ADF Panel Summary No. 5

Democratizing Access to the Information Society (Theme 4)

16:30 – 18:00, Monday 25 October 1999

Chair: Shuller Habeenzu, Director, Zamnet, Zambia;

Presenter: Aida Opoku-Mensah, Ford Foundation, Nigeria;

Panel: H.E. Arnaldo Valenti Nhavato, Minister of Education, Mozambique; Anriette Esterhuysen, Sangonet, South Africa; Ernest Wilson, Director, Centre for International Development and Conflict Resolution, University of Maryland, USA; Lalla Ben Barka, Deputy Executive Secretary, ECA, Ethiopia.

Objective: 

This presentation aimed to:

• provide an overview of how Africa is meeting ICT needs of different social sector: women, youth, rural and urban poor;
• present opportunities for expanding access through applications that meet social needs: food, health, education, access to income, and governance;
• bring out challenges for access, use and content; - point out successes in extending access, in Africa and elsewhere

Summary:

The discussions focused on the right to communicate as the very heart of the issue of access to the information society.  There was consensus on the need for visionary governments to drive and lead the quantum leap into the information age as well as visionary leadership in civil society and the private sector.

It was pointed out that policies are still being developed behind closed doors, with little or no popular participation in the formulation of policies and that increased effective access to policy making institutions such as WTO (as opposed to simple formal access) is imperative.

Despite the political will in many African countries to increase universal access toward benefiting the social sector, the requisite resources necessary to make it a reality remain a fundamental challenge.

There was consensus around the following:

• Access to the information society is increasingly bottom-up, demand-driven;
• The information revolution is not primarily about technology, but one that is political and institutional;
• Reducing the increasing technological and knowledge gap is only possible by opening the rules of the game, and increasing democracy to enable civil society participation in defining the policies;
• There is need to move toward increased access to the institutions that determine the rules.
• The expertise being developed by the youth needs to be harnessed;
• Money or technology will not lead Africa into the future, it is visionary leadership with constituencies that support that vision, leadership at all levels of government, civil society and the private sector that will make access possible;
• There is need to look at democratic best practices that have resulted in increased access;
• It is largely a matter of choice to democratize or not to democratize access.

The issue of profiling failures as learning experiences across the board was raised, particularly in light of mushrooming telecentres. Democratizing access must be based on a combination of different types of technologies.

(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
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