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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published
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Africa: Connectivity Conference
Africa: Connectivity Conference
Date distributed (ymd): 980615
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +economy/development+
Summary Contents:
This posting contains the recommedations from a conference on Global Connectivity
for Africa in Addis Ababa on June 1-4, 1998. It also contains a communique
by the Africa network of the Association for Progessive Communications
(APC).
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Global Connectivity for Africa Conference
Addis Ababa
2 - 4 June 1998
Summary of Recommendations
For the Programme, Issues Paper, and other background Conference information,
please visit:
http://www.un.org/depts/eca/globalc/index.htm
or http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi/globalc/index.htm
The sites were updated regularly during the conference.
For more information, please contact:
Peter K.A. da Costa
Senior Communication Adviser
UN Economic Commission for Africa
P.O. Box 3001 (official) or 3005 (personal) Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251-1-51 58 26 (direct) or: +251-1-51 72 00 ext. 35486 Fax: +251-1-51-22-33
E-Mail: [email protected],
[email protected], or [email protected]
http://www.un.org/depts/eca
Please find as follows a summary of the recommendations that emerged
from Global Connectivity for Africa (GCA), a three-day conference which
ended today in Addis Ababa. A full conference report will soon be available
on the ECA and African Information Society Initiative (AISI) websites (see
below for urls). The websites also feature the Programme, an Issues Paper,
Summaries of the plenaries and working sessions, Opening statements as
well as other Background conference documents.
The conference was hosted and sponsored by the Economic Commission for
Africa (ECA), the World Bank Group, the Information for Development Programme
(infoDEV), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the African
Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of the Netherlands. The WorldSpace
Corporation, Siemens, Teledesic, RASCOM and Iridium co-sponsored from the
private sector.
The gathering -- the first regional follow-up to last year's Toronto
Global Knowledge Conference - brought together some 400 market leaders
in the field of communications around the common goal of discussing and
examining projects that could impact positively on the growth and developmental
impact of public telecommunication networks in Africa. More than 30 Communications
ministers attended, along with civil society and private sector representatives.
Policy and Regulation
- Regularly review sector policies and regulatory arrangements to optimize
the benefits available from the increased choice of technology;
- Licensing policies need to be adapted to facilitate the take up of
the services that will be provided over new infrastructures;
- Technical by-pass is inevitable - it can be accommodated without losses
to national operators;
- Regulatory intervention is needed to ensure that consumers benefit
from the reduced cost of international access;
- Rules are needed to ensure that any exclusivity granted should not
restrict the choice available of new technologies and services;
- Awareness-raising programs on changes in the accounting rate regime
should be intensified;
- Governments and regulators need to develop specific strategies to cope
with the changing accounting rate regime;
- Immediately introduce policies to address the Year 2000 (Y2K) problem.
- The efforts of African Communications ministers in defining a road
map for establishing the infrastructure needed for Africa's Information
Society (as outlined in the 'African Connection' document) was commended
and should be widely supported. Endorsement should be sought from Heads
of State for this initiative.
Access
- The new technologies increase options to improve access to communications
rapidly, especially in rural communities;
- Explicit strategies need to be developed to implement and sustain access
(regulatory issues, user and community involvement, design of appropriate
projects, funding);
- Affordability is one of the key barriers - organizing the sharing of
facilities can overcome the high cost of access in rural areas (e.g payphones,
telecentres, community information centres);
- Universal service obligations need to be reformulated in concrete terms
in the light of options now available (e.g. more specific requirements
for rural service);
- There is a need for specific programmes to support indigenous content
development, with the support of the private sector;
Capacity Building
- There is a need for more and better information on the availability
and impact of the new technologies in Africa;
- Ensure that training institutions in the sector, including the Centres
of Excellence, address connectivity issues;
- Sector regulatory bodies should share experiences and develop common
approaches on connectivity issues;
- Establish an Africa-wide initiative to train ICT operators, and integrate
African universities in the process as a fast track to improve capacities;
- There is a need for improved knowledge on the connectivity options
and a continuous need for updating available information.
