ECA's Support to Regional Information and Communication Policies and Plans

The first sub-regional workshop on National Information and Communications Infrastructure (NICI) Development for Southern Africa was held from 12-14 April 2000 in Windhoek, Namibia. Representatives from Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe attended the workshop.

Sub-regional collaboration was an area of focus and the following were covered under it:

• The value-added for harmonization (e.g. procurement, tariff, traffic, regional backbones) through sub-regional cooperation

• Value added to global negotiation by working as a sub-region

• The implication of sub-regional cooperation for research and analysis

• Benefits of sub-regional cooperation for resource mobilization

• Strategies for COMESA and SADC in the area of information and communication infrastructure development

International cooperation is said to be part of an element of a broad-based information society policy. Accordingly, the information policy should state a nation’s aspirations with regard to regional cooperation and the benefits to be gained by participation in regional alliances. Similarly, objectives for participation in international regulatory environment and active involvement in global ICT governance should be clearly stated.

Areas of sub-regional cooperation:

• Harmonizing and developing common procurement policies in the telecommunication sector

• Development of regional backbones

• Regional efforts on the reduction of tariffs

• Approaching global negotiations as a sub-regional block instead of acting at the country level

• Research and analysis on policy and information and communication technology status

• Establishing or strengthening African Centers of Excellence and other institutions that advance skills in information and communication technologies

• Joint resource mobilization

The sub-regional Workshop on National Information and Communications Infrastructure (NICI) Development for Eastern Africa was held from 19 – 21 June 2000 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Representatives from Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Madagascar, Djibouti and Seychelles attended the workshop.

The meeting stressed the need for an enabling policy environment so as to be able to accelerate African development through information and communication technologies.

The ECA takes sub-regional and regional integration as one of the building blocks for NICI.

The CEMAC workshop on ICTs for Regional Integration was held from 11 – 13 September 2002 in Yaounde, Cameroon. Representatives from Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African republic and Chad attended the workshop. The main theme of the workshop was ICTs for regional integration.

Other issues discussed include:

• The role of ICTs for African economic and social development in general and the CEMAC states in particular

• Liberalization and harmonization of regulatory policies

• Human resources development

• Relation with New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD)

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