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.
The Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) launched its inaugural
issue of the GKP e-Bulletin. Through this e-Bulletin, GKP Secretariat
aims to share within the network updates on collaborative efforts
and that of GKPS in strengthening GKP's position as the leading
international multi-stakeholder network advocating Knowledge
and ICT for Development. Commencing as a monthly service, the
e-Bulletins will be complemented by regular alerts and announcements.
Ongoing GKPS global communication and marketing activities will
draw on e-Bulletin inputs. More: http://www.globalknowledge.org
Contact: Justine Chew (cmu@gkps.org.my).
ICT
Policy and Regulation workshop concludes in Dakar
As a follow up to the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS), ECA, the Canadian e-Policy Resource Centre (CEPRC),
the e-Policy Resource Network (ePol-NET), NetTel@Africa network
and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)
in collaboration with the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications
and New Technologies of Sénégal, convened from
16-19 October 2006 in Dakar a workshop under the theme "Development
and implementation of ICT policies in Africa: Strengthening
the capacity of stakeholders". The workshop, which was
mainly targeted at French-speaking African countries, was the
second of a series of four seminars being held in various sub-regions
of Africa. Over fifty participants from seventeen countries,
including representatives of Governments, regulatory institutions
and agencies in charge of implementation of national ICT policies,
operators and service providers, private sector, civil society,
and research institutions. The workshop concluded with recommendations
on the need to put in place favourable regulatory mechanisms
in African countries to enable access for all to an inclusive
Information Society, strengthening of existing cooperation networks,
capacity building of regulators and policymakers, and ensuring
inclusion of women. More: Makane Faye (mfaye@uneca.org).
ICT
4ALL Forum, Tunis+1: ICT Investment in Africa
The Forum, convened from 26 - 27 October 2006 in Hammamet, Tunisia
on the theme “ICT 4ALL, Tunis+1: ICT investment in Africa”,
was organised as a follow-up of the Geneva Plan of Action, the
recommendations and decisions of the Second phase of WSIS, which
were included in the “Tunis Commitments” and the
“Tunis Agenda for Information Society”. It was organised
by the Government of Tunisia through the Ministry of Communication
Technologies, in collaboration with the Tunisian Union for Industry,
Commerce and Handicraft, the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD), and ECA. The Forum brought together
more than 60 participants from ten African countries, including
five Ministers as well as representatives of regional and international
organizations, domestic and international private sector actors
and civil society organizations. It aimed at contributing to
the discussion on policy and strategy to channel domestic and
foreign investment in knowledge economy development in Africa.
As outcomes of the Forum, participants called for more collaboration
between African countries and development partners to share
best practices in the ICT sector for better synergy; improving
the policy, legal and regulatory framework for investment and
growth at national and sub-regional levels; providing incentives
for private investment, guarantees and risk mitigation; improving
public and corporate governance, promoting innovation and entrepreneurship.
To ensure better follow-up, participants suggested the establishment
of a Forum as a periodic knowledge-sharing framework to debate
on ICT for Development on the continent. More: Thierry Amoussougbo
(tamoussougbo@uneca.org).
Stakeholders’
strategic meetings on networking and partnership for building
the Information Society in Uganda
ECA has been assisting the Government of Uganda in the development
of e-Heath policy and e-Government strategy. Stakeholder groups,
which were involved in the two processes, continued to play
a critical role in implementing various ICT4D activities. As
a follow-up, stakeholders’ meetings were organised from
12-13 October 2006 to develop a strategy to build stakeholders’
capacity and create a network to support ICT development in
Uganda. The groups include the ICT4D Media Network in Uganda,
the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), I-NETWORK Uganda, the
ICT Committee in Parliament, the Uganda Communications Commission
(UCC), the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA),
Bellanet Africa, Data Solutions International Limited in Mukono,
and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.
Stakeholders agreed to establish a consultative mechanism to
ensure synergy between their various activities, which need
to be in line with the national policy framework. The Government
and Parliament will work together for the establishment of a
better policy dialogue framework to ensure the effectiveness
of stakeholders’ participation in building the Information
Society in Uganda. More: Thierry Amoussougbo (tamoussougbo@uneca.org).
