11 December 2003
What African Leaders said: Quotes from African Leaders......................
JOHN A. KUFUOR, President of Ghana, said the Summit aimed to foster unity among the peoples of the world through the employment and utilization of information and communication technologies. According to the statements made yesterday, it seemed that the process leading to the Summit had succeeded in reaching some consensus on the main issues before the international community concerning ICTs. There was a general acceptance that ICTs could propel and further widen the digital divide, if the international community did not harness the positive opportunities provided by such tools. It was stressed that ICTs were a major part of the indispensable infrastructure for economic and social security, as well as other aspects of sustainable development. Ghana, therefore, supported the concept of the Digital Solidarity Fund. He noted that such a fund must be based on the principles of collective subscription of nations, each according to its ability. This Fund would be an indispensable social service for the evolution of the world. Ghana supported the call for a committee to be established to consider the feasibility of such a Fund.
Addressing developments in Ghana, Mr. Kufuor said that the facilitation of education and the provision of accessibility for the most vulnerable groups to ICTs were main priorities. Another area was the education of trainers in ICTs which was being supported and carried out with the assistance of India. It was added that the Government of Ghana was also promoting projects that encouraged investment into the ICTs arena within the country. In conclusion, the Ghanaian President called for a concerted effort at building a global ICT structure and for further international solidarity through a Digital Solidarity Fund.
AZALI ASSOUMANI, President of the Comoros, said the mutations that had shaken the world, overthrowing points of reference and imposing each time a new vision or another understanding of time, deserved to be mastered in order to be used for the good of mankind. The world today needed a new type of society that refused marginalization and exclusion, that recognized the dignity and responsibility of each person, and that was more heavily involved in solidarity, for the survival of all countries and the security of all peoples. Nothing should be neglected in order to reinforce peace in the world, as all were equal before fear, terror and anguish. Today, more than ever, the world was one and indivisible, and it was clear that the destiny of all mankind and of all peoples, in all countries, was intimately linked.
The new ICTs opened new horizons. They were a formidable lever, and an accelerator of development. They developed citizenship and could bring together the administration and the administered. But they could also be a tool for oppression, the aggravation of inequalities, and of deepening social fractures. There was a need to appeal to the universal conscience to implicate positively political will and not default on this unique chance, and to involve all countries and peoples. However, the preservation of democracy and freedom of expression and movement engendered by the technological developments needed to be accompanied by a process to make them available to all ages, genders, and social groups.
ISATOU NJIE-SAIDY, Vice-President of the Gambia, said the African continent was quite aware of the huge potentials information and communication technologies held for the attainment of its socio-economic development objectives. Africa’s commitment to use ICTs as an entry point into the information society had given rise to the African Information Society Initiative (AISI). This commitment was consistent not only with the national development blueprint of the Gambia (Vision 2020), which sought to develop and use electronic information for development, but also the spirit embodied in the NEPAD framework for the development of the African continent.
It was within this
respect that the Gambia had designed an e-government strategy with a pilot
project that would facilitate the sharing of financial and economic management
data and information between priority government sectors. Following the
successful implementation of the pilot project, it would be expanded to
other institutions and services across the country.
Ms. Njie-Saidy added that an electronic Government in Africa would aim
to transform the relationship between the Government and the public it
served, between the Government and the private sector, and between government
departments in terms of how transactions were carried out. Such a government
in Africa would provide other advantages, including quality and efficient
public service delivery to the citizens and to other government agencies
and it would further increase transparency, accountability and good governance.
Ignorance was today’s worst enemy as it was responsible for all the
conflicts and problems that afflicted the world. The ICTs were without
a doubt one of the remedies to this deadly human malaise. She said she
could not, however, conclude without expressing some caution. While embracing
the benefits of ICTs in combating poverty and social exclusion, it was
important to remain alert to their potential criminal abuse by deviant
elements.
PHILIPPOS W. MARIAM, Minister of Infrastructure of Ethiopia, said the peoples of the world, under the leadership of the United Nations, were seeking and enthusiastically cooperating to build an information society which was global in nature. This new spirit of cooperation was unique in its conceptual framework and approach. It was unique in the sense that people of the world for the first time were fully converging in an assertion that ICTs were a tool and an enabler of the new and emerging societal transformation.
The emergence of a global information society was inevitable, and the Summits in Geneva and Tunis would speed up this process. There was, therefore, full support for the basic considerations expressed in the draft Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action which stated that there was a need for developing countries, particularly least developed countries (LDCs), to be equipped with the necessary enabling environment, the relevant institutional and management capacity, internationally competitive telecommunications infrastructure and services, pervasive penetration of Internet technology, skilled human resources, and streamlined ICT applications into development programmes so as to enable them to strategically intervene in speeding up the evolution of an information society. In this connection, developing a purposefully targeted financing mechanism to assist LDCs was decisive to make this global initiative a reality.
BERNARD CHISALE, Minister of Information of Malawi, said that the proper commission of the delegations represented at the Summit was to ensure that the information society advanced the interests of the Commonwealth, and that it served the global concerns of all nations. The Summit was the seed for crafting a robust framework for extending opportunities to all, especially the disadvantaged of the planet. It would be a framework for consolidating efforts to increase education opportunities, and to eliminate hunger, disease and poverty in all parts of the world. By mediating between diverse views and opinions, the tools of information and communication broadly acted as a midwife for enriching national discourse, and, by extension, democracy.
Information and communication technologies were very powerful tools for rallying citizens around development and other issues that affected their lives. The Summit opened up new horizons for progress and the exchange of knowledge on how to incorporate ordinary people in national discourse and increase their participation in governance and the decision-making process. It should also lay the ground for the tools and means of information and communication to generate products which had appeal across major, if not all, parts of society. Participants should be guided by a desire to make quality ICT services accessible to all, in a competitive environment fostered by a robust policy and regulatory regime that placed a premium on the ordinary person. Efforts to build a global information society would only be fruitful if the policy framework in individual countries enabled a guarantee of access to channels of communication in terms of reach and availability, if they could guarantee equality and fair distribution of the means and content of communication.
Information:
aisi@uneca.org
© Copyright ECA 2003