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 International Institute for Development and Communication
(IICD) officially joined forces with Computers for Development
and sent 600 computers to Africa. This large shipment will greatly
benefit rural communities; where lack of access to information
often hinders sustainable development. The 600 computers were
donated by Capgemini (a Dutch company that assists IICD with
capacity building programmes) and will be sent to IICD’s
partners in Uganda, Burkina Faso and Zambia for local distribution.
Once installed, the computers will be used in education and
health projects: two areas, which sadly lack vital modern information.
The computers will play an important role in the effort to promote
the widespread use of ICT in the education and health sector.
Not only will schools and hospitals benefit, community centres
and training institutes are also involved so as to spread the
benefit of this project to all those in need. IICD seeks to
address local demand for computers to improve education, business
development and the strengthening of knowledge networks. The
computers will be delivered hand-in-hand with a capacity development
programme in order to gain the most out of this modern medium.
More: http://www.iicd.org
GK3
Programme taking shape
Thirty-two thematic sessions have been selected by the GK3 International
Advisory Panel (IAP) to form the core conference programme out
of over a hundred proposals submitted by GKP members and partners.
Specific organisations have been designated as lead for each
session and are in the midst of fine-tuning their sessions to
ensure a successful, quality event that is the hallmark of GKP's
Global Knowledge Conferences. An additional 20 sessions will
be selected to complete the conference programme by early August.
More: http://www.globalknowledge.org
ICVolunteers
instrumental in Africa@home project, Volunteer Computing for
Africa
Through its CyberVolunteers Programme, GKP Member ICVolunteers
has been instrumental in the Africa@home project, mobilizing
not only volunteers and researchers, but also helping with partnership
creation, logistics and documentation for the Volunteer Computing
for Africa workshop. Participants from 18 African countries
took part in a workshop on volunteer computing in Muizenberg,
South Africa from 16 to 22 July 2007. The workshop’s main
objective was to plant seeds in different universities and academic
institutions around Africa to create poles of excellence for
developing volunteer computing projects, in particular applied
to the most pressing health issues, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS
and tuberculosis research and modelling. The AIMS (African Institute
for Mathematical Sciences (http://www.aims.ac.za)
workshop on Volunteer Computing for Africa introduced participants
to the state-of-the-art open source software technologies behind
distributed computing and cyber-volunteering on the Internet.
Participants were able to gain hands-on experience with these
technologies, so that they can harness the power of volunteer
computers worldwide for their own research, or to support the
research of their colleagues in universities and research labs
across Africa. More: http://www.icvolunteers.org
UN
Secretary-General endorses Connect Africa Summit in Kigali,
Rwanda
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gave his full support to the Connect
Africa initiative, spearheaded by ITU and the Global Alliance
for ICT and Development (GAID). The Connect Africa Summit will
take place in Kigali, Rwanda, 29-30 October 2007 under the high
patronage of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and the Chairman
of the African Union, President John Kufour of Ghana. Mr. Ban
said that the initiative would help overcome the serious problem
of the digital divide, which "is hampering the smooth and
balanced development of our international community". The
UN Secretary-General praised ITU for joining hands with other
agencies to make a better future. "I hope we will work
together to make this world more prosperous, more secure, more
harmonious, and more developed through ICT," said Mr. Ban
Ki-moon. More: http://www.itu.int
ECA
and WHO to launch a study on Africa Health Infoway
Within the framework of the African Information Society Initiative
(AISI), the ECA with support from the International Development
Research Centre (IDRC) and in cooperation with the World Health
Organization (WHO) are commissioning a joint regional needs
assessment and scoping study on the "AFRICA HEALTH INFOWAY:
A district-based Public health Information network and geospatial
health system for African Health". The Africa Health Infoway's
objective is to provide affordable access to reliable health
information and knowledge for policy makers, providers and citizens;
improve population health, by unifying public health surveillance
systems, streamlining quality and health status monitoring;
make epidemiological surveillance information available for
analysis and use as soon as it is collected; and support data
and knowledge mining. In order to discuss the data requirements
as well as methodology of the study, ECA and WHO are organising
a Needs Assessment Study workshop from 9 – 10 August 2007
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. More: Sizo Mhlanga (smhlanga@uneca.org).
