Swaziland validates its ICT Policy

About 50 participants drawn from government, private sector, civil society, international and regional organizations (SADC) attended the NICI Policy validation workshop organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on the 26th of January 2006 in Mbabane, Swaziland. This workshop presented participants with an opportunity to critique the Kingdom of Swaziland’s ICT Policy whose drafting was coordinated by ECA as part of its technical assistance under the auspices of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) with financial assistance from the Government of Finland.

In her opening remarks, the Honourable Thandi Shongwe, Minister of Tourism, Environment and Communications said “ The ICT Policy is based on Swaziland’s realities and aspirations in line with the national development objectives and priorities and with a view to determining the role of ICT in the implementation of economic, social and cultural development goals”. She further added that it was imperative to have the government''s support in this initiative and that, “Central to the success of the implementation of this Policy will be the need to address the human capacity required to articulate and achieve the planned goals to ensure sustainability. It is important therefore that we strategize on awareness and capacity building programmes that reach out and involve all stakeholders and in particular, women, youth, private sector, academia, media, parliamentarians, to mention a few”.

In his opening remarks the ICT Policy Task Team Chairman, Mr. Mbuso Dlamini, Principal Secretary Economic Planning and Development advised that “We believe in the universal inclusive access by all to the Information Society and are convinced that ICTs can contribute to the realization of the MDGs by mainstreaming in key sectors such as job creation, culture, tourism, trade and commerce, etc”.

At the same event the, Swazi MTN CEO (mobile service provider), Mr. Themba Khumalo observed that “with the policy in place, the country will not be isolated in terms of ICT development” and that, “there is a need to raise more awareness on ICT for the people to fully participate in it. As stakeholders, we must go further to training the people for them to have the capacity of using ICT”.

The ECA Regional Advisor, Sizo Mhlanga, also stated how ECA was proud to be associated with the initiative and that a workshop would be hosted for Members of Parliament in March this year to sensitize them on the policy and for computer-based hands-on training.

The workshop resulted in the adoption of the final draft policy which would be presented to the cabinet for approval in the next few weeks. The final approved document will be show-cased at a local ICT Fair in March 2006.

For more info, contact Sizo Mhlanga (smhlanga@uneca.org).