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Information Technology Issues

Background

Q.What is the Information Age?

A. Information age is post-industrial and linked to the services and information sectors. In an economy dominated by the two sectors, labour services and information productivity are most effectively attained when service and information workers are motivated to work for and manage themselves. However, this is not the first time society has experienced information revolution. The introduction of the electric telegraph in the late 1840 caused an equal if not greater information revolution. Telephones, the telex, the fax, the Internet, all offer improvements over the telegraph.

Q. What is the information superhighway?

A. Information superhighway is a digital communications network that may be operated at national, regional or global levels using multimedia technologies. The technologies involved require high bandwidth to avoid network congestion hence the suggestion of a highway rather than a track or road.

Q. What is the Internet?

A. The Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks that allows information to be exchanged around the world. The U.S. military in the 1960s implemented the first networks. Today, millions of computers are connected through the Internet which is currently providing the means to exchange more information more effectively, than has ever been possible before.

Q. Why should Africa participate in the Information Age?

A. Africa’s rationale for participating in the information age is simple and strong: unless African countries become full actors in the global information, they stand the risk of being excluded from the emerging global economy or suffering severe disadvantage in the competitiveness of their goods and services. Participating in the information age offers many opportunities for African countries to "gain time on time"—to leapfrog over past development deficiencies into the future.

Information technology has created challenges and implicit solutions. The challenges involve adaptation of the technology to needs and the implied solutions are the possibilities of using the technology to attack the perennial problems of underdevelopment: poverty, low-productivity, inequality and environmental degradation.

A. African countries have to organize information for electronic access and dissemination. The areas covered should be as expansive as possible to be of use to international and external consumers. Many countries are not yet able to fully participate.

A. Africa’s access to telephones, computers and the Internet – with some exceptions – lags far behind other developing regions. For example:

Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants is 0.5 in sub-Saharan African countries (excluding South Africa) compared with 4.5 in emerging economies and 52.6 in industrialized countries;

Data terminals per 100,000 inhabitants is0.6 in sub-Saharan African countries compared with 6 in emerging economies and 111 in industrialized countries; and Internet hosts per 100,000 inhabitants is 0.1 in sub-Saharan African countries compared with 5 in emerging countries and 1014 in industrialized countries.

Q. What are the main challenges to the development and use Information Technology in Africa?

A. The major challenge is the adaptation of information technology to the continent’s development needs. In recent times, African leaders have sought o address three major development goals:

To improvement the quality of life of African people;

To integrate economies of the continent; and

To improve trade and other linkages between Africa and the rest of the world.

Information technology can be harnessed to improve economic performance, expand and sustain health services, promote education and research, enhance food security and gender balance in development, strengthen and diversify ties with trade partners, invigorate culture and tourism and alleviate man-made crises and natural disasters.

Q. What basic challenges must be overcome to adapt information technology to urgent development tasks?

A. African countries are required to formulate policies that facilitate the spread and use of information technology. Not all countries are willing to make the necessary policy changes. Information and communication infrastructure in many African countries is inadequate. Some countries are reluctant to involve the private sector in the information and communication sector. There is a low level of availability and use of computers in African countries. Africa’s literacy rates are very low and there is a great gender imbalance in education. In some countries there are high barriers to the flow of information and high import tariffs and taxes on information and communication technologies.

Q. What are the main information technology issues in Africa?

A. Greater Policy Awareness: A need exists for supportive information and communication policies. Policymakers must first sensitize potential users to the usefulness of information technologies to create support at all levels for policies favourable to the development of information and communication infrastructure.

Awareness of issues related to information and communication for the continent’s development can be raised through national policy and sectoral workshops, case-studies on the relevance of information technology to rapid economic development, its proper utilization, and the analysis and dissemination of "best practices".

Utilization of Information Technology: The crux of this is democratizing access to the information by providing relevant content and expanding communication services to rural and remote areas. Rural dwellers in Africa must be brought into the information age. One way to do this is through the establishment of multi-purpose rural community tele-centres and the development of replicable models.

