Progress in NICI Plans, Policies and Strategies Development in Southern Africa

Progress in National Information and Communication Infrastructure Plans, Policies and Strategies Development in Southern Africa

I. Introduction

The convergence of telecommunications and broadcasting and computer technologies has created opportunities and challenges to southern Africa. In one hand countries have a need to emerge with strategies and policies for harnessing ICTs to transform their economies, on the other, they must ensure active participation of the society in the global information society. The bid for regional cooperation and sub-regional integration through harmonization of policies, regulation and laws and the drive for participation in the global governance of information and communication technologies have also prompted the formulation of national policies with regional and global dimensions.

Recognizing ICTs as a frontier area of knowledge and as an enabling tool for assimilation, processing and production of knowledge, governments in southern Africa have begun development of national information and communication policies and strategies during the last few years. However, having begun late, many of the countries in the sub-region are still far behind of the developing world particularly of the countries of Asia and Latin America in terms of the policy and planning processes needed to move their societies towards the global knowledge economy.

ECA has been assisting its member States in the formulation of broad-based national information and communication policies and in harnessing ICT for development within the framework of the African Information Society Initiative that was adopted in 1996. Its assistance to southern Africa has intensified during the last two years. This paper analyses the development of national information and communication infrastructure in eleven countries in southern Africa since the 6th ICE meeting in Windhoek in April 2000. It highlights ECA activities in the sub-region and provides some strategies for building on existing initiatives.

II. Global and Regional Dimensions of ICT Strategies Development During 2000

Despite a growing access to the Internet in Africa, the meteoric rise of Internet and its content in developed world made it difficult for the region to catch up. Internet users have now passed the 400 million mark. Africa has only about 2.5 million Internet users of which 1.82 million are in South Africa. Despite being a home of 12% world population, Africa accounts only for about .3% of the world Internet content. This "digital divide" has become the key concern of international development aid agencies and the developed world. As a result, major international bodies have recently launched potentially highly significant initiatives to apply ICT to the needs of the developing countries.

Under the auspices of The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) a high-level panel of information technology experts from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and elsewhere met in April 2000. They called upon the United Nations to play a leadership and catalytic role in helping to bridge the digital divide and accelerate development by harnessing the development potential of information and communication technologies (ICT). To this end, the panel recommended bringing together key stakeholders in an international ICT Task Force and creating an associated Trust Fund.

In a Ministerial declaration in July, ECOSOC adopted the high-level group's recommendations and recognised the key role of partnerships among national governments, bilateral and multilateral development agencies, the private sector and other relevant stakeholders in putting ICT in the service of development.
The September United Nations Millennium Summit endorsed the ECOSOC Ministerial Declaration and in November the Secretary-General appointed José Maria Figueres, former President of Costa Rica, to chair an Advisory Group to shape the ICT Task Force. The Task Force would administer a Trust Fund to be established and funded on the basis of voluntary contributions by interested partners. Its mission would be:

To provide overall leadership in helping to formulate strategies for ICT development and putting them at the service of development for all,
To forge a strategic partnership between the United Nations system, private industry and financing trusts and foundations, donors, programme countries and other relevant stakeholders, and
To mobilize new resources for ICT for development
The UN Millennium Summit also announced four new initiatives, three of which were ICT related:
A volunteer corps, called the United Nations Information Technology Service ('UNITeS'), to train groups in developing countries in the uses and opportunities of the Internet and information technology.
A Health InterNetwork, to establish 10,000 on-line sites in hospitals and clinics in developing countries to provide access to up-to-date medical information.
A disaster response initiative, "First on the Ground", which will provide mobile and satellite telephones as well as microwave links for humanitarian relief workers in areas affected by natural disasters and emergencies.

In a related development, at their meeting in Okinawa in July 2000, the G8 group of industrialised nations adopted the Okinawa Charter on the Global Information Society and resolved to set up a Digital Opportunities Task Force (Dot Force). The Dot Force is making consultations to come up with findings and recommendations on global action to bridge the international information and knowledge divide and report back at the next G8 meeting in 2001.

The Economic Commission for Africa has been active in promoting African agenda during these forums. ECA submitted a formal report on "The ECA and Promotion of Information Technology for Development" to ECOSOC to assist in its initiative. In addition to its ongoing active participation in global consultations fora on bridging the "digital divide", the Commission intends to hold two consultative workshops to set an African agenda for the G8 Summit and ECOSOC session in June 2000. The first workshop will be held 3-4 May 2001 in Addis Ababa bringing together the members of the Partners for Information and Communications Technologies in Africa (PICTA), the African Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC) on the African Information Society Initiative and the representatives of the G8 DOT Force from South Africa, Senegal, Egypt and Tanzania. The second consultative workshop will be held in May 2001 in New York to provide input to the ECOSOC.

ECA has also scheduled a Heads of States 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". The Summit will take place in Morocco during the last quarter of 2001. The Heads of States and representatives of governments, civil society, the development community and chief executives of multinational private sector will consider how best to partner to implement the actions that were proposed during ADF'99 and subsequent national information society initiatives.

