Namibia at an appropriate institution should use appropriate technologies to establish close links with relevant regional and international resources. The resource network would supply research, development, training, and pilot implementation capacity in support of the NICI. The model used by Egypt could provide guidelines for a suitable approach.

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