Internet Connectivity: African countries, and areas within the countries, are gradually being connected to the to the Internet. More needs to be done to provide sufficient bandwidth using different technologies, as well as tackling of policy constraints.

Applications: African countries need to promote the development and dissemination of user applications in key sectors to strengthen the continent’s competitive position in the rapidly changing global economy

Training: Africa must build capacities for computer networking and for using information technology in development decision-making and sectoral programmes.

Creating partnerships: A number of actors are actively working to expand information networking and telecommunications systems in Africa. Building an information infrastructure is a requirement for building an information society. The organization and dissemination of African information resources or "infostructure" is important to African countries as they enter the information age.

Coping with the challenge of Globalization: To participate in the global economy which is heavily information based, Africa must have a clear appreciation of information economics and how it affects national economies and societies.

Gender Balance: There is need to actively involve and target women in development and adaptation of information technology in Africa. The African experience has been to sideline women in major transitions, be they economic technological or political.

Q. What will a country gain by putting additional resources into the information and communications sector?

A. The returns to investment in the information and communications sector in any African country promise to be high. Observing the impact of information technology on economies, Africa cannot afford to persist in a state of information poverty. Information technology, if properly harnessed, will help Africa bridge the information gap and will give impetus to faster development in virtually all sectors.

Q. Given the economic difficulties facing most African countries, who will pay for strengthening information and communications facilities?

A. Investment in information and communications technologies will more than pay for itself. The technologies will offer new solutions to challenges that have hindered economic development. Information technologies, when well designed, can be utilized to accomplish many development tasks.

In order to benefit from the technologies, African countries must create supportive environment for the involvement of the private sector in the strengthening of information and communications facilities. The countries also need to establish partnerships with parties and agencies that have shown interest in cooperating with them to strengthen the sector.

The strengthening of the information and communications sector will entail, among other things, establishing suitable policy and regulatory frameworks supported by competitive environment and private sector development. In a number of countries, the private sector is well positioned to take the lead in developing information-networking systems. In others, it may well take a combination of new policies and direct support by regional and international institutions to make networking a reality.

The ECA, World Bank, UNESCO, ITU, IDRC, ITU, UNCTAD Carnegie Corporation of New York and USAID, are actively working to expand information networking and telecommunications systems in Africa.

Q. What is the trend of reform in telecommunications in the Africa?

A. Countries in Africa region are undertaking significant reforms to develop their telecommunications infrastructure, increase their low penetration rates and provide better quality service to the public. Most countries have passed or are pursuing legislation to restructure their telecommunication sector to allow for new technologies and services, to permit competition in basic telecommunication, introduce private investment, and to establish a credible regulatory agency to oversee the sector.

Of the 42 ITU member states in Africa, 62 per cent have separated Posts from Telecommunications, and nearly 75 per cent have corporatized their telecommunication operators. Competition in on-basic services, such as data transmission, paging, and mobile cellular is now permitted in more than half of the African countries.

Q. What fundamentals are necessary to attract private investment in the telecommunications sector in Africa?

A. First, is realization by governments that in the rapidly changing global markets, telecommunications and information technology are critical in expanding output, productivity and market access. If governments hesitate in embracing the global communication revolution, their national competitiveness will be eroded and development opportunities will be missed.

Second, is acknowledgement by governments that the private sector is a critical player in the global communication revolution. If governments in Africa continue to monopolize telecommunications and information technology, access to capital, markets and technology, and the exploitation of new opportunities, the benefits of competition will be handicapped.

Third, is awareness by governments that the mitigation of actual and perceived risks is critical to attracting private investment. If governments fail to manage effectively the factors that affect these risks private investment will be stifled.

A. Given the direction of reform in the sector, an appropriate information technology development strategy for Africa should be based on a double set of inter-locking partnerships:

A public – private partnership based on greater outsourcing of public sector requirements for information technology services wherever possible to local private entrepreneurs to build competitive local markets; and

A foreign – local private sector partnership that involves encouraging and facilitating collaboration and competition between foreign and local private supplies of information technology services, including at the sub-regional and regional levels.

