| Progress
Report
August 2004 -April 2005
1. This paper outlines the work of the Infrastructure Development
Cluster since the 6th Regional Consultation Meeting held in
Addis Ababa, in July 2004.
I. Activities of the water
sub-cluster
2. The UN-Water/Africa conducted three-day intensive Regional
training workshops in Yaounde, Cameroon June 2004 (Central
Africa), Accra, Ghana on 15-18 September, 2004 (West Africa)
and Mombassa, Kenya 13-15 October 2004 (East Africa) on Geo-Water
Information development and management. The objectives of
the courses were to enable the development of an African Regional
Water Clearinghouse that will provide the basis for creating
regional community, bringing together educational, governmental,
nonprofit and commercial entities interested in water research,
conservation, and management. These workshops targeted decision
makers and technical personnel drawn from National and Regional
Institutions responsible for supporting Geo-Water Data Development
and Management. Similar meetings have been scheduled for (Southern
Africa) in Pretoria, South Africa on 2-9 March 2005 and (North
Africa) in Cairo, Egypt on 14-16 April 2005.
3. The first meeting of the UN-Water after the adoption of
its terms of reference by the 8th Session of the CEB High
Level Committee on Programs (Florence, Italy 15-17 September
2004) took place at the FAO Headquarters in Rome from 28 September
to 1st October 2004. The meeting was organized in two parts:
the first two days were devoted to discussions among the participants
representing UN agencies members of UN-Water, while during
the last two days “non traditional UN partners”
also participated in the meeting. Both senior UN and non-
UN participants attended the meeting.
4. The UN-Water/Africa and the Economic Commission for Africa
are planning to conduct a two-day “IWRM Implementation
Workshop” (7-8 March 2005) and a one-day seminar on
Gender and Water Resources Management issues to be held in
Pretoria, South Africa on 9 March 2005. The objectives of
this seminar are (a) to promote implementation of the African
Ministerial Commitments on gender and water (b) to initiate
policy dialogue aimed at developing a concrete action plan
for mainstreaming gender in all a activities developed in
Africa as part of the International Decade for action: “Water
for life” 2005-2015 and enhancing the role of AMCOW
towards achieving the MDGs (c) to create awareness for the
importance of mainstreaming gender in water management.
5. The project work plan of the Trust Fund for 2005 encompasses
the following outputs (1) Water sharing as an instrument of
Regional Cooperation in Africa (2) Development and Maintenance
of an African Regional information system on shared/transboundary
water resources (3) African Water Development Report (4) IWRM
Workshops (5) Human and Institutional capacity strengthening
of the IGWA Secretariat to execute programme (6) Inter Basin
Water Transfer Conference (7) International Ground Water Drilling
Development (8) Mano River Union/Volta River management of
shared water (9) Water, Gender and Public Health (10) International
Water Decade Activities.
II. Activities of the Energy
sub-cluster
6. Having been launched in Addis Ababa on 27 May 2004, at
the initiative of ECA, UNEA sub-cluster on energy held its
first meeting in Addis Ababa on 8 July 2004. UNIDO, UNEP and
ECA were designated as Chair, Vice- Chair and Secretariat
of UNEA, respectively. The second UNEA meeting was also held
in Addis Ababa on 4 November 2004 to review and adopt the
work programme of UNEA for 2004-2006. The work programme was
adopted based on presentations and discussions of 12 concept
papers. It was recommended that UNEA should actively engage
the non-UN organizations, AU/NEPAD and UNE Global to enhance
linkages between global and regional energy issues.
7. On 21-22 September 2004 in Douala, Cameroon, the Steering
Committee meeting of the first mini-micro hydroelectric power
project was held. The objective of the meeting was to assess
progress made by the experts in the feasibility studies and
propose modalities for the success of the project. 63 participants
attended the meeting from 11 African countries, ADB, World
Bank, UNDP, UNEP, UNIDO, KITE, E+Co, IEPF and the consultant
firms involved in producing the outputs.
8. As part of the UNEA work program, ECA and UNEP jointly
planned and started the implementation of the project entitled
“Making African Power Sector Sustainable”. The
objective of this project is to facilitate integration of
socio-economic and environmental concerns into the Power Sector
Reforms (PSR) in Sub-Saharan Africa for poverty alleviation.
The process of recruiting consultants for the project is almost
finalized, and the actual work is scheduled to start before
the end of February 2005.
9. As a subsidiary of UNE (global), UNEA participated to
most UNE (global) meetings. The last one was held in Noordwijk
on 12-14 December 2004. UNEA presented its work programme
to UNE and discussed the options for linkages between global
and regional energy issues.
10. In the months ahead UNEA has scheduled training activities
in Integrated Power Resource Planning to promote the application
of Integrated Resources Planning (IRP) principles, as part
of sustainable development efforts, in the planning of investments
in electricity supply industry, and in raising awareness of
African energy planners on the need to introduce IRP as a
means of ensuring the least-cost development of their power
sector.
III. Activities of the ICT’s
sub-cluster
11. Implementing the NEPAD Short Term Action Plan on Infrastructure,
ECA’s involvement in current NEPAD ICT activities is
related to the implementation of the Short Term Action Plan
(STAP) on Infrastructure, which was adopted in 2002.
12. Programmes on ICT Policy and Regulatory Framework
Harmonization at the Regional Level: In December
2004, ECA completed a study on harmonizing telecommunications
regulatory frameworks at the regional and sub-regional levels.