At the regional level ECA has been active in promoting regional strategies and networks. As part of the implementation the new African Telecommunications Union (ATU) constitution and as part of the follow up to African Development Forum (ADF'99), ECA a launched an African Regulators Forum during the ACT Summit in August 2000 in Sun City. The community of African regulators aims to share experience and best practice, to promote the development of accountable, transparent and inclusive systems of regulation and to address collectively major challenges limiting the capacity of the communications sector to contribute to the economic and social development of the region. ECA has also begun discussion with the African Connections programme to partner on the development of national information and communication strategies and in the expansion of the communication infrastructure in southern Africa. It is also collaborating with COMESA on a regional electronic commerce strategy and with SADC on development of its communication and knowledge management strategy.

III. Progress in the Development of Broad-based National Information and Communication Infrastructure Policies and Strategies

There was a significant progress on the development of broad-based strategies and policies since the 6th ICE meeting. Some countries have made notable strides in improving their telecommunications infrastructure. Assorted progresses were made in broad-based ICT policy formulation, in telecommunications regulation, liberalization and privatisation, in adopting electronic commerce strategies, in expanding Internet services and in setting up free zones for technology innovations. The following section highlights progresses made in broad-based information and communication technology policy formulation during the last twelve months.

Although they are not uniform, activities in the development of broad-based information society strategies were significant. Considerable achievements have been made in Mauritius. Other five countries including Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa, and Zambia have taken key steps that advanced their broad-based national information and communication policies. Botswana has recently begun a process towards IT policy formulation. Despite earlier efforts, progress in Malawi has been insignificant. Angola, Lesotho, Zimbabwe have made little progress in development of their broad-based national information and communication strategies.

Mauritius that had a fairly advanced broad-based information policy has been building on its achievements. Its parliament has passed an Electronic Transaction Act in July 2000 to provide appropriate legal environment for electronic transactions covering electronic contracts, establishment of Certification Authorities and standards to combat forgery and fraud in electronic business. The National Computer Board (NCB) that coordinates ICT policy has intensified implementation of ongoing projects in electronic commerce strategy, in information security guidelines, ICT standards, electronic government and the promotion of IT culture through coaching, seminars and workshops. NCB has also ongoing project for collecting analyzing baseline data to provide information on ICT market.

The ICT policy process of Mozambique is one that has attracted considerable attention within the region and internationally. Supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and based on the African Information Society Initiative framework, Mozambique has developed a draft information and communication technology policy that was approved by the Council of Ministers on 30 May, 2000 and validated in a series of national debates held all over the country between 18 June and 27 July 2000. ECA participated in the consultation process and provided input to the follow up to the policy implementation. The process was guided by a Commission for Information and Communication Technology Policy composed of Ministers or Deputy Ministers from concerned Ministries. An Executive Secretariat based in the office of the Prime Minister provided technical support. The ICT policy of Mozambique aims to:

· make Mozambique a relevant and competitive partner in the global information society;
· contribute to the war against poverty and improve quality of life in Mozambique;
· guarantee citizen access to the benefits of the global information society;
· improve governance and public administration;
· raise the efficiency and efficacy of state institutions and the usefulness of their services; and
· make Mozambique a producer and not a mere consumer of information and communication technologies.

It articulates economic, social and governance goals and identifies eleven priority areas in which information and communications technologies can be applied to accelerate development in Mozambique. The identified areas include education, human resources development, universal access, telecommunications infrastructure, governance, agriculture, natural resources, tourism, electronic commerce, health, women and youth and culture. In addition, it identifies a number of issues that will need to be addressed to support the implementation of the policy. This includes a national network of research institutions, a new approach to funding that takes the capacity of national budget into account and that identifies investment incentives for the private sector, the need to act in concert with regional and sub regional organisations on such issues as infrastructure and tariffs and implementation of strategies tailored to Mozambican realities.

Zambia was another country that followed a model similar to that of Mozambique. Zambia under the leadership of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services and through a support from the ECA engaged two local consultants that developed a draft working document for discussion. The document articulates the need for Zambia to emerge with broad-based information society policy with emphasis on the development of physical infrastructure, promotion of universal access, human resources development, by launching electronic government, the development of ICT sector and creation of jobs, harnessing ICTs by SMEs particularly the electronic commerce and the promotion of applications in education, environment, livelihood and health.

The first consultative workshop on ICT policy in Zambia was held 28 -30 March 2001 at Mulungushi conference centre in Lusaka. The consultation provided a number of key recommendations and action plans. A steering committee was extended to cover broad-based constituencies to move the policy process forward. Among the recommendations and action plans are building the capacity of regulators and the judiciary, carrying out baseline studies, setting up task forces and forums on electronic commerce development and on harnessing ICT in health and education, drafting an all inclusive ICT policy to be discussed and validated by the public and the parliament. It was noted that Zambia needs bold and long-term programmes to harness ICTs for wealth creation. Resource mobilization strategy is an essential component of the policy process of Zambia.

