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.
This was the message imparted by the speakers at the African
Association of Universities (AAU) Conference on African Research
and Education Networking that took place in Tunis during WSIS
2005. The speakers included Mr. Steve Song, Manager of IDRC's
Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D)
programmes in Africa, Professor Akilagpa Sawyer, Secretary General
(SG) of AAU, and Professor Venancio Massingue, Minister of Science
and Technology, Mozambique. On the sidelines of the Tunis Phase
of the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS), the
AAU, with support of its partners, brought together over one
hundred key African and international leaders of education and
research networking with an interest in promoting the development
of national research and education networks in Africa, and to
examine critical bandwidth constraints to African education
and research networking at four levels: campus, national, regional,
and continental.
From
formulation to implementation: Role of ePol-Net Africa in e-strategies
The
ePol-Net event, organized by ECA, CePRC and Industry Canada
took place on 16 November 2005 in Tunis. The workshop, on the
theme, “Assisting the implementation of national e-strategies
through the formulation of sectoral and regional e-strategies
in Africa” was, chaired by Mr. Makane Faye, ECA Senior
Regional Advisor. Ms. Wendy Ace, Director of the Canadian e-Policy
Resource Centre (CePRC) represented ePol-NET partners. Over
100 participants from countries and institutions where ePol-NET
assisted activities are being undertaken, NICI focal points,
RECs and other interested WSIS participants, were in attendance.
The presentations focused on the process of developing strategies
and their strategic importance. Participants highlighted the
need for integrating activities at the regional level with those
at the country level, and the need for ePol-NET to start looking
beyond policy towards the implementation of e-strategies. In
addition, ECA and CePRC held various bilateral discussions on
potential activities.
ICTs a matter of necessity, says President
Kagame
Rwandan
President Paul Kagame has stressed that improved access to ICTs
is critical to Africa's quest to meet the MDGs. He made the
comments during a panel session on building regional partnerships,
organized by ECA on the sidelines of the World Summit for the
Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis. The session, which included
Executive Secretaries from Regional Commissions in Latin America
and Asia, was aimed at sharing experiences and devising new
ideas for developing the information society. It also focused
on implementation of the African Regional Action Plan on the
Knowledge Economy (ARAPKE), which was adopted by the African
ICT Ministers in September 2005, as part of the WSIS process.
“Access to ICTs is a prerequisite for realizing the MDGs,”
said Kagame, who chaired the session. “It’s not
a matter of choice, but a matter of necessity.”
ECA
Executive Secretary calls for support for African Regional Action
Plan
In his address to the WSIS Plenary, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, Executive
Secretary of the ECA called for support to the implementation
of the African Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy
(ARAKPE) as Africa's ICT road map. He also highlighted ECA's
role in supporting its member States and stakeholders in developing
the appropriate policy environment whereby countries can optimize
the benefits of the Information Society, Regional Economic Communities
to harmonize ICT policies at the sub-regional levels in order
to facilitate regional economic integration goals, and various
Civil Society groups to enable a much more inclusive, development
oriented approach to the creation of a shared 21st century knowledge
society in Africa. Regarding the African preparations to the
WSIS, he stated that ECA, with support from the African Union
and the African Ministerial Committee on ICT, had assisted its
constituents by organizing regional conferences, facilitating
meetings of experts and managing electronic discussion lists
(among other activities), to ensure Africa's engaged participation.
SDC/IDRC/Microsoft
to strengthen global telecentre movement
This multi-million dollar collaborative initiative will strengthen
the capacity of tens of thousands of community-based telecentres
around the world. "Telecentres provide communities with
the opportunity to participate in the knowledge economy on their
terms," says Maureen O’Neil, IDRC’s president.
"There are examples of telecentres helping people to overcome
isolation and poverty, access medical and government services,
and create new economic opportunities. All telecentres want
to have this kind of community impact. telecentre.org will give
people working in local telecentres the tools they need to make
this happen." Based at IDRC's offices in Ottawa, the telecentre.org
programme will invest in grassroots telecentre networks. "Networks
are the key to strengthening telecentres," says Pamela
Passman, Vice President of Microsoft Global Corporate Affairs.
"Working together through networks, people in local telecentres
will be able to learn new skills, develop new social enterprise
models, and create innovative, knowledge-driven services for
their communities. With the help of telecentre.org, telecentres
will get stronger and better, together." IDRC, Microsoft,
and SDC have stepped forward as founding social investors with
the aim of promoting a widespread collaborative effort that
will strengthen the telecentre movement globally. "Telecentres
and other grassroots technology initiatives can only scale up
through partnership," says Walter Fust, Director General,
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. "We see telecentre.org
as a platform for all types of partners – big and small,
private and public, global and local. The point is that we need
to work together if we want to realize the promise of local,
bottom-up technology."