The African Information Society Initiative (AISI)

A. The African Information Society Initiative (AISI) is an action framework to build Africa’s information and communication infrastructure. ECA adopted it at the May 1996 Conference of Ministers. Its basis was Resolution 795(XXX) entitled "Building Africa’s Information Highway" adopted at the twenty-first meeting of ECA Conference of Ministers held in May 1995.

Q. What steps preceded the adoption of the Initiative?

A. ECA appointed a high-level working group on information and communications technologies in Africa to draft an action framework to utilize information and communication technologies to accelerate socio-economic development in Africa.

The high-level working group consisted of eleven experts on information technology in Africa. The group met in Cairo, Egypt, Dakar, Senegal and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and communicated further through electronic mail. The result of the group’s work was a document was a document entitled "Africa Information Society Initiative (AISI): An action to Build Africa’s Information and Communication Infrastructure." The document was submitted to the twenty-second meeting of ECA Conference of Ministers in May 1996 and adopted by Resolution 812 (XXX1) entitled "Implementation of the African Information Society Initiative."

Q. What is AISI been designed to achieve?

A. AISI is designed to adapt information and communication technologies to Africa’s development needs. It is about challenges and opportunities in an information age, and addresses the role of information, communication and knowledge in supporting Africa’s socio-economic development.

A. The implementation of the ASISI action plan takes place at the country level and begins with the development of national and communication infrastructure plans elaborated through programmes and pilot projects reflecting national needs and priorities. Cooperation between African countries is encouraged. Cooperative activities focus on institution building and human resource development through the establishment of national multi-purpose community information and learning centres, installation of Internet nodes in countries, and the development of training courses at sub-regional and regional training institutions.

Q. Under what framework is ECA implementing AISI?

A. ECA is a lead agency in the Information and Technology cluster under the SIA. The SIA uses country-driven strategies involving ownership by local stakeholders, largely government, in relevant African priority areas. ECA intends to catalyze a massive continent-wide effort to apply ICTs to the development needs of Africa by:

• Choosing for concentrated attention a limited number of programmes areas from the very broad array set forth in AISI;
• Mobilizing AISI partners effectively so that they contribute according to their comparative advantages and realize synergy by supporting a critical mass of well-focused activities in priority countries rather than dispersing their resources; and
• Focusing activities in a relatively few countries where there are strong national champions at the political level and policy and regulatory framework in a positive direction.

A. A thematic country-level approach concentrates effort and enhances odds of success. Notable successes in priority countries can serve as showcases to mobilize greatly expanded donor and member state commitment to AISI objectives and programmes.

Q. What are some shortcomings in AISI implementation strategy?

A. Several countries have approached ECA with interest in starting AISI activities. Choosing only a few might exclude some countries ready and willing to participate given the unclear criteria for inclusion. Will the selected countries be the ones with the best chances of success or those that already have a heavy inflow of assistance and start up activities such as Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda?

Q. What thematic priority areas have been identified?

A. Seven related thematic areas are considered priority under AISI:

• Awareness raising;
• Policy and regulatory framework development (including the development of national information and communication infrastructure plan strategies;
• Connectivity;
• Democratization of access with emphasis on the development and testing of multipurpose community telecentres;
• Training and capacity building;
• Sectoral applications concentrating in education, health, and electronic commerce; and
• Development of information that stresses African content creation, management and dissemination.

The order is relevant. Without awareness of benefits utilization of ICT can bestow on countries, policies and regulatory frameworks are unlikely to change, and national information and communications infrastructure will probably not be developed.

Q. Who are the AISI partners?

A. a) AFCOM International Inc.-Its core activities include hosting annual

conferences, providing consulting and training services to governments, international agencies, NGOs, and private sector organisations, implementing and managing telematics sector development projects in Africa, and publishing a bi-monthly magazine "Africa Communications".

