ICT For African Development

Information and
Communications
Technologies for African
Development
An Assessment of Progress
and the Challenges Ahead
Information and
Communications
Technologies for African
Development
An Assessment of Progress
and the Challenges Ahead
Edited with Introduction by

Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr. Ph.D.
President & CEO, Telecom Africa Corporation
Preface by
José María Figueres
Chairman, UN ICT Task Force
A Publication of the
United Nations ICT Task Force
Copyright © 2003 United Nations ICT Task Force
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to acknowledge and thank Mr. Sarbuland Khan, the Director of

the Division for ECOSOC Support and Coordination, Dr. Pekka Tarjanne,
the Executive Director of the UN ICT Task Force and Dr. Sergei
Kambalov, Deputy Executive Coordinator, and the Secretariat of the UN
ICT Task Force, for the opportunity to put together this volume, which
defines with clarity the way forward for the deployment of information
and communications technology for Africa’s development. Thanks are
also due to Nema Elsayed, Sireen Hajj and Begi Hersutanto, interns at the
Task Force Secretariat, for their input, especially in assisting in compiling
the Appendix on very short notice; and to Jim Eshinger, Senior Graphic
Designer, Department of Public Information, United Nations, for
indulging me in creating for this book a cover design, which attempts to
capture at a glance, the various forces that Africa seeks to simultaneously
master, and their graphic juxtaposition. The image of Africa rising above
the clouds is how I see the pulse of our continent, and the spirit that is
emerging from deep inside the people of Africa today.
I also wish to thank all the contributors to this volume for the
priviledge and pleasure of the opportunity to bring their ideas together
under one cover, so that together we can provide an extraordinary
compendium, which I am confident will serve a wide range of strategic and
v
vi ✦ Information and Communications Technologies for African Development
intellectual purposes. Their graciousness in responding to our impossi-

ble deadline will always be remembered.
Special thanks are due His Excellency, Mr. Kofi Annan, the Secre-
tary-General of the United Nations for his leadership and passion for
placing ICT in the service of development, and especially to advance his
Millennium Development Goals. Special thanks also to my friend, H. E.
José María Figueres, Chairman of the UN ICT Task Force, Managing
Director of the World Economic Forum and former President of the
Republic of Costa Rica. His passion for engaging the promise of ICT in
aid of Africa’s development, a passion which I have had the pleasure of
experiencing first-hand in enlightened dialogue, provides a refreshing
input to the concerted response to the African challenge.
I have reserved particular acknowledgement, thanks and special
gratitude to Ms. Enrica Murmura of the UN ICT Task Force Secretariat,
to Ms. Josephine Ofili, General Manager at Telecom Africa Corporation
and Assistant Editor of our sister company, Third Press Publishers, and
Ms. Carletta Burch for support and for their indefatigable efforts against
all odds for the publication of this volume in a timely manner.
The individual contributors wish to acknowledge and thank all
those who provided support, assistance, and encouragement for their
contributions. Permit me to add my vote of thanks to theirs.
CONTENTS
Preface by José María Figueres, Chairman, UN ICT Task Force xi
Information And Communication Technologies:

A Priority For Africa’s Development—A Statement by
Kofi A. Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations xv
Introduction Information and Communications Technologies

as a Tool for African Self-Development:
Towards a Re-Definition of Development 1
J O S E P H O . O K PA K U , S R .
Chapter One Background on Information and Communications

Technologies for Development in Africa 23
Chapter Two Restoring Africa’s National Space 47

ALPHA OU MAR KONARÉ
Chapter Three The Current Status of Information and

Communications Technologies in Africa 55
MIKE JENSEN
Chapter Four Information and Communications Technologies in

the Service of Development: The New
Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) 79
H . E . A B D O U L AY E W A D E
vii
viii ✦ Information and Communications Technologies for African Development
Chapter Five The United Nations Information and

Communication Technologies Task Force 87
P E K K A TA R J A N N E
Chapter Six Information and Communication Technologies

as an Instrument to Leverage the Millennium
Development Goals 95
SARBULAND KHAN
Chapter Seven The Role of Information and Communications

Technologies in the African Development Agenda 105
Chapter Eight Regional Information and Communications

Technologies Developments in Africa—
The AISI Perspective 125
K A R I M A B O U N E M R A B E N S O LT A N E
Chapter Nine Info-communication for Development in Africa:

The African Connection Initiative 151
EMMANUEL OLEKAMBAINEI AND
M AV I S A M PA H S I N T I M - M I S A
Chapter Ten Africa’s Digital Rights 175

N I I N A R K U Q U AY N O R
Chapter Eleven Building the Digital Bridge—-Challenges,

Opportunities and Strategies 203
Chapter Twelve Digital Bridge to Africa:

The Digital Diaspora Network for Africa 223
A K H TA R B A D S H A H AND JUSTIN THUMLER
Chapter Thirteen Tip-toeing Across the Digital Divide:

African Entrepreneurs Applying, Adapting and
Advancing Appropriate Information Technologies 241
C R O C K E R S N O W, J R .
Contents ✦ ix
Chapter Fourteen From Technology Transfer to Strategic

Acquisition of Technological Capabilities:
Lessons from African ICT Firms 251
GILLIAN M. MARCELLE
Chapter Fifteen Towards a Road Map for Information and

Communications Technology Development
in Africa 285
Appendix I UN ICT Task Force Initiatives in Africa 299
Appendix II Shortlist of ICT for Development Initiatives in Africa 303
Notes on Contributors 331
Index 337
P R E FAC E José María Figueres
Chairman, United Nations
ICT Task Force
The information revolution has not only changed the world as we know
it, but also its future potential. Information and Communication Tech-
nologies, with their major technological leaps, have affected the lives and
lifestyles of people across the globe, as well as the way institutions and
organisations do business. In their wake, jobs have been created, busi-
nesses expanded, and life for many people has improved. However, not
all outcomes of the spread of information technologies have been posi-
tive. A majority of the world’s population, especially those who live in
poverty, have been largely bypassed by this revolution. Least developed
nations, and rural societies, in particular, are in danger of falling further
behind in this information age. The gap between them and the rest of the
world has expanded precisely as a result of the facilitating capacity of
these technologies for those who have access to them.
Nowhere is this digital divide more pronounced than in countries
of the African continent. Africa is the most unconnected, in an increas-
ingly connected world. Yet, given the broad spectrum of development
xi
xii ✦ Information and Communications Technologies for African Development
challenges, including fighting diseases, famine and poverty while striv-

ing for socio-economic, technological and industrial development and
the promotion of its vast material and intellectual resource and cultural
heritage for global competitiveness, ICTs offer a remarkable opportu-
nity and set of tools for achieving substantive progress.
It is in recognition of this unique opportunity to support Africa’s
drive for self-development that the Secretary-General of the United
Nations, His Excellency, Mr. Kofi Annan, in creating the United Nations
ICT Task Force, called on its members and the global ICT community at
large, to mobilise all available resources through a holistic public/private
partnership to deploy the full range of ICT capacities in pursuit of the
UN Millennium Development Goals.
From its inauguration, the Task Force, assisted by the United Nations
system, has joined forces with leading African experts in the ICT field,
African political leaders and their global counterparts, regional and
international development institutions, and, most especially, the public,
private and academic sectors, and civil society, in Africa and abroad, in a
concerted effort to respond to the Secretary-General’s clarion call. In
doing so, the Task Force has taken its cue from the priorities and targets
Africans have themselves established for their countries in this enor-
mous undertaking.
A major part of this effort has involved taking stock of what is, what
needs to be, and the strategies and scenarios for making it happen. This
has engendered an exciting and highly productive and positive debate
and dialogue aimed at ensuring maximum benefit from every bit of
deployable resources, for the good of all.
Information and Communications Technology for African Develop-
ment: An Assessment of Progress and the Challenges Ahead captures the
essence of this intellectual process, combining history, analyses, strate-
gies, programmes and activities in a comprehensive compendium on
the state of play on technology for development. It brings together in
one volume, the best thinking on the prospect and promise of ICT
deployment for Africa’s development and the strategies for their
accomplishment.
Preface ✦ Figueres ✦ xiii
For this reason, this book makes invaluable reading. I wholeheart-

edly recommend it to everyone involved in African development, not
only those interested in ICT for development, and most especially,
those interested in realizing Africa’s aspiration to rapidly take its right-
ful place in the comity of nations and peoples, with pride, dignity and
equanimity.
A S TAT E M E N T B Y H. E. Kofi A. Annan
Secretary-General
of the United Nations
Information And
Communication Technologies:
A Priority For Africa’s Development
On several occasions, the Secretary-General of the United Nations has

seized the opportunity of the presence of key players and potential partners
to advocate a global collective effort to deploy the versatile applications of
Information and Communications Technologies in support of Africa’s
development efforts. One such address was to the Opening of the third
meeting of the United Nations Information and Communication Tech-
nologies Task Force, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on
September 30, 2002. Following is the text of the statement.
The past year has been marked by a great surge in the United Nations
effort to build international consensus around the central goals of sus-
tainable development and poverty eradication. The Monterrey Confer-
ence and the Johannesburg Summit have laid out an internationally
agreed agenda for action by all key partners—governments, multilateral
institutions, the private sector and civil society at large.
xv
xvi ✦ Information and Communications Technologies for African Development
Great hopes have been raised. The challenge now is to translate them
into reality.
Unfortunately, the past year has also witnessed deterioration in the
world economy. Growth has been uncertain and irregular in most
regions. Foreign investment has fallen sharply The telecom and infor-
mation sectors—which have always been pioneers in exploring not only
new technologies, but also new avenues of growth and investment—
have themselves suffered a sharp and persistent decline.
There is a vast potential for investment growth in the developing
countries. Information and communication technologies (ICT) can help
us turn this potential into concrete opportunities that will help the poor
work their way out of poverty while, at the same time, benefiting the
world community as a whole.
I am pleased that the Task Force has decided to place special empha-
sis, at this meeting, on ICT for development in Africa. Nowhere are the
needs more acute than in that part of the world. ICT is a chance for
Africa. It is not, of course, a magic formula that is going to solve all the
problems. But it is a powerful tool for economic growth and poverty
eradication, which can facilitate the integration of African countries into
the global market. By making the development of ICT one of the prior-
ities of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, African leaders
have shown that they are committed to seize the opportunities of the
digital revolution.
But bridging the digital divide, in Africa and elsewhere, is a formi-
dable task that requires not only leadership, but also a major commit-
ment of resources.
With innovations such as wireless fidelity—commonly known as
Wi-Fi—and other low-cost technologies and business models that are
now being explored, we should aim to provide cheap, fast and, even-
tually, free access to the Internet. But investments will still be necessary,
not only to ensure that people have the technical skills and the literacy
level needed to use information technology facilities and service them,
but also to create content that reflects the interests of that part of the
world.
Information and Communication Techologies ✦ Annan ✦ xvii
Clearly, if we are to succeed, the process must engage all stakehold-

ers: donors, the private sector, civil society organisations, governments,
and especially those in the developing world itself. The Millennium
Development Goals, adopted by the world community at the highest
level, should help rally all stakeholders around a common agenda. ICT is
a powerful instrument for speeding up the realisation of these goals, and
the Task Force can play an important role in building alliances for action.
Indeed, it has already done a great deal of work to forge such coali-
tions. And it is working effectively with other international initiatives—
including the G–8 Dot Force—to define a shared agenda for action. I
applaud the dedication and the commitment of the Chairman of the
Task Force, and of all its members, who have laid the necessary ground-
work for action in less than a year.
Now is the time to think of partnerships and initiatives for concrete
programmes and projects that will make a difference on the ground.
Why not concentrate on a few key areas where specific information tech-
nology programmes and projects could be undertaken and then repli-
cated? I am sure you have many ideas on how information technology
can have an impact on development issues, from poverty eradication, to
health, education and the advancement of women. I look forward to the
results of your discussions. Be assured that you can count on my full
support and personal commitment to your success.
INTRODUCTION Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr. Ph.D.
President and CEO,
Telecom Africa Corporation
Information and
Communications Technologies as
Tools for African Self-Development
Towards a Re-Definition of Development
Towards a New Definition of Development
The quintessential dream of any group of peoples or nations is the pur-

suit of self-actualisation in a structure and context in which they are in
full command of their destiny and own the means and processes by
which they seek to attain that goal. The correlative responsibility and
obligation of their leadership is to mastermind the strategies for such an
effort, in close consort with the people. This involves identifying, defin-
ing and mobilising their combined talent and resources, creating a con-
text and environment most conducive to the maximum realisation of the
goal, setting significant targets and the indicators for self-monitoring,
and systematically quantifying and highlighting cumulative achieve-
ments for the purpose of periodic review and reinforcement.
1
2 ✦ Information and Communications Technologies for African Development
The context of that dream, the compelling condition which the

people seek to alter, the pursuit of the promise of new and better, more
rewarding or simply more exciting conditions, is what constitutes soci-
ety’s challenge. The response to that challenge, the mobilisation of
resources and the galvanisation of a collective genius in an effort to
propel society over the hill of challenge to the valley or plain fields of
resolution beyond, to new vistas and new conditions, is what I would
call “development”.
Cast differently, I would say that development is simply the process
of problem solving or responding to new challenges with a view to mas-
tering them. In this light, problems constitute a key and necessary ingre-
dient of development. Without problems, there is nothing to solve.
Without challenges, there is nothing to master, at least in the context of
this discourse. Without problems and challenges, therefore, there can be
no development, because the necessary ingredient for it is absent.
By this definition, development is a process, the very process of
problem solving. Peoples and societies that do not engage in the
process of problem solving can, ipso facto, not be said to engage in a
development process. This holds true even if their condition, material
or otherwise, undergoes substantial transformation in the relevant
period in question. Because such material changes are, if you will,
attributes or the outcome of a process essentially masterminded by
people and institutions outside of the subject society, they constitute
the development of those who undertook the process, not of those pre-
sumed to be the beneficiaries of the process, unless they themselves are
the prime actors in driving the process. What this means is that if a
group of people or institutions not directly involved in the problem to
be solved, undertakes the process of developing a solution, it is those
who undertake the process who have achieved development, not the
presumed beneficiaries of the end result. Societies without problems or
challenges are, almost by definition, intellectually moribund, guaran-
teed to decline in a process of incurable atrophy. The pace of such
decline would depend on the residual intellectual reserve it had gar-
nered from when last it was gainfully engaged in the process of its own
ICT as Tools for African Self-Development ✦ Okpaku ✦ 3
transformation, and the comparative condition of its immediate and

global contexts.
In this regard, I am compelled to postulate that, to the extent that
much of what has taken place in the development process as it pertains
to Africa, has been masterminded and executed primarily outside the
command and control of Africans, it is only these non-Africans who can
legitimately be said to have experienced development because it is they
who have undertaken and undergone these processes of development.
Africans then, the inventory of the results of such processes notwith-
standing, would have been little more than spectators at the arena of
development, observers on the sidelines of history, watching the process
of transformation to which they have lent their name, with little or no
substantive intellectual, psychological or emotional gain or advancement
from the process.
Problems and their close relatives, which we call challenges, if they
constitute the necessary ingredient of the development process, then
become, in their purest form, critical assets, strategic assets, top amongst
the most important assets in the development of any group of nations or
peoples.
Innovation, Development, Problem Solving

and the Search for Knowledge
While I have postulated that innovation and development are a direct

outcome of problem solving, there are those who argue that innovation
and development need not focus on problem solving, but arise out of
people seeking knowledge. We can close the seeming gap by simply
understanding that even the search for knowledge is fundamentally an
effort at problem solving. Whether the problem in question is material,
critical, philosophical, artistic or seemingly esoteric, is simply a matter of
specificity. The distinction between the “pure sciences” and “applied sci-
ences”, “pure mathematics” and “applied mathematics”, which used to
dominate the science curriculum in my school days, were an attempt to
make this distinction. All pursuit of knowledge has a fundamental
motive or motivation, and that motive or motivation, I would argue, is

more often than not conceptualised as a problem to be solved.
The Right of Ownership of Problems
If problems are critical strategic assets, the response to which is the

process of development, then the notion of the right of ownership of
problems becomes a significant issue. If I need my problems to stimu-
late or compel me to engage in a problem-solving process, which con-
stitutes my development, then I must, in some way, protect that right of
ownership as a way of protecting my right to develop. The implications
of this are potentially vast and inherently controversial. There is no
room to detail this argument here, except to state that the right of own-
ership becomes a fundamental right in the realm of intellectual prop-
erty rights.
I have argued elsewhere that the importance of the notion of the
right of ownership of problems rests on the fact that innovation is
derived from problem solving. The opportunity for innovation and cre-
ativity is inherent in problem solving. If, therefore, you take over my
problem, you cause me two problems: you deprive me of the opportu-
nity to be innovative, and you leave me with the residual guilt of incom-
petence. And in taking over my problem and proffering a solution,
should your solution fail, not only do you blame me, but my problem
continues to fester and become more debilitating because I would have
lost much precious time in the interim.1
The Value Inherent in Problems
The deduction, therefore, that having problems is desirable, would not

be too far-fetched. This value inherent, in a generic manner, in problems
is what problem-solvers see as opportunities. One need only look at soci-
eties in their phases of quantum development to see the direct correla-
tion between such development and the enormity of the problems and
challenges they had to solve. For example, without problems to solve, the
United States of America would never have been able to achieve the great
leaps of development it did in its hey day.
In fact, the very essence of a Renaissance is the legacy of a new spirit
of problem-solving and the search for knowledge, extreme self-confi-
dence, and a shared feeling that nothing is really impossible, no prob-
lem cannot be solved with the right combination of intelligence,
diligence, scientific excellence and relentless effort, all of this with an
abundance of joie de vivre. The intellectual, social and cultural impact
that all of this has on society is what gives Renaissance that quality of
boundless outburst of talent, energy and creativity. It is not accidental
that America and Americans often refer to their nation as “the land of
opportunities”.
“Response Capacity” as the Key to Self-Development
But problems can overwhelm nations and societies much in the same
way as they do individuals, families and communities. How then do we
position ourselves with regard to the potential trauma of problems,
which can overwhelm society? Although there is not sufficient space to
exhaustively answer this question here, suffice it to say that the challenge
in such problem situations comes not from the fact of the existence of
the problems, but the shortfall in the response capacity of the society to
meet them. Such response capacity would be the composite of society’s
technological, intellectual, historical, psychological, religious, political,
material, knowledge, and information capacities, and other capacities of
specific relevance to the problems at hand. This would include the level
of faith, self-confidence, drive, ambition and such other intangible assets
and resources that society can draw on, and the extent to which its envi-
ronment is conducive to problem solving.
This last component, the conducive environment, would include
internal synergy, coherence and common purpose, support systems
nationally and within the regional, and continental and global environ-
ments. It would include the potential impact of enabling or debilitating
international treaties, controls or practices, biases and prejudices.
In this paradigm, our perception and conceptualisation of the devel-

opment process, of development assistance, take on a different outlook.
This new definition, I humbly believe, is far more accurate in assisting us
to understand the challenges of development. Furthermore, it holds
much greater efficacy and prospects of realisation in a process which
offers more respect and acknowledgement of the talents and resources of
the concerned peoples, and their permanent and continuous capacity to
not only effect self-development, but also to make their fair contribution
to the development of all society and mankind.
Notions of Poverty and Wealth

and their Impact on Self-Development
The notions of poverty and wealth take on a very different meaning and
configuration in this new definition of development. This, in turn, has
serious implications for how we prosecute the process of improving the
quality of life for all the world’s peoples, and increasing the opportuni-
ties for the pursuit of self-actualisation.
In listing some of the components of a people’s response capacity for
solving their problems earlier, I included faith and self-confidence
amongst the intangibles. These fall into what we might refer to in gen-
eral as psychological response capacities.
The very use of “rich” and “poor” nations as the dichotomous
delineation of the world’s peoples has an inherent debilitating effect of
incapacitating the so-called “poor”, which is a majority of the world’s
population, through undermining their self-confidence, however inad-
vertent the process might be. The fact is that the labels do tend to stick,
and with that comes the psychological impact on both those so labeled
and those outside the category who observe or respond to them. It
affects the ability to fairly and accurately identify and quantify the
resources and capacities of those on the receiving side of this dichotomy;
it suppresses or depresses their competitive capacity; it detracts from the
authority of their opinion, even on matters that directly concern them
or that any balanced assessment would have shown them to be the most
competent about the nature of their life’s challenges, for example, and
how best to solve them.
Overall, it produces a skewed perception of the world, its challenges
and opportunities, and distorts the efficacious solutions to its problems,
and the competencies and expertise required to address them. At the end
of the day, this flawed paradigm leaves a majority of the world’s people
as outsiders to the prosecution of human progress, including the prose-
cution of their own lives and legacies.
The burden of this dichotomous delineation is not new. Before
“rich” and “poor” nations, the dichotomy was “the haves” and “the have-
nots”. The history of this is extensive. “Developed” versus “Developing”,
“First World” and “ Second World”, and when the evidence stacked up on
the side of “Developing” became too unmanageable, a modification was
made into a tripartite system in which the “Third World” emerged. The
troubling discomfort of the over-crowding of this new category led to a
new device, the “Least Developed Countries”, or LDCs. It is as certain as
night follows day that new dichotomies are in the works. The Informa-
tion and Communications Technologies sector of the development
industry already has a handful, including “the connected” and “the
unconnected”, the “digitally what-have-yous” and the “digitally what-
have-you-nots” .
Self-Confidence, Development and African ICT Experts
To the extent that the most critical resource combination required for
self-development is a common shared vision backed up with self-
confidence, self-esteem, commitment, and the determination to make it
no matter how daunting the obstacles, any structure or approach that
undercuts that self-confidence or self-esteem of a people invariably
militates against their ability to develop, no matter how subtle the effect
may be. This would suggest that the very construct we use to define the
development challenge and how we portray the subject society and its
people are integral and important components of how we position
the prospects of success. This issue calls for attention, because a vast
number of highly qualified and capable Africans who would other-

wise be key to the continent’s quantum development process remain
outside the organised effort, either kept out of it by default, or keep-
ing out of it themselves because the definition and portrayal of
Africa, the African condition and the African challenge are anathema
to their self-perception, and self-esteem.2 There are complex aspects
of this issue, but this should suffice.
Development Assistance and the Dynamics

of the Development Industry
Development assistance, then, becomes the disposition of that regional

or international context and the impact of its systematic and systemic
intervention to jumpstart, enhance or advance the internal process of
problem solving by the societies in question. As such, it is a second-tier
phase of intervention in the problem solving process, not the primary or
first-tier phase, which, of necessity, must be designed and managed inter-
nally by the society seeking to develop itself.3 The creeping recognition
of this compelling need to re-arrange the pecking order is the right and
responsibility, indeed the authority, to mastermind Africa’s develop-
ment, is suggested in the process by which the notion of “stakeholder”
has entered the lexicon of development assistance.
The content or substance of such systematic second-tier interven-
tion would be the plethora of resources, which include funding, expert
advice, investment, market opportunity, skills transfer, shared intellec-
tual property and, above all, and most relevant to our preoccupation
here, access to, and the exchange of, knowledge and information, and the
intellectual processes that drive them, what we otherwise call intellectual
property.
The Intrinsic Benefits of Development—Defining the Horizon Map
It is axiomatic that before embarking on any major enterprise such as

would require tenacity and possible sacrifice, we should have a reasonable
idea of where we are going, what we are looking to achieve, and how to
recognise both when we find them. In engaging in the development
process, the potential benefits are diverse. Besides the material impact on
the extent, range and quality of the amenities of life, such as improved
infrastructure and utilities, increased income and the greater access which
that brings, there are new or increased capacities resulting from the
process of problem solving itself, which are very critical to creating the
foundation for sustained and sustainable development.
These outcomes resulting from engaging in the development process
are what we essentially call intellectual property, in the broadest sense.
They include new knowledge or new configurations of old knowledge,
new or increased awareness, new ideas, innovation, artistic, literary and
cultural expression and output, new technologies or applications, a
heightened enthusiasm and self-confidence for driving the process far-
ther into new and unknown territories, and more. All of this contributes
to vastly improving the collective quality of life of the people, the collec-
tive competitive capacity, and, above all, a new level of equanimity, which
forms the ingredient for peace and stability. This is the path development
takes, one which is the way to creating domestic economic and political
stability. An important product of this process is renewed and increased
self-esteem and self-confidence.
Information and Communications Technologies for Development
Central to all of these issues are knowledge and information, their

capacities, both inherent and catalytic to other capacities, and their
extensive scope and versatility. For good or for bad, or even in-between,
knowledge and information hold incredible potential for propelling the
development process with reasonable promise of quantum achieve-
ment. The engine that drives the deployment of knowledge and infor-
mation is what we collectively call Information and Communications
Technologies, or ICTs. They are the pipes and mechanisms through
which knowledge and information are packaged and transmitted, to be
unbundled for deployment at the receiving end. By virtue of the vast
technologies and applications which have come to be (and are continu-

ously being) developed through innovation, ICTs have become so
important to virtually all aspects of life, activities and operations, from
research and development to industrialisation, from health services to
entertainment, from education to systems of governance, that they have
become fundamental to basic life. In short, they have become a utility.
It is this utility nature of information and communications technolo-
gies that makes them most critical to any strategy or configuration for
Africa’s quantum development.
Information and Communications Technologies

for African Development
Assessed in terms of its global reach, Africa’s existing capacity in ICT as

represented by established skills and expertise is vast, much more vast
than the world, and especially African policy makers, can imagine or
dare to quantify. In its present form, it is diffused and dispersed, and
essentially unquantified. This deficit in accurate information on Africa’s
knowledge capacity in ICT has led to serious under-estimation of the
substantial capacity in the hands and knowledge bank of Africans, which
is more than sufficient to form the core of Africa’s strategic response
capacity to the challenge of problem-solving; namely, their self-develop-
ment capacity.
One result of this presumption of the absence of substantial existing
African capacity is the incredibly disproportionate percentage of ICT
initiatives for Africa aimed at relatively low-level targets, actually at sub-
sistence. Such a low-level target only sustains societies at that level and
deprives the people of the true benefit and promise of ICTs, which is the
opportunity and resource to undertake major development efforts
which, in turn, would more than guarantee the quality of life for even the
most deprived, as the forerunners at the forefront of that process cruise
with confidence, purpose and focus towards the cutting edge. It is at this
cutting edge, the venue for substantial innovation and the development
of its corresponding intellectual properties, that the major wealth and
new capacities necessary for Africa’s irreversible transformation can be

achieved.
Every single African ICT and development expert knows this. Sadly,
nobody else seems to (or cares to) know. Herein lies the strategic divide
between African experts and the global development industry with
respect to how to develop Africa. More often than not, African leaders
and bureaucrats for a set of reasons too complex to analyse here, have in
the past tended, by default, to end up on the side of the development
industry, with disastrous results.
If we follow the continuum of the development process that I have
outlined above, the undesirable internal dichotomy within Africa,
between the middle and professional class, on the one hand, and the
masses on the other, begins to blur desirably, concurrent with the
assumption of responsibility for the entire society by those who, through
expertise and opportunity, can make the most use of ICTs for the good
of all. Such a model is not only more efficacious, but is more truly rep-
resentative of the norm in African society and culture. To a large extent,
wealth has a vertical structure in African society, with most families con-
sisting of the entire range, from the well-off to the most needy. The
structure of family obligations in traditional Africa makes the pursuit of
the collective advancement of the entire community a norm. The dis-
ruption of this model, through “modernisation”, has been a threat to
reaping the benefits of this tradition for contemporary African develop-
ment.
Masterminding Africa’s Development
Africans in all spheres, especially the private sector, must not just be
equal players, but lead the strategic partnerships in all aspects of ICT
development and deployment in Africa, including the following:
• problem identification, definition, diagnosis and solution;

• needs assessment;
• resource identification, mobilisation and deployment;
• concept development, strategy and policy;

• technology development (especially research and development);
• testing;
• manufacturing;
• applications and software development;
• content development;
• systems design and integration;
• the building, maintenance and management of infrastructure and
their operation;
• the selection of appropriate technologies to meet each specific
demand situation; and
• the development of new technologies to provide more, better and
more dedicated solutions that are more appropriate, utilise local
materials and intellectual resources better, are cheaper, faster, and
more durable and robust, and which create an advantage and com-
petitive edge for Africa in the global industry and market.
This is the only model that can generate the massive levels of
resourceful and innovative self-development energy and collective com-
mitment to communal self-actualisation necessary to eradicate the con-
straints and disabilities that hamstring Africa and Africans, and hold
them back from achieving the quality of life and global competitive
capacity necessary to take their rightful place in modern society.
Towards an African Renaissance
Only such a model will unleash, with sufficient thrust, the critical mass
of African genius necessary to initiate and propel the Renaissance, which
I have advocated for many years. It is the only level of popular mobilisa-
tion and self-expression capable of transforming Africa the way it must
be, to free the talent and genius of its people to take flight into the far
reaches of human possibilities in all spheres of existence.4
Crafting the engine of such a Renaissance will require a complete
revision of the entire spectrum of social, economic, intellectual and
political development strategies. We will have to revise our educational

policy and curriculum, the way we live and the way we see the world and
interact with it, engaging it more vigorously with equal ownership, right
and responsibility for its sustenance and its future. We will have to revise
our visionary construct. We will have to support and promote our schol-
ars, intellectuals, experts, as much in science and technology as in the
arts, social sciences and the humanities, as our first tier team with the
right and responsibility of first call on our strategic and business oppor-
tunities at all levels and in all sectors.5 This calls for a strategic paradigm
shift in even the very way we govern ourselves, replacing the discredited
governance of millions by a handful, with a more desirable and more
mutually gratifying and sustainable governance of millions by millions,
in a system in which everyone, even the youngest and the most frail, have
a central and eminently recognised and acknowledged role to play in the
development, protection and sustenance of all.
This may also require that our leaders regain confidence and reliance
on their own African experts. For African experts are truly all we have.
At the end of the day, they will have to turn to their own Africans to build
the partnership for self-development. The limelight of home is the light
that matters. Home is where, in fact, it all matters, as, when the chips are
down, it is to Africa and African experts in particular, that African lead-
ers can count.
Ironically, constructing such a new model Africa should not prove
extraordinarily difficult, because it is little more than a return to the
original structure of African society based on the pre-eminence of the
extended family and its mutuality of care, concern and support. All we
need to do, primarily, is to assign our scholars and intellectuals (both
academic and non-academic) to revisit our centuries-old culture and
tradition and strip away the crusted layers created by years of disuse
and the cultural and social hemorrhage of the colonial experience and
its not-too-noble aftermath. We can then modernise that old legacy to
take advantage of new ideas and means, such as the facilitation of
information and communications technologies, as tools for their defi-
nition and diffusion.
Knowledge-Based Empowerment
There is no better time to undertake this act of self-development than at

a time like this when the globally ubiquitous nature of knowledge and its
enabling information process and system have intrinsically weakened the
approaches and created the basis for a more widely distributed and
shared information and knowledge for the empowerment of the weak
and poor.
Africa must act urgently, with measured, informed and enlightened
deliberateness, relentless focus and determination. The window of
opportunity is short. The increasing awareness that “knowledge is
power”, a proclamation that is proving to have truth and efficacy, espe-
cially in some of the traditional societies, is beginning to gain strategic
significance through the capacities of information and communications
technologies. This growing freedom of choice of a path to self-actualisa-
tion, this promise of a new and refreshing world of knowledge-based
empowerment, is already creating the early makings of break-through
and leap-frogging capacities.
Africa must act swiftly, smartly and strategically because, if indeed
knowledge is power, and information (its creation, ownership and con-
trol) is the ingredient which fuels that power, then Africa must focus on
this window of opportunity for knowledge-based self-development.
Towards a Knowledge-Based African Renaissance
In this context, and for these reasons, as far as Africa is concerned, we

must take the Millennium Development Goals as set by the historic
United Nations Millennium Summit convened under the leadership of
the Secretary-General of the United Nations, H. E. Mr. Kofi Annan, as a
baseline development targets. Because, for a people for whom much of
contemporary history has been a feat of human endurance, in spite of
their enormous talent and resource, Africa’s Millennium Goal must be
the quantum transformation of our continent into a wholesome modern
society, with an eminently noble, gratifying, enriching and perpetually
reinforcing quality of life, for all its people, with the freedom to dream
and the right of reasonable expectation that such dreams can indeed
come true.
If we succeed with the model I propose here, as we must, for the
African radar must be pointed one-dimensionally to see only success, as
failure is not an option for Africa, the Millennium Development Goals
should become beacons on the plains of our African achievements, guid-
ing us in our much greater and more equitable accomplishments. Such
a successful African Renaissance will engender and consolidate the
healthy and conducive political, social, economic, intellectual and cre-
ative stability we have all so craved, in a dynamic not static mode,
enabling Africa and Africans from all places and all works of life, to build
their lives and pursue their self-actualisation with relaxation, creativity,
innovation, leisure and cultural wholesomeness, and with the enrich-
ment of our culture and society for the benefit and enjoyment of all.
The Downside of Information and Communications Technologies
In a slight shift of tone, it would almost be sacrilegious to suggest that

ICTs have their limitations or, for that matter, their outright downside,
which Africa must diligently strive to avoid. I have discussed these in
detail in the past, but it would suffice to mention a couple of them here.
For me, the most hilarious (if not appalling) downside of the ubiq-
uitous spread of ICT, especially the Internet, is its direct denudation of
the proper use of language in our contemporary society. Computer lit-
eracy has created literary illiteracy, so much so that many today are
unable to craft a complete sentence, and if they finally struggle through
one, butcher the language so devastatingly that we might simply have
abandoned the use of language or resorted to the use of pure symbols.
The mixture of tenses and numbers, and the abbreviation of expressions,
which either create, compel or reflect the abbreviation of thought or the
attenuation of its clarity, are direct products of computer literacy. In fact,
it seems that in seeking to adjust our language use to accommodate the
limitations of computer and information technology, we have crushed
spoken and written language as we squeezed it into this new and rather
limited language mold.
A second and related downside of our information society is that we
speak so much more and say so much less that we expend a lot more
energy to accomplish equally much less communication and under-
standing. In piling so much information and data on our senses because
of our increased technological capacity to do so, we have so inundated
the human mind with what I would like to call “data and information
junk”, that its reflective capacity has become increasingly overwhelmed,
reducing the ability of the most connected to understand the complexi-
ties of simple human conditions. I have argued in the past that we have
now reached the point at which, subjected to the deluge of undifferenti-
ated data and information, our reflective capacity has become inversely
proportional to the degree of raw data, which attack our intellect.6
The Dialogue, the Debate, the Challenges and the Response
This volume, Information and Communications Technologies for African

Development: An Assessment of Progress and the Challenges Ahead, has
been conceived to capture the dialogue and debate on the promise of
ICTs for Africa’s quantum development, the definition and configura-
tion of the problems and challenges that call for solutions, the ownership
of the process, and the enabling environment, both internal and global,
for maximum accomplishment. As such, it is a high-level analysis of the
challenge, and one that is designed to help advance the strategic para-
digms as well as the actual process of development of Africa through the
empowering capacities of these technologies.
Under the auspices of the United Nations ICT Task Force, this vol-
ume could not find a better platform for congregating leading expert
opinions under one umbrella, enabling those who read this book to
enjoy and utilise leading-edge analysis on the subject. The contributors
to this volume consist of a distinguished array of leaders who, in one
way or the other, are directly involved in the common mission of
exploiting ICTs to address Africa’s handicap, thus freeing the continent
and its people to unleash their genius not only for their self-develop-
ment, but for the advancement of the quality of human life and exis-
tence worldwide, including the peace and equanimity that money alone
simply cannot buy.
The creation of the UN ICT Task Force is a worthy testament to the
vision of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan,
that “seizing the opportunities offered by the Digital Revolution is one
of the most pressing challenges we face”.7 The Task Force itself, by virtue
of its composition, which draws together leaders from both the public
and the private sectors, as well as from civil society and academia, as
much from the industrial nations as from their global counterparts,
brings together the key players in the sector and in the arena of targeted
deployment for development. This configuration allows for maximum
collaboration, synergy and consensus in achieving the coherence of pol-
icy, strategy and programme necessary to get the best and the most effec-
tive and durable results from all combined effort and resource.
Information and Communications Technologies for African Develop-
ment: An Assessment of Progress and the Challenges Ahead reflects pre-
cisely that scope and versatility. The group of contributors to this book
represents global leaders (political, industry and intellectual) who hold
between themselves, substantial capacity to provide leadership for the
catalytic impetus to help harness the opportunities and positive benefits
of information and communications technologies to drive Africa’s quan-
tum development and self-development. The high-level African repre-
sentation amongst the contributors to this volume lends special and
substantial relevance and authority to the dialogue captured in this
book.
The contributors to this book include President Abdoulaye Wade of
the Republic of Senegal, who is responsible for the Information and
Communications Technologies aspects of the New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (NEPAD) on the Heads of State Implementation
Committee, NEPAD’s governing body, President Alpha Oumar Konaré,
former President of the Republic of Mali, a leading advocate of ICT for
development and the Chairman of the eAfrica Commission of NEPAD,
José María Figueres, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum,

Chairman of the UN ICT Task Force and former President of the Repub-
lic of Costa Rica, and the guiding words of the Secretary-General of the
United Nations, H. E. Kofi Annan, himself. Together, they help set the
political agenda in this volume.
From the Task Force Secretariat, we have contributions from
Ambassador Sarbuland Khan, the Director of the Division for ECOSOC
Support and Coordination of the UN Department of Economic and
Social Affairs, and Dr. Pekka Tarjanne, the Executive Coordinator of the
United Nations ICT Task Force and former Secretary-General of the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Together, they articu-
late the mission and vision of the Task Force and, in a way, that of the
international development community.
The African ICT private sector, which combines the industry and
academic credentials quite typical of the overall African private sector,
one which has carried on its shoulders the main burden of the struggle
for significant ICT development in Africa, is solidly represented by
leading experts, including Dr. Nii Quaynor, Chairman of Network
Computer Systems (NCS), who sits on the Board of Directors of
ICANN, the international body responsible for the management of the
global Internet; Mike Jensen, who is a respected curator and virtual
custodian of data and statistics on ICT in Africa; and myself who,
besides being the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Telecom
Africa Corporation and a founding member of the African Advisory
Group on Information and Communications Technologies (AAG-
ICT), the select group of African ICT experts from around the world
who advise African Ministers of Information and Communications on
high-level strategic and policy issues, also serve as an adviser to the UN
ICT Task Force.
African regional institutions are represented in this book by contri-
butions from Mavis Ampah Sintim-Misa and Emmanuel OleKambainei,
respectively the past Chief Executive Officer and the current Program
Director of the African Connection Centre for Strategic Planning, the
continental institute set up by African Ministers of Communications to
serve as a platform for the development and collation of Africa’s strate-

gies for the maximum exploitation of ICTs for Africa’s development, and
Dr. Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane, Director of the Development Infor-
mation Services Division of the Economic Commission for Africa
(ECA).
Dr. Gillian Marcelle from Trinidad and Tobago, a leading expert on
ICT and gender issues, and ICT in Africa, Crocker Snow, Jr., the Presi-
dent of The Money Matters Institute, Akhtar Badshah and Justin Thum-
ler, both of Digital Partners, represent the non-African ICT private and
intellectual sectors.
Dr. Nii Quaynor, Dr. Gillian Marcelle, and Dr. Karima Bounemra
Ben Soltane are themselves members of the UN ICT Task Force.
The contributions of these esteemed personalities offer an exciting
reading for all those who seek to know the key challenges to not only ICT
for African development, but ICT for development in general, and the
issues at the cutting edge of the subject.
This volume also offers an appendix of on-going ICT initiatives with
respect to Africa and provides invaluable sources of material for further
exploration and reference.
Partnership for the Knowledge-Based African Renaissance
In the renewed bold effort to transform Africa, and inspired by Africa’s

renewed dream for a far better tomorrow masterminded in accordance
with its own self-perception and worldview, partnerships, can and must
play a critical role. Such partnerships, local, regional and global, public
and private, partnerships built on mutual respect, recognised mutual
capacity and adherence to basic tenets of equitable globalisation (which
I have defined elsewhere as fairness and equity, mutual access to each
other’s market, comparative competitive capacity, in the absence of
which there must be dedicated affirmation action plans in place) become
more important and efficacious, not less so. Because, when a people
know where they are going and take charge of their journey into tomor-
row, it becomes much easier for others not only to join forces to assist
them, but also to possibly pick up their pack and join them in a common
march of progress not only for Africa, but also for all humanity.
In this African-led and masterminded African future, there will be
room for the active participation of global institutions, donor and devel-
opment agencies, the private sector seeking legitimate opportunity and
profit in return for meaningful and sustainable contributions to Africa’s
development and well-being, civil society, and people in general, all
engaging in, and engaging Africa in a dynamic, exciting and beneficial
cooperative and collaborative common human pursuit of ever-increas-
ing excellence.
Key to all of this will be Africa’s wisdom in crafting a fail-safe way to
acquire, not only knowledge and access to information, but also the mas-
tery of information and communications technologies which drive
them, and what they can enable us to accomplish. This will enable us and
afford us the necessary resource tools, space and freedom, to configure
and package our own unique, rich and ever expanding information,
knowledge, culture, experience and expertise, to share with others,
within the context of a fair and equitable, and truly competitive global
environment. That is my personal dream for Africa. That is Africa’s
dream.
N OT E S
1. See Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., Ownership of Problems, Intellectual Property and the Dig-
ital Divide—The Enabling Challenge of Solutions, WIPO Second International Con-
ference on Electronic Commerce and Intellectual Property, Geneva, September
19–21, 2001.
2. See Chapter Fifteen: Towards a Road Map for Information and Communications
Technology Development in Africa.
3. One recognises that this opinion could slightly rile some of the big players in the
development industry. But if Africa’s condition is as dire as everyone keeps saying it
is, then risking some intellectual discomfort in the hope of finding the right formula
for developing Africa once and for all is a nominal sacrifice which, I am sure, friends
of Africa can afford.
4. Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., Creating a Desirable 21st Century Africa: The Role of Lead-
ership and Governance, Futures, Volume 26, Number 9, November 1994.
5. Nigeria’s highly acclaimed major development strides in the early 1970s was driven
by a bold indigenous business decree, which saw the emergence of major indige-
nous industrial and trade initiatives at all levels. Much of what sustains Nigeria
today after years of painful indecisiveness, comes from those heady days. Unfortu-
nately, the country was forced under tremendous pressure to abandon that decree
by international financial institutions when its later reckless spending compelled it
to seek concessions to refinance its debt. Nigeria still suffers from the loss of that
major development phase fired by an enormous internal force fueled in part by
Nigerians and other Africans abroad who rushed in from around the world in
response to the opportunities offered under that decree. That experience may be
worth revisiting.
6. See Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., E-Culture, Human Culture and In-Between: Meeting the
Challenges of the 21st Century Digital World, A Presentation to the Creating New
Leaders for e-Culture Conference, Coventry, United Kingdom, August 20–24, 2001.
7. Comments by Kofi Annan while introducing President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal
at the 101st Plenary meeting of the fifty-sixth Session of the UN General Assembly,
New York, 17 June, 2002.
CHAPTER Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., Ph.D.
1 President and CEO,

Background on Information
and Communications Technologies
for Development in Africa
Overview
A number of events in the last several months have served to advance

the focus on ICT Development and ICT for Development in Africa,
especially with respect to the UN ICT Task Force and its partners. At
their 2002 Summit meeting held in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada on
June 26–7, 2002, the Heads of State of the G8 industrial countries
endorsed the programme and Implementation Plan of the New Part-
nership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the strategic development
programme of the continental initiative. At the Summit of the Organi-
sation of African Unity (OAU) held a few weeks later in July 2002, in
Durban, at which the African Union (AU) succeeded the OAU, the
NEPAD programme was formally adopted by the new continental organ-
isation, with NEPAD as an organ of the AU. The NEPAD programme
23
includes a strong focus on the dual strategy of ICT Development and

ICT for Development (See later).
At the Kananaskis Summit, the G8 Heads of State also adopted their
own parallel programme for support of Africa’s initiative. The G8 Africa
Plan of Action, as the initiative is called, also places emphasis on support
for ICT Development in Africa, and commits the member states to pro-
viding support for enhancing Africa’s ability to develop ICT capacity as
well as to take advantage of the enabling capacity of information and
communications technologies and applications in her drive for compre-
hensive development.
Specifically, with respect to ICT Development, Article 5.4 of the G8
Africa Action Plan undertakes to assist Africa to create digital opportu-
nities by:
• Encouraging the Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force) Inter-

national e-Development Resources Network to focus on Africa, and
supporting other DOT Force initiatives that can help to create digital
opportunities, each building, wherever possible, on African initiatives
already underway;
• Working towards the goal of universal access to ICT by working with
African countries to improve national, regional and international
telecommunications and ICT regulations and policies in order to
create ICT-friendly environments;
• Encouraging and supporting the development of public-private
partnerships to fast-track the development of ICT infrastructure;
and
• Supporting entrepreneurship and human resource development of
Africans within the ICT Sector.
Article 5.5 of the Action Plan addresses the counterpart objective of

promoting ICT for Development by committing the G8 countries to
assisting Africa to “make more effective use of ICT in the context of pro-
moting sustainable economic, social and political development.” Specif-
ically, it undertakes to do so by:
Background on ICT for Development in Africa ✦ Okpaku ✦ 25
• Supporting African initiatives to make best use of ICT to address

education and health issues; and
• Supporting African countries in increasing access to, and making the
best use of, ICT in support of governance, including the support of
the development and implementation of national e-strategies and e-
governance initiatives aimed at increased efficiency, effectiveness,
transparency and accountability of government.
Two initiatives emanating from the G8 DOT Force process, which

are of particular importance to Africa, are:
• The Global Digital Opportunity Initiative, a joint venture between

the Markle Foundation and UNDP, which also has a support mech-
anism under the International Partners Group; and
• The Partnership for Global Policy Participation.
The Global Digital Opportunity Initiative plans support for ICT

development in twelve African countries. In March 2002, the Prime
Minister of Mozambique signed the first agreement for such deployment
in New York.
A few months later, the United Nations General Assembly, with the
support of the UN ICT Task Force, held a two-day meeting on ICT and
Development on June 17–18, 2002. This included two informal panels
(one each day) that focused on Digital Opportunity: The Role of Public-
Private Partnerships, on June 17, and The Role of the United Nations in
Supporting Efforts to Promote Digital Opportunity in Africa, on June 18.
The CEO Charter for Development
One of the key events at the Special Meeting was the launching of the
CEO Charter for Development programme, an initiative of the Global
Digital Divide Task Force of the World Economic Forum, in partnership
with the UN ICT Task Force. The CEO Charter is based on the pledge of
companies that sign up, to commit a minimum of 20 percent of their
annual corporate citizenship and philanthropic budgets to support ICT

Development in the developing world with a view to eliminating
poverty. This programme holds immense potential for driving ICT
development support in Africa in a consistent and coherent way, espe-
cially the support of the indigenous African private sector, the ultimate
repository and arbiter of long-term durable industrial and competitive
capacity-building and knowledge acquisition in Africa.
The WEF-SADC e-Readiness Initiative
The World Economic Forum (WEF), a key partner to the UN ICT Task
Force, is itself vigorously engaged in promoting ICT development in
Africa in a variety of areas. In cooperation with the Southern Africa
Development Community (SADC), government institutions and the
African individual and institutional private sector, WEF conducted a
comprehensive initiative on e-readiness in the Southern African Region.
It also devoted its most recent African Economic Summit, expanded from
its predecessor Southern African Economic Summit, to promoting sup-
port for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) by the
global private sector. One of the outcomes of the Summit was the “Busi-
ness Endorsement of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development” ini-
tiative, a programme by which companies doing business in Africa
commit themselves to support NEPAD’s objectives by observing a set of
standard corporate citizenship criteria, such as transparency and proper
accounting principles. Although a large number of over 250 companies
have signed up for this programme, its value is difficult to assess at this
juncture, as signing up does not involve any quantifiable commitment of
resources (material or in kind) to Africa or the NEPAD process.
The Task Force Digital Bridge to Africa Workshop
On July 12, 2002, the UN ICT Task Force convened the Digital Bridge
to Africa Workshop with a view to mobilising African ICT expertise
and resources abroad in support of Africa’s ICT development on the
continent. Co-sponsored by UNIFEM, the United Nations Fund for

International Partnerships (UNFIP), Digital Partners and Gruppo
CERFE, the workshop consisted of a panel discussion and a working
lunch, followed by a concluding plenary session. The workshop, which
was attended by some 130 participants including a large number of
African ICT experts and entrepreneurs at home and abroad, resulted in
the creation of three initiatives:
• The Digital Diaspora Network-Africa (DDN-A),

• AFRISHARE, and
• The Social Venture Fund for Africa.
The Gateway Project
In addition to these, the Task Force has mobilised resources and win-
dows of opportunity through its partnerships, in support of ICT devel-
opment. For example, the Gateway Project of the World Bank has
provided a global database gateway and a window for ICT projects to
respond to the needs of the Task Force. It is also providing support
through its network of country gateways. African countries are begin-
ning to take advantage of this opportunity.
The Success Story Study
With the support of the African Regional Network and the ECA, the Task
Force recently commissioned a Success Story Study in Africa to collect
evidence of progress being made in the acquisition and capacity of ICT,
and their deployment for self-improvement and socio-economic
empowerment. The study, which involved field research in three African
countries (Egypt, Uganda and Kenya), focused on micro enterprises and
concluded that there have been some gains. It identified the key elements
behind these success stories in terms of economic concepts such as
“Demand drives supply”, “Ownership is essential”, “Learning (and
adjusting) by doing”, and “The money motive matters”.1
Other Initiatives
Informal Sector and Civil Society Initiatives
The informal sector, consisting primarily of NGOs, plays a significant

role in advancing efforts at building ICT development in Africa. This
sector realises the significance of using ICT technologies and applica-
tions for dealing with issues which have become traditionally associated
with NGO efforts: namely, the eradication of poverty; the social, educa-
tional and political empowerment of the disadvantaged, especially
women and children; education; preventive healthcare and the manage-
ment of illness, especially HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases;
and universal access to basic information and telecommunications serv-
ices through innovative and affordable technologies. The energy and
persistence, which is the hallmark of NGOs, contributes in no small way
to the plethora of initiatives that are currently ongoing in Africa, includ-
ing those now embraced by governments and the formal sector. It is sig-
nificant that these NGOs are as much indigenous African organisations
as regional or international groups.
SMEs
Given the size of the informal component of the African economic land-
scape, especially with over 70% of the population living in small and rural
communities, and the unique adaptability of ICT applications to small
and micro enterprises, it is no surprise that these enterprises have become
increasingly active in the African ICT environment. Taking advantage of
the online facilities of the Internet as well as the development of telecen-
tres, individual and small groups of African entrepreneurs are setting up
a slew of businesses, from online marketing of farm products, arts, crafts
and clothing, to Internet cafes and telecentres. Street corner and market-
place pay-as-you-go phone services in cities like Abidjan, Dakar and
Bamako, in which you pay a deposit and the number you desire is dialed
for you (fixedline to fixedline, and mobile to mobile, for lowest tariffs),
pay noble homage to the ingenuity of the African informal sector.
Industry-Based Initiatives
The ICT industry in Africa itself has gradually come to the realisation
that its long-term profitability in the African market is intimately tied to
the development of ICT capacity, not only in order to increase market
demand, but also to promote economic and social development. This is
the only way of increasing the buying power of the African population,
which, in turn, will increase that portion of income that can be invested
in broader ICT products and services.
Examples of such industry-based initiatives include the following:
1. The SatCom Project
The SatCom Project was instituted by the telecommunications and satel-

lite industry in Africa, as a partnership between indigenous and interna-
tional players. At the SatCom Africa 2002 Conference held in Midrand,
South Africa, in February 2002, the industry embraced the suggestion of
PanAmSat that it commit bandwidth, equipment, expertise and other
resources to support significant satellite-based projects. Created prima-
rily by the conference organisers, Terrapin, Ltd., the Telecom Africa Cor-
poration, RASCOM, Hughes Network Systems, WorldSpace, Sentech,
UNISA, the Global VSAT Forum and Mike Jensen Consulting, amongst
others, the SatCom Project is designed to:
• Be continental in scope;
• Make a concrete positive difference to ICT development in Africa;
• Promote distance education, telemedicine, social, cultural and
health development in Africa;
• Involve all aspects of satellite technology, as well as exploit compat-
ible non-satellite communications technologies and applications;
• Avoid becoming a vehicle for dumping obsolete technologies,
equipment and applications in Africa, a practice that would further
impoverish Africa as a graveyard of technological obsolescence;
• Promote research and development in pursuit of such solutions;
• Promote human resource development, especially of Africans;
• Involve African experts worldwide, using the facilitations of global

network applications;
• Promote knowledge of satellite communications in Africa, at both
the technical and layman levels;
• Promote partnerships amongst the players in the industry at large,
and between Africa and the non-African sectors;
• Engender, to the extent possible, enthusiastic support from officials
and institutions with circumscribing authority to facilitate or
smother the project; and
• To be fun for all parties concerned.2
2. The Digital Factory
The Digital Factory is an initiative to create capacity in Africa for the

development of software and applications at global standards to support
the global ICT industry and market, as well as to meet indigenous con-
tinental demand. A private-sector initiative between Sun Microsystems,
The Telecom Africa Corporation, the State of California Technology,
Trade and Commerce Agency, and other partners, the Digital Factory
hopes to replicate the software development miracle of India, most
notably in Bangalore. In the process of being detailed and fine-tuned, the
Digital Factory will be continental, beginning with two or three coun-
tries and expanding thereafter.
Digital Factory expects its software deliverables to be globally com-
petitive in terms of quality and innovation. Its partners aim to greatly
enhance the prospects of Africa’s ICT Development not only in terms of
training and capacity-building, but also in providing market opportuni-
ties for such expertise through out-sourcing, subcontracting and direct
contracting with industry partners, development agencies and interna-
tional organisations.
Indigenous African Initiatives
Of great importance in the ongoing drive for ICT Development in Africa

is the active role of Africans and African institutions, public and private,
in undertaking bold and innovative initiatives. The potential impact of

such efforts is itself greatly enhanced by the intimate level of collabora-
tion between both sectors, government and private, and between
Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora. These initiatives cover a
broad spectrum of areas, from policy and regulation, to industrialisa-
tion, infrastructure, software, content, development communications,
and capacity building.
Regulatory Matters
On the regulatory side, national regulatory authorities have begun form-

ing sub-regional groupings, such as the West African Telecommunica-
tions Regulatory Authority (WATRA) and the Telecommunications
Regulatory Authority of Southern Africa (TRASA). Taking advantage of
common attendance at various forums, such as the African Regional
Preparatory Conference for the World Summit on Information Society,
in Bamako, Mali, in June 2002, African experts, officials and sector entre-
preneurs are holding ad hoc meetings to pool their resources in pursuit
of common interests. In this regard, moves are underway for the creation
of an association of African Telecommunications Regulatory Authori-
ties, with the support of the Bureau for Telecommunications Develop-
ment (BDT) of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
Infrastructure
There are several regional infrastructure initiatives being taken by

Africans in the ICT sector.
1. The Sat–3/WASC/SAFE Undersea Optical Fibre Cable Network.
Shortly after the independence of South Africa, in a dramatic show of con-

tinental solidarity, cooperation and strategic common purpose, several
African countries, in the euphoria of having achieved the most singular
strategic objective of the OAU, joined forces to build a major undersea
optical fibre cable to directly link many African countries to each other
and to Europe and Asia, in partnership with global industry players. Led
by Telkom S.A., the 36 participants built the Sat–3/WASC/SAFE cable

network. The 28,000 km cable, which cost $650 million USD, was
launched in Dakar on May 27, 2002.
2. The RASCOM Satellite Project
RASCOM (the Regional African Satellite Communications Organisa-

tion), to which most African governments belong, is undertaking to
build the RASCOM Satellite, in collaboration with Alcatel. Designed to
have a footprint that will cover the entire continent, it is intended to sup-
port affordable access to ICT resources for Africans anywhere on the
continent, especially rural populations.
3. The Comtel Project
Comtel is a regional project, undertaken by the member states of

COMESA, to build an optical fibre grid to interlink their national net-
works.
Policy and Strategy
1. The African Connection and the Ministerial Oversight Committee
The African Connection was created by the African Ministers of Com-

munications during the ITU African Regional Conference in Johannes-
burg in 1998, to serve as an institutional framework for the
coordination of telecommunications development ideas and capacity
building, especially those with regional scope. The Ministerial Oversight
Committee of African Ministers of Communications supervises the
African Connection.3
2. The African Telecommunications Union (ATU)
The African Telecommunications Union, a reconstitution of the Pan-

African Telecommunications Union (PATU), is the de facto African
regional telecommunications counterpart of the ITU. ATU, which also
reports to the Ministerial Oversight Committee, serves as the organ for
the systematic pursuit of telecommunications development in Africa.
3. The African Advisory Group on ICT (AAG-ICT)
In the effort to mobilise Africa’s global expertise at the cutting edge for
Africa’s ICT Development, the African Advisory Group on ICT has qui-
etly played (and continues to play) a critical and indispensable role. The
AAG-ICT is a group of 12 eminent African ICT experts from around the
world who meet behind closed doors on an average of twice a year to
provide confidential high-level advice to African Ministers of Informa-
tion and Communications on strategic, policy and regulatory issues,
with no holds barred.
Created by the Minister of Communications of South Africa, Dr. Ivy
Matsepe Casaburri, who also hosts it, the AAG usually meets one day
ahead of the meeting of the Ministerial Oversight Committee, whose sub-
sequent meeting is also attended by AAG members. The AAG also works
in close liaison with the African Connection and the African Telecom-
munications Union, the heads of which two institutions also sit on the
AAG. The Advisory Group expects to support the activities of NEPAD
through intellectual support for the e-Africa Commission. This configu-
ration, the result of persistent advocacy amongst African ICT experts that
the continent take control of its sector challenges and build indigenous
institutions, is most likely to prove to be the most strategic innovation in
Africa’s response to the global challenge of ICT development.
In addition to these, there are indigenous African initiatives aimed
at building industrial as well as research and development capacity in
Africa, allowing Africa’s expert capacity to spread around the world.
Key Issues with Potential Durable Impact

on ICT Development in Africa
Myriads of Initiatives
An unintended and probably unanticipated challenge to the effective

pursuit of ICT development in Africa is the plethora of initiatives,
which threaten to overwhelm Africa’s absorptive capacity. Numbers

seem to take priority over significance in a response that is not incon-
sistent with the situation in other development efforts. In 1998, the
Bureau for Telecom Development of the ITU convened a meeting in
Rabat, Morocco, to try to coordinate and systematise some of these ini-
tiatives. Amongst those participating in this meeting, besides the ITU,
were IDRC, Bellanet, UNDP and several African institutions, including
CSIR and the Telecom Africa Corporation. While the partnership
amongst the leading development initiatives, under the umbrella of the
UN ICT Task Force, has forged a measure of coordination, the impact
of this is yet to be felt.
African Ownership
A major part of this is the seemingly intractable challenge of creating

an African-defined (even if not entirely African-led) agenda, with all
the benefits of knowledge, experience in situ, compelling demands of
internal self-actualisation and ownership with its implicit direct
accountability and responsibility to the African peoples.
Strategic Matters
A further by-product of this challenge is the emerging possibility that

there might be a genuine imbalance in the perception of critical (if not
strategic) priorities in the urgent effort to build lasting and self-enhanc-
ing (read “sustainable”) ICT capacity in Africa. This capacity has direct
impact on clear and measurable social, economic, cultural, intellectual
and systemic transformation of Africa to become a comfortable partner
in the global dispensation.
Some issues that fall into this category include:
• excessive emphasis on small, medium-scale and micro enterprises

without industrialisation;
• a potentially bloated demand for a “conducive” policy and regula-

tory framework without defining the pre-eminent role and respon-
sibility of the governed or the regulator;
• investment in building indigenous capacity and the protection of
such budding capacity versus embracing totally externally origi-
nated capacity in the context of liberalisation of the sector;
• “realistic” versus “ambitious” efforts and expectations;
• the threat of further marginalising indigenous ICT sector entrepre-
neurs by the relentless thrust of globalisation; and
• such other disparities, which reflect the differences inherent in the
perspectives of the African and the development partner.
Quantifying and Qualifying Africa’s