IICD/ECA
Launch iConnect
On November 15, IICD and ECA launched their joint publication
iConnect Collected at the ICT 4 All Exhibition area. During
2005, as part of an effort to get more southern voices into
the current global discourse on ICTs, iConnect coordinators
in Africa began commissioning regular articles by local journalists
on the impact and use of ICT for development in their countries.
The stories collected in iConnect Collected were written by
journalists in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda and
Zambia. The articles appear regularly on the iConnect Website
and are disseminated in Africa by ECA through iConnect Africa,
and in the i4D magazine. Mr Jac Stienen, Managing Director of
IICD noted the important collaboration between ECA and IICD
in promoting the media to report on Information Society issues,
whilst Ms Aida Opoku-Mensah, Officer-in-Charge, DISD/ECA, remarked
on the remarkable way African journalists had taken up coverage
on ICT4D issues, especially with respect to assessing impacts
on livelihoods. The event was attended by African journalists,
as well as a number of CSO representatives.
A
Roadmap for a Continent
Following the African Regional Action Plan for the Knowledge
Economy (ARAPKE) workshop, a “partnership announcement”
session was held to chart the way forward for the implementation
of ARAPKE. In her welcoming remarks, Ms. Opoku-Mensah, Officer
In Charge of the Development Information Services Division (DISD),
who chaired the session on behalf of the ECA Executive Secretary
highlighted why structured and sustainable partnerships are
necessary for financing the Information Society. Professor Nagia
Essayed, Commissioner, Human Resources, Science and Technology,
African Union (AU) delivered the keynote speech. She stressed
that Africa’s success in the implementation of the Plan
of Action, “is closely tied to the success in the integration
of African economies and States”. Mr. Amadou Top, Vice-Chair
of the Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF), presented the objectives
of DSF and its activities. He recognized that the demand for
building the Information Society in Africa is high and needs
more energy and more partnership for more impact. He reaffirmed
DSF’s interest in collaborating in the implementation
of ARAPKE and suggested the establishment of an Information
Society Observatory for better follow-up, monitoring and fine-tuning
of various ICT4D projects. Stakeholders were given the floor
for their comments, including African Development Bank (ADB),
NEPAD e-Africa Commission, International Institute for Communication
and Development (IICD), Industry Canada. It was also suggested
that ARAPKE focus on sub-regional initiatives for more visibility
of the implementation process.
More
support for the Partnership on measuring ICT for Development
The Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development workshop that
also took place as a WSIS 2005 event discussed core ICT4D indicators
and for socio-economic sectors. The major issues covered were
measuring, indicators, benchmarking, partnership, and sharing
experiences. Participants emphasized the need for continued
support for the activities of the international partnership,
which is between 11 organizations including Eurostat, ITU, OECD,
UNCTAD, ECA, ECLAC, ESCWA, UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS),
UN ICT Task Force and the World Bank, which was founded in June
2005. In the discussions, the Government of France expressed
support with a financial pledge to contribute to the Partnership.
Other donors in the meeting also expressed interest in supporting
and working together with the Partnership. Participants also
emphasized the need to strengthen and involve research institutions
in developing countries, as measuring the impacts of ICTs on
development requires a strong research and analytical capacity.
Institutional and human resources capacity building was another
area identified by participants needing special attention, including
guidelines and methodologies. The panel concluded with the need
to promote partnerships in measuring the Information Society,
identifying key indicators, and sharing knowledge and experiences
and best practices of people from different parts of the world.
AISI/GKP/SDC
Media Awards 2005 for African Journalists
The ceremony was organized by the Global Knowledge Partnership
(GKP) and the Swiss Development Corporation. The AISI media
awards are presented by ECA and it went to Joseph Adri Gnassengbe
of TV Togo joint first prize along with Salif Sanogo, Mali TV.
Joseph produced coverage and analysis of the WSIS Plan of Action,
the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS), NEPAD ICT programmes and the link to WSIS in a video
entitled “Les Initiatives Africaines dans le processus
du SMSI.” Salif also produced a programme on the WSIS
process – “From Geneva to Tunis”, highlighting
Africa's participation during the first phase in Geneva, through
the Bamako Regional Preparatory Conference organized in 2002.
He looks at Africa’s preparation for the second phase
and offers a critical analysis of on how WSIS can help fine-tune
the continent's strategy in building an inclusive Information
Society. The second prize winner print journalist Emmanuel Onyongo
from Tanzania wrote articles, such as “Get to Know about
the WSIS and its processes; Towards WSIS”; “Why
Africa's participation is important”; “Why African
media should be recognized at WSIS”. He focuses on creating
awareness of the WSIS process, and the importance of Africa's
participation and argues that there should be digital solidarity
in which the rich nations help the developing ones gain greater
access to ICTs.
