Africa and the Knowledge Society
By Mercy Wambui, Communication
Officer,DISD, ECA
10 May 2004
ECA's Deputy Executive Secretary, Ms. Lalla Ben Barka was a key speaker at a High Level Panel on ICT and the knowledge-based economy, organized on the 60th Session of the Economic & Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Shanghai, China.
In her speech, she noted that Africa's current economic performance is raising hopes for a possible turnaround, compared to the stagnation of previous decades. Nevertheless, this progress is still fragile and may not be sustained if the gap between the information-rich and the information-poor nations is not attended to, and if the foundation of a sustainable Information Society is not consolidated.
She offered key examples on changes that have taken place in telecommunication sector of many African countries pointing to competition and growth of mobile cellular and wireless technologies that are now widely available throughout the Continent as an important first step towards Africa’s entry into the Information Age.
These, coupled with the work being done by ECA to implement national e-strategies through the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), have contributed to many advances. To date, more than 30 countries (out of 53 States) have embarked on such policies known as National Information and Communication Infrastructure – NICI plans, through the support of ECA.
Other highlights of Ms. Ben Barka’s intervention include the ECA-IDRC led SCAN-ICT initiative, which is funded by the European Union aims to measure, monitor and assess e-readiness and the impact of the Information Society. SCAN-ICT also measures progress made in several key sectors of the economy, including the possibilities of employment creation in a constantly changing world.
Eight years down and what are the lessons learnt in promoting the Information Society in Africa? She highlighted several issues:
Political will, strong political leadership and institutional support.
Education and capacity building as a prerequisite to creating an Information Society and ultimately a Knowledge Economy.
Awareness-raising, through outreach and dissemination of information to publicise achievements, best practices and experiences.
Participatory process and the involvement of all stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of policies and strategies.
Partnership mechanisms through linkages with strategic partners; and
Regional cooperation and harmonization of policies for investment in the ICT sectors of African states.
She urged for collaboration among the Regional Commissions especially in especially in assessing and measuring the impact of the K-Economy.
A full copy of the speech and background document distributed at the meeting are available on the AISI website www.uneca.org/aisi or send an email to Afework Temtime (atemtime@uneca.org) for a soft copy.