Existing Globally Diffused ICT Expertise
It is scientifically impossible to undertake strategic African capacity

building in the ICT sector without first determining the extent, scope
and quality of the expertise Africa already has and which it can deploy as
its first line of attack in trying to achieve the quantum development. This
is necessary not only to bridge the handicap of a late start, but also to
move in leaps and bounds to catch up with and join the ranks of global
ICT development and capacity. In the absence of such comprehensive
human resource assessment, most initiatives that have been undertaken
in this regard are subject to reasonable doubt.
African initiatives, such as The Global Human Resource Survey of
African Male and Female Experts in ICT, are designed to create a critical
database for strategic decision-making policy and access to African cut-
ting edge expertise, wherever it may be worldwide. This anticipated data-
base will enable African governments and their decision makers,
development agencies, international organisations and the global private
sector, to draw on Africa’s already vast human resource expertise to
shape, formulate, man and drive critical ICT initiatives throughout the
continent. This will supplement the administrative skills of decision
makers with the technological expertise of Africans.
Building Africa’s Research and Development Capacity in ICT
Technology is not sustainable without continuous research and devel-

opment activity at the cutting edge. This strategic capacity is seriously
lacking in Africa, hamstringing the continent’s ability not only to custom
tailor generic technological innovations to meet its specific needs, but
also to join the global community of research and development, which
is the source of development of Intellectual Property, the quintessential
element of technological advancement and wealth.
African initiatives include The Telecom Africa Virtual Research Labo-
ratory Project, which will link African scientific and technological
research experts around the world and their global counterparts with
interest in African ICT development in a secure global Intranet. When
research initiatives are developed to the point of requiring in-lab physi-
cal research and experimentation, such initiatives will be transferred
from online to in-lab work through negotiations with the most appro-
priate physical laboratory in the world.
Africa’s ICT Challenge
In all of this, the singular challenge is to devise effective strategies to

bridge the gap between these often conflicting perceptions and priorities
and, in the process, advance the progress of effecting increased capacity
in the mastery and use of Africa’s ICT ability, both in its own rights as
well as a tool for development.
Engaging the UN ICT Task Force in Support of African ICT

Development and NEPAD’s ICT Programme
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is the strategic

platform of the newly created African Union, the continental African
political and economic institution that succeeded the Organisation of

African Union (OAU) and which mirrors other regional institutions,
such as the European Union. An instrument of the African Union,
NEPAD, in its short life, has established itself as a reference point in vir-
tually all initiatives directed at Africa. NEPAD enjoys high priority with
the United Nations.
Amongst the African items and events on the Agenda of the 57th
Session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2002 was the final
review and appraisal of the United Nations Agenda for the Development
of Africa (UN-NADAF), Agenda Item 41, which was decided at a High-
Level Plenary Session on NEPAD. The session consisted of two plenary
meetings and an informal panel discussion at which the five members of
the Heads of State Implementation Committee of NEPAD (the Presi-
dents of Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Senegal and South Africa) fielded ques-
tions for a couple of hours.
From an institutional structure point of view, NEPAD has four main
sectors, as follows:
1. Infrastructure, which consists of ICT, Water and Sanitation,

Transport and Energy;
2. Agriculture and Market Access;
3. Human Development, covering Health and Communicable Dis-
eases, Education and Poverty Eradication; and
4. Capital Flows, which consist of Domestic Resource Mobilisation,
Private Capital Flows, ODA Reform, and Debt Reduction.
NEPAD’s ICT development objectives are articulated in the basic

NEPAD Document. They are:
• to double teledensity to two lines per 100 people by the year 2005,
with an adequate level of access for households;
• to lower the cost and improve reliability of service;
• to achieve e-readiness for all countries in Africa;
• to develop and produce a pool of ICT-proficient youth and students
from which Africa can draw trainee ICT engineers, programmers

and software developers; and
• to develop local-content software, based especially on Africa’s cul-
tural legacy.4
The e-Africa Commission
Positioned within the Infrastructure Sector, ICT is a major focus in

the NEPAD agenda. To oversee this process, African leaders formed
the e-Africa Commission to serve effectively as the ICT task force of
NEPAD in pursuit of the NEPAD objectives listed above. The Com-
mission is chaired by His Excellency President Alfa Oumar Konaré,
former Head of State of the Republic of Mali and an ardent advocate
of ICT for Development in Africa. President Konaré was also a
keynote speaker at the ECOSOC meeting of July 5–7, 2000, which
focused on “Development and International Co-operation in the 21st
Century: The Role of Information Technology in the Context of a
Knowledge-based Economy”.
Although NEPAD looms large on the African horizon and in the
global picture, it is yet to develop both a comprehensive detailed
agenda and to set up the administrative and expert capacity and estab-
lishment to fully manage its affairs. In particular, the e-Africa Com-
mission, NEPAD’s de facto ICT organ for masterminding and
managing its ICT priorities and programmes, is also very new, and
therefore at the early stage of addressing its institutional and program-
matic challenges.
Given the overriding fact that NEPAD’s overall agenda covers an
enormous scope, which embraces virtually all development challenges
of Africa and its people5, NEPAD has called for the cooperation, expert-
ise, synergy and the strongest commitment of support institutions
(both African and international). This would enable it to successfully
manage the process in such a manner as to fulfill the enormous expec-
tations the African people, and indeed the world, place on the young
institution.
Specifically, for our purposes here, the e-Africa Commission is

expected to seek similar support for its sector objectives, hoping to profit
immensely from a global partnership programme in support of the ICT
component of the NEPAD Implementation Plan.
NEPAD ICT Initiatives
At the Conference on Financing NEPAD, held in Dakar, Senegal, on

April 15–17, 2002, and hosted by Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade,
NEPAD unveiled its ICT Programme as approved by the Heads of State
Implementation Committee of NEPAD (the highest ruling body of the
organisation) under the Chairmanship of Nigeria’s President Olusegun
Obasanjo.
NEPAD’s ICT Projects
Following is a synopsis of the original programme, consisting of thirteen

projects, as outlined at the Dakar Conference.
ICT/1: Infrastructure Project
This project aims to install 32 optical fibre inter-state links in West

Africa.
ICT/2: Telecommunications Law and Regulation Harmonisation
Aims to “create a unified and opened economic zone through the inte-
gration of property, infrastructure and financial services markets.”
ICT/3: IT/Telecommunications Device Manufacturing Plant
The objective of this project is to “develop activities around telecommu-

nications-related industries, create ICT private industries, promote
industrial sub-contracting activities, improve IT equipment availability
and produce ICT equipment more adapted to African needs and envi-
ronment” in West Africa.
ICT/4: Support to ICT-related Facilities
A transcontinental project to “provide support to maintain and upgrade

existing ICT-related educational or industrial centres” in Lome, Togo,
Dakar, Senegal and Harare, Zimbabwe.
ICT/5: PAG-NET, PanAfrican Governmental Network
This is a transcontinental “secure IP/Ipsec network designed exclusively

for African Government communications (data and voice transmis-
sion).”
ICT/6: DATAFRICA
“DATAFRICA aims at the creation of an electronic database to store var-

ious statistics in the field of economics, trading, geography, environ-
ment, agriculture, health, population, ICT and infrastructures.”
ICT/7: E-Justice Africa
“E-Justice Africa is a system that will manage justice information in

Africa. It will allow (the) exchange of data between criminal justice agen-
cies, courts, law enforcement and prosecutors.”
ICT/8: E-Customer Africa
ACEN, as it is also called, is intended to be “a public/private communi-

cation and data transmission system designed to track customs transac-
tions between African countries.”
ICT/9: ACT-NET
ACT-NET, or ACTIS, as it is also called, is “a Pan African cooperation

tool to prevent and fight terrorism. It will collect, analyse and track
information about terrorists, suspected individuals and their activities.”
ICT/10: Telemedicine
This continental project (AHTIS) is intended as “a way of building high-

quality interoperable systems for health education, prophylaxis, epidemi-
ological analysis, telemedicine operations, medical care and prevention.”
ICT/11: E-History Africa
“E-History Africa is a program that will support and encourage (the)

production and diffusion of African history on worldwide networks and
digital media.”
ICT/12: Africashop
A transcontinental project, “Africashop is an electronic online store that

aims to be a window to African art and culture. It will offer arts and
crafts, clothing, local food (and jewelry).”
ICT/13: Africa Cybermarket
“Africa Cybermarket is a commodity market that will allow electronic

exchange of agricultural and sea products between African producers
and the buyers.” It is a transcontinental project.
A review of these would indicate that the programmatic objectives

of NEPAD are in the following areas:
• Infrastructure
• Content development
• Law, Policy and Regulatory Affairs
• Industrialisation
• E-Governance
• Online distance services, including telemedicine and distance
education
• Internet marketing
This would essentially cover the full spectrum of the ICT industry.
Amongst the challenges before the e-Africa Commission, as it sets
out to establish itself and to prosecute its objectives under the NEPAD
programme, would be building the institution itself, and the institu-
tional capacity to manage these challenges in the continental and global
context. Having done that, it would also have to define the role it has
chosen to play in the different sub-sectors of ICT in Africa, especially
given the power of the global industry, which also dominates the African
regional market.
In this regard, the e-Africa Commission is likely to seek to:
1. Develop a comprehensive picture of the current status of ICT

development and initiatives on the continent, placing them in the
global context;
2. Rationalise its ICT objectives and priorities within this dual con-
text;
3. Mobilise Africa’s global human resource expertise as a core team
to strengthen its extended strategic and institutional capacity, a
process which it has already begun by drawing on members of the
African Advisory Group on ICT (the AAG-ICT);
4. Rationalise its role, whether as mobilising financial and other
resources in support of the African private sector, or promot-
ing global/domestic African partnership, or public/private
African partnership, or some other permutation of partnership
possibilities.
The rationalisation of this last area will be crucial if the Commission

is to get the buy-in of an enlightened and driven African private sector.
That sector already fears that the global private/African public sector
partnership, which has been the configuration most advocated in much
of ICT development strategies, not only undermines the ability of Africa
to build indigenous capacity, but also undermines its opportunity to
compete globally.
In this regard, the position of President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal,
the Vice Chairman of the NEPAD Heads of State Implementation Com-
mittee and Head of its Infrastructure Sector, is instructive. Addressing
the lunch reception in his honour on June 17, 2002, during the UN Gen-
eral Assembly Special Meeting on Information and Communications for
Development, he succinctly articulated the view that his government’s
preference was for African governments to empower the African private
sector so that they can form credible, fair and equitable partnerships
with their global counterparts. In his opinion, building Africa’s indige-

nous private sector capacity using this strategy would definitely attract
the African private sector to join forces with the Commission in pursuit
of a common continental dream.
In all of this, the e-Africa Commission is likely to concentrate on
projects and initiatives which have the potential of maximum impact on
ICT development in Africa, and which have sound prospects of durabil-
ity by becoming self-sustainable, or to provide discernable catalytic
impact to drive subsequent initiatives, projects or programmes. The ulti-
mate agent for such durability and sustainability will be a versatile, inno-
vative, and indigenous African private sector, working in alliance with its
global counterpart, on equitable terms. Adequate provisions would have
to be made for affirmative action to build such competitive capacity
from experience and knowledge gained from each collaboration. These
are basic tenets of equitable globalisation.
The Role of the UN ICT Task Force in Support of NEPAD

and related African ICT Development Activities
The commitment of both NEPAD and the UN ICT Task Force to the
goals of the UN Millennium Declaration, and the alignment of the
vision of the African Union with the global vision of the United Nations,
provide a conducive platform for Task Force efforts in support of the
ICT Development in Africa as a whole, and the ICT objectives of NEPAD
as executed through the e-Africa Commission.
NEPAD, through the e-Africa Commission, could benefit substan-
tially from the extensive access, expertise and clout of the UN ICT Task
Force and its donor and private sector partners in many ways. These
include the following:
1. Through the mobilisation of support from the G8 industrial

nations, especially given their explicit commitments in the G8
African Plan of Action;
2. Through similar mobilisation of support from other industrial

and evolving industrial nations outside the G8 membership;
3. Through mobilisation of support from donor and development
agencies;
4. Through mobilisation of support, as much in material as in kind,
from the global private sector, especially those who are partners
in the Task Force;
5. In particular, through support for the World Economic Forum’s
CEO Charter for Development and Business Endorsement for the
New Partnership for Africa’s Development programmes to help
mobilise the global private sector to provide comprehensive and
dedicated support;
6. Through its own on-going initiatives, such as the Digital Diaspora
Network-Africa, to help mobilise Africans and others in the Dias-
pora in support of ICT initiatives on the continent;
7. Through support of new initiatives, and in partnership with other
institutions, especially Africa’s private sector, talented and highly
expert even if nascent, to help support Africa’s own drive for self-
development, the ultimate essence of NEPAD.
Conclusion
Through these and other avenues, the United Nations ICT Task Force
could help mobilise significant support, promote and/or partner with
NEPAD and its e-Africa Commission. The Task Force can have durable
positive impact on ICT Development in Africa, within Africa’s own vision
for self-actualisation and of The United Nation’s own terms of reference.
Any positive impact of initiatives undertaken by the Task Force and
its partners, even if not in direct support of specific NEPAD objectives,
constitutes de facto support of NEPAD, granted that the ultimate and
overall objective of NEPAD is the transformation of the African ICT
landscape, through all legitimate and conducive channels and agents.
Above all, the United Nations ICT Task Force, by partnering with the
African public and private sector (continental and global) could help
promote African ownership of the ICT development process in Africa.
Furthermore, it could empower the African ICT private sector not only
to meet the basic and emerging demands of ICT in Africa, but also to
compete effectively in the global marketplace.
Such cutting edge global competitive capacity is ultimately the only
way to ensure durable sustainability of the process and the gains from all
efforts of NEPAD and other initiatives involved in the global effort to
effect a quantum development of ICT capacity in Africa. This will also
greatly increase prospects for achieving a broadcast acquisition and inte-
gration of ICT applications in the everyday life of Africans, while pre-
serving and enhancing the cultural attributes and priorities of Africa and
its people, thus enriching the global human culture at large.
N OT E S
1. See Chapter Thirteen, Tip-toeing Across the Digital Divide: African Entrepreneurs
Applying, Adapting and Advancing Appropriate Information Technologies, by Crocker
Snow, Jr.
2. See Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., Creating an Industry-sponsored Participatory Continen-
tal African Satellite Communications Project: The SatCom Project, SatCom Africa
2002 Conference, Galagher Estate, Johannesburg, February 26–28, 2002.
3. See Chapter Nine, Info-communication for Development in Africa: The African Con-
nection Initiative by Emmanuel OleKambainei.
4. NEPAD Document, Section B1 (ii) Bridging the Digital Divide: Investing in Infor-
mation and Communications Technology, page 25, item 117, Objectives.
5. See ENABLING NEPAD, An Assessment of the Objectives, Capacity and Activities of
the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and Strategies and Niche for
UNDP Support. A Consultancy Report by Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., Ph.D., New York,
UNDP.
CHAPTER H. E. Alpha Oumar Konaré
2 Former President of
the Republic of Mali
Restoring Africa’s
National Space1
First of all, I would like to thank the Secretary-General of the United

Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, and Ambassador Wibisono for inviting me to
this important session of ECOSOC. Regarding the question of the New
Information and Communications Technologies, you could have
found—I am sure—another speaker, somebody more representative of
the extraordinary impact of this revolution in human progress. After all,
the connection of the African continent to the worldwide network does
not represent more than 2% of the total!
Also, I wish to pay homage to the United Nations for its delicacy
and perspicacity for having brought our continent, today, to a debate
where—as it could be possible to think—we do not have a say in the
matter. But this thinking would be contrary to a vision of the future,
since it is certain that Africa, tomorrow, will be able to overcome its
handicaps as well as other nations did in history, fighting against all pes-
simism existing in this domain. Furthermore, the weak presence of
47
Africa on the world scene does not mean that it is not aware of what is
at stake.
An Old Problem in New Terms
I would like to recall that it is not the first time that the African com-
munity has had to face up to problems affecting such a delicate area as
Information and Communications. For more than 30 years, we have
measured the real significance of these topics compared to the other
fields of human activity. In particular, we know that the control of
these parameters is the prerequisite for modernity, progress and free-
dom. This is why, in the same tribune of today, we have spoken several
times throughout the 1970s, to advocate a new world order in infor-
mation. It was already a time of unilateral occupation of the world,
when the space of the Southern countries was occupied by the satellites
of the North, without any possibility of debate, without any possible
compensation.
During these years, Africans have understood that national space at
the end of the 20th century could become foreign to its indigenous peo-
ple, alienated and dominated even on their own land. Today, everybody
knows that the least movement in the most remote African village can be
thoroughly dissected by the always-increasing sophisticated instruments.
We have been suffering this merciless domination for thirty years, to a
point where everybody by now considers this alienation as a natural
event. Everybody knows the dramatic consequences of this. On the
world scene, Africa is unfortunately only present because of its ethnic
conflicts, famine, and disease. Africa appears as an old sick person, pale
and atonic, suffering continuous agony, and constantly kept alive by
international aid.
This is the only image of Africa that exists for Northern countries,
simply because only they can hold images. For those rare people whose
interests and affairs are on the continent, this represents a great injus-
tice. They discover populations in good health, industrious, trusting in
the future. They discover democratic societies, where the modernity of
Restoring Africa’s National Space ✦ Konaré ✦ 49
institutions has nothing less in comparison with others. They dis-

cover—above all—the young people of today, the managers of tomor-
row; young people free of complexes, because they do not know
anything about colonisation; young people by now aware of the tiniest
pulses of the world, because they navigate the Internet.
Early Initiatives
Furthermore, I would like you to know that if, once again, Africa is the
poor relative of the world in terms of connectivity, it is due to the fact
that the costs for new technologies and media are still out of our reach.
Actually, in Africa, the debate on these technologies started several years
ago, almost at the same time as in the Western countries. In 1976, two
hundred personalities, including politicians and businessmen, university
professors and common people—two hundred personalities from the
North and from the South—convened in Geneva, invited by President
Guy Olivier Segond, President of the State Council and of the Canton of
Geneva and by myself, to think together in global terms about Africa and
the challenges of new communications technologies.
The right measure of the world significance of the Internet has been
expressed through the decision to build a virtual world between Geneva
and Bamako, my country’s capital city, chosen as a representation of
West African countries in this initiative. This is how the Anais Network
was born, a consultation network on ICT in Africa. This creation meant
for us basically two things: a new form of cooperation between the
North and the South, and the commencement, through the Internet, of
a revitalised integration among African countries.
The Legacy of Slavery, Colonialism and Racism
We finally understood that one of the major handicaps of the interna-

tional cooperation lies in the lack of communication and of reliable
information regarding our societies, our cultures, the structure of our
economies, and our reciprocal political objectives. The slave trade,
colonisation, racism and all forms of domination and exploitation in his-

tory, based on the superiority complex of one race, come from an igno-
rance typical of the human dimension of the other, simply because this
other, despised and discriminated against, could never really express itself.
The Internet Revolution
The Internet, in this regard, realised an unprecedented revolution, allow-

ing Africa to be in the world without any detour or intermediary. There
is no doubt that Africa is better known in the last five years than in the
last five hundred years. And it is also thanks to the hundreds of African
websites that the character and the potential qualities of the continent
are now being more appreciated than in the past.
The second value of the Anais Network for African countries them-
selves is as an instrument that could allow them to better grasp their
common problems in order to evolve common solutions.
Starting from Geneva, we chose four major areas where development
seems to be the foundation of progress and all possible well-being: edu-
cation, health, democracy and environment. The rebirth of Africa, which
has been so widely discussed in the last few years (and that does not seem
to me to be an illusion), can be reached through the development and
constant renewal of human resources, and through the construction of a
truly democratic society, which would be able to free all initiatives and to
protect our environment, the very condition for our existence.
When we invited the governments of six countries from the South
and one from the North, and the citizens to discuss these main ques-
tions, obstacles and barriers collapsed; this was surely due to the vitality
and fluidity of information, and to the possibility for African countries
to together identify a problem and a barrier.
The Global Dialogue
If, in recent years, we have participated in almost all world meetings on

the ICT, it is because of the creed of Geneva, where all participants
agreed that Africa had a great opportunity of finally having its voice
heard on all major issues.
The Global Knowledge Conference held in Toronto in 1997, with its
focus on the question of knowledge and ICT, gave us the opportunity of
expressing our views on this issue. Knowledge, for us, is the essence of
everything that is to be known, including rational knowledge, as codified
by Western culture and, unfortunately, presented ever since to the rest of
the world as the only valuable knowledge.
The debate in Toronto did also raise the question of content that
should be developed by Africa on the Internet and the electronic media.
We said that development was a question of culture, and that countries in
the South were confined to an inactive scheme with the connivance of the
North, for as long as this hypothesis was not recognised by everybody.
The question of world knowledge brings along that of the exhuma-
tion, thanks to the ICT, of the historical legacy of Africa. It poses the
problem of the confinement of the means to a particular civilisation, in
which there is the escape, the salvation of the difference, in a world glob-
alised to death, so to speak.
But it is up to African university students, to business agents, to judges,
to all citizens—it is their task to reveal their knowledge, their know-how-
to-do and know-how-to-be Africans who, throughout the centuries, have
kept the continent alive in spite of all the aggressions that we all know.
It is through our involvement in this debate on the world scene that
will make it possible to develop our prolific differences and to refuse the
assimilation of our values by a media-driven world eruption of sound
and image.
This is the same position that we had the honour of supporting in
our closing speech at the ECA (Economic Commission for Africa)
Forum on Information Technologies, held in Addis Ababa.
“Bamako 2000”
As for the “Bamako 2000”, organised in my country last February,

which counted on the participation of four continents out of five, 736
representatives from 48 countries, it was the greatest gathering in

Africa on the topic of ICT. Regarding the subject of “Internet as the
footbridge of development”, the panelists presented the most recent
applications of the Internet in the following domains: education,
health, administration of decentralised communities, media, elec-
tronic commerce, sustainable development, women in information
society, the rights of citizens and peoples, the collective access and the
appropriations of the ICT, and the ethical and legal challenges of the
Internet.
A Collective Approach to Access
Nobody has any doubt today about the revolutionary character of the
Internet in the development process. But one of the questions just men-
tioned represents today a real problem and has been discussed in
Toronto, Addis Ababa, Bamako and, lately, in New York at the Experts’
Meeting preparing this General Assembly of ECOSOC. I am refering to
the collective access and the appropriations of ICT.
The Threat of a New Digital Conquest of Africa
We are aware of the interest that 400 million African consumers repre-
sent for multinational companies, and reforms advocating privatisation
have been initiated everywhere in this important field. There is such a
movement in this direction that a great world competition is taking
place. But among all possible analyses, we can recognise, in the prompt
increasing interest of northern countries in the connection of Africa, a
kind of re-conquest of the African continent. The doctrine of a “new
society of the planetary information” is just an idea serving a fooling
market. It is, in a word, the eternal debate on the objectives aimed at all
innovative technologies.
You all understand that our commitment to Information and
Communications Technology is mainly based upon the vigilance and
maturity of Africans in this respect. Also, the only valid question for us
is that of the exploitation of our populations with respect to opportu-

nities related to ICT. We know that the United Nations, until today,
devoted almost eighteen million dollars to strengthen connectivity in
Africa, in addition to the fifteen million dollars of the Leland Initiative
for which we are sincerely thankful to the United States. We also have
to say that there is more pressure for installing cellular telephone net-
works than local infrastructures, since these need a major connection
effort.
A United Nations Response
This is why I strongly commend the Economic and Social Council of the
United Nations for having convened this important meeting. A glaring
inequality among the different regions in the world came out from the
experts’ report. But it also arose that there are countries which, only ten
years ago, had an economical structure similar to that of African coun-
tries today, and they succeeded in a spectacular takeoff with a resolute
policy with respect to connectivity.
Mali’s Initiatives
It is for this reason that today, at the “Bamako 2000”, we announced the
intention of the Government of Mali to link the 701 municipalities com-
ing out from a long program of decentralisation of the country and to
provide each of Mali’s municipalities an Internet access point in order to
give to the State reliable demographic statistics and electoral lists for
transparent elections. We will also install one Internet access point for
the country’s natural resources map, and for the school, the health sys-
tem, and the ecological and cultural chart. There will also be one Inter-
net access point in each municipality for communication and better
acquaintance amongst citizens, and for more efficiently positioning and
increasing the value of their production.
Is the planned link of 701 municipalities of Mali to the Internet
today, a utopia? Is it something impossible?
”Debt for Connectivity”
I do not see another way of giving Africans a chance to enter the global
information society than invoking international cooperation, which, as
it seems to me, is—in the whole world—the only possible universe for
solidarity and parity: the United Nations have always been the defender
of the poorest.
Everybody knows here that Africa does not need to beg on the world
scene. It is one of the continents with the greatest natural resources in the
world. And as for human resources, more than the fifty percent of the
population of Africa is under 25 years old. The burden that Africa drags
upon its feet and that prevents it from taking off is debt, always debt.
And if the dream of the Government of Mali is still just a dream, it is
only due to the burden of debt. At “Bamako 2000”, I revealed to the par-
ticipants that the Internet link of 701 municipalities would have cost a
maximum of 8 billion French Francs, or less than 7 million US dollars,
which is impossible to find today, since Mali pays almost 60 billion French
Francs, or approximately 10 million US dollars, annually for its debt.
The linking up of Africa to the world is not a luxury. It is not simply
in the interest for Africa; it is in the interest for the entire world. This is
why I take advantage of being in front of such an important tribune to
propose to the international community the formula of “debt for con-
nectivity”. I am sure that, if every year just one percent of the total
amount of debt of each African country is devolved for the creation or
the amelioration of the telecommunication infrastructures (telephone,
instant messages, electricity, Internet), the Northern as well as the South-
ern countries will find it to their mutual benefit.
N OT E S
1. On July 5, 2000, H. E. Alpha Oumar Konaré, as the then President of the Republic
of Mali, addressed the High-Level Segment of the UN Economic and Social Coun-
cil (ECOSOC), as a special guest. That speech is presented here.
CHAPTER Mike Jensen
The Current Status of

Information and Communications
Technologies in Africa
An Overview
The use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) has

grown relatively rapidly in most urban areas in Africa. Five years ago,
only a handful of countries had local Internet access; now it is available
in every capital city. In the same period, more mobile cell phones were
deployed on the continent than the number of fixed lines laid in the last
century. Hundreds of new local and community radio stations have been
licensed, and satellite TV is now also widely available.
However, the digital divide is still at its most extreme in Africa,
where the use of ICTs is still at a very early stage of development com-
pared to other regions of the world. Of the approximately 816 million
people in Africa in 2001, it is estimated that:
55
• 1 in 4 have a radio (205m),

• 1 in 13 have a TV (62m),
• 1 in 35 have a mobile phone (24m),
• 1 in 40 have a fixed line (20m),
• 1 in 130 have a PC (5.9m),
• 1 in 160 use the Internet (5m), and
• 1 in 400 have pay-TV(2m)1
Surveys show that sub-Saharan Africa, along with South Asia,

remains at the bottom of the list of developing regions in Internet usage,
with South Asian Internet use growing more rapidly (see Table 3–1).
Table 3–1: Internet Users as a percentage of the Total Population

Region 1998 2000
United States 26.3 54.3
High-income OECD (excl.US) 6.9 28.2
Latin America and the Caribbean 0.8 3.2
East Asia and the Pacific 0.5 2.3
Eastern Europe and CIS 0.8 3.9
Arab States 0.2 0.6
Sub-Saharan Africa 0.1 0.4
South Asia 0.04 0.4
World 2.4 6.7
Source: NUA Publishing (www.nua.ie)
Table 3–2: African Internet Statistics for 2002

Dialup International Population GDP/Capita Cities with
Internet Outgoing Bandwidth in Millions in USD POPs
Country Subscribers in Kbps 2000 1999 (Points of Presence)
Africa 1492535 1409100 769,66 1207,5 283
Algeria 45000 12000 30,08 1442 1
Angola 16000 5126 12,09 1684 3
Benin 4500 2100 5,78 374 1
Botswana 20000 14000 1,57 3252 11
Burkina Faso 4700 256 11,31 199 1
Burundi 300 512 6,46 159 4
Cameroon 7000 9000 14,31 617 2
Cape Verde 2456 1024 0,41 876 1
Central African Republic 700 64 3,48 276 1
Chad 900 64 7,27 149 2
The Current Status of ICT in Africa ✦ Jensen ✦ 57
Dialup International Population GDP/Capita Cities with

Internet Outgoing Bandwidth in Millions in USD POPs
Country Subscribers in Kbps 2000 1999 (Points of Presence)
Comoros 491 64 0,66 382 7
Congo 200 128 2,79 833 5
Cote D’ivoire 13000 6000 16,2 767 13
D.R Congo 4500 1024 49,3 400 1
Djibouti 850 2048 0,62 846 6
Egypt 100000 535000 65,98 1195 1
E. Guinea 200 64 0,43 668 1
Eritrea 2500 512 3,58 161 1
Ethiopia 6500 8200 59,65 103 5
Gabon 5000 16384 1,17 5121 7
Gambia 3000 1024 1,23 284 14
Ghana 15000 4096 19,16 372 3
Guinea 4000 128 7,71 677 10
Guinea-Bissau 250 640 1,13 245 4
Kenya 35000 28000 29,01 347 2
Lesotho 750 784 2,06 547 2
Liberia 250 128 2,67 1000 1
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 4000 2048 5,98 6579 1
Madagascar 10000 2750 16,36 224 1
Malawi 3500 2300 10,75 242 2
Mali 6000 4096 10,69 230 1
Mauritania 960 384 2,53 455 1
Mauritius 35000 4096 1,15 3661 1
Morocco 80000 200000 27,87 1218 1
Mozambique 6000 2048 18,88 86 11
Namibia 15000 6144 1,66 2051 100
Niger 2000 384 10,08 161 1
Nigeria 60000 15000 113,5 551 2
Reunion 47000 576 0,68 9270 4
Rwanda 2700 1300 6,6 317 1
Sao Tome & Principe 378 64 0,14 358 1
Senegal 15000 48000 10 518 4
Seychelles 3000 4098 0,08 6995 3
Sierra Leone 1000 512 4,57 209 1
Somalia 250 768 10,63 169 2
South Africa 750000 342000 44,31 2979 2
Sudan 9000 10000 28,29 364 7
Swaziland 5000 256 0,95 1388 1
Tanzania 30000 12000 32,1 244 4
Togo 1700 1536 4,4 324 9
Tunisia 70000 75000 9,34 2144 1
Uganda 10000 9250 20,55 317 5
Zambia 7000 5120 8,78 463 1
Zimbabwe 25000 11000 12,68 712 4
The divide between urban and rural areas is even greater. Most of
the services and users are concentrated in the towns, while the majority
of Africans are scattered in small communities spread-out across vast
rural areas. Very limited diffusion of the telecommunications networks
into rural areas (often over 75 percent of the country’s telephone lines
are concentrated in the capital city) and irregular or non-existent elec-
tricity supplies are a common feature and a major barrier to use of ICTs,
especially outside the major towns. Furthermore, most tax regimes still
treat computers and cell phones as luxury items, which make these
almost exclusively imported items all the more expensive and even less
obtainable by the majority. Although there have been notable efforts in
some countries to reduce duties on computers, communications equip-
ment and peripherals are still often charged at higher rates.
Another systematic factor is that the road, rail and air transport net-
works are limited, costly to use and often in poor condition, resulting in
barriers to the increased movement of people and goods, needed both to
implement and support a pervasive ICT infrastructure, but also for the
increased economic and social activity which would be stimulated
through greater use of ICTs. Congested border posts and visa require-
ments add to these difficulties.
Perhaps an even greater problem is that the brain drain and gener-
ally low levels of education and literacy amongst the population have
created a scarcity of skills and expertise (at all levels, from policy making
down to end-user). Rural areas in particular suffer with even more lim-
ited human resources. Along with the very low pay scales in the African
civil service, this is a chronic problem for governments and NGOs who
are continually losing their brightest and most experienced to the private
sector. This situation is not unique to Africa or other developing coun-
tries, but is also being faced by the developed world where infrastructure
demands have outpaced the supply of experienced staff. However, this is
simply exacerbating the situation in Africa, because experienced techni-
cians, even from the local private sector, are able to find much higher-
paying jobs in Europe and North America.
Finally, the general business climate for increased investment in

Africa, acutely needed for the ICT sector, has suffered from the well-
known problems of small markets divided by arbitrary borders, non-
transparent and time-consuming procedures, limited opportunities
(due largely to the historic pattern of monopolies and high levels of state
control), scarce local capital, currency instability, exchange controls and
inflation.
However, these rather discouraging observations do not give the full
picture.
The ICT landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years,
and within the continent there are many pockets of significant develop-
ments:
• One of the early and still most important impacts has been in the
use of e-mail to reduce the cost and to increase the speed and dura-
tion of international communications. This has allowed many peo-
ple and organisations to improve management, obtain resources and
generally achieve much better communications with their family,
friends, colleagues and partners around the world, especially in
neighbouring countries.
• Although the relatively low level of ICT penetration amongst the
public in Africa has so far limited the use of ICTs for governance
purposes, many administrations are beginning to streamline their
operations and improve internal efficiencies by adopting ICTs. For
example, the government of Lesotho recently declared that all
announcements for cabinet and committee meetings would be
made only by e-mail. Administrations, such as those in South Africa,
Algeria and Tunisia, now provide immediate global access to tenders
via the web. Health and education departments in many countries
are beginning to electronically transmit operational MIS statistics
such as disease occurrences and pupil registrations. In South Africa,
the results of blood tests are being transmitted to remote clinics that
are off the telecom grid via mobile telephone text messages. As
greater numbers of public officials are now gaining low-cost access

to the web, the vast information resources available via the Internet
are becoming increasingly important tools in ensuring informed
decision-making.
• Lack of timely information is well known to be the largest constraint
on small-scale agricultural production and natural resource
exploitation—a sector that provides livelihood for 70–80 percent of
Africa’s population. However, thus far the potential for ICTs to
impact this sector has not yet received much attention. Local farm-
ers or miners often cannot obtain up-to-date market information so
that travelling traders can negotiate most favourable prices. With
improved information systems they would be able to obtain much
better market-related prices. Also, farmer and fishing organisations
would be able to band together to sell their produce directly to dis-
tributors, and negotiate for better prices on inputs.
• The scalability of ICTs lends them to adoption by small and
medium size enterprises, which can provide much needed local
communication services. Furthermore, the ‘death of distance’ pro-
vided by the Internet has meant that there are even greater oppor-
tunities to be found in exploiting the larger information and
communication-based economies of the developed countries. For
example:
- A local Internet service provider in Morocco has a contract to
digitise the National Library of France’s paper archives. They are
scanned in France, sent over by satellite link where operators in
Rabat edit them.
- In Togo and Mauritius, call centres now provide telephone sup-
port services for international companies with customers in
Europe and North America. Callers do not realise they are calling
Mauritius or Togo; they pick up the phone, dial a local number
and are routed through to one of these countries where the oper-
ators there provide the support that they require.
- In Cape Verde, ‘virtual security guards’ have found jobs using the
Internet to monitor web cams in office parks on the East Coast of
the US. They notify local rapid response teams there if they see
anything amiss.
- Many African craft makers are selling their wares on the World
Wide Web, supported by NGOs, such as PeopleLink.
While these developments are encouraging, unfortunately there are

rather too few of these examples, largely because of the low level of pen-
etration of the infrastructure and supporting environment necessary to
effectively use ICTs in Africa.
Broadcasting
Radio is still by far the most dominant mass medium in Africa, with
ownership of radio sets being far higher than for any other electronic
device. In 1997, UNESCO estimated radio ownership in Africa at close
to 170 million, with a 4 percent per annum growth rate. This would put
2002 ownership slightly over 200 million radio sets, compared with only
62 million televisions.
It is estimated that over 60 percent of the population of the sub-con-
tinent are reached by existing radio transmitter networks, while national
television coverage is largely confined to major towns. Some countries
still do not have their own national television broadcaster; even a rela-
tively well-developed country, such as Botswana, has only this year
launched a national TV broadcaster.
An increasing number of commercial stations are being established
following liberalisation of the sector in many countries. However, the
news and information output of these commercial stations is often
either a re-broadcast of the national (state-controlled) broadcaster’s
news, or that of an international broadcaster or news agency. Local news
and current affairs, especially those focusing on events outside of the
capital, is rarely broadcast. Also, community broadcasting has been slow
to take off in the region. Genuine community broadcasters are scarce.
Nevertheless, Ghana, South Africa and Uganda have seen notable num-
bers of new community radio licensees.
Satellite-based broadcasting has in particular seen major activity on

the continent in the last few years. In 1995, South African company M-
Net launched the world’s first digital direct-to-home subscriber satellite
service, called DSTV. Subscribers have access to over 30 video channels
and 40 audio programmes on C-band to the whole of Africa and on
lower-cost KU-band to Southern Africa, south of Lusaka. Last year
South Africa’s public broadcaster, SABC, launched Channel Africa, a new
satellite-based news and entertainment channel aimed at the continent.
The US-based company WorldSpace launched a digital radio broad-
casting satellite called AfriStar in late 1998. Broadcasters in Europe, the
US and in Egypt, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, Senegal and South Africa
have so far signed up to provide content. WorldSpace ultimately aims to
make a suite of over 80 audio channels available to anyone on the conti-
nent who can afford the $50 for the special digital radio, which is also
able to receive data services, including the transmission of web pages.
Telecommunications
Changes in the telecommunications sector in Africa have perhaps been

even more marked than in broadcasting. A substantial increase in the
rate of expansion and modernisation of fixed networks is taking place,
along with the explosion of mobile networks.
The number of main lines grew about 9 percent a year between 1995
and 2001. This growth, however, is off a very low base. The overall fixed
line teledensity, as of 2001, is still only about one per 130 inhabitants in
sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa), and taking into account
population growth, the effective annual increase in lines is only 6 percent.
Also, most of the existing telecom infrastructure cannot reach the bulk of
the population—50 percent of the available lines are concentrated in the
capital cities, where only about 10 percent of the population live. In over
15 countries in Africa, including Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Uganda, over
70 percent of the lines are still located in the largest city.2
However, the situation is not quite as bad as it would appear due to the
penetration of mobile networks, where subscribers have now surpassed
fixed-line users in most countries, thus underlining the pent-up demand

for basic voice services. Due to the low-cost and long range of the cellular
base stations, many rural areas have also been covered. On the other hand,
the high cost of mobile usage (about USD$0.50/minute, on average)
makes it too expensive for regular local calls or Internet access.
Overall, the number of fixed lines increased from 12.5 million to 21
million across Africa between 1995 and 2001. North Africa had 11.4 mil-
lion of these and South Africa had another 5 million lines, leaving only
4.6 million for the rest of the continent. Thus, while sub-Sahara Africa
contains about 10 percent of the world’s population (626 million), it has
only 0.2 percent of the world’s 1 billion telephone lines. Comparing this
to all of the low-income countries (which house 50 percent of the
world’s population and 10 percent of the telephone lines), the penetra-
tion of phone lines on the sub-continent is about 5 times worse than the
‘average’ low-income country.
Even if telecom infrastructure is beginning to spread, domestic use
has, until recently, been largely confined to the small proportion of the
population that can afford their own telephone. The cost of renting a
connection averages almost 20 percent of GDP per capita, as compared
to a world average of 9 percent, and only 1 percent in high-income coun-
tries.3 Despite these high charges relative to income levels, the number of
public telephones is still much lower than elsewhere. In 2001, the Inter-
national Telecommunication Union reported about 350,000 in the
whole continent, 75,000 in sub-Saharan Africa, or about 1 for every
8,500 people, compared to a world average of 1 to 500 and a high-
income average of 1 to 200.
Public Telephone Operators (PTOs) in countries, such as Botswana
and South Africa, now provide a ‘virtual phone’ alternative. Subscribers
are issued their own unique phone number and pay a small rental for a
voice mailbox, from which they can retrieve their messages from any
telephone. A pager can also be tied to the system to immediately inform
the subscriber that a message is waiting.
However, an increasing number of operators in Africa are now
passing over the responsibility for maintaining public telephones to the
private sector, which has seen a rapid growth of public ‘phone shops’
and ‘telecentres’ in many countries. The best-known success story is in
Senegal, where there are over 10,000 commercially-run public phone
bureaus, employing over 15,000 people and generating over 30 percent
of the entire network’s revenues. While most of these are in urban
areas, a growing number are being established in more remote loca-
tions. Some are now also serving needs for providing Internet access
and other more advanced ICT services to the public.
ICT Hardware and Software
Most recent estimates for the number of personal computers in Africa

put the total at about 7.5 million for 2001—an average of about 1 per
100 people. But due to limited capacities for industry monitoring and
the large numbers of machines smuggled in to avoid duties, these fig-
ures are notoriously unreliable. Some studies, such as the ACCT (1995)
survey, indicate that official figures may be an overestimate by between
3 and 6 times, making the average closer to 1 per 500 people. Account
should also be taken of the number of users sharing a single computer,
which is much greater than in the more developed regions of the
world.
Under-utilisation of existing computer resources is also common,
often caused by the preponderance of many stand-alone computers in
the same office with no use of Local Area Networks (LANs). Often an
office may have many machines, but only one with a modem connected
to the Internet. This usually means that there is competition for the
machine and a shared e-mail account, which is not conducive to effec-
tive use of the Internet.
More generally, the high cost of computer hardware is a major issue
as this is often the largest component of their startup budgets. This situ-
ation is likely to become an even more critical bottleneck now that low-
cost bandwidth is becoming increasingly available, such as through
Ku-Band VSAT and spread spectrum wireless (WiFi) links. As a result,
increasing attention is being directed toward the use of recycled PCs,
thin clients, set-top boxes, or other low-cost Internet ‘appliances’, and

Open Source (free) software for these situations.
Table 3–3: Telecommunications Usage 2001

Country Fixed lines Penetration Mobile Users Penetration Public phones
Year 2001 000s % Population 000s % Population 000s
Algeria 1880 6.04 100 0.32 5
Angola 80 0.59 86.5 0.64 0.27
Benin 59.3 0.92 125 1.94 0.51
Botswana 150.3 9.27 278 16.65 3
Burkina Faso 57.6 0.47 75 0.61 1.44
Burundi 20 0.29 20 0.29 0.08
Cameroon 101.4 0.67 310 2.04 6.55
Cape Verde 62.3 14.27 31.5 7.21 0.39
Central Africa 10 0.26 11 0.29 0.09
Chad 11 0.14 22 0.27 0.06
Comoros 8.9 1.22 — — 0.17
Congo 22 0.71 150 4.82 —
Côte d’Ivoire 293.6 1.8 728.5 4.46 1.93
Djibouti 9.9 1.54 150 0.29 0.42
DR Congo 20 0.04 3 0.47
Egypt 6650 10.3 2793.8 4.33 21.99
Eq. Guinea 6.9 1.47 15 3.19 —
Eritrea 32 0.84 — — 0.42
Ethiopia 310 0.48 27.5 0.04 1.56
Gabon 37.2 2.95 258.1 20.45 0.83
Gambia 35 2.62 43 3.22 0.68
Ghana 242.1 1.16 193.8 0.93 3.18
Guinea 25.5 0.32 55.7 0.69 0.85
Guinea Bissau 12 0.98 — — 0.2
Kenya 313.1 1 500 1.6 9.03
Lesotho 22.2 1.03 33 1.53 0.37
Liberia 6.7 — — — —
Libya 610 10.93 50 0.9 0.45
Madagascar 58.4 0.36 147.5 0.9 0.46
Malawi 54.1 0.47 55.7 0.48 0.54
Mali 49.9 0.43 45.3 0.39 2.37
Mauritania 19 0.72 — — 0.89
Mauritius 306.8 25.56 300 25 2.92
Mayotte 10 6.98 — — —
Morocco 1193.3 3.92 4771.7 15.68 46.84
Mozambique 89.4 0.44 169.9 0.84 1.86
Country Fixed lines Penetration Mobile Users Penetration Public phones

Year 2001 000s % Population 000s % Population 000s
Namibia 117.4 6.57 100 5.59 5.3
Niger 21.7 0.19 1.8 0.02 0.06
Nigeria 500 0.43 330 0.28 1.6
Réunion 268.5 — — — —
Rwanda 21.5 0.27 65 0.82 0.4
SaoTomé 5.4 3.63 — — 0.08
Senegal 237.2 2.45 390.8 4.04 13.49
Seychelles 21.4 26.73 44.1 55.15 0.22
Sierra Leone 22.7 0.47 26.9 0.55 0.31
Somalia 15 — — — —
South Africa 4969 11.35 9197 21 178.11
Sudan 453 1.42 105 0.33 5.25
Swaziland 32 3.14 66 6.47 0.83
Tanzania 148.5 0.41 427 1.19 0.72
Togo 48.1 1.03 95 2.04 0.16
Tunisia 1056.2 10.89 389.2 4.01 19.31
Uganda 63.7 0.28 322.7 1.43 1.38
Zambia 85.4 0.8 98.3 0.92 0.87
Zimbabwe 253.7 1.86 328.7 2.41 3.23
TOTAL 21210.3 3.52 23545.2 2.95 346.67
The Internet
The use of the Internet is a good indicator of the availability of ICTs, as

it requires the integration of many individual components of ICTs—
computers, telecommunications infrastructure—and the skills to use
them. As the graph below shows, both the number of Internet users and
the amount of international bandwidth are still growing strongly across
the continent.
In Africa, the pattern of Internet diffusion has been similar to that of
the mobile telephone networks. Although not quite as widespread, the
Internet preceded the mobile phone explosion, having had greatest
impact at the top end of business and in wealthy families, primarily in the
major urban areas. Ironically, the non-profit sector—the academic insti-
tutions and the NGOs—pioneered the use of the Internet in the early
1990s, fueled by their need for low-cost international communications. It
was subsequently taken up by private Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

and most of the national telecom operators.
Due to the large number of shared accounts, along with the rela-
tively high and rapidly growing use of public access services, such as tele-
centres and cyber cafes, it is difficult to measure the total number of
Internet users. Although the number of dialup subscriber accounts is
readily available, these figures are only a partial gauge of the size of the
Internet sector and should be looked at along with other factors, such as
the quantity of international traffic each country generates.
Figure 3–1: Growth of Internet use in Africa

1800
1600
1400
Subs/ 1200
Kbps 1000
(000s) Subscribers
800
600
400
Bandwidth
200
0
98 99 00 01 02
The rates of growth seen in the 1990s have slowed in most coun-
tries, because the bulk of the users who can afford a computer and tele-
phone have already obtained connections. As of mid–2002, the number
of dialup Internet subscribers was close to 1.7 million, 20 percent up
from 2001, mainly bolstered by growth in a few countries such as Nige-
ria. Of these subscribers, North Africa and South Africa are responsible
for about 1.2 million, leaving about 500,000 for the remaining 49 sub-
Saharan African countries. If we assume that each computer with an
Internet or email connection supports a range of three to five users, this
puts current estimates of the number of African Internet users at about
5 to 8 million. About 1.5–2.5 million of the users are outside North and
South Africa, or about 1 user for every 250 to 400 people. This compares
with a world average of about 1 user for every 15 people, and a North
American and European average of about 1 user for every 2 persons.
Figure 3–2: Countries with more than 10 000 Internet subscribers
Other 47 nations
Kenya
Reunion
Nigeria South Africa
Tunisia
Algeria
Morocco
Egypt
Shared or public access and the use of corporate networks are con-
tinuing to grow at greater rates than the number of dialup users. This
can be seen in the deployment of international Internet bandwidth,
which is still expanding substantially—up over 100 percent, from 700
Mbps of available outgoing bandwidth in 2001 to 1500 Mbps in 2002.
However, this is still slower growth than the rest of the world, which
averaged 174 percent in 2001. No studies have been made in Africa of the
number of rural versus urban users, but it is safe to say that users in the
cities and towns vastly outnumber rural users.
Although many African countries now have points of presence
(POPs) in some of the secondary towns (about 280 different locations
across the continent), most rural users have to make a costly long dis-
tance call to connect to the Internet. However, some countries have
now instituted local call charges for all calls to the Internet regardless
of distance, which greatly reduces costs for those in remote areas and
greatly increases accessibility and the viability of Internet services pro-
vided by rural telecentres in these nations. Thus far, 19 countries have
adopted this strategy. They are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad,
Ethiopia, Gabon, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mauritania, Morocco,
Namibia, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, and
Zimbabwe. Interestingly, the Seychelles has gone a step further to
encourage use, and tariffs for calls to the Internet are charged at a 50
percent lower rate than normal local voice calls.
Currently, the average total cost of using a local dialup Internet
account for 20 hours a month in Africa is about USD 60 per month
(usage fees and local call telephone time included, but not telephone line
rental). ISP subscription charges vary greatly (between USD 10 and USD
80 a month) and largely reflect the different levels of maturity of the
markets, the varying tariff policies of the telecom operators, the differ-
ent regulations on private wireless data services and access to interna-
tional telecommunications bandwidth.
According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), 20 hours of Internet access in the United States
cost USD 22 per month in 2000, including telephone charges.
Although European costs were higher (USD 33 in Germany, USD 39
across the European Union), these countries have per capita incomes
that are at least 10 times greater than the African average. In fact, USD
60 per month is higher than the average African monthly salary. This
limits individual use of the Internet, creating demand for public access
facilities—the cost of a single account shared amongst all of the cus-
tomers who would not otherwise be able to afford access.
Similarly, due to the relatively small number of people who can
afford a phone line, let alone a computer, telecentre services are already
very much in demand in the urban areas. This is most evident in coun-
tries, such as Nigeria and Senegal, where telecom operators have relied
on the private sector to provide public phone services. Also, in most
other major urban areas across Africa, there is a rapidly growing num-
ber of kiosks, cybercafes, and other forms of public Internet access.
Figure 3–3: Countries with more than 5Mbps International Bandwidth
Sudan 10
Zimbabwe 11
Tanzania 12
Botswana 14
Nigeria 15
Country
Gabon 16
Kenya 28
Senegal 60
Tunisia 75
Algeria 83
Morocco 136
South Africa 398
Egypt 535
0 200 400 600
Bandwidths (Kbps) (000s)
In response to the high cost of Internet services and the slow speed
of web access, and also because of the overriding importance of elec-
tronic mail, lower-cost email-only services are continuing to attract sub-
scribers. Due to the relatively high cost of local electronic mailbox
services from African ISPs, a large proportion of African email users use
the free Web-based services such as Hotmail, Yahoo, or Excite, most of
which are in the United States. These services can be more costly and
slower than using standard e-mail software, because extra online time is
needed to maintain the connection to the remote site. Unfortunately for
the ISPs, these services can also use up scarce international bandwidth.
In response to these issues and the growing use of shared accounts, some
African ISPs, such as AfricaOnline and MailAfrica, have set up their own
low-cost web-based email services.
In the area of Internet-based content and applications, the African
web-space continues to expand, albeit at a rather slow rate, and there are
still rather too few relevant applications for the average African user.
Almost all countries now have some form of local or internationally
hosted web server, unofficially or officially representing the country with
varying degrees of comprehensiveness.
Although there are a few notable official general government web-

sites, such as those of Angola, Egypt, Gabon, Lesotho, Mauritius,
Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia, and
Zambia, there is as yet little discernible government use of the Inter-
net for existing administrative purposes. Web presence is higher in
some sectors, particularly those involved in tourism and foreign
investment, and these often have more mature sites that are aimed at
developing an international market presence, although these are of lit-
tle interest for most potential users.
Outside South Africa, there are generally few organisations that are
using the web to deliver significant quantities of information or to carry
out transactions with their user-base. Although large numbers of organ-
isations now have a “brochure” website with basic descriptive and con-
tact information, very few actually use the Internet for real business
activities. This is explained by the limited number of local people that
have access to the Internet (and thus the limited importance of a web
presence to the institution), the lack of credit cards, the limited skills
available for digitising and coding pages, and the high costs of local web-
hosting services.
Perhaps of interest to those in rural areas with little access to timely
information, the African news media are now relatively well represented
on the web. In 1999, the Columbia University African Studies Depart-
ment identified over 120 different newspapers and news magazines that
were available on the Internet, of which over 60 percent were published
in about half of the countries (23) on the subcontinent. Those most well
represented in this area are again those with more advanced Internet
sectors—Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa,
Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. There are also efforts to develop
local content and host daily newspapers by the ISP AfricaOnline, which
has offices in eight countries.
Universal smart card and e-commerce policies are also gaining
attention in a number of countries. Mauritius and South Africa are look-
ing at a single smart card that will allow the public to hold their driver’s
license, small amounts of funds that can be used for small transactions,
and their health and other social security information. Harmonisation
of e-commerce policies is also on the agenda in a number of countries,

so that, for example, electronic evidence is upheld in court and can be
used for ensuring that e-commerce is correctly carried out.
The Outlook for the Future
Efforts to promote more universal access to ICTs in Africa have been dis-
cussed among high-level policymakers since the early 1990s. Official
recognition was given to the issue in 1996 when the Conference of
African Ministers of Social and Economic Planning requested the UN
Economic Commission for Africa to set up a “high-level working group”
to chart Africa’s path onto the global information highways. An expert
group developed a framework document entitled the African Informa-
tion Society Initiative (AISI), which was adopted by all of Africa’s Plan-
ning Ministers (see Chapter Eight).
AISI called for the formulation and development of a National
Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plan that
would be driven by national development priorities in every African
country. AISI also proposed cooperation among African countries to
share experiences. Since then, Communications Ministers from over 40
African countries have provided high-level endorsement for AISI,
along with specific telecommunications development policies encap-
sulated in their common vision document, African Connection, which
was published in 2001 (http://www.africanconnection.org). Most coun-
tries have begun the process for developing NICI plans, and 16 coun-
tries have already finalised their strategies.4 High in the area of
priorities in many of these plans is improvement of access to ICTs in
rural areas through the use of telecentres that exploit the convergence
of technologies to provide cost-effective services in under-serviced and
remote locations.
The impact of much of these efforts will depend largely on the
extent of improvements to the telecommunication infrastructure on
which use of ICTs depends. Liberalisation of the telecommunication
sector and the introduction of competition are seen as key to driving

down prices and increasing the quality of service. However, while some
countries have begun to open up their markets, there is a general sense
that not enough is being done.
While there is a variety of efforts underway to restructure national
telecom operations and build better national and international infra-
structures, many of these lack a cohesive approach built on a clear
understanding of the dynamics and impact of the fast-paced and con-
stantly changing communications technologies environment. Models of
infrastructure provision are likely to be quite different to those
employed in developed countries because of the generally low income
levels, limited formal business activity and the much greater impor-
tance of the rural population, where up to 70–80 percent of the people
may live outside urban areas. In addressing the low-income factor,
innovative models may be necessary, which focus on shared infrastruc-
ture, public access facilities and the use of intermediaries to interact
with the public who may not have functional literacy, let alone be com-
puter literate.
The high costs of connectivity in remote areas will hopefully be
addressed by the large number of low-cost two-way Ku-band VSAT
satellite-based data services that have been launched this year by com-
panies, such as Afsat and Web-Sat. These services will be a major boom
to rural users, making use of the new high-powered satellite footprints
now covering Africa, similar to services currently available in the
United States and Europe. Costs are about USD 1500–3000 for the
VSAT equipment and USD 200–400 per month for “better than
dialup” speeds (i.e. 56 Kbps outgoing and 200–400 Kbps incoming).
These are expected to see rapid uptake wherever regulations allow.
Unfortunately, most countries in Africa either charge excessively high
license fees or do not allow these services at all, as they compete with
the state-run telecom operator.
The African Union and their programme, the New Partnership
for African Development (NEPAD), supported by the international
community, are addressing many of the systemic issues. This multi-

faceted effort is aimed at accelerating Africa’s development and
should as a result help to create an environment more conducive to
the rapid adoption of ICTs.
Table 3–4: Continental Connectivity Indicators

Countries with Countries with Countries with
only one Local Dialup Internet Advanced
Country Public Access ISP Access Nationwide Data Services
Benin ✘
Botswana ✘
Burkina Faso ✘ ✘
Cape Verde ✘
Central African Republic ✘
Congo ✘
Djibouti ✘
Egypt ✘
Ethiopia ✘ ✘
Gabon ✘
Ghana ✘
Kenya ✘
Malawi ✘
Mali ✘
Mauritius ✘ ✘ ✘
Mauritania ✘
Morocco ✘ ✘
Namibia ✘
Niger ✘ ✘
Senegal ✘ ✘
South Africa ✘
Seychelles ✘
Tchad ✘
Togo ✘
Tunisia ✘ ✘
Uganda ✘
Zimbabwe ✘
Countries with local Internet Exchange (peering) points (IXs):
1. Egypt—Cairo (IDSC) http://www.idsc.gov.eg
2. Kenya—Nairobi (KIXP) http://www.kixp.net
3. South Africa—Cape Town (CINX), Johannesburg (JINX) http://www.ispa.org.za/
http://www3.frd.ac.za/mrtg/jinx/summary.html
Figure 3–4: Low cost local dialup
Secondary City Access

National Access
Figure 3–5: African Internet Bandwidth Per Capita and Marine Fibre Cables
To USA
Further References
1. Africa’s Information Society Initiative (AISI) Documents (ECA)

http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi/more/index.html
2. Bridging the Gaps in Internet Development in Africa—Report
(IDRC). http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/studies/ir-gaps.htm
3. Continental Connectivity Indicators http://www3.sn.apc.org/africa/
partial.html
4. ITU Rural Connectivity & Telecentres http://www.itu.int/ITU-D-Rural
5. Partnership for ICTs in Africa (PICTA) http://www.bellanet.org/
partners/picta
6. African Connection http://www.africanconnection.org
7. UNECA, May 2002 http://www.uneca.org/disd/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/
nici_status.htm/map
8. Prince of Wales IBLF Digital Partnership, http://www.digitalpart-
nership.org, Computer Aid UK http://www.computeraid.org , World
ComputerExchange http://www.wordcomputerexchange.org
9. World Telecommunication Development Report, ITU, 2002.
10. Survey of ICT Resources. Agence de Cooperation Culturelle et
Technique (ACCT), 1995. http://inforoutes.cidif.org
11. The Information Society and Development, A Review Vol. I, 12
January 2001, European Commission.
12. UNESCO The Telecentre Cookbook for Africa: Recipes for Self-
Sustainability, 2001. http://www.unesco.org/webworld/news/2001/
010713_cookbook.shtml
13. The G8 Dot Force Report, May 2001 http://www.dotforce.org/
reports/DOT_Force_Report_V_5.0h.html
14. UNDP, 2002. Human Development Report 2001. http://www.undp.org
15. African Internet Map http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/divide
N OT E S
1. ITU, UNESCO, Jensen.

