PICTA Bulletin is a monthly
publication that provides information on activities of members in the Partnership for ICTs
in Africa (PICTA), as well as news on ICT-related activities in Africa.
WSIS Africa Regional Preparatory Conference - Accra2005
“ Access: Africa’s key to an inclusive Information Society”
28 January – 4 February 2005, Accra, Ghana
The
Africa Regional preparatory conference for the World Summit on
the Information Society (WSIS) was held from 2 to 4 February 2005
in Accra, Ghana under the theme of "Access: Africa's key to an
inclusive information society." The three-day conference, officially
opened by His Excellency John Kufuor, President of the Republic
of Ghana was attended by over 1000 delegates from African countries,
stakeholders from governments, civil society, private sector,
media and academia as well as representatives of the international
community, to prepare an African agenda for the second phase of
the Summit (WSIS II) scheduled in November 2005 in Tunis. Among
the high-level delegates were His Excellency Paul Kagame, President
of the Republic of Rwanda, His Excellency Mohammed Ghounnushi,
Prime Minister of Tunisia, and His Excellency Mr. Yoshio Utsumi,
Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union
(ITU).
The pre-Conference workshops
Prior to the main conference over 14 workshops were held from 28 January to 1 February focusing on various issues including e-strategies, multi-stakeholder partnerships, poverty reduction, Information Society indicators, Internet Governance, and financing mechanisms to formulate recommendations that will constitute Africa’s contributions to WSIS II. The pre-conference workshops provided in-depth discussions that were further fed into the main conference sessions.
The Accra Commitments
The conference resulted in a document entitled “Accra Commitments for WSIS Tunis 2005” reflecting Africa’s position with regard to the key issues of the WSIS process. The document outlines the key principles, development orientations, resource mobilization including human resources, international cooperation, and operational aspects including the way to Tunis 2005, general implementation strategies, financing mechanisms, internet governance, partnership and the way ahead: beyond Tunis 2005. For details of the Commitment document, speeches, and presentations made:
http://www.uneca.org/eca_programmes/it_for_development/events/accra/index.htm
Statements by high-level delegates
Executive Seceratary, ECA
Speaking at the Conference, the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr K.Y. Amoako has bemoaned the outdated telecommunications infrastructure on the continent, which hampered the development of ICTs. “Infrastructure development continues to be the Achilles heels of Africa’s information society,” he said. He called for speeding up the pace of national legal and regulatory environments to bring about the effective introduction of ICTs in various fields. “The other unresolved issue is financing mechanisms for the information society,” he added, urging a bold and innovative approach in this regard: “Africa needs to show that it is ready to carry more of its own load in this area.” Stressing on the importance of partnership, Mr. Amoako said, “We must distinguish between projects and initiatives that will be supported by our development partners, those by governments, as well as the private sector. There will also be a role for public-private partnerships."
The President of Rwanda African
leaders present at the conference elaborated on the situation
in their countries. Rwanda’s Paul Kagame said the second phase
of his country’s ECA-sponsored National Information and Communication
Infrastructure (NICI) plan was aimed at “increasing access and
contributing to a genuine information society as action plans
alone will not deliver the desired results”. Touching on Rwanda’s
efforts to move on from the traumatic impact of the 1994 genocide,
he said ICT applications were now being used by the government
to enhance unity and reconciliation and strengthen the participatory
justice system known as “Gacaca”. “As things are now, African
countries are not adequately reaping the benefits which accrue
from being neighbours,” he pointed out. “Only regional integration
will contribute to the development of the Global Information Society,
as it will yield economies of scale, generate demand and capital,
while at the same time strengthening bilateral ties.”
The President of Ghana For
his part, Ghanaian President J.A Kufuor underlined the strides
made in his country through a strong ICT policy and plan. Stressing
the importance of ICT access and infrastructure, he said, “It
is surely time to resolve to harmonize telecom infrastructure
usage under a common regulatory environment in all the sub regions
of Africa under the NEPAD arrangements. It is also time to come
out with an African ICT infrastructure backbone plan that will
run across the whole continent and beyond.” President Kufuor stressed
the need to take timely action. He said, “We need to take some
brave decisions. We do not have a lot of time. Future generations
will not forgive us if we should lack the will to take these decisions.
This is a call to partnership in line with the letter and spirit
of NEPAD. Africa should not and need not be a scar on the conscience
of the world. It is time for us to take our place as proud members
of the world community.“ He further pointed out that “…we would
not be left behind and that by the 2015 deadline, we will be in
the mainstream of the ICT revolution, not just in the consumption
of the products of ICT but also in providing the wherewithal to
produce some of them.”
The Prime Minister of Tunisia Tunisian
Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi highlighted the preparations
currently underway for the second phase of the WSIS summit to
be held in November 2005 in Tunis. He said, “the second phase
will be conducive to the adoption of practical solutions in order
to optimize the potential that information technologies offer
and to bridge the growing digital divide between North and South.