The regional framework would assist RECs in developing their
specific sub regional policies. ITU and various RECs were
consulted in the preparation of the document.
13. Programme on the Continental Initiative to Facilitate
the Utilization and Exploitation of ICTs: ECA initiated
the African SCAN-ICT Project to develop indicators to measure
the penetration and impact of the information society in African
countries. The pilot phase was carried out in Ghana, Ethiopia,
Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal and Uganda. The next
phase of the programme was launched on 1st February 2005 in
Accra to include the following countries: The Gambia, Niger,
Nigeria, Mauritius, Tanzania, Sudan and Tunisia. Other UN
agencies, such as UNDP, have been involved in assisting countries,
i.e. Malawi.
14. In the framework of E-strategies, ECA is currently working
with the following countries to develop their National Information
and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plan: Cameroon, Democratic
Republic of Congo, The Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Nigeria, Swaziland
and Tanzania. Requests have been received in January and February
2005 from the Mano River Union countries, such as Guinea,
to update the NICI plan, and Sierra Leone to develop the entire
e-strategy. Sectoral e-Government strategies are being developed
in Ghana and Rwanda, while a needs assessment mission was
carried out in Uganda for an e-Government project. In the
meantime, an e-health strategy was developed for Uganda and
is expected to be validated by the country in the coming months.
15. The African Regional Tele-education Initiatives:
The focal point of the VarsityNET project at the Addis Ababa
University completed the development of an Open Source Software
application on Amharic language to be used by local administrations
in Ethiopia. A stakeholders’ workshop was organized
in Addis Ababa in February 2005 to develop and adopt a dissemination
strategy. The Academia Research Network (ARN) for the World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) has developed several
plans of action on priority research areas, such as Indicators,
African Languages, Industrialization and Creating an Enabling
Environment for implementation by the network nodes and presentation
during the second phase of the WSIS to be held in Tunis, November
2005.
16. Programme to Enhance Africa’s Participation
in the Global ICT Policy and Decision Making Fora:
An online discussion list for members of the sub-cluster on
ICT was set up by ECA and is currently running for sharing
of information, exchange of ideas and coordination of activities
on NEPAD ICT issues.
17. ECA organized several activities in the framework of
the WSIS since July 2004. The African Regional Preparatory
Conference for the second phase of the WSIS was convened in
Accra, Ghana, from 28 January-4 February 2005 under the umbrella
of NEPAD. The Conference renewed the African Regional Bureau
by strengthening it with new members and confirmed ECA’s
role as the secretariat to the Bureau. In this regard, the
activities of the Bureau will be coordinated by ECA up to
the second phase of the WSIS to be held in Tunis in November
2005.
18. As the secretariat of the African Ministerial Committee
on Information and Communication Technologies, ECA organized
and facilitated two of its meetings during the Accra conference.
During the first meeting of the Committee, it was agreed that
ECA would continue hosting the secretariat and provide technical
support for its meetings. And during the second meeting of
the Committee, its membership was extended from 8 to 15 countries.
Also, the Committee adopted the African common position for
Tunis 2005, known as the “Accra Commitments” together
with several resolutions including the Digital Solidarity
Fund. Finally tasks were assigned to Ghana, Senegal and Tunisia
to lead the African Position during the Tunis phase of the
WSIS.
19. As the secretariat of the African Group, ECA is currently
facilitating in Geneva various negotiations among the African
Group and between the African Group and other continents on
WSIS issues, namely the Working Group on Internet Governance
(14-17 February 2005) and the second Preparatory Committee
for the WSIS (17-25 February 2005). We hope that this would
result in commitments and cohesion of the African Group in
thinking together and speaking in one voice during the current
WSIS Preparatory Committee.
IV. Activities of the Transport
sub-cluster
20. Policy development and implementation through SSATP:
As part of the activities on transport facilitation programme,
ECA has been studying how to provide affordable and efficient
use of corridors in Africa. In light of this, ECA has put
at the disposal of member States a publication on best practices.
21. ECA and the SSATP programme in collaboration of the Government
of Ethiopia organized the Annual General meetings of Sub-Saharan
Africa Transport Programme (SSATP). The meeting took place
on 27-31 September 2004. The main findings of the meeting
included: improvement in the level of collaboration between
the RECs and SSATP; increased participation of countries in
the programme (33 countries joined the SSATP in 2004); increase
in the number of partners; and the inclusion of road safety
in SSATP action plan. The meeting has identified priority
activities to be implemented as part of corridors development
and increase of movement of people and goods. The adopted
programme was presented to development partners in Brussels,
on 1-2 December 2004.
22. ECA, SSATP and the RECs held a joint technical coordination
meeting on 1-2 February 2005, in Addis Ababa. The theme for
the meeting was on “Transport Facilitation.” The
meeting reviewed the RECs “transport action plan”
within the framework of SSATP. The RECs transport coordination
committee was set up, to coordinate the transport programme
between the RECs and SSATP. The RECs transport programme focuses
on the development of corridors, which is also part of NEPAD
agenda.
23. ECA, AU and SSATP organised a technical committee meeting
in Addis Ababa, from 14-15 February 2005, at which a document
on “The role of transport in achieving the MDGs”
was reviewed. This meeting was held in preparation for an
African Transport Ministers’ conference on 4-8 April
2005.
|
Infrastructure Development