The Kingdom of Swaziland is another country that has taken steps towards ICT policy formulation following the 6th ICE meeting. The Kingdom through its Government Computer Centre has initiated various successful and ongoing ICT projects. The enabling environment has led to a flourishing private sector in ICT. Swaziland has the largest Internet Service Providers per capita in Africa. However Swaziland does not have an all-inclusive ICT policy.

Following 6th ICE meeting, the Kingdom of Swaziland made request to ECA to assist the formulation of its ICT policy. ECA undertook a needs assessment mission in October 2000. Hosted by the Government Computer Centre of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, the mission made a series of discussions with key stakeholders in ICT and development with a wrap up session on strategic direction to develop an ICT policy for Swaziland. This was followed by a first national workshop on ICT policy for Swaziland that was organized by the UNDP, UNESCO, ECA and the Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) in November 2000.

The workshop noted that a well thought and deliberate policy is vital for Swaziland to harness opportunities provided by information, communication and technologies for socio-economic development and to participate in the global economy. To achieve this, it was resolved that:

Swaziland needs to develop an all-inclusive crosscutting national policy on information and communication covering the media, telecommunications, and the information technology industry. Sectoral policies should arise from this crosscutting ICT framework and should be supported by detailed plan of action,
It is important to constitute a steering group on ICT policy drawn from the Information technology industry (ISP, government computer bureau), telecommunications and the media (SNAJ, Ministry of public services and information) to drive the policy formulation process,
It is crucial to follow a strategic and long-term process to arrive at a policy framework. Such a process would involve:

Conducting detailed baseline assessment on status of the media, the IT industry and telecommunications in Swaziland. To facilitate this process a team comprising media, IT, and telecommunications experts should be engaged to prepare a draft policy document which takes into account the outcome from the first seminar and the assessment;
Sensitisation of key constituents on the benefits of ICT policy for overall development of Swaziland;
Organization of forums for technical experts, parliaments, policy makers, etc. to consider draft policy document;
Conducting policy debate through public media (news papers, television, radio, roundtables, open lectures, community representatives, WWW, etc.);
Revision of the policy document;
Holding validation of the policy document through seminar, working shops involving all stakeholders;
Finalization of the policy document to be submitted for legislation.

ECA planed to undertake a follow up mission in June 2000 to move the policy process forward.

Namibia has also taken a step in ICT policy formulation by engaging international consultants to develop a comprehensive ICT strategy. A study that was commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Information and Broadcasting was completed recently for submission to the parliament and other parties for discussion and validation. ECA provided input to drafting of the terms of references of policy document and plans to assist in the validation of the policy document through wider public consultation. Namibia has a well-advanced telecommunications and Internet infrastructure. The ICT policy is expected to provide uplift to Namibia's progress towards an information society.

South Africa has also been active in formulating an ICT policy and bridging the "digital divide" nationally and globally. A development that has received a recent global attention was the announcement by President Thabo Mbeki on the establishment of two high-profile task teams to assist the government of South Africa in closing the "digital divide". Members include: Larry Ellison of Oracle, Carly Fiorina of Hewlett Packard, Esther Dyson of Edventure Holdings, Craig McCaw of Teledisc, Prof Manuell Castell of University of California, Serge Tchuruk of Alcatel, Rajendra Pawar of NIIT India and David Potter of Psion. The group is expected to advise local experts in expanding use of ICT for competitiveness in South Africa.

As a member of the global Digital Opportunities Task Force, South Africa has also been playing a considerable role in driving the policy process at international levels. South Africa is leading a Commonwealth expert group on digital opportunities which intends to develop proposals on practical programmes that bring partnerships between governments, international agencies, the private sector and civil society in the Commonwealth. This follows a decision by the High Level Review Group which is reviewing the role of the Commonwealth under the Chairmanship of President Thabo Mbeki, with the participation of the Heads of Government of Australia, India, Malta, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. The Expert Group plans to hold a series of meetings and develop recommendations for the consideration of the Commonwealth High Level Review Group, which will be reporting to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane, Australia, in October 2001.

The above significant efforts by Southern African countries in defining policies at national, sub-regional and regional levels are vital to outlining Africa's response to the challenge of globalisation and to nurture the emergence of an African information society. In one hand there is a need to sustain these efforts so as to continue to build integrated and iterative national policies that bring about significant difference to the society. On the other hand there is a need for nurturing concerted sub-regional strategies to create the building blocks for regional integration and cooperation, to influence international decision making and to promote digital inclusion.

ECA has a mandate to promote these efforts. Through its regional advisory service and ongoing programmes and projects in the ICT, the Commission plans to cover countries that have not initiated their NICI process so far. It aims to support and sustain ongoing ICT policy development in Southern Africa. Harmonization of policies and the promotion of partnership is another area of focus of the Commission during the next two years. ECA is also uniquely placed to link its widespread networks in African countries with organisations outside the region interested in lending support to Africa as the region grapples with the development opportunities inherent in the new information and communication technologies.