1. African Networking Initiative (ANI) – ANI brings together a group of international organisations (Bellanet, IDRC, ITU, ECA and UNESCO) in an evolving partnership that aims to develop IT and networking activities in Africa.
2. Carnegie Corporation of New York - One of the Corporation’s major programme areas is support of science and technology for development. The corporation makes grants to activities that link science, technology and economic issues in developing countries.
3. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)- FAO works to alleviate poverty and hunger by promoting agricultural development, improved nutrition and food security. Through its Communication for Development section, FAO highlights the links between communication and the achievement of food security.
4. Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC)- An independent, non-governmental initiative involving diverse communications related industry leaders from developing as well as industrialized countries. The Commission was established in response to the recognition that traditional institutions and regulatory frameworks can no longer meet the increasingly complex challenges and opportunities afforded by globalized information networks.
5. Global Information Infrastructure Commission-Africa (GIIC-A) - A regional commission that was launched by five African members of GIIC and will advocate policies in favour of the development of information infrastructure on the continent. The new Commission will also champion pilot programmes to assist African development and to foster infrastructure. The structure of the South African based commission incorporates the learning and best practices from the global GIIC and is compatible with African realities.
6. Acacia Initiative of the International Development Research Centre - An international initiative established to empower sub-Saharan African countries as they apply information and communication technologies in furtherance of their social and economic programmes.
7. The Internet Society – An International non-governmental organization whose goals include development, maintenance, evolution and dissemination of standards for Internet and networking technologies. The Society works to foster growth of the Internet architecture and maintenance of an effective administrative process necessary for operation of the global Internet. The Internet society has promoted education and research related to the Internet and has assisted in internetworking. The Society assists developing countries to devise and implement Internet infrastructure and use, and collaborates with organisations, governments, and the general public to expand the use of the Internet.
8. Partnership for Information and Communication (PICTA) – An informal group of donors and executing agencies committed to improving information exchange and collaboration around ICT activities in Africa. It builds on the framework of the African Networking Initiative (ANI) and the African Internet Forum (AIF).
9. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNTAD)—Has developed the Global Trade Point Programme for establishment of trade points and web-based trade incubation centres. It is engaged in awareness raising, training, and provision of hardware and software, and Internet support.
10. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) –Is working on seven thematic priorities including " Industrial Information, Investment and Technology promotion".
11. United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) – Supports the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in Africa and has developed in association with partners a proposal for Internet training for strategic leaders, operations managers and technical managers in Africa.
12. World Trade Organization (WTO) – Has proposed and championed the "Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products" and has successfully concluded negotiations on market access for basic telecommunications services.

Q. What partnership is there between the ECA and relevant agencies in implementation of AISI?

A. The first meeting of AISI partner agencies was held in conjunction with the Information Society and Development Conference held in South Africa in May 1996. The agencies that attended were ECA, ITU, UNESCO, UNCTAD, the World Bank, and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). ECA proposed that the implementation of the Harnessing Information Technology for Development (HITD) cluster be expanded to incorporate AISI which has a country level implementation strategy.

Agencies in the cluster arethe United States Information Agency, the Carnegie Corporation, the Global Information Infrastructure Commission, the governments of Netherlands, Britain and Korea and the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.

Q. What are AISI coordination mechanisms?

A. In October 1996, ECA organized a coordinating meeting of partners in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The, objectives of the meeting were, to secure commitment of partners working together to coordinate the implementation of AISI/HITD activities, to set up regional mechanism to assist in development, coordination and follow-up of an implementation plan, and to develop strategies for resource mobilization.

ECA Conference of Planning Ministers discussed a progress report in 1997 at a meeting in Rabat, Morocco. The partnership group was enlarged to include all donors and executing agencies working to promote information and communication technology in Africa.

At a meeting held in Addis Ababa in October 1997, all members of the group accepted the AISI as the framework around which they would undertake information technology activities. The participants agreed to work collaboratively and reaffirmed their commitment to joint activities as a way to leverage resources and avoid duplication of effort.