Africa
participates in the Canadian Government Technology Exhibition
and Conference (GTEC) for the second year
ECA, in collaboration with the Canadian ePolicy Resource Centre
(CePRC) and under the Global ePolicy Resource Network (ePol-NET),
facilitated the participation of over 54 e-Government and ICT
Policy makers from 25 African countries in the Canadian Government
Technology Exhibition and Conference Week (GTEC) 2006. GTEC
Week, which was held from 23 – 27 October 2006 in Ottawa,
Canada. The Canadian GTEC event, launched in 1993, is recognized
as Canada's most significant forum on the use of technology
to improve government services and operations. The Officer-in-Charge
of the ISTD, Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah who represented ECA at GTEC
and Ms Wendy Ace, Executive Director of CePRC, announced the
launch of GTEC Africa to be held in the second quarter of 2007.
The event aims to showcase African successes in the use of IT
to promote e-Government for service delivery to citizens. More:
http://www.uneca.org/disd/news/1030200601dnadisd.asp
First
session of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
The First session of the IGF took place from 29 October –
02 November 2006 in Athens, Greece. Africa was represented by
high officials, including ministers from Egypt, Senegal and
The Gambia and senior experts on Internet policy and technology
issues. The Forum re-emphasised that rules governing appropriate
enabling legal, policy and regulatory frameworks that preserve
openness are the key founding principles of the Internet. Measures
related to cybersecurity, and how collaboration between stakeholders
can improve trust and confidence to combat phishing, viruses
and other forms of cybercrime as well as spam and issues related
to information and network security were put in place. Strategies
to build a multilingual Internet to promote multilingualism
in the cyberspace and development of local content to facilitate
access to populations from developing countries were identified.
ECA will be working in member States as part of the NICI process
to strengthen policies and strategies on cyber-security as part
of IG activities at the national level. The first IGF was attended
by over 1,2000 participants. The 2nd IGF will be held in 2007
in Brazil, the 3rd session will be held in 2008 in India, while
the 4th IGF will be organized by Egypt in 2009. In addition,
ECA organized the meeting of the African Group on 1st November
at 17H00 under the chairmanship of the Egyptian Minister of
Communication, to exchange views on IG issues and discuss the
way forward. More: Makane Faye (mfaye@uneca.org).
OTHER NEWS .....
OTHER NEWS .....
OTHER NEWS .....
Government
of Ghana to adopt e-Governance programmes
The government of Ghana is considering adopting an e-governance
programme as a mechanism to promote lateral and horizontal collaboration
among the Metropolitan/ Municipal/District Assemblies (MMDAs)
to bring information to the citizenry and businesses. This is
to improve efficiency, productivity, speed and comfort in the
provision of services to the general public following government's
ambition to use ICTs as a catalyst for poverty alleviation.
This was disclosed by the Deputy Minister of Local Government,
Rural Development and Environment, Mr. Kofi Poku-Adusei. He
further said that government had recognized that good governance
and decentralization depend on easy access to quality and timely
information, which forms the base of value-added decision-making
at all levels of governance. Government is encouraging the District
Assemblies and their decentralized structures to procure both
off-line and on-line facilities for their staff, he added. More:
http://www.i4donline.net/news/news-details.asp?catid=6&newsid=5953
Libya
to provide laptops to all schoolchildren
The government of Libya reached an agreement with One Laptop
Per Child, a non-profit United States group developing an inexpensive
and educational laptop computer, with the goal of supplying
machines to all 1.2 million Libyan schoolchildren by June 2008.
The project, which is intended to supply computers broadly to
children in developing nations, was conceived in 2005 by a computer
researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nicholas
Negroponte. His goal is to design a wireless-connected laptop
that will cost about $100 after the machines go into mass production
next year. For its $250 million investment, Libya will receive
1.2 million computers, one server per school, a team of technical
advisers to help set up the system, satellite internet service
and other infrastructure. More: http://penplusbytes.blogspot.com/
Rwanda:
Landlocked Country May Soon Become Top ICT Hub in Africa.
