48. The Committee considered the report, "Progress in National Information Communication Infrastructure Plans, Strategies and Development in Southern Africa," a follow-up on progress made in the development of national information and communication infrastructure (NICI) policies in Africa since the workshop in Windhoek in April 2000. It was noted that convergence of telecommunications, broadcasting and computer technologies had created opportunities and challenges to Southern Africa to take advantage of strategies and policies for harnessing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to transform their economies and active participation of the society in the global information society. ECA had been promoting the African agenda at the global level and intends to hold two international workshops to provide input to the G8 and the UN Secretary General's initiative. ECA had also scheduled a Heads of State Summit Dialogue as a follow-up to the African Development Forum '99 that was held in October 2000 on the theme "the challenge to Africa of globalisation and the information age".

49. Since the 6th ICE meeting, progress was made in broad-based ICT policy formulation, in telecommunications regulation, liberalization and privatization, in adopting electronic commerce strategies, in expanding Internet services and in setting up free zones for technology innovations. Although there were variations, activities in the development of broad-based information society strategies were significant. Considerable achievements had been made in Mauritius, for example. Five other countries including Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa and Zambia have taken key steps that advanced their broad-based national information and communication policies. In addition, Botswana has recently begun a process towards ICT policy formulation. Despite earlier efforts, progress in Malawi had been insignificant. On the other hand, Angola, Lesotho and Zimbabwe had made little progress in development of their broad-based national information and communication strategies.

50. The meeting sought clarification on the role of ECA in mobilizing global resources, particularly ODA for ICT development in Africa. The Secretariat reported that ECA is working with UNDP, particularly with the country offices, to set the African Agenda and to develop strategies and programmes that could tap into global resources. In this regard, the Executive Secretary of ECA is discussing with bilateral donors, G8 countries and other development agencies to mobilize financial resources for ICT development in Africa.