Kigali, Rwanda - October 25, 2007

Over forty African policymakers and other stakeholders reached consensus on the need to move from policy development to implementation as most countries had developed policies which remained unimplemented for various reasons. The participants urged the ECA and its partners to continue supporting this process to ensure that benefits from the Information Society are realized. This was one of the major outcomes of a two-day expert group meeting organised by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in the framework of the Global E-policy Resource Network (e-PolNet) in partnership with the Canadian e-Policy Resource Centre (CePRC) and the Open Society for Southern Africa (OSISA). It is organised under the theme “National ICT Policies: Regulation and Public and Community-based Access” for Eastern, Western and Southern English-speaking African Countries and is being held at the Alpha-Palace Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda from 24-25 October 2007.

This meeting is the third of its kind in Africa jointly organized by ECA and its partners, following two previous meetings in Douala, Cameroon and Dakar, Senegal for Francophone participants. The current meeting is unique in that the delegates will also have the opportunity to participate in two major events: the "Consultation on Internet Governance" to be held on 28th and 29th of October 2007 as a preparatory meeting to the Rio IGF Conference and the “Connect Africa Summit”, which will be held on 29th and 30th of October 2007. Participants include representatives of local authorities, NICI focal points, regulators, cyber café managers, ISPs, civil society, private sector, women and youth entrepreneurs, the key players in the formulation and implementation of access related ICT policies and strategies.

In his welcoming remarks, the Director SRO-EA, Mr. Patrick Bugembe advised the participants that ECA’s activities in ICT for development are geared towards supporting African countries to participate fully in the rapidly evolving people-centred, inclusive, development-oriented Information Society. In this society, Mr. Bugembe explained, “everyone can create, utilize and share information and knowledge and become empowered to achieve their full potential to improve their quality of life.”

In his opening remarks, Mr. Richard Bourassa, Industry Canada acknowledged the cooperation between the Government of Canada and the ECA which had resulted in strengthened policy expertise and the development of policies in several African countries. Underscoring the need to embrace ICT’s in various sectors, capacity building activities had also been targeted at Government departments in the form of sectoral applications. Mr. Bourassa emphasized on the need to advance the policy process to the next phase vital phase of implementation resulting in tangible socio-economic benefits.

Mr. Nolin Frederick, Industry Canada advised, in his opening remarks, that Canada’s participation originated from the Canada Fund for Africa as a direct contribution to support NEPAD’s activities and objectives. As part of the Canada Fund for Africa, Industry Canada was managing activities under CePRC and ePolNet under the leadership of the ECA. He advised that the partnership with ECA was aimed at providing ideas, models, solutions and capacity building for African policy makers to develop the necessary environment for ICT’s to flourish. Mr. Frederic hoped that the workshop would lead to “concrete recommendations that would accelerate ICT integration into various activities in African countries.”

Mr. Sizo D. Mhlanga, Regional Adviser ECA presented the workshop objectives and highlighted the main access challenges to be deliberated upon as responses to presentations from various experts. These challenges included, infrastructure deficiencies, affordability, democratization of public access to ICT’s, licensing, gender, youth and local access and sustainability of community access centres. The recommendations from the workshop would be tabled at the Preparatory Meeting of African Ministers for the Connect Africa Summit following the workshop.