(Source: AllAfrica.com)
All
public schools in Rwanda are expected to join the information
super-highway by the end of next year. Already, half of the
primary and secondary schools have embraced the new technology,
which has been given priority by the Government under its 2020
vision programme. Out of 2,300 primary schools, 1,138 have at
least one computer each, with 400 secondary schools fully equipped
and 39 of them having wireless Internet access. The Rwandan
Government has supplied the 400 schools with 4,000 desktop computers
and 4,000 power units (UPS), in addition to training 2,000 teachers
in basic computing. The on-going programme includes tertiary
and university students, and is part of a national IT policy
to make the tiny Great Lakes nation, which is still recovering
from the 1994 genocide, a force to reckon with globally. More:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310255.html
14
– 15 November 2006, IT Africa Congress: Seizing opportunities,
overcoming challenges, welcoming innovation, Johannesburg, South
Africa
Organised by the Marcus Evans Congresses, the event brings together
IT leaders from around the globe to discuss and network on the
latest trends and challenges faced in the IT field. It will
serve as a platform for executives to establish better understanding
of the direction and advantages of technology. This will be
accomplished through 6-streamed conference and a structured
exhibition by a selection of the major players in the IT service
provider industry. More: http://www.itafrica-congress.com/
16
– 18 November 2006, The Fifth African Development Forum
(ADF V), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
ADF V will be held on the theme “Youth and Leadership
in the 21st Century”. The Forum is organised by the ECA
jointly with its strategic regional partner, the Africa Union
and in collaboration with other stakeholders in African development.
ADF is a multi-stakeholder platform for debating, discussing
and initiating concrete strategies for Africa’s development.
The Forum initiated in 1999, has already been held four times
with very good concrete outcomes including the initiation of
a programme to support national ICT policy formulation and implementation
in Africa. The objective of ADF V is to give meaningful expression
to the recognition of youth as a development asset and to deepen
strategies at the regional and national levels for translating
the potential of youth as a development asset into practical
benefits for Africa’s democratic, gender-equal, peaceful
and rights-based development, in line with the objectives of
the African Union Youth Charter, NEPAD and internationally agreed
development goals including MDGs. As a parallel event, the ICT,
Science and technology Division (ISTD) will organize a session
on “ICT and Youth entrepreneurship” on the 16th
November 2006. The breakout session will look at the issue of
creating the enabling environment for realizing the potential
of young people as leaders through ICTs and to examine how adequately
prepared countries are to harness ICTs for youth employment
and entrepreneurship. In addition, ICT social enterprise, youth
career guidance strategy in Africa will also be addressed. An
online discussion is underway in preparation for the Forum.
More: Thierry Amoussougbo (tamoussougbo@uneca.org).
20
– 24 November 2006, Telecentre Leaders Forum (TLF) Africa,
Port Novo, Benin
Organised by the Telecentre.org, over 60 telecentre practitioners,
network leaders, researchers and development partners from all
over Africa will attend with representation from Asia and Latin
America telecentre networks. The objectives include bringing
together leading telecentre practitioners, network leaders and
researchers as a strategy to building functional relationships
and lay foundation for an African telecentre network. It also
aims at providing an opportunity to review on-going telecentre.org
interventions in Africa, share inspiring stories, and explore
network opportunities and services to strengthen telecentres.
The TLF-Africa is part of telecentre.org strategy to hold a
regional event every year following a global convening for this
case, following the Telecentre Leaders’ Forum held at
WSIS in Tunis 2005. A pre-event discussion featuring key areas
of interest to telecentre family was organized from October
23 to November 3, 2006. More: http://www.telecentre.org/en-tc/node/19053
27
– 29 November 2006, NEPAD e-Governance workshop Phase
2, Johannesburg, South Africa
Organised by NEPAD e-Africa Commission, this workshop is a follow-up
session to the first workshop which was held from 7-9 July 2006.
The first workshop identified and prioritized eighteen themes.
Out of these themes, eight were selected by NEPAD and will be
elaborated during phase 2 workshop in order to develop the NEPAD
e-Governance strategic plan. The summary of the July workshop
can be found at: http://www.pstgconsulting.com/clients/NEPAD_e-Governance_Workshop_Report.pdf
29
November – 01 December 2006, Wireless Broadband East Africa
Forum: Technologies and Strategies to Evolve Optimised Networks,
Nairobi, Kenya
AITEC, in collaboration with leading suppliers of wireless broadband
technologies, is hosting the Forum, which aims to provide practical
business and technology briefings to empower resellers, service
providers and users. The Forum will provide participants with
answers to crucial technical and business questions. Key Forum
topics include strategic overviews of current and future technologies,
evolving networks to 3G, key strategic issues in migrating networks
to IP, etc. More: http://new.aitecafrica.com/node/252
4
– 5 December 2006, UNCTAD Expert Meeting "Using ICTs
to achieve growth and development", Geneva, Switzerland
The meeting is organised in support of the implementation and
follow-up of WSIS. The main objective of the event is to provide
a discussion forum for Government representatives, experts,
business people and academia on the potential of harnessing
ICTs for economic and social development. During this two-day
event experts will examine the latest empirical evidence on
the way ICTs impact on the productivity and growth of firms,
industries and countries with a view to identify how developing
countries can best benefit from the information economy. Additionally,
the analysis of recent trends in trade in ICT-enabled goods
and services, labour markets and employment in the ICT sector,
including outsourcing and offshoring to developing countries
will help experts in formulating their future ICT strategies.
