Partnership for eReadiness: working with a range of stakeholders

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  Partnership for e-Readiness working with a
range of stakeholders The AISI Experience
24 May 2006 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Aida Opoku-Mensah OIC, DISD/ECA
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Information Society A Development challenge

• Potential threats
• Tendency to expose and exploit inherent
  weaknesses in the economies of developing
  countries, particularly Africa
• inadequate legal and commercial frameworks
• shortfalls in education and knowledge
  development weak network services and
• Infrastructure
• Widening the disparities at domestic levels and
  internationally
• Consequently, new thinking on the relevance of
  Information Society to development

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Information Society A Development challenge?

• Realisation that digital gap in Africa represents
  a development gap, and also
• Information factor of production
• Critical factor in poverty reduction
• Important in socio-economic sectors, health,
  education, agriculture, etc
• ICTs useful tool in addressing all MDGs

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Partnership for e-Readiness AISI Experiences
G8 Responses Some G8 Governments initiatives to
bridge the digital divide and formally include
Information Society in development Cooperation
include Britain - CATIA programme (Catalysing
Access to ICTs in Africa (CATIA), led by
DFID Canada - e-Policy Resource Network
(ePol-Net) to provide regulatory, policy
and strategy expertise led by Industry
Canada - Connectivity Africa, led by
IDRC - Enablis, supporting ICT entrepreneurship
in developing countries France - ADEN
to foster use of ICTs in Africa through the
creation of a network of public Internet
access points Italy - E-Government for
Development to bridge social and economic
inequalities

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Partnership for e-Readiness AISI Experiences

• e-Policy Resource Network (ePol-Net)
• Initiated by the then Canadian Prime Minister
  Jean Chretien at the G8 African Action Plan in
  response to the New Partnership for Africas
  Development, NEPAD, in Kananaskis, Canada, June
  2002
• ECA is the African regional node ePol-Net
  Africa in partnership with Industry Canada and
  Canadian e-Policy Resource Centre (CePRC) given
  ECAs leading role in formulation of national
  e-policies in Africa
• ePol-Net addressing policy issues, regulations
  and strategies in areas such as e-commerce, legal
  and policy frameworks, telecommunications policy
  and regulation, internet governance, e-government
  and connectivity strategies

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Partnership for e-Readiness AISI Experiences

• e-Policy Resource Network (ePol-Net) proposed
  activities in the area of e-Education/Learning
• Needs assessment study in selected countries as a
  follow up to the ICT and Education Policies
  session to be held during the e-learning
  conference
• Assessment of e-learning challenges in Africa
  linkages with work of UNESCO
• Linkages with NEPAD/e-schools initiative Needs
  assessment study in selected countries will help
  determine e-learning requirements of African
  policy-makers and regulators, including Ethiopia

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Partnership for e-Readiness AISI Experiences
Ford Foundation

• Creation of the African Academia Research
  Network (ARN) Themes include enabling
  environment, African language and content
  development in the cyberspace, Information
  Society indicators, and ICT industrialisation
• Pilot Research Development in developing
  applications for e-Government and African
  language based on Open Source Software (OSS)
  (Addis Ababa University, Inter-University
  Council of East Africa (IUCEA) Universities of
  Nairobi (Kenya), Makerere (Uganda),
  Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) and the Jomo Kenyatta
  University of Science and Technology (Kenya)

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Partnership for e-Readiness AISI Experiences

UNESCO/IBCA

• Development of a set of standards and guidelines
  for teachers, educational leaders and policy
  makers to become aware of the role of ICTs in
  education

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Partnership for e-Readiness AISI Experiences
Government of Finland

• Academia Research Network (ARN) research and
  development activities in the areas of
• ICT Industrialisation (Mozambique)
• African Languages and Content Development
  (Cameroon)
• Information Society Indicators (Tunisia)
• Open Source Software (OSS) Localization and
  Health Commerce Information System (Ethiopia)

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Regional Action Plan WSIS/Tunis
Key Accra Commitments
Action Lines

Enabling environment
Regional sub/regional coordination
mechanisms Legal/regulatory framework for ICT
development in Africa
Infrastructure and access
Telecommunications backbones, exchange points,
expansion of infrastructure, especially to rural
areas Conducive policy and regulatory
environment Universal Access service
e-Strategies and Policies
NICI Plans linkages to MDGs, PRSPs Sectoral and
sub-regional strategies
Information Society Indicators
Collecting Information Society indicators to
measure ICT penetration, deployment and impact to
be used as input into the e-Strategies
elaboration processes Collecting indicators on
WSIS implementation
Capacity building
Human Resources for the KE training Institutions
Networks material
Partnerships between Universities / International
Organizations / Private sectors, etc. African
Information Networks for Research Innovation
Technological Research Open Sources Software
Research Development
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Regional Action Plan WSIS/Tunis
Key Accra Commitments
Action Lines

