Connect Africa Summit adopts five goals to bridge the digital divide in Africa

Addis Ababa, 6 November 2007 (ECA)- The Connect Africa Summit which took place in Kigali, Rwanda, on 29 - 30 October 2007, ended with the adoption of five goals to bridge the digital divide in Africa.

The Summit, which was held under the patronage of the President of Rwanda, Mr. Paul Kagame, gathered over a thousand participants from 54 countries, including six Heads of State and Government. Forty-three countries in Africa were represented, including 23 at the Ministerial level.

Twenty leading companies also participated along with development banks, international organizations and other stakeholders. The UN Under Secretary General for Economic Affairs, Mr. Sha Zukang, represented the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Mrs. Lalla Ben Barka, the Deputy Executive Secretary of ECA, represented the Executive Secretary, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh.

The following five Connect Africa Goals were adopted at the end of the Summit:

•  Goal 1: Interconnect all African capitals and major cities with ICT broadband infrastructure and strengthen connectivity to the rest of the world by 2012.

•  Goal 2 : Connect African villages to broadband ICT services by 2015 and implement shared access initiatives such as community telecentres and village phones.

•  Goal 3: Adopt key regulatory measures that promote affordable, widespread access to a full range of broadband ICT services, including technology and service neutral licensing/authorization practices, allocating spectrum for multiple, competitive broadband wireless service providers, creating national Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) and implementing competition in the provision of international Internet connectivity.

•  Goal 4 : Support the development of a critical mass of ICT skills required by the knowledge economy, notably through the establishment of a network of ICT Centres of Excellence in each sub-region of Africa and ICT capacity-building and training centres in each country, with the aim of achieving a broad network of inter-linked physical and virtual centres, while ensuring coordination between academia and industry by 2015.

•  Goal 5: Adopt a national e-strategy, including a cyber security framework, and deploy at least one flagship e-government service as well as e-education, e-commerce and e-health services using accessible technologies in each country in Africa by 2012, with the aim of making multiple e-government and other e-services widely available by 2015.

To help achieve these goals, many participants announced major commitments on the occasion of the Connect Africa Summit, totaling approximately US$55 Billion.

The meeting was organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the African Union, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the World Bank Group, the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Telecommunication Union (ATU) and the Global Digital Solidarity Fund.

During the two-day Summit, delegates participated in a series of interactive sessions, debating issues related to the themes of broadband ICT networks, rural connectivity, capacity building, applications and services, and the enabling environment. ECA and GAID were in charge of the panel on “ Capacity Building, Applications and Services” .

The objective of the Connect Africa Summit was to mobilize the human, financial and technical resources required to bridge major gaps in information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure across the continent, with the aim of supporting affordable connectivity and applications and services to stimulate economic growth, employment and development throughout Africa.

In doing so, the Summit also aimed to help accelerate the implementation of the connectivity goals of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and in turn, support the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa, building on and reinforcing existing activities, such as the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), the NEPAD Short Term Action Plan on Infrastructure and the African Regional Action Plan on Knowledge Economy (ARAPKE).

To prepare for the Summit, ECA in cooperation with the Canadian e-Policy Resource Centre (CePRC) and in partnership with the African Union, the Internet Society, ICANN and the Open Society for Southern Africa, organized two parallel workshops respectively on “ Regulation and Public Access” and “ Internet Governance” on 24-25 October which were attended by over 100 policymakers and stakeholders from member States. The workshops adopted a series of recommendations, which were delivered at a Ministerial Meeting of African Governments held on 26 October.

For more information, please contact: mfaye@uneca.org