Confirmation to participate is expected before 17 November 2006.
More: http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Meeting.asp?intItemID=3876&lang=1
and http://www.unctad.org/ecommerce
Two guidebooks on
e-commerce for small enterprise have recently been completed.
Each guidebook provides information on best practices in e-commerce
and a set of case studies from developing countries. One guidebook
- for entrepreneurs includes additional material on selection
of e-commerce. The other - for
enterprise support agencies - includes additional material on
how to support e-commerce in small enterprise, include case
studies of agency strategy. If you would like to access a soft
copy of the guidebooks and other relevant reports, please use
the project web site: http://www.ecomm4dev.org/handbooks.htm
Fellowship
for AfriNIC-5
AfriNIC
is offering a few fellowships to its members to attend the upcoming
meeting to be held from November 27th to December 1st 2006 in
Mauritius. The fellowship is reserved to people from small organisations
actively involved in Internet Operation or ICT Policy in their
countries and the community and who can positively and actively
contribute to IP address management awareness in the AfriNIC
region of service. Applications can be sent to fellowship@afrinic.net
More: http://www.afrinic.net/meeting/afrinic-5/
Toolkit
I: Capitalising on Local Knowledge - Methodological Overview
& Case Studies, by Noel Oettle and Bettina Koelle
This
Toolkit is designed to give decision-makers in government and
donor agencies an overview of the concept of community-to-community
knowledge exchanges, as well as practical approaches to their
use in developmental processes and programmes. The volume contains
case studies from Africa that aim to illustrate the successes
achieved with the approach as well as the challenges faced during
implementation. More: http://www.comminit.com/africa/materials/ma2006/materials-3054.html
Toolkit
2: Capitalising on Local Knowledge - Guidelines for Implementation,
by Noel Oettle and Bettina Koelle
This
Toolkit is designed to provide practical guidance in designing
and implementing community-to-community exchange visits. It
is intended for practitioners and service providers who wish
to implement knowledge exchange processes. It is also aimed
at students and development professionals who would like to
better understand how the methodology is implemented. More:
http://www.comminit.com/africa/materials/ma2006/materials-3055.html
Second
Call for “Commonwealth Connects” Projects
The Steering Committee of Commonwealth Connects announced that
the Second Formal Call for Projects has commenced to enable
Commonwealth countries, NGOs, and academic institutions to submit
projects that can help bridge the Digital Divide. More: http://www.commonwealthconnects.net/comcon/
New
APC Policy Issue Papers in English and French
In the occasion of the Internet Governance Forum, the Association
for Progressive Communications (APC) is launching three new
papers on key ICT policy and Internet rights issues. These include:
1)
CONVERGENCE: The importance of convergence in the ICT policy
environment, by Kate Wild. This paper looks at the meaning and
importance of convergence and considers some of the challenges
to implementing it, along with strategies for overcoming them.
It also provides a global perspective on regulating convergence
and broadband from ITU and then it looks at experiences in North
America and Europe as well as regional and country approaches
in Africa. More: http://rights.apc.org/documents/convergence_EN.pdf
(English) http://rights.apc.org/documents/convergence_FR.pdf
(French)
2)
OPEN ACESS: Lowering the costs of international bandwidth in
Africa, by Mike Jensen. This paper was commissioned by the APC
as part of the Catalysing Access to ICTs in Africa initiative
and to contribute to APC's efforts to promote open access to
ICT infrastructure in Africa. According to the author, a variety
of factors are responsible for the lack of access to bandwidth
in Africa, but the biggest cause is the high cost of international
connections to the global telecommunication backbones. More:
http://rights.apc.org/documents/open_access_EN.pdf
(English) http://rights.apc.org/documents/open_access_FR.pdf
(French)
3)
WSIS: Whose information society? Developing country and civil
society voices in the World Summit on the Information Society,
by David Souter. This paper summarises a study of developing
country and civil society participation and influence in WSIS
that was commissioned by the APC. As well as analysing participation,
the study looked at the impact of WSIS on international ICT
decision-making in general and makes recommendations to all
main actors about how future decision-making might become more
inclusive of developing countries, nongovernmental actors and
their concerns. More: http://rights.apc.org/documents/wsis_EN.pdf
(English)
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