2. ITU World Telecommunication Development Report 2002.
3. It should be noted that there is a large variation between countries in the charges
for installation, line rental and call tariffs. The average business connection in Africa
costs over $100 to install, $6 a month to rent and $0.11 per 3-minute local call. But
installation charges are above $200 in some countries (Egypt, Benin, Mauritania,
Niger and Togo), line rentals range from $0.8 to $20 a month, and call charges vary
by a factor of 10—from $0.60 an hour to over $5 an hour.
4. Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Gambia, Mauritania, Mau-
ritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan,
Tunisia. UNECA, May 2002. (www.uneca.org).
CHAPTER His Excellency Abdoulaye Wade
4 President of the
Republic of Senegal1
Information and
Communications Technologies
in the Service of Development
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD)
If Africans had the same favourable conditions as

other peoples, there is no question that they have
all of the necessary intellectual resources to meet
the challenge of an information and communica-
tion society.
— P R E S I D E N T A B D O U L AY E W A D E
Let me first express, once again, my heartfelt gratitude for the great
honour bestowed on Senegal by the President of the General Assem-
bly’s kind decision to invite me as the keynote speaker of the General
Assembly Meeting on Information and Communications Technologies
for Development.
I feel all the more flattered because this invitation comes from a man
of vision and commitment whose outstanding qualities as a seasoned
79
statesman, dedicated parliamentarian and bright academic, have greatly

benefited the work of the General Assembly during this session.
Indeed, your achievements, Sir, are no surprise to me. As an eminent
citizen of the Republic of Korea, you belong to a proud nation of true
achievers who have been able, within a generation, to leapfrog decades of
underdevelopment to become one of the top economies in the world. I
should like to thank you most warmly, Mr. President, for your com-
mendable initiative.
I should like also to pay a sincere tribute to your, and our, Secretary-
General, Mr. Kofi Annan, as well as to President José María Figueres,
former Head of State of Costa Rica and an outstanding figure in the
development of digital technology in his country, for the decisive role
they have played in the establishment and development of the study
group on information and communications technologies.
The initiative of holding this meeting came from the South, which is
suffering from the effects of the “digital divide”. As the New Partnership
for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) coordinator for this extremely sig-
nificant aspect of our development strategy, I am fully aware of the time-
liness and the relevance of our Meeting. That is why I am particularly
honoured by this invitation to address the community of nations as the
keynote speaker on this subject.
The tremendous stakes involved in new information and communi-
cations technologies, which today are decisive for the progress of
nations, are the reason why the New Partnership for the Development of
Africa—which was adopted last July at Lusaka, at the thirty-sixth sum-
mit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and entitled “The New
African Initiative”—has made this sector one of its principal priorities.
I should like to recall that NEPAD is based on several fundamental
pillars; namely, good governance; the region as a basis for development,
rather than the State; and finally, heavy reliance on the private sector.
NEPAD has chosen eight priority sectors: infrastructure, education,
health care, agriculture, new information and communications tech-
nologies, energy, the environment, and market access, with the diversifi-
cation of agricultural products.
ICT in the Service of Development ✦ Wade ✦ 81
Backing our appeal, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Tiscali and

other titans in the new technologies sector all were heavily represented
last April in Dakar at the Conference on Partnership with the Private
Sector for Africa’s Development, and they made clear their desire to
assist Africa in its fascinating new technological adventure.
I should, therefore, like to recall here a few practical measures for
which Africa, in the conclusions and resolutions of Dakar, requests the
support of the international community. These include the establish-
ment of Internet networks, thereby making possible the transmission of
audio and visual information among the Governments of the region, or
indeed, those of the entire continent. And why not hold digital African
conferences?
Other measures include harmonising the regulatory framework for
the telecommunications sector, at least in each of the regions, to facili-
tate foreign investment and the digitalisation of Africa’s cultural her-
itage, in particular through the production of CD-ROMs on the history
of Africa. This project, which is particularly important to me, is now
being implemented in Senegal.
Another measure is the establishment of a pan-African “e-store” for
trade and exchange in African products—crafts in particular—and to
make e-trade the driving force for economic growth; the creation of
industrial units for the production of information and telecommunica-
tions equipment; and finally, the establishment of a global fund for
information and communications technologies to assist Africa in over-
coming the digital divide that separates it from the developed world.
Moreover, Africa’s backwardness in this area, far from being
inevitable, is now being dealt with and is on the way to being eliminated,
for the struggle is well under way, as I am gratified to note. Efforts to this
end are now being made to bring about this new planetary citizenship—
the digital revolution.
Indeed, the entirely new system of underwater fibre-optic commu-
nication, which I launched in Senegal this past May 28, which links
Europe, Africa and Asia over 28,000 kilometres, shows that our continent
is indeed well on its way towards digital emancipation, since this system
allows Africa to be connected, with full autonomy and at a lesser cost, to

the global network.
The use of underwater digital cable de facto eliminates expensive
travel through major urban centres outside the continent. It ensures
autonomy, reduced costs and the linkage of users to the rest of the world.
As you are aware, many African countries depend on certain European
capitals to communicate even among themselves.
This technological marvel—which we inaugurated recently, and
which was implemented in a relatively short time, several months,
thanks to the involvement of companies from the South and the
North—represents a specific example of new technology projects, which
NEPAD is striving to promote through private partnerships.
Indeed, if Africans had the same favourable conditions as other peo-
ples, there is no question that they have all of the necessary intellectual
resources to meet the challenge of an information and communications
society. It is on the basis of this belief that I have decided to embark
firmly on a bold policy of development of new information and com-
munications technology in Senegal.
I recently launched a large-scale project—Cyberville—a technolog-
ical park on the outskirts of Dakar with a highly competitive telecom-
munications infrastructure. It is designed to host major companies
working in the area of new technologies and the future start-ups of out-
standing young Africans who wish to be active participants in the new
economy. Here again, this is a project that was launched by the public
authorities but that has become a private one, involving the private sec-
tor in Senegal and the American private sector.
The time has come for Africa to make full use of its human resources
by taking advantage of the enormous potential of e-business, the spread
of digital technology and the development of information technology
solutions. Asian countries have succeeded in this, and they too started
from circumstances similar to ours. I am, therefore, convinced that this
can be achieved very quickly.
For its part, Senegal has had a successful initial experiment with dis-
tance medicine, which was repeated last week. Doctors in Dakar assessed
via satellite the pregnancies of 60 women living in the most remote and
cut-off areas of the country. Again, that took place just 72 hours ago. For
these people, seeing a baby sucking its thumb in its mother’s womb and
understanding that abusing the mother means brutalising the child, rep-
resents a genuine social and cultural revolution. Indeed, we saw people
holding their heads in their hands in astonishment.
We have had similar success in the education sector, where Microsoft
has provided public schools with a free introductory programme in
computing. The day care centres established under the La Case des Tout-
Petits programme—my pet project—train children between the ages of
2 and 6 using modern educational games— which remain a privilege of
children in developed countries. These centres use computer games to
make inroads into the world of computing. This project has been
adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO) as a Universal Project.
Our planned University of the African Future—a university without
borders to which one does not have to travel—will provide complete,
real-time and carefully chosen Western university programmes via satel-
lite. Through this programme, students will no longer have to go abroad,
as their degrees will be absolutely identical—not just “equivalent”—to
those issued by universities affiliated with the programme. Technologi-
cal Senegal therefore wishes to gain access to the information highway
instead of remaining on the periphery of the achievements of the new
Millennium.
There is no doubt that the new technologies suggest a higher form
of democracy in which everyone moves forward at the same speed: the
speed of the electron or, if you will, of the speed of light. But such
democracy, accessible to all with the intelligence that is the gift of nature,
can only become a reality if everyone has an opportunity to be a player
in the interaction of its forces.
Our desire is shared in Africa today through the New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the projects we shall be submitting
to the Group of Eight2 as part of our partnership with the Western world
which, I would like to recall, is both a public and private partnership.
Among other things, Africa is indeed giving pride of place to new infor-
mation and communications technologies. We have in store numerous
projects that must be supported by the public sector, but which must
also be a matter for the private sector. Our partnership must therefore
have the goal of providing opportunities to every country and to every
man and woman. To that end, our eyes should be on the enormous
international differences in computer ownership. We must strive with
resolve to achieve widespread access to information and communication
networks.
In conclusion, I would like to make a solemn appeal to all partners:
Governments, the private sector, non-governmental organisations,
international institutions, scientific circles and all active participants in
this fascinating adventure. I urge them to join their efforts with ours
and with those of the international community and of the Secretary-
General, who has been able to endow our institutions with a soul.
Nations have become scientific laboratories backed by political deci-
sions. That is the reason why we are gradually seeing a very deep-rooted
change in how these institutions are viewed throughout the world,
including in Africa.
Now, we are addressing the colossal challenges posed by the digital
revolution that Africa aspires to join—a continent that is standing proud
because it is able to continue to assume with dignity its role in the com-
munity of nations.
Bearing that in mind, I would like to join the Assembly in a toast to
an enhanced partnership between the United Nations and Africa
towards the full realisation of the NEPAD programme, and to a fruitful
meeting of the Assembly on Information and Communication Tech-
nologies for Development.
N OT E S
1. President Abdoulaye Wade, in his capacity as the Coordinator for infrastructure for
the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), gave the keynote address
to the 101st Plenary of the 56th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at
a Special Meeting on Information and Communications Technologies for Devel-
opment, on June 17, 2002. This is the text of his address.
2. The Heads of State of the Group of Eight industrial nations (otherwise referred to
as the “the G8”) consisting of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Russia and the United States.
CHAPTER Dr. Pekka Tarjanne
5 Executive Coordinator
The United Nations

Information and Communications
Technologies Task Force
Background
“The Task Force belongs to all of us—governments, civil society, the pri-
vate sector, and the organisations and agencies of the United Nations
system. Let’s nurture it together.” This quote by Mr. Kofi Annan, Secre-
tary-General of the United Nations, reflects the objectives the Task Force
would tackle during its three-year term.
The United Nations Information and Communications Technolo-
gies Task Force (UN ICT TASK FORCE) is a new global policy body
established by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to
bring the benefits of the global digital revolution to the developing
world. Launched on 20 November 2001, the Task Force brings together
87
high-level representatives of governments, the UN system, the private

sector, non-governmental organisations and the academic community,
and is the first United Nations endeavour to fully incorporate world
business leaders able to offer a unique perspective and expertise from
their respective fields. Through this system of collective input, the Task
Force has already achieved a common understanding on priorities and
tasks, as well as on most effective modalities for achieving the goals set
out in its mandate.
The Economic and Social Council Meeting held in New York in
July 5–7 2000, was devoted to the theme “Development and Interna-
tional Cooperation in the 21st Century: The Role of Information Tech-
nology in the Context of a Knowledge-based Economy”.
Besides stressing the role of information technology for future
development, the meeting proposed a set of initiatives to be taken at
international level. These initiatives would promote:
a. Widened access to the digital economy;

b. A more transparent and efficient government that offers online
services;
c. An enabling legal framework;
d. The development of local content;
e. Regional cooperation; and
f. The creation of regional observatories to monitor the impact of
information technology on the economy.
The General Assembly’s Millennium Declaration, adopted on

8 September 2000 at the Millennium Summit, set out an ambitious agenda
in peace, security and disarmament, poverty eradication, the environment,
human rights, protecting the vulnerable, meeting Africa’s special needs,
and strengthening the role of the United Nations in the developing
world. We in the United Nations strongly believe that ICTs are a potent
tool for achieving the ambitious goals of the Millennium Declaration.
In March 2001, ECOSOC requested the Secretary-General to
establish an Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)
The United Nations ICT Task Force ✦ Tarjanne ✦ 89
Task Force, an initiative intended to lend a truly global dimension to

the many existing efforts to put ICT at the service of development.
The Task Force
Supported by the Heads of State and Government of all UN Member

States that endorsed the ECOSOC Ministerial Declaration at the Mil-
lennium Summit, the UN ICT Task Force, since its formal launch on
20 November 2001, has worked to help create a conceptual framework
for harnessing the power of information and communications tech-
nologies for advancing the Millennium Declaration. In particular, the
Task Force is committed to the United Nation’s goal of halving the
number of people living in poverty by 2015.
The Task Force understands that this mission can be best achieved
by empowering developing nations to establish their own national
e-strategies, improving the existing national capacities and exploring
new development areas.
The ICT Task Force has been working to establish and provide a
global forum for integrating ICT into development programs and
addressing such issues as strategy, infrastructure, enterprise, human
capacity, content, application, partnerships, and policy and governance,
issues related to the digital revolution at the regional and international
level, facilitating the effective participation of all.
By harnessing the potential of ICT, the Task Force aims to reduce
poverty, promote development, end marginalisation and give the poor
the means for empowerment. The Task Force intends to create innova-
tive and bold strategies that will enable developing countries to partake
of the global digital opportunity. It will work to provide the majority of
the world’s population access to ICT, particularly the Internet. It will
promote capacity building on the local level and work with software
developers to encourage local applications that can be easily used in
developing countries. The Task Force will support developing countries
in building human capacity in ICT and forging new livelihoods, espe-

cially for women in rural areas, and young women and men.
In order to implement its Plan of Action and to help stakeholders to
share best practices and lessons learned in ICT, the Task Force decided
on the creation of six Working Groups for collaborative action:
1. ICT Policy and Governance;

2. National and Regional e-Strategies;
3. Human Resource Development and Capacity Building;
4. Resource Mobilisation;
5. Low-cost Connectivity and Access; and
6. Business Enterprise and Entrepreneurship.
Additionally, several Regional Nodes were created to implement

some of the basic principles of the modus operandi of the Task Force,
such as decentralisation of the activities, an open and inclusive approach,
and reliance on existing mechanisms. The Regional Nodes have already
been established in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and
in Arab States. They will be conduits for compiling and sharing accu-
mulated experience, identifying region-specific goals and priorities, and
for supporting best practices. They will also serve for providing regional
and sub-regional perspective and guidance to the activities of the Work-
ing Groups and the Task Force as a whole.
The UN ICT Task Force and Africa
ICT has unquestionably become one of the key development challenges

for the African continent, and there is a need for strong partnerships and
knowledge and information-sharing mechanisms to meet the challenges.
On 21–22 January 2002, the UN ICT Task Force held its first
African Regional Meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in collaboration
with the Economic Commission for Africa. The meeting concluded
with a number of initiatives for the African Stakeholders Network. It

was agreed, amongst other things, that the ASN should employ various
mechanisms to identify networks working in the Information and
Communications Technologies (ICTs) area and open dialogue towards
establishing common frameworks for partnerships and the sharing of
resources. It would also draw on the capacity-building experiences of
regional and international institutions with proven track records, such
as the UN system, the Association of African University (AAU) and the
Partnership for ICTs in Africa (PICTA).
It was also agreed that the ASN should link-up with existing initia-
tives, such as the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD),
the G8 Dot force, the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS), the World Economic Forum and other international initiatives
and programs.
The UN ICT Task Force African Stakeholders Network looks at the
unique challenges that Africa faces and is addressing major issues in the
area of ICT for development: the role of government and the need to
put in place a favourable legal, institutional and regulatory environ-
ment; the nature of connections to the richer countries, to their tech-
nology, capital and companies; and the need to train and retain skilled
people, which begins with education but runs far beyond that to safety
and living conditions.
To accomplish this will require certain specific objectives. They
include making the promotion of the ICT a key priority of the political
agenda of governments, creating and strengthening existing institutional
capacity, increasing the number and quality of ICT projects and pro-
grams in the relevant regions, encouraging the cooperation and estab-
lishment of public, private and civil society networks, and increasing the
amount and quality of public expenditures assigned to the development
of ICT.
There is particular need in the African region to secure political will
at the highest level possible for optimising the opportunities in an infor-
mation and knowledge age for political, social, financial and cultural
development.
The Task Force’s ongoing efforts aim to demonstrate that the window
of opportunity offered by ICTs will enable the region to address the struc-
tural roots of inequality and poverty by creating domestic prosperity and
global competitiveness, and that this will contribute to a democratic
process of efficient, equitable and sustainable development.
Digital Illiteracy
ICT has been able to empower individuals through knowledge, level

playing fields, and opportunities in multiple spheres. ICT has not only
created a new world of opportunity for global businesses, but for civil
society as well, because it enables wider dissemination of information
and access to best practices.
This New World of opportunity, however, has been limited to the
individuals fortunate enough to be able to access these technologies.
Without access, history’s exponential progress is evolving without global
participation, resulting in what we today call the digital divide, one of the
glaring inequalities of our modern society. Reducing these inequalities
calls for, among other things, a vision of information and communica-
tions technology. Its success will depend on the participation and sup-
port of all players in different sectors of society, including government,
the academic world, civil society, the private sector and Non Govern-
mental Organisations.
In seeking to mobilise ICT for development in order to bridge the
digital divide, we first need to know first how broad the gap is. We need
to know what types of policies and programs will enable the disparate
communities in the various regions to take advantage of the explosion of
information available through the Internet and the opportunities prom-
ised by the new economy. We need to know how the use of information
and communications technologies can help create more democratic,
participatory processes.
Internet use today reaches less than ten percent of the world’s pop-
ulation, a fact that must compel leaders around the world to address the
impact of digital marginalisation on current government policy, inter-
national development programs, the organisation of civil society and the
effectiveness of small enterprises.
Yet the question is not merely one of access to the Internet, but
rather one of converting information into useful knowledge. In fact, the
subject is not just the Internet or the World Wide Web, but the range of
technologies that are reshaping communication, and their implications
for business and the economy, politics and governance of societies and,
ultimately, how societies organise themselves.
The impact of the information revolution touches all of society, and
so the different dimensions cannot be really separated.
Just like all pillars, the structure of our digital bridge begins with its
base. This movement is being led by the young adults of the world, on
both sides of the digital divide. Young adults from developing countries
are increasingly realising the wonders of foreign cultures and customs.
The tools of information technology have provided the next generation
with faces and customs of alien places. People in emerging countries,
striving for knowledge, have led the call for ICT accessibility. Universi-
ties and small cafés are flooded with young adults attempting to find
news not available to them in their city or village. They realise how
important this Knowledge Economy will prove for their future.
A fundamental shift in the economics of information has been
under way in the last few years, a shift that is less about any specific new
technology than about the fact that a new behavior has reached critical
mass. It is our challenge, responsibility and commitment to convert the
access to, and the use of, the new information and communications
technologies into enhanced participation, better education, more effi-
cient public administration, and innovative business strategies. It is our
mission to give societies the capabilities to seize these extraordinary
opportunities and to transform the threat of digital marginalisation into
digital inclusion.
CHAPTER Sarbuland Khan
6 Director for the Division for

ECOSOC Support and
Coordination of the United
Nations Department of Economic
and Social Affairs
Information and
Communications Technologies
as an Instrument to Leverage the
Millennium Development Goals
The Development Challenges
Despite real progress on some fronts, there remain dramatic disparities

in levels of human development: one in five of the world’s people live on
less than one dollar per day and one in seven suffers from chronic
hunger. The international community has responded to the pressing
need to address this state of affairs at the United Nations Millennium
Summit held on 5 September, 2000, at the United Nations Headquarters
in New York. It agreed on the key development goals to be reached by
2015: halving the number of people living in poverty, providing univer-
sal primary education, improving health and sanitation, combating
HIV/AIDS, enhancing the empowerment of women, and reversing the
loss of environmental resources.
95
This consensus reflects not only the necessity of addressing poverty

and other human needs, but also an emerging sense that the interna-
tional community is at a crossroads in the development process. The
unprecedented pace and scale of global flows in information, products,
capital, people and ideas, if properly harnessed, offer the potential to cre-
ate new opportunities for those who have thus far been excluded from
gains in human development. But the same forces could also actually
widen the gap and trap developing countries, especially least-developed
countries, in a perpetual spiral of poverty and exclusion.
For Africa, however, achieving these goals presents itself as a most
challenging task. The contemporary African experience is characterised
by mixed trends. While some countries continue to take major econom-
ical and political strides, several continue to be plagued by famine,
drought, disease and political crisis. All over the continent, however,
Africans are taking charge of the definition and management of their
development. Fortunately, there is great willingness by the international
community and African organisations to assist Africa to achieve its self-
defined sustainable development goals.
The current debate on the importance of access to ICT and its value
in addressing global development disparities is part of this wider dis-
cussion on the potential benefits and risks of globalisation. This is
because ICT is itself a key enabler of globalisation: the level and pace of
global flows in physical and intangible assets have been dramatically
boosted by the ability to connect vast networks of individuals across
geographic boundaries, at negligible marginal cost. This relationship
between ICT and globalisation makes ICT interventions critical to
development policy.
Industrialised nations that have a high degree of ICT penetration
also experience high levels of wealth and human development. However,
there is still considerable uncertainty about the nature of the relationship
between ICT and development in the developing world. Recent efforts
launched by the international community—including the G8 Digital
Opportunity Task Force (Dot Force) and the United Nations ICT Task
Force—directly recognise the urgent need to harness ICT to contribute
ICT as an Instrument to Leverage the Millennium Development Goals ✦ Khan ✦ 97
to the achievement of development goals. These efforts are significant,

not only because they seek to develop strategies and initiate innovative
and effective action on the ground, but also because they represent and
encourage new forms of collaborative interaction among government,
private sector, multilateral, and non-profit organisations.
ICT is not a Goal but a Tool for Development
Debate regarding the effectiveness of using ICT to help achieve develop-

ment goals arises not only around questions concerning the evidence in
support of a relationship between ICT and development, but also more
substantially from inherent doubts about the relevance of ICT to achiev-
ing sustainable development and fears that investment in ICT will draw
resources away from traditional development goals.
ICT can be a powerful tool for development, both because of its
inherent characteristics and the mounting empirical evidence that sug-
gests it can, in fact, contribute a great deal to development goals. It can
do so at both the micro and national levels by increasing the effective-
ness and reach of development interventions, enhancing good gover-
nance and lowering the costs of service delivery. Moreover, the right
complement of targeted ICT interventions has the potential to play an
even more substantial role in accelerating a sustainable dynamic of social
and economic development in developing countries.
It should be clear from the outset that ICT is not a panacea for the
problems of the developing world. Social and economic development is
dependent on many factors, which should be addressed through an over-
all development strategy. Factors such as political stability, macroeco-
nomic governance, transparency and accountability of national and
local administrations, the rule of law, physical infrastructure (for exam-
ple, clean water and energy), and basic literacy should also be addressed
in an explicit manner, and ICT should not be seen as a substitute. How-
ever, the integration of ICT into overall national development strategies
can help facilitate implementation, expand scope and coverage, and
increase the results for most of these factors. Moreover, development
goals cannot be achieved by government efforts alone. The involvement

of civil society and the private sector is crucial.
Need for Strategic Partnerships
Given the scale and complexity of the challenge and the need for a multi-
pronged response that can fill gaps and address market failures, few
developing countries can be expected to succeed on their own in bridg-
ing the digital divide. There is a need for strategic partnerships at the
local, regional and global levels that can bring together all stakeholders
around well coordinated actions to stimulate a new development
dynamic, using ICT as an enabling tool to empower the poor so that they
can participate productively in the new global economy.
At present there are many initiatives and activities at all levels and in
all regions of the world attempting to address the digital divide. Diver-
sity of effort is vital, since one size does not fit all. At the same time, the
cumulative impact of diverse initiatives would be greatly enhanced if we
could strengthen synergies, ensure complementarities, promote mutual
awareness, that is, if one could more effectively support, replicate and
scale up practices at work.
The key element here is the involvement of all sectors and stake-
holders—not only in the design of strategies, but also, and perhaps more
importantly, in their implementation—in such a way that each has spe-
cific roles and responsibilities. Strategic partnerships are required to
aggregate the capabilities and resources to address the pervasive market
failures in developing countries and to create win-win situations for the
various sectors and stakeholders involved. The government and the
private sector are complementary to achieve this objective—each is
dependent on the cooperation of others to accomplish its goals.
A new form of collaboration and coordinated action between
public, private, civil society and international organisations is needed.
There is an urgent need to build upon, and go beyond, existing
partnerships to redefine roles and responsibilities at the global,

national, and local level.
Heads of government should provide the necessary leadership to
confront existing barriers and promote innovative solutions. National
and international private industry should work closely together to adopt,
adapt and develop technologies to meet the unique needs and challenges
of the less fortunate. Civil society should be a critical player and help
assure that ICT is used in a way that targets and addresses specific devel-
opment goals and priorities. A strong vision, which can be used to build
consensus on national priorities and secure the commitment of all play-
ers involved, is vital to the success of national ICT initiatives.
Moreover, it is necessary to handle space and pressure to address
resistance, create ownership, and devise incentives for change. A multi-
stakeholder task force can thus work to align the goals, incentives, roles
and responsibilities of diverse stakeholders and provide win-win
opportunities. Without this sort of alignment, partnerships will not be
sustainable and results will fall short of expectations for all involved.
Close coordination is another aspect to take into consideration in
order not only to prevent duplication of efforts, but also to achieve pos-
itive synergies. Cross-fertilisation of ideas, multiple uses of ICT infra-
structure and facilities, and a re-direction of available resources to
crucial and under-funded areas are examples of the gains to be realised
from forming this new type of collaboration and coordinated action
between public, private, civil society and international organisations.
The successful design and implementation of a strategy focused on
ICT as an enabler of development requires the formation of national and
international collaboration involving all stakeholders. For instance, at
the international level, both the G8 Digital Opportunity Task Force (Dot
Force) and the UN ICT Task Force1 have made substantial contributions
to furthering the understanding of the role of ICT in the development
process. Through sharing best practices, promoting dialogue, highlight-
ing success stories, and building consensus on the new agenda, national
and international strategic collaborations are crucial ingredients to help
countries harness the benefits of ICT as a development enabler.
The Engine for Change has to be the Private Sector
The analysis of ICT initiatives targeting key development imperatives

suggests that while individual ICT interventions can have a positive
impact on social and economic development outcomes, many initia-
tives experience barriers to scalability and sustainability under current
conditions.
The first lesson learned from past experience in developing coun-
tries is that ICT solutions should be built to last. Initiatives that are
planned and managed using a business model are likely to be more sus-
tainable and have a more substantial impact. Initiatives need to include
mechanisms for growth and replication into their operating models
from the outset, so as to offer scalable and sustainable solutions.
Secondly, initiatives should be driven by user demands, identified
and realised through direct participation and ownership. Experience
from many initiatives demonstrates the importance of designing initia-
tives to be demand-driven and locally owned. Technology imposed on a
community of users who have not independently identified a need for it
is unlikely to flourish.
Thirdly, initiatives should be sensitive to local conditions and limita-
tions. Technology employed should be affordable, physically accessible,
easy to use and maintain, and flexible enough to accommodate user
demands for new services. Similarly, initiatives demonstrating a capacity
to embrace adaptive and flexible solutions are more likely to be sustainable.
Finally, initiatives should be explicit about their development goals
and how they will directly impact the target population. Initiatives that
clearly identify development goals within the needs and context of the
target population are more likely to develop effective operating models
and deliver tangible results.
These four lessons suggest that ICT interventions focusing on
development goals must address a variety of interrelated dimensions
to secure an enduring impact. But what is important to note is that
those lessons constitute key core competencies that private sector
companies use in their day-to-day operating lives. While grassroots
entrepreneurial activity is to be universally encouraged, the potential

impact of these ICT interventions would be far greater had they been
conceived in conjunction with private sector companies. Pursuing
ICT interventions in this manner would enable the creation of syn-
ergies that stand-alone initiatives cannot achieve by themselves. In
fact, there is no doubt that private sector companies could be a great
asset to ICT initiatives in developing countries.
Nevertheless, the interests of key stakeholders must be broadly
aligned with each other and with the goals of the intervention. Identi-
fying or engineering win-win situations is critical to securing lasting
commitment from all necessary parties, including participation from
the local community, private enterprises, non-government organisa-
tions, multi-lateral organisations and governments. Strong public and
private institutional support and leadership are required to maintain
commitment and alignment from all parties. This requires clear vision
and direction, defined roles and responsibilities for all partners, ade-
quate funding, sufficient technical and administrative means, and inte-
gration with existing local institutions.
In fact, successful initiatives not only have effectively coordinated
efforts in different areas, they have leveraged the synergies created by the
complementarity of aligned ICT interventions. For this reason, we at the
UN ICT Task Force consider not only that the private sector is the engine
for change, but also that public-private partnerships under the aegis of
the UN is the best way to ensure successful initiatives through the devel-
opment of top-notch ‘ICT for development’ strategies.
Recent e-Initiatives
As a contribution to the global effort, many initiatives have been car-

ried out to help mobilise, focus and coordinate action by developing a
strategic approach to harnessing the benefits of ICT for sustainable
development.
Digital Opportunity Task Force
The Dot Force was created under the Okinawa Charter on the Global
Information Society, by the G8 Leaders at the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit
in July 2000. Through a nine-point action plan—the Genoa Plan of
Action—and several implementation teams, the Dot Force has created a
number of processes in each of the priority areas of the Genoa Action
Plan.
A number of projects have been or are in the process of being imple-
mented in areas such as networks of expertise on access and connectiv-
ity, human capacity building, local content, and national and regional
e-strategies.
The UN ICT Task Force is a United Nations endeavour that aims at fully
incorporating representatives from public and private sectors, non-
profit organisations, and civil society as equal members. The Task Force’s
membership includes some of the world’s most prominent business
leaders as full-fledged members whose decision-making powers is equal
to that of the representation of governments and multilateral organisa-
tions. Each member offers a unique perspective and expertise from his
or her respective field. Through this system of collective input, the Task
Force has already achieved a common understanding on priorities and
tasks, as well as on the most effective modalities for achieving the goals
set out in its mandate.
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum benefits from the contribution of the

world’s most important corporations and aims at creating partnerships
among all leaders of society on major world concerns. It constitutes a
platform where a selected ‘team’ analyses and articulates global issues,
where task forces are formed and projects and initiatives launched.
Global Business Dialogue on e-Commerce
Since its creation in January 1999, GBDe has represented a major step
forward in the establishment of a comprehensive approach to electronic
commerce issues, both by delivering a wealth of information through its
website and databases and by connecting and coordinating major stake-
holders in the field.
The GBDe Steering Committee is divided into three regional hubs
(Americas, Asia/Oceania, Europe/Africa) and focuses on eight key
areas: consumer confidence, cyber security, convergence, digital bridges,
e-government, intellectual property rights, trade and taxation. It has
become a significant tool and a leading private sector voice on e-commerce
policy and e-commerce related areas.
Global Information Infrastructure Commission
The GIIC Commission is a non-governmental initiative that, with the

support of leaders from developed and developing countries, aims at
fostering private sector leadership and enhanced private-public sector
cooperation in the creation of an improved information infrastructure.
Key focuses for the Commission until now have been education, health-
care and e-Government. Projects have been launched in these areas,
drawing on the expertise of participating GIIC companies, and with the
goal of providing a blueprint of strategies for other ICT stakeholders in
the private or public sector.
Conclusion
We all know that in order to have tangible results, the private sector has
to commit significantly and invest financially.
The past years have been devoted to analyses and studies on assess-
ments and best practices. There is now a degree of maturity in the
understanding of the issues. The question is now how to move ahead to

the next phase.
The level of advancement in Information and Communications
Technologies takes the lead in determining the level of development in
this day and age. Although the information and technological revolution
is spearheading the creation of the Global Village, it is also pushing away
rural and least developed societies and cultures more into their isolated
margins. This trend can be reversed through the use of ICTs in achiev-
ing development goals. By partnering private, public and civic organisa-
tions, ICTs can be mobilised to achieve economic development in Africa
in many significant and profound ways. One is through enhancing con-
nectivity to rural communities, therefore giving them a heard voice.
Another is through extending Microcredit (among other financial serv-
ices) to small entrepreneurs and giving them an opportunity to expand
and solidify their business. The range of which ICTs can enhance devel-
opment is endless, and it extends beyond economic growth to cover
other social aspects, such as health and education.
Governments also have to show their willingness to make a com-
mitment to mainstream ICT into development operations. A specific
proportion of their official development assistance (ODA) budget could
be allocated to ICT in order to increase development effectiveness (for
example, in education, health, e-government, transparency).
If the G8 and the rest of the developed nations do so, and major pri-
vate sector initiatives can be effectively put together and pushed forward,
national governments in developing countries will be encouraged to do
the same. We will then have a strong message for the years to come, and
a real basis for making breakthroughs with public-private partnership
serving as platforms for sustainable actions and as agents for change and
long lasting development.
N OT E S
1. For further information about the UN ICT Task Force, see Chapter Five. More
information is available on the website: www.unicttaskforce.org
CHAPTER Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., Ph.D.

The Role of Information and

Communications Technologies in the
African Development Agenda1
Introduction
I want to thank the African Training and Research Centre in Adminis-

tration for Development (CAFRAD), especially its esteemed Director
General, Professor Tijani Muhammed Bande, the UN Department of
Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Public Economics and Public
Administration, the Ministry of Public Service and Administration of
the Government of South Africa, and the NEPAD Secretariat for the
invitation to exchange some ideas on Africa’s Development Agenda, and
the role that information and communications technologies can play in
advancing, or for that matter, in stalling that process.
105
The Role of ICTs in Africa’s Development Agenda
Context
When we contemplate Africa’s development agenda, we are compelled

to take quick stock of our present condition. In this regard, it is hardly
rocket science to say that the African condition does not reflect the
slightest proportion of its potential, even given the debilitation of our
jaundiced colonial history, and our legacy of internecine conflicts and
distractions. What is perhaps worthy of note is the fact, not too often
discussed, that we need not be where we are today, given who we are,
what we have, what we know and what we can do as an endowed, gifted,
talented and eminently humane people.
Development as Problem Solving
Development is essentially problem solving. The degree to which we

develop is directly related to the extent to which we take command and
ownership of our problems, grasp them in their complexity, build bold
strategies to overcome them, and in the process, create insights, innovations
and new capacities which propel us to new heights of engagement with
nature, and the challenges of the pursuit of a meaningful, inspired and
enlightened existence; in other words, to a new level of problem solving.
Africa’s Problems
I must first distinguish between what our problems truly are, and what
others say our problems are. The first enables us to solve them, the sec-
ond compels us to risk wasting our limited resources responding to
insights that could seriously lack truth or efficacy or, if they have rele-
vance, could seriously serve to mis-direct our focus and efforts to
peripheral problems, which mask our more serious and more funda-
mental challenges.
I should also state that in talking about Africa’s problems, I do not
seek to lend value for a split second to the chorus of relentless castigation
The Role of ICT in the African Development Agenda ✦ Okpaku ✦ 107
of all Africa is or does. Such irresponsible arrogance and ignorance have

served no purpose except to undermine our self-confidence, make us
doubt our view of ourselves and of the world, and compel us to abandon
our legitimate right to own our problems and enjoy the enrichment that
comes with solving them.
What then is really Africa’s problem? What is wrong? What is miss-
ing? What are we not getting right? Why? These are all critical questions
any group of people must address in order to build a vision for devel-
opment against which to create an agenda with which to accomplish it.
These are tough questions, the analysis of which might be painful, even
frightening, threatening to pull the veil of survival from our cowered
faces. But history has never devised any means of solving critical human
questions without confronting sometimes painful and harsh realities in
the process of solving them.
Our basic problem is that we do not allow ourselves the profound
experience of taking ownership of our problems and settling down to
deal with them with relentless focus, commitment, confidence, hope
and exhilaration. For much of our recent history, the world has taken
over Africa’s problems and often left us with nothing creative to do but
watch our destiny float in the air like a listless balloon, blown in the
wind until it drifts over the horizon, destined for nowhere. Not only
that, the world has taken over our right of ownership of our problems,
our right and responsibility to solve them, and our right to the innova-
tion, creativity and self-actualisation that come out of a committed,
passionate and indefatigable confrontation with our problems, with the
promise of joy and exhilaration when we overcome them and move on
to tackle the next set of problems. This is the fundamental dynamics of
nation-building. This is the basis of the development of most of the
countries of the industrial world, which we find ourselves incessantly
being pushed to use as the yardstick for building our own societies.
Africa has got to be the only continent in the world where many seek to
dictate our development goals, while we play second-fiddle to some
who may never have known what it is to wake up to the mystery of the
African dawn.2
Requiem to Private Dialogue
One of the liabilities of information and communications technology is

that we can no longer hold private conversations on issues of pressing
common interest. The kind of dialogue I would like us to have this
morning is the type that our ancestors used to be able to have, under the
old baobab tree, far away from the ears of those whose presence might
constitute a potential embarrassment, thus limiting our freedom to deal
with our concerns with absolute candour and vigour. The mass media,
combined with the blinding spotlight on Africa and her problems, shuts
out our ability to engage in sober reflection, the type which is not only
enlightening, but enriching, enabling and empowering.
But given the fact of the loss of privacy conducive to sober self-
analysis, something that we can do nothing about, we are left with two
difficult choices: We go on engaging in pat conversations which, while
preserving our image, allow our critical problems to fester; or we find the
courage to address our critical problems, in private if we can, but pub-
licly if we have no choice. Either way, our problems will only disappear
if we boldly address them, so the only choice is to address them, what-
ever the audience, conceding nothing but the nominal courtesies of
civilised behaviour to those who insist on abusing the priviledge of over-
hearing us and speaking to us.
We must, therefore, in our present circumstances, choose to take
ownership and command of our problem-solving process, otherwise
called our development process, whatever the surrounding public, who-
ever is present. It is the compelling and quintessential first step in pros-
ecuting our development process.
The African Development Agenda
In this light, let us address the African Development Agenda and how we
can use the facilitation of ICTs to prosecute it. Do we have an African
Development Agenda? And if so, what is it?
The Evolution of an Agenda
It is my humble opinion that there is a simple path to developing a com-

mon agenda. It requires that first we take stock of where we are, where
we have been, how we got here, where we really want to go, how we get
there, what we have to work with, and how we recognise our dreamland
when we get there. This, to me, is a necessary scenario for a development
agenda. First, there must be common dialogue from which we develop a
popular vision. The matching up of our experience, our resources
(human, intellectual, emotional, cultural, historical and material) and
our commitment against the challenges of this vision is the creative
process by which we define a common agenda.
The Quintessence of Information

and Communications Technologies
The tool for conducting such a mass process, the tool for engaging men
and women, young and old, rich and poor, in crafting a common future
on the wealth of culture and experience, positive and negative, the tool
which enables us to express ourselves articulately in our own context,
and for others to hear us some distance away, and for us to hear them
too, is the fundamental element of information and communications
culture. The enhancement of this process to give it speed and distant
reach, to store it for future use, even far from its origin, the application
of the innovation of science and technology to enable us conduct this
critical dialogue faster, more widely and more frequently, this is the
quintessence of information and communications technology or ICT.
Seen in this light, some might argue that we do not yet have a coher-
ent African Development Agenda. The dialogue about our destiny has
been more often than not conducted between our leaders and their
international counterparts, not between them and us, on issues pre-
sumed to be important, not those we all know to be important because
we know where it hurts. We live with our problems as much as we live
with our dreams, and at the end of the day, we cannot be lulled to sleep
through time with the lullabies of distant voices while others live our
lives for us, often with less expertise about us than we possess. If we do,
we will wake up one day in the future, shocked by the humiliating fact
that we have simply slept and snored through time and history, while not
only the world but also our life itself passed us by.
Diagnostics of the New Partnership

for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
This is the context in which we must examine Africa’s development

agenda. Because, if we allow ourselves to critique our premier develop-
ment agenda, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (or
NEPAD), we see some of the elements of the trauma of our development
dilemma.
I must emphasize that in diagnosing NEPAD, I do not wish to pro-
vide fodder for its external criticism, but instead, to commence the
process of our reconstruction of it to regain ownership of it so that we can
implement it as Africa’s Vision for a Better Tomorrow. I would like us to
boldly take it apart, examine it, re-design it, reconstruct it, and bring it
out, strong, empowered, inspiring, commanding, and emboldened. For
only an agenda with such attributes, an agenda deriving from the deepest
passions and hopes of Africans themselves, an agenda built on the foun-
dation of a common cause and a common vision, can drive the quantum
development we so badly need to engage in, for both a better future as
well as for the inspiration of the very process of self-development.
I also do not wish to leave the false impression of neglecting the pro-
tocol of courtesies due one’s host, by discussing NEPAD’s challenges in
public. The problem is that we are in public, and we either speak to our-
selves with candour and affection so that we can get our agenda right, or
we refuse to engage in critical debate, and we abandon our destiny to
those who have no compelling reason to risk our displeasure by engag-
ing us in such disputation.
NEPAD is, today, Africa’s Development Agenda. As such we have the

obligation to examine it critically so that, should it have flaws, we can
identify them, analyse them, and devise appropriate means of rectifying
them. In this spirit, permit me to make two observations about NEPAD
as they relate to the workings of Information and Communications
Technologies.
At the beginning, we failed to get NEPAD right because we did not
dialogue with the people. NEPAD, or its precursors, were developed in
camera. Worse yet, NEPAD was developed in consultation with the rest
of the world to the virtual exclusion of the vast majority of Africans who
could not get a hold of even the preliminary documentation of the ideas
feeding the process.
We also made a major symbolic error, twice over. In 2001, when it
was still under a different name, the New Initiative for Africa, we pre-
sented Africa’s vision to the G8 Summit in Genoa before it was presented
to African leaders in Lusaka at the final OAU Summit. The next year,
NEPAD was again presented in final form to the G8 Summit in Canada
before it found its way to the Summit of the African Union in Durban.
Minor, one might say, but in a process where African ownership was crit-
ical for enthusiastic support and buy-in, such symbolic faux pas have
more debilitating impact than might appear on the surface.
The Importance of Popular Participation in the

Creation of a Common Vision for Africa
Just imagine a different scenario, one in which we used the basic facilita-
tion of ICT—newspapers, radio and television—to discuss the idea of
Africa’s vision for the twenty-first century clear across this continent.
Imagine that we printed millions of copies of the basic ideas, in as many
African languages as we could, distributed them to schools, churches,
civic organisations, companies, newspapers and more. Imagine if our
leaders took to the road to dialogue with the people, challenging them,
being challenged by them, in hearty disputation for which Africans are

renowned. Just imagine that during this process, we had the opportunity
to hear from all corners of this continent, diverse views about how each
of us sees the world, our place in it, what we truly want for Africa, what
our dreams as Africans are, our fears, our anxieties, our limitations, even
our pain and hope.
Just imagine that at the end of the day, we then collated these expres-
sions, processed them, documented them in beautiful language reflective
of our sonorous heritage, and replayed them in all the media for the peo-
ple to review, absorb, internalise and regurgitate in their own voice and
mind frame. The result would be Africa’s vision.
This vision would have been created and crafted by Africans. And for
that reason, we would have ownership of it. And by owning it, we would
be responsible for making it work, because it would be our vision, not
the vision of our political leaders only or, for that matter, the vision of
their friends and colleagues. The result would be a fundamental princi-
ple of good governance, namely, that if you take the people along with
you in shaping your agenda, they will share the joy of accomplishment
with you. And should things go wrong, they will share the blame with
you, because it was their programme, not just yours.
But if you leave the people on the sideline as mere observers, people
who merely wave flags along dusty roadsides to welcome our distin-
guished guests when they should be in school learning or at home read-
ing a book, then when things go wrong, they still blame us, because we
kept them out of the process, and now we must find the solution all by
our lonely self.
So, the first role of ICTs in the African Development Agenda is to
utilise them for engaging the totality of the people in building a common
vision for self-development and joint ownership of a common destiny.
In this regard, there is a plethora of innovative applications of exist-
ing communications technology to craft custom-tailored use of ICTs at
all levels of society, in all communities, with remarkable positive result.
We can use IP technology to create inexpensive rural broadcasting. If
people talk to each other and understand each other, it becomes more
difficult for them to fight each other, or worse still, for others (often
those of us from the cities) to start our quarrels in urban centres, and ask
innocent people in the villages to die for us while we and our children
head for Europe and America when the seeds of our machinations come
to violent fruition.
Our farmers and herdsmen have the unique wisdom of history and
tradition. They also endure hardships of terrain, weather, inadequate
communications and transport resources to improve their productivity
and engage in leisure and self-development, which is their legitimate
expectation after toiling in the sun to feed us. We can use the facilitation
of ICTs to reduce their tedium and physical effort, vastly improve their
productivity, find higher income for their products, and enable their
wives and children to gain formal education, have access not only to
treatment but to preventive medical care, and provide them with the
opportunity to both enjoy the cultural products of others, as well as to
showcase and share their own creative products clear across the world
through Internet and e-Commerce resources and facilities.
ICT and Self-Development
It is commonly agreed that information and communications technolo-

gies constitute the basis of the New Economy in which the old assump-
tions of wealth and poverty, strength and weakness, have been turned
upside down. ICTs form versatile tools for transforming economies in
leaps and bounds. They provide avenues for innovation and creativity,
which result in the development of intellectual property, the most valu-
able asset in today’s economy. The examples of India, China and else-
where are compelling.
But these benefits accrue only to those who take these tools, master
them, and use them to create new or better goods and services. They do
not aid development if we merely buy and use them, adding yet another
expensive item to Africa’s perpetually growing shopping expenditure.
We must use ICT tools to create processes and applications, which

both expand our intellectual scope and improve our quality of life, and
also enhance our productivity and earning power, thus enabling us to
have some time for leisure, rest and reflection. We must use them for
innovation, creating new products that bring us much greater value-
added returns. ICTs are essentially toys, sometimes expensive toys, which
also sometimes have this habit of creating a lot of wealth for those who
might not have had the advantage of inheritance wealth.
ICT and Administration
ICT tools also can save us time and energy if we pass unto them the
tedium of routine. If we calculate the energy and time we spend in Africa
criss-crossing town or country just to obtain or deliver basic informa-
tion, or the time we spend just trying to access basic information, we
realise that we can pass on such routine to ICT tools. This will free us to
do that which we must do, which ICTs cannot do, and which we are most
designed to do as human beings, namely, to reflect, make judgement, and
manage the complex intangibles of human response to nature that are
triggered everyday by our intervention with the dynamics of time in our
daily lives.
But in this regard, we must understand the limitations of ICTs. As
tools, they do not have a life of their own, and should not be allowed to.
Machines must not think for us, for if they do, lacking the complexity of
our human mind, they will not be able to make the critical differentia-
tion between data and interpretation, which sometimes makes the dif-
ference between life and death. In this regard, the experience of those
who have preceded us at the cutting edge of ICT deployment should
serve to underscore the pre-eminence of the human mind.
ICT and Modernisation
In the same line, those of us who have the deficit of inadequate technol-
ogy must not abandon our historical means of self-development, putting
in abeyance our dreams until ICTs arrive at our doors. Instead, we

should seek to enrich these traditional processes, refine and enlarge
them, and in the process, see where technology can aid our inherent and
indigenous system through greater speed and repetitive capacity. After
all, our lives’ purpose is not to become what I would like to call “tech-
notrons”, or robots, but to use the tools of technology to enrich our
human quality.
Information versus Knowledge and Wisdom
ICTs have their downside. They have a remarkable way of undermining

our human capacity by misleading us into ceding to them the prime
roles of the human species, feeling, thinking and understanding. I have
argued in a speech referred to in one of your working papers, that the
preponderance of undifferentiated data piled on the platform of our
minds has so overwhelmed us that our capacity to think has become
inversely proportional to the weight of such data.3 In other words, the
misguided replacement of ICT for our uniquely human process has led
to those who have the best of ICT becoming the least capable of reflec-
tion and analysis. The consequences of this, in global proportions, are
increasingly becoming self-evident. If we in Africa mimic this strategic
mistake, which is fast evolving into a fatal flaw that threatens to place all
humanity at risk, we stand to lose a lot more, because we would lose our
human capacity without even the consolation of having at least once
benefited from technology access and capacity.
Technological Capacity, Research and Development
In Africa, we have tried to address the issue of the cost of acquiring the
tools and services of ICT. However, we have done so merely on the level
of creating shopping lists and finding the money to buy. This is contrary
to how others have addressed the challenge. To build its communications
capacity to meet its need, China invested heavily in research and devel-
opment, and with that in manufacturing. As a result, it was able to roll
out more telecommunications lines per year than we have had through-
out the continent, and is today, the world leader in the use of mobile tele-
phones. Now Chinese salesmen have joined the long line of American
and European ICT merchants who travel all over Africa selling us every
tiny bit of ICT tools and equipment.
India is another example. Despite having one of the highest poverty
levels in the world, India has become a leading exporter of ICT technol-
ogy and software.
I have argued that the only way to create affordable ICT access in
Africa, and to expand its rollout massively, is to build our own indus-
trial capacity in R&D and manufacturing in Africa.4 It is quite a simple
proposition. We buy the equipment. If we shift these funds to manu-
facture them, we not only get what we need cheaper, in much greater
quantity, and more attuned to our specific needs, we create industries
in the process, with jobs, benefit and pride. This should be a major part
of our development agenda: To create industrial capacity in ICT (as
indeed in other spheres of strategic development) and to push and
support our Africans who are fighting to have a niche in this area.
ICT, Abject Materialism and the African Genius
We in Africa must resist the dangerous notion that at the end of the day
life is about money. Everyday we see what money cannot buy, and it is
frightening. ICT innovation is more genius than money. A year or so ago,
a young African man, a young South African, got worried about the
traumatic experience of having a mobile phone snatched from people on
the street. He was more concerned about the risk of bodily harm than of
the material loss of a handset. So he set his mind to find a technological
solution. He came up with a way to place photo images and contact
information directly on the LCD screens of handsets, in a manner so
indelible that you will have to damage the screen to remove the image.
Stolen phones have been recovered from this technology.
I lost my personalised handset while flying from New York to

Miami. I got a phone call a couple days later from a gentleman saying
he found a handset with my photo and contact number on the screen,
which he promptly mailed to me. The South African police recognise
the immense importance of this invention in their crime reduction
efforts. So do law enforcement officials in Africa, Europe, and elsewhere.
Telecom Africa Corporation has the pleasure of deploying this African
ICT invention, called the Visual Identification Technology (VIT), glob-
ally. With your indulgence, I would like to introduce This young African
ICT genius, Mr. Edward Modisakgosi, is only one of many African ICT
geniuses.
Africa’s Global ICT Expertise
ICT is not magic, the appearance of things notwithstanding. African

men and women are amongst those who are building ICT technologies
for the global companies. We have not tried to know who they are,
what they can do, and how to encourage them to do it for Africa. This
is partially because we have contracted out the strategic responsibility
for such critical capacity building assessment to those who have no
particular reason to cede their control of our economy back to African
experts.
The time has come for our leaders at all levels to recognise that the
responsibility of development includes supporting the right and respon-
sibility of African experts to take the first shot at building this continent.
People build capacity by solving their problems at home. If all our prob-
lems are contracted out to others to solve, what is left for African experts?
We compel them to go abroad and seek employment from the very com-
panies we have enriched and empowered through contracting out our
problems to them to solve, thus enabling such companies to profit on
African solutions twice removed, from African money through hired
African expert labour.
ICT and the Telecom Africa Corporation
In all of these, some of us have worked hard, and continue to work hard,
to create the strategic environment for building Africa’s globally com-
petitive capacity in ICT as a means of not only jumpstarting our self-
development, but also to have the tools for global competitiveness in a
global economy. At Telecom Africa Corporation, we have tried to address
some of these issues within the context of Africa’s capacity to drive its
own ICT development.
Specialised Governance Networks
In the area of networked administration, Telecom Africa Corporation is

in the process of building an Inter-Ministerial Network for the Presi-
dency of Mali. This secure Intranet will link all the 23 government Min-
istries to the Presidency and the Office of the Prime Minster, providing
facilities for Point-to-Multipoint voice, data, Internet, and video-confer-
encing facilities. At the African Regional Preparatory Conference for next
year’s World Summit on Information Society, which took place in
Bamako last May, we had the pleasure of demonstrating this network.
Upon perfecting this model in Mali, Telecom Africa Corporation
plans to offer it to African governments across the continent. We trust
that we can count on you to support us, as your own African ICT com-
pany. We are all you have, really. And the sooner you empower us as a
deliberate strategic policy, the sooner we will be able to enter the global
competition to bring back revenue and profits to build Africa. Telecom
Africa Corporation is collaborating with Hewlett Packard and Plessey in
the Mali project.
Global Diplomatic Networks
Similarly, we are in the processing of designing a prototype global diplo-

matic network to link the embassies of an African country to its Foreign
Ministry and Government. Again, once we perfect this model, we will
offer it across the continent.
Strategic Networks
We are also working on developing other strategic networks for Africa,

which would greatly advance the access to critical information and
enhance decision-making processes.
Software Development: The Digital Factory
ICT networks are driven by software and applications. To promote

broad-based African capacity in cutting edge software development,
Telecom Africa Corporation has engaged in a project with Sun Microsys-
tems and the Office of the Governor, State of California Technology,
Trade & Commerce Agency to build African capacity to develop software
for the global market through sub-contracting and outsourcing from
major companies around the world. The Digital Factory, as the project is
named, will not only become our Bangalore, but will generate taxable
hard currency for African countries. Support of such a project by African
Governments and their global partners is in our mutual interest.
Manufacturing
Telecom Africa Corporation has been collaborating with a major Chi-

nese firm to manufacture optical fibre transmission equipment and
cables in Africa. When built, such a venture will drastically reduce the
cost of telecommunications infrastructure, enabling us to accelerate the
rollout of infrastructure and to replace those that have become obsolete
or inadequate.
The Telecom Africa Virtual Research Laboratory
Technology is not viable without research and development. The per-

ception that R&D is esoteric for Africa is patently disingenuous. Pro-
moting Research and Development is an investment in creating vastly
multiplied revenue levels while enhancing scientific capacity in Africa.

