The Secretary-General's Special Initiative on AfricaI. Background1. Despite the widespread concern expressed by the international community about deteriorating economic and social conditions in Africa and the commitment of African governments to removing the obstacles to growth, current projections indicate that the prospects for recovery are still not in sight for the majority of countries and that unless urgent actions are taken, living standards could continue to fall in the region. 2. The agreements reached at numerous international gatherings such as the United Nations Conference on Population and Development, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the United Nations conferences on women, and at the Social Summit in Copenhagen earlier this year routinely single out the problems of Africa for special attention. The July 1995 discussion on Africa at the High-Level Segment meeting of ECOSOC is a powerful reminder of the depth of concern over and commitment to Africa. This solidarity with Africa is a continuing source of strength which needs to be challenged into further positive action. 3. It is against this background and recognizing that Africa represents the foremost challenge of global development and that "Africa is a test case for international cooperation for development and for the United Nations" that the United Nations Secretary-General Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali decided to launch this Special Initiative as a follow up to the Fall 1994 Administrative Committee on Coordination discussions on Africa. 4. In follow-up to that, on 9 February 1995 the Secretary-General requested that a system-wide effort be established "(1) to develop further practical initiatives to maximize the support provided by the UN system to African development and (2) to raise the priority given to Africa in the international agenda." He also established a Steering Committee to guide the exercise co-chaired by the Administrator of UNDP and the Executive Secretary of ECA. 5. Over the years, the United Nations has launched various initiatives in favour of Africa. UN-PAAERD and its successor the United Nations New Agenda for African Development (UN-NADAF) are but the two most recent. Efforts have also been made over the years to co-ordinate activities of the UN system in Africa through the System-Wide Plan of Action for African Recovery and Development. Within this framework, this Special Initiative must be seen as reinforcing and giving added practical expression to these important commitments. 6. If this Initiative has particular meaning and impact, it will be because the UN acts as a catalytic agent to implement its development cooperation with Africa in ways which have higher cumulative impact; to help mobilize significant resources from Africa's partners for the implementation of priorities which have very high development payoff, and to encourage the implementation of more focused and effective modalities of economic cooperation. All of the proposed work in this Initiative is designed to underscore the centrality of Africa's governments and peoples in their own development and their leadership in articulating their development priorities and courses of action. 7. Each of the proposals accepted in the initiative reflect the priorities enunciated by Africa's leaders and reinforced through the recent ECOSOC discussions on implementing the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990's (UN-NADAF). In fact, there is almost complete congruence between the priorities of African Heads of State and those identified in the Special Initiative. II. Content of the Substantive Initiatives8. Of the two charges to the agencies involved in fashioning the Initiative, most of the work has been concentrated on preparing actions to be spearheaded by UN agencies and organizations. These actions will serve as important, even catalytic endeavors, in and of themselves. In addition, and of considerable importance to the whole exercise, they will re-emphasize both the high priority of Africa to the UN system and will be examples to the whole donor community of how bold, pragmatic actions are possible and timely for both the UN system and other donors in partnership with African countries. 9. Category (A) represents those proposals that are both highly significant to the basic intent of the Initiative and which are ready for implementation now. These include proposals thought to have the largest potential impact as well as the most significant resource implications. 10. Another distinguishing feature of this exercise is that there has been a serious attempt by all parties to propose actions not for the record for impact. It is significant that financial leadership for what are by far the two largest proposals in the Initiative has been assured through the full cooperation of the World Bank. This partnership of the Bank with the UN agencies in the Initiative could well be an historic precedent well worth nurturing by all parties. Recommendation 1: It is recommended that the following proposals, known herein as Category (A) and presented in the order discussed in the report, proceed to immediate implementation as part of the Initiative:
9. It is recommended that a one year campaign be undertakenby the United Nations system on a "UN System-wide Special Initiative on Africa" to both make the case for increased international solidarity with and support of African development. The audience will in the main be donor leadership while also involving African political and financial leadership as participants in the campaign, particularly as related to their leadership of the major initiatives discussed below. **Proposed priorities: [extract] 4. Harnessing Information Technology for DevelopmentCategory (A) Proposal1. A number of African states, centres of commerce and learning in Africa as well as public and private donors (including UNESCO, World Bank, ECA, UNDP, IDRC, ITU, Carnegie Corporation of New York and USAID) have been actively working to expand information networking in Africa. In some countries it is clear that the private sector will take the lead in developing information networking systems, but in others it may well take a combination of new policies and direct support by regional and international institutions to make networking a reality. 2. The rationale for such support is strong. Unless African countries become full actors in the global information revolution, the gap between the haves and have-nots will widen, opening the possibility of increased marginalization of the continent. On the other hand, participating in the information society offers tremendous opportunities for Africa to leapfrog over passed development deficiencies into the future. African scientists and researchers can participate fully in the global scientific community through direct access to the Internet, the global network of networks. Throughout the region, particularly in rural areas, people will have dramatically increased access communications and information, accelerating and bolstering sustainable development. 3. Education, health and trade as well as regional and international cooperation will be vastly strengthened by enhanced telematics infrastructure in the region - at modest investment costs compared to those of any other sector. An increased flow of information also will increase Africa's participation in the global dialogue on issues such as the environment, human rights and democratization. 4. Most of the current constraints to African entry into the global information society lie in the area of policy, human infrastructure and culture. Africa needs visionary leadership to seize available opportunities and avoid increasing marginalization. It requires trained personnel to operate and utilize the new sy stems that will be introduced. Changes are also necessary in attitudes about information and its use- creating cultures that are information hungry and information sharing. 5. The UNECA and the World Bank and both undergoing internal re-examination of their approaches to key strategic issues for the African continent, placing information technology high on their priority lists. Other donors (including USAID, IDRC and UNDP) are also interested in this field and will be involved. The World Bank has launched InfoDev as a global initiative to facilitate the access of developing countries to the information revolution. This proposal is an African initiative that links up with InfoDev, the global initiative, and accelerates Africa's chances to take advantage of opportunities tand to prepare to face the challenges of the information revolution. In joining ECA in an effort to harness information technology for development under this proposal, InfoDev and the World Bank see an opportunity for great synergy. The proposal would try to address the following areas:
6. An estimated cost of $11.5 million would be involved. This programme would cover 20 countries in Africa. 7. The ECA and the World Bank in the context of InfoDev would work together as the lead agencies. Their first task will be to involve other interested donors as well as to establish a fully collaborative process with African governments. UNESCO, the International Development Research Centre (Canada), the Carnegie Corporation of New, the Global Information Infrastructure Commission and the Internet Society (USA) would be invited to participate. The initiative would work in close co-operation with the Africa Internet Forum. African countries which have taken a catalytic role in this area would join a Steering Committee for the project; these include Egypt, Senegal and South Africa. 8. Implementation of this priority proposal would entail the following proposed activities: National policy and sectoral workshops to intensify policy dialogue on obsolete regulatory frameworks. (Twenty national policy and sector workshops over three years). At national level, workshops would be held concurrently (1) for senior policy level officials (e.g., ministers of information, communication, prime minister's office) demonstrating the development potential of computer networking, to examine policy restraints in regulatory and pricing areas, taxes and monopolies on equipment; and for (2) potential private and public users in priority areas (especially health, education, trade, and environment) to demonstrate sector applications, expand Internet awareness and discuss current policy constraints, policy and pricing issues. Installation of Internet nodes with local servers, to provide all Internet services, with suggested modality of Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs, or small satellite earth stations) in 8 countries. Training systems engineers and operators and information users throughout Africa in computer networking. Regional training programmes for systems engineers and operators would be instituted. Users would be trained at national level. Establishment and operation of outreach electronic clearinghouse on African development information. The clearinghouse would use traditional and electronic dissemination techniques to furnish users with appropriate electronic information, stimulate continuing demand for it, and package available information into operational products in order to build local capacities to use knowledge. 9. Operating principles will include: encouragement of competitiveness and African private sector development in information service provision; necessity of policy reform in telecommunications deregulation to permit competitiveness and private sector participation in the provision of value added services and the licensing of VSATs; utilization of local resources and established information base; and encouragement of South-South cooperation through repatriation of skills of Africans trained abroad and technical assistance from other developing countries with experience in this area. |
Communication Team,
Economic Commission for Africa, P.O. Box 3001, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |