Mail & Guardian reporter
Public and private forces in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry have come together to support the first independent, multiple-funded ICT policy and research programme.
The programme was initiated last year by a pledge from the director general of the Department of Communications and a call to other industry players to match it. This has resulted in commitments from a range of sector stakeholders, including the Internet Service Providers’ Association, the South African VANS Association, Transtel, Uniforum and Vodacom.
The programme will deliver an annual in-depth market study of the ICT and telecommunications sectors; an annual ICT, telecommunications and broadcasting policy and regulatory review; and an annual journal and occasional issue papers on topical developments within the sector.
Link Centre director Alison Gillwald, who will head the programme, said
research is critical to establishing the needs of countries and groups within them, and to conceptualising approaches that are likely to be effective in resolving country-specific problems.
“South Africa produces little in the way of independent, primary research feeding into the ICT policy and regulatory processes. Unlike other parts of the world committed to participatory policy formulation processes, there are no independent agencies contributing to these processes in the broader public interest on the basis of rigorous applied research.”
She said the programme would address the policy and regulatory challenges that face a relatively developed sector operating in a developing country and continent.
The aim is to integrate the programme into international research projects and draw on best practice and innovations in other parts of the world.