Mr Ghannouchi also reiterated Tunisia's call to all parties including:
governments, international and regional organizations composing
the civil society, as well as the private sector to take part
in the Tunis Summit on November 16-18, 2005, adding that the Summit
will no doubt contribute to provide to all the African countries
with progress and prosperity within a solidarity, peaceful, stable
and secure environment.
Secretary-General, ITU Speaking
at the Conference, Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) stressed that Africa
played an active role during the first phase of WSIS. He said,
“The political leadership and commitment signified by Africa and
other nations in the Geneva phase, have been documented and proclaimed
to the world. The Geneva Phase laid a foundation by defining an
inclusive, long-term vision and an approach to develop a more
equitable and safe Information Society. Now is the time to start
building on this foundation, by transforming our shared vision
into reality. We are now here to move words into actions. He also
made reference to the recent Tsunami disaster saying, “we had
plenty of time to warn them that the Tsunami was expected to come
and we could have saved their lives if we had had an effective
communication system and the will to utilise it. Disaster prevention
by monitoring systems is one of the items in the WSIS Plan of
Action; we now realize how crucial information and communication
technologies are in our activities. We must really realise what
we agreed in Geneva.”
In addition, representatives from a number of partners including the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), Industry Canada, UNESCO, and Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF) made remarks at the opening session of the Conference.
The full text of the speeches and remarks made by high-level delegates and representatives of partners are available at:
http://www.uneca.org/eca_programmes/it_for_development/events/accra/index.htm
Resolutions from stakeholders
The
deliberations of the stakeholders from civil society, private
sector, youth, women, academia, and parliamentarians resulted
in concrete resolutions reflecting their respective perspectives
towards Information Society issues.
The adoption of African languages, as working languages in the public domain, is a requirement to the development of the continent and to the preservation of the cultural and linguistic diversity in the Information Society.
A collective action of all African stakeholders is mandatory for the integration of gender perspective in the information and knowledge society in general and ICTs in particular.
Africa’s youth will play a key role in bridging the digital divide in establishing an Information Society that focuses on people in development over profit and technology.
The African continent with its high illiteracy rate and vulnerable populations should develop specialized centers and relevant materials to overcome these major handicaps.
Civil society and the private sector have a key role to play in the development process in general, and especially in building the Information Society.
Scientific and Technological Research should focus on the concomitant development of society and efficient use of technology.
Media is catalyst of social changes and can, through multi-channel partnership, foster the implementation of WSIS Plan of Action.
Considering the important role Parliamentarians play in the Information Society development, there is a need to establish an African ICT4D Parliamentarians network to ensure their active participation in the processes of building an inclusive information society at national and regional levels, and the WSIS process towards Tunis and beyond.
Conference Newspaper
In collaboration with ECA and Highway Africa News Agency (HANA), a daily Conference newspaper was produced, known as “WSIS Africa Agenda” - with updates on the proceedings of the pre-conference events and the main conference. For more on this:
http://newsagency.blogspot.com
Conference Site Radio Station
ECA, in collaboration with AMARC Africa, had an onsite radio station broadcasting in English and French. To listen to the programmes online:
http://simbani.amarc.org/
Partners @ WSIS Accra2005
A
number of partners collaborated with ECA and the Government of
Ghana in organizing this important regional event. Financial support
came from the governments of France and Finland, the Ford Foundation,
Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), Industry Canada, International
Development Research Center (IDRC), Organisation internationale
de la francophonie (OIF), Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC),
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO), the United Nations ICT Task Force, and the United Nations
Secretariat of the Working Group on Internet Governance who sponsored
over 300 participants to the Conference. The African Union has
also provided support to the local Secretariat for organization
of the Conference.
Examples of joint collaboration include:
- Multistakeholder Partnership Forum (GKP/ECA/UNESCO),
- African languages and open source software workshop (ECA/OIF/AAL),
- ICTs and poverty reduction workshop (OECD / ECA),
- e-Strategies workshop (ECA/CePRC-Industry Canada),
- Internet Governance workshop (UN-ICT TF/CePRC-Industry Canada/OIF/ECA),
- Information Society and regulation: access and infrastructure workshop (ATU/ ECA/CTO),
- Enterprise Africa-UNDP/ECA Private Sector Forum,
- Evaluation of the implementation of the Geneva Action Plan and information society indicators workshop (ECA/IDRC/CA/Finland),
- ECA/SDC/UNESCO Media Forum,
- ECA/eNotus workshop on investing in Africa’s Information Society: the view of business,
- ECA/GKP/CePRC-Industry Canada joint exhibition stand.
Other agencies in attendance include African Development Bank (ADB), African Union (AU), AfriNIC, Association for Progressive Communication (APC), European Commission, ICANN, International Institute for Development and Communication (IICD), International Telecommunications Union (ITU), NEPAD Secretariat, Open Society Initiative for Western Africa (OSIWA), OECD, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), UK Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Bank – Africa Bureau.
PICTA Bulletin is a monthly information sharing service designed to keep members informed of each other’s activities in the area of ICTs in Africa.
