Mike Jensen
With the increasing recognition of the importance of the Internet in accelerating development, a number of recent initiatives have improved the prospects for wider access to information and communication networks in Africa.
One event which has helped to accelerate connectivity in Africa was the Addis Symposium on Telematics for Development in April 1995. It brought together more than 250 people comprising representatives from 38 African countries, 31 African ministries, and almost all the major forces in international computer networking development projects.
The recommendations it produced stimulated the Conference of African Ministers responsible for social and economic planning to instruct the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca)to set up a working group to chart Africa’s path on to the global information highways.
Hosted by the Egyptian Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Centre in Cairo and supported by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation (Unesco) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the expert group developed a framework document titled the African Information Society Initiative (AISI). It was adopted at the next meeting of the Conference of African Ministers in May 1996.
This, combined with the Abidjan African Regional Telecommunications Development Conference, created significant pressure from the ministries to urge their administrations to adopt appropriate regulatory, tariff and service provision policies.
A study on future information infrastructure activities in Africa was conducted through a collaboration between IDRC, BellaNet, Uneca, Unesco, and the ITU, called the African Network Initiative.
It identified a number of information and communication technology development projects in Africa. Many of these initiatives are part of the AISI framework sub-programme on connectivity, including:
l The UN Secretary General’s System-Wide Initiative on Africa, which includes a $11,5-million programme called Harnessing Information Technology for Development supported by the various UN partners.
l The $15-million Leland Initiative to provide about R2,5-million per country to develop Internet connectivity in 20 African countries in return for agreements to liberalise the market to third-party Internet service providers and adopt policies which allow for the unrestricted flow of information. Benin, Botswana, the Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe qualify for assistance.
l The ITU’s programme for Africa resulting from the R36,3-million profits from Telecom 95, as well as various rural, community telecentre, health and satellite projects emanating from the Buenos Aires Action Plan being conducted in co-operation with Unesco, the IDRC, the World Health Organisation and others.
l The IDRC’s Acacia programme, which has obtained R210-million to develop the use of information and communication technologies in communities in Africa.
l The commerce-oriented TradePoint initiatives of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), which has made Africa the priority region for the next two years. Unctad has obtained a commitment from the European Union for R165-million for the regional development of local trade efficiency networks in Africa.
l The InfoDev fund established by the World Bank, which has approved the R25-millionSouth African Telematics for African Development Consortium and the R5-million African Virtual University Project.
l Unesco’s Intergovernmental Informatica Programme, which (with Italian and Dutch funding)has already been executing the Research and Information Network for Africa project in about 10 countries, including Mozambique, Senegal, Swaziland and Zambia.
The Department of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands is considering funding high-bandwidth Internet connections to universities in eight African countries, including Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.
l The UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Africa Bureau has agreed to a R30-million fund to improve Internet connectivity in Africa, in a project called the Internet Initiative for Africa. The countries concerned are: Angola, Burkina Faso, Cap-Verde, Gambia, Mauritania, Namibia, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome et Principe, Swaziland, Chad and Togo.
The UNDP’s Suastainable Development Networking Programme is assisting with local telematics network development in countries including Angola, Cameroon, Benin, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique and Chad.
l USAid’s RCSA office and its Productive Sector Growth and Environment Office of the Africa Bureau has launched the AfricaLink project, which will fund equipment, training and some communications costs to connect about 100 African institutions to local e-mail service providers.
l The UN Environment Programme’s (Unep) Mercure project uses VSat [very small aperture terminal] technology to establish an environmental information exchange network in Africa. Unep is co- operating with ITU to examine the possibility of using the spare bandwidth of the network for other functions.
l The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs is proposing the Copine project to donate groundstations and transponder time to African researchers.
l The activities of the Agence de la Francophonie and related international organisations, which are providing support for information and communication technology in Francophone countries, most of which are in Africa. Recently the Afrinet project was launched, which will provide Web servers and related support to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Mauritania and Senegal.
In a programme called Prosud, the Afriweb project will provide training and support for 20 website builders in Benin, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal. Also, the Banque Internationale d’Information sur les Etats Francophones project will establish Web servers in Benin, Tunisia, Mauritius and Morocco.