South
African stakeholders assess the use of ICTs in facilitating
trade
A two-day roundtable to review a study on ICTs, trade and economic
growth in South Africa was held from 30 – 31 July 2007
in Pretoria, South Africa. Over forty participants attended
the roundtable drawn from various stakeholders including the
ICT private sector, representatives from Department of Communication
as well as Department of Trade and Industry, ISP Association
of South Africa, regulator, telecom operators, commercial and
development banks, and other government agencies. The roundtable
is aimed at reviewing the country study conducted by a team
of local consultants in the framework of the ePolicy Resource
Network (ePol-NET) as well as the ICTs, Trade and Economic Growth
Initiative, supported by the Government of Canada through the
Canadian ePolicy Resource Center (CePRC). The consultants made
presentations on the key findings and recommendations of the
country study highlighting on assessments made regarding the
potentials and niches for South Africa particularly SMEs in
using ICTs to enhance and facilitate domestic and international
trade. The study identified the existence of various policies
and regulations addressing ICT business as well as trade facilitation
in South Africa. Furthermore, the study indicated that the ICT
sector was contributing over 5% to GDP with a value of 45 billion
Rands in 2006. More: Afework Temtime (atemtime@uneca.org).
Swaziland
NICI officially launched
The national ICT policy (NICI) of Swaziland was launched on
3 August 2007 in Mbabane in the presence of His Excellency Prime
Minister Themba Dlamini and other high-level Government officials
as well as a delegation from ECA lead by Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah,
Director of ICTs, Science and Technology Division. During the
launch the Prime Minster said that ICT is an important tool
in all development sectors including health, education, public
services, as well as national security. He further encouraged
Government offices to use ICTs to improve their efficiency and
positively contribute to nation building. The Prime Minister
has given the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare until 30
September to install computers in all rural clinics to avoid
communication breakdown and step up service delivery. Ms. Aida
Opoku-Mensah on her part said that political commitment is an
important ingredient to speed up the implementation of the ICT
policy. She further commended the Prime Minister for officially
launching the policy saying that it was an indication of political
commitment like we are witnessing in Rwanda. More: Sizo Mhlanga
(smhlanga@uneca.org).
OTHER NEWS .....
OTHER NEWS .....
OTHER NEWS .....
The satellite was launched on 13th May 2007 at 5.01 pm Nigerian
time. NIGCOMSAT-1 is a quad-band craft equipped with 28 transponders
(14 in Ku band, 4 in C band, 2 in L band, and 8 in Ka band).
The c-band foot print covers West Africa, Central and East Africa.
There is no doubt that the satellite which has a service lifespan
of at least 15 years shall help tremendously in boosting the
diffusion of ICT in Africa. More: http://www.nitda.gov.ng/
Update
on GAID Youth Forum
The GAID Secretariat set up a website on the GAID Global Forum
on Youth and ICT, to be held in Geneva on 24-26 September 2007.
It includes basic information on the Forum's purpose and on
its content, as well as a registration process. The Global Forum
market place will represent an opportunity to showcase of innovations
and projects/initiatives that utilize ICT as a major component
of the implementation. Requests to present projects and initiatives
can be sent online to the GAID Secretariat at: http://www.un-gaid.org/fr/gfyouth/marketplace/apply
More: http://www.un-gaid.org/gfyouth
Uganda’s
79 districts to get e-link by 2010
Uganda's 79 districts will be online by 2010, the information
and communications technology minister, Dr. Ham Mulira, has
said. This follows development of the National Data Transmission
Backbone Infrastructure and the Electronic Government Infrastructure
projects. He said in order to implement national development
programmes like the Poverty Eradication Action Plan and Plan
for Modernisation of Agriculture, timely and relevant information
must be available at all levels of implementation. “After
recognising this catalytic role, the Government in 2003 adopted
an ICT policy framework to ensure optimum utilisation of these
technologies geared towards national socio-economic development,”
he said in a statement. Mulira said data and voice communication
solutions are mainly provided by three companies; MTN, Celtel
and Uganda telecom. However, the sector has been fully liberalised
and more investors have been licensed. More: http://www.newvision.co.ug/
South
Africa to invest $700 million on a new submarine cable to cut
Web costs
South Africa is planning a $700 million (R5 billion) submarine
cable to cut the costs of accessing high-speed Internet. The
cable, to run from Durban to South America and London, will
increase international bandwidth capacity. The initiative is
being driven by the Department of Public Enterprises as an international
leg of Infraco, the state-owned broadband infrastructure firm
formed last year to lease capacity exclusively to Neotel for
four years. But the international part of Infraco will be open
to other telecoms firms including Telkom, which is said to be
interested in a big slice of the project. Due to the lack of
undersea cables, Africa has mainly relied on the Sat3 cable
that is partly owned by Telkom. Sat3 members have exploited
this by charging huge fees, which has led to strong criticism
from the government as the high costs deterred foreign investments