What is quite disturbing in this regard is that African governments have
made no effort to make building research and development facilities in
Africa a condition for major contract opportunities. This is how the Chi-
nese got their research and development, as well as manufacturing
investments. Strategic policy on the part of African governments is crit-
ical in compelling commitments in this area. Many companies operating
in ICT in Africa have built impressive research laboratories in Asia. The
fact is not that the African market cannot sustain similar investments,
but that it is clear to these companies that African governments will not
demand it. You only get what you ask for!
In this regard, we are working on building a Telecom Africa Virtual
Research Laboratory, which will enable African scientists worldwide and
others so disposed to undertake research and development work online
in a secure Intranet. When such research gets to the advanced stage
where it requires in-laboratory experimentation, it will then be taken
offline and brought indoors, so to speak.
Revisiting NEPAD and Making it Work
At the outset, I sought to discuss flaws in NEPAD with a view to show-

ing how the process we take to vision-building can help or hurt popu-
lar buy-in and ownership of common goals. I did that because NEPAD
is the only African game in town. As such, it must succeed. This can
only happen if all of us take ownership of it, and with passion and
enthusiasm, reconstitute it to fit Africa’s own priorities and vision.
Then we can give it all we have to make it work. For this to happen,
those who manage it must acknowledge through proclamation and
action, the recognition of the strategic position that building Africa’s
future is not only the responsibility of Africans, but also their right. It
is in solving Africa’s problems that we build the capacity, which we later
can deploy elsewhere to create wealth for the continent and ourselves.
We are up to the challenge and indeed have no choice, because who else
will develop this continent, except ourselves?
Africa’s Place in the World
We tend to be enamoured of our struggle to acquire attributes others

require of us as essential to our right of passage to global citizenship. In
the process, we suspend our own dreams about the world we need to
build for ourselves so that we can live, learn, love and dream, grow and
create, in an environment of peace, confidence, trust, and a profound
sense that the world belongs to us no less than it belongs to others. We
must insist that we too do have an idea as to what will make this world a
better place, and that when we have built our own world on the basis of
our own aspirations, not the expectations of others, we will turn to the
world at large and make our indelible imprint on it. That imprint will be
informed and enriched by a culture, which no body has had the courage
or the disingenuity to question as less than one of the marvels of the his-
tory of human existence and expression.
It will be informed, also, by the eminent truth that as the children of
one of the oldest civilizations of mankind, Africans embody a unique
history of coping with intangible challenges of human existence, a
capacity our world could gain a lot from as we ponder what the world
has come to.
Africa’s Right and Responsibility to

Help Shape our Common World
And there are sound reasons for insisting on the right of our view of our
world and the reluctance to seek to secure what we are not. If we learn
anything from the events of the last year and more, as we beat the
drums of war so soon after the celebration of the end of the twentieth
century and hailed the promise of a new Millennium, it is that no one
has the answers to what is right for the world. This is heartening, in
some way, in that it compels us to re-examine the devastating castiga-
tion of us as ne’er-do-wells. We must dump our pessimism and strike
out to build a better world for all of us, knowing that we too do know
much and have much to contribute. Our guess is as good as anyone
else’s.
Equanimity and the Right and

Responsibility of Nation-Building
That being the case, we should relax, take a deep breath and embark on
building our dream Africa which only we can mastermind. Then, and
only then, after we have determined where we really want to go, can
those who are our friends figure out how to help us. That is the legiti-
mate framework for development assistance, and indeed, of friendship.
We each run our lives, and help each other to make it better for each
other and for all of us together. We do not cede our right and responsi-
bility to shape our future, our destiny and therefore our legacy to others,
friend or foe, in the mistaken idea that they can or will develop us while
we sleep through time and history.
We cannot deprive our people of the right, responsibility and
opportunity to build this African continent by negotiating away the
opportunities inherent in solving our problems on the spurious and
grossly erroneous idea that others possess capacities we do not have,
even financial, when we have not tried to know what expertise and
resources Africans do truly possess, at home and throughout the
Diaspora, and how we can partner with our own people to build our
common future.
Meeting the Challenge of Our Tomorrow
Where do we go from here? That is the common challenge we must

jointly address. We must ask those whom we have chosen to guide our
political and administrative development to find the courage to believe
in our ability to build this continent. It is a plea for reciprocal confidence.
We have shown our confidence in their ability to govern and lead. We
come from the same stock as they do. If they can lead our political des-
tiny, surely they must admit that those of us who are as competent and
as trained as any of our counterparts anywhere in the world, can also
lead our economic, scientific and social development.
This way, when we take ownership of our development problems
and strike out to find their solutions, we shall have begun Africa’s March
of Progress with excellent prospects of success and sustained will and
enthusiasm. Then we will enjoy the profound joy of the accomplish-
ment of building our own lives and our future. We, each of us, can one
day take our children and grandchildren down the road, into our indus-
tries, markets and institutions, into museums, libraries and archives,
and show them what little part of this great continent’s heritage each of
us helped to build.
Above all, I have allowed myself the priviledge of candour only
because I believe that it is something we must do now. I do not for a
moment wish to leave the impression that all is bad. On the contrary, I
am bullish about this beautiful continent and its gifted people. But I am
impatient about the way we have delayed getting this train out of the
station.
Nor do I mean to suggest that we do not need our friends. On the
contrary, as Africans, we honour and treasure friendship. I simply mean
to say that owning our future is a fundamental right and responsibility
which we cannot cede, not after all that this continent has gone
through. I am sure deep down, our true friends do understand, for
which I thank you.
N OT E S
1. A keynote address to the CAFRAD Regional Workshop on Building e-Governance

Capacity in African Countries, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 28–31 October,
2002. The Workshop was sponsored by the African Training and Research Centre in
Administration for Development (CAFRAD), the United Nations Department of
Economic and Social Affairs—Division for Public Economics and Public Adminis-
tration (UNDESA/DPEPA), and the Ministry for Public Service and Administration
of the Government of South Africa, under the auspices of NEPAD.
2. See Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., Ownership of Problems, Intellectual Property and the Dig-
ital Divide—The Enabling Challenge of Solutions, An address to the World Intellec-
tual Property Organisation (WIPO) Second International Conference on Electronic
Commerce and Intellectual Property, Geneva, September 19–21, 2001.
3. Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., E-Culture, Human Culture and In-Between: Meeting the
Challenges of the 21st Century Digital World, ITU Conference on Creating New
Leaders for e-Culture Conference, Coventry, United Kingdom, August 20–24, 2001.
4. Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., Telecom Africa: Building Africa’s Global Competitiveness In
The 21st Century, A keynote address to the Africa TELECOM ’98 Strategic Summit,
Johannesburg, May 8, 1998.
CHAPTER Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane
8 Director, Development
Information Services Division,
Economic Commission for Africa
Regional Information
and Communications
Technologies Developments
The AISI Perspective
Introduction
In his foreword to a Policy Research Report by the Economic Commis-

sion for Africa (ECA), K. Y. Amoako, the Executive Secretary of the
organisation, stated that “the most striking contrasts in the modern
world are the vast differences in technological development and human
well-being—differences most evident in Africa. Poverty and hunger are
widespread. AIDS has cut life expectancy by more than 10 years in some
countries. Forests are being depleted at the rate of an acre a second due
to unsustainable farming practices. And technological development is
woefully deficient. In many cases it is the poor, particularly women and
children, who suffer the most. They live in environmentally fragile areas,
depend on marginal lands, are exposed to health hazards and natural
125
disasters, have very little coping capacity, and have hardly any assets to
fall back upon in times of crisis”.
“This Report,” he said, “is about how African societies can reverse
these alarming trends. Its main message is that harnessing new and
emerging technologies is critical for development”.1
The above observations on biotechnology also apply to the use of
ICT for development in Africa. In fact, they can be considered as some
of the reasons that led to the launch of the African Information Society
Initiative (AISI): Harnessing Information and Knowledge for Africa’s
Development.2 Since its inception, AISI has been the backbone of major
ICT development of the continent. Adopted by the Conference of Min-
isters in 19963, the initiative has successfully created a framework within
which national stakeholders, as active and central players, set their own
courses of action and implement projects based on their priorities and
development goals.
With the support of various bilateral and multilateral partners, a
number of African countries launched innovative ICT initiatives within
the AISI framework. Recently, Niger joined 29 other countries4 to for-
mulate their National Information and Communications Infrastructure
(NICI) plan. Other countries, like Senegal and Mozambique, have
started implementation of the plans and the development of sectoral
applications.
ICT programmes in Africa have moved to a dynamic phase. The
importance of ICT for development has been widely recognised, and
policy and decision makers are committed to the establishment of a sus-
tainable information society in their own countries, which is evident in
the increasing number of innovative ICT plans and projects.
The role of the Economic Commission for Africa is to co-ordinate
the work of AISI. ECA has been assisting the countries to create an
enabling environment for ICT for development through these NICI
plans, strategies and participation in regional and global fora to make
Africa’s voice better heard.
ECA is also in partnership with national counterparts and donors
to implement sectoral applications. The progress is monitored and
Regional ICT Developments ✦ Soltane ✦ 127
evaluated through the SCAN-ICT5 Programme. One of the key aspects

of ECA’s assistance to AISI is the promotion of partnership and Cuper-
tino mechanisms at national and regional levels as well as with multi-
lateral and bilateral donors so as to avoid duplications and waste of
scarce resources.
However, the challenges Africa is facing are numerous and wide in
scope. ECA is ready to deepen and widen its consultation and collabora-
tion with national and international actors to accelerate the development
of ICTs in Africa.
This chapter focuses on major ICT activities recently implemented in
the context of AISI. It also intends to extract and share good practices and
lessons learned and to suggest recommendations for future activities.
Progress Made in Creating an Enabling

Environment for ICT Activities in Africa
Information and communications technologies can contribute enor-

mously to influence our countries’ economic and social development.
Significant progress has been made in advancing ICT as an integral
component of national and regional development agenda through
national information and communication technology policies and
plans, and by creating the necessary economic, institutional, social, legal
and fiscal environments.
Development of National Information and

Communications Technologies Policies and Strategies
Major efforts in the development of national strategies in Africa have

been undertaken within the framework of AISI. The development of
National Information and Communications Infrastructure (NICI)
plans, strategies and policies are considered an important implementing
tool of AISI. A large number of African countries have strived to develop
their NICI plans that articulate long-term policy, infrastructure, content

and application strategies as an integral part of their overall national
development goals.
The NICI development process has its roots in the vision of AISI.
NICI provides the framework within which ICTs are mainstreamed into
the national planning process in order to facilitate the achievement of
national and sectoral development priorities and objectives. It is an on-
going process through the planning, implementation and regular evalu-
ation of programmes and projects developed according to the needs and
priorities of each country.
Below are examples of recent NICI developments. More detailed
information is available at http://www.uneca.org/disd/ict/
Djibouti: Djibouti recently started its NICI development process. A con-

sultative workshop was organised in May 2002. Consultation meetings
were scheduled to start in November 2002.
Ethiopia: Ethiopia endorsed its ICT policy document in 2002 and

launched an aggressive policy implementation plan. One of the objec-
tives is to offer increasing access to information and communications at
district levels.
Ghana: In Ghana, the NICI process was officially re-launched by the

Government in August 2002. A NICI Committee was set up and an
implementation plan drawn. Consultations with stakeholders have
started.
Malawi: An ICT policy development process is underway in Malawi,

based on the ICT policy framework document that was submitted to
high level government officials in June 2002.
Mali: Mali set up a new NICI Committee in May 2002. Several consulta-
tive workshops with stakeholders were organised. A baseline study cov-
ering the major cities of Mali has been launched.
Mozambique6: Following a national ICT Policy Implementation Sym-

posium in October 2001, Mozambique launched a number of catalytic
projects in human capacity development, infrastructure building, appli-

cations and content in health and education, e-government, policy and
regulatory frameworks, provincial growth, enterprise development with
focus on youth, gender and access issues.
Niger: After the official launching of the NICI plan by the Prime Minis-
ter of Niger in July 2002, a NICI Committee was set up. A baseline study
covering all provinces, ministries, government agencies, NGOs and the
private sector is underway.
Rwanda: The Rwanda NICI Plan has been finalised and its implementa-
tion launched by the President in February 2002. Ministries have started
developing sectoral plans out of the main plan. A funding conference is
scheduled to take place early in 2003.
Tanzania: Through its ICT Policy Task Force and a national e-think tank,
the government of Tanzania produced an ICT policy document that was
presented and debated by key stakeholders in May 2002.
Uganda: Uganda completed its ICT policy formulation in 2002. The

development of an ICT policy implementation plan in key sectors iden-
tified in the policy document is underway.
Regional Information and Communication Initiatives
The role of ICTs for regional integration and co-operation has gained
considerable attention. As a result, Regional Economic Communities
(RECs) are taking a leading role in regional consultations and studies,
such as the harmonization of policies, regulatory frameworks, infra-
structure, and more. Examples include:
ICT for Regional Integration for the Economic Community for Central
Africa States (CEMAC): The Economic Community of Central African
States (CEMAC) organised a workshop on ICT for regional integration
in Yaounde, in September 2002. The workshop adopted the Yaounde
Declaration, which made key recommendations, including harmoniza-

tion of the ICT sector in the CEMAC countries, sharing of resources and
the creation of the Central African countries Association of Regulators
(ARAC). The CEMAC Heads of State will adopt the Declaration in
December 2002.
Regulatory Harmonisation in Economic Community for Western Africa

States (ECOWAS): In order to facilitate the harmonization of national
sectoral policies, the ECOWAS Council of Ministers established an
ECOWAS Consultative Regulatory Committee for Telecommunications
to ensure the consistent and co-ordinated regulation of telecommuni-
cations within the Community. A West African Telecommunications
Regulators Association (WATRA) was officially established in June
2002. A study on the harmonization of West African telecommunica-
tion regulations is underway7.
Regional ICT Development in Southern African Development Community

(SADC): Countries of the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) are a step ahead of the other regions. Several studies on ICT
have been undertaken and meetings and workshops organised. A Proto-
col on Transport, Communications and Meteorology and a Declaration
on Information and Communications Technology were adopted by
SADC, which has a Southern Africa Transport and Communications
Commission. The SADC Region was also the first one to establish an
association of regulators, the Telecommunications Regulators Associa-
tion of Southern Africa (TRASA).8
The UEMOA Initiatives in ICT: In 2001, the Council of Ministers of the

UEMOA adopted a recommendation on a programme of action for
improving ICT infrastructure and services in its region. This recom-
mendation aims at harmonising the regulatory frameworks, the cre-
ation of a committee of regulators, and a forum of operators and
service providers, the promotion of new ICTs, and liberalisation of the
national telecom markets. The West African Development Bank
(BOAD) is expected to undertake a study in developing a fiber optic

regional network.9
The ADF III ICT Focus Group on Regional Integration:10 During the third
edition of the African Development Forum (ADF) on Regional Integra-
tion, held in March 2002, the ICT Focus Group met to explore the role
of ICTs in Regional Integration. A portal on regional integration was also
launched during this event.11
Since its existence, the ADF has registered significant impact and
rapidly gained recognition as an effective forum for informed dialogue
and consensus building on urgent development issues of relevance to
Africa, and for agreeing on implementation priorities and strategies at
national, sub-regional and regional levels. ADF 199912 focused on ways
to accelerate the information revolution in Africa. A considerable
amount of technical information was prepared during ADF ’99 and is
still being used and referred to by member States and experts doing stud-
ies on Africa.
Improving Digital Opportunities for Africa:

The African Regional Conference of the WSIS
A significant event in improving digital opportunities for Africa took

place in Bamako in May 2002. The African regional conference, known
as Bamako 200213, was held in Bamako, Mali, under the auspices of His
Excellency Alpha Oumar Konaré, President of the Republic of Mali.
Bamako 2002 was a Ministerial level meeting, Africa being the first con-
tinent to organise a regional conference in line with the framework of
the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
Bamako 2002 focused on facilitating an understanding of the bene-
fits that can be drawn from the global information society, the contribu-
tions the continent could make towards its goals and the cultural
heritages and values it should preserve through this dynamic process.
The conference brought together about one thousand participants
drawn from government, civil society, the private sector, as well as devel-
opment partners. Various bilateral and multilateral partners as well as
the private sector and the civil society supported it.
Bamako 2002 also provided an opportunity to revisit and evalu-
ate the implementation of the recommendations of the first African
Development Forum (ADF ’99) and Bamako 2000.14 The conference
was a unique opportunity to renew the commitment of member
States and bilateral and multilateral development partners of Africa
for the attainment of the visions enshrined in the African Information
Society Initiative (AISI).
Participants in Bamako 2002 unanimously agreed on a set of princi-
ples and recommendations for developing a common African vision for
an information society, known as the Bamako Declaration.15 A Task
Force, Bamako 2002 Bureau16, with ECA serving as a secretariat, has
been established to carry out the major recommendations and work
with the WSIS secretariat. The Bureau is chaired by Mali, with members
composed of one country from each sub-region, and representatives of
the civil society and the private sector.
The Bamako 2002 Bureau and ECA met several times during the
First Preparatory Conference for the WSIS (PrepCom 1)17, which was
held from 1–5 July 2002, in Geneva, Switzerland, to explore ways and
means to implement the Bamako Declaration and continue the activities
it suggested. The Africa Group requested ECA to serve also as the Secre-
tariat for Africa’s participation in the WSIS activities and ensure that
Africa will develop a common plan of action.
Sectoral Applications Initiatives
As stated earlier, the creation of an enabling policy and regulatory envi-

ronment is essential to ensure that actions initiated in the ICT infra-
structure development and sectoral applications are encouraged.
Although ICTs are cutting across many sectors, a few sectoral applications
have gained attention in Africa in recent years, based on the priorities of

individual countries. These include education, health, business and trade,
and governance.
Education and Capacity Building
The agenda for ICT and education in Africa can be strengthened

through E-education initiatives, such as the African Learning Network18,
which supports school networks (e.g. SchoolNet), university networks
(e.g. VarsityNet), networks of research institutes (e.g. African Knowledge
Network Forum—AKNF19) and networks for marginalised people (e.g.
Out of School Youth Network—OosyNet).
The launching of SchoolNet Africa20 and the conference on ICTs and
higher education held at the end of July 2002, in Addis Ababa, are some
of the activities that have been undertaken with respect to implementing
the African Learning Network. The conference was organised under the
aegis of the Four Foundations Partnership (Ford/Carnegie/MacArthur/
Rockefeller), in collaboration with ECA.
Furthermore, in an attempt to address the needs of policy makers on
the challenges and use of ICTs for Africa’s development, the Information
Technology Centre for Africa (ITCA)21, in co-operation with USAID/
Leland, developed a training manual and delivered training courses for
policymakers. In addition, in co-operation with the World Bank’s
InfoDev program and CISCO Systems, ITCA launched a training course
in Internet networking technology, in 2001 and 2002, for two groups of
African women from 41 African countries.
Business and Trade
As a result of ADF ’99 on “The Challenge to Africa of Globalisation and

the Information Age”, a “Pan-African Initiative on e-Commerce”, was
commissioned by IDRC and ECA with the objective of developing policy
and strategy advice for African Governments. African Trade Ministers
met in Libreville, Gabon, in November 2000, to discuss issues related to

an active and early African participation in e-commerce.
More recently, sub-regional level workshops in Mauritius (April
2001, for Eastern and Southern Africa) and Senegal (October 2001, for
Central and Western Africa) have been conducted on the use of ICTs to
enhance competitiveness of SMEs in Africa.
Health Care Services
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has highlighted the importance

of ICTs by proposing that immediate steps should be taken to include
ICTs as part of its health-for-all strategy for the 21st century. This area
was also recognised as of the utmost priority by ADF ’99 and ADF 2000,
where a portal on health resources and health statistics in Africa was
launched22. Pilot telemedicine projects are being implemented in coun-
tries, such as Mali and Ethiopia. Countries like Tunisia have adopted
Telemedicine plans, and more recently, Mozambique and Senegal are
embarking on developing e-strategy for the health sector.
Governance
The utilisation of ICTs for improving government services in Africa is

gaining momentum. Recently, ECA launched an electronic dialogue on
e-governance23 that aimed at providing insights into trends in e-gover-
nance programmes on the continent. Discussions revealed that this field
is at an early stage in most countries, hampered mostly by low levels of
e-readiness and limited political will. However, there were some experi-
ences from selected countries that deserve to be better known. It was
stressed that e-governance is a continuous learning and interactive
process requiring resources and research.
Outcomes of the e-governance discussion will feed into the forth-
coming African Development Forum (ADF IV) scheduled for next year
on governance, which will have an ICT Focus Group that will deliberate
on ICTs and governance. In addition, the forthcoming Committee on
Development Information (CODI III)24, one of the subsidiary bodies of

the ECA scheduled to take place in May 2003, will also focus on infor-
mation for governance.
Progress and Impact Evaluation
The jury is still out on the impact of ICTs on the development process in
Africa, as the advent of the information age is relatively recent for assess-
ing, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the exact impact on socio-eco-
nomic transformations. Outside of the telecommunications sector,
information is sparse, diffuse and anecdotal in such areas as sectoral
applications, investment flows, donor/funding activity, the ICT indus-
trial or business sector, ICT labour, and so on.
Nevertheless, the fact still remains that there is an urgent need for
developing indicators that monitor the role of ICTs in each and every
sector applicable, as well as for developing mechanisms that provide pre-
cise assessments. Up to two years ago, the relevance of ICTs to Africa’s
development was evaluated on an ad hoc basis. It is only recently that
studies have been commissioned by agencies, such as the ITU, UNESCO,
and the World Bank, to name a few, on e-readiness and the impact of
ICTs and development
In response to this development, an Africa-specific monitoring and
evaluation programme, Scan-ICT, was launched in November 2000.
Scan-ICT is led by IDRC and ECA and supported by the European Com-
mission and the Norwegian Agency for Development (NORAD). It aims
at developing Africa’s capacity to collect, analyse and organise data on
the penetration and utilisation of ICTs for development. Ghana, Sene-
gal, Morocco, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Mozambique have been selected
and sponsored to undertake baseline studies by employing indicators
reflecting thematic areas; namely, infrastructure, content development,
sectoral applications such as education, health, e-commerce. Interim
results were presented at Bamako 2002.
Partnership and Consultation Mechanisms
Africa’s digital agenda is quite huge and challenging as is the continent’s

development agenda that ICTs are intended to serve. Therefore, building
synergies and creating strong alliances to address it more efficiently is
crucial. It is in this context that partnership and consultation mecha-
nisms have been put in place. At the regional level, they are expected to
ensure that Africa’s digital agenda is locally led and owned. At the global
level, they are meant to convey Africa’s views, position and needs and to
guarantee efficient collaboration with the international agenda.
The Regional Level
The African Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC)25 to the African Infor-

mation Society Initiative (AISI) was established by a mandate from the
ECA Conference of Ministers Resolution 812 (XXXI)26. It is a regional
advisory committee composed of African experts representing different
areas of activities, including the Diaspora, and was formally launched
during its first meeting in Addis Ababa, in October 1997. Its major func-
tions are:
• to assess the impact of the implementation of the African Informa-

tion Society Initiative;
• to advise the ECA secretariat on the content of its work programme
for the implementation of the African Information Society Initia-
tive; and
• to suggest ways and means of resource mobilisation for the imple-
mentation of AISI.
Since 1997, ATAC has been instrumental in providing inputs on AISI

orientations and achievements.
The Partnership for Information and Communications Technologies in

Africa (PICTA)27 is an informal group of donors and executing agencies
committed to improving information exchange and collaboration
around ICT activities in Africa.28 It was formed by representatives of 17

UN and other development agencies involved in information and com-
munications technologies (ICT) development in Africa, who attended
the donor and executing agency meeting on IT for development in
Africa, held in April 1997, in Rabat, Morocco. They agreed to make
PICTA a forum for donor/executing agencies collaborating within the
framework of “Africa’s Information Society Initiative” (AISI), and to set
up common information resources on the Internet for ICT related
development activities in Africa.
The major current joint programmes of PICTA members include
the SCAN-ICT project, development and implementation of national
ICT strategies (NICIs), the publication of a quarterly bulletin, entitled
“iConnect Africa”, and a monthly “PICTA Bulletin”. Furthermore, PICTA
members jointly organise a number of conferences and meetings related
to the promotion of ICTs for African development.
The African Stakeholders Network of the UN ICT—Task Force (ASN)29 was

set up at the end of a two-day meeting in Addis Ababa (21–22 January
2002), and organised by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
with support from the UN ICT Task Force secretariat. The consultative
meeting brought together over 60 representatives from governments,
development agencies, donors, private sector, civil society and non-
governmental organisations.
From Africa’s point of view, it is mainly intended to link existing
African activities and initiatives with the newly established UN ICT Task
Force. The main mandate of the ASN is to:
• develop a network relevant to Africa’s needs and in line with the

mandate of the Task Force and its Working Groups;
• share information on major African activities and initiatives
through mailing lists, websites and country profiles;
• sensitise and mobilise major actors to ensure African ownership and
support from partners;
• share information and encourage membership, when relevant, and
organise special events;
• assist in linking the network with African and international initia-

tives; and
• attract funds and investments in the ICT sector in Africa.
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development.30 ICTs were one of

the major components of the Compact for African Recovery, which was
developed upon the request of the African Ministers of Finance and pre-
sented to them during the ECA Conference of Ministers, held in Algiers,
in May 2001. The Compact codified a growing consensus within Africa
of what had to be done to accelerate the continent’s development,
including in the area of ICTs.
As the development of the Compact has been carried out at the same
time as the Millennium Partnership for African Recovery Programme
(MAP) and the OMEGA Plan, the initiators of MAP and OMEGA asked
the ECA to contribute substantively to the development of a unified doc-
ument, which became the New African Initiative, and later the New Part-
nership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). In this context, ECA
prepared several sectoral contributions, including ICTs, based on the
African Information Society Initiative framework, for MAP, OMEGA,
the New African Initiative and NEPAD. AISI is now considered the start-
ing point for the regional dimension framework of the ICT component
of the infrastructure part of NEPAD31.
The International Level
The Global Knowledge Partnership32 (GKP) is a “network of networks”

with a diverse membership base comprising public, private and not-for-
profit organisations from both developed and developing countries. The
Partnership was born as a result of the preparatory process of the 1997
Global Knowledge Conference in Canada, hosted by the World Bank and
the Government of Canada. At present there are 45 members. For
2001–2003, the chair for the committee is the Government of Switzerland,
represented by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation
(SDC). The secretariat is hosted by the Government of Malaysia and rep-
resented by the National Information Technology Council (NITC).
The GKP aims to promote broad access to (and effective use of)
knowledge and information as tools of equitable sustainable develop-
ment. GKP members also share information, experiences and resources
to realise the potential of information and communications technologies
to improve lives, reduce poverty and empower people.
In April 2002, the GKP Annual Meeting held an African Day at the
United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Members
of the network and other invited experts discussed issues related to the
major ICT for development initiatives in Africa, the GKP Strategy
2005, global and regional networks, as well as partnership mechanisms
in Africa. African Day recommendations were presented in Bamako
2002.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a

technical coordination body for the Internet, which is specifically coor-
dinating Internet domain names, IP address numbers, Protocol param-
eter and port numbers. In addition, ICANN coordinates the stable
operation of the Internet’s root server system. Africa’s participation in
the ICANN activities is still limited despite efforts of international part-
ners to support participation of Africans in the various ICANN meet-
ings, including the Accra meeting. In this regard, Ghana was selected to
host the first ICANN stakeholders meeting for the year 2002, which took
place from 10 to14 March, 2002. At this occasion, a number of parallel
ICANN constituency events as well as the General Assembly and the
ICANN Board Meeting took place.
Following the Accra meeting, discussions are underway between
ECA and ICANN to put in place an African outreach programme, which
would be part of the ASN.
Bilateral and Multilateral Partnership Mechanisms
A wide range of bilateral and multilateral partners is supporting the

implementation of the African Information Society Initiative. Discus-
sions are being held with other partners, including GTZ and SDC.
Selected projects and partners are described on the following page.
Country Organisation Area of Support

Canada Government of Canada Development of a centre for connectivity
IDRC in Africa, and e-policy resource centre
Scan-ICT baseline Studies in Ghana,
Morocco, Senegal and Uganda
European Union European Commission Scan-ICT baseline studies in Ethiopia and
Mozambique
Regional study on the state of
telecommunication regulatory policies
Development of NICI policies, plans and
strategies in Central Africa Republic,
Djibouti, Ghana, Mali, Niger
Finland Ministry of Foreign Affairs Strengthening ECA’s capacity for co-
ordinating and monitoring national ICT
policies and strategies
France Ministry of Development Support the strengthening of ECA’s web
and Co-operation presence.
Netherlands IICD Production and dissemination of
iConnect Africa, a quarterly web paper
and email service
Contribution to the AISI Media Award
Programme
Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Equipment for standing and mobile
exhibition of ITCA
Participation of women from
Anglophone countries in the CISCO
Internet and Networking course
Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs Establishment and strengthening of the
Information Technology Centre for Africa
Norway NORAD Scan-ICT baseline studies in Ethiopia and
Mozambique
United States of America USAID Development of manual for training of
policy makers on the challenges and use
of ICTs for Africa’s development
Capacity building programmes
World Bank Africa Bureau Production of AISI Radio Series
InfoDev Training of African women on Internet
and Networking
CISCO Supporting Information Technology
Centre for Africa (ITCA)’s training
programmes
La Francophonie Training on ICT and Regional Integration
Open Society Initiative Support to AISI outreach programme
The Communication Programme
The issue of ICTs for Development is relatively new in Africa. It requires

outreach and dissemination of information programmes and efforts to
publicise achievements, best practices and experiences in order to satisfy
the increasing demand in this area. In this context, various efforts are
underway to promote ICTs for development in Africa. Some of these
activities include:
PICTA Bulletin33 is a monthly publication that provides information on

activities of members in the Partnership for ICTs in Africa (PICTA), as
well as news on ICT-related activities in Africa.
iConnect Africa34 is a quarterly web, paper and email service that aims to
raise awareness in the wider African development community regarding
the possibilities offered by ICTs in development. iConnect is produced by
the ECA and the International Institute for Communication and Devel-
opment (IICD). It reports on activities forming part of the AISI and
Building Digital Opportunities programme “BDO”. iConnect is funded
by the United Kingdom Department for International Development
(DFID), the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department for
International Development Cooperation (DGIS) and the Swiss Agency
for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
AISI Radio Series are based on the Harnessing ICTs for Development pro-
gramme of the Economic Commission for Africa. The Radio Series is
aimed at creating greater awareness on the information society, serving
as a tool for media practitioners, especially radio broadcasters, to engage
various groups in debating the role of ICTs in the development process.
The programme was made possible with funding from the Africa Region
of the World Bank. “ICTs in Mali”, one of the four programmes in the
AISI Radio Series, was broadcast by the English Language Service of
Radio Netherlands, and was a special edition in their weekly develop-
ment programme, A Good Life.
The programme will also be made available through Radio Neder-

lands’ affiliate stations, such as World Radio Network (WRN) broadcast
world-wide, with specific feeds to National Public Radio (NPR) in North
America, Safm, South Africa, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC), and the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
The ICT Media Award Programme was launched recently by the ECA. It
aims at encouraging reporting by African journalists on ICT for develop-
ment issues within the context of the African Information Society Initiative
(AISI). The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), the
International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the International
Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) have made contri-
butions to the award, which has assisted in kick-starting the process.
Out of Africa is an interesting map commissioned by IDRC to measure

the digital divide in Africa. It defines a Bits per Capita indicator to eval-
uate the communication capacity and readiness of African countries. It
argues that International Internet bandwidth provides a better measure
of Internet activity (URL: http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/divide/).
NICI Maps and Graphs are based on data collected from different sources.
Currently, maps on the status of the NICI strategies, Africa’s Internet sit-
uation and tele-density, the number of ISPs (and ownership), mobile
density, and broadcasting (regulation, radio, TV) can be found at:
http://www.uneca.org/disd/ict. A NICI graph has also been prepared and is
available from the same site.
AISI Briefing Papers are being produced on various issues related to pro-
moting ICTs for development. The briefing papers aim at sensitising bet-
ter African policy makers about the issues that need to be addressed for
achieving Africa’s digital inclusion. Currently, briefing papers on the
National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plans,
ICTs and governance, and civil society participation in ICT programmes
are being produced.
Web and e-discussions have been developed to disseminate information,

best practices, ICT stories from and within Africa, and to exchange ideas
on the development of the sector. The websites are being used to docu-
ment the status of e-readiness and national e-strategies at the country
level. Some of the major websites include:
• AISI (http://www.uneca.org/aisi);
• NICI (http://www.uneca.org/aisi/nici);
• PICTA (http://www.uneca.org/aisi/picta); and
• ASN (http://www.unicttaskforce.org/regional/africa/main.asp).
Electronic discussion fora on various topics related to promoting

ICTs for development have been set-up. The main one is the AISI list
(aisi-l@lyris.bellanet.org), where various topics related to ICTs in Africa
were discussed. Very recently a lively discussion on e-governance/
government in Africa was held. Its main outcome can be found at:
http://www.bellanet.org/lyris/helper/index.cfm?fuseaction=Visit&listname=aisi-l
Lessons Learned and the Way Forward
The recent dramatic growth of the Internet and the mobile sector, and
the proliferation of Internet and computer services businesses(includ-
ing the availability of cyber cafés in African capitals) show that there is
potential for ICTs as a key development sector for Africa. Increasing
use of ICT in other areas of economic development also indicates that,
with concerted efforts, ICTs have the potential to meet development
challenges.
A number of lessons have also been learnt from the work of ECA in
implementing the African Information Society over the last six years.
Activities and initiatives have been mushrooming in the continent in the
ICT for Development areas, targeting all member States but sometimes
limited to a few countries. The different social and economic status of
African countries led to different approaches to information society
development and diverse projects in these countries. Such diversity itself
is a lesson. Major lessons that can be extracted from these projects, pro-
grammes and initiatives include the following:
Increased Awareness
Almost all African governments are now ready to consider the develop-
ment of ICT policies and programmes of action that assist them better
to address socio-economic development challenges. The resistance to
embrace ICT has changed tremendously. The governments are willing to
invest in information and communications technology programmes
that: (a) meet their development plans and goals; (b) are part of their
efforts to alleviate poverty; and (c) increase the social appropriation of
ICTs by the civil society and the communities. Government seems to
play a key role in driving the ICT agenda in most countries.
Importance of the High-Level Leadership
Progressive ICT policies and strategies at national levels demonstrate

that political will and leadership are fundamental for translation of the
policies into actions. President Chissano and Prime Minister Pascal
Mocumbi are at the forefront of ICT policy in Mozambique. President
Kagame is part and parcel of the process that aims to move Rwanda from
agriculture-led to a knowledge society. These and a number of other
examples show that the ICT policy process could succeed only through
strong political leadership as well as institutional support.
The NICI process could be more participatory
Some countries set up broad national consultations for their NICI

process. However, there is room for improvement. Indeed, compared to
its significance in the development of the information society, the role
of the private sector has been too limited so far and should be consid-
erably improved. From the other side, the involvement of the civil soci-
ety in ICT for development has been uneven. Not all the countries pay
significant attention to the civil society participation in the process. A

new partnership model that builds on the strengths of government, the
private sector and civil society, is needed.
Need for learning from experiences of others—Best practices
It is important to learn from the experience of others. There is an

increasing demand for more documentation and efficient information
sharing mechanisms. Indeed, there is a serious lack of documentation on
a great deal of activities and successful achievements. It has been unani-
mously recommended to address this issue as rapidly as possible in order
to illustrate the growth of the ICT sector and, in particular, to know
“who is doing what” in ICT in Africa. Bellanet International developed
the AI-AIMS database about the activities of the PICTA members (this
database was later merged with the GK-AIMS). However, there is still a
need for concerted efforts for information gathering and sharing.
Recently, the Global Knowledge Partnership, the Swiss Cooperation
for International Development and the ECA decided to create a knowl-
edge base that addresses this issue.35 Communication materials, such as
the PICTA Bulletin and the iConnect Africa Bulletin, are also contribut-
ing greatly to better dissemination of information on project realisations.
Transition from ideas and concepts to concrete action plans
Progress in ICT development in the region shows that countries want to

move from policy development, ideas and concepts to concrete actions;
most of them are ready now. Experiences indicate the need for two types
of actions:
• broader and long-term actions in a few key areas that bring sub-
stantial changes to the society; and
• small, effective and sustainable programmes that bring catalytic
impact on communities and that can also be used for demonstration
purposes.
Need for increased attention to sectoral policies and strategies
Social and economic development challenges and resource limitations

have increased the need for prioritisation for ICT intervention in key
sectors in Africa. The prominent areas in Africa include:
• improving governance and public sector effectiveness through con-

certed use of ICTs by government, and meeting public sector
reforms;
• meeting the challenges of health systems management, healthy life,
HIV/AIDS, health knowledge, through increased use of ICTs;
• increasing the capacities of small and medium enterprises to benefit
from growing electronic businesses;
• improving ICT use in all aspects of education, learning and research
with focus on youth, lifelong and distance learning; and
• harnessing ICTs for improving the situation of agriculture, food
security and environment in Africa
Human and institutional capacity must be strengthened
The human and institutional capacity development remains one of the

chronic problems in the region. The challenges include:
• the creation of expertise in policy analysis (such as defining and

implementing national policies and participating in global decision
making);
• the creation of expertise in information management, policy and
regulatory framework development and enforcement of regulation
by institutions;
• a better coordination of ICT-related programmes at national levels
in order to avoid the fragmentation that is due to competition
among agencies and institutions;
• the development of national negotiation skills, particularly at the
international level;
• the establishment of reliable and sustainable institutional capacities

resilient to the changes of government and global needs; and
• the involvement of the African Diaspora.
Prioritisation of external assistance
The experience so far also shows that technical and financial assistance
is needed at different levels. These include:
• provision of knowledge as to what steps to take in developing inclu-

sive national and sectoral policies;
• providing guidance and resources to overall ICT policy formulation
and e-strategy development processes, particularly in translation of
policies to actions;
• financing the implementation of large and small catalytic pro-
grammes and projects;
• supporting countries in the mobilisation of internal and external
resources;
• maintaining partnerships for sustainable ICT development; and
• monitoring and evaluating progress.
Increasing regional cooperation and integration
The regional dimension has become significant, particularly in the

development of infrastructure, harmonisation of regulations and mobil-
isation of resources. The factors that spurred regional cooperation in
ICTs include:
• the increasing need for economies of scale (one country cannot do

it alone);
• the need to leverage regional cooperation and integration by har-
monising policies, tariffs and resource plans;
• the opportunities provided by dynamism in regional economic
groupings and policy organs and frameworks, such as AU, NEPAD,
and AISI; and
• the need for a common and strong African voice in global decision-
making to influence the global rule of the game on behalf of the
communities on the ground.
More adequate and innovative financing mechanisms are needed
To date there is limited financing mechanism for the huge task of har-
nessing ICT for development in Africa. Ad hoc projects and programmes
were largely unsustainable. There is, therefore, a need for better financ-
ing mechanisms that take the need of different actors into account. The
problem has been addressed several times and now we need to move for-
ward more efficiently. The Government of Senegal (responsible for the
infrastructure part of NEPAD), with the support of ECA, organised the
NEPAD financing conference in Dakar (15–17 April 2002). The confer-
ence came out with interesting recommendations in the area of ICTs.
Bamako 2002 studied the proposal and agreed that some of the major
immediate actions that were needed were:
• to increase the public-private partnership;

• to streamline ICTs in the national development budget;
• to leverage on public resources, including radio frequency spectrum;
• to enforce a global bit tax for ICTs;
• to divert a percentage of military spending to the development of
ICT and knowledge;
• to swap debt for education, information, communication and
knowledge; and
• to create a universal fund for ICT in Africa, through such initiatives
as the United Nations ICT Task Force and the follow-up on the G8
Dot Force.
Conclusion
The lessons above and on ground-level work by the ECA in the region
indicate that governments, partners, the private sector and civil society
organisations, should focus on selected areas in order to maximise the

impact of ICT for social transformation. The key steps to ensure that
digital opportunity is created to better serve Africa’s people and generate
wealth and welfare in the Continent, include:
• developing ICT strategies that are in line with the UN Millennium

Development of the countries;
• supporting the dynamic transition from strategies to actual imple-
mentation of programmes for sustainable development;
• increasing the relevance of institutions, policies and regulatory
frameworks;
• building a network of actors, policy makers and those implementing
ICT projects and programmes at community, national, regional and
global levels; and
• promoting sustainable financing mechanisms for long and short-
term programmes and projects using innovative strategies.
Finally, there is need for ongoing efficient and light consultation

frameworks that bring all African ICT experts, partners and stakeholders
together. A re-energised partnership, and information-sharing plat-
forms—such as that of PICTA, the African Stakeholders Network of the
UN ICT Task Force, and GKP—are vital for building knowledge society
strategies that enable Africa to harness ICT for social and economic
development, and to promote sub-regional and regional integration and
increase Africa’s participation in global ICT decision-making processes.
In this context, the UN ICT Task Force and its regional networks could
provide an efficient platform for an improved dialogue, both within the
regions and among them, at the global level, a better articulation of the
challenges of ICT for development and an effective implementation of
sustainable programmes.
N OT E S
1. Harnessing Technologies for Sustainable Development, ECA Policy Research

Report, August 2002.
2. http://www.uneca.org/aisi/
3. Resolution 812 (XXXI) “Implementation of the African Information Society Initiative
(AISI).
4. http://www.uneca.org/disd/nici_graph.htm
5. http://www.uneca.org/aisi/activities.htm#3
6. http://www.infopol.gov.mz/
7. http://www.ecowas.int/
8. http://www.sadc.int/
9. http://www.uemoa.int/
10. http://www.uneca.org/adfiii/
11. www.uneca.org/itca/ariportal
12. http://www.uneca.org/adf99/
13. http://www.geneva2003.org/bamako2002/
14. http://www.anais.org/SITES/BAM2000
15. http://www.uneca.org/aisi/docs/Bamako2002DeclarationEN.doc
16. The bureau is composed of five government officials representing Senegal, Tunisia,
Cameroon, South Africa and Rwanda, three representatives of civil society, two rep-
resentatives of the private sector and a ECA as a General Rapporteur.
17. http://www.itu.int/wsis/
18. http://www.uneca.org/adf99/adf99education&youth.htm
19. http://www.uneca.org/aknf/
20. http://www.schoolnetafrica.net/
21. http://www.uneca.org/itca
22. http://www.uneca.org/itca/healthport/
23. http://www.bellanet.org/lyris/helper/index.cfm?fuseaction=Visit&listname=aisi-l
24. http://www.uneca.org/codi/
25. http://www.uneca.org/aisi/atac.htm
26. Resolution 812 (XXXI) “Implementation of the African Information Society Initiative
(AISI)
27. http://www.uneca.org/aisi/picta/
28. Institutions, such as the British Council, FAO, IDRC, IICD, ITU, UNCTAD, UNDP,
UNESCO, UNICEF, UNRISD, USAID, WHO, WIPO, World Bank, and WTO, hav-
ing strong interests in improving the use of ICTs as tools to enhance economic and
social development, are active members of this open network of partners.
29. http://www.unicttaskforce.org/regional/africa/main.asp
30. http://www.nepad.org
31. The decision was made during the “Conference on the participation of the private
sector to the financing of the NEPAD”, Dakar, Senegal 15–17 April 2002.
32. http://www.globalknowledge.org
33. http://www.uneca.org/aisi/picta/PICTAbulletin/index.htm
34. http://www.uneca.org/aisi/IConnectAfrica/index.htm
35. This was also a recommendation of the African Stakeholders Network, in January
2002.
CHAPTER Emmanuel OleKambainei and
9 Mavis Ampah Sintim-Misa
Info-communication
for Development in Africa
The African Connection Initiative1
Africa needs to
‘cheetah-pole-vault’
not ‘leap-frog’
—OLEKAMBAINEI
ICT in Africa—The Setting and the Challenge
The Setting
The development impact of ICT has two distinctive aspects. The first
consists of the benefits of enhancement of the infrastructure and appli-
cations to users of information and communication services, who can
be distinguished according to whether they use these services as an
everyday tool for production, distribution or consumption, and for
151
their day-to-day activities. The second consists of the benefits derived

by the economy from changes in the production, supply and operation
of communications infrastructure, facilities, equipment, services and
applications.
Improvements in info-communications,2 and ICT in particular,
lower the cost of information and knowledge exchange, the cost of deal-
ing with others in the market (such as suppliers and customers), and the
cost of business start-ups and of delivering social economic services,
including governmental services. Through these processes, transaction
costs in society drop, which improve overall efficiency and growth.
Complementing this, the ability to transmit data, graphics, picture, and
more, on communications networks contributes to increases in the
quantity and quality of information available to service and productive
enterprises, which opens up new opportunities and enables more thor-
ough evaluation of the risks and returns associated with these opportu-
nities. In many instances, the additional information that becomes
accessible will contribute to the spatial expansion of markets, assisting
producers to move from local into regional or national markets, and
from domestic into international markets. Access (or the lack of it) to
cheap and sufficient information is an important determinant of the
competitive advantage of firms, sectors and countries. Furthermore, the
efficient and easy access by citizens to up-to-date information on their
local and central governments, NGOs and other civil society institutions,
and corporate enterprises, improves interaction, mutual trust, confi-
dence and participation. These, in turn, enhance empowerment, unity,
democracy, peace and stability.
Evidence suggests that countries that have invested in info-commu-
nication infrastructure and applications have attracted high levels of for-
eign direct investment (FDI) as well as increased and efficient private
and public domestic investments into other sectors. The value of the
infrastructure is in the linkage effects to other sectors, more than in the
infrastructure and applications per se.
Economic benefits also arise from changes in the supply of commu-
nications network infrastructure and applications, which contributes to
Info-communication for Development in Africa ✦ OleKambainei & Sintim-Misa ✦ 153
the emergence and growth of specialist firms, or new branches of exist-

ing firms, in a range of service sectors to take advantage of new market
opportunities in the production and distribution of information itself.
On the one hand, these will include software production firms and Inter-
net service providers, who provide essential pieces of machinery for
information production and distribution. On the other hand, there are
firms who provide and/or facilitate the creation and adaptation of rele-
vant content of the information, such as web marketing agencies, elec-
tronic news media, community and governmental agencies, and so on.
The changes in information and communications technology have bro-
ken down barriers between different productive and service sectors in
the economy, and opened up competition and collaboration within and
between the sectors. This enhances efficiency in these sectors, and con-
tributes to overall growth.
Much of existing economic data point to a high correlation
between ICT and economic growth. In the past several decades this has
been confirmed by the revolutionary impact of ICT on country eco-
nomic performance, particularly in the areas of production, trade and
market access, employment, and public and corporate governance.
Converging and emerging technologies as well as new services and
applications have allowed countries to accelerate economic growth,
empower people and alleviate poverty through expansion in private
and public business opportunities, to extend services to socially disad-
vantaged groups, to pervasively use and develop ICT for revenue and
income generation purposes, and to enhance the participation of citi-
zens in their communities, countries, regions, continent and global
arena.
The Challenge
Africa’s experience with ICT has unfortunately, and for the most part,
taken a different path from most of the world. Poor ICT infrastructure,
combined with weak policy and regulatory frameworks, low technolog-
ical penetration and unimpressive human and institutional capacity,
have led to inadequate access to affordable telephones, broadcasting,

computers, Internet and efficient postal services. This has hampered the
continents’ ability to capitalise on ICT as a central tool in creating new
business opportunities. The combined constraints have also played a
key role in creating rifts within and between nations, between sub-
regional African markets, isolating African markets from global markets
and preventing individual African markets from becoming strong and
vibrant.
Significant progress has indeed been made in the ICT sector, and a
number of African countries have embarked on policy reforms that
have introduced competition and improved policy and regulatory
frameworks. In fact, since 1990, approximately 40 countries have
embarked on programmes to separate postal functions from telecom-
munications. Over 20 have privatised their state-owned national tele-
phone companies. 30 have liberalised their markets and opened up to
private cellular services, and over 20 have revised their regulatory
frameworks to facilitate more effective private investment. Nearly over
45 have at least one cellular services provider, and at least 40 have
achieved some level of connectivity and the presence of local full-serv-
ice dialup ISPs, even though Internet service and other advanced serv-
ices are limited by scarce bandwidth.
These developments reflect a growing belief that Africans are real-
ising the enormous potential of ICT as a key driver for social and eco-
nomic development and poverty reduction, particularly as reforming
countries are reaping benefits through improved infrastructure,
increased applications and better accessibility and affordability of ICT
infrastructure, equipment and services. Even then, most of the reforms
have been done without much coordination at the sub-regional level.
The region as a whole does not have a consistent strategy to attract
larger and higher-quality local and foreign capital and other resources
for investment, or to remove the many barriers in order to accelerate
development.
However, serious problems still persist despite the reforms.
Africa’s ICT sector remains characterised by low service penetration
and coverage, poor service quality and high investment costs and tariffs.
Most calls and Internet traffic exchanged between African countries are
still routed through Europe and cost Africa some $400 million a year in
transit fees. The direct result of this is the inability of most African ICT
services providers to reduce settlement rates, high Internet costs and
other ICT tariffs. Over fifty percent of ICT services are in urban areas
where less than thirty percent of the population lives. Excluding South
Africa, which constitutes over fifty percent of the African ICT market,
the connectivity gap between Africa and the rest of the world is very
exacerbated, pegging African tele-density still at less than one line per
100 people a decade after extensive reforms. The situation is no better
(and in some cases, worse) in broadcasting, Internet access, computer
and IT usage, multimedia access and production and distribution of
print material.
Traditional radio broadcast, which has a far higher level of penetra-
tion in Africa, is still inadequate and stands at 20 per 100 people. Postal
services, while they have received some attention following separation of
a significant number from telecommunications operations, still remain
fragile and lack requisite funds to modernise and expand.
A key challenge is for Africa to be able to attract the requisite local
and foreign, as well as private and public, investment to develop low-cost
information and communication infrastructure and applications for
efficient delivery of high value-adding products in effective applications
on a reliable and sustainable basis. Alliances and partnerships with and
between the local and foreign private sector would need to be forged and
sustained nationally, regionally, continentally and globally, with trans-
parent criteria on rules of engagement within clear rationalised institu-
tional arrangements and relationships at all levels.
Africa needs to be able to define and consistently monitor its own
performance indicators to reflect effective universal service and access
priorities. Policies on public ICT services access in particular need to
be given priority in the face of all the above barriers and challenges.
But perhaps even more challenging is for African governments to be able
to go beyond national boundaries to synchronise policies, regulatory
frameworks, programmes and activities in order to derive synergies

and economies of scale and scope from increased investments that
often come with larger markets. Furthermore, there is a need to ensure
effective and facilitative cooperation, coordination and collaboration
(the three Cs) at all levels (horizontally and vertically) and between all
the various initiatives in order to achieve the requisite synergies, com-
plementarities, mutual re-enforcement, reduction of wasteful dupli-
cation and the efficiencies of scale and scope. This way, African ICT
may develop the kick, momentum and acceleration to ‘cheetah-pole-
vault’ not ‘leap-frog’ to catch-up and keep up with the rest of the
world.
Meeting the Challenge at Regional and Continental Levels
While, as stated above, there is recognition and acceptance at national

levels of the inevitable crucial role of ICT as a tool and catalyst for
social and economic development and empowerment, the same is
clearly apparent at both the regional and continental levels. In this
effort, there have been local African initiatives. To mention a few, at the
continental level are the various initiatives under the African Telecom-
munications Union (ATU), formerly PATU, the AISI under UNECA,
the 1998 Ministerial initiative, known as African Connection and,
more recently, the African Union and its comprehensive program, the
New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), which have all
stressed the critical role of ICT in achieving their objectives. These are
in addition to (and needing to be coordinated and integrated rele-
vantly with) the many global initiatives in ICT (Bridging the Digital
Divide, UN ICT for Development, Global Information Society, ICT for
Education, Health, Agriculture, and many others). Vertical and hori-
zontal (geographically) and inter-initiatives cooperation, coordination
and collaboration are crucial for success in achieving the shared vision
and intended objectives.
The African Connection Initiative
In 1998, African Ministers responsible for communications developed

an initiative, called “The African Connection”, which was launched at the
ITU Africa TELECOM in the same year in South Africa. The 1999 Con-
ference of Plenipotentiaries of the Pan African Telecommunications
Union (PATU, now ATU) adopted the initiative, which was endorsed in
the same year by the Summit of the Organisation of African Unity
(OAU) as a continental initiative for action. The vision, strategies and
content of the initiative, has with time, been positively impacted upon by
the changing realities of both the ICT and global environments, and now
encompasses the whole of ICT development and applications as a tool
and catalyst, cross-cutting sector and business in itself.
The Mission and Objectives of the African Connection
The African Connection Program is an African-driven effort to make

Africa a full member of the global information and knowledge society
through accelerated development of country, regional and continental
information infrastructure and applications in the social and productive
sectors.
The objectives of the African Connection include, among others:
• Support for accelerated country ICT reform programs and initia-

tives;
• Promotion of harmonised regional policies, regulations and stan-
dards anchored on effective national reform programs;
• Fostering effective regional capacity-building strategies;
• Facilitating technology development, transfer and use, and effective
content development;
• Developing pilot ICT applications in productive social services for
cross-border mainstreaming, particularly in LDCs and rural and
disadvantaged communities;
• Facilitating innovative financing and public-private partnerships to

accelerate ICT infrastructure and services development;
• Facilitating regional consensus building and donor and investor
coordination for effective resource utilisation; and
• Promote partnerships and synergy through building a culture of
cooperation, coordination and collaboration.
The African Connection Program is a critical component of the African

Telecommunications Union (ATU) restructuring program and is
endorsed by African Ministers of Information and Communication. It
is also an important component of the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (NEPAD), which has a clear objective to capitalise on the
crosscutting and catalytic attributes of ICT to accelerate the continent’s
economic development and growth. The African Connection program
strategy, in conformance with the larger NEPAD objectives, is to go
beyond African national policies to African continental policies and
programs.
An Overview of Activities
In its short history, the African Connection has undertaken a good num-
ber of important activities. These include:
Policy and Regulation: The African Connection has completed the First
Phase of the Regulatory Study with the financial assistance of the Euro-
pean Union. The study identified key issues involved in the reform of
Telecommunications policies and regulations in Africa. The study’s
report and similar reports are on the African Connection website.
ICT Policy Strategy Papers: The African Connection has developed sev-
eral ICT Policy Strategy Papers and posted them on its website.
Universal and Rural Access: The African Connection has developed, with
partners, a GMPCS licensing template (toolkit) posted on the website,
and held follow-up workshops jointly with Schoolnet Africa and
Worldlink (of the World Bank) that expanded the technology to cover all
wireless connectivity for education and development, and incorporate

low-cost delivery devices and facilities. Furthermore, it is also currently
carrying out a study on ‘Rural ICT Status and Market opportunities’ in
ten countries selected from the five regions that will also come up with a
pilot project and a draft rural ICT toolkit for Africa.
Human Resource and Capacity-building The African Connection is col-

laborating with USAID, TRASA and academia on the development of
training modules for effective ICT development, and with the Markle
Foundation on strategies to build capacity for effective involvement of
African professionals in key international discussions on ICT.
Consensus-building and Regional Cooperation: It is working on various

programs with four African regions (COMESA, EAC, ECOWAS, and
SADC), especially on policy and regulatory harmonisation, the estab-
lishment of regulatory associations and others, as requested by the
respective regions.
Strategic Studies: These occasional studies include a SADC e-Readiness

strategic document now being presented to the authorities.
e-Africa Commission: Under the New Partnership for Africa’s Develop-

ment (NEPAD), the African Connection is exploring ways of working
with the e-Africa Commission, ATU and other partners to develop
strategies for continental institutional rationalisation and institutional
arrangements and relationships that will provide the clarity of engage-
ment to guide the sustainable and accelerated planning, development
and resourcing of key ICT initiatives in Africa.
Regional and International Deliberations and Consensus-building: It pro-

vides professional inputs to various global initiatives, such as the G8
DotForce, the UN ICT Task Force, the World Summit on Information
Society (WSIS) and the WEF/SADC e-Readiness Task Force at global
and regional levels.
Funding and Partnerships for ICT Development: It is working with various

partners to develop possible cross-border public/private partnerships for
programs and projects on the basis of “Countries of Mutual Interest

(COMI)” to take advantage of the economy of scale of larger markets.
This will be preceded by a study on “Policy and Regulatory Reforms for
Market expansion in Africa”.
ICT Applications and Content Development: The African Connection

website3 has been re-designed to allow more primary information and to
facilitate user friendliness. There are ongoing efforts to synchronise this
website with MIGA’s Investment Promotion Network and Privatisation
website, amongst others. It organised a Content Development Workshop
at the end of 2001, which brought together key content providers on the
continent to discuss strategies for development, promotion, and the use
and funding of African content. Networking and collaboration among
the content development sector as well as requests for specific assistance
are among the resultant follow-up activities from the workshop.
Direct Country Assistance: The African Connection provides advice and

support to policy and regulatory authorities directly on request, depend-
ing on available financial and human resources, especially to LDCs and
countries in special need, and those coming out of conflict situations.
Pressing Issues
There are many issues, which the African Connection considers to be of

a pressing nature with regard to the fulfillment of its terms of reference,
and which require dedicated attention. These include:
• Ensuring follow-up and implementation of proposals and recom-

mendations arising from the work of the last two years;
• Participating in institutional rationalisation and defining effective
and sustainable institutional arrangements and relationships for the
achievement of the ICT objectives under AU and NEPAD;
• Seeing to it that existing and follow-up activities continue with the
continuity, momentum and buy-in required to ensure achievement
of the desired deliverables; and
• Finally, and of the utmost importance, getting a sustainable ‘home’

for the African Connection Initiative when the present Secretariat
closes at the end of September 2003.
The Perspective on Info-Communication of the