A. Partnership with the private sector is one aspect of collaboration that is insufficiently developed to date. Collaborating agencies are currently in bringing the private sector on board.

A. The Global Connectivity Conference took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 2-4 June, 1998 under the auspices of AISI, as well as a follow-up on the Global Knowledge Conference hosted in 1996 in Toronto, Canada-- in June 1996. Over two thousand information experts from around the world gathered in Toronto to debate how information and communication technologies could help balance the scales of development between the developed and developing world. A follow up conference, Africa Telecom’98, took place in Johannesburg, May 4-9, 1998.

Q. Who were the co-sponsors of the Global Connectivity Conference?

A. Global Connectivity for Africa was co-sponsored by the World Bank Group, Information for Development Programme (infoDEV), International Telecommunication Union, African Development Bank and the Netherlands Government. The conference attracted the participation of private sponsors including World Space Corporation, Siemens, Ellipso, Teledesic and Iridium.

Over 450 leading figures in the area of telecommunication, including government ministers, representatives from civil society and the private sector attended the conference.

Q. What were the highlights of the Global Connectivity Conference?

A. The general theme of the conference was the impact of global connectivity on Africa’s development. The conference closely looked at the policies and regulations that spur growth and development of the information and telecommunications sector. Working groups discussed connectivity choices available in the market, attracting private sector investment for connectivity, implications of future developments in international telecommunications revenues for connectivity; applications of future developments in international telecom revenues for connectivity, and applications and downstream benefits from increased connectivity: lessons from Africa and elsewhere.

Q. What did the Conference recommend?

A. The conference recommended urged governments to revamp policy and regulation regimes by undertaking regular review of sector policies and regulatory arrangements to optimize the benefits available from the increased choice of technology. Governments, the conference observed, should strive to enact rules that ensure that any exclusivity granted should not restrict the choice available for new technologies and services and should facilitate the adoption of technologies that increase access to communication in rural areas taking into account the key barrier of affordability. Governments should endeavor to develop capacity to enhance development of local content, create room for the active participation of the private sector, and forge partnerships all round especially with groups that have hitherto been under-presented, such as women, users and rural communities.

A. Promoters of cable and satellite systems primarily want licences and other regulatory permissions. Some, such as the Global Mobile Personal Communication Services –satellite mobile systems—(GMPCS), want licences of a new type that may not fit with the existing licencing regimes. Promoters are looking for investors, but decisions to invest will be made by operators on purely commercial grounds.

Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa are likely to become bases for regional service providers. It is possible for international calls made via the satellite to by-pass the public network in countries without a GMPCS earth station. A prohibition on by-pass by GMPCS is not practical since systems do not know exactly where each call is emanating from. African governments need therefore to come up with practical and creative responses to the unfolding technological realities.

Q. How can regional co-operation enhance connectivity?

A. Regional co-operation is necessary to maximise the cable and satellite projects. Among operators, this co-operation is based on commercial interests, which makes a political framework for regional co-operation an un-necessary though desirable condition. National regulatory authorities can ensure an appropriate set of rules to govern access to and use of the infrastructure in each country, and can co-ordinate their activities to ensure a consistent approach throughout the region.

Q. What obstacles bar African women’s participation in the information revolution?

A. The main obstacle to African women’s participation in the information revolution is lack of access to relevant knowledge on a continuing basis about the chores they routinely carry out in areas of health, education, and food production and processing. Consequently, they are isolated.

Q. What action should be taken to ensure women’s participation?

A. The information revolution affects all aspects of economic, social and political activity; lack women’s participation in these fields must be addressed. Establishment of community information centres will greatly benefit women. Democratization of access to information involves opening and encouraging women participation in production and dissemination of information.

ECA recognizes the importance of harnessing information technology for development and is taking steps to incorporate women and the information technology sector development.

The Beijing Conference recommended that women be assisted and encouraged to form information networks that employ electronics and other new communications techniques.