Financing
- The financing of the connectivity projects should be undertaken primarily
by the private sector;
- Opportunities should be created to allow local financial participation,
including micro-credit facilities in rural areas;
Partnerships
- Existing forms of partnership need to adapt, and new forms need to
emerge, to accelerate and optimize the development potential of these technologies:
- greater participation by groups previously under-represented, such
as women, users and communities;
- regional and sub-regional cooperation;
- public/private partnerships;
- support from development partners;
- foreign/local partnerships.
- Establishment by ECA of a forum for African Communications ministers
to maintain the momentum on the positive dialogue and monitor progress
in the development of an African Information Society.
(END)
Please find as follows a communique issued on 04 June 1998 by the Africa
network of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), a global
umbrella of non-profit networks stressing issues related to Information
Technology for Development and emphasizing the primacy of content over
technology for its own sake.
For more information about APC, APC-Africa and the Women's Networking
Programme, please contact: Marie-Helene Mottin-Sylla, [email protected].
[The APC web site is at http://www.apc.org]
APC Africa Communique
Addis Ababa, 4 June, 98
Substantial development in electronic networking has been seen in Africa
since the 1997 APC Africa Strategic Meeting (Johannesburg, 1997). Many
of us in Africa, who work in electronic networking for sustainable development,
welcome the blooming of Internet access in the continent, and the increase
and diversification of exchanges that have happened among partners.
We work in a variety of roles in the development sector that support
hundreds of thousands of users. Our goals are and remain to improve access,
utilization and self-appropriation of low cost communications technologies
and applications, particularly by the under-privileged -- women, rural
people and those who live in poverty. APC aims to facilitate the flow of
high quality and demand-driven content, develop tools that help to improve
the quality of life for all, as well as provide the space that enables
users to shape their future.
On the occasion of the 'Global Connectivity for Africa' Conference hosted
by the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa from 2 - 4 June 1998,
we wish to reiterate the need for awareness in the following key areas:
Enabling environment:
We reiterate the need to apply Information and Communications Technologies
(ICTs) for development in a supportive political and socio-economic environment
that is based on the right to communicate. Open forums should be organized
at national and regional levels to bring users, civil society, private
sectors, and policy makers together to discuss issues and to chart the
path towards building an information society that is beneficial for Africa.
ICTs in Education:
Human resources development and improvement of people's quality of life
are core to any development activity. ICTs need to be recognized in this
present day as essential tools for development in Africa. Sustainable development
cannot be achieved without integrating ICTs in school curricula for boys
and girls.
Content production:
African users, young and old, women and men should be encouraged and supported
to develop relevant content pertaining to their realities and needs. Electronic
production processes should interface with culturally-based methods of
communication such as oral traditions.
Information facilitators - a growing necessity: Electronic information
is growing exponentially thus rendering the importance of information facilitators
that are sensitized and committed to the developmental realities and needs
of the local constituencies within which they operate. Support for the
growing number of African information facilitators should be made a priority
in development activities.
Private sector commitments for sustainable development: The growing
participation of the private sector in promoting connectivity in the continent
is encouraging. We welcome the commitments made by segments of the private
sector to improve connectivity for 80% of the populations that live in
rural areas as well as those living in poverty. We urge the private sector
to work closely with development actors on the ground in order to ensure
strategic users are not left out. We also commit ourselves to monitoring
the extent to which this interest and in some cases promise, will be realized.
Addis Ababa, 4 June, 1998
Signed: Africa Network members.
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the Africa
Policy Information Center (APIC), the educational affiliate of the Washington
Office on Africa. APIC's primary objective is to widen the policy debate
in the United States around African issues and the U.S. role in Africa,
by concentrating on providing accessible policy-relevant information and
analysis usable by a wide range of groups individuals.
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