African Connection for Africa Development
Over the last two years of the existence of the African Connection Secre-
tariat, otherwise known as African Connection Centre for Strategic
Planning (ACCSP), we have developed some perspectives on many
regional, continental and global issues. We would like to share, here, one
such view on ICT for development in Africa.
Sector Strategy
The challenge for Africa is obviously a daunting one. A short-term

objective of achieving the traditional tele-density measure of 2 by the
year 2005 with a reasonable level of universal access would require
investments in excess of US$8 billion in the core information infra-
structure, according to World Bank estimates. Achieving this target is
critical to the success of any attempt to improve African connectivity
within and between African countries, and it would require a com-
prehensive, integrated and well-coordinated strategy, which is
founded on:
i. policy, legal and regulatory strategies to promote higher rates of

return on infrastructure and applications investments, particu-
larly in rural areas;
ii. effective public/private sector partnerships that can capitalise on
conducive environments to promote higher levels of investment
and private sector participation in infrastructure development;
iii. ICT applications and content, which add value to policies; and
iv. a formidable human resource and institutional support base that

can foster the sustained development, diffusion and use of ICT in
Africa.
The most crucial action by Governments is setting up independent,

autonomous and facilitative, well-resourced, credible and accountable
regulatory agencies (authorities) to ensure the creation and enforcement
of conducive, consistent and transparent regulatory environment and
frameworks. There is also a need to give priority to the synchronisation
and coordination of both local and external initiatives and programs at
local, national, regional and continental levels, so as to achieve synergy,
scale and scope in Africa’s development objectives.
Policy and Regulatory Frameworks
Sustainable, long-term infrastructure development will not be possible or

optimal without policies that are conducive to efficiency, business activ-
ities and investment, and regulatory frameworks that are transparent,
certain and ensure fair competition and open markets. This is particu-
larly so in view of the changes in ownership, structure and consolidation
of the information and communications sector, convergence of tech-
nologies and markets, and the reduced role and capacity of governments
to manage the sector. Two key factors dictate the need for new ways of
managing the sector. First is the inordinate task of managing the
increased regulatory processes associated with sector liberalisation,
increased competition, new technologies and services, and converging
technologies. The second, and perhaps more tasking, is the convergence
of trade and telecommunications policies under WTO agreements. Reg-
ulators need to be well established and equipped to deal with potential
abuses by incumbent operators in the new competitive environments, to
facilitate entry of new technologies and services and to keep abreast of
the demands of the rapidly changing ICT sector.
While many African markets are not individually attractive for
high-level capital-intensive development, together they could provide
the critical mass, and scale and scope economies to attract local and
foreign investors. What is required is harmonised policy and regulatory
frameworks from interconnection and spectrum planning to licensing
and e-commerce strategies. Tactically, it might be better to start with
the policy and regulatory gaps that exist rather than forcing countries
with different standards and procedures to change and comply. Fur-
thermore, integrating ICT as a tool and crosscutting sector into devel-
opment and development agendas can go a long way in efforts geared
towards sustainable development, poverty alleviation and national
competitiveness.
Consistent and proactive e-Readiness assessments should be carried
out for all countries in order to articulate current gaps, constraints and
opportunities. Approximately fifty percent of African countries have had
some assessment done of their readiness to integrate information tech-
nology and e-commerce. The results of such assessments should form
the basis of more comprehensive ICT strategies to fill these gaps, resolve
constraints and effectively package and market opportunities. These
assessments would also go a long way to facilitate planning, identifica-
tion and allocation of resources.
e-Commerce policy has already been identified both as a gap and a
priority, and could be used as the first phase of a more general harmon-
isation program. An e-Commerce model policy and legislation adopted
by African countries could provide a cohesive tool towards intra-African
and global trade. It may include sub-projects around using ICT tools for
SMME development, e-Government service delivery, and the creation of
jobs and wealth.
Infrastructure Financing
Most of Africa’s main telecommunications operators (public and pri-

vate) do not have the requisite resources to expand their networks to
competitive levels. This is even more so as revenues from the telecom-
munications sector still constitute a significant component of most of
the countries’ gross national product.
Emphasis should be on developing partnerships to finance new and

existing national, sub-regional and regional programs and projects with
the objective to improve connectivity, thereby increasing access and low-
ering costs. African development and investment banks should be
encouraged to participate fully in these partnerships. The success of such
partnerships will, however, depend extensively on comprehensive and
credible Market Statistics on Africa’s ICT sector. This is lacking, and seri-
ous efforts should be made to rectify this constraint.
Competitive mechanisms to generate and award ‘Smart Subsidies’ to
private operators willing to connect rural communities should be inte-
gral in universal service access, social services delivery (especially educa-
tion and health), and financing strategies. Such subsidies could also be
extended to content developers to boost growth in the sector.
A number of countries, such as South Africa, Mauritius, Morocco
and Uganda, are already operating Universal Service Funds, which
finance rural and disadvantaged community infrastructure with revenue
contributions and license fees from telecom operators. Such best prac-
tices should be mainstreamed to the rest of the continent to ensure uni-
versal service to all Africans.
Financing strategies should also include innovative and phased
plans to connect all African countries through existing excess satellite
and fiber optic cable capacity, as well as undersea cable and satellite
capacity currently under construction. ‘Instant’ national coverage could
be achieved through use of new technologies (such as VSAT, GMPCS
and WLL), which will provide access to all schools, hospitals, libraries
and community centres on flat rates. Cost-effective Internet access
could be developed through Internet Exchange Points (IXP) to aggre-
gate traffic and create economies of scale. Further efforts should be put
into upgrading the capacity (bandwidth) and extending the reach of
existing networks to make them able to act as reliable backbone for
present and future demands for advanced and varied ICT services.
These initiatives could all be financed through effective public-private
sector partnerships with significant local participation and interna-
tional donor assistance.
ICT Applications, Content Development & Internet Access
Provision of ICT infrastructure and services is mutually re-enforcing

with ICT applications accompanied by local content development. As
the 21st century is by its nature the century governed by knowledge
exchange and use of information, ICT, as a cross-cutting sector, value-
adding and facilitator of such exchange and use, becomes as crucial to
national, regional, continental and global trade, development and inter-
action as the utilities of water and energy are to all human activities. In
this case, all initiatives, programs and projects in all sectors and at all
levels should incorporate relevant ICT applications on the one hand
and, on the other, ICT initiatives and programs should take into cogni-
sance the needs of all other sectors for sustainable development.
Through partnerships at local, national, regional and continental
levels coupled with cross-border ICT connectivity, Africa can con-
sciously and successfully develop and exchange local content. To
achieve this, the use of local languages, the exchange of local cultures
and the development of local programs have to be aggressively pur-
sued and supported by governments, businesses and civil society.
Africa has a rich legacy of cultural products that could be developed
and packaged for new media dissemination on the continent and
outside. Furthermore, ICT should be used extensively to increase
general and digital literacy and expertise, especially among the youth
and children, while using them to enhance the development of local
content. When ordinary people can relate to ICTs in their languages,
and when these reflect and are reflective of their cultures and tradi-
tions, ICTs are more likely to be embraced and become an integral
part of the lives of Africans, thus enabling them to benefit more fully
from ICT applications.
But before content development can be made viable, Africa must
take a serious approach to developing business models for transforming
content to viable e-business. Incubators and stimulating content indus-
try spin-offs should be promoted, and training programmes developed
to improve the entrepreneurial skills of content developers.
Specific programs and projects utilising ICT applications in areas

like education and skills development, health, agriculture, culture and
governance would go a long way in making accelerated progress towards
increasing general literacy, health and productivity, and enhance sus-
tainable development.
The commitment to provide faster and cheaper Internet access to
schools, libraries, research institutions and health facilities should be
paramount and could be achieved through active promotion of alterna-
tive infrastructure, such as wireless, satellite and cable networks.
Extensive focus should also be placed on developing goods for the
advanced markets of the North. With significant pockets of program-
ming and IT skills, the development of R&D and ICT hubs to develop
software that addresses the needs of developing countries (tele-health,
tele-education, translation software, and more), and services to provide
back-office support to international clients may still be untapped mar-
kets. These hubs often act as magnets in attracting additional investment
into relevant countries.
Capacity and Institutional Development
The availability of the appropriate skills base is an important determi-

nant of the growth of information supply activities, and these contribute
to human resource development. At the same time, the skills base must
be understood as an important risk factor in appraising communica-
tions network infrastructure expansion and ICT applications projects.
Without available skills to operate and maintain the physical infrastruc-
ture, as well as develop and maintain software, users or potential users
will naturally be unable to take advantage of the infrastructure, which
itself will therefore not be used to its full potential.
Currently in Africa, the availability of specialist training in infra-
structure operations and installations and competition regulation is
extremely limited. Two major regional centres of training in telecom-
munications—ESMT, in Senegal, for Francophone countries and
AFRALTI, in Kenya, for Anglophone countries— currently provide some

training for ICT. A number of telecommunications operators also main-
tain their own training schools, but these suffer from lack of financial
resources and are inadequate to meet the urgent requirements of the
industry. Furthermore, as these entities are progressively privatised, there
is a trend towards closing these down as a downsizing and cost-cutting
exercise. There is also reluctance by the new private owners of operating
entities to give basic and even further developmental training for their
staff, leading to a culture of poaching among the operators and regula-
tors within countries and cross-border.
It is, therefore, crucial that the sector reforms address this issue of
basic training and developmental training so as to ensure the existence
of sustainable quality facilities accessible to all in the sector to ensure
continued and improved availability of the requisite professional and
operational human resource. Here, strong collaboration and partner-
ships are required between the public and the private sectors, including
international and multilateral organisations. Africa should learn from
India that rather than trying to legislate against staff poaching and
brain-drain, instead over-train and re-train, and utilise better and
motivate. That way, you not only reduce the impact of the brain drain,
but you change it to “brain-export”. Africa can do this and even develop
research and nascent manufacturing industries in ICT, taking advantage
of the many assets in the continent that give us advantage over the more
expensive economies and congested environments of the Northern and
Eastern countries.
Human Resource Development (HRD) as well as Research and
Development (R&D) in Africa should of necessity be considered an
investment and not an overhead cost in all sectors and by both local pub-
lic and private investors as well as civil society.
To this end, a program is required to support an Africa-wide network
of training and research and development institutions (both virtual and
physical) to develop and share resources. The failure of existing institu-
tions set up for this purpose needs to be examined. Such institutions
should be equipped with sustainable training resources and research pro-

grammes.
Again, policy and regulatory capacity development can be a phase of
an ongoing programme to develop ICT skills and applied research
regionally or continentally. Such programmes should be accredited and
reciprocal to facilitate mobility with a common market framework. Key
institutions in the major regions could be identified to develop co-oper-
ative programmes and to co-ordinate efforts and resource allocation
within the region. Embryonic initiatives of this kind are emerging at
training institutions throughout the continent and these should be for-
malised into clear plans of action. Partnering with mature training insti-
tutions is one of the mechanisms that could drive such a process. An
additional approach to capacity building and institutional development
is through frequent exchange of information, experiences and lessons
between African policy makers and regulators, including cross-border
use of local experts and professionals.
Finally, there is a need to promote general ICT diffusion and raise
awareness and appreciation as well as e-literacy among our populations,
especially children and youth. This should be coupled with efforts to de-
mystify and de-demonise ICT for people to accept it as an everyday tool
and not an end to itself. ICTs (inclusively, not only computing), I believe,
can be used to improve the level of basic education and literacy of African
children and youth. This can be done by targeting and ensuring that basic
education and literacy change from the traditional “3Rs” (reading, writ-
ing and arithmetic) to a higher standard that can be referred to as “LNCI”
or Literacy—reading and writing, Numeracy—working with numbers,
Communicacy—communicating effectively, Innovativeness/Initiative.
Success in this would give Africa the required pool of people to develop
higher skills to use efficiently and productively in the competitive and
technologically fast knowledge-based economy and society of the 21st
century. It will give Africa’s education, human resource development, as
well as research and development the ability to “cheetah-pole-vault” so as
to catch-up with the rest of the global community.
Development of ICT Performance Indicators
There is a need to develop consolidated ICT performance indicators rel-

evant to the African environment, which will be updated on a frequent
basis and serve as a reliable and current data source for stakeholders at
national, regional, continental and global levels.
Government-on-line (e-Government)
There is also a need to promote the use of ICT to provide better, cheaper
and faster government services and information electronically, increase
citizens’ participation in decision-making and facilitate good gover-
nance. To accomplish this, an effort should be made to develop compre-
hensive and active websites for governments in phases until all
governments are covered. Such websites would provide facilities to
enable interactive consultation among agencies, and between agencies
and customers, and enable the public to offer structured feedback on
policy issues.
Accelerated Rural/Universal Connectivity
Universal national and cross-border rural connectivity in ICT is a com-

pelling obligation if Africa is to fulfil its responsibilities to all its people.
Specific initiatives in this regard should involve the following:
a. Implement best practices and learn from “worst/bad” practices in

national and cross-border rural connectivity programs;
b. Develop and promote use of rural connectivity tool-kits;
c. Establish innovative funding schemes to facilitate SMME partici-
pation; and
d. Coordinate and synchronise rural connectivity initiatives and
activities at national and cross-border levels.
“Smart Subsidy” Initiatives
There is a need to develop result-oriented funds, which do not distort

the market, to be used as subsidies to kick-start targeted ICT projects
that are commercially viable, cut across borders and are particularly ben-
eficial to rural communities. This could include the following specific
actions:
a. Develop transparent guidelines for the management and distri-

bution of fund;
b. Develop a methodology for the analysis of ICT projects, which
could qualify for ‘smart subsidies’; and
c. Identify sponsors for funding.
“ICT Cities” Initiatives
We should develop in each African country, a critical mass of ICT indus-

tries, related services, and resource base that can effectively target off-
shore outsourcing markets, promote local ICT hardware and software
manufacturing, develop and trade-in local ICT (digital) expertise and
local content. We could, for example:
a. Develop a framework for effective development of ICT cities;

b. Identify technical assistance and partnerships; and
c. Collate best practice experiences at the national and sub-regional
levels.
e-Schools and e-Health
There is a need for computers for schools and youth centre modules for
digital training and general ICT literacy, networking of schools and
youth centres, and access to cheaper and faster Internet and multi-media
facilities. We should also develop the capacity for extensive and inten-
sive use of ICT in preventive and curative health in general as well as
in specific programs, such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, and
Malnutrition.
Electronic linking and virtual networking of health clinics/centres,
hospitals and laboratories nationally so as to provide improved and
advanced health access, especially to rural communities, remote areas
and the under-served poor urban areas, is one way to approach this.
e-Agriculture
We could greatly advance agricultural productivity through the extensive

use of ICT and electronic media to, for example:
a. Improve the cultivation and use of agricultural inputs (seeds, fer-

tilizer, medicines, tools/plants, amongst others);
b. Improve weather and other natural forecasting information, par-
ticularly for rural productive areas;
c. Improve information on market prices and marketing of agricul-
tural products; and
d. Improve delivery of rural products to markets in rural, urban
cross-border and international markets.
Conclusion
We start the Year 2003 looking forward to the World Summit on Infor-
mation Society in Geneva in 2003, and Tunisia in 2005. It is, therefore,
proper that we reflect first on what Africa has to do to propel herself
into the Information Society and hence become active and benefiting
players in globalisation. Secondly, we should also reflect on what Africa
expects from the rest of the global community as partners and fellow
members of this Information Society. Info-Communication (ICT), as
stated earlier, is not an end by itself, but one of the means or tools for
social, economic and cultural development as well as for all human
activity. ICT is one of the critical tools for empowering individuals,
communities, countries, regions and continents in their struggle for
social, economic, cultural and political development as well as for
improving their quality of life. The WSIS, we believe, is a recognition of
this fact as well, in that by transcending the barriers of the digital divide
within and between communities, countries and regions, we shall be
able to empower humanity to participate fully in their own develop-
ment and in positive globalisation.
We expect that WSIS will bring into focus how information and
knowledge exchange and related digital opportunities can be harnessed
to become one of the facilitative tools in addressing the numerous objec-
tives and declarations of the many Global Summits that have taken place
over the last two decades, all aimed at addressing the many problems that
our planet and its inhabitants face. It is hoped that the WSIS will be able
to develop a shared vision and mutual political, corporate and moral will
and commitment to make ICT that crucial tool in reality and for the
Information Society to be inclusive, effective and mutually beneficial.
This, of course, means each and every citizen, community, country,
region and continent takes full responsibility for the exercise while
recognising and facilitating mutual partnership.
The African Connection and similar African initiatives are Africa’s
ambitious and courageous attempts and commitment to address this
challenge. This chapter is a humble attempt at putting these ideas and
vision together. It is intended to trigger debate that may hopefully lead
to development of some coherent strategies and actions by Africa’s pub-
lic, private and civil society, with partnerships from outside Africa. This
is not an attempt to raise all the issues nor answer all the questions.
At the end of the day, development is first internally intended and
pushed, then externally facilitated and assisted through mutually bene-
ficial partnership with equitable sharing of responsibilities. It is a busi-
ness, not a philanthropy.
N OT E S
1. I would like to dedicate this chapter to the African Ministers of Communications

for their African vision and African Connection initiative in 1998, and to the
African Connection Secretariat for use in this chapter of various presentations we
have made in the past and to Ms. Mavis Ampah Sintim-Misa, for her leadership,
professionalism, commitment to Africa and leadership of the African Connection
secretariat as its Chief Executive Officer.
2. Info-communication and ICT have been used in this chapter interchangeably to
signify the combination of all those areas traditionally known as telecommunica-
tion, information technologies (IT), radio and TV broadcasting, online publishing
and postal services, including the ultimate multimedia.
3. www.africanconnection.org
CHAPTER Dr. Nii Narku Quaynor1
10 eAfrica Program Commissioner,

Internet & Software Development
Africa’s Digital Rights
Today, the new buzzword in describing the state of

the Internet in Africa is the number of exchange
points, which are a local interconnection among
providers to increase their local speed of communi-
cation and reduce somewhat what they pay for
International traffic. Though exchange points are
good, we do not see this as a good measure.
— N I I N A R K U Q U AY N O R
A Vision for Information Freedom
Africa faces a threat of extended economic oppression and strangulation

in the new information-intensive global economy, unless it acts proactively
to acquire access to, and effective mastery of the facilities of information
and communications technologies. The Internet and related software have
become driving elements of worldwide ICT and ought to be the priority
ingredient in all Information for Development visions. This chapter
presents a vision of the eAfrica Commission of NEPAD as it relates to
Internetworking and Software Systems covering a period of 10 years.
175
According to the United Nations Development Programme’s

Human Development Report of 2002, 127 countries, with 34% of the
world’s population, have not grown at the rate of 3.7% in per capita
incomes, which is needed to halve the share of people living on or less
than $1 a day. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the quality of life has actually
regressed, and the quality of life of its very poor people is getting worse.
The number of people living on $1 a day or less, increased from 242.3
million at the start of the 1990s to 300 million at the end (See Table 10–1).
How we ensure that ICT is engaged to reduce poverty and prevent
technical know-how from becoming a tool of oppression and further
colonisation of the people of Africa is of paramount importance to the
development community.
The same Human Development Report also reveals some startling
statistics:
• The world’s richest 1% of people receive as much income as the

poorest 57%.
• The richest 10% of the U.S. population have an income equal to
that of the poorest 43% of the world. In other words, the income of
the richest 25 million Americans is equal to that of almost 2 billion
people.
• The income of the world’s richest 5% is 114 times that of the poorest
5%.
Table 10–1: Worldwide—No. of people living on less than $1 a day (millions)

1987 1990 1993 1996 1998 1999
Sub-Saharan Africa 217.2 242.3 273.3 289.0 290.9 300
East Asia and the Pacific 417.5 452.4 431.9 265.1 278.3 260
Excluding China 114.1 92.0 83.5 55.1 65.1 46
South Asia 474.4 495.1 505.1 531.7 522.0 490
Latin America and the Caribbean 63.7 73.8 70.8 76.0 78.2 77
Eastern Europe and Central Asia 1.1 7.1 18.3 23.8 24.0 17
Middle East and North Africa 9.3 5.7 5.0 5.0 5.5 7
TOTAL 1,183.2 1,276.4 1,304.3 1,190.6 1,198.9 1,151
Excluding China 879.8 915.9 955.9 980.5 985.7 936
Source: World Bank Poverty Site, UNDP HRD Report 2002
Africa’s Digital Rights ✦ Quaynor ✦ 177
A recent study by ORBICOM on “Monitoring the Digital Divide” in

9 sample countries, and using Canada as the benchmark, concludes that
progress in narrowing the Digital Divide is unsatisfactory (see Table 10–2).
The study also said “it could literally take generations before a substan-
tial narrowing of the Digital Divide takes place without further inter-
vention.”
Table 10–2: The Evolution of the Digital Divide

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Canada 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
China 5.2 7.0 7.1 7.5 9.9 10.2
Colombia 14.4 17.5 18.6 19.6 21.2 20.9
Finland 114.7 107.3 108.8 101.5 97.0 91.0
India 2.7 3.2 3.6 3.8 4.3 4.6
Malaysia 25.2 32.8 33.0 31.9 32.7 32.8
Mexico 16.8 18.0 19.0 21.1 24.9 27.6
Senegal 2.9 3.9 4.3 4.9 5.7 7.1
South Africa 25.5 28.1 28.3 27.7 28.8 28.2
Source: “Monitoring the Digital Divide”, Orbicom-CIDA Project, 2002
As things stand at present, Africa does comparatively little manu-

facturing or processing and can hardly count on reliable utility services,
such as electricity, water supply and telecommunications, with which to
undertake these processes as well as enjoy quality life. Add to this, the
glaring absence of industrial capacity for the synthesis of new materials
and advanced information technologies that are now becoming an
activity of competitive advantage in a global economy in relation to
knowledge services, and we have a serious problem.
It is therefore certain that unless Africa takes drastic steps to over-
come these deficiencies, it will be very difficult for her to meaningfully
participate in the emerging new economy. Furthermore, it is doubtful
whether any competitive advances would be possible in the new global
knowledge economy, without addressing the lapses in the functions of
the industrial economy that preceded it. Basically, the various infra-
structure and info-structure needed for such competitiveness would
not be available. The solution for us, therefore, is to seek to bridge the
digital divide by deliberately utilising the advantages of the Internet and

software technologies.
A major strategic initiative under the Global Bridge the Digital
Divide (BDD) Program must focus on twin strategies:
1. BDD for social upliftment and e-enablement; and

2. BDD for economic empowerment via e-commerce.
Africa can bridge the digital divide given its history of strong elements
of Information Processing tools, such as its calculating board instruments.
These board instruments had supported early African societies with such
calculations as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of up to
10 digit numbers.2. A set of calculating boards readily record information.
Thus, though Information processing is not foreign to the African society,
it has not, in recent times and given the acceleration of new electronic
technologies, developed in pace with the rest of the world.
This chapter first presents a proposal of a preferred measure of
progress of ICT development in Africa using the Internet as a vehicle. An
ICT vision for Africa is thereafter articulated showing the transformation
from a learning society to a learned society, in which knowledge products
with secured intellectual property are primary outputs of industry.
To accomplish this, an eAfrica Agenda is defined that identifies the
key components to be strengthened in order to be able to implement the
vision. The synergy of the components is relevant in creating good
dynamics for development. The core digital rights principles and an
implementation framework is specified to ensure satisfactory footprints
of the ensuing interventions of the eAfrica Commission.
Internet Measures
In the early 90s, the common method of describing the state of Inter-
networking of the African continent was simply whether there existed an
interconnection to the global Internet.3 These were often shown on

maps that used colors to distinguish between no connections, email only,
or full Internet availability (see Figure 10–1).
Due to the concerted effort of indigenous enthusiasts with some
overseas assistance, the entire continent soon gained full connectivity
within a decade. There was mention of access from secondary cities as a
new measure, but it soon became obvious that many developed societies
did not have access in all their secondary cities, and the measure quietly
disappeared from the literature. There were some developing countries
with effective Intranets, but they had no connection to the international
public Internet network.
We have had to contend with a new measure of aggregate band-
width in any given country as the indicator of Internet development on
the African continent. This was at a time when the international con-
nectivity bandwidths of several countries were sub-rates of the com-
mon basic unit of bandwidth of 2 MBPS. Today, many of the countries
on the continent have in excess of 2 MBPS public Internet bandwidth
Figure 10–1: Interconnection to the Global Internet

connectivity to the Internet. Thus this has now become a beauty contest
of who is willing to pay more money to the International community.
These international Internet links require that the country seeking a
connection pay for both half circuits, in-country and in the termination
country, at unusually very high rates, several times larger than same
bandwidth purchased in the developed countries. This is thus more a
measure of capital flight than of how ICT is advancing the social devel-
opment of Africa.
The focus turned to the number of users, with calculations of pene-
tration described in colorful charts showing how poorly Africa was per-
forming in accepting the Internet and its promises. During these times,
the continent was ridiculed with acclaimed high growth rates the devel-
oping countries were supposedly enjoying. These claims of the number
of users doubling every few months have all been demonstrated to be
mere marketing spins by corporations in developed countries to
enhance their exploitation of the global economic system to the disad-
vantage of Africa. In any case, the number of users is a volatile measure,
which changes rapidly as users depart the service and new users enter
into service. Likewise, it did not capture the numerous occasional users
who often used universal access services. Therefore, we at the eAfrica
Commission do not consider the number of users to be a good measure
to characterise Internet development in Africa.
Today, the new buzzword in describing the state of the Internet in
Africa is the number of exchange points, which are a local interconnec-
tion among providers to increase their local speed of communication
and reduce somewhat what they pay for International traffic. Though
exchange points are good, we do not see this as a good measure. In fact,
we wonder why the developed countries do not have many exchange
points and yet they seem eager to want to mislead us in this direction.
The United States of America has only a handful of Internet exchanges
to which the entire global community connects. The proliferation of
Internet exchanges needs to be based strictly on local traffic in order for
costs to desired locations to be meaningful.
Internet Domain Names and Addresses
The Internet info-structure has two main parts: domain names and
addresses. We look to these two structures as a way of defining measures
of Internet for the eAfrica Commission. This is better as it relates to the
fundamental workings of the Internet technology. We recognise that
domain name as a measure is fuzzy and is a mixture of global names,
whose destinations cannot be traced easily to Africa, as well as country-
based domain names, which can be operated from anywhere. This great
flexibility in the domain name system reduces the efficacy of the names
as a measure of Internet development in Africa.
The addresses on the other hand have been specified to be within
regions of continental sizes. The allocation of the addresses is also man-
aged regionally by regional organisations, which are address registries
that ensure uniqueness of the blocks allocated to providers in the region.
Furthermore, the allocations are based on the demonstrable use of pre-
vious allocations and the presented network plan of organisations.
Although the emerging African Address Registry, AfriNIC, is not fully
established, information from existing registries covering the Africa
region provide precise data on progress in Africa. The eAfrica Commis-
sion will use addresses as the primary measure of growth in Internet-
working in Africa. This measure lends itself to similar detailed analyses
of all the other measures including per capita studies and other higher-
level functionality, such as information flows.
With respect to Internet addresses,4 the status of Africa may best be
understood by consideration of Figures 10–2 to 10–6. About 43% of
possible addresses in Ipv4 address space had been pre-allocated prior to
systematic allocations through Regional Internet Registries. The three
Registries located in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific have since
allocated 6%, 4%, and 4% of the addresses respectively, amounting to
approximately 256 million addresses. The allocation within Africa, a
continent yet to have a Registry, is included in the figures of the three
registries. This amounts to 2 million addresses, as shown in Figure 10–4.
In other words, the three Registries have allocated less than one percent
of the addresses directly to ISPs or organisations in Africa. Note that this
percentage is significantly less than one percent when one includes the
pre-allocated addresses (43% of the addresses), which had previously
been allocated to non-African countries.
Figure 10–2: IANA Allocation IPv4 Address Space

APNIC
RIPE NCC
4%
4%
Muliticast
6%
ARIN
6%
Other Org .
(pre-RIR)
43%
Unallocated
37%
Figure 10–3: IPv4 Allocations per RIR 1999–2002
2.25
40,000,000
RIPE NCC 2.05
35,000,000
APNIC
1.71
30,000,000 ARIN
1.50 1.51
25,000,000
1.29
20,000,000
0.79 0.92 0.92 0.69
15,000,000
0.52 0.57
10,000,000
5,000,000
0
1999 2000 2001 2002
2.61 4.47 5.47 2.37
Figure 10–4: Region Summary
Source Countries ISP/LIR Addresses CIDR Block Revenue USD
APNIC 1 1 8,192 /19 2,500

ARIN 4 19 933,888 ~/12 52,250
RIPE NCC 21 69 1,187,840 ~/12 110,000
AfriNIC TOTAL 26 89 2,129,920 ~/11 164,750
The number and geographic distribution of organisations in Africa

that have received allocations is shown in Figure 10–6. Observe that the
six leading countries in Africa, according to this measure of the number
of organisations receiving addresses directly are Egypt, South Africa,
Nigeria, Algeria, Kenya and Ghana. This is contrary to what is usually
expressed by earlier more subjective measures. It comes as a real surprise,
because few cite Nigeria or Algeria as making progress with respect to
Internet or ICT, but this measure observes their progress.
The number of organisations receiving these addresses directly from
the Registries, as shown, continues to grow and is depicted in Figure 10–5.
This illustrates a growth from 15 organisations in 1998 to 86 organisa-
tions in 2002.
Figure 10–5: ISP/LIR Growth
100
86
79
80
60
51
40
27
15
20
0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Figure 10–6: Member Distribution 26 Countries/89 ISP/LIR
2
9 2 21
1
1
1
1 1
1
1 31 10 1
1
1 7
RIP NCC 1
21 /69
2
1
1
ARIN APNIC
4 / 19 1/1
15
There is available, a block of 37% of un-allocated address space and

a 6% space reserved for multicast applications. The registries allocate
other number spaces, such as Ipv6 and ASN numbers, but it suffices to
work with the Ipv4 allocations in this instance.
The ICT Vision for Africa
The ICT vision for Africa is to establish ICT, in particular the Internet,
as an empowerment tool, and through that, reinforce the people to
become critical players in the social and economic transformation of the
continent.
The eAfrica vision is a three-step vision, which is intended to trans-
form Africa first from a “Learning” society to a “Knowledge” society and,
finally, to a “Wise” society (see Figure 10–7). Such a transformation
needs to generate actions on both the economic and social axes in order
to leave an acceptable footprint. The vision may thereafter elaborate on

other axes of interest.
Figure 10–7: eAfrica Vision
2005 2008 Wise 2010

Society
Sustainable
Knowledge
Economy
Knowledge
Society
Economic
Knowledge
Products
Learning
Society
ICT
Institutions
Social
Learning & Culture & Quality of Life

Access Innovation
The first phase is to empower the people while ICT is positioned as

a management instrument for economic development, and access for
learning is achieved in the societies. A society with a culture of learning
is the result.
Subsequently, in the second phase, knowledge products and services
are focused on as the economic output of ICT institutions in a sector. In
this phase, the use of information and the culture of innovation and cre-
ations are encouraged as social values. A knowledge society is the result.
In the third and final phase, a sustainable economy is built around
knowledge products by securing the Intellectual Property that is
uniquely African while ensuring that the quality of life is enhanced
socially with the benefits of ICT.
The prevalent structure of society reflects those who have a means
and those who do not. Africa exhibits similar structures, except that the
“haves”, even though they are ineffective “haves”, are insignificant in
number. They are only apparently excessively endowed economically in

a people-centered information society.
In fact, the very few that are well-endowed economically are equally
poor in information know-how. Africa therefore survives on the knowl-
edge of the many “information have-nots”. This necessitates making the
inclusion of ICT into society an Information Right without which there
will be further deprivation.
The fact is that the “economic-haves” do not have impediments
beyond a value appreciation of ICT, whereas the “information poor”
have insurmountable barriers to participating in the new information
economy that is emanating from the barriers that poverty imposes.
The opportunities of the application of ICT in these information-
poor countries are manifold:
• Improvements in overall productivity and daily routine of society.

• Good governance through consultative decision-making and part-
nerships.
• Enhanced social and economic development through carefully engi-
neered productivity improvements.
• Richer lifestyles and life fulfillment through culture, education and
recreation.
The failure, however, to utilise ICT in poverty reduction will lead to

gross inequities that will fuel global unrest and threaten peace and har-
mony. For those who may question the basis for this caution, even
though the entire African community is at risk, nonetheless important
sub-groups may be identified. These include rural communities, the
urban poor, women, youth, the disabled, orphans, senior citizens, street
hawkers, workers, and SMEs.
The need, therefore, is to define specific programs in ICT that focus
on these groups. The indigenous population, on the whole, is an at-risk
group who need special attention. The ICT programs that focus on these
groups should be clearly defined, identified and addressed as part of the
Global BDD Agenda.
The eAfrica Agenda
The African ICT agenda on Internetworking and software is defined as

having six components in policy environments. Several facilities consid-
ered prerequisites for rapid assimilation of ICT do not exist and hence
institutional development becomes an essential piece of the agenda.
Likewise, much of Info-structure is non-existent in Africa and must be
established as part of the development dynamic. These particular com-
ponents, institutions and info-structures make the eAfrica Commission
agenda distinct from other proposed agenda.5
The Components of the Agenda
The components contemplated include human capital (people), institu-

tions, enterprise, infrastructure, info-structure and content with appli-
cations. The ICT agenda is implemented in an environment of global,
regional and national policy frameworks (see Figure 10–8). All the com-
ponents interact within the policy environments to achieve the vision of
creating a “wise society” in 10 years. These interrelated areas comple-
ment each other in ensuring an adequate footprint in all interventions
in ICT, especially the Internet.6 All the components are important and
the degree of emphasis would vary as the scheme is adapted from loca-
tion to location for Africa’s advancement.
In this environment the role of global policy organisations is as
important as that of nation states as well as that of international devel-
opment partners with complementary agendas. The agenda includes:
• Human capital: The people are the most important currency in a

knowledge economy and must be consciously developed and
accounted for. Aside from the tangible human values essential in
knowledge development, they come with their own norms and
values reflected in ethics and language, among others. These are a
very essential part of knowledge products. The preparedness of
the people and the availability of adequate access to information
Figure 10–8: The eAfrica Agenda
Global Policy Environment
Human Capital
Institutions Enterprise
Info-structures Content &

Applications
Infrastructure
Local Policy Environment
services would lead to the desired innovations. Knowledge work-

ers, computer science leaders and entrepreneurs must be created
for sustenance.
• Institutions: ICT must be supported and fully established. There is
the need to build and support institutions in the public, private
and non-profit sectors, many of which have very weak ICT focus.
These institutions will then become repositories of knowledge and
behavior as well as enforcers of key processes for society. Institu-
tional capacity is relevant for sustenance of ICT development in
Africa.
• Enterprise: The growth of ICT is led by the private sector in a policy
environment with the non-profit organisations. This community
needs to be strengthened with the keys to business, including prop-
erty rights, finance, tax regime, indigenous participation rights, mar-
ket development and stimulation of demand.
• Infrastructure: We must continuously enhance the Infrastructure to
transport knowledge products and services. These have suffered in
the past because there has not been sufficient coverage of the demog-
raphy to be effective in reaching the majority of the community.
• Info-structure: The logical structures that utilise infrastructures to
make the knowledge services seamless have in the past been per-
formed on behalf of Africa outside of the continent. The end result
is that the info-structure of the developed countries is enhanced at
the expense of Africa’s own info-structure development. Examples
of these include Internet names and numbers registries, certificate
authorities, secure-key escrow, legal framework and others.
• Content and Applications: The content and applications that will
enable the realisation of the desires of the people and institutions,
for quality use of the infrastructure and the related info-structures.
• Local/Global Policy: ICT is developed within a framework of policies,
which may be global, regional and local. The more transparent and
inclusive the policy regimes, the more they attract participation
from the components of the dynamic. An adequate regulatory
framework needs to be created, but this must be flexible to admit
newer technologies knowing full well that policy lags behind tech-
nology advancement.
Implementing the eAfrica Agenda
This approach offers flexibility in the emphasis on the policy environ-

ments as well as the components of the development dynamics. To
derive an implementation framework, therefore, requires preparation,
development of an implementation plan and an associated footprint
analysis to keep the implementation goal-oriented (see Figure 10–9).
During the preparatory phase, the eAfrica vision is crystallised, and
clear development goals (probably related to the Millennium goals) are
determined. Various national and regional eStrategies are harmonised
for coordinated action in Africa. An important part of this phase is the
initiation of an Observatory function to keep track of all on-going ICT
activities.
Figure 10–9: Implementation Strategy
Preparation Plan Footprint
Vision Priorities Economic

Goals Interventions Social
eStrategies Fund Raising
Observatory
Subsequently, in the planning phase, priorities and specific inter-

ventions that match available funding are initiated. Given the eAfrica
commitment to ensuring that every intervention leaves behind a satis-
factory “footprint”, all the interventions will be continuously assessed
along both the economic and social value axes.
Digital Rights Principles
The digital divide has often been defined in terms of ICT gaps between
one society and another more developed society, or between a commu-
nity and another considered more developed. We find this inadequate
because, for it to be meaningful, it must be normalised and applied to all
other sectors of development. We note that there are gaps in agriculture,
manufacturing, education and health, to name a few sectors, as well
between Africa and the developed societies. In all these cases, not only
are the products and services under-developed, but they are also depend-
ent on acquiring further services from the developed countries. This may
be an unfortunate form of dependency that may be reduced with the
careful utilisation of ICT. The preferred definition of the digital divide is
self-relative, and is a measure of how much of an economy is derived
through ICT. In this regard, every sector strives to apply more and more
ICT while ICT is developed as an identifiable sector.
The goal will be to provide basic ICT access to all institutions includ-
ing the at-risk groups in the society, while making global information
available to all for competitive knowledge creation:
• The scaling of the little local expertise through the utilisation of ICT
in enhancing their impact on the community in all aspects of society.
Despite the need to produce more well-trained human resources, in
the meantime the few qualified resources must be made to serve more
people with use of the Internet and ICT to accelerate development.
• Ensure that ICT, Internet and Software Development are applied to
address the Millennium Development goals in poverty reduction.
• Preservation of the intellectual property in language, culture, music,
art, medicine, among others, to ensure that in the anticipated global
knowledge economy, any value that accrues as a result of African
heritage is protected for the benefit of its impoverished peoples.
Currently, a fair amount of genuine African Intellectual Property is
in free use through a variety of schemes.
• Balance in national policy and global policy is essential because
much of the policy and standards pertaining to the transport of
information services is determined globally. Yet successful imple-
mentation depends on local national environments and supports.
• Synergy within the six components of the environment (which are
the people, institutions, infrastructure, enterprise, info-structure,
and content/applications) would be desirable. Intense interaction
among the five elements and the environment would be key to
achieving the goals of the Africa digital rights vision.
• Utilise all resources and stakeholders—public, private, non-profit
and traditional institutions—to mobilise attention to the deploy-
ment of ICT in African societies. Accepting the interests of these
varied groups will moderate the goals and expectations of the pro-
grammes.
• Establish policy and implementation coordination guidelines for the
African region to make easy interconnections and cooperation in
ICT deployment possible.
• Prioritise educational and training programmes to first create the

creators of money, followed by managers of money and finally users
of money in ICT services. Africa is able to produce professionals to
the highest of levels of specialisation as needed and must resolve
retention of capacity and engagement of the Diaspora.
• Provide Internet and Software Development Services support to all
the programs of the eAfrica Commission.
• Leverage on the other eAfrica Commission programs to enhance
Internet and Software Development.
• Identify and implement relevant pilot projects and incubate innova-
tion centers of Internet and Software Development.
• Incorporate monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to assess the
effectiveness of the proposed pilot projects.
• Incorporate a business model approach with community participa-
tion in all pilot projects so as to ensure project sustainability and
potentials for project upscaling and replicability.
• Establish an integrated platform for learning based on the Internet,
and open standards in order for the community to enjoy the rights
to lifelong learning through formal and informal activities.
Implementation Framework for Action
The Implementation Framework is organised along the components of

the African Digital Agenda. These are not intended to be specific proj-
ects, but a framework within which specific projects may be defined to
meet digital divide needs. See Figure 10–10 for the scope of actions
within component areas of the eAfrica Agenda. The scope includes activ-
ities in community development, institutional development, industrial
development, access, connectivity, and content and applications.
The role of national and regional policy in stimulating the intended
development of these six components is emphasised as being the “mid-
dleman” and a source of energy for growth.
The global policy as pertaining to the Internet and other software
activities are very important to the success of the actions. Similarly, donor
organisations have unique contributions in shaping the actions stipulated.
Figure 10–10: Scope of Implementation Framework
Community
Development
Capacity, Awareness,
Training, Skills
Institutional Industrial
Change
Development Development
Internet, Software, Finance, IPR
Standards, National & Demand
Certification Regional Policy Payments
Donor Global
Coordination Regional Policy Policy
Regulatory Content &
Access Harmonization Applications
Equitable Access to Local Content
ICT Services Community
Connectivity Applications
Affordable Connectivity
Where Needed
Framework for Action
The proposed framework for implementing the Africa BDD Agenda is

based on the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Action) Cycle, as follows:
Plan
• Identify the real needs of the targeted at-risk community;

• Identify the key players (public, private and civil society organisa-
tions) and the leaders of the targeted community; and
• Form a Programme Planning Implementation Team comprising of
members from public, private and civil society organisations, lead-
ers of the target community, and others who have genuine interests
to assist.
Do
• Describe the problem/issue in terms of seriousness and magnitude;

• Formulate a thesis statement;
• Propose pilot projects, expected deliverables/outcome, and action
plans;
• Identify project champions/promoters, project managers and vari-

ous project partners (content and technology);
• Identify sources of funding and obtain the necessary resources
required;
• Form Project Implementation & Management Teams;
• Determine the scope of work and terms of reference for team
members; and
• Implement pilot projects using the integrated project management
model.
Check
• Set up a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to review stages of

project implementation;
• Determine a standardised project-reporting format;
• Identify weaknesses and shortcomings; and
• Take appropriate action to overcome the weaknesses or short-
comings identified.
Action
• Document all project reports, experiences and lessons learnt;

• Publish and publicise successful projects; and
• Plan for project upscaling and replication in other areas.
Global Policy
A lot of the standards activity and policy for a global network, such as
the Internet, is developed globally by participation in several Interna-
tional forums. In the Internet community, a number of these forums
are relevant and include ICANN (policy & coordination), IETASK
FORCE (IP standards), ITU (link level standards), Unicode (character
representation standards), W3C (web standards) and others. There are
also donor agencies that are supporting Africa’s digital divide initiatives
through mainstreaming ICT for development. The initiatives include:
• Identification of important forums, maintaining contacts with

organisers, disseminating such information to stakeholders and
facilitating their participation;
• Coordination of country programs and donor programs to achieve
optimum benefit for the region;
• Establishment of relations with various silicon valleys overseas and
cyber villages for maximum technical exchange; and
• Enhancement of African participation in Internet/software Global
policy Forums by assisting in reducing barriers.
Local/Regional Policy
Local and Regional policy has a compelling impact on the acceleration

of ICT and Internet advancement. Many countries are continuously
evolving their national policies and strategies. Some initiatives are:
• Identification of important forums, maintaining contacts with

organisers, disseminating such information to stakeholders and
facilitating their participation.
• Networking and Software associations are critical to keeping abreast
of developments in the industry. They also form an industry body
that gives input to policy makers on proposals. These would be
strengthened.
• Coordination of the various country programs for effective regional
harmonisation and interconnections as necessary.
• Establishment of relations with various silicon valleys and cyber vil-
lages in Africa for maximum technical exchange and networking.
• An Observatory to study, track and report the progress made in ICT,
Internet and software for Africa is to be developed. This effort would
also evaluate the footprint of various interventions.
Enterprise
The private sector’s role in the diffusion of ICT and the Internet cannot
be underestimated, considering the inter-relationship of economic and
social developments in the eAfrica vision of creating a wise society in a

decade. The unique role of the private sector in the creation of jobs for
knowledge workers and developing infrastructure and info-structure are
key to building a sustainable development dynamic. Some of these ini-
tiatives are:
• Finance and Credit facilities for ICT would be developed either

through specific ICT development banks or through funds exer-
cised through the existing development banks. Venture capital is
scarce, but is considered an alternative as wealth creation ventures
mature.
• The creation of an environment that attracts foreign investment
without excluding indigenous players from genuine participation in
the ICT industry is paramount.
• Intellectual property laws and other property laws that secure invest-
ment and protect the creations of Africa and its partners must be
developed.
• The creation of competition among providers by funding the
demand side of ICT to stimulate the market.
• Ensuring that electronic payments become an acceptable practice in
the society in order to fuel e-commerce development.
• Looking to incubators as a vehicle for initiating new enterprises that
will keep Africa involved in ICT technology production activities,
not only usage.
• Positioning the uniquely African assets, intellectual property, for
competition in the global market.
• Considering chambers of commerce and other business roundtables
as instruments for injecting ICT, Internet, and Software into com-
mercial concerns.
Human Capital
In the vision of creating a wise society, the quality and values of human
capital become a determinant of success. Activities that stimulate,
strengthen and organise human resources for action are desired. Some
initiatives are:
• Technical skills are on the critical path of Africa’s entry into the ICT,
Internet and software arena. The few such professionals are over-
used and practically inaccessible. This bottleneck must be quickly
eliminated by a buildup of critical mass of highly specialised profes-
sionals with international-level quality skills.
• Support for academic programs in computer network architectures
and software development, in particular, and computer science in
general. These computer science programs would be engaged in col-
laborative networks to share teaching methods, faculty and exchange
programs. Sufficient graduate programs in computer science and
networking should be established to meet the needs of the continent
in the stipulated timeframe.
• Coordination of R&D centers in networks & software fields with
interest in the more applied aspects of computing science and
engineering. The new subject areas of next generation Internet,
biotechnology, new materials, genetic programming and artificial
intelligence may be rewarding topics for initial exploration.
• Universal Internet Access services to bring the benefits to more of
the people in Africa should be promoted.
• Rural Internet solutions should be devised that can be readily
deployed in rural communities at affordable prices.
• Change Management should be deployed to assist the communities
being impacted by the changes caused by ICT and the Internet.
Institutions
Many of the necessary institutions that support ICT absorption have not
been constructed in many African societies. Yet institutional memory is
paramount for sustainable systems, especially in the newer technology
fields. Some initiatives include:
• Networking & Software associations.

• Institutions for Internet in Africa and groups for ccTLD (AFTLD),

for African ICANN (AfriCANN), for African Network Information
Center (Address Registry AfriNIC), African Network Operators
Group (technology transfer organisation AfNOG) and other trade
associations, including African ISP Associations (AfrISPA).
• Institutions for Software Development and Associations essential for
promoting Africa’s participation in the industry.
• Collaboration on software incubators with eAfrica business pro-
grammes.
• Collaboration on software research with eAfrica Institution, Research
& Space Communication Programmes.
• Standards & certification programmes.
Infrastructure
The Internet and software require a variety of infrastructures to operate.

Africa would prefer to participate in the development of these. Some Ini-
tiatives include:
• Manufacture of hardware/software products to meet local needs,

thus creating possibilities for innovative products that may compete
globally.
• Promotion of national Internet exchanges & regional inter-exchange
carrier development to retain continental traffic completely terres-
trial with minimum transit outside of Africa.
• Collaboration with eAfrica Infrastructure programmes to establish
terrestrial and International bandwidth needs of Internet services
for the next decade.
• Bulk purchase of International bandwidth to reduce costs of Inter-
net connectivity to the international backbone.
Info-structure
There are a few information structures required to make the Internet

function globally, and they must be developed to become competitive.
Some of the initiatives include:
• Developing the country code Top Level Domain name (ccTLD) Reg-
istries in Africa to serve the local Internet community completely
and ensure that capital flight, which occurs as a result of residents
using global (international) generic Top Level Domain Names
(gTLDs), ceases.
• The eAfrica Commission should request the Top Level Domain
“.Africa” be delegated and operate dotAfrica TLD for its purpose.
• Supporting the AfriNIC Address Registry, a private non-profit
organisation being established to allocate Internet numbers to the
African community.
• Promoting the establishment of Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-
Resolution Policy( UDRP) service providers for Internet domain
name disputes in Africa.
• Supporting the operation of a Root Server in Africa as part of
eAfrica’s desire to participate in all aspects of the Internet operation.
• Internet and Software Laws are lagging behind the advancement in
usage of these services, and this needs to be corrected.
Content and Applications
The principal contact of the majority of the community to the Inter-

net and software is through access to content and the execution of
applications. The eAfrica Commission has initiatives to address these,
and they include:
• Promoting new Internet applications, in particular, how Internet

telephony (VOIP) may reduce costs of access, and also how to use
Internet-enabled solutions to participate in e-commerce and e-tourism
to Africa’s advantage.
• Software development of African games is a natural point of entry
for Africa into the industry and should be utilised to gain some
intellectual property for these creations.
• African languages must be available on the Internet and useable in
software applications. Hence all the languages need to be registered
and the corresponding alphabets properly included in Unicode. The
eAfrica would prepare for the introduction of Internationalised

Internet Domain Names.
• Educational software tools present another opportunity for African-
developed software from the adaptation and creation of instruc-
tional material through stand-alone software or the Internet.
Learning aids based on ICT for all levels of education should be
developed specifically for Africa.
• Africa’s folklore, music, art, culture and herbal medicine need to be
digitalized for preservation and protection of the Intellectual prop-
erty. This database would become an asset in a knowledge society for
economic purposes and for the improved quality of life of Africans
and people of African descent.
• Microprocessor applications and instrumentation for SMEs is also a
potential for innovation in simple system, hardware and software
products peculiar to the needs of Africa, and would be developed.
Small VSLI Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) are of
interest in solving unique system problems of the region. Design
Centers and design entry are potential enterprises to be developed in
support of ASIC applications.
• Methods of access to the internals of commonly available software is
a must and consideration would be given to the merits of proprietary
and open source tools as vehicles to realising the objective of enabling
active development of software on the continent.
ICT Priority Areas
The details of ICT Priority Areas are best determined after an observa-
tory is in place. However, the guideline is that projects that involve
Africa in the development of technology and technology solutions
should be of higher priority. Africa wishes to participate in the advance-
ment of the technologies as well as their usage. Africa also wants to pre-
serve its natural intellectual property as it relates to the emerging
knowledge industry and therefore should be the ones to develop such

projects.
In BDD, there should be a balanced development between three
strategic elements; namely, community development, connectivity and
access, and content and application development. Each of the strategic
elements will have to focus on priority areas, as follows:
a. Community Development (Individuals and groups)
• Human capability building (awareness, training & skills-development)

• Institutional capacity building (arrangement/administrative machinery)
• Sustainability (processes & empowerment)
b. Connectivity and Access
• Affordable network access

• Affordable ICT appliances
• Rules and procedures
c. Content and Application Development
• Relevant local content

• Community-focused applications
• Content management and knowledge sharing
Conclusion
There is hope that the application ICT, Internet and software technolo-
gies would reduce poverty and avert the potential of further oppression
of Africa in the new information-intensive global economy. This chap-
ter proposes a vision for information freedom and an agenda that will
enable Africa narrow the digital divide while preserving its place in the
emerging knowledge-based global economy. The vision promises to ini-

tially create a learning society that can evolve to become a knowledge
society and lead to a wise society that preserves its knowledge assets for
global competitive positioning. It further proposes a framework for
action that ensures that good footprints are the result of all interventions
within the eAfrica vision.
N OT E S
1. I wish to acknowledge the contribution of Lyndall Shope-Mafole, Henry Chassia,

Pierre Dandjinou, Pierre Ouedrago, Clement Dzidonu, Mouhamet Diop, K.J. John,
William Tevie, Ernest Brown and Mawuko Zormelo.
2. N. Quaynor, J. Annan, “Oware: A Computing Instrument”, CAN 1990, Nigeria.
3. L. Landweber, ISOC, “International Connectivity”, (c)1991–1997.
4. Regional Internet Registries, RIPE NCC, ARIN, APNIC, LACNIC, AFRINIC, EAIF,
August 2002.
5. Markle Foundation, Accenture, UNDP, “Creating a Development Dynamic”,
February 5, 2002.
6. Clement Dzidonu, Nii Quaynor, “Footprint Concept”, 2002.
CHAPTER Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr. PhD

Building the Digital Bridge

Challenges, Opportunities and Strategies1
The industrial world must allow for the slightest

possibility that Africans might one day develop
the scientific and technological capacity to com-
pete effectively against the world’s most powerful
conglomerates. In a knowledge-based global
environment, what it takes to do so is knowledge,
information, intellectual capacity, access, oppor-
tunity and a level playing field. Africa’s potential
in this regard is enormous, given the already
large numbers of leading-edge African ICT
experts spread throughout the world.
— J O S E P H O . O K PA K U , S R .
Introduction
I want to thank the United Nations for the wisdom in convening these
two informal panels in parallel with the Special Meeting of the General
Assembly on Information and Communications Technologies for
203
Development, and the organisers for the priviledge of being invited to

participate in these deliberations.
My acceptance of the invitation is a triple recognition and acknowl-
edgement of the honour it bestows, the urgency of the challenge we seek
to master in these discussions, and the compelling importance of devis-
ing strategies for, and implementing solutions to the challenges of the
Digital Divide before we become so used to them that we unconsciously
begin to resist solutions for the fear of the loss that subtly accompanies
the prospects of problem-solving.
Problem-Dependence
For, in a complex way too detailed to go into here, there is a part of us

that disposes us to become so enamoured of certain kinds of problems
that we depend on their continuing existence to give efficacy to our
urgent pre-occupations. In fact, to some extent, the more we invest in
such problems, which I call “seemingly intractable problems”, the more
we develop a dependence on them. Some of us build major careers on
our expertise on problems, not on their solutions, since the former, being
easier to master, offers a more reliable path to intellectual fame. Prob-
lem-solving is more risky and promises less, in the short-term and, con-
sequently, has a lesser ability to attract what one might call “the
ambitious realist”, because it is domiciled on slippery grounds.
Significantly, perhaps unfortunately, the problems of development
in the non-industrial world, particularly in Africa, and especially with
respect to the handicaps of information and communications technolo-
gies capacity, fall into this category. The challenges of the Digital Divide
are so intriguing, perhaps romantic in a way, that we must credit this
lead 21st Century phenomenon with having created an enormous mass
of scholarship, expertise, even an industry, all in the short span of only a
few years from the formal birth of the expression, “the Digital Divide” in
Okinawa during the G8 Summit meeting in the year 2000. As happens in
Building the Digital Bridge ✦ Okpaku ✦ 205
such dynamics, a tremendous amount of money and resources has been

engendered and spent in the devolution of this phenomenon.
Our Challenge
The question is: What do we have to show for it? How much have we
accomplished? And of what we have accomplished, how much of it has
or holds the potential to have a meaningful positive impact on the qual-
ity of life and competitive capacity of the people and society of Africa
and the developing world on whose behalf all of this evolved? Further-
more, if our answers to these questions are less than enthusiastic, what
have we failed to do, or done wrong, or need to do differently, in order
to drive a direct and logical path from the problems of the Digital
Divide to their solutions? How do we ensure the recognition of these
gains and their entrenchment into the permanent fabric of the African
society? This, I believe, coming from the back door so to speak, is the
pre-occupation of this Special Meeting of the General Assembly, and
the challenge to this panel and its sister panel of yesterday.
The Metamorphosis of Problem-Solving
Solving intractable problems of the sort to which we have classified the

Digital Divide requires a coherent process which, in simple terms,
involves the creation of a path along which we convert problems into
challenges which, in turn we re-configure as opportunities, which
themselves then naturally attract the intellect, capacity and resources of
problem-solving by virtue of self-evident benefits accruable from
responding to them. This engineered metamorphosis of the challenge
of the Digital Divide from a problem to an opportunity is, for me, the
best mechanism for bridging the gap.
Our challenge here, therefore, becomes how we engineer this meta-
morphosis, and once the problems become opportunities, how we
define and articulate the vision of an ICT-empowered developing world
(hopefully “newly-developed world” at that time). What strategies do

we develop for its accomplishment, what resources do we identify and
mobilise for the process, what indicators and benchmarks do we con-
struct to guide and monitor the process, and what would also be the
nature and image of the end-result we seek, so that we can identify suc-
cess when we get there. These, again, are the questions before us.
Where We Are
A tremendous amount of energy and resources has been committed to

the definition of the reality and scope of the handicap Africa and the rest
of the developing world suffer when it comes to the equity and parity of
access to the facilities and corresponding benefits of information and
communications technologies.
At global, regional, national, private sector and civil society levels,
there already exists such a large number of initiatives that the blurring
and potential for acting at cross-purposes usually attendant to such cir-
cumstances have begun to kick-in. The United Nations ICT Task Force
at the global pinnacle, alongside the G8 Dot Force Initiative, the Digital
Divide Task Force of the World Economic Forum and the various conti-
nental efforts, such as the e-Africa Commission of the New Partnership
for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), are but a few. If, in spite of all of this,
we still have not built the global wave of indefatigable momentum pow-
erful and relentless enough to drive a process of transformation in and
with ICT, chances are that our paradigm for bridging the Digital Divide
needs corrective adjustments. The very fact of this gathering would seem
to confirm this perception.
The Clarion Call
A prime element calling for adjustment is the need to commence the

engineered metamorphosis of transforming the problem of the Digital
Divide into a worldwide mobilisation of our global genius to use the vast
capacity of ICT to build an eminently better world. That world would be
one in which most of the hopes and dreams of the United Nations Mil-
lennium Programme, a vision which encompasses the dreams of most
other initiatives, are accomplished, through a global rebirth of creativity,
innovation, faith and joie de vivre in a global 21st Century Renaissance.
For, as I have said in the past, there comes a time in the lives of a peo-
ple, when no matter how embattled or handicapped, they must find the
courage and the will to take their destiny in their own hands. And armed
with their resources, no matter how limited, strike out with courage,
hope, faith and enormous passion and genius, to create the future of their
wildest dreams, with the help of friends, if possible, alone if inevitable.
This passion, this courage, this right and responsibility of shaping a
desired future, this opportunity of masterminding our tomorrow, this
unique opportunity to enrich our today and to leave an indelible legacy
to enrich the lives of those who succeed us, this is the singular strategic
human and social resource we need to bridge the Digital Divide.
This clarion call to the trenches, must engender the enthusiasm and
zeal of a Renaissance, not the misery and weary-laden boredom of indif-
ference, hopelessness and disillusionment, which have been major, even if
inadvertent, by-products of the relentless drumbeat of impoverishment,
disadvantage and incapacity which, in turn, only undermines the confi-
dence and capacity of Africans and others in the developing world to
dream. The train of development of ICT capacity in Africa and the rest of
the developing world must be out of the station. Those who wish to make
a difference and preserve the right and opportunity to enjoy the benefits
and accolades of promising accomplishments, must be on board.2
To symbolise this paradigm shift from problem embrace to problem

solving, I have chosen to proffer the concept of “Building the Digital
Bridge” to replace that of “Bridging the Digital Divide” as the proper

proactive vision. I will, therefore, devote the rest of this presentation to
the challenges, opportunities and strategies for building the Digital
Bridge, allowing each society to choose the gap, river or gorge over which
to build it.
The Challenges
Contrary to common wisdom and therefore to the assumptions which

we take into the exercise, the challenges we face in trying to build the
Digital Bridge fall into many categories, most of which are neither finan-
cial nor technological. In fact, they are primarily philosophical, ideolog-
ical, cultural, intellectual and conceptual. Let us look at a few of them.
Amongst the assumptions we take to be axiomatic but which are at
best debatable, are the following:
1. The Cinderella Syndrome
In talking about ICT and development in the Third World, we almost

automatically focus on pilot or experimental initiatives and couch this
inefficacious notion under the guise of the need to be “realistic”, “to
crawl before you can walk”, or other reasonable facsimiles. The notion is
that big initiatives are ambitious or presumptuous and guaranteed to
fail.
The question is: On what evidentiary basis do we assume that small
initiatives have an inherent capacity for success, as opposed to big and
bold initiatives, just because they are small? Some problems are simply
big. This includes Africa’s development problems. Big problems some-
times demand big solutions. In fact, it is the very enormity of big prob-
lems, which ignites the genius of the bold and innovative, and sets the
necessary psychological stimulus and environment for a relentless effort
to overcome them. This is what gets the juices of incurable problem-
solvers flowing. I know, because I am one of them. It is, therefore, my
humble submission that one reason we have not made the progress we
need to make in building the Digital Bridge is that we are totally mired
in a plethora of small initiatives which, though they give us comfort,

have no prospect of reasonable impact without the bold efforts that
must first be made.
2. What Jack Can Do, Jack Can Do
Why do we presume that Africans lack the same ambition, genius and
dream for innovation that their western counterparts have and with
which they have built their own societies? How realistic was Bill Gates’
dream to build Microsoft? How realistic was the dream to create the
Internet? These are some of the major innovations that have created the
core of ICT. If Africa and the rest of the developing world are to enter the
fraternity of the mastery of ICT for social and economic transformation,
they must, first and foremost, break out of the bondage of constrained
dreams, possibilities and expectations, to unleash their genius and pas-
sion for the transformation of their own societies and our common
world at large.
3. The Vortex of SMEs
Correspondingly, virtually all the initiatives in place, with regard to ICT

and development, focus on small and medium enterprises with an
almost visceral disdain for major, especially industrial, initiatives. This is
strategically and conceptually flawed because, by definition, SMEs are
satellite operations, which dance around core industrial enterprises. So,
without building core ICT industries in Africa and the developing world,
SMEs are unsustainable. They merely rotate frenetically around a vortex
which will ultimately swallow them up, gulping an enormous amount of
scarce resources, hope and expectations in the process.
4. Bureaucracy and Innovation: Water and Oil
We are entrenching the management and prosecution of ICT in devel-

opment with bureaucracies, whether of government, international
organisations or corporations. This is an intellectual oxymoron. The
quintessence of bureaucracy is to maintain the status quo by preventing
change, surprise and magic. There is hardly a single significant ICT
innovation from the industrial world, which is the product of a bureau-

cracy. And yet when we talk about bridging the digital divide, we run the
full gamut of bureaucratic intervention from donor to recipient, literar-
ily freezing out residual creative value.
5. Systemic Exclusion of Genius
Most importantly in this regard, genius, the enabling capacity for inno-
vation, tends to function best outside the system, outside bureaucracies
and sometimes outside the most logical; hence, the validity of the old
concept of the “mad scientist” to whom we owe most of our current
development capacities. It is my submission that we are, in fact, by the
very manner in which we are prosecuting our intervention in ICT for
development, excluding the very genius that we need in order to make
the critical difference. We should remember that quantum transforma-
tion is not an normal or routine process, but one of the exceptional.
Africa, and for that matter, most developing nations, may not need
more than a mere handful of significant innovations to drive the mas-
sive transformation of their economies and societies to the desired high
quality existence.
6. The Narrow and Dysfunctional Definition of Wealth and Poverty: The

