ADF Summary No. 12

Breakout sessions on Information Economy

Tuesday 26 October 1999

The sessions noted the need to discuss and debate what globalization can offer, and that Africans need to be part of the globalization process. The importance of analyzing policies and approaches with regard to globalization and the information economy need to be recognized and emphasized.

It was pointed out that for Africa to join the information economy, it needs to:

• Combine the economies of scale with competition;
• Improve the local skills to cope with the brain drain problem;
• Encourage subregional cooperation with centers of excellence;
• Establish a stable framework for investment;
• Communicate its input to the globalization process through international channels.

The following issues were noted:

• The need to establish a mechanism for cooperation and coordination in the area of electronic commerce among African countries (the role of African governments, the private sector and the regional economic communities will be crucial);
• Africa suffers from limited awareness of the relevance of ICTs at all levels. In addition, there are language barriers, a lack of skilled personnel, and high illiteracy rates;
• African countries need to define their priorities, and deal with urgent issues like the brain drain by focusing on skills development and the role of the private sector in professional training;
• There is need for donor support in scientific and technological training in Africa;
• There is need for significant negotiating capacity at global forums;
• There is need to recognize that leap-frogging is more complicated than initially thought, and that the gap between Africa and the rest of the World is still widening;
• There is a need for cooperative approaches to increase Africa’s competitiveness;
• There is need for a holistic approach to ICTs. And for governments to make ICTs a high priority;
• While there is a need for legal frameworks to ensure security and to protect privacy and intellectual property, care must be taken not to legislate creativity to death;
• State and governments have the important role of creating an enabling environment for private sector participation in the information economy;

On indicators for the Economy and their relevance to Africa it was observed that:

• There is a need to put in place mechanisms and the necessary organizational structures to gather information on the information economy;
• African governments need reliable statistical indicators to facilitate the process of planning the information economy and monitoring its impact and performance;
• Local content development and material in different languages is important for the growth of the African information society;
• There is a great need to focus on goals such as universal access before universal service, and recognize the difference between African countries in areas like community usage of telephones and televisions;
• Priority should e given to infrastructure development n rural areas and focus given to access at schools and educational organizations;

Among the issues emerging from creating information industries in Africa the sessions noted:

• The Diaspora is the biggest potential market for e-commerce in Africa. It has the purchasing power, access to credit cards/electronic funds transfer and willingness to use the Internet;
• Africa will not participate in global e-commerce without bandwidth improvements and liberalization of the telecom sector;
• Governments should develop clear and integrated strategy and partner with private sector to promote local access;
• Enabling environments are needed in order for the predominantly agricultural economies of African countries to leap from industrialization into a predominantly information and knowledge economy;
• There is need to develop appropriate educational and human resource development policies, plans and strategies for supporting the shift toward an information and knowledge economy

(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