Internet Governance
Regional and Sub regional Governance issues
Legal Framework on e-commerce Digital
Transaction Security Spam Internet Exchange
Points AfriNic other Networks Managing CCTLDs
Develop and establish regional policy and
strategies for promoting African Language in the
cyberspace Promote research and development on
African Language in the cyberspace Establish and
sustain a broad program of capacity building on
African Language in the cyberspace
African Languages
Resource Mobilization Conferences Preparation of
Project Proposals for bilateral and international
partners Projects for the Digital Solidarity
Fund Creating Specialized and dedicated funding
institutions
Resource Mobilization partnership
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Beyond Tunis

• Implementation of Regional Action Plan post Tunis
• Challenges include
• National level and stakeholder commitments
• Involvement of RECS, NEPAD and AU and sustaining
  this
• Awareness of challenging and contentious issues
  financing and IG and African capacity to
  negotiate on these issues
• Limited knowledge on global ICT issues Internet
  Governance, IPR, security, e-commerce
• Linkages between global ICT policies and that of
  regional, sub-regional and national

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Beyond Tunis

• Partnership mechanisms for Regional Action Plan
• National Governments/stakeholders
• African Union/NEPAD
• RECs
• Partnership for ICTs in Africa (PICTA)
• ePol-Net Africa
• Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP)

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• AISI National Stakeholders
• WHY STAKEHOLDERS SOULD BE INVOLVED ?
• Sustainable involvement means participation
  follow-up
• Due to the rate of information society change
• Due to the fact that no one sector can deliver
  the complexities of sustainable development
  acting alone
• Due to the need to aggregate resources, share
  risks, cost and benefit, to ensure an inclusive
  information society
• Stakeholder networking and partnerships are
  overdue

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STAKEHOLDERS NETWORKING

• To enhance knowledge on e-strategies at national,
  sub-regional levels
• To increase their participations and their
  effectiveness in addressing e- strategies
• To help to develop trust, responsibility and
  adequate participatory mechanisms
• To promote ICT sub-regional cooperation and best
  practices transfer
• But this calls for risks avoidance and network
  maintenance strategies

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AISI Stakeholders Networks

• African Information Society Networks
• Media
• Youth
• Women
• Parliamentarians
• Academia
• Private Sector
• Civil Society
• Government

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Major regional and international ICT4D
partnership mechanisms

• Partnership for ICTs in Africa (PICTA)
• UN-ICT Task Force - Africa Regional Network (ASN)
• New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD)
• Bilateral/Multilateral cooperation
• Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP)
• G8 DOT Force Network
• UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development

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Partnership for ICTs in Africa www.uneca.org/aisi/
picta/

• Formed in 1997
• An important partnership vehicle for implementing
  the African Information Society Initiative (AISI)
• An informal network of donors and executing
  agencies committed to improving information
  exchange and collaboration on ICT activities in
  Africa
• Meets face-to-face once a year, and during other
  related events
• Information sharing through online discussion
  forum, website, database, and a monthly PICTA
  Bulletin

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Partnership for ICTs in Africa www.uneca.org/aisi/
picta/

• Members include multilateral, bilateral, and
  non-governmental partners, as well as
  representatives of the private sector and
  development agencies
• Membership open for all donors and executing
  agencies with substantive ICT programmes/projects
  in Africa
• PICTA members work together in implementing joint
  programmes and/or organising events
• Examples
• CEMAC regional conf - ECA, ITU, EU, La
  Francophonie, World Bank
• Bamako 2002 - Gov of Mali, ITU, ECA, La
  Francophonie
• SCAN-ICT ECA, IDRC, Norway, EU, Finland
• NICIs EU, Canada (ePolNet), Finland
• iConnect Africa ECA, IICD
• AISI Radio/Video Series ECA, World Bank, GTZ
• WSIS Accra ECA, ITU, AU, Gov. of Ghana
• WSIS Tunis SDC, GKP, ITU, Afr Govts, etc.

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Areas of interventions by major international
regional initiatives on ICTs in Africa
NEPAD
AISI/PICTA
UN-ICT TF
G8 DOT F
Enabling regulatory environment
Capacity development e-education
Network building resource mobilisation
National ICT policies strategies
Infrastructure Connectivity, access, and costs
Global ICT governance
ICT for health care
Business development, e-commerce SMEs
Content development
E-government
Information knowledge sharing
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Thank-You !
http//www.uneca.org/aisi/
aisi_at_uneca.org