Primacy of Africa’s Global ICT Intellectual Wealth and Capacity
There is a flawed asymmetry in our emphasis on material resource and,

at the risk of being misinterpreted, even stability, as necessary or ideal
requirements for quantum development. The most important ingredi-
ent for ICT for development is intellectual capacity and the knowledge
that goes with it. So stated, the assumption of Africa’s merely insipient
capacity for driving quantum ICT development becomes questionable.
The problem is that we have not tried to quantify and qualify Africa’s
global ICT expertise (both male and female) as a strategic tool for driv-
ing the continent’s development and transformation. It is for this reason
that at the Telecom Africa Corporation, we have sought to undertake a
Global Human Resource Survey of African Male and Female Expertise in
ICT as a key element in our strategic toolkit for building Africa’s global
competitiveness in the sector.
7. Regulators for Whom?
It has come to be presumed to be axiomatic that the role of regulators in

the sector is to facilitate easy access to the markets of the developing
world for large global corporations. Besides the fact that this has no his-
torical precedence in the developed world, it has no inherent logic or
validity. The first responsibility of any regulator is to mastermind the
local development of the ICT sector using its regulatory powers and
resources (such as spectrum) to empower the growth of indigenous
capacity in the sector. Such empowerment then makes local sector play-
ers attractive to global players as partners without whom they cannot
access these markets. That was always the American paradigm in which
the sector was inaccessible to foreigners for a long time, or in the Mid-
dle-East oil countries where this is a basic partnership paradigm. It is this
indigenous capacity which becomes the foundation, down the road, of
that nation’s competitive capacity in the global context, which is, after all,
the ultimate goal of all our efforts at bridging the Digital Divide, or is it
not?
8. Recognising the Digital Bridge When We Cross It
It is more than a bit of intellectual curiosity that we talk so much about

bridging the digital divide, but we never define what the bridge looks
like. How then do we know what we are looking for or recognise it when
we find it? It is like going to the airport and asking for the next flight to
anywhere. We end up nowhere of any significance. And should we get
there by accident, we will continue to search because we failed to define
what we were looking for in the first place. It is, therefore, important to
us, a priori, to attempt to define, no matter how utopian in scope, this
bridge we seek to throw across the river, like Aenid’s Julius Caesar of old.
Without a fully defined destination, it is difficult to derive or ascribe
value to our journey. Tomorrow does not just happen; it is created. And
if we take the trouble to define our desired tomorrow on the basis of our
most treasured dreams and expectations, we will find that not everyone
wants the same tomorrow, or that their tomorrow be a sullen imitation
or replica of our own checkered yesterday. This is particularly critical in
our electronic age.3
9. Conditionalities Which Effectively Inhibit Development
It has always been my belief that when in doubt about what is good for
others, simply interpose what is good for you. On this basis, much of
what is said to be necessary before there can be ICT (or other) develop-
ment in Africa, while good capacities in themselves, hold no precedence
as incentives for investment or development. Never in the history of
human development have so many requirements been placed on a peo-
ple in dire need of self-development. Nobody ever required a particular
type of Government or leader in the U.S. or Europe, or, more pertinently,
in the People’s Republic of China, as a condition for investing or engag-
ing in business in these countries. The concerns that drive investment
and development are not necessarily the same as those of good gover-
nance or excellent civic leadership.
This is not to suggest that Africa does not need to entrench good
governance and accountability for its own human and social benefit
and internal strength. But any casual study of the long grocery list of
pre-requisite conditions for investment in Africa will reveal a striking
semblance to the characteristics of Utopia, which by definition, are
unattainable.
On the other hand, one can argue that economic development, and
that which ICT development can greatly advance, will, in fact, reduce the
stress and anxieties which inevitably create an environment fertile for
conflict and political instability. Sometimes, the brandishing of this long
list of conditionalities becomes little more than a faint excuse for avoid-
ing or postponing a commitment to assist in the development process.
Africa’s recognition of this is important for finding the courage for self-
development and competitive capacity building. Social, political and
economic development goes hand in hand, not in tandem.
10. From Handicapping Pessimism to Empowering Optimism
From a psychological point of view, it is difficult to understand why we

do not see that the constant badgering of Africans, even by their most
ardent well-wishers, with the worst case scenario statistics of a lack of
capacity and the long list of failed or unfulfilled dreams, cannot but
totally depress and incapacitate Africans. People cannot dream about a
better tomorrow if constantly confronted with an emblazoned litany of
woes from a painful yesterday, especially by those who, or whose ances-
tors, played a not insignificant role in creating yesterday’s nightmare!
While many may require this relentless recitation as a studied prerequi-
site for justifying support, it often has the effect of acting like spraying a
room of hungry people with debilitating vapor in advance of bringing
them food.
Ownership of the Challenge of the Digital Divide
Perhaps the most important of what I consider our strategic flaws in

seeking to build the Digital Bridge, is the fact that those who seek to help,
first and foremost, take inappropriate ownership of the problem, leaving
the stakeholders, those whose lives we seek to improve, irrelevant and
destitute of the right and responsibility to mastermind and shape their
own destiny. The result is that we run the risk of carrying on so gallantly
with a massive Big Band Parade of commitment to transform peoples’
lives while they themselves resign themselves to stroll or sleepwalk down
the alleyways of our digital highway, mere bystanders and observers of
the alien evolution of their own future.
This is not meant to be unkind at all. On the contrary, I have arrived
at this notion as a result of a strenuous effort on my part to address the
issue of the risk of frustration on the part of those, like all of us here, who
have devoted so much time, energy, resource and genius, in my case
much of my adult life and a fair bit of my informed youth, trying to help
achieve Africa’s development. It is my submission that, like it or not, and
whatever their weaknesses might be, the only paradigm of development

that has efficacy, especially with regard to ICT, is that in which a stake-
holder takes the driver’s seat from the word go.
It is simply axiomatic, and incontrovertibly so, that one does not
learn to drive by sitting in the passenger seat. In saying this, a memory
long-forgotten, jumps to mind. In the 1960s and early 1970s, in the
United States, there was a ubiquitous advertising jingle, which said, “Go
Greyhound, and leave the driving to us”. The bankruptcy of this para-
digm, one more representative of our approach to African development
than one would think, is attested to by the fact that the Greyhound Bus
Company’s African initiative, such as in Nigeria, quickly collapsed. I have
discussed this issue more extensively elsewhere, and in the introduction
to this volume.4
After having raised all these problems, what do I offer as solutions other
than to plead that I have run out of time and would have loved to oblige?
Actually, in response to my brief for this presentation, what has my own
company, Telecom Africa Corporation, as a lead strategic African private
sector institution, created for the precise objective of helping drive
Africa’s relentless search for global competitive capacity in ICT, done or
is trying to do to effect a coherent and efficacious model of an ideal
strategy for global partnerships to transform Africa in and with ICT
capacity?
A few examples will suffice.
1. Industrialisation
The Telecom Africa Corporation, from its inception, has sought to per-
suade Africa and the global support environment, of the importance of
building industrial capacity in ICT in Africa, as the key to building the
Digital Bridge. This not only creates a basic indigenous science and tech-
nology capacity in situ, but offers the only way to effect affordability
through local manufacture.
Specifically, Telecom Africa continues to explore partnerships for
industrial projects in Africa. It is working with on prospects of manu-
facturing optical fibre equipment and cables in Africa, most probably in
Namibia.
Telecom Africa is also in discussions with China’s leading mobile
telecommunications manufacturer, for similar efforts with respect to
mobile communications equipment and handsets. We need to make
handsets cheaper in order for Africans to afford them, creating the large
market we need from the economies of scale.
2. Research and Development
Science and Technology have no staying power without the backstop of

a robust research and development capacity. We need to customise our
solutions to our specific environment. We need to create intellectual
property, the main ingredient in ICT capacity. Telecom Africa continues
to search for those leading companies in ICT which will have the “gen-
erosity” and courage to partner with us in setting up active research and
development laboratories in Africa. This is a commercially attractive and
strategic opportunity, not an altruistic pastime.
In respect of this, and to mobilise Africa’s global intellectual resource
in ICT, we are setting up the Telecom Africa Virtual Research Laboratory,
with the promise of technical support from UNESCO.
3. Global Human Resource Survey of

African Male and Female Expertise in ICT
I have referred to the primacy of undertaking this study. Without know-

ing what and whom you have to work with, you cannot begin to design
the Bridge we all want to build. This is an area in which the ITU, the UN
ICT Task Force, UNDP, foundations and other institutions can be emi-
nently and beneficially helpful.
4. The Telecom Africa Continental Telecommunications Network
For purposes of continental integration as well as for compelling ICT

capacity building, we must eliminate the costly practice of transmitting
intra-African traffic through overseas hubs. Telecom Africa has designed
a satellite-based continental network, the Telecom Africa Continental
Telecommunications Network, to deliver direct access between countries
for voice, data, Internet and multi-media capacity. This offers a unique
opportunity for profitable partnership and investment.
5. The Digital Factory
The Telecom Africa Corporation, in partnership with Sun Microsys-

tems and the State of California Technology, Trade and Commerce
Agency, is embarking on creating the Digital Factory, a project to create
high-level software development capacity in Africa along the same lines
as the Indian model. That model, incubated primarily in Bangalore but
now spread throughout the sub-continent, has seen India become a
major global player in the software development market. Designed as a
public/private initiative, the Digital Factory is expected to service not
only the African market, but also the global market, through outsourc-
ing and sub-contracting from major software companies, global insti-
tutions, corporations, governments, and international agencies and
organisations.
Details of these and other initiatives of the Telecom Africa Corpora-
tion are available from projects@telecomafrica.org or www.telecomafrica.org
A New Partnership Model
Partnerships are the critical vehicles for building our Digital Bridge.
In this regard, Africa should not seek partnerships just for partner-
ships’ sake. The precise kind of partnership, its configuration, the ben-
efits it accrues to Africa, not only in the short-term but also in the
long-term, not only tactically but also strategically, is very important.

Without this carefully thought-out approach, ill-formulated partner-
ships, especially those that position the Western private sector merely
to reap the commercial benefits of the market opportunities inherent
in Africa’s ICT demand, as identified by African Governments indi-
vidually or as a whole (such as, for example, under the aegis of
NEPAD’s e-Africa Commission), without reciprocal benefit and
capacity-building, would simply have the effect of destroying Africa’s
nascent ICT private sector. It is precisely such an eventuality that
would result in condemning Africa permanently to ICT dependence,
and deprive the people of the enabling opportunities of using ICT
capacity to create the wealth and resources to kiss economic embat-
tlement goodbye once and for all.
For this reason, at the Telecom Africa Corporation, we believe that
Africa’s strategy should not be so much to build a partnership between
African governments and the Western private sector, but rather for
African governments to empower the African private sector, through an
internal African public-private partnership. This, in turn, would then
enable the African private sector companies to mastermind an effective
private-private partnership with their global counterparts. The empow-
erment that this creates, is what will ultimately build Africa’s global com-
petitive capacity. In this regard, the words of President Abdoulaye Wade
of Senegal, in a special luncheon in his honour at the United Nations, in
June, 2002, become most significant and efficacious. “I want to empower
my people,” he said, “so that they can form good partnerships with the
Western private sector.”
Internal, Regional and South-South Partnerships
As important as global partnerships are to the building of our Digital

Bridge, internal and regional partnerships, including South-South part-
nerships, are also critical, both for empowerment through strength in
numbers, and shared experiences and practices, as well as for expanding
the foundation for global competitive capacity-building.
The World Economic Forum CEO Charter
The recently launched World Economic Forum CEO Charter has the
unique advantage that it is driven by CEOs, once themselves incurable
dreamers, who know what it is to want to make a major impact, and who
believe in taking on big problems with passion. Some of the most impor-
tant help the Telecom Africa Corporation has received from global cor-
porations like Nortel, IBM, Siemens, the Aerospace Corporation amongst
others, even if only in our conceptual phase, has been the recognition of
the enormity of our the Telecom Africa Vision, and the confirmation of
the possibility of its realisation. This is what Africa badly needs.
My prescription for the success of the CEO Charter is to create a
Mentorship Programme whereby each CEO adopts an African entrepre-
neur, and grooms him or her over several years, to re-create a facsimile
of his or her own dream.
Essentially, if one hundred, or even fifty, CEOs adopt an equal num-
ber of African entrepreneurs and chaperon them through the labyrinth
of entrepreneurial and corporate development, serving as mentors,
quick reference points, and, most important, points of last reference
before succumbing to the not infrequent pressure to throw in the towel
just when things might just be about to turn the corner, we would have
twenty five to fifty core ICT industrial institutions in Africa allowing for
fifty percent success. It is these major African corporations, then, which
will trigger other such corporations and stimulate and sustain numerous
small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as a response to creating the
products, services and capacities to service their demand. In a less than
ten-year period, with one to two hundred major corporations in Africa
with global competitive capacity, the notion of assisting African devel-
opment would become history, replaced by a more refreshing dialogue
on how to share the opportunities of the global market more equitably.
That is our dream at the Telecom Africa Corporation.
In the process of such mentoring, the corporations of the CEOs
will have a lot to gain not only through the vicarious invigoration
which comes from new ideas and enthusiasm, but through working
partnerships with companies with lower overheads with which they

could more profitably compete for global opportunities. This is the
formula for both a win-win situation, and a respectable and eminent
partnership for development in what I call: “Building the Digital
Bridge across the Information and Communications Divide”.
Telecom Africa has set out on this mentorship path as well. There are
many such visionary initiatives by Africans and other developing world
people, which offer tremendous opportunities for partnerships and
investment.
The Shape of My Dream Digital Bridge
I had maintained at the outset that we must define our dreamland so

that we can recognise it when we get there. What then will the Digital
Bridge look like?
We would have achieved our dream of building the Digital Bridge
when we have a situation in Africa and the Developing World in which
the empowering capacity created by ICT would be so common place that
ICT itself would disappear from our everyday consciousness, joining the
backdrop that is the proper home for enabling facilities; what we com-
monly call utilities.
We would have infused our educational, administrative, creative,
strategic, even social environment with the benefits of ICT capacity,
while preserving the primacy of our culture from the potential threat
inherent in any inadvertent mistake of allowing ICT itself become a cul-
ture, one which can compete with our human culture with devastating
consequences.
Our Ultimate Goal
If our ultimate goal is for Africa and the rest of the Developing World
to develop their capacity to become globally competitive, which
means getting a fair share of what is currently controlled by the indus-

trial world, logic suggests that at some point we must break away from
the tutelage of the industrial world in order to build the smart capa-
bilities to compete with it. At some point, when we believe we are
ready to sink or swim, we will be compelled to kiss our helpers good-
bye with affection, and say, “thanks, love you, see you on the global
field of competition”. It is the logic of history, and a major tenet of
African cultural tradition, that if we do our job of teaching and train-
ing well, that is, of mentoring, those who come after us must tran-
scend us. If they do not, then we have not done our job; we have not
taught them well.
The industrial world must therefore allow, at least psychologically,
for the slightest possibility that Africans might one day develop the sci-
entific and technological capacity to compete effectively against the
world’s most powerful conglomerates. In a knowledge-based global
environment, what it takes to do so is knowledge, information, intellec-
tual capacity, access, opportunity and a level playing field, not legacy
capabilities, entrenched economic and media dominance, political
power and military might. Africa’s potential in this regard is enormous,
given the already large numbers of leading-edge African ICT experts
spread throughout the world.
The Essential Principles of Globalisation
In the event of such a desirable eventuality, in this future dispensation,

we must modify the rules of global trade to include what at the Telecom
Africa Corporation, we have chosen to call “The Essential Principles of
Globalisation”. Simply put, it is my fundamental belief that:
Trade amongst nations must be:
1. Fair and Equitable;

2. Involve mutual access to each other’s market; and
3. Enhance global competitive capacity, in the absence of which, it must
4. Promote the development of such global competitive capacity

through dedicated Affirmative Action programmes built into trade
agreements.
Conclusion
Finally, from all I have said, one might ask: Have we accomplished any-
thing at all in all our collective efforts at promoting ICT development in
Africa and the rest of the Developing World? Eminently so. We are today,
quite a long way from where we were when we started to talk about the
need to bridge the Digital Divide. We can take heart in the knowledge
that we have done much, even though we have a long way to go. We must
now change tune and shift our gears to the proactive mode of Building
the Digital Bridge together. For those who might have wondered if I
would conclude that we have been wasting our time, how could I say so
when I have been an integral part of this global effort?
I thank you for your intellectual indulgence.
N OT E S
1. On June 17–18, 2002, the United Nations held a Special Meeting on Information
and Communications Technologies for Development as part of the 101st Plenary
of the 56th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, which also included
two concurrent Informal Panels. This chapter was an Address to Informal Panel 2:
The Role of the United Nations in Supporting Efforts to Promote Digital Opportunity,
on June 17, 2002.
2. There are lyrics from the Negro Spirituals of the African-American heritage, which
capture this compelling clarion call.
3. See Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., E-Culture, Human Culture and In-between: Meeting the
Challenges of the 21st Century Digital World, ITU Conference on Creating New
Leaders for e-Culture, Coventry, UK, August 20–24, 2001.
4. See Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr., Ownership of Problems, Intellectual Property and the
Digital Divide—The Enabling Challenge of Solutions, WIPO Second Interna-
tional Conference on Electronic Commerce and Intellectual Property, Geneva,
September 19–21, 2001.
CHAPTER Dr. Akhtar Badshah and
12 Justin Thumler1
Digital Bridge to Africa—

The Digital Diaspora Network
for Africa (DDN-A)
Skyrocketing demand for information and

communications technology personnel makes top
scientists and technologists globally mobile. When
they come from developing countries, their global
dispersal creates Diaspora that can become
valuable networks of finance, business contacts
and skill transfer for their home country.
— U N D P H U M A N D E V E L O P M E N T R E P O R T 2 0 01
The Digital Diaspora Network for Africa (DDN-A) is an initiative

designed to tap the value of Diaspora communities in service to Africa.
DDN-A also addresses the bigger challenge implied: The best and the
brightest from developing countries are being drawn away by greater
opportunities, perpetuating a systemic imbalance in favour of the pros-
perous to the detriment of their indigenous societies and communities.
223
The trend is not likely to end in the foreseeable future—let alone

reverse.
DDN-A is a collaborative effort among the United Nations ICT Task
Force, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM),
The United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP), Dig-
ital Partners, and Gruppo CERFE, which promotes development in
Africa by mobilising the technological, entrepreneurial and professional
expertise and resources of the African Diaspora. Since vital expertise is
unlikely to “go back,” DDN-A is to serve as an effective and efficient
means to “give back.”
The Challenge
Given the speed with which Information and Communication Tech-

nologies (ICT) are developing and the breadth of their socio-economic
impact, it is imperative that some means be developed now if Africa is
not to be excluded from the technological revolution. The use of ICT
has been integrated into virtually every aspect of commerce, education,
governance and civic activity in developed countries and has become a
critical factor in gaining access to information and wealth worldwide.
Yet in Africa, ICT has barely taken a foothold. Inadequate computer lit-
eracy and the lack of access to ICT are widely recognised as an increas-
ingly daunting obstacle to the economic, civic and political
development of Africa.
Many potential ICT entrepreneurs in Africa are limited in their
actions by a lack of information about opportunities, potential partners,
institutional contacts and resources. On the other hand, many Africans
in the United States, and many others who feel committed to the devel-
opment of Africa, have important skills and access to a wealth of human
and material resources but perceive few avenues to apply them to bene-
fit sub-Saharan Africa.
Digital Bridge to Africa ✦ Badshah and Thumler ✦ 225
The Opportunity
Many Africans in the United States and abroad, and many others who
feel committed to the development of Africa have important skills and
wealth in terms of human and material resources that could effectively
address Africa’s challenges. Nevertheless, few avenues exist to apply these
resources to the benefit of sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, many
potential ICT entrepreneurs in Africa could benefit from increased
opportunities to meet and work with counterparts living outside of
Africa.
According to Zachary2, Diaspora networks can be an effective mech-
anism for promoting economic development by:
• Creating a new mode of foreign assistance and investment: economic

stimulus through self-organising Diaspora networks, spawned by
civil society and the private sector but legitimised and sustained by
government and multilateral institutions;
• Altering the terms of trade in human talent, by encouraging “brain
circulation” in addition to brain drain;
• Strengthening support in rich countries for continued and deepened
ties between ethnic communities in these countries and their coun-
tries of origin as a matter, not only of human rights, but of economic
and political significance;
• Creating recognition within developing countries that overseas
communities deserve political, economic and social means to main-
tain their links with their home country including support by their
home society and government for ongoing, albeit episodic involve-
ment of nationals who chiefly reside outside of the country; and
• Helping the Diaspora to play a more effective role in leveling the
growing imbalance of power between wealthy and poor nations.
Zachary further notes that “political and social policies aimed at har-
nessing or managing Diaspora communities are in their infancy. There
are no multilateral agencies or international treaties concerned with the

peaceful, voluntary movement of people across borders, and the subse-
quent transnational associations arising from these movements.”
A New Model for Development
The benefits of traditional top-down development mechanisms are

often lost in the complexities of government and corporate interests.
DDN-A offers a new model of development based on engaging the moti-
vations and interests of Individuals rather than institutions.
Over 350 individuals from the worldwide Africa Diaspora joined
DDN-A after its inaugural meeting at the United Nations in July of 2002.
These individuals have corporate, academic and government interests,
which they will inevitably bring to bear as the Network continues to
develop programs and projects for Africa that are of interest to them.
Brought together with the growing number of organisations, corpora-
tions, foundations and academics promoting the application of ICT to
assist Africa’s development, members of DDN-A can provide a rich source
of ideas, skills and support for promoting digital opportunity in Africa.
As the Digital Diaspora Network for Africa (DDN-A) continues to
reach out to Africa’s scattered community in the Americas, the Caribbean,
Europe, Asia and elsewhere, it will serve to facilitate the exchange of ideas
and information to help ICT entrepreneurs create opportunities and find
the partners and resources they need to make use of them.
The development of the Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is instructive in
terms of what is possible for Africa. TiE was started in 1992 as a small
Indian-ethnic organisation of people eager to contribute to the cause of
entrepreneurship among the Indus people in the Silicon Valley. TiE now
has over 8000 members in 40 chapters worldwide and hundreds of suc-
cessful TiE-inspired startups, many directly benefiting India’s economy.
Most inspiring to the concept of the Digital Diaspora Network for Africa
is the fact that TiE has now assumed a broader role for itself to foster
socio-economic development globally.
In many ways, DDN-A seeks to start where TiE took 10 years to

arrive: where economic development is not disengaged from social
development; and where entrepreneurs in the US, Europe and Africa cre-
ate a network interested—for whatever reasons, be it business, cultural,
personal, or otherwise—in a broader goal of supporting development
activities in their home countries and are willing to commit time and
resources in support of such development activities.
Mechanisms for Impact
A development model based on the use of ICT and the engaged inter-
ests of individuals is new. The intermediary institutions, the project-
development methodologies, the funding mechanisms and the myriad
of other development basics that evolved during the Industrial Age have
not been updated to reflect the opportunities and challenges of the
Information Age. DDN-A developed three programs designed to
address critical elements necessary to activate the potential of the
African Diaspora in service to Africa.
Networking and Coalition Building
Digital Bridge Africa is an annual workshop that seeks to enhance the

bridge linking ICT activities in North America and Europe with emerg-
ing activities in Africa, thereby enhancing entrepreneurship and devel-
opment. Its general focus is on two main components:
• Capacity—developing the entrepreneurial and technical capabilities

within Africa, and
• Capital—developing financial resources focused on ICTs in Africa.
The workshop particularly emphasises the role of social entrepre-

neurs who are using ICTs to open new avenues in markets, e-commerce,
and information sharing, and explores models that are profit-making
and financially sustainable.
The workshops bring together five groups that are critical to advanc-
ing ICTs for entrepreneurship and development. These are:
1. Leaders with practical experiences in working for the empower-

ment of the world’s needy, including representatives of such
people’s organisations, and social and economic entrepreneurs;
2. Leaders among the donor community and international organi-
sations experienced in implementing projects and generating
resources on a large scale, including managers of global programs
and foundations, multilateral institutions, and local underwriters
of venture capital;
3. IT entrepreneurs and individuals with technical skills, such as
innovators in the corporate sector, promoters of digital technol-
ogy and e-commerce in African communities, Internet start-ups
and incubators from local communities;
4. Government officials at all levels; and
5. Academics and scholars who are studying the practice and prom-
ise of ICTs for entrepreneurship and development.
A goal of the meetings is to link local entrepreneurs with technology

and business mentors, explore potential synergies to companies and
activities abroad, and develop options for financing and investment.
These workshops lay the groundwork for larger meetings that will
bring together some of the world’s largest social venture capitalists and
industrialists to focus on issues of ICT and entrepreneurship in Africa.
Funding
The Social Venture Fund for Africa was launched by Digital Partners to
provide financial support for entrepreneurial projects developed or
supported by DDN-A following the first Digital Bridge to Africa work-
shop. Participants at the first Digital Bridge Africa workshop set a goal
of USD 500,000. While started with modest initial aims, the fund is
designed to grow into a collaborative effort supported by individuals,
foundations, development agencies and corporations. The workshops
and meetings will serve to support the development of a large social
Venture Capital fund targeted at African ICTs.
Modeled on Digital Partners’ Social Venture Fund for South Asia,
the Social Venture Fund for Africa is an innovative financing structure
developed to provide “seed capital” for initiatives providing modest
financial returns with high social dividends. Building upon the current
practices in “venture philanthropy,” the Social Venture Fund provides
support for pioneering non-profit organisations and for-profit busi-
nesses capable of fostering commercial markets serving the poor. Indi-
viduals, corporations, foundations or development organisations that
invest in the fund get a tax write-off; Digital Partners pools the dona-
tions to invest or provide long-term loans or grants. Returns from the
investment or loans are re-invested to support other projects, further
leveraging each dollar contributed into the Social Venture Fund.
Digital Partners’ model meets an as yet un-bridged gap between
traditional venture capital funds, other social funds, and traditional
foundation grants and investments. It provides a structure for social
and IT entrepreneurs to learn from each other and to incubate outside-
the-box solutions to the unmet needs of the poor. The fund particularly
supports innovations that have profit potential but need financial sup-
port and incubation to get them to the point where they can seek more
traditional forms of market support.
Project Development
The Social Enterprise Laboratory™ (SEL) is a process developed by Dig-

ital Partners to bring ICT and market-development experts together
with poverty-alleviation experts to create new social enterprises and pro-
mote a new generation of IT-empowered social entrepreneurs.
The Laboratory is a comprehensive package of services catering to
international social entrepreneurs to increase their skills and provide
them access to opportunities to raise funds for their IT-enhanced social

enterprises. A significant component of the laboratory is the Mentoring
Program. It includes the hands-on participation and assistance of busi-
ness executives, venture capitalists, industry professionals and graduate-
student teams from leading US and developing country graduate
programs in business and IT.3
In addition to supporting individual entrepreneurs and organisations
through the Mentoring Program, the Social Enterprise Laboratory™ also
works to increase the local capacity to provide on-going assistance to the
SEL entrepreneurs and to serve as a foundation for generating increased
social entrepreneurism.
The goal of the Social Enterprise Laboratory is to catalyse the
potential of IT-empowered entrepreneurs in developing economies:
• Those who seek to serve markets at the bottom of the economic

pyramid;
• Those whose vision and business models could help achieve con-
nectivity for the rural poor; and
• Those who creatively use Information and Communications Tech-
nology as a tool for empowerment.
Projects developed through SEL have come from South Asia, Latin
America and Africa.
The SEL Process
Identification of Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises
The SEL application process is open and web-based. To help target

high-quality applicants, the Digital Partners’ worldwide network of
individuals and partner organisations is engaged to solicit requests for
proposals utilising ICT in social enterprises. Once a proposal is received,
it is immediately reviewed to ensure that all relevant background
information has been provided and that it meets specific minimum
requirements. Additional information is requested as needed and back-

ground research conducted in preparation for presentation to the selec-
tion committee.
The committee for African projects consists of seasoned ICT and
business veterans and experts from the development field who are part
of DDN-A. They individually review each project to select the enter-
prises based on the following criteria:
• IT-Driven—Innovative use of information technology must be an

integral component of the business or project model.
• Quality of the Management Team—The management team should
demonstrate the expertise and commitment necessary to enhance
the concept’s chance of success.
• Market-Based for Sustainability—The concept must show the
potential to generate a market-based revenue stream (must have a
demonstrable revenue-based business model) to ensure sustain-
ability.
• Scalable/Replicable—The concept must show promise to be broadly
scaled or widely replicated to serve much larger constituencies.
• Bottom-up—The concept should be initiated and benefit those at
the grassroots level to assure that real needs are being met with cus-
tomised solutions.
• Partnerships—The concept should show the potential to foster
public, private, and/or civil society collaborations beneficial in
increasing its impact and building capacity to support similar efforts.
Consideration is also given to those enterprises that Digital Partners

feels it can best help, given the needs of each enterprise and the resources
(such as DDN-A members and student teams) it is able to draw on. The
bottom line of the entire selection process is to find the diamonds in the
rough—the projects that show promise to lift individuals and whole
communities out of poverty and effectively leverage the opportunities
provided by ICT and the digital economy to create systemic change at
the bottom of the economic pyramid.
Mentoring Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises
The selected projects are assigned a team of DDN-A members and

graduate students from prestigious universities to assist the social entre-
preneurs to:
• Effectively incorporate ICT and market mechanisms into their

enterprise;
• Gain access to potential sources of funding;
• Develop funding proposals;
• Think through their business model, such as their business strategy,
marketing strategy, and target market; and
• Re-write their proposals into business plans capable of convincing
potential financial supporters of the project’s viability, impact, and
sustainability.
The ultimate objective of the mentoring process is to develop high-

quality business plans or proposals that are suitable for funding from the
Digital Partners’ Social Venture Fund, sponsors of a particular Social
Enterprise Laboratory™ foundations, corporations, social investors and
other investor forums.
Funding of Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises
The refined project and business plans are presented again to the selec-
tion committee from the DDN-A for possible seed funding. Individual
DDN-A members, foundations, and corporate sponsors provide the
funds as a tax-deductible donation through Digital Partners’ Social
Venture Fund.
The financial support provided to the projects is not intended to
fully fund the long-term needs of any one project. The Mentoring phase
provides the social entrepreneur with a well-crafted proposal or busi-
ness plan suitable for raising additional resources. Seed capital supplies
the initial monies needed to at least pilot the project and provide
resources while additional funds are sought. Digital Partners helps with
introductions to suitable contacts and assistance to the entrepreneurs in
their longer-term fundraising efforts. The due diligence provided by
SEL is expected to lend credibility to the projects and increase “investor”
confidence.
Financial support from Digital Partners’ Social Venture Fund is given
either as outright grants, long-term low-interest loans or even as equity
investments. Currently, the Fund primarily provides grants. It is expected
that as more social entrepreneurs enter the field, a larger percentage of
loans and investments will be made. All returns will be reinvested to sup-
port the development and funding of other projects, further leveraging
each dollar donated to the Social Venture Fund.
DDN-A Supported Projects in Africa
The DDN-A is now taking the lead on all projects being developed and
supported in Africa. Examples include the following:
E-Academy, Tanzania
E-Academy will address the high cost and inadequate quality of educa-
tion in Tanzania via the creation of an on-line e-learning initiative that
will make teaching materials developed by the “best brains” in the coun-
try available in the local Kiswahili language. E-Academy aims to provide
quality, affordable education through e-learning to facilitate greater reach
while establishing higher standards and creating Kiswahili content. ‘Best
brains’ in their particular fields will be responsible for the development of
quality courses in the Kiswahili language. E-Academy also aims to take
advantage of the mushrooming of cyber cafes throughout Tanzania to
provide Internet connectivity to subscribers of E-Academy, while CD
Rom-based education will be available to reach those without an Internet
connection. E-Academy requires development of a business/project plan
and assistance with its marketing strategy.
Youth for Technology Foundation, Nigeria
YTF’s TechPreneurship Program for Rural Women will equip women

who run small businesses with the technology training they need to run
their businesses more efficiently while promoting co-existence within
religiously heterogeneous communities. The TechPreneurs Program at
the Owerri Digital Village attempts to address the failure of women-
owned businesses due to lack of knowledge of implementing sustainable
business models and lack of access to resources. The TechPreneurs Pro-
gram will teach participants the technology skills to manage their busi-
nesses effectively to enhance the Nigerian woman’s personal status and
her contribution to national economic development. Participants in the
program will learn to use YTF’s business management software and
database application locally developed by YTF youth program members.
The application will allow the women entrepreneurs to track their inven-
tory, revenue and expenses for their small and medium businesses.
Workshops will be offered on writing successful business plans, micro-
credit facilities and credit programs. The program will assist women to
develop their personal talents, increase their family incomes, meet local
market demand, stimulate export demand, and contribute meaning-
fully to the public life of their communities while harnessing peaceful
co-existence within religiously heterogeneous communities. The organ-
isation is looking to refine its business plan.
SATELLIFE and HealthNet Uganda, Uganda
In an area where access to information is a scarce and potentially life-

saving resource, the PDAs and Better Health In Uganda project will
improve the decision-making capacity of health professionals by arming
them with PDAs that will provide them access to the information they
need to make timely diagnoses and provide appropriate treatments. In a
country where many health workers do not have access to a telephone,
let alone the Internet, information for decision-making is a scarce,
potentially life-saving resource. Building on its experience implement-
ing a PDA project in Uganda and Kenya, HealthNet Uganda is poised to
introduce this technology on a wider scale. PDAs can be used in the most
remote locations, have the computing power required for simple but
essential functions, are easily customisable to meet the particular needs
of individuals and institutions, and can hold large quantities of timely,
relevant, and appropriate content and facilitate rapid data collection and
analysis. SATELLIFE and HealthNet Uganda have a competitive advan-
tage in the introduction of PDAs because of their understanding of the
real data and information needs of health professionals and their ability
to work with the government, universities, NGOs, and private practi-
tioners. In addition to project design, technical support and training,
SATELLIFE provides a powerful combination of content, including
country-specific clinical guidelines for malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/
AIDS, the World Health Organisation Essential Drug List, a country-
specific essential drug list, a multi-functional medical calculator, med-
ical references, customised local content, and customised survey
instruments. The project partners hope that this activity will not only
improve HealthNet Uganda’s potential for sustainability, but also stim-
ulate the PDA market for the private sector. HealthNet Uganda seeks
help making the transition to a sustainable enterprise that weds its
humanitarian mission with sound business practices and may include
development of a business plan.
Matching Skills with Need
Taking full advantage of the Internet to virtually eliminate location as

a constraint in matching ability and resources to need, AfriShare is
envisioned as a web-based platform to serve as a tool for collaboration
and a knowledge-sharing facility. The implementation strategy is to
respond to the needs and capacity of DDN-A as the network develops.
Previous web-based efforts have taken a “build it and they will come”
approach and have had limited impact in their effort to be all things for
all users. A skills and interests database of DDN-A participants and
password-protected sites for enterprise development were the initial
components identified by the membership as the first capacities to be

developed.
DDN-A in Action
The true value and impact of DDN-A will eventually be told by the web
of connections and projects that will organically develop through the
personal interests and connections of its members.
Early examples of members acting on their own initiative to
mobilise partnerships for Africa demonstrate the potential of DDN-A as
an individual-centred development force:
• Within weeks of the launch of DDN-A, members working with GE

Capital, arranged to have high quality used computers shipped to
schools in Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania. Other members working
with Microsoft Africa secured free software.
• Commitments were also made to link the schools in Africa with
schools in the US through Global Classmates, a collaborative learn-
ing platform developed by Digital Partners.
• Members also self-selected to serve as mentors for projects chosen
for support by DDN-A through the Social Enterprise Laboratory
process. Other members decided to serve on a Steering Committee
to ensure that DDN-A maintained its momentum beyond the initial
enthusiasm of its launch.
• A larger Advisory Committee was also established to take on broader
roles and responsibilities. The committee identified presence in Africa
as critical for the effectiveness of DDN-A. Individual champions
within the network took the lead to establish Digital Partners/Ghana
and Digital Partners/Nigeria to support the on-the-ground activities
of DDN-A in these countries and in the region.
• A Digital Bridge Africa workshop is scheduled to be held in May
2003, in Ghana, with key partners to develop an action plan for
DDN-A in assisting the effective development of ICT in Africa and
lay the groundwork for its presence throughout Africa.
The Collaborative Partners of DDN-A
For an effort of the scope and range of the Digital Diaspora Network for
Africa to be successful, it requires the support of several key partners and
organisations. DDN-A was launched with a clear vision and leadership
provided by the United Nations ICT Task Force that was convinced that
without the active participation of professionals from Africa itself, no
projects undertaken will take root and become successful. With that in
mind, the United Nations ICT Task Force mobilised an effort to create
and launch DDN-A by establishing a collaborative framework among
other UN agencies, such as the United Nations Development Fund for
Women (UNIFEM) and the United Nations Fund for International Part-
nership. The objective was to expand the efforts of the individual organ-
isations in order to have a much larger impact. Digital Partners mobilised
the effort and modeled DDN-A on its successful South Asia effort in
North America, whereas Gruppo CERFE was instrumental in launching
DDN-E (Europe).
UN ICT Task Force
The UN ICT Task Force was established to provide overall leadership to

the United Nations role in helping to formulate strategies for the devel-
opment of information and communications technologies and putting
those technologies at the service of development. The Task Force focuses
on forging a strategic partnership between the United Nations system,
private industry and financing trusts and foundations, donors, pro-
gramme countries and other relevant stakeholders in accordance with
relevant United Nations resolutions through its various Regional Net-
works and Working Groups.
UNIFEM
The United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) promotes women’s

empowerment and gender equality. Since its creation, UNIFEM has sup-
ported numerous projects and initiatives throughout the developing
world that promote the political, economic, and social empowerment of
women. Recently, UNIFEM launched a new program, “Bridging the

Gender Digital Divide in Africa through Strategic Partnerships”. The
program seeks to empower African women through innovative uses of
Information Communications Technologies (ICT).
UNFIP
The United Nations Fund for International Partnerships promotes new

UN partnerships and alliances with a variety of sources, including com-
panies and foundations, as well as bilateral and multilateral donors, in
furtherance of the Millennium Development Goals.
Digital Partners
Digital Partners is a Seattle-based not-for-profit organisation working on

utilising the benefits of the digital economy to benefit the poor all over
the world. Digital Partners has already developed a network of IT entre-
preneurs in India, and is in the process of developing a similar network
of entrepreneurs in Latin America and Africa. Digital Partners provides
professional services and financial support to visionary social entrepre-
neurs interested in effectively utilising ICT to benefit the poor. They have
created a venture capital fund model, a social venture fund, to invest in
and incubate new initiatives designed by ICT and social entrepreneurs to
trigger solutions to problems of poverty.
Gruppo CERFE
Gruppo CERFE is an association of European researchers belonging to

non-profit institutes, whose purpose is to conduct a scientific research
programme on the current situation of human societies around the
world. The organisation has specifically been involved in development
issues for many years and has supported initiatives such as the develop-
ment of a network of African Habitat Professionals. The organisation
has expertise in research and analysis of the needs and issues of the
African Diaspora, specifically in Europe.
N OT E S
1. David Feige and Deepa Ghosh provided research support for this chapter. David is
a Program Officer at Digital Partners and Deepa is a Master of Public Administra-
tion Candidate at the Columbia University School of International and Public
Affairs.
2. “Diaspora Capitalism and Exile as a Way of Life: Some Observations on the Political
and Economic Mobilisation of Dispersed Peoples,” by G. Pascal Zachary, as part of
the Nautilus Institute’s “Virtual Diasporas and Global Problem Solving” Initiative,
www.nautilus.org.
3. Participating schools in 2002/2003 include Harvard Business School, the University
of Washington, the University of California, San Diego, Theses (France) and
Thunderbird.
CHAPTER Crocker Snow, Jr.
13 Special Report for

Tip-Toeing across
the Digital Divide
African Entrepreneurs Applying, Adapting, and
Advancing Appropriate Information Technologies
Roselyn Egosangwa, a middle-aged mother from one of Nairobi’s most

troubled and troublesome slum areas of Korogocho, holds an all too rare
job as a sandal maker, hand-crafting the most basic footwear from dis-
carded rubber tires to the sizes, shapes and styles ordered over the Inter-
net by overseas consumers in Australia, Canada, Denmark and other
western markets.
Yasser Loutfy, technical manager and founding partner of a local
Internet Service Provider housed on a bustling market street in Egypt’s
Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, struggles to adjust his business
model to a new national law providing free Internet linkup and, quite
241
implausibly, develops a valued and possibly valuable website for the deaf
in the process.
Meddia Mayanja, an early computer geek at Uganda’s Makerare Uni-
versity in Kampala, works a kind of “bush connectivity” for the purpose
of administering an online educational system that currently runs a
common curriculum through 15 sites around Uganda that is dedicated
to spreading knowledge and creativity simultaneously for a fee.
Egosangwa, Loutfy, Mayanja and many more with business, com-
munity development or merely survival skills in nations across Africa are
hard at it, utilising and channeling one or another form of information
technology to their own needs and, quite often, for society’s benefit.
Their unique, demand-driven applications are starting to have an effect
on the quality of African life in ways that were truly inconceivable a mere
five years ago.
It is no surprise to discover hard evidence of the information revo-
lution in African national capitals and urban centres. Billboards and
signs promoting computer training, store front advertising for an array
of cyber cafes and roadside private, for-profit telephone booths are today
almost ubiquitous. But well beyond the bright lights of the big cities of
the African continent, information technologies are spreading down-
ward and even backward to the grass roots, inspiring whole villages and
communities, and positively impacting living conditions.
In their widely differing environments and activities, Roselyn
Egosangwa, Yasser Loutfy and Meddie Mayanja are at the vanguard of
this creeping revolution as they strive to utilise telephony, the Internet
and other key outriders of the information revolution to help themselves
and, in the process, others. In examining their experiences—and that of
their known and unknown counterparts throughout Africa—several
common characteristics and conclusions shine through:
• Demand drives supply—Where a gaping vacuum exists in areas such

as communications, education, health services or jobs, advanced
information tools are being wielded by the alert and the inquisitive to
address the need and try to fill the void. As a rule, locally conceived,
Tip-Toeing across the Digital Divide ✦ Snow ✦ 243
demand-driven initiatives are working; externally encouraged appli-

cations often are not.
• “Ownership” is essential—Almost universally for the poor and the
professionals of Africa alike, the sense of creating, developing and
applying information technology strategies themselves—the spirit
of the self-motivated—is critical to the drive, dynamism and ulti-
mate success of the undertaking in question.
• Learning (and adjusting) by doing—As Africa’s entrepreneurs
acquire basic computer skills through schools and training pro-
grams, their most practical applications are almost always self-
taught, on the spot and under pressure. Their ability to be flexible
and adjust to conditions encountered in implementing a project
(rather than as imagined in the planning stage) is critical to their
initiative’s survivability.
• Small can be desirable—Most IT-facilitated startups begin as a small
idea to address a local need or opportunity. When successful, the
“bigger is better” syndrome arises. But many African IT entrepre-
neurs cannot scale up for lack of financing or human capacity. Even
those who can are unconvinced. In the words of a successful Egypt-
ian ISP operator, “My company was much more fun and more
responsive when we were so small that everyone was one shout
away.”
• Think offline security—Africa’s IT applications mean telephones,
cell-phones and computers become coveted items in the context of
the continent and magnets for straightforward, offline crime.
“Buckle up” safety steps are often required.
• The money motive matters—If the continent’s IT entrepreneurs have
most always been saddled by insufficient funding in the early stages
of development, the most realistic and persevering of them see this
as a plus. Africa’s IT upstarts discover that donor monies, often crit-
ical for their projects at the outset, can be fickle in the long run and
can either overwhelm or vanish altogether. Accordingly, the drive to
be sustainable and even profitable by developing reliable revenue
streams is, for most, essential.
Africa’s IT Entrepreneurs
As a prototype then, Africa’s budding class of IT entrepreneurs are

young, driven by doing, flexible, single-minded yet not smug, undeterred
by setbacks and quite often seeking a higher social purpose. The com-
mon threads listed above (and doubtless additional ones) are weaving
the fabric of entrepreneurial-driven, IT-facilitated, socially beneficial
applications of communications systems throughout the continent. New
and quite used information technologies alike are proving to be an effec-
tive tool not only for development, but also for productive profiteering
as well. The evidence is clear, if not yet abundant, that IT as a tool can be
a tool with a heart.
Egosangwa, Loutfy, Mayanja and their counterparts are doers more
than thinkers. Individually, they engage in the application of computers
or telephones or the Internet for their own varied selfish and social rea-
sons without worrying it too much. Their drive comes from within, not
without, based on highly individualistic, even existential, motivations.
The stories of their trials and tribulations are both wholly unique and
generically revealing.
TURNING DEVELOPMENT UPSIDE DOWN:

Recycling Waste Rubber and Selling Online
Provides Jobs and Danger in Kenyan Slum
Seven years ago when Internet access was first pioneered in Africa by
three Kenyan exchange students at Boston-area universities to create a
company now known as Africa Online, a reverse exchange student, an
American, was looking, not at online opportunities, but at the hopeless
living conditions of Nairobi’s slum area of Korogocho. Mathew Meyer
was on a junior year-abroad program from Brown University, studying
Swahili and living on the outskirts of one of the city’s most notorious
and violent sections to which he was drawn by a new friend and social
worker, Benson Wikyo. As a later chronicler of the conception of the
company that became known as Akala (“rubber shoe” in Swahili street
slang) Designs put it: “Mathew Meyer was a student who believed some-
thing was wrong with our world for people to live this way. Benson
Wikyo was a young Kenyan who lived that way.”
Dreaming and working together, the two friends landed a $3000
grant from the small Samuel Huntington Foundation in the U.S. to
launch a community-based business making rubber sandals from used
rubber tires. The enterprise was a struggle from the outset. The material
and human resources necessary were available in abundance in the form
of discarded tires and workers eager for any job, but footwear tech-
niques, basic equipment like peddle sewing machines or the most rudi-
mentary sales, accounting and management skills were not, and had to
be learned or acquired by painful trial and error.
Still, Meyer and Wikyo persevered. A few people were engaged as
designated “sandal makers” for jobs fetching 150 Kenyan shillings a day
($2.00 US). A few sandals were sold, initially to friends and acquain-
tances and through international refugee organisations for $2.00 apiece.
In 1998, Matt Meyer was back in the US doing graduate studies when co-
founder Benson Wikyo died suddenly of a series of treatable medical
failings. The project effectively died its first of several deaths. But the
continued commitment of the workers, coupled with a second grant for
a mere $1500, proved a saving grace. The two inputs prompted Meyer to
utilise his college computer skills to try something quite new, designing
a website—Ecosandals.com—to promote the rubber sandals online. It
was a giant step of faith in broadening the tiny project’s market reach,
and the horizons and ambitions of the subsistence economy of the san-
dal-makers involved. It worked, if to a modest degree.
Today the little company is viable by the standards of many in the
area. Monthly online orders from western markets of one of the eight
sandal designs offered range from 80 to 800. Eight people are employed
full-time. Collectively, they can produce about a dozen new sandals a
day. Another ten Korogocho dwellers have qualified through a three-
month training program and work on commission as overseas orders
ebb and flow. Most of all, there is palpable pride among the workers for
their products, their jobs and their demonstrated survival skills.
Egypt’s Newly Legislated “Free-Net” Prompts Fresh Thinking In

Alexandria—And A Soundless Approach
Yasser Loutfy, 40 years old and entirely educated in Egypt, got his first
job at the US Consulate in Alexandria as a communications technician.
He learned the field from a practical point of view, sensed the value of
the Internet and, four years ago, gave up this secure job to join a partner
to establish the city’s second ISP. Glob@lNet was founded in 1999 and
within two years had 40 per cent market share of the city’s several hun-
dred thousand Internet users. The future looked reasonably rosy, until a
rumored government decision legislating free Internet for all, went into
effect on January 14, 2002, and changed things.
Suddenly, Loutfy and some 60 other small Internet providers
throughout the country, like his friend in Cairo, Jordanian entrepreneur
Khaled Bichara, founder of LinkdotNet, saw the base of their businesses
undermined. The “all you can eat” flat fee system was abandoned. Dial-
ing in per se no longer mattered from a revenue point of view; holding
customers online for minutes or more at a time did. The competing
providers were forced to vie for numbers and for content to keep their
customers coming and staying.
In Cairo, Bichara had the resources to acquire eight different con-
tent-driven enterprises, offering everything from job search to life style
information. The strategy is working. He is in the process of consolidat-
ing under his single LinkdotNet brand name, has managed a major
advertising campaign and, in the process, has become the country’s
fourth largest ISP while joining the ranks of the established in the eyes
of the national press. “It was our only option,” the energised young
entrepreneur remarked in an interview. “We had to move very quickly to
gain content as a way to keep our subscribers on our system rather than
just using it to dial up and go elsewhere. Fortunately, we had some bank
financing by this time to do this.”
However, Yasser Loutfy in Alexandria had no such option: no avail-
able financing nor a sufficiently large market base. He chose a different
route, initiating some web-based hosting and page design. In concert
with the Chamber of Commerce, Glob@lNet announced “e-Alexandria”,
a weeklong computer online training program based on UNESCO’s

Information Communications Driving License (ICDL), for less than
$5.00 US. It was oversubscribed. Yes, they got new customers who
tended to turn to Loutfy’s ISP first. More important, a number of the
city’s deaf people came to the training programs, and they proved to
be particularly adept and attentive at the computer. Yasser and his
partner were struck by this and looked into it further. They discovered
to their surprise that there were several hundred thousand deaf peo-
ple living in the Alexandria area alone, eager to join the information
revolution.
The spontaneous market research indicated a new online market
where none had been known to exist. Loutfy and his partner decided
that only deaf people could know—and provide—what was needed.
They hired several and gave them their head. The result is a new website,
EgDeaf.com, set up for and by the city’s deaf people to serve them fully
online for their unique interests, needs and concerns.
About a dozen of Alexandria’s deaf population are employed to
work the site, form the content and act the parts with sign language for
CD ROMs. They are excited by the process. Yasser Loutfy, their
employee, is unable to communicate with them in sign language.
Through an intermediary who can, however, he tells them, in their “staff
meeting” shortly after the launch, that their specialised web content is
catching on much faster than he expected. “There’s high interest in the
site,” he reports. He plans to take out some national promotions to
attract more users and has had queries from ISPs in East and North
Africa about hyper link connections.
They have stumbled onto something that is proving to be needed,
wanted and useful, and are producing highly specialised content that is
the very definition of sustainable social development.
Bush Connectivity In Uganda Comes

With Great Risk—And Rewards
Meddie Mayanja has been involved in information technologies and

the Internet in Uganda since its very inception when he was a graduate
student at Makerere University. He has studied, worked, and promoted

it, if not particularly profited from it.
Though not a teacher by training, Mayanja is preoccupied with the
inherent educational aspect of the computer and Internet revolutions.
Currently he directs a project called SchoolNet, a spin-off of the inter-
national enterprise World Link that spreads common curriculum in dis-
parate developing countries. He has been administering 15 sites around
the country since the launch of the service in 2001, based on $200
monthly charges for the school systems that sign up. They now count
10,000 Uganda students as having access to online information in a sys-
tematic way never available before. “You can see for yourself that this
makes a big difference,” he remarks.
This is the professional speaking. Mayanja, the philosopher, goes
further. “The Internet seems to make facts and concepts much faster and
more flexible for the students to absorb. The computer makes things
more creative too. Students want to see something new on the screen,
and before you know it they have begun to create it themselves.”
Can steady online access also create false expectations in countries as
underdeveloped as Uganda? Can computers generate a different type of
unrealistic “power surge”? “Not all of us will be thinkers,” Mayanja
replies. “But I have discovered that access to information is a re-orienta-
tion of your mind. Is there anything wrong with that?”
Need-Driven And Market-Based
The tales of the Ecosandals.com in Nairobi, of EgDeaf.com in Alexandria,

of SchoolNet in Uganda and of the people most centrally challenged and
engaged, are presumably mirrored by countless others in African cities
and towns, applying the most basic or sophisticated information tech-
nologies to run a project, make a business and in the process do some
social good.
It becomes important from such a sampling that international

donor agencies are ever alert to this and do their very best to foster it. It
is equally clear that the entrepreneurial spirit in Africa is alive and well
and indeed charged by the opportunities that new technologies can offer.
The interest, outside push and experience of multilateral develop-
ment agencies like the United Nations, associations like the International
Telecommunications Union and a variety of Non-Government Organi-
sations can only help fire imaginations and seed projects like these and
others. The native talents, energies and experience of people like Roselyn
Egosangwa, Yasser Loutfy and Meddie Mayanja utilising new technolo-
gies in their own chosen fashion are ultimately what will make the dif-
ference and put real life to the abstract concept of ICTs as a true “tool for
development”.
CHAPTER Dr. Gillian M. Marcelle
14
From Technology Transfer

to Strategic Acquisition of
Technological Capabilities
Lessons from African Information
and Communications Technologies Firms
Introduction
This chapter will argue that developing country firms can move from
‘technology transfer’ to strategic acquisition of technological capabili-
ties from external sources. The analysis presented here suggests the
processes through which developing country firms can acquire techno-
logical capability inputs from external sources when these firms take
account of the industry-specific nature of technological change, analyse
the endogenous factors that influence their ability to accumulate tech-
nological capabilities through relationships with suppliers, and design
specific requirements relevant to the industries in which they operate.
251
It argues that the requirements for service sector firms will differ from
those of manufacturing firms. These insights emerge from the applica-
tion of the technological capability building (TCB) system approach,
which was the conceptual framework developed in a study of techno-
logical capability accumulation by twenty-six firms in the telecommu-
nications sector of four African countries—Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania
and South Africa.1
In this approach, TCB is understood as a process of assembling or
accumulating technological capabilities. It is treated as an investment
activity, which is not linear, sequential or orderly and which is not nec-
essarily overly influenced by exogenous or contextual factors. Firms are
the unit of analysis, and the processes by which they built TCB systems,
defined as a set of integrated processes and mechanisms that are used by
firms to build technological capabilities over time, are centre-stage. The
conceptual framework suggests that a firm’s TCB system consists of five
components, namely:
1. allocation of financial resources;

2. management practices, systems and decision-making rules;
3. practices to establish and maintain facilitating leadership and
organisational culture;
4. accessing external technology capability resources from suppliers;
and
5. accessing technology capability resources from the innovation
system (local and global).
This approach further suggests that in an ideal system for TCB, there
is a systematic and balanced operation of these five elements. A well-
developed TCB system is necessary and sufficient to increase the existing
stock of technological capabilities in a firm, defined here to include both
person-embodied and non-person-embodied capabilities (such as capi-
tal equipment, software, and codified knowledge systems). Firms with
underdeveloped TCB systems are expected to perform poorly in capa-
bility accumulation.
From Transfer to Strategic Acquisition of Capabilities ✦ Marcelle ✦ 253
This framework was applied in the empirical study of capability

development by developing country firms, and the research themes
explored included the firms’ relationships with external suppliers. The
study offers insights into technology acquisition processes of developing
country firms, more commonly referred to as technology transfer.
The chapter is organised into four sections: a review of the domi-
nant theoretical explanations of what developing countries can do to
improve their performance in ‘technology transfer’; an exposition of the
process of technology acquisition suggested by the TCB system frame-
work; an analysis of the performance of twenty-six African telecommu-
nication operating firms in acquiring technological inputs from external
sources in light of the TCB system approach; and the insights that
emerge from this analysis.
Existing Concepts and Evidence of Technology Transfer
Technology transfer: A Misnomer
Despite its widespread usage, the term technology transfer is problem-

atic since it suggests passivity on the part of firms. By using the term
transfer rather than acquisition, conventional researchers, perhaps
inadvertently, impose a frame in which the role of developing countries
is that of a recipient of imported technology (usually equipment),
rather than that of an active economic agent searching for technologi-
cal solutions. Farrell2 and Vaitsos3 criticise the implicit assumption of
passivity on the part of the recipients and purchasers of technological
inputs and offer an alternative—commercialisation of technology. The
TCB system framework prefers the term technology acquisition and
defines this as the range of activities that are likely to be necessary for
firms in developing countries to source, purchase, install, test, and com-
mission equipment and related services from international suppliers. In
the rest of this section, the term technology transfer is retained to reflect
the usage by contributors to this field.
Deconstructing Technology Transfer Processes
Technology transfer usually consists of commercial transactions in

which a bundle of technological inputs—equipment as well as techni-
cal services, such as technical assistance, construction, engineering and
related services — is exchanged.4 The prevailing view in academic liter-
ature is that developing country firms do not fare well in these transac-
tions since equipment suppliers often lock developing countries into
contracts of long duration and provide technical services at inflated
rates. Reddy reports that technological equipment (artefacts) trans-
ferred by international firms were, on average, four times older than
those used in the home country of the transnational corporations
(TNCs). It is not only developing country researchers who have pro-
vided fuel for a less than positive assessment of the results of technol-
ogy transfer. Research conducted from the point of view of the ‘home
country’ of the TNCs has also suggested that only mature technologies
should be transferred.5
Pavitt5 points out that technology transfer is best understood as a
process involving the cumulative flow of codified and tacit knowledge.
Bell and Pavitt6 take the implications of these characteristics further by
suggesting that since tacit knowledge transferred is usually “firm-specific
information concerning the characteristics and performance properties
of production processes and product designs”, recipients would nor-
mally be obliged to devote substantial resources to assimilate, adapt, and
improve upon the original technology. These authors also point out that
the environmental conditions facing developing country firms, such as
poor supply conditions for resource and knowledge inputs and institu-
tional immaturity, are not conducive to sourcing external technological
inputs. Studies of technological capability development in sub-Saharan
Africa amply demonstrate this point for firms in this region.7
Technology transfer takes place in a variety of modes and at differ-
ent levels within recipient firms. The main distinction is between equity-
based (direct foreign investment and joint ventures) and non-equity
based (licensing, franchising, management contracts, marketing and
technical service contracts, turnkey contracts and subcontracting)

modes of technology transfer. In the former, technology transfer takes
place via intra-firm relationships and, in the latter, it is characterised as
an arms-length relationship between the recipient and transferring
firms. Empirical trends for the 1980s showed that Direct Foreign Invest-
ment still accounted for the largest share of technology transfer, as meas-
ured by receipts for technology royalties, fees and technical services in
the 1980s, although the context in which technology transfer takes place
has changed significantly.8 Technology transfer also takes place through
trade by importing machinery or by exporting to buyers who provide
expertise.9
Developing country firms are likely to face specific barriers since
they often engage in technology transfer across national borders. They
must respond to the need to adapt technologies to local conditions as
well as the differences in infrastructure between home and host loca-
tions, and distance and communication costs.10
Critical Success Factors in Technology Transfer
Hoffman and Girvan11 argued that greater selectivity in policy interven-

tion and improvements in the management of technology transfer at the
national level within developing countries were possible solutions to the
risks associated with the lack of genuine technology transfer. These
authors also consider technology transfer to be a variegated process
involving exchange of information, materials and people and explicitly
recognise that the outcomes produced in technology transfer processes
vary.
Studies of technology transfer suggest that firms that have been able
to successfully manage technological acquisition incorporated the fol-
lowing elements:
• Training and learning components in technology transfer agree-

ments and an explicit focus on acquiring various combinations of
design, engineering and project management technologies.9,12
• Sponsoring or otherwise encouraging overseas postgraduate train-

ing and work experience for engineers and managers, enabling them
to acquire problem-solving skills and aptitudes and to gain access to
informal international networks.13
• Establishing knowledge-acquiring operations, such as R&D centres
or technological learning outposts, overseas.9
• Using management practices, corporate culture and leadership styles
that facilitated efforts to jointly manage technology importation and
local capability development activities.14 Although many studies indi-
cated that there are likely to be long-term benefits from implementing
complementary approaches, empirical studies are still relatively rare.15
• Concentrating on a wider range of activities than those associated
with passive importation of technological inputs and having an
awareness that passivity might lead to increased domestic produc-
tion output and improvements in static efficiency but unlikely to
make a contribution to learning activities.
Bell and Pavitt6 argue that it is possible for firms to develop effective
systems for importing foreign technologies in combination with efforts
to develop local technologies and to build technological capability. In
their ideal-type, imported techniques and practices do not “crowd out”
local technology and domestic capability building. However, these
authors noted that few countries were able to implement policy regimes
that supported complementarity between domestic technological capa-
bility development and acquisition of technology from abroad; instead,
the majority of developing countries approached these modes of capa-
bility development as substitutes. Bell and Pavitt6 present a wide range
of sources of imported technology, including direct foreign investment
(joint ventures), sub-contracting, original equipment manufacturing
(OEM) agreements, licensing, and contracts for know-how, designs,
equipment and services. They observe that capability development may
involve intensive efforts to improve and develop what is initially
acquired, or more passive adaptation or minor modifications of
imported inputs.
Linearity Assumptions
Lall16 characterises technology transfer as a process in which recipient

firms, through a cumulative process, acquire capabilities of increasing
levels of complexity. He suggests that firms move through four levels of
technology transfer and acquire the associated capabilities, as shown in
Figure 14–1. This sequential approach to technology transfer forms the
basis of much of the conventional academic and policy writing on this
important subject and has been influential in policy development. It is
complementary to the linear view of technological capability develop-
ment developed by the same author.
Figure 14–1: Levels of technology transfer in Lall’s framework
INNOVATIVE (advanced design) Ability to develop next generation system

ADAPTIVE (technological self-reliance) Ability to adapt product designs or reengineer production
processes
DUPLICATIVE (intermediate) Ability to expand output without further foreign assistance
OPERATIONAL (basic level) Ability to manage/operate production facility designed and
built by foreign partner
Source: Author, based on Lall,16 (Lall, 1992:167, Table 1), and Lall (1987:18, Table 1.1)
Stewart17 appears to accept this linear model and uses it to offer a

pessimistic view of the impact of technology transfer on development.
She argues that technology transfer between industrialised countries
and developing countries is not well-suited to promoting equitable
development and balanced growth in the importing country. For Stew-
art, since transfer involves the importation of technologies that have
characteristics more suited to the home market where the technology
was developed, the process can (and often does) result in the develop-
ment of a dualistic society. She also argues that since only a few devel-
oping countries have been able to manage technology transfer
effectively, technology transfer does not result in increased productiv-
ity, support for local technological effort and/or distribution of benefits
to the majority of the population. Based on evidence from the 1980s,
she also states that sub-Saharan African countries present the most
obvious example of the negative consequences of technology transfer.

