ADF Summary No. 10

The Response from Donors

Wednesday 27 October 1999

The donor community present at the ADF showed a tremendous amount of good will and promised continued support for ICT related projects and programmes, based on various discussions around the National Information and Communication Initiatives. It was made clear that the donor community is interested in supporting projects and activities around ICTs, but that the requests must come from Africans themselves. The World Bank, USAID, IDRC, UNDP, DIFD and the EU gave brief presentations on ICT projects they have supported, that range from providing basic connectivity, building capacity around e-commerce and provision of advice to governments in WTO negotiations.

With respect to the National Information and Communication Initiatives plans, the donors assured the session that they will continue to fund projects and programmes, as long as they are demand-driven, and that are simple to implement. It was noted that there must be an indication of learning from best practices across the continent to avoid repeated errors. Partnership with the private sector was underscored as was the importance of including a human resource capacity component in the national plans.

The session underscored the following:

• There is need to establish independent regulators and to ensure that plans are complemented by inter-regional synergies;
• Efforts should be stepped up to ensure that programmes cut across sectoral ministries;
• There is still a great deal of sensitization needed to bring the donor community into the loop around ICTs;
• Failures should be brought to the fore in order to avoid repeated errors in ICT implementation.

A number of proposals were made:

• African partners need to put ICTs on the agenda of national programmes for funding by the EU;
• The EU is ready to support NGO activities in the area of ICT training, and setting up of telecentres;
• UNDP is ready to support the establishment of gateways, regional and subregional hubs to bring down the cost of connectivity in the continent, as well as the establishment of points of presence and a whole range of pilot projects.

A plea was made to the donor community to better coordinate its activities in order to optimize and maximize the potential for ICT growth.

(END)

The full text of all speeches, statements, press releases and summaries are available on the ADF Home Page at: http://www.un.org/depts/eca   They are supported by video and audio clips of keynote addresses and other major moments. This site also includes the programme, list of participants, theme papers and other relevant background documents.

For more information on the Forum or to interview participants, please contact:

Peter da Costa
Senior Communication Adviser
Economic Commission for Africa
P.O. Box 3001 Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Tel: +251-1-51 58 26
Fax: +251-1-51 03 65
Cell: +251-9-20 17 94
E-mail: dacosta@un.org  or ecainfo@uneca.org
Web: http://www.un.org/depts/eca