Please send relevant information, stories or exchanges you may want to share with other members to
atemtime@uneca.org for inclusion in subsequent issues of the PICTA Bulletin. If you have any comments and/or suggestions, please contact:
Aida Opoku-Mensah
Officer-in-Charge
Development Information Services Division
Economic Commission for Africa
P. O. Box 3001, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Phone: 251-1-511167
Fax: 251-1-510512
E-mail: aopoku-mensah@uneca.org
Archives:
(Note:
All documents are in PDF) To view PDF files, download the Adobe Adobe Acrobat
Reader.
The
Africa Regional preparatory conference for the World Summit on
the Information Society (WSIS) was held from 2 to 4 February 2005
in Accra, Ghana under the theme of "Access: Africa's key to an
inclusive information society." The three-day conference, officially
opened by His Excellency John Kufuor, President of the Republic
of Ghana was attended by over 1000 delegates from African countries,
stakeholders from governments, civil society, private sector,
media and academia as well as representatives of the international
community, to prepare an African agenda for the second phase of
the Summit (WSIS II) scheduled in November 2005 in Tunis. Among
the high-level delegates were His Excellency Paul Kagame, President
of the Republic of Rwanda, His Excellency Mohammed Ghounnushi,
Prime Minister of Tunisia, and His Excellency Mr. Yoshio Utsumi,
Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union
(ITU). 
African
leaders present at the conference elaborated on the situation
in their countries. Rwanda’s Paul Kagame said the second phase
of his country’s ECA-sponsored National Information and Communication
Infrastructure (NICI) plan was aimed at “increasing access and
contributing to a genuine information society as action plans
alone will not deliver the desired results”. Touching on Rwanda’s
efforts to move on from the traumatic impact of the 1994 genocide,
he said ICT applications were now being used by the government
to enhance unity and reconciliation and strengthen the participatory
justice system known as “Gacaca”. “As things are now, African
countries are not adequately reaping the benefits which accrue
from being neighbours,” he pointed out. “Only regional integration
will contribute to the development of the Global Information Society,
as it will yield economies of scale, generate demand and capital,
while at the same time strengthening bilateral ties.”
For
his part, Ghanaian President J.A Kufuor underlined the strides
made in his country through a strong ICT policy and plan. Stressing
the importance of ICT access and infrastructure, he said, “It
is surely time to resolve to harmonize telecom infrastructure
usage under a common regulatory environment in all the sub regions
of Africa under the NEPAD arrangements. It is also time to come
out with an African ICT infrastructure backbone plan that will
run across the whole continent and beyond.” President Kufuor stressed
the need to take timely action. He said, “We need to take some
brave decisions. We do not have a lot of time. Future generations
will not forgive us if we should lack the will to take these decisions.
This is a call to partnership in line with the letter and spirit
of NEPAD. Africa should not and need not be a scar on the conscience
of the world. It is time for us to take our place as proud members
of the world community.“ He further pointed out that “…we would
not be left behind and that by the 2015 deadline, we will be in
the mainstream of the ICT revolution, not just in the consumption
of the products of ICT but also in providing the wherewithal to
produce some of them.” 
Tunisian
Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi highlighted the preparations
currently underway for the second phase of the WSIS summit to
be held in November 2005 in Tunis. He said, “the second phase
will be conducive to the adoption of practical solutions in order
to optimize the potential that information technologies offer
and to bridge the growing digital divide between North and South.
Mr Ghannouchi also reiterated Tunisia's call to all parties including:
governments, international and regional organizations composing
the civil society, as well as the private sector to take part
in the Tunis Summit on November 16-18, 2005, adding that the Summit
will no doubt contribute to provide to all the African countries
with progress and prosperity within a solidarity, peaceful, stable
and secure environment. 
Speaking
at the Conference, Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) stressed that Africa
played an active role during the first phase of WSIS. He said,
“The political leadership and commitment signified by Africa and
other nations in the Geneva phase, have been documented and proclaimed
to the world. The Geneva Phase laid a foundation by defining an
inclusive, long-term vision and an approach to develop a more
equitable and safe Information Society. Now is the time to start
building on this foundation, by transforming our shared vision
into reality. We are now here to move words into actions. He also
made reference to the recent Tsunami disaster saying, “we had
plenty of time to warn them that the Tsunami was expected to come
and we could have saved their lives if we had had an effective
communication system and the will to utilise it. Disaster prevention
by monitoring systems is one of the items in the WSIS Plan of
Action; we now realize how crucial information and communication
technologies are in our activities. We must really realise what
we agreed in Geneva.” 
The
deliberations of the stakeholders from civil society, private
sector, youth, women, academia, and parliamentarians resulted
in concrete resolutions reflecting their respective perspectives
towards Information Society issues. 
A
number of partners collaborated with ECA and the Government of
Ghana in organizing this important regional event. Financial support
came from the governments of France and Finland, the Ford Foundation,
Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), Industry Canada, International
Development Research Center (IDRC), Organisation internationale
de la francophonie (OIF), Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC),
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO), the United Nations ICT Task Force, and the United Nations
Secretariat of the Working Group on Internet Governance who sponsored
over 300 participants to the Conference. The African Union has
also provided support to the local Secretariat for organization
of the Conference.