Stewart17 concludes by suggesting that developing countries should
adopt a staged process to improve their management of technology
transfer. Borrowing from Lall, she argues that a linear model of capa-
bility development and technology transfer is useful since it defines,
for the developing country firm, the objective of moving phases of
transfer:
“[mounting] the ladder of full assimilation . . . because higher

stages permit more efficient operation of technology . . . indi-
cates increased local technological capability, and therefore
increased ability to assimilate other technologies efficiently and
to acquire and bargain over new transfers, and . . . to control the
direction of technological change.” (Stewart17 p. 309).
As will be discussed in greater detail in the next section, the TCB sys-
tem approach, consistent with work by Bell and Pavitt,6 Ernst et al.,18 and
Kim,10 adopts a non-linear process of technology acquisition. In this
approach, the balance of interest between suppliers and buyers of tech-
nological inputs is assumed to be forever changing. This theoretical posi-
tion is supported by evidence in Hoffman and Girvan,11 which shows
that recipient countries have exercised greater degrees of freedom in
managing the terms and conditions of technology transfer.
Technology Acquisition in the TCB System Approach
The TCB system framework draws on insights from existing research and
carefully considers, in particular, theoretical contributions from Bell and
Pavitt,6 Hoffman and Girvan,11 Lall,17 and Stewart;18 reviews of research
on technology transfer from Boseman,19 Kumar and Siddhartan,20 Rado-
sevic,21 and Reddy;4 and empirical work reported in Kumar.8 It is worth
noting that much of this research is located within the manufacturing
sector and does not extend to intra-firm processes. The study on which
this essay is based specifically focuses on aspects of these lacunae, by
examining intra-firm processes of service sector firms. This conceptual
framework also builds on insights from an emerging body of work that
recognises that intra-firm learning processes and the experiences of non-
technology-producing users may have important lessons for understand-
ing the capability-building processes of developing country firms.22
Technology Acquisition as a Non-linear Process
The TCB system approach accepts the notion that levels or stages of
technology capability may be useful as an organising rubric to describe
distinctions between kinds of capabilities, but regards the stages model
of technology transfer as being less useful.
Several reasons are advanced in support of an alternative model of
technology acquisition, which relaxes assumptions of linearity associated
with the stages model. First, by refuting the assumption that developing
country firms have an inevitability or increasing desire to move to ever
“higher levels of transfer”, it allows consideration of capability develop-
ment objectives, other than generating technology. Second, it provides for
a wider range of policy guidance, augmenting the recommendations that
focus only on how developing country firms can gain access to the pro-
prietary technologies associated with “higher stages” of transfer. In the
non-linear TCB system approach, there is a focus on policy interventions
that can provide incentives for technology acquisition and increase
mutual benefit to the actors in technology transactions. Third, the TCB
approach focuses on what recipient firms must do to progress from
operational to innovative levels of technology transfer and considers
what specific factors limit or facilitate such movement at the intra-firm
level. Fourth, the foreign partners in the TCB system approach are not
considered, by definition, to be detrimental or beneficial to the accumu-
lation of more advanced abilities by developing country firms. Instead,
their role is considered to be an input to a process of capability develop-
ment. The relationship between developing country firms and foreign
suppliers is considered to change over time; for example, it is assumed

that the knowledge, skills and equipment provided “with foreign assis-
tance” can be substituted by local capabilities as firms acquire more
advanced capabilities. Fifth, in this framework, the nature of the tech-
nology plays a crucial role in defining the transfer relationship. In many
early studies, the imbalance in capabilities between recipient and trans-
ferring firms, rather than technical change, was the major focus of atten-
tion. By not including technology specific factors, several important
aspects of technology acquisition and the potential for strategy on the
part of recipients were missed.
Finally, the TCB system approach regards variation as important in
the ability of firms to manage technology transfer. When acquisition of
technology takes place in a context where technological knowledge is
mature, unchanging, and available from public sources, and the techno-
logical frontier at which innovative activity takes place (defined as the
ability to generate next generation systems) is within the grasp of devel-
oping country firms, some of the assumptions of linearity hold. How-
ever, in more challenging contexts of technological change, alternative
explanations are required. In light of these observations, the conceptual
framework for understanding technology transfer relaxes most of these
assumptions of linearity and is therefore more likely to be relevant in a
wide range of contexts.
Integrating External and

Internal Capability Development Processes
The TCB system approach recognises that, for the majority of develop-
ing country firms, importation of technological inputs is a major source
of capability development. Internationally operating firms or local
branches of such firms are the main source of supply of technological
inputs, and developing country firms use a variety of mechanisms to
acquire technological capabilities from external sources. The types of
mechanisms include: selecting suppliers; procuring equipment and serv-
ices from external suppliers under suitable terms and conditions; and
integrating this supply process with other aspects of technological capa-

bility building. Reliance on imported technological inputs is considered
necessary, because the local innovation system in the majority of devel-
oping countries does not provide adequate sources of advanced techno-
logical knowledge, equipment, software and technical services.
The TCB system approach emphasises the need to balance indige-
nous capacity development with the importation of know-how and
suggests that to effectively manage the interface with suppliers, firms
must draw on many other capabilities. It is expected that firms that
have developed capabilities to manage and process change, to develop
leadership and culture that support learning and specific management
practices to manage learning, will be more adept at acquiring techno-
logical inputs from external sources. In this framework, the ability to
deploy cultural, leadership and change management strategies, is
referred to as “internal processes” for building technological capabili-
ties. In the technology transfer literature, these capabilities are referred
to as “absorptive” capacities, or the ability to “manage technology
transfer”. The TCB system approach extends the concept of absorptive
capacity by specifying mechanisms used to manage boundary rela-
tionships, such as those with suppliers, and mechanisms that improve
the ability and willingness to search for technological sources, and the
ability to integrate new varieties of technology. The framework also
extends the understanding of critical success factors for acquisition of
technology by focusing on the individual human aspects of technology
acquisition processes. These features have been treated extensively in
the organisational development literature, but have received relatively
little attention in the ‘technology transfer’ literature.23
Constrained Agency Arising from

Technical Change and Industry Features
The effectiveness of developing country firms acquiring technologies is

considered explicitly to be under the partial control of these firms.
Other important factors, such as the willingness and ability of external
suppliers to play a role in capability development and the nature of the

technological inputs that the developing country firm is seeking to
acquire, will also matter. Therefore, the technology acquisition process
is considered to be a boundary relationship in which developing coun-
try firms exercise constrained agency. The firms are not completely pas-
sive actors at the mercy of TNCs, but they are also not fully in control
of the extent to which they can maximise capability development objec-
tives using externally acquired inputs. This characterisation has features
in common with the treatment provided by Bell and Pavitt.6 The ampli-
fication provided by this approach is that it provides a detailed analysis
of the conditions that influence the acquisition of different types of
capabilities, and emphasises industry specific factors as one of the
explanatory factors.
The limitations and opportunities for making effective use of sup-
plier relationships for technological capability building are expected to
be derived from the nature of the specific technological inputs being
sought and the willingness and ability of supplier firms to provide these
inputs. In the conventional technology transfer field represented here by
Lall17 and Stewart,18 developing country firms are often assumed to have
less access to technological inputs as a result of the concentration of
innovation activity in the industrialised countries. The secular trend of
the increasing concentration of innovation activity is not questioned
here, but an alternative reading of its consequences for developing coun-
try firms is offered. It is argued that while the inputs for generating rad-
ical innovation may be affected by this trend, many of the capabilities
that are required by developing country firms are likely to be unaffected
by concentration in innovative activities. Therefore, the majority of
developing country firms that do not operate at technological frontiers
are unlikely to be constrained by the increasing concentration of inno-
vative activity.
Many of the early studies of technology transfer focused on the
manufacturing sector, where firms in developing countries were seek-
ing to produce the same output (at a lower cost) as their suppliers. The
trend for radical innovation and incremental innovative activity to be
increasingly concentrated in large, transnational corporations that

invest heavily in professional R&D facilities and other supporting infra-
structures, and that seek to appropriate returns through the enforce-
ment of intellectual property rights, would have an impact on the
manufacturing sector. This threat of the extension of proprietary rights
to production technologies may have been overstated. In service sectors,
the purchaser of imported inputs often does not directly compete with
their suppliers, and the threat of non-disclosure of technological func-
tionality, etc., is therefore reduced.24
This approach takes account of the trends identified by Bell and
Pavitt,6 such as the increasing specialisation in many technological mar-
kets. They note that this has led to an increase in the sources of techno-
logical inputs, particularly for processes other than radical innovation.
For instance, there are many more suppliers of codified knowledge and
there have been increases in the number of specialised suppliers of
equipment. Other factors that may facilitate access to external inputs
include increased international migration of skilled labour and infor-
mation and communication technologies that assist in the technological
search process. The TCB system approach also considers that technolog-
ical change has implications for the relationship between suppliers of
technological inputs and their customers. In the telecommunications
industry, a specific technological change, which has major implications,
is the increases in the embeddedness of knowledge within equipment.
By presenting a more detailed analysis of the types of technologi-
cal capabilities that are likely to be desired by developing country
firms, and by considering the constituent elements of technological
capabilities, the TCB system approach provides a more nuanced analy-
sis of the technological acquisition process. The approach specifically
considers that international suppliers can provide only a subset of the
capability inputs required from external sources. Suppliers operating
in commercial markets are likely to be able to supply tacit and codified
knowledge, software, equipment, etc., but cannot provide the supplier
management capability that firms require to integrate these inputs. A
fully operational capability to manage supplier relationships requires
active investment and components that cannot be provided by suppli-

ers. Effectiveness in managing supplier relationships includes the abil-
ity to search for alternative sources, to negotiate supply on appropriate
terms and conditions and to integrate external inputs from a variety of
sources.
Another key feature of the TCB system approach to understanding
the role of technological acquisition in capability building is the empha-
sis on understanding how the changing nature of the relationship
between supplier and user and the technological characteristics of the
inputs affect the process of technological acquisition. For example, sec-
tor specific studies on capability development in the telecommunica-
tions sector provide useful insights into how the acquisition of capability
inputs from external sources is impacted by industry-specific factors and
technological change.25 Conventional studies of technology transfer
often do not adequately take these factors into account.
Evidence from African Telecommunications Firms
Supplier Selection
Operating companies in the sample considered cost effectiveness,

product functionality, depth of technological knowledge, technical
support, track record in similar markets and speed of delivery to be
among the most important criteria. The sample firms with well-devel-
oped TCB systems expressed the importance of having defined criteria
and supplier selection systems that included technology assessment
and evaluation mechanisms, whereas firms with underdeveloped TCB
systems did not. There was a reasonably good fit between the criteria
reportedly used by operating companies and the perception of their
suppliers. The analysis of empirical results also confirms that operat-
ing firms did not consider the ability to generate products with a high
degree of technological novelty as an important criterion, but placed

more emphasis on commercial abilities and the execution abilities of
their suppliers. Wherever there were technical criteria, they were in
terms of the functionality of the equipment that would be supplied.
Embeddedness of knowledge and information in equipment was one
of the features of technological change in the telecommunications
industry that influenced the acquisition of capability inputs from sup-
pliers of equipment. The companies reportedly used as suppliers are
shown in Figure 14–2.
Figure 14–2: Identifying important suppliers of equipment and services

Company Name Number of operating companies
Ecrisson 4
Alcatel, Cisco, Lucent, NEC, Scientific Atlanta 2
Advent, Airspan UK Ltd (formerly DSC), AT&T, BBC, BT, 1
Digital Equipment Corporation, Divicom, ITELCO, MAS, MCL, Mitsubishi,
MSI, NDS, Nortel, NTL, Plessey, Siemens, Tadiran, Varian, Fujitsu,
Hughes Network Systems, Iredeto, Irridium
N=16 operating companies
Specific Mechanisms for Acquiring Technology from Suppliers
Eleven firms provided data on the specific mechanisms used to acquire

information, know-how and skills from their suppliers of equipment
and services; these data are presented in Figure 14–3. Analysis of these
data suggests that the formation of joint network design teams with sup-
pliers, as well as tendering and bid evaluation processes, were used by the
highest number of sample firms for technology acquisition. Exclusive
product demonstrations, long-term attachments at the suppliers’ site
and interaction through social networks were among the mechanisms
that were each used by one firm. There were variations among firms,
according to the size and level of development of the TCB system. For
example, one large national telecommunications company reported a
very different pattern, insofar as the company placed its emphasis on
transfer during field trials and procurement, rather than via provision of
regular training programmes.
Figure 14–3: Specific routines used for technology transfer from suppliers
Frequency
Technology Transfer Mechanism (# of firms reporting usage)
1. Formation of joint project teams for network planning 4

2. Tendering and bid evaluation processes including development 4
of technical specifications
3. Intensive use of supplier technical support hotline 3
4. Regular communication at functional middle-level management 3
with international and local divisions of supplier firms
5. Short-term contracts for expatriate engineers from supplier companies 2
during testing & commissioning on site in African country
6. Training on specific equipment provided at supplier 2
premises in South Africa (REGIONAL CENTRE)
7. Training on specific equipment provided at supplier premises in Sweden 2
8. Technical support services provided by supplier staff 2
on operating company site
9. General technological training courses organised by suppliers 2
and delivered overseas
10. Know-how transfer projects managed as part of procurement 2
and equipment trial processes
11. Designation of executive with overall responsibility 2
for managing supplier relationship
12. Long-term attachments with supplier companies on their premises 1
13. Shared social networks 1
14. Exclusive product demonstrations 1
N= 11 operating companies
Specific and Complementary Routines

for Managing Supplier Relationships
Firms are not born with the ability to manage supplier relationships. The
development of boundary management competencies required active
investment and the implementation of routines to strengthen:
• the ability to evaluate technological capability requirements;

• the ability to scan and search, which incorporates the ability to

investigate and understand technological trends, and the ability to
select high-quality sources of technological inputs on appropriate
terms and conditions; and
• the ability to integrate external inputs.
Only seven out of twenty-six firms used formal evaluation and/or

scan and search routines. These seven firms had well-developed TCB
systems, consisting of a wide range of TCB mechanisms, and they also
paid attention to the integration of all capability development activity.
South African operating companies were the most intensive users of for-
mal technology search and evaluation techniques, with five out of the
firms operating in South Africa reporting the use of these mechanisms.
The relatively large size of the South African companies may be an
explanatory factor here, since scan and search activities require a critical
mass of highly skilled technical personnel. The other distinctive feature
of the large South African operating companies is that their network
development was funded independent of bilateral or multilateral devel-
opment assistance, whereas in Uganda and Tanzania, the large public
network operators did not operate independent search and scan mech-
anisms. It may be, as reported by the interviewees, that these firms were
not able to exercise a choice in the selection of suppliers, but were
obliged to use the suppliers named by the financiers. This characteristic
was also the case for the Ghanaian public operator prior to privatisation.
In addition to the South African companies, two other companies
in the sample reported using formal search and evaluation techniques.
These two firms were outliers in their active approach to capability
development. The Ugandan company had a technology and opera-
tional strategy that was closely influenced and directed by its major
shareholder—a large South African company with operations in other
parts of the continent. In the case of the other outlier, a small Tanzanian
data-communication company, the implementation of formal search
and evaluation techniques was linked directly to the corporate culture
of the firm. This company was part of a group of companies founded
by young Africans, including MIT engineering graduates. The back-

ground of the founders, their interest in technological sophistication,
their vision in promoting innovation, and their direct involvement in
influencing technological strategy had enabled this small company to
extend its boundaries beyond the limits imposed by its small size and
the deficiencies of the local innovation system.
If informal scan and search routines, such as attending trade fairs
and exhibitions and participating in different communities of interest
(professional bodies, trade associations, working parties of regional and
international organisations) are included, the number of firms increases
to eighteen. The pattern for use of informal mechanisms differed from
that for formal mechanisms in so far as there was wider representation
from Ugandan, Ghanaian and Tanzanian firms. For example, a small
Tanzanian private network operating company reported that its owner
used trade fairs and exhibitions as a cost-effective mechanism for acquir-
ing technological information. The owner of the firm, a technological
pioneer in Tanzania, reported that he took direct and personal responsi-
bility for this activity, drawing on his technological background in avia-
tion and aeronautical engineering, which he used as a foundation to
expand into telecommunications. Another example comes from a small
Ghanaian data communications company, whose spokesperson reported
an exceptionally high usage of these informal mechanisms. This firm was
an active participant in technological development at the regional and
international levels. The background of the founder of this business was
as a professional engineer with more than 20 years of private sector over-
seas experience in the United States and active involvement with the
United Nations development agencies as a technical assistance provider.
This may account for the permeability of this firm’s organisational
boundaries and its high propensity to be actively engaged in technology
scanning and search activities. The other intensive users of these infor-
mal mechanisms were large public network national operators in
Uganda and Tanzania and the national mobile operators in South Africa.
However, the explanations for the observed patterns differ for these
two groups. For the former, active participation in industry associations
and in the working parties of the African Telecommunication Union,

Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation and the International
Telecommunication Union, was reported to be an important means for
independent assessment of technological trends and the evaluation of
suppliers. These regional and multilateral bodies were considered by
interviewees to be ‘honest brokers’ since they did not fund network
development, but instead were mandated to share information about
appropriate technological choice and to provide information on equip-
ment standardisation. Conversely, for the two national mobile operators
in South Africa, participation in industry associations was said to focus
on groupings such as the GSM Association, where employees engaged in
the development of standards for particular technologies on an equal
footing with the other participants. The relatively strong standing of the
South African participants is demonstrated by the fact that employees of
one of the operators had held international office in the GSM Associa-
tion at the time the data was collected.
Another community of interest, which appears to have been an
important source of external inputs, is the strategic investors and share-
holders in the operating companies. Even companies with only moder-
ate development of their TCB system and those with no discernible TCB
system reported that they maintained regular communication with
regional headquarters, sister companies and shareholders as a means of
gaining external technological input. There were some large companies,
particularly in Ghana, that used formal mechanisms for acquiring tech-
nological inputs and expertise from shareholders and strategic investors,
including long-term attachments for local staff at the site of the investors
and formal training courses organised by the investor companies.
In summary, the evidence drawn from interviewees shows that the
sample firms engaged in activities that were designed to develop their
scan and search capabilities. The foregoing analysis suggests that varia-
tions in the use and implementation of these mechanisms are related to
features, such as size, organisational culture and leadership.
The TCB system approach suggests that the ability to integrate exter-
nally sourced technological inputs is likely to require complementary
capabilities if firms are to benefit from boundary relationships.26 As

noted in the earlier discussion of the conceptual framework, these fea-
tures tend to be discussed in organisational development theory, but
ignored by economists examining technical change and innovation.
Empirical evidence supported this proposition; sample firms were found
to be ineffective at supplier management when complementary aspects
of technological evaluation and integration were not in place. In partic-
ular, firms that created conditions for experimentation, reinforcement of
knowledge and promotion of higher-order learning were better able to
integrate external inputs. Among the sample firms were those with
explicit technology strategies, which considered themselves to be world-
class as well as the technologically active outlier firms, as discussed ear-
lier in this section. There was also a large Ghanaian firm that had focused
its competitive strategy on the development of the technological com-
petencies of its people. This company focused its evaluation efforts on
formal needs-assessments. Similarly, firms that demonstrated a high
level of competence in integrating external inputs were also those that
exhibited advanced competencies in management development and
practices, such as a clear definition and assignment of responsibilities.
Role of Human Factors in Accessing Tacit Knowledge
Evidence from the sample firms confirmed that supplier relationships

were an important source of technological capabilities. In particular,
these contractual relationships were used to acquire equipment, soft-
ware, and codified knowledge and information in the form of equipment
handbooks, training course materials, maintenance procedures and pro-
tocols. Although the equipment component typically accounted for a
large percentage of the reported financial cost, contracts usually
included elements of non-embodied capability. While the majority of
the sample firms used traditional delivery mechanisms for accessing
codified knowledge and information, a few firms augmented these with
information technology tools, such as hotlines and web-based technol-
ogy support. Traditional and computer-assisted mechanisms seem to
have provided operating companies with access to factual information

on equipment functionality and specifications, maintenance routines
and equipment and software upgrades.
Embodied capabilities were provided when suppliers organised
training courses and technical support and services. A variety of mech-
anisms were used for the transfer of embodied capabilities, which
ranged from formal classroom-based instruction at the operating com-
pany site to long-term attachments of operating company staff at the
site of the supplier. Other mechanisms used by the sample firms
included visiting supplier premises and reference sites, establishing joint
project teams for network development, and using consultants and spe-
cialists from suppliers on short-term technical assistance assignments.
The most significant characteristic of these mechanisms was that they
involved the exchange of tacit knowledge and information between sup-
plier and operating company. Due to the importance of the tacit com-
ponent of knowledge flow, these exchanges took place using both
formal and informal mechanisms, and their effectiveness of exchange
appears to have been highly dependent on design and implementation.
Tacit knowledge and information exchanges require trust between parties,
acknowledgement of the contextual characteristic of knowledge and
information, and shared meanings. As a result, the design of the
exchange mechanisms that was sensitive to these characteristics would
require considerable skill on the part of both the operating companies
and the supplier firms.
The features of technology acquisition exchanges that appeared to
improve effectiveness, particularly for transfer of tacit knowledge com-
ponents, included mechanisms for:
• Selecting training instructors and “experts” who had up-to-date

knowledge sets, sound fundamental technological training, good
communication skills, and experience in similar operating contexts.
• Ensuring that there is regularity of contact over all phases of network
development and operation and not limiting the tacit knowledge and
information exchanges to commissioning and testing phases.
• Organising joint ownership of the technology acquisition objectives

expressed in the design and staffing of project teams and the breadth
of the activities that are assigned to buyers of technological inputs.
Other characteristics of managing supplier relationships, which

reportedly contributed to the effectiveness of the sample firms’ TCB
efforts, included:
• The ability of personnel in the telecommunication operating com-

panies to maintain strong social networks with the staff of supplier
firms;
• Maintenance of regular contact between the staff of the operating
companies and the supplier firms at all levels of hierarchy, ranging
from global executives to local managers;
• Implementation of mechanisms that foregrounded joint learning,
such as through equipment trials, where suppliers and operating
companies were actively involved in understanding technology
requirements and specifications, prior to full commercial deploy-
ment; and
• Implementation of tendering processes that resulted in maximum
disclosure of codified information and provided opportunities for
intensive communication between suppliers and users.
When there were weak search and scan abilities, the operating com-
panies in the sample were less able to select suppliers that were skilled in
the design of technology dissemination projects. The involuntary lack of
control over choice of suppliers, on the part of the operating company,
had the same effect as weak scan and search capabilities by artificially
restricting suppliers. This lack of control over the design of technology
acquisition projects appears to have limited the effectiveness of the
exchange of codified and tacit information flows and, particularly, ham-
pered the flow of tacit information. Another important design flaw was
caused by the misconception that technology acquisition was limited to
commissioning, testing and installing equipment. Smaller firms in the
sample reported that they were hampered by their lack of critical mass
of qualified and experienced personnel and their inability to make
appropriate selections to staff technology acquisition projects.
Impact of Technological Change
The sample firms’ reliance on global market leaders as an important

source of external technological inputs appeared to be related to the fol-
lowing features of technological change in the telecommunications indus-
try. As more knowledge and information is encoded or embedded in
equipment and software control algorithms, suppliers appeared to have
been forced to become more expert in helping their customers to under-
stand and use this sophisticated equipment. While this characteristic of
embeddedness has the effect of making knowledge required for network
management increasingly product (equipment/application) specific, it
also increases the possibility for fine-tuning network performance charac-
teristics through software changes. This increasing embeddedness of
knowledge in equipment has meant that the supply of embodied and non-
embodied elements of technological capabilities in the telecommunica-
tions industry has become increasingly coupled. This trend has had the
effect of reducing the importance of intermediaries and information bro-
kers as sources of external technological inputs. Telecommunications
operating companies expect their suppliers to design and support equip-
ment with appropriate functionalities and to understand the operational
context in which that equipment will be used.
There has also been a rapid and accelerating pace of technological
change in telecommunications systems, subsystems and sub-compo-
nents, which has led to the need for regular, continuous interface
between suppliers and operating companies. The pace of change has also
had some negative consequences, in that it has created artificial crises
spurring operating companies into continuous rounds of technological
upgrading and “improvement”.
As a result, the high levels of software controls used in the switching
and access networks and the high information and knowledge content
coded in equipment (devices and components) have resulted in IT and

project management becoming core competencies for telecommunica-
tions network operating companies. All professional technical employees
and particularly those in specific functions, such as network management
and optimisation, are required to have high levels of IT literacy.
In summary, the effect of technological change in the telecommuni-
cations industry has led developing country firms, such as those in the
sample, to be more likely to use a single supplier firm as a source of
external technological inputs. The single source of supply is likely to
allow operating companies to take advantage of the coupling effect of
having access to non-embodied capabilities and embodied capabilities.
These long-term, one-stop supplier relationships were common among
the sample firms, but did not necessarily lead to the deleterious effect on
access to technological capabilities that was implied by conventional
studies on technology transfer. There appeared to be potential short-
comings in the single-supplier mode, especially for firms without tech-
nological evaluation capabilities, insofar as the operating companies
could be persuaded to make regular upgrades in technological inputs at
a pace determined by their supplier, rather than at a more measured pace
in line with their capacity to direct and absorb the integration of these
inputs. Technological change also led to the emergence of at least two
areas of core competence—IT and project management.
Impact of Specialisation and Concentration of Innovative Activity
The findings confirm that the sample firms, including those with exten-
sive search routines, frequently used global market leaders as their sup-
pliers (these firms were those that had led the trend to concentrate
innovative activity, as measured by R&D, patents, etc.) in the equipment
industry. The suppliers used by the sample firms mainly included mar-
ket leaders and second-tier equipment suppliers. The evidence does not
provide support for a view that developing country firms were active in
diversifying their suppliers. The qualitative accounts suggested that the
operating companies in the sample did not favour smaller or alternative
sources of supply. Where small companies such as Tadiran, the Israeli-

based company, were used, these firms were often niche market leaders
in specific segments, such as wireless in the local loop access network
components and systems. This pattern is consistent with the nature of
competition in the telecommunications equipment supply industry.
Put simply, the global market leaders were willing and able to pro-
vide the operating companies with access to up-to-date equipment and
the technical services required to efficiently develop, deploy and main-
tain networks based on that equipment. Therefore, these global market
leaders were the suppliers of choice of the operating companies. The
evidence from the sample firms does not support the view that imple-
menting search routines leads to greater diversification. Ironically, for
the operating firms where there were multiple sources of technological
inputs, this was involuntary and was imposed by multilateral agencies
and heavily criticised by the purchasers. The qualitative accounts,
however, do support the argument that the firms that had developed
routines for technology needs assessment and integration of external
inputs were better able to manage their single-supplier relationships.
The telecommunications operating companies in the four develop-
ing countries in this study selected a limited range of companies to sup-
ply their key technological inputs. While the operating companies
appeared not to have an interest per se in the innovative performance of
the supplier companies, their keen interest in functionality and stan-
dardisation of equipment led to a de facto limit on the range of supplier
sources. This is the same outcome as if they had been explicitly interested
in choosing only those companies with relatively strong innovation per-
formance. The limited range of suppliers does not appear to have
affected the ability of these developing country firms to exercise ‘con-
strained agency’ in acquiring technological inputs from these firms. This
may be explained by the interest of the global market leaders in increas-
ing their effectiveness as suppliers of non-embodied and embodied
capabilities.
The suppliers to the sample firms appeared to perceive that their
success in winning business from the telecommunications operating
companies in Africa was dependent on their responsiveness to the business

needs of these companies. The perception that it was important to have
joint ownership of technological development objectives between suppli-
ers and operating companies was indicated by the inclusion of such fea-
tures as the ability to jointly plan and manage network deployment and
operation among the list of critical success factors reported by suppliers.
What is perhaps even more interesting is the evidence that the sup-
plier firms were themselves investing in organisational systems that may
improve their ability to be responsive to the technological development
objectives of their developing country customers. For example, one of
the supplier firms provided evidence that it had developed specialised
career paths for technical assistance experts who were deployed to assist
customers with network deployment and management. This company
had also developed mechanisms whereby the employees of their cus-
tomers could undertake formal certified training courses to achieve
comparable levels of skill and expertise as the career network specialists
of the supplier firm. There is also corroborating evidence that suggests
that this company considered its ability to design these technology dis-
semination mechanisms as a source of core competence in all market
segments, and had applied these business processes in developed mar-
kets.27 The evidence from this research suggests that this company was
extending implementation of these business processes to its developing
country markets. The organisational innovations, which were perceived
by supplier firms in the sample to be most effective, include:
• undertaking investments in their internal technological learning and

facilitating knowledge dissemination;
• adapting business processes to increase knowledge and information
flows between suppliers and users;
• regular and continuous interfacing with customers through a vari-
ety of formal and informal mechanisms;
• documenting the best practice mechanisms for knowledge dissemi-
nation;
• improving account management; and

• using computer-assisted tools for dissemination of information.
In summary, the changing nature of competition appears to be

closely associated with the technological features of the products offered
by these firms. Competitive success was considered to be increasingly
dependent on the ability to assist customers in achieving their objectives
and was believed to require organisational innovation to improve and
maintain levels of responsiveness. On the evidence, it would appear that
the global market leaders were satisfying their developing country cus-
tomers in terms of their levels of responsiveness. This result suggests an
interesting line of further research that would investigate whether rela-
tionships similar to the ones exhibited in the telecommunications indus-
try are present in other sectors.
Limits on Suppliers as Source of Technological Inputs
Although equipment and service suppliers appear to have been an effec-

tive and significant source of technological inputs for the operating
firms in the sample, there are indications of some types of knowledge
inputs where these private sector companies were less useful. Private sec-
tor equipment and service companies provided non-embodied and
embodied technological inputs that were required by operating compa-
nies, but were regarded as being less effective as sources of knowledge
about fundamental scientific principles, basic technological training and
understanding about the nature and direction of technological trends.
The operating companies also had needs for this type of knowledge and
information, which could not be satisfied through their relationships
with suppliers. This “know-why” was probably more effectively sourced
from innovation system institutions, such as universities, training col-
leges and research labs, as well as from policy and regulatory bodies. The
empirical evidence also suggests that international and regional bodies
might play a useful role in providing this information and knowledge.
Other communities of interest and practice also made an important

contribution to supply this “know-why”.
Private-sector suppliers also did not seem to be particularly effective
in providing access to knowledge and information about the best sources
of codified and tacit knowledge needed by operating companies, also
referred to as “know-who”. The communities of interest and practice
referred to earlier appeared to be particularly good at providing inde-
pendent assessments of competing sources of technological inputs, as
were specialist information providers and organisers of trade fairs and
exhibitions. To make use of these sources of “know-who”, operating
companies had to have routines for evaluation and for searching and
scanning. When operating companies used additional sources of exter-
nal capability inputs, the equipment suppliers would be partners in tech-
nological choice, rather than taking direct ownership of this critical
function. Private sector equipment suppliers would be unlikely to be an
effective source of “know-who”, because they would be unlikely to pro-
vide objective assessments of the range of sources available. These results
have policy implications for the design and functioning of national
innovation systems.
Conclusion
Several key insights emerged from the study with relevance for public
sector bodies as well as for strategic management of African ICT firms.
First, the results suggest that African ICT firms should improve their
capability to manage supplier relationships. Making these improvements
is likely to influence whether developing country firms are able to bene-
fit from access to external sources of technological capabilities. Effective
management of supplier relationships was strongly influenced by
endogenous variables, such as the level of development of the firm’s
technological capability building system. In particular, the extent to
which firms had acquired the specific competencies of technological
evaluation, search, acquisition, and integration appeared to strongly

influence the ability of firms to benefit from commercial relationships
with external suppliers. Complementary competencies that relied on
human factors were found to be important for effective boundary rela-
tionship management, a component that is too often ignored in eco-
nomics-based studies of “technology transfer”.
Second, the result that confirms that African ICT firms appear to
exercise constrained agency in their management of supplier relation-
ships is also important. This suggests that ICT firms in Africa, such as
those in the sample firms, adopt technology strategies that are not con-
cerned with being generators of radical technological innovation at the
frontiers of technology, but have to do with improving the firms’ abil-
ity to use, operate and adapt state-of-the-art technological inputs in
their production processes. Achieving these objectives require sophisti-
cated user capabilities, some of which can be sourced through relation-
ships with suppliers, and others that require internal development. In
addition, it was found to be important to differentiate between the
many different types of knowledge and to assess the potential value that
supplier relationships can add in each case. These considerations are
particularly relevant in the case of service sector developing country
firms, where many components of technological capability are embed-
ded in equipment.
An important conclusion of the study was that exogenous factors,
such as technological change, increasing specialisation, concentration of
innovation and the nature of competition also influence the contribu-
tion of supplier relationships to technological capability building objec-
tives of ICT firms. On balance, the evidence suggests an optimistic
interpretation of the effects of these exogenous factors. It provides illus-
trations of how large and small firms in the ICT sector in Africa can
interact with global market leaders to the benefit of their technological
objectives. The confluence of technological and market dynamics
appears to be leading customers and suppliers to become keenly inter-
ested in the exchange of knowledge and this seems to be leading to more
open dissemination and greater disclosure.
The empirical study outlined here confirms insights from research

within the development studies field that suggest that external sources of
technological capability need not crowd out domestic capability devel-
opment. It extends this observation by highlighting the conditions under
which the acquisition of technological capability inputs can advance the
technological capability development objectives of developing country
firms.
These results have important implications for public policy in such
fields as Science and Technology Development, Industrial Policy and
ICT policy. The evidence should also inform the intervention
approaches of national science and technology institutions and interna-
tional organisations that support capability development in ICT, such as
the UN ICT Task Force. The analysis indicates that firms can improve
technological capability accumulation by paying attention to supplier
management as a specific aspect of capability development. It also sug-
gests that there is considerable room for improvement in terms of how
organisations in national systems of innovation assist firms to acquire
knowledge that cannot be obtained from commercial sources.
Public-sector bodies in the national innovation system can play an
important role in the capability building process by supplying comple-
mentary types of knowledge, “know-why” and “know-who”, for exam-
ple, to support the search and scan capability of firms. To become more
effective in this role, the national systems of innovation in developing
countries will require considerable strengthening in terms of the range of
institutions involved and the tools used to support capability develop-
ment in firms.
Applying the TCB system approach can contribute to moving devel-
oping country firms from passive technology transfer to strategic tech-
nological capability acquisition. These strategies are particularly relevant
for firms that wish to enhance strategic competitiveness and cope with
rapid and fundamental technological change in the ICT sector. The
empirical evidence has shown that African ICT firms can make this tran-
sition to strategic technological capability acquisition by being more
effective in relationships with suppliers and the innovation system.
National and global innovation system institutions should support and

enhance the efforts that are already underway by making firm-level
investments in learning more effective.
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humanistic behavioural science-orientated change agents who had constructed the
methodologies of planned organisational change and developed OD. In the main,
these two intellectual lifeworlds remained separate, with OD paying scant attention
to technical change and technology transfer remaining naïve about the actuality of
facilitating effective organisational development”. (p. 3).
24. I am grateful to Dr. Louanne Barclay, University of the West Indies, Mona, for point-
ing out that the same would be true for developing country manufacturing firms
that were operating at distinct positions in the value chain from their international
suppliers.
25. Davies, A. (1996). Innovation in Large Technical Systems: The Case of Telecommu-
nications. Industrial and Corporate Change, 5(4), 1143–1180; Hobday, M. (1990).
Telecommunications in Developing Countries: The Challenge from Brazil. London
and New York: Routledge; Mansell, R. E. (1995). Innovation in Telecommunication:
Bridging the Supplier-User Interface. In M. Dodgson, and R. Rothwell (Ed.), Hand-
book of Industrial Innovation (pp. 232–242). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing;
and Mytelka, L. (Ed.) (1999). Competition, Innovation and Competitiveness in Devel-
oping Countries. Paris: OECD Development Centre.
26. The term complementary capabilities is used in the same sense as the notion of the
reinforcing effect of primary and secondary conditioning features of capabilities.
See Pettigrew, A., and Whipp, R. (1991). Managing Change for Competitive Success.
Oxford: Blackwell.
27. McKelvey, M., Texier, F. and Hakan, A. (1998). The Dynamics of High Tech Industry:
Swedish Firms Developing Mobile Telecommunication Systems.: Systems of Innova-
tion Research Program, SIRP at Linkoping University, Sweden.
CHAPTER Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr.

Towards a Road Map

for Information and
Communications Technology
Development in Africa
When all is said and done, there are basic facts that constitute Africa’s
development challenges, the analysis and resolution of which will form
the basis of a comprehensive strategic response. Such response must aim
at transforming, once and for all, African life and condition to a
respectable quality and level, one which Africans themselves can be sat-
isfied with, if not proud of. Amongst these are:
1. The African condition, in the perception of Africans themselves,

leaves a lot to be desired.
2. No matter how we got here, Africans are poised to take full
responsibility for transforming that condition through a compre-
hensive self-development effort for the long-term. Recent devel-
opments demonstrate the determination of Africa’s leaders to
285
take command of the continent’s destiny, and to shape it for a bet-

ter tomorrow. The essence of that commitment is unequivocal in
the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and
enshrined in the vision of the African Union.
3. Africa’s friends, as much in international organisations and the
development community as in the private sector and civil society,
have also declared their commitment to partner with Africa in
this process, for mutual benefit, and the benefit of all.
4. The United Nations system, through the Millennium Develop-
ment Goals and the various United Nations initiatives for
Africa, is doubling its efforts in support of Africa’s development.
This is a major part of the commitment of Secretary-General Kofi
Annan. The commitment of the United Nations to the imple-
mentation of NEPAD, especially to NEPAD’s ICT initiatives
under its eAfrica Commission, is an important aspect of this.
5. Specifically, the creation of the United Nations ICT Task Force in
the aftermath of the Millennium Summit, as a vehicle for mobil-
ising all parties and resources in support of ICT development to
serve as a catalyst to drive the Millennium Development Goals,
holds much promise in this pursuit. The commitment of the Task
Force to ICT development in Africa, within its overall pro-
gramme, as evidenced by this book and its various initiatives
listed in Appendix I, holds much promise in this regard.
6. The success of this global partnership for Africa’s development is
only possible, however, if Africans take charge of masterminding
the strategies for such a massive effort, and direct the process. It is
then, and only then, and only in such a context, that support and
assistance can be best received and most effective in its deployment.
7. Internally, Africa cannot effectively embark on such a mission
without the complete buy-in and full and active participation of
its people, working hand in hand with the leaders in a fully sym-
biotic enterprise for Africa’s future. The African people them-
selves are ready to play their part. Some have already been doing
so and continue to do so whenever, wherever and however they
Towards a Road Map for ICT Development in Africa ✦ Okpaku ✦ 287
can. Pooling these efforts in some loose comprehensive set of

strategies and initiatives, which reduce the waste of precious
resources without stunting creative scope, freedom and ingenuity,
is the challenge.
8. Given such a conducive environment, Africa’s already quite vast
existing expertise can be mobilised quite quickly to create initial
results substantial enough to propel the process and provide the
reinforcement of the recognition of accomplishments to sustain
the effort. In this regard, Africans at home and abroad are form-
ing various national, regional, trade and professional organisa-
tions and societies to address various development challenges.
The deliberate and active interest in these initiatives by Africa’s
leadership (and, for that matter, Africa’s development partners)
would go a long way to reinforce the determination of these
mostly young Africans to assume primary responsibility for
achieving a goal we all share.
9. Information and communications technologies, in their versatil-
ity, offer major capacities to jumpstart and drive this process of
self-development, penetrating even the far-flung and outer
reaches of the continent, delivering resources as well as acquiring
innovations for redistribution to other parts of Africa and the
global community and market.
10. Here, in particular, Africans, individually and in corporate, social
and professional groupings, are moving ahead to do what they
can with their own limited resources. In many cases, they start
their own initiatives and then challenge their leaders to give them
a chance to address some of the major ICT challenges.
Some Notable Initiatives
In all of this, there have been many initiatives on ICT for African devel-
opment, which are noteworthy by virtue of the initiative, determination,
commitment and courage of those who have led them. Here are a few
examples.
The Internet Initiative for Africa (IIA) of UNDP
In 1997, when the idea of the Internet was still essentially a remote spec-
ulation for much of Africa, the Regional Bureau for Africa of the United
Nations Development Programme, under the Directorship of Ms. Ellen
Sirleaf Johnson, undertook to promote its introduction to Africa. The
Internet Initiative for Africa, or IIA, was created by the then Chief Econ-
omist of the Bureau, Dr. John Ohiorhenuan, and Richard Kerby, who
was in charge of information systems at the Bureau, with the collabora-
tion of African ICT experts outside the UN system.
IIA consisted of two basic components: the promotion of official
receptivity to the introduction of the Internet on the part of African gov-
ernments, and facilitating the building of Internet nodes in countries
that did not have one or needed to reinforce what existed.
To advance the objectives of the IIA, the Regional Bureau sponsored
a group of African and non-African experts who criss-crossed the
African continent, holding public seminars that brought together gov-
ernment officials (including Ministers and Directors), ICT entrepre-
neurs and a handful of representatives of the global industry to promote
the benefits of the Internet. Of particular importance to the team was the
need to persuade African governments that the benefits of an exponen-
tial jump in the access to knowledge and information by the people far
outweighed any anxiety they may have that such access would under-
mine their authority. This perception of the Internet as a potential tool
for “sabotage” was a very serious obstacle to official receptivity to its
introduction.
This group of what one might call “the Internet Troubadours for
Africa”, consisted of Richard Kerby, of UNDP, who was the project offi-
cer and leader, Dr. Joseph Okpaku, Sr. of Telecom Africa Corporation,
Professor Raymond Akwule of George Mason University, Ms. Amma
Annan, then at AT&T, Diane Tyson, also of AT&T, Charles Coupet, then
of Oracle (now with Microsoft), Roxanne McElvane of the U.S. Federal

Communications Commission (FCC), Pierre Dandjinou of UNDP,
Sarah Tesfaye, a private consultant, B. K. Njie, then Managing Director
of Gamtel, Gambia’s PTT, now Secretary (Minister) for Communica-
tions and Technology, and Ebrima Ceesay, then Secretary (Minister) for
Communications of Gambia.
From these and other forums, a camaraderie developed between
African ICT experts and African Ministers of Information and Commu-
nications. This, in turn, resulted in an African public-private partnership
in ICT that has contributed in no small measure to the united focus and
activism of Africans in the sector.
In material terms, in pursuit of the second objective of the Internet
Initiative for Africa, UNDP provided matching funds of up to half a mil-
lion US dollars each for any African country wanting to set up an Inter-
net node. Some eight countries took advantage of this offer. The IIA ran
parallel to the Leyland Initiative of the US Agency for International
Development (USAID), which also helped to finance the establishment
of Internet nodes in Africa. The latter initiative was named after the U.S.
statesman, Mickey Leland, who died while on a visit to Africa. Both pro-
grammes coordinated their selection of countries to fund so as to avoid
duplication and allow maximum spread.
The African Advisory Group on ICT (AAG-ICT)
One of the most important outgrowths of this symbiotic relationship

between African Ministers of Information and Communications and
African ICT experts has been the formation of the African Advisory
Group on ICT (AAG-ICT), under the auspices of the Ministerial Over-
sight Committee of the African Connection. Created and primarily
sponsored by the Minster of Communications of South Africa, Dr. Ivy
Matsepe-Casaburri, the African Advisory Group, as described in the
introduction to this volume, consists of a dozen African ICT experts
from around the world, who meet on an average of twice yearly for a day
or two to provide high-level strategic advice to African Ministers on
matters of policy, strategy and indigenous capacity building. The chief

executives of the African Telecommunications Union (which succeeded
the Pan-African Telecommunications Union) and the African Connec-
tion are also members of the AAG. The effectiveness of the AAG comes
also from the fact that its membership, which is based on personal recog-
nition, represents the key areas of ICT.
African Private Sector Initiatives
Amongst African communities and professional groups abroad, in

individual countries in Africa, and in various communities within
these countries, many similar efforts with varying resources have
mushroomed to promote and provide ICT services for development.
Some of these have been covered in individual chapters in this volume.
These in-Africa and Diaspora initiatives hold a significant promise in
capacity building and innovation in deploying ICT for African devel-
opment. The Task Force recognised this potential in promoting the
Digital Diaspora Network for Africa (DDN-A), discussed in full in
Chapter Twelve.
NITPA
A good example of such groups is the Nigerian Information Technol-

ogy Professionals Association, or NITPA. This is an association of
Nigerian high-level ICT experts and entrepreneurs around the world,
primarily in the United States, who are pooling their knowledge and
resources to directly intervene in building Nigeria’s ICT capacity, as
well as supporting access to ICT resources, especially by Nigerian chil-
dren. NITPA’s activities include networking, advocacy to help shape
government ICT policy through the infusion of ideas, the promotion
of entrepreneurial, consulting and investment opportunities, educa-
tion, mentorship and the collection and donation of computers and
other tools to Nigerian schools and school children. NITPA maintains
a website: www.Nitpa.org.
AFCOM and the African Telecom Summit
A major platform for the promotion of ICT in Africa has been con-
ferences, workshops, seminars and other forums, which bring the
African public and private sectors as well as civil society and their
global counterparts together, to dialogue on policy, strategy, markets
and capacity building. Two of the most prominent of these are
AFCOM (http:///www.afcomnet.com) and the African Telecom Summit
(cordinat@ghana.com). By virtue of the African public-private synergy
in the ICT sector discussed earlier, African Ministers of Communica-
tions and African ICT experts consider these two annual events a
must, unless compelled by extenuating circumstances not to attend.
Together with the ITU Telecom Africa Regional Conference, held on
an average of every two years, these constitute the main regular
forums for public discourse on ICT in Africa.
The Road Map
One cannot presume to provide an overall or commanding agenda for

the future of ICT for African development, except to state that the poten-
tial of maximum positive impact is high, and the prospects are good.
Some suggestion, however, might be of value.
Infrastructure and Access
The combination of inadequate infrastructure and the high cost of

building infrastructure remain a major challenge to ICT development in
Africa. It is my belief that the only way to meet this challenge is a bold
effort at ICT industrialisation. This will not only lower the cost of infra-
structure through local manufacturing, but will also create jobs at all
levels, promote the birth of support industries, encourage research and
development, stimulate academic interest in ICT at all levels, and
encourage innovation and invention. This is the model that China chose,
with remarkable success. This approach also enables us to derive multi-
ple benefits from the same investment, by moving the resources through
industry and technology to labour and private individual income.
Technology
The issue of appropriate technology has been a feature of much ICT dia-
logue with respect to Africa and the Developing World in general. The
need to modify existing technologies or create new ones to meet the spe-
cific circumstances of demand is indisputable. The problem has been
that no matter what new technologies have been offered or introduced
to Africa, it has always ended up costing Africa the same amount of
money for access; approximately one thousand dollars per line. This
means that the obvious benefit of new technologies fails to apply when
introduced to Africa.
Education
The most conducive environment to the internalisation of new ideas

and technologies is the creation of a pervasive knowledge of that tech-
nology and its direct implications for the general population. This
means that a comprehensive and innovative process needs to be
designed for teaching the science and engineering of ICT and its appli-
cations at all levels of formal education. This should be backed up by
public enlightenment programmes to increase public awareness of ICTs
and the benefits they offer to society at large, as well as the potential
downside inherent in them.
Research and Development and Intellectual Property
I have made the argument again and again that there can be no mean-
ingful development without the acquisition of cutting edge capacity in
science and technology. Such capacity is impossible without a parallel
capacity in Research and Development. This logic holds true more in the
field of Information and Communications Technologies than anywhere
else, except in the Medical Sciences. To seek to build ICT capacity with-
out a solid foundation of Research and Development is nothing but
building skyscrapers in quicksand. Africa and its partners must find the
courage to address this fundamental need as a critical sine qua non for all
we strive to accomplish.
Furthermore, development, especially self-development, is driven
inevitably by passion for transformation, intellectual curiosity and the
sense of mission that comes from a personal dream and a shared com-
mon vision. Unless Africans engage vigorously in the effort to create and
own intellectual property from the process of ICT development in the
continent, we will never derive a meaningful and sustainable momentum.
This will put at risk all efforts made by all of us to bring about an irre-
versible process of possible change. The fact also that intellectual property
is the quintessential asset in our contemporary economy makes the need
for African participation in this venture most compelling. In this regard,
we must invest in building ICT Research and Development institutions,
most desirably under the auspices of the African private sector, in part-
nership with Government, regional institutions and academic establish-
ments, with the sincere support of a global private sector, which itself
stands to gain a lot from this investment. If the global industry has seen
sufficient reason to do so in Asia and elsewhere, certainly Africa, with its
potential as one of the last frontiers of highest demand for information
and communications technologies, makes an even more appealing case.
It is also good strategy, because as the synergy between government and
the African private sector continues to grow in the sector, the vacuum cre-
ated by a less than enthusiastic initiative in this area is not unlikely to
force its compulsion through more strident policies and regulations.
Content Development
I believe that there is general agreement today that development of

the capacity to create, package and disseminate content based on the
complete spectrum of African knowledge and experience, not only in

craft and culture, but in literature, science, technology and medicine, and
especially in children’s playthings, is a compelling priority in the best
interest of all of us. Both the uniqueness of the African experience and
the commonality of its human underpinnings constitute a wealth of
knowledge and information with great appeal to the general global pub-
lic, while constituting a source of much needed revenue earnings for
Africa and Africans.
Software Development and Application
ICT technology is driven by software applications. To seek capacity in

technology without building corresponding capacity in the development
of software and applications is like investing all of one’s resources in
acquiring a car, with no capacity to purchase the fuel. Africans must rap-
idly develop this capacity, because it is also the area in which smart peo-
ple can generate incredible incomes with which to pursue their search
for quality of life. Fortunately, there is beginning to be a movement in
this regard, such as in the Digital Factory Initiative being undertaken by
Sun Microsystems, the Telecom Africa Corporation, and the State of Cal-
ifornia Technology, Trade & Commerce Agency. The growing number of
Africans engaged in software development is also encouraging.
Policy and Regulation
Smart and innovative policy and regulation is the key to creating an envi-
ronment conducive to rapid and sustained ICT development in all soci-
eties and economies. African countries have embraced this notion with
remarkable commitment. Their role, however, is much more than to sim-
ply facilitate easy market access for global ICT companies. Rather, its first
role is to drive the development of a strong, versatile and flexible local and
regional ICT industry, and to ensure maximum services and benefits to
the people at very affordable costs. A casual observation would suggest
that African regulators understand this dual obligation and are deter-
mined to evolve the appropriate strategies for managing this dichotomy.
It is important in this regard to raise a warning flag about some of

the policies and procedures, which appear to have been foisted on
African regulators through well intentioned, but misguided consultant
advice, especially in the process of liberalisation and privatisation of
networks in Africa. In almost every case, the conditions, which African
regulators are advised to impose on the process, by the very nature of
being conditions which Africans cannot meet, only serve to exclude
them from the only opportunities they would otherwise have to mean-
ingfully engage in building African capacity and participation.
Market Access: Capacity Building for Global Competitiveness
Building capacity is of little value without the opportunity to produce

ideas, goods and services from it. Similarly, producing ideas, goods and
services is of little value without access to the broadest possible market.
This is not just a matter of extreme importance to Africa, but should
concern those in the public and private sector of the global industry as
well. It is a basic assumption in free-market economies that market
access must be free and mutual, however asymmetrical the capacity
might be. The extent to which industry players themselves intervene in
their own markets to create room for Africa’s ICT ideas, products and
services, to that extent will the common interests of the partnership be
protected and sustained. The growing frustration of Africans in this
regard, as articulated in the various debates at the World Trade Organi-
sation, for example, is a warning sign, which the global ICT industry
must take seriously and preemptively.
Regional Cooperation
The compelling benefits of cooperation amongst African countries

and players are self-evident and increasingly recognised. This is not
only because of the benefits of the economies of scale inherent in such
collaboration, but also in the need to integrate the region for the com-
mon good, and for better global competitiveness. The very essence of
Information and Communications Technologies, especially its ability
to deliver products and services clear across the world in infinitesimal

time, makes this eminently feasible.
Global Partnership and Cooperation
The global component of such partnership not only promises benefits to

all parties while supporting Africa’s transformation, but also goes a long
way to making the world a better and happier place for all of us. The very
vision of the UN ICT Task Force and the raison d’etre of this entire vol-
ume is a testament to that.
Tensions and their Remedies: New Ideas for New Circumstances
In all serious efforts to bring about change, the presence of tension is

inevitable. In some manner, they are important because it is in their res-
olution that we evolve new ideas to better address the dynamics of our
new circumstances. While it might appear easier to ignore these tensions
or pretend they do not exist, in deference to protocol or decorum, ignor-
ing them allows them to fester, transforming what might have been
resolved in friendly and enjoyable, even if animated discourse, into sub-
terranean animosities, which inhibit the very definition and admission
of problems begging to be solved. In order to succeed at the massive
undertaking at promoting ICT for Africa’s development, candour will be
important in the dialogue. We will, for example, have to understand the
anxieties of the African private sector, that the very thrust of the global
private-African public partnership could serve to undermine them if not
properly managed. This would have to be addressed.
The Future
Against this background and looking into the future, one cannot but see
the tremendous possibilities that a comprehensive global partnership in
support of an African-owned and defined strategy for the acquisition of
Information and Communications Technologies and their deployment
for African development promises an exciting process, which would

enrich all. Africans are prepared to play their role. African leaders have
declared, through the vision of the African Union and the instrument of
NEPAD, that they are also ready to go. The global partnership for devel-
opment has also declared its commitment and preparedness. What it
takes to make a difference in ICT covers the entire spectrum of resource
levels. There is always something to do with whatever one has to give,
whether conceptually, materially or in kind. The African train is ready to
leave the station. Our challenge is to respond to the conductor’s clarion
call, “All onboard!”
APPENDIX I

ICT Initiatives for Africa
The United Nations ICT Task Force is undertaking a number of ICT ini-
tiatives in support of Africa’s development efforts, on its own and in col-
laboration with its partners. Some of these initiatives are listed below.
African Stakeholders Network (ASN)

UN Information and Communication Technologies Task Force
O B J E C T I V E : To ensure that the United Nations-efforts to bridge the dig-
ital divide in Africa are better coordinated, more inclusive and reflective
of the significant efforts already underway to develop an African Infor-
mation Society.
WEBSITE: http://unicttaskforce.org/regional/africa/
The Digital Diaspora Network for Africa (DDN-A)

O B J E C T I V E : DDN-A has been launched to promote development in
Africa with ICT applications through mobilizing the entrepreneurial,

technological, and professional expertise and resources of the African
Diaspora.
WEBSITE: http://www.ddn-africa.org/
299
Training in Information Technology—

ICT Policy Seminars for Ambassadors
O B J E C T I V E : A new training program for diplomats, focusing on com-
puter and Internet know-how, including hardware, software, e-mail, web

surfing, web design and maintenance, had its first session today at
United Nations headquarters.
WEBSITE: http://www.un.int/UNITAR/PATIT
Global Database
O B J E C T I V E : A global web-based database of government ICT policy
makers, as well as private sector and NGO ICT leaders has been built.
This initiative is a step towards strengthening the Task Force’s outreach
and facilitation of contacts with national decision makers.
WEBSITE: http://www.unicttaskforce.org/globaldatabase/database.asp
Working Groups Initiatives
ICT Policy and Governance

O B J E C T I V E : Focuses on ways to enhance the capacity of developing
nation stakeholders to participate in global policymaking related to infor-

mation and communication technologies (ICT) with a view to building
a global ICT policy environment that would be conducive for the achieve-
ment of the potential of information technology by all countries.
WEBSITE: http://www.unicttaskforce.org/groups/principal.asp
National and Regional E-strategies

O B J E C T I V E : Act as a catalyst and champion for stimulating the early
deployment of national and regional e-Strategies and not as an imple-

menter or operational entity. Also, it should create synergies, linkages,
cooperation and coordination among the many existing and emerging
Appendix I ✦ 301
initiatives on the ground, such as the World Bank, UNDP, UNECA, ITU,
and others.
Human Resource Development and Capacity Building

O B J E C T I V E : The group is working closely with relevant United Nations
agencies and other partners from the private and public sectors to pro-
mote the use of ICT for capacity-building and human resource develop-
ment. A key priority of the Group is to harness ICT for education, with
particular attention to overcoming existing disparities in educational
and training opportunities and achievements between males and
females.
Low Cost Connectivity Access

O B J E C T I V E : To facilitate a productive dialogue among potential part-
ners to tackle these issues and to make considerable progress in this area.
Business Enterprise and Entrepreneurship

O B J E C T I V E : To find ways to combine the power of ICT tools with the
spirit and enthusiasm of the entrepreneurs of the developing world.