and led to slow internet roll-out in rural areas. Running parallel
with the Infraco cable is the controversial Nepad Broadband,
focussing on the east region. The Nepad Broadband was established
after a fallout between the South African and Kenyan governments
when they built the $280 million East African Submarine Cable
System (EASSy). More: http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?from=rss_&fArticleId=3961653
21
– 24 August 2007, CTO: 2nd Annual Connecting Rural Communities
Africa Forum 2007: Bridging the digital divide through sustainable
ICT connectivity, Grand Regency Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya
Hosted by the Communications Commission of Kenya, the Forum
will have pre-conference workshop on Tuesday 21st August 2007,
and the main conference will be held from Wednesday 22nd August
to Thursday 23rd August 2007, followed by Rural Services &
Applications Focus Day on Friday 24th August 2007. This international
event will bring together African government officials, senior
figures from African regulatory authorities and international
ICT experts who are leading the private sector connectivity
drive. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss and
analyse best practices, share case studies and debate crucial
topics such as optimal regulation strategies to promote rural
connectivity; creating the right environment to attract foreign
investment; how to best harness and utilise ICT to deliver socio-economic
benefits to rural communities; analyse current projects which
seek to bridge the digital divide; and the opportunity to advance
rural connectivity through mobile, internet and satellite and
enhance access to key services, content and applications. More:
http://www.cto.int
25
– 29 August 2007, APC-Africa-Women and Women'sNet Story
Telling Workshop
The digital stories will focus on the experiences of women who
are content developers, librarians, archivists, journalists,
mediators, translators, information activists, and who work
in the field of ending violence against women. Participants
of the workshop will take control of technology and tell their
own stories using the digital storytelling medium. This process
will help participants to locate themselves in the stories to
better advocate for the rights, priorities and concerns of women
in situations of violence. The digital storytelling workshop
is hands-on and computer intensive, requiring commitment and
willingness to develop a short, personal story; learn new software
and edit a short digital video of five minutes in length. More:
http://www.apcwomen.org
27
– 30 August 2007, WI-World Africa 2007, Michelangelo Hotel,
Johannesburg, South Africa
In Africa, fixed-line infrastructure is lacking and there is
a major problem with copper wire theft. Wireless communication
is therefore a great alternative. More: http://www.terrapinn.com/2007/telecomza
1
– 3 September 2007, The UNESCO International Conference
and Exhibition on Knowledge Parks, Muscat, Oman
The Conference and Exhibition provide a platform for key players
around the world to help translate the concept of knowledge
societies into concrete solutions for development. It sensitises
policy makers to the value of specialized knowledge parks and
knowledge hubs to support and drive economic development and
capacity building. It creates opportunities for establishing
regional cooperation towards building knowledge parks in developing
countries, with a special focus on Africa, Arab States and Asia.
The Conference objectives include a) raising awareness on how
the ICT-based knowledge parks can help operationalise UNESCO’s
concept of knowledge societies; in particular, in developing
regional policies, guide-lines and activities to promote economic
and social development in developing countries; b) reviewing
best practices of ICT-based knowledge parks in developed countries,
with a special focus on leveraging their potential for developing
countries; c) networking stakeholders to generate partnerships
for new knowledge park initiatives and for establishing strategies
to leverage ICTs and knowledge park experiences for building
knowledge societies. More: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=24158&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
1
– 3 September 2007, The International Youth Forum: Youth
Speak, We Listen, Voices for Peace, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt
Organised by the Egyptian Ministry of IT and Communication,
the ICT theme of the conference aims at probing into the potential
of ICT in peace through the eyes of youths and for the youths.
ICT being one more instrument placed in their in an attempt
to create a better world. In order to secure a constructive
dialogue by and for the youth, at the ICT4Peace sessions, and
throughout the conference, promising youth will be invited through
a number of key organizations and networks with a long history
of work with young people. To further the dialogue between youth
all over the world, the roundtables and sessions will be broadcasted
to youth forums worldwide. Cisco and Microsoft will support
the online coverage. More: ntewfik@mcit.gov.eg
2
– 4 September 2007, ICT-Learn 2007Conference, Cairo, Egypt
Organised by the Human and Technology Development Foundation
(HDF) the upcoming HDF International Internet Education Conference
ICT-Learn 2007 will be held in Cairo Egypt from 2-4 September
2007. The theme will be 'Learning Anytime ... Anywhere'. The
Forum will draw approximately 500 participants of whom 100 are
from across Arab Region and internationally. Participants are
innovators, decision-makers and leaders in distance education,
using leading-edge technology to deliver cutting-edge programs.