ECA,
Africa and follow-up to WSIS
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) ended with
a strong call to speed up the pace of building a global information
society. The summit, which reaffirmed commitments made during
the first WSIS meeting in Geneva two years ago, took decisions
ensuring internet security and improving financial mechanisms
to support ICT in developing countries. It also examined ways
of bridging the digital divide, improving internet governance
and developing strategies for implementing the Geneva and Tunis
decisions.
AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS
@ WSIS: EXCERPTS OF PLENARY STATEMENTS
"Egypt
sees internet governance as a continuous dialogue. This stems
from our realization that the internet is no longer a mere means
of exchanging information or an e-content depository, but rather
has evolved in the framework of convergence between telecommunications
and media, as a tool for development capable of affecting all
aspects of life. This necessitates the development of the mechanisms
that govern the Internet, the most important of which is greater
international participation to encourage multilingualism on
the net."
H. E. Dr. Tarek
Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology,
Arab Republic of Egypt
"The
African continent is quite aware of the huge potentials ICTs
hold for the attainment of the Millennium Developments Goals
and the PRSPs. It is for this reason that various regional consultations
have been held to advance Africa's capacity to harness and leverage
ICTs to improve the socio-economic conditions of its people.
Therefore, the commitment to use ICT as an entry point into
the information society gave rise to the African Information
Society Initiative (AISI). This commitment is considered not
only with the national development blueprint of the Gambia (Vision
2020) which seeks to develop and use electronic information
for development, but also the spirit embodied in the African
Union and the NEPAD framework for the development of the African
continent."
Hon. Nenneh MacDoual-Gaye,
Secretary of State for Communication, Information & Technology
of The Gambia
"We
are proud of our modest achievements in the implementation of
WSIS Plan of Action. We have integrated ICT into our development
strategies. We have formulated our National ICT and Rural Telecommunications
for Development Policies. Our communication sector is fully
liberalized, duty on computers and computer peripherals has
been removed, in order to attract investors, extend services
to rural areas, and alleviate poverty."
Hon. Patricia
Kaliati, Minister of Information and Tourism, M. P. on behalf
of His Excellency Dr. Bingu Wa Mutharika, President of the
Republic of Malawi
“….
My thanks go to all African states that put their confidence
in my country in the process of preparing for the Tunis Summit.
Mali had continued to hold the Presidency of the Bamako Bureau
that had coordinated with the assistance of Ghana, Senegal and
the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa the work of
the African group of experts involved in the preparation of
the World Summit on the Information Society….”
H.E Mr. Amadou
Toumani Toure, President of the Republic of Mali presented
by His Excellency Mr. Ousmane Issoufi Maiga, Prime Minister,
Head of Government
".... ICANN, on its part, deserves our full support for
the continuation of the good work done so far on the technical
implementation of the ccTLD administration. Mauritius is fully
supportive of the Dakar resolution regarding the African position
on Internet Governance, which amongst others, recommends the
active participation of specialized African institutions in
the technical Internet Governance bodies. ...."
H.E Etienne Sinatambou,
Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunications
of Mauritius
"....
It is because of such vision that we started to be engaged,
since 2002, with the assistance of the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa, in the process of elaborating a national
strategy for the development of ICTs, that goes along with our
poverty reduction strategy, on one part, and with the objectives
of the Millennium on the other part. The process was finalized
in January 2004 by adopting the ICT development plan. ...."
H.E Hama Amadou,
Prime Minister, Head of Government of The Republic of Niger,
delivered by the Minister of Culturem Arts and Communication
Mr. Oumarou Hadary
"....
At the international, regional and national levels, we must,
however, establish follow-up mechanisms for continuous assessment,
monitoring and evaluation of progress to ensure comprehensive
implementation, by all parties, of obligations arising from
our decisions. On the part of Nigeria, I wish to assure you
all that these decisions will be incorporated into our national
development plans. ...."
H.E Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chairman,
African Union
“….
Our country and continent are determined to do everything possible
to achieve their renewal and development, defeating the twin
scourges of poverty and underdevelopment. In this regard, we
have fully recognised the critical importance of modern ICTs
as a powerful ally we have to mobilise, as reflected both in
our national initiatives and the priority programmes of NEPAD,
the New Partnership for Africa's Development. ….”
HE Mr. Thabo Mbeki,
The President of South Africa
"....
In drafting the policy, the Kingdom of Swaziland has taken into
account the importance of capacity building at all levels of
society. Since Geneva, we have witnessed a number of capacity
building initiatives, which have taken place through the assistance
of our partners. However, a large gap in capacity still remains
between developing countries, like Swaziland, and developed
economies that have spearheaded the information technology revolution.
We therefore, call for a closer cooperation between the developing
and developed countries to bridge the digital divide".
H.E The Prime
Minister A. T. DLAMINI (MP), Swaziland
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