The Forum will showcase strategies for accessible, effective
and innovative education; quality assurance in education; Technical
and Vocational Education and Training to achieve access for
all; and pedagogical implications of electronic delivery of
education. More: info@hdf.org.eg
24
– 26 September 2007, Global Forum on youth and ICTD, Geneva,
Switzerland
The Global Alliance for ICT and Development will be holding
its Global Forum on Youth and ICTD: Youth and ICT as Agents
for Change, in Geneva on 24-26 September. The Forum will provide
opportunities to showcase your work and programmes in the area
of ICT and Youth. The Marketplace is one of the official Forum
sessions offering the opportunity to organizations and individuals
to showcase their youth-oriented projects, present initiatives/case
studies/slide shows, or demonstrate innovative applications
of technology with the aim of raising awareness, sharing experiences,
acquiring new partners and/or members, and finding potential
sponsors. More: http://www.un-id.org/en/node/655
5
– 7 September 2007, iWeek Conference, Johannesburg, South
Africa
23
– 28 September 2007, AfriNIC-7 Public Policy Meeting,
Durban, South Africa
The AfriNIC-7 public policy meeting will focus on Internet Governance
and Policy Makers. This 6-day event will provide a public forum
for the African Internet community and policy makers to discuss
different aspects of the Internet on the continent, from network
operations to internet resource management, policies and standards
development, including an update on the deployment of IPv6.
A one-day special session on ‘Internet Governance in Africa
and Policy Makers’ for policy makers and regulators will
be organised on 25th September 2007. The meeting will also be
sharing best practices and experience on the continent for a
wide range of topics including Internet Exchange Points, Internet
access costing and IPv6. More: http://www.afrinic.net/meetings/afrinic-7
1
– 5 October 2007, ICT AFRICA 2007, Kenyatta International
Conference Centre, Nairobi, Kenya
ICT Africa is an annual continental information and communications
technology conference addressing all aspects of ICT development
in Africa. The conference is convened by NEPAD council in collaboration
with the NEPAD Kenya secretariat. The 2007 event will be organized
by Global Conferences, Cape Town, South Africa. More: rjacobs@globalconf.co.za
3
– 5 October, Infrastructure Partnerships for African Development
(IPAD) Central Africa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
iPAD Central Africa 2006 provides an opportunity to network
directly with key partners. The event aims to facilitate regional
planning and collaborations under one roof between government,
the public sector and business. iPAD Central Africa 2006 is
a one-stop-shop for investigating investment opportunities in
DRC and the Central African region as a whole. More: http://www.spintelligent-events.com/ipad-central2006/en/
The second edition of the World Information Society Report:
Beyond WSIS, published by ITU and UNCTAD, looks beyond WSIS
to the creation of an inclusive, people-centred and development-oriented
Information Society, open to all. The opening chapter looks
at the challenges of measuring the ICT sector while chapter
two examines progress in bridging the digital divide. Chapter
three focuses on emerging trends in the information society
worldwide and chapter four looks at national ICT strategies.
Chapter five considers the threats to cybersecurity, while chapter
six provides an update on WSIS implementation and presents a
number of ICT success stories across the world. The report is
accompanied by a series of tables providing the latest statistics
on the development of ICTs worldwide. More: http://www.unctad.org
OR http://www.itu.int
The
2007 AISI Media Awards CLOSES on 15 August 2007
The deadline for the 2007 AISI Media Awards programme is 15th
August 2007. Entries can be made in the following categories:
1) The AISI-SDC-GKP Media Awards 2007 – Radio, Print,
Television/Video, and Multimedia/Web Media; focusing on “Emerging
People”, “Emerging Technologies”, and “Emerging
Markets” in Africa, 2) The AISI-IDRC Media Awards: Reporting
on ICT Research and Innovation as well as Reporting on ICT Policy,
and 3) The AISI-IICD Media Award on Local Content Applications,
and Local Content. More: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/mediaaward.htm
Global
Young Social Entrepreneurs Forum (YSEF) Competition CLOSES 15
AUGUST 2007
The Young Social Entrepreneurs' Forum is one of several highlights
within GK3, GKP's Event On The Future: Third Global Knowledge
Conference. The Forum will support 100 young social entrepreneurs
to attend and to meet with funding organisations, experts, mentors,
other stakeholders and the 2,000 participants. Young social
entrepreneurs are young people (up to 30 years of age) who have
set up innovative enterprises that aim to make revenue as well
as positive social impact and that use Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) and Knowledge as part of their business model.
GKP has also launched the Global Young Social Entrepreneurs
Forum (YSEF) Competition, through which 100 young social entrepreneurs
will be selected and sponsored to attend the Forum at GK3. This
competition closes 15 August 2007. More: http://www.globalknowledge.org/ysecompetition07
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