Working Group 5 is committed to inventing and applying sustainable
information technology solutions that are appropriate in addressing the
real issues and problems facing enterprises and entrepreneurs in the
developing world.
APPENDIX II
ICT Initiatives for Africa
There are a growing number of Information and Communications

Technologies initiatives in Africa, undertaken by a wide spectrum of
individuals, organisations and institutions, in Africa and abroad. Fol-
lowing is a small selection of some of these initiatives. Where possible, a
website address has been provided for each initiative. These websites
quite often also provide information on other relevant initiatives via
links to other websites.
3D technology and Multipurpose Community Telecentres (MTCs) in

Uganda
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO)
OBJECTIVE: To create a 3D and multimedia programme to help educate
Ugandans about water sanitation.
WEBSITE: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/build_info/gct/
bestpractices/virtual_reality.shtml
303
Acacia Initiative
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
O B J E C T I V E : To provide developing countries, particularly in Africa, the
voice to shape the Global Information Society and establish the poten-
tial of ICTs to empower poor African communities.
WEBSITE: http://www.idrc.ca/acacia
African Advisory Group on ICT (AAG-ICT)

OBJECTIVE: To provide confidential high-level advice to African Min-
isters of Information and Communications on strategic, policy and reg-
ulatory issues and to work in close liaison with the African Connection
and the African Telecommunications Union.
WEBSITE: http://www.doc.gov.za
African Connection
African Telecommunications Union (ATU)
OBJECTIVE: To provide a platform for the promotion of regional mar-
kets; harmonise and co-ordinate ICT policies and develop common reg-
ulatory frameworks and drive the African efforts to make the region a
full member of the global information society.
WEBSITE: http://www.atu-uat.org/pdf/AfricanConnection.pdf
African Cultural Conservation Fund (ACCF)

ICTs to protect cultural heritage
OBJ ECTIVE: To provide support to African communities that wish to
implement cultural initiatives. Programmes include Banking on Culture,
Ghanaian Weavers.
WEBSITE: http://www.theculturebank.org
African Development Bank

O B J E C T I V E : To promote telecom infrastructure projects, electric power
supply projects, act as a catalyst to mobilise private capital, finance stud-

ies (RASCOM), advisory services, and ICT to reach and interact with
bank clients and stake holders.
WEBSITE: http://www.afdb.org
Appendix II ✦ 305
African Information Society Initiative (AISI)—UNECA

National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI)
Partnership for Information and Communication Technologies in Africa
(PICTA)
OBJECTIVE: To build Africa’s ICT infrastructure by 2010.
WEBSITE: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/
African Stakeholder Network (ASN) of the United Nations Information

and Communication Technologies Task Force (UN ICT TF)
OBJECTIVE: To ensure that United Nations-efforts to bridge the digital
divide in Africa are better coordinated, more inclusive and reflective of
the significant efforts already underway to develop an African Informa-
tion Society.
WEBSITE: http://www.unicttaskforce.org/regional/africa/
ALCATEL
OBJECTIVE: To promote field pilot-projects, Cyber-centres, E-govern-
ment, and organise workshops on Internet awareness.
WEBSITE: www.alcatel.com
AOL Foundation
OBJECTIVE: To promote AOL Foundation’s Digital Grant Initiative.
WEBSITE: http://www.aolfoundation.org
Bridges.org
OBJ ECTIVE: To provide public education about technology use, pro-
mote policy-making that removes barriers, and create a body of knowl-
edge about digital divide issues.
WEBSITE: http://www.bridges.org
Building Digital Libraries in Africa

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) and its intergovernmental Information for All Programme
(IFAP).
OBJ E CTIVE: To raise awareness among Africans of the availability of

public information that can improve socio-economic positions as well as
teach them the skills necessary to sustain the project over the long term.
WEBSITE: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/build_info/gct/
bestpractices/anthologies.shtml
Business Endorsement of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development

O B J E C T I V E : To develop best practice standards of corporate gover-
nance, help build human capital and productivity and support African
governments in their efforts to achieve best practice standards of eco-
nomic governance by sharing experiences.
WEBSITE: http://www.weforum.org/
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

P R O G R AMS Geographic Info System: Mozambique, and
I N C LU D E :
South African Info Techno Industry Knowledge for Development.

WEBSITE: http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/
Carnegie Corporation of New York

P R O G R AMSI N C L U D E : International Development Program, Kenya
National Library Service, Pan African Doc. & Information System, and
African Research Centre for Technology.
Centre for Development Research (ZEF Bonn)

To promote ICT in low-income countries research pro-
O BJ E C TIVE :
gramme (households, enterprises, and institutions).

WEBSITE: http://www.zef.de
CEO Charter for Digital Development

Participating CEOs agree to target at least 20% of their
O BJ E C TIVE :
annual corporate citizenship and/or philanthropy budgets to support

actions aimed at promoting social, economic and educational progress
in disadvantaged communities through ICT.
Appendix II ✦ 307
Cisco Systems
Cisco’s networking academies
O BJ E C TIVE :To develop human capacities in the developing world,
while helping less developed countries to address the shortage of IT
professionals.
WEBSITE: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/edu/academy/
Community IT Foundation (CITF), Izibuko Project

To provide schools with access to ICT infrastructure by
O BJ E C TIVE :
refurbishing obsolete computers, providing relevant and empowering

content through the development of a community portal, and providing
appropriate training to educators and learnerships to newly qualified IT
technicians. The pilot project involves the establishment of 8 fully
equipped computer labs at schools in the Western Cape.
Cooperation Francaise
OBJECTIVE: To promote Francophone funds for networks. Programmes
include African Network for distant learning.
WEBSITE: http://www.cooperation.gouv.fr
Creating Future Scientists

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), and the Environ-
mental Protection Agency (EPA)
O B J E C T I V E : To give students an opportunity to interact with scientists
and students in other parts of the world, and to allow them to share their
research in the Internet-based student data archive.
WEBSITE: http://www.globe.gov
Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA)

OBJECTIVE: To promote Danish assistance, is concentrated on promot-
ing sustainable development through poverty-oriented economic
growth. The Government has conducted a critical review in order to
focus Danish development assistance and environmental assistance to
the developing countries and to make the assistance more efficient.
WEBSITE: http://www.um.dk/danida/
Department For International Development (DFID)

PROGRAMMES INCLUDE: DFID e-business strategy; and the Imfundo
project—a unique partnership between DFID, Cisco Systems, Marconi
and Virgin—which aims to bridge the growing digital divide in African
countries. The pilot project will explore how IT can improve education,
through better teacher training, raising skills levels and sharing knowledge.
WEBSITE: http://www.dfid.gov.uk
Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)

OBJECTIVE: To improve the living conditions and perspectives of peo-
ple in developing and transition countries.
WEBSITE: http://www.gtz.de
Development Gateway/Foundation
World Bank
O BJ E C TIVE :To provide users access to information, resources and
tools, into which they can contribute their own knowledge and experi-
ence.
WEBSITE: http://www.developmentgateway.org/
Devenir Foundation (Foundation de Devenir)

OBJECTIVE: To promote acquisition of IT for local development pur-
poses in Africa, and ensure that collective knowledge is accessible
through the Web.
WEBSITE: http://www.devenir.org
Digital Diaspora Network for Africa—DDNA

An initiative of the UN ICT Task Force in collaboration with Digital
Partners, the United Nations Development Fund for Women
(UNIFEM), the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships
(UNFIP), and Gruppo CERFE.
O B J E C T I V E : To explore ways in which the combined knowledge, experi-
ences and resources of the public and private sectors can be harnessed to
effect positive and sustainable change in Africa. To promote development
Appendix II ✦ 309
in Africa and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

through mobilising the technological, entrepreneurial and professional
expertise and resources of the African Diaspora.
WEBSITE: http://www.ddn-africa.org/
Digital Factory
OBJ ECTIVE: To create capacity in Africa for the development of soft-
ware and applications at global standards to support the global ICT
industry and market, as well as meet indigenous continental demand, to
greatly enhance the prospects of Africa’s ICT Development, not only in
terms of training and capacity-building, but also in providing market
opportunities for such expertise through out-sourcing, subcontracting
and direct contracting with industry partners, development agencies and
international organisations, and in partnership with Sun Microsystems
and the Office of the Governor, State of California Technology, Trade
and Commerce Agency.
WEBSITE: http://www.TelecomAfrica.org
Digital Opportunity Initiative (DOI)

To develop a methodology and toolkit that can be re-
O BJ E C TIVE :
used and tailored to developing countries with diverse conditions and

priorities.
WEBSITE: http://www.opt-init.org/
Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force)

OBJECTIVE: A G8 initiative to enable global opportunities in ICT-K4D.
WEBSITE: http://www.dotforce.org
Digital Partnership South Africa

OBJECTIVE: To develop access to technology, training and the Internet
for learning, enterprise and development in developing emerging market
economies.
WEBSITE: www.digitalpartnership.org
Directorate for International Co-operation (DGIS) (The Netherlands)

P R O G R AM M E S University Support Programme, Interna-
I N C LU D E :
tional Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), and

Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP).
WEBSITE: http://www.minbuza.nl
European Commission—Information Society

OBJECTIVE: To address the impact of the Information Society on citi-
zenship, education, culture, business, and much more. Relevant Euro-
pean Commission programmes and initiatives, such as the Europe
Action Plan, ISTweb, eContent, eSafety. eTen, IDA (Interchange of Data
between Administrations), the Internet Action Plan; calls related to IS
programmes and activities are published regularly; Public consultations
to promote dialogue with citizens; Policy aspects and regulatory frame-
work for electronic communications networks and services; and inter-
national aspects of the information society.
WEBSITE: http://europa.eu.int/information_society
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)

PROGRAMMES Community Directory Server (CDS): data
INCLUDE:
collection, FAO 3D World experience: education, and WAICENT.

WEBSITE: http://www.fao.org
Ford Foundation
OBJECTIVE: To promote ICT as a crosscutting theme for programming
in South Africa. Programmes include the Project for Information Access
& Connectivity (PIAC), in collaboration with Rockefeller Foundation.
WEBSITE: http://www.fordfound.org
Gauteng Online
O B J E C T I V E : To provide every learner and educator in all public schools
with Internet access, e-mail and electronic curriculum delivery as well as

developing a model for large-scale implementation of ICT in schools.
WEBSITE: www.gautengonline.com
Appendix II ✦ 311
German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

PROGRAMMES INCLUDE: ISAT, SHARED, CRYSTAL, HealthNet, and
URBANET.
WEBSITE: http://www.bmz.de
Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce (GBDe)

O B J E C T I V E : GBDe is a worldwide, CEO-led, business initiative, estab-
lished in January 1999 to assist in the creation of a policy framework for

the development of a global online economy.
WEBSITE: http://www.gbde.org
Global Development Network (GDN)

O BJ E C TIVE :To provide policy researchers in developing countries
access to financial support and data resources, and help to strengthen
collaboration with their counterparts throughout the globe. Products
and services are being shaped to meet the demands of research institutes
in developing countries, based on informal consultations, surveys and
regular systematic feedback.
WEBSITE: http://www.gdnet.org/
GDN regional network for Africa

WEBSITE: http://www.gdnet.org/africa/
Global Development Learning Network (GDLN)

World Bank
OBJ ECTIVE: To provide decision-makers across the developing world
with affordable and regular access to a global network of peers, experts
and practitioners to share ideas and experiences to fight poverty.
WEBSITE: http://www.gdln.org/
Global Digital Divide Initiative (GDDI)

OBJECTIVE: To build partnerships between the public and private sector
to bridge the divide and to make effective use of ICTs to improve lives.
Hewlett Packard Foundation

W E B S I T E : http://www.hp.com/
High-tech weather services in Africa

United States Weather Service, and the World Meteorological
Organisation (WMO)
OBJECTIVE: To create a cooperative weather observer network to help
the countries of Africa better prepare for drastic climate changes and
avert natural disasters.
WEBSITE: http://www.wmo.ch
INTEL
Innovation in Education
The Intel initiative “Innovation in Education” has programs that offer
tools, resources and programs that aim at building communities and
inspiring youth through technology.
WEBSITE: http://www.intel.com/education
Intel South Africa

Intel Teach to the Future
OBJ ECTIVE: To design an educator development program for pre and
in-service Educators to integrate technology into learning and teaching.
This is done by providing ICT equipment, software and curriculum
support.
WEBSITE: http://www.intel.com/europe/sites/south_africa/
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

OBJ ECTIVE: to help communities in the developing world find solu-
tions to social, economic, and environmental problems through
research. Initiatives in Africa are implemented in collaboration with Bel-
lanet and Communities and ICTs for Africa.
WEBSITE: http://www.idrc.ca
Appendix II ✦ 313
International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD)

OBJECTIVE: To finance agricultural development projects primarily for
food production in the developing countries. Programmes include
FIDArique and Evaluation Knowledge System (EKSYST).
WEBSITE: http://www.ifad.org
International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD)

To focus on knowledge sharing with local and interna-
O BJ E C TIVE :
tional communities, empower local organisations in using ICTs, and

help national institutions to become providers of local information and
advisory services.
WEBSITE: http://www.iicd.org
International Labour Organisation (ILO)

O B J E C T I V E : To promote and realise standards and fundamental princi-
ples and rights at work. Programmes include: ILOLRX and NATLEX.

WEBSITE: http://www.ilo.org
International Maritime Organisation (IMO)

To provide machinery for cooperation among Govern-
O BJ E C TIVE :
ments in the field of governmental regulation and practices relating to

technical matters affecting shipping engaged in international trade; to
encourage and facilitate the general adoption of the highest practicable
standards in matters concerning maritime safety, efficiency of navigation
and prevention and control of marine pollution from ships.
WEBSITE: http://www.imo.org
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D)
Organisation within the United Nations where govern-
O BJ E C TIVE :
ments and the private sector coordinate global telecom networks and
services. Programmes include: Valetta Action Plan (VAP): Rural devel-
opment, Technologies & applications, Telecom, Private sector partner-
ship and Human Resources, WSIS.
WEBSITE: http://www.itu.int
ITU’s Internet Training Centre Initiative

OBJ ECTIVE: To help people in underprivileged countries develop the
skills to function in the global networked economy.
WEBSITE: http://www.itu.int
Learning Channel Campus, Learning Channel Online

OBJECTIVE: To provide an interactive educational website for learners
and educators from grades 8 to 12.
WEBSITE: www.learn.co.za
Leland Initiative
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
OBJECTIVES: To create an enabling policy environment and a sustain-
able supply of Internet services and enhance Internet use for sustainable
development.
WEBSITE: http://www.usaid.gov/leland
Love Life
OBJECTIVE: To promote use of ICTs for sexual health/HIV/AIDS edu-
cation (Call and Youth Centres, Virtual Studios).
WEBSITE: http://www.lovelife.org.za
MacArthur Foundation
OBJECTIVE: To promote Global Security & System programming.
WEBSITE: http://www.macfdn.org/index.htm
Mandatory ICT exposure

World Bank; Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports (MESYS);
and a Portuguese development foundation, PROMEF.
O B J E C T I V E : To evaluate and analyse ways in which ICTs can be used to
improve the education and training systems in Cape Verde.

WEBSITE: http://www.gov.cv/promef/contact.html
WEBSITE: http://www.governo.cv/
Appendix II ✦ 315
Mapping Malaria Risk in Africa (MARA)

OBJ ECTIVE: To promote Geographic Information System-based Net-
work.
WEBSITE: http://www.mara.org.za
Markle Foundation
Partner of the Digital Opportunity Initiative, Founding partner of the
Global Network Readiness & Resource Initiative, sponsor Digital Oppor-
tunity Summits, and devote the Foundation only to the development of
ICTs.
WEBSITE: http://www.markle.org/index.html
Microsoft Digital Bridge Programme

Microsoft
OBJECTIVE: To provide Microsoft software to all government schools in
South Africa that give communities, schools, students and entrepreneurs
the chance to develop their computer skills and take advantage of the
power of the Internet.
WEBSITE: http://www.microsoft.com/southafrica/community
Microsoft, Microsoft Digital Villages

OBJECTIVE: To provide communities, schools, students and entrepre-
neurs the chance to develop their computer skills and take advantage of
the power of the Internet.
WEBSITE: http://www.microsoft.com/southafrica/press/press–403.htm
MultiChoice Africa, MultiChoice Africa Foundation-Use of ICT for

Professional Development of Educators
O BJ E C TIVE :To enhance educator development and provide greater
access to quality education resources in the lesser-developed parts of
South Africa, through the use of ICT.
WEBSITE: http://www.multichoice.co.za/
Multipurpose Community Telecentres (MCTs) in Uganda

International Telecommunication Union (ITU), International Develop-
ment Research Centre (IDRC) and United Nations Educational, Scien-
tific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
O B J E C T I V E : To narrow the digital divide.
WEBSITE: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/cs/uganda/material/uganda.pdf
MTN Foundation
Focuses on Education, Science and technology, and HIV/AIDS pro-
grams.
WEBSITE: http://www.m-cell.co.za/bus_socialinv.asp
NEPAD & IS PAD

New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and Information
Society Partnership for African Development (IS-PAD).
O B J E C T I V E : To accelerate economic growth and development, foster
regional integration and intra-regional trade, foster market conditions

conducive to the provision of affordable and reliable communication
services and achieve e-readiness for all countries in Africa.
WEBSITE: http://www.africanrecovery.org
WEBSITE: http://www.uneca.org/nepad
NITPA
OBJECTIVE: To promote networking among members to generate syn-
ergy & promote IT entrepreneurship, advocacy (government policy
influence and infusion of ideas to key IT and Diaspora agenda), project
opportunity, consulting opportunities, IT entrepreneurial and invest-
ment opportunities in Nigeria and the US, education, mentoring, mobi-
lization of accessible IT human resources resident in the US for purposes
of technology transfer to Nigerian institutions (including educational,
commercial and Civic institutions), and excellence in IT application as a
collective means for Nigerian national image-building.
WEBSITE: www.nitpa.org
Appendix II ✦ 317
Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD)

To promote access & connection, education, empower-
O BJ E C TIVE :
ment in NGO programmes, and support of private sector.

WEBSITE: http://www.norad.no
Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA)

OBJECTIVE: To promote international cooperation in the peaceful uses
of outer space.
WEBSITE: http://www.oosa.unvienna.org
Open Society Foundation,

Open Society Foundation Limpopo Component
To focus on improving planning and communication
O BJ E C TIVE :
between schools and districts through the deployment of ICTs.

WEBSITE: http://www.osf.sk/
Open Society Institute (OSI) (Soros Foundation)

OBJECTIVE: To promote Internet Media Program (OSI-IMP): connec-
tivity, content, training.
WEBSITE: http://www.soros.org
PRIDE AFRICA
O B J E C T I V E : To promote Virtual Network to link clients of a micro-
finance programme.
WEBSITE: http://www.prideafrica.com
RANET Project
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the
African Centre for Meteorological Applications for Development
(ACMAD)
O B J E C T I V E : To help marginalised communities in remote locations access
and interpret hydro-meteorological and environmental information.

WEBSITE: http://www.ranetproject.net
Readiness for a Networked World: A Guide for Developing Countries

Centre for International Development Harvard University (support of
IBM)
An educational resource that describes the determinants of a commu-
nity’s Readiness for the Networked World and a diagnostic tool that sys-
tematically examines those factors to assess a community’s readiness.
WEBSITE: http://www.readinessguide.org
Mali Inter-Ministerial Communications Network

OBJECTIVE: To link all the 23 Mali Government Ministries to the Pres-
idency and the Office of the Prime Minister, providing facilities for
Point-to-Multipoint voice, data, Internet, and video-conferencing facil-
ities. The project is being undertaken on behalf of the Department Of
Informatics and New Information Technologies, Office of the Prime
Minister, Government of the Republic of Mali by Telecom Africa Cor-
poration is collaborating with Hewlett Packard and Plessey.
WEBSITE: http://www.telecomafrica.org
Rockefeller Brothers Fund

OBJ ECTIVE: To improve quality & accessibility of basic education for
children & adults in South Africa. Projects include the Ulwazi Educa-
tional Radio Project and the Distance Project for Teacher Development.
WEBSITE: http://www.rbf.org/index.html
SchoolNet SA
Global Teenager Project (2002)
O BJ E C TIVE :To promote collaboration amongst learners across the
globe; train and support educators and learners to use ICT for curricu-
lum, and provide educators with training in the Global teenager learn-
ing circles concept.
WEBSITE: http://www.schoolnet.org.za
Appendix II ✦ 319
Shuttleworth Foundation, SchoolTool

OBJECTIVE: To enhance admin and learner tracking, and facilitate com-
munication between schools and DoE.
WEBSITE: http://www.tsf.org.za/
Steering Committee on Education—World Economic Forum

O B J E C T I V E : To promote effective and innovative use of information
technology for education and training in the developing world.

Steering Committee on Entrepreneurship—World Economic Forum

The Steering Committee is now concentrating upon two areas: con-
ducting regional pilots to connect local entrepreneurs with organisations
who can offer support and resources and creating an online resource to
support entrepreneurs on the ground.
Steering Committee on Policies and Strategies—World Economic Forum

The Committee participated with 14 governments in Southern Africa on
a policy exchange on the “how”, “what” and “why” of e-readiness.

Global Human Resource Survey of African Male
and Female Expertise in ICT
OBJECTIVE: To quantify and qualify Africa’s existing globally diffused
male and female ICT expertise as a strategic toolkit for driving Africa’s
global development, transformation and competitiveness in the ICT sec-
tor, thereby creating a critical database fro strategic decision-making
policy and access to African cutting edge expertise, wherever it may be
worldwide.
Telecom Africa Continental Internet Network

OBJECTIVE: To create a continental Internet ISP franchise throughout
Africa.
Telecom Africa Continental Telecommunications Network

OBJECTIVE: To deliver direct access between countries for voice, data,
Internet and multi-media capacity, as a satellite-based continental net-
work, thereby eliminating the costly practice of transmitting intra-
African traffic through overseas hubs.
Telecom Africa Virtual Research Laboratory

O BJ E C TIVE :To link, with the promise of support from UNESCO,
African scientific and technological research experts around the world
and their global counterparts with interest in African ICT development
in a secure global Intranet, thereby mobilising Africa’s global intellectual
resource in ICT.
Telemedicine in LDCs
O B J E C T I V E : To develop a link which allows doctors in each city to con-
fer with each other and share medical records to ensure that patients in
their respective cities get the best possible care.
WEBSITE: http://www.itu.int/newsarchive/wtdc2002/Internet_Health.html
Telkom Foundation, Telkom Internet Project (Supercentres)

OBJECTIVE: To provide ICT equipment, connectivity and an intensive
educator development programme to 100 schools from the original 1000
Schools Project.
WEBSITE: www.telkom.co.za/
Appendix II ✦ 321
The SatCom Project

OBJECTIVE: To promote distance education, telemedicine, social, cul-
tural and health development in Africa, to involve all aspects of satellite
technology, as well as exploit compatible non-satellite communications
technologies and applications, and to avoid becoming a vehicle for
dumping obsolete technologies, equipment and applications in Africa, a
practice that would further impoverish Africa as a graveyard of techno-
logical obsolescence. The SatCom Project was created primarily by the
conference organisers, Terrapin, Ltd., the Telecom Africa Corporation,
RASCOM, Hughes Network Systems, WorldSpace, Sentech, UNISA, the
Global VSAT Forum and Mike Jensen Consulting, amongst others.
WEBSITE: http://www.terrapinn.co.za
The South African Universal Agency

O BJ E C TIVE :To promote the goals of universal service and access to
telecommunications for all South Africans, which extends beyond access
to basic telephony, and encompasses access to advanced services, includ-
ing the Internet.
WEBSITE: http://www.usa.org.za
The World Project—World Bank

To help new generations learn about world cultures,
O BJ E C TIVE :
encourage school-to-school project collaboration, and serve as an infor-

mation channel for teachers around the world.
WEBSITE: http://www.worldbank.org/worldlinks/english/html/uganda.htm
Thintana Communications, Thintana iLearn Project

OBJ ECTIVE: To equip schools with computer networks (computer lab
with internet access) and to facilitate an educator development pro-
gramme to support teaching and learning through ICTs.
WEBSITE: http://www.transnationale.org
Thintana Communications, Thintana MST Project

To improve and support Maths, Science and technology
O BJ E C TIVE :
education in previously disadvantaged schools in South Africa

WEBSITE: http://www.transnationale.org
TICAD: IT Initiative for Africa

O B J E C T I V E : To contribute to the primary theme of the Tokyo Agenda
for Action “poverty reductions through accelerated economic growth

and sustainable development and effective integration of African
economies into the global economy,” as well as emphasise South-South
cooperation.
WEBSITE: http://www.undp.org/ticad/process.html
Uganda Connect
OBJECTIVE: To give students and teachers Internet access and connect
rural communities through high-frequency (HF) radios.
WEBSITE: http://www.uconnect.org
United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS/Habitat)

OBJECTIVE: To promote sustainable urbanization through policy for-
mulation, institutional reform, capacity-building, technical cooperation
and advocacy, and to monitor and improve the state of human settle-
ments worldwide.
WEBSITE: http://www.unhabitat.org/
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF)

OBJ ECTIVE: To promote every child with health, education, equality
and protection. Programmes include Voice of the Youth project, Sara
Project, Meena Communication Initiative, and Programme Knowledge
Network.
WEBSITE: http://www.unicef.org
Appendix II ✦ 323
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

OBJECTIVE: To promote the development-friendly integration of devel-
oping countries into the world economy. Programmes include Global
Trade Point Network, Debt Management and Financial Analysis System
(DMFAS), Customs reform ASYCUDA, Trade Analysis Information Sys-
tem (TRAINS), and Advance Cargo Information System (ACIS).
WEBSITE: http://www.unctad.org
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

OBJECTIVE: To promote women’s empowerment and gender equality.
Programmes include WomenWatch, formal agreement UNDP/ITU, and
strengthening of ICT initiatives.
WEBSITE: http://www.undp.org/unifem
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

UNDP provides a range of services to governments and to United
Nations teams in the following practice areas: Democratic governance,
poverty reduction, environment, ICT, Health. Programmes include
Bureau for Development Policy-IT For Development Programme, Sus-
tainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP), regional
Bureau for Africa-Internet Initiative for Africa (IIA), Web Information
for Development (WIDE), Sub-Regional Resource Facilities (SURF Sys-
tem), Netaid.org, UNDP Human Development Report 2001 dedicated
to Technology for Development, and Digital Opportunity Initiative.
WEBSITE: http://www.undp.org
United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

Cisco Networking Academies
O BJ E C TIVE :To train students in 24 of the world’s Least Developed
Countries (LDCs) and provide skills necessary to build and maintain the
Internet Infrastructure in those places.
WEBSITE: http://www.unssc.org/unssc1/programmefocus/p2/slow-
connection/partnership_n2/knowledge_sharing/news/stories/un-
business_partnerships/250101_UNDP_Cisco_internet.asp
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Initiative for Africa (IIA)
O B J E C T I V E : To assist 10 or more sub-Saharan African countries to
strengthen their Internet infrastructures and services in order to acceler-

ate socio-economic development.
WEBSITE: http://www.sdnp.undp.org/docs/reports/maputo/rba.html
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

OBJECTIVE: To support the economic and social development of its 53
member States, foster regional integration, and promote international
cooperation for Africa’s development. Programmes include Develop-
ment Information Division (DISD), Harness IT for Development
(HITD/SiA), African Information Society Initiative (AISI), Information
Technology Centre for Africa (ITCA), African Development Forum
(ADF), African Knowledge Networks Forum, and Electronic Info.
Exchange Networks (SRDCs).
WEBSITE: http://www.uneca.org
United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)

OBJ ECTIVE: To promote free-flow of information, capacity-building
in communication, information & informatics, development of local
content, and telecentres. Programmes include Nakaseke Telecentres
programme.
WEBSITE: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/index.shtml
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

O B J E C T I V E : To provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring
for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and

peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of
the future generations. Programmes include Global Resource Informa-
tion Database (GRID), Environment and Nature Resource Information
Networks (ENRIN), Environmental Information Systems (EIS), and
INFOTERRIA.
WEBSITE: http://www.unep.org
Appendix II ✦ 325
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

OBJECTIVE: To promote refugee registration system database develop-
ment to assist in family reunification.
WEBSITE: http://www.unhcr.ch/business
United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)

To lead and co-ordinate international action to protect
O BJ E C TIVE :
refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Programmes include

UNIDO Exchange.
WEBSITE: http://www.unido.org
United Nations Information and Communication

Technologies Task Force (UN ICT TF)
OBJ ECTIVE: To bring together representatives from governments, the
private sector, non-profit organisations, and international organisations,
representing both the developed and developing countries, in a cooper-
ative effort to identify ways in which the digital revolution can benefit all
the world’s people, especially the poorest and most marginalised groups.
Programs are included in the framework of the NEPAD Initiative. The
Task Force has agreed to serve as a strategic partner in: supporting inno-
vative ICT programmes and R&D in the field of ICT in Africa; harness-
ing synergies and linking the vast number of ICT initiatives both within
Africa and between Africa and other continents; providing a framework
for defining collaboration between NEPAD and the African Information
Society Initiative.
WEBSITE: www.unicttaskforce.org
United Nations Information Technology Services (UNITeS)

To channel the creative energies, skills and solidarity of
O BJ E C TIVE :
volunteers around the world to collaborate with people in the South to

improve their capacity to make practical use of information and com-
munications technologies (ICT) in key fields like health, education,
income generation, gender equity, environment or humanitarian aid.
WEBSITE: http://www.unites.org
United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)

OBJECTIVE: To promote awareness raising and capacity building activ-
ities and to assist developing countries to formulate coherent national
ICT strategies and to encourage them to participate actively in the con-
struction of the global information society.
WEBSITE: http://www.unitar.org/ict/
United Nations Millennium Development Goals

W E B S I T E : http://www.un.org/millennium/
S U B - S A H A R A N A F R I C A W E B S I T E : http://www.developmentgoals.org/
Sub-Saharan_Africa.htm
N O R T H A F R I C A W E B S I T E : http://www.developmentgoals.org/
Middle_East_&_North_Africa.htm
United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs

(OCHA)
PROGRAMMES INCLUDE: “First on the Ground” project (with Erics-
son), and Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN).
WEBSITE: http://www.reliefweb.int/ocha_ol/index.html
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

A guide to population information on UN system web sites to promote
Population Information Network (POPIN).
WEBSITE: http://www.undp.org/popin/
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)

OBJECTIVE: To carry out research on the social dimensions of contem-
porary problems affecting development. Programmes include
INFOTECH (Information Technology and Social Development).
WEBSITE: http://www.unrisd.org/infotech/
Appendix II ✦ 327
Updating Ethiopia’s education system

Ethiopian Department of Education (DoE), and USAID—Addis Ababa
University (AAU), World Bank (under the World Bank’s Africa Virtual
University (AVU) programme.
O B J E C T I V E : To provide training for teachers and aid in the reform of
Ethiopia’s primary schools as well as at university level.
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

To promote long-term and equitable economic growth
O BJ E C TIVE :
and advance U.S. foreign policy objectives by supporting economic

growth, agriculture and trade, global health and, democracy, conflict
prevention and humanitarian assistance. Programmes include Africa
Link, Leland Initiatives, South Africa Regional Telkom, Restructuring
(RTR), Globe Initiative, RITE, and GHAI.
WEBSITE: http://www.usaid.gov
WHO’s Health InterNetwork

World Health Organisation (WHO)
OBJECTIVE: To bridge the digital divide in health.
WEBSITE: http://www.healthinternetwork.org
Wind-up radios in Mozambique

Freeplay Foundation
OBJ ECTIVE: To use wind-up environment-friendly radios in order to
help relay remote villages the information that could aid their safety and
security.
WEBSITE:
http://www7.itu.int/itudfg7/fg7/CaseLibrary/ShowSummary.asp?contrib=59
W.K. Kellogg Foundation

To help people help themselves through the practical
O BJ E C TIVE :
application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life

and that of future generations. Programmes include Institute for Dis-

tance Education in South Africa and, in Botswana, to strengthen primary
health care and nurse leadership.
WEBSITE: http://www.wkkf.org
World Bank
P R O G R AM M E S InfoDev, Global Development Network
I N C LU D E :
(GDN), Global Development Gateway (GDG), World Programme,

Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), African Virtual University
(AVU), Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), Telecommu-
nications and Informatics Programme, Technology Network (TechNet),
Softbank Emerging Markets to incubate internet-related business, and
Africa Technology Forum WorldLinks for Development (WorLD).
WEBSITE: http://www.worldbank.org
World Food Programme (WFP)

WFP is the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against global
hunger. Programmes include Vulnerability Analysis Mapping (VAM) to
provide food security analysis.
WEBSITE: http://www.wfp.org/index.htm
World Health Organisation (WHO)

PROGRAMMES WHO Library and Information Networks
INCLUDE:
for Knowledge (LINK) and its WHOLIS database, and Heath InterNet-
work (with other partners).
WEBSITE: http://www.who.org
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)

P R O G R A M M E S I N C L U D E : Digital Agenda (to broaden the participa-
tion of developing countries), WIPONET (to interconnect 332 intellec-

tual property offices in 171 countries), WIPO World Wide Academy
(distance learning programme to increase awareness of and promote
understanding of, intellectual property).
WEBSITE: http://www.wipo.org
Appendix II ✦ 329
Worldview International Foundation (WIF)

OBJECTIVE: To promote constant application of new communication
technology to endorse sustainable human development. Programmes
include Smart Village, Knowledge on Demand Project, Participatory
Communication for Democracy and Sustainable Development, and
Mandate the Future.
WEBSITE: http://www.wifoundation.org
World Space Foundation

O BJ E C TIVE :To broadcast satellite audio and multimedia content to
Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It was conceived of and built
the first ever satellite radio infrastructure in the world. Programmes
include Africa Learning Channel.
WEBSITE: http://www.worldspace.com
World Trade Organisation

To assist with the rules of trade between nations. Pro-
O BJ E C TIVE :
grammes include Information Technology and Basic Telecoms agree-

ments to help promote e-commerce.
WEBSITE: http://www.wto.org
Notes on Contributors
Kofi Annan—Mr. Kofi Annan is the seventh Secretary-General of the

United Nations, and the first to be elected from the ranks of the United
Nations staff. He joined the UN system in 1962 as an administrative and
budget officer with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva.
From March 1993 to December 1996, he served as Under-Secretary-
General. Mr. Annan’s report, entitled “We the Peoples: The Role of the
United Nations in the 21st Century”, formed the basis of the Millennium
Declaration adopted by Heads of State and Government at the Millen-
nium Summit, held in September 2000. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
and the United Nations received the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10,
2001. Mr. Annan earned his undergraduate work in economics at
Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota and a Master of Science degree
in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Akhtar Badshah—Dr. Akhtar Badshah is the Executive Director of Digi-

tal Partners. Author of Our Urban Future, Zed Books London 1996, he
has also published in numerous international journals on issues ranging
from ICT and development and environmental sustainability, to cities
and Architecture.
331
Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane—Dr. Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane is

Director of the Development Information Services Division at the
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Prior to
joining the UN, she was the Director General of the Institut Régional
des Sciences Informatiques et des Télécommunications (IRSIT). She
was also a member of the high-level Working Group established at the
request of the ECA Conference of Ministers, to prepare the Africa
Information Society Initiative, the blueprint for the use of information
technology for development in Africa. Ms. Bounemra is a published
author and member of numerous professional organisations on telem-
atics and information technology. She earned a Ph.D. in Information
Systems from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in Paris, France, and
a Computer System Design Engineering degree from the University of
Tunis.
David Feige—Mr. David Feige is a Program Officer at Digital Partners.
José María Figueres—Mr. José María Figueres is the Chairman of the

United Nations ICT Task Force and the Managing Director of the Cen-
tre for the Global Agenda, World Economic Forum. Prior to that, he was
President of Costa Rica. From 1988 to 1990, he was Minister of Foreign
Trade and Minister of Agriculture. Mr Figueres earned a Bachelor’s
degree in Industrial Engineering at the US Military Academy at West
Point and a Master of Public Administration degree from the Kennedy
School of Law and Government at Harvard University.
Deepa Ghosh—Deepa Ghosh is a Master of Public Administration

Degree Candidate at Columbia University School of International and
Public Affairs.
Michael Jensen—Mr. Michael Jensen is an independent consultant with

experience in over 35 countries in Africa, assisting in the establishment
of information and communications systems over the last 15 years. He
provides advice to international development agencies, the private
sector, NGOs and governments in the formulation, management and
evaluation of their Internet projects.
Notes on Contributors ✦ 333
Sarbuland Khan—Mr. Sarbuland Khan is the Director of the Division for

ECOSOC Support and Coordination of the United Nations Department
of Economic and Social Affairs. He directed the preparation of the Min-
isterial meeting of the Economic and Social Council on ICT for devel-
opment and has been responsible for its follow-up in the context of
servicing the Secretary-General’s Advisory Group on ICT and the estab-
lishment of the United Nations ICT Task Force. Mr. Khan has held
numerous positions in the United Nations for the past twenty years.
Prior to joining the United Nations, he was the Director for Economic
Coordination in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan. Mr. Khan
holds a Masters degree in economics.
H.E. Alpha Oumar Konaré—His Excellency Alpha Oumar Konaré is the

former President of the Republic of Mali. An ardent believer in the
immense capacities of Information and Communications Technologies,
President Konaré is a leading advocate for their deployment in pursuit of
Africa’s development. To this end, he has played a key role in developing
global partnerships, culminating in hosting in Bamako, “Bamako 2000”,
and international forum on ICT, and the African Regional Preparatory
Conference of the World Summit on Information Society. President
Konaré is the Chairman of the eAfrica Commission of the New Partner-
ship for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the development instrument of
the African Union.
Gillian Marcelle—Dr. Gillian Marcelle serves on the UN ICT Task Force, and
has been active in the telecommunications and information and commu-
nications technology (ICT) policy arena for the past fourteen years, work-
ing in universities, telecommunication companies, regulatory authorities,
and as a consultant. Dr. Marcelle recently completed an extensive study
exploring technology capability building processes in developing country
firms, with an empirical focus on the African telecommunications indus-
try, as part of the requirements for the award of a DPhil in Science and
Technology Policy Studies, at Sussex University. She also holds a B.Sc
(Hons.) in Economics from the University of the West Indies, St Augus-
tine and an MBA from George Washington University.
Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr.—Dr. Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr. is the President and

Chief Executive Officer of the Telecom Africa Corporation and a leading
authority on telecommunications and development. A respected scholar
and expert in Futures Studies and Long-term Strategic Studies, fields in
which he serves as consultant, Dr. Okpaku’s academic credentials reflect
the wide scope of his experience and interest. He holds a Bachelor of Sci-
ence degree in Civil Engineering from Northwestern University, a Mas-
ter of Science degree in Structural Engineering from Stanford University,
and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Theatre History and Dramatic Lit-
erature, also from Stanford. A Nigerian, Dr. Okpaku is the author of
books and numerous articles and speeches on a wide range of subjects.
Nigeria: Dilemma of Nationhood, a book that he edited and wrote with
friends while still in graduate school at Stanford in the late 1960s,
remains a textbook for graduate studies in political science. He also
edited and published the ten-volume encyclopedic work, The Arts and
Civilisation of Black and African People, in collaboration with Prof. Alfred
Opubor and Prof. Benjamin Oloruntimehin. As the founder of The
Third Press, a leading pioneer publishing house in the late 1960s, Dr.
Okpaku published books by leading African and non-African authors,
including the official biography of President Gerald Ford by then White
House Press Secretary, Jerald terHorst.
Emmanuel OleKambainei—Mr. Emmanuel N. OleKambainei is Chief

Executive and Program Director for the African Connection Centre for
Strategic Planning. Prior to that, he was Co-Ordinator (Policy and Rep-
utation), also of the African Connection Centre.
Nii Narku Quaynor—Mr. Nii Narku Quaynor is Chairman of Network

Computer Systems (NCS), based in Ghana. Prior to establishing NCS,
Mr. Quaynor worked as a UNDP consultant to the Ghana National
Petroleum Corporation, and held positions of various levels at Digital
Equipment Corporation. Mr. Quaynor is currently a member of the
United Nations Secretary General ICT Task Force, the African Director
of ICANN, the eAfrica Program Commissioner for Internet and Soft-
ware, and the Chairman of AfriNIC, the regional Internet Registry for
Notes on Contributors ✦ 335
Africa. He holds a few patents and has written articles for several publi-
cations. Mr. Quaynor earned a Masters Degree and a Ph.D. in Computer
Science from the State University of New York, Stony Brook.
Mavis Ampah Sintim-Misa—Ms. Mavis Ampah Sintim-Misa was until
recently, the Chief Executive Officer of the African Connection Centre
for Strategic Planning of the African Telecommunications Union. Ms.
Sintim-Ampah is a Ghanaian.
Crocker Snow, Jr.—Mr. Crocker Snow, Jr. is President of The Money
Matters Institute. He is the Founding Publisher and President of World
Times, Inc., and the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPaper. As a journal-
ist, he has written numerous series and articles that have appeared in
Boston, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, and has won a few awards,
including, in 1968, the UPI Tom Phillips Award, as an executive pro-
ducer for an 8-part radio documentary on crime. He was a Pulitzer
Prize nominee for reporting from Asia for 1974 and 1976. Mr. Snow, Jr.
holds a Master of Arts degree in International Affairs from Harvard
University.
Pekka Tarjanne—Dr. Pekka Tarjanne is the Executive Coordinator of the
United Nations Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
Task Force. He was the Vice-Chairman of Project Oxygen, Ltd., from
1999–2000 and the Secretary-General of the International Telecommu-
nications Union (ITU) for two terms, from November 1989 through
January 1999. Prior to joining the ITU, Dr. Tarjanne was the Director-
General of Posts and Telecommunications in his native Finland, and
before that, the Minister of Transport and Communications. Dr. Tar-
janne holds a Ph.D. degree from the Helsinki University of Technology.
Justin Thumler—Mr. Justin Thumler is the Managing Director of Digital
Partners. Before co-founding Digital Partners, he consulted for
Microsoft Corporate Affairs and worked in the financial sector as an
investment banker.
H.E. Abdoulaye Wade—His Excellency Abdoulaye Wade is President of
the Republic of Senegal, after being elected to a seven-year term in
March 2000. He has worked as an international consultant for the Orga-

nization of African Unity, the African Development Bank and other
multilateral institutions, and is a member of the International Academy
of Trial Lawyers. President Wade is also the Founder and current Secre-
tary-General of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), and is a widely
acclaimed lawyer, mathematician and economist. President Wade earned
a teacher’s diploma in 1947, and between 1950 and 1959, he attended the
Lycée Condorcet in Paris, before enrolling in the Law Faculty of the Uni-
versity of Besançon, as well as the University of Grenoble, France. He
holds degrees in Applied Mathematics, Law and Economics. President
Wade was awarded the French Legion of Honour. He has written several
articles on economics, law, and political science.
INDEX
African Connection, 18, 32–33, 45, 47,

A 72, 77, 151, 156–161, 172–173,
A Good Life, 141 289–290, 304, 334–335
AAG-ICT, 18, 33, 42, 289, 304 African Connection, Mission and
ABC, 142 see also Australia Broadcasting Objectives of the, 157
Corporation African Day, 139
ACCT Survey, 64 African Development Agenda, 107–109,
ACEN, 40 111–113, 115, 117, 119, 121, 123, 186
ACTIS, 40 African Development Forum, 131–132,
ACT-NET, 40 134, 324 see also ADF
ADF, 131–134, 324 see also African African Genius, 12, 116–117
Development Forum African Habitat Professionals, 238
Aerospace Corporation, the, 218 African ICT experts, 7, 18, 27, 33, 149,
AFCOM, 291 203, 220, 288–289, 291
AFRALTI, 167 African Information and
Africa BDD Agenda, The, 193 Communications Technologies
AFRICA CYBERMARKET, 41 Firms, 152, 251, 272
Africa digital rights vision, 175, 191 African Information Society Initiative,
Africa’s development partners, 287 the, 72, 126, 132, 136, 138–139, 142,
Africa’s leadership, 287 150, 304–305, 324–325 see also AISI
African Address Registry, 181, 198 see African Intellectual Property, 191, 196
also AfriNIC African ISP Associations, 198 see also
African Advisory Group on ICT, The, AfrISPA
32–33, 42, 289 African Knowledge Network Forum, 133
African Advisory Group on Information see also AKNF
and Communications African leaders, 11, 13, 38, 111, 297
Technologies, 18, 32–33, 42, 289 see African Learning Network, 133, 307
also African Advisory Group on African Regional Network, 27
ICT African Regional Preparatory
African Connection Centre for Strategic Conference for the World Summit
Planning, 18, 161, 334–335 on Information Society, 31, 118
African Connection Initiative, The, 45, African Self-Development, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9,
156–157, 161 11, 13–15, 17, 19, 21
African Connection Program, The, 18, African Stakeholders Network, 91, 137,
157–158, 334 149–150, 299 see also ASN
African Connection Secretariat, The, African Technical Advisory Committee,
161, 173 The, 136 see also ATAC
337
African Telecom Summit, 291 Application, 89, 109, 128, 186, 200–201,
African Telecommunications Union, 226, 230, 234, 244, 252, 273, 294,
The, 32–33, 156–158, 290, 304, 335 316, 327, 329
see ATU applications and software development,
African Training and Research Centre in 12, 30, 294, 309
Administration for Development ASN, 91, 137, 139, 143, 184, 299, 305 see
(CAFRAD), 105, 124 African Stakeholders Network
African Union, 23, 32–33, 36–37, 43, 73, AT&T, 265, 281–282, 288
111, 156–158, 269, 286, 290, 297, ATAC, 136, 150 see also African Technical
304, 333, 335 Advisory Committee
AfricaOnline, 70–71 ATU, 32, 156–159, 304 see The African
Africa’s Digital Rights, 175, 177, 179, Telecommunications Union
181, 183, 185, 187, 189, 191, 193, Australia Broadcasting Corporation, the,
195, 197, 199, 201 142 see also ABC
Africa’s March of Progress, 123
Africa’s Millennium Goal, 14
Africa’s Problems, 106–107, 120, 208
B
Africa’s vision, 44, 110–112, 120, 175 Badshah, Dr. Akhtar, 19, 223, 331
AFRICASHOP, 41 Bamako 2000, 51, 53–54, 132, 333
AfriNIC, 181, 183, 198–199, 202, 334 see Bamako 2002, 31, 131–132, 135, 139, 148
also African Address Registry Bamako Declaration, 132
AFRISHARE, 27, 235 Bande, Tijani Muhammed, 105
AfrISPA, 198 see also African ISP BDD, 178, 186, 193, 201
Associations Bellanet, 34, 77, 143, 145, 150, 312
AfriStar, 62 Bichara, Khaled, 246
Afsat, 73 Bits per Capita indicator, 142
AHTIS, 40 brain-export, 167
AI-AIMS database, 145 Bridge the Digital Divide Program, 178
AIDS, 28, 95, 125, 146, 171, 200, 235, Brown, Ernest, 202
314, 316 Bureau for Telecommunications
AISI Briefing Papers, 142 Development (BDT), 31, 34
AISI Radio Series, 140–141 bush connectivity, 242, 247
AISI, 72, 77, 125–128, 132, 136–138,
140–143, 147, 150, 156, 305, 324 see
also African Information Society
C
Initiative Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 142
AKNF, 150 see also African Knowledge Canton of Geneva, 49
Network Forum Capacity Building, 31–32, 35, 89–90,
Akwule, Raymond, 288 102, 117, 124, 129, 133, 140, 168,
Alcatel, 32, 265, 305 201, 212, 214, 216, 231, 283,
Amoako, K.Y., 125 290–291, 294–295, 301, 326
Anais Network, 49–50 Ceesay, Ebrima, 289
Annan, Amma, 288 cellular base stations, 63
Annan, Secretary-General Kofi, 14, CEO Charter for Development and
17–18, 21, 47, 80, 87, 286, 331 Business Endorsement, The, 44
Application Specific Integrated Circuits CEO Charter for Development, The, 25
(ASIC), 200 Channel Africa, 62, 329
Index ✦ 339
Chassia, Henry, 202 development process, 2–4, 6, 8–9, 11, 16,

cheetah-pole-vault, 151, 156, 168 45, 52, 96, 99, 108, 128, 135, 141,
China, 113, 116, 176–177, 212, 215, 292 212, 259–260, 293, 297
Chissano, President, 144 Development, new definition of, 1, 6
Cinderella Syndrome, The, 208 Diagnostics, 110
Cisco, 81, 133, 140, 265, 307–308, 323 Dialogue, 16–17, 50, 91, 99, 103,
Civil Society Initiatives, 28 108–109, 111, 131, 134, 149, 218,
Clarion Call, The, 206–207, 297 291–292, 296, 301, 310–311
Columbia University African Studies Digital Bridge to Africa Workshop, 26,
Department, 71 228
Communication Programme, The, Digital Bridge to Africa, 26, 177, 221,
140–141 223, 225, 227–229, 231, 233, 235,
Comtel Project, The, 32 237, 239, 299, 305
conducive environment, 1, 5, 74, 287, Digital Bridge, 26, 92–93, 177–178, 203,
292, 294, 300 205, 207–209, 211, 213–217, 219,
Content, 8, 12, 31, 41, 51, 62, 70–71, 221, 223, 225, 227–229, 231, 233,
88–89, 102, 128–129, 135–136, 153, 235–237, 239, 299, 305, 308, 315,
157, 160–161, 164–165, 170, 187, 327
189, 191–192, 194, 199, 201, 233, Digital Bridge, Building the, 203, 205,
235, 246–247, 273, 293, 307, 317, 207–209, 211, 213–217, 219, 221
324, 329 Digital Diaspora Network for Africa,
Cooperation, 26, 31, 38, 40, 49, 54, 69, The, 223, 226, 237, 290, 299, 308 see
72, 77, 88, 91, 98, 103, 141, 145, 147, also DDN-A
156, 158–159, 191, 295–296, 300, Digital Diaspora, 27, 44, 223, 226, 237,
307, 311, 313, 317, 322, 324 290, 299, 308
Countries of Mutual Interest (COMI), Digital Divide, The, 20, 25, 45, 55, 80–81,
160 92–93, 98, 124, 142, 156, 172,
Coupet, Charles, 288 177–178, 190, 201, 204–208,
cross-border rural connectivity 210–211, 213, 219, 221, 238, 241,
programs, 169 243, 245, 247, 249, 299, 305, 308,
Cyberville, 82 316, 327
Digital Factory, The, 30, 119, 216, 294,
309
D Digital Illiteracy, 92
Dandjinou, Pierre, 202, 289 digital inclusion, 93, 142
DATAFRICA, 40 digital marginalisation, 93
DDN-A Supported Projects in Africa, 233 Digital Opportunity Task Force, 24, 96,
DDN-A, 27, 223–224, 226–228, 231–233, 99, 102, 309
235–237, 290, 299 see also Digital Digital Revolution, The, 17, 81, 84, 87,
Diaspora Network for Africa 89, 325
Department for International Digital Rights Principles, 178, 190
Development, 141, 308 Diop, Mouhamet, 202
Development as Problem Solving, 106 dotAfrica TLD, 199
Development Assistance, 6, 8, 104, 122, Dream Digital Bridge, 219
267, 307 Durban, 23, 111
Development Industry, 7–8, 11, 20, 30, dynamics of nation-building, 107
200, 306, 309 Dzidonu, Clement, 202
E-HISTORY AFRICA, 41
E e-Initiatives, 101
E-Academy, 233 E-JUSTICE AFRICA, 40
eAfrica Agenda, 178, 187–189, 192 Empowerment, 14, 27–28, 89, 95, 152,
eAfrica Commission, The, 17, 175, 178, 156, 178, 184, 201, 211, 217, 228,
180–181, 187, 192, 199, 333 217 see 230, 237, 317, 323
also e-Africa Commission E-Schools and E-Health, 170
e-Africa Commission, The, 33, 38–39, ESMT, 166
41–44, 159, 206, 217 see also eAfrica e-store, 81
Commission e-Strategies, 25, 89–90, 102, 143, 300
eAfrica Program Commissioner, 175, Ethiopia, 57, 65, 69, 74, 90, 128, 134–135,
334 139–140, 327
eAfrica Vision, 175, 184–185, 189, 196, 202 Evolution of the Digital Divide, The, 177
E-Agriculture, 171
ECA, 19, 27, 51, 77, 125–127, 132–143,
F
145, 148, 150, 324, 332
Economic and Social Council, 53–54, 88, FCC, 289
333 see also ECOSOC FDI, 152, 282 see also foreign direct
Economic Commission for Africa investment
(ECA), 19, 51, 72, 90, 125–126, 137, Fifty-sixth Session of the United Nations
141, 324, 332 General Assembly, 85, 221
Economic Community for Central Figueres, José María, 18, 80, 332
Africa States (CEMAC), 129–130 Ford Foundation, 310
Economic Community for Western foreign direct investment, 152, 254–256,
Africa States, 130 see also ECOWAS 282 see also FDI
economic-haves, 186 Four Foundations Partnership, the, 133
Ecosandals.com, 245, 248 Future, The, 47–48, 72, 82–83, 88,
ECOSOC, 18, 38, 47, 52, 54, 88–89, 95, 109–110, 120, 207, 224, 246, 286,
333 see also Economic and Social 291, 296, 312, 324, 329
Council
ECOWAS, 130, 150, 159 see also
G
Economic Community for Western
Africa States G8 Africa Plan of Action, The, 24
E-Culture, 21, 124, 221 G8 Digital Opportunity Task Force, The,
E-CUSTOMER AFRICA, 40 96, 99
Education, 10, 25, 28–29, 37, 40–41, 50, G8 Dot Force, 25, 77, 91, 148, 206, 309
52, 58–59, 80, 83, 91, 93, 95, G8 industrial countries, 23
103–104, 113, 129, 133, 135, 146, Gambia, 57, 65, 78, 289
148, 156, 159, 164, 166, 168, 186, Gamtel, 289
190, 200, 224, 233, 242, 290, 292, Gateway Project of the World Bank, 27
301, 305, 308, 310, 312, 314–319, GBDe Steering Committee, 103
321–322, 325, 327–328 Genoa Plan of Action, 102
e-enablement, 178 George Mason University, 288
EgDeaf.com, 247–248 Ghana, 57, 61–62, 65, 71, 74, 128, 135,
Egosangwa, Roselyn, 241–242, 249 139–140, 183, 236, 252, 269, 291, 334
e-Government, 103–104, 129, 163, 169, GIIC, 103
305 GKP Strategy 2005, the, 139
Index ✦ 341
GKP, 138–139, 149, 310, 328 Hughes Network Systems, 29, 265, 321
Glob@lNet, 246 Human capital, 187, 196, 306
Global BDD Agenda, 186 Human Resource Development, 24, 29,
global community, 36, 149, 168, 171, 90, 166–168, 301
180, 287
Global Competitiveness, 92, 118, 124,
211, 295, 319
I
Global Dialogue, The, 50 IBM, 218, 318
Global Digital Divide Task Force, 25 ICANN, 18, 139, 194, 198, 334
Global Digital Opportunity Initiative, iConnect Africa, 137, 140–141, 145
The, 25 ICT and Administration, 114
Global Human Resource Survey of ICT and Modernisation, 114
African Male and Female Expertise ICT and Self-Development, 113
in ICT, The, 35, 210, 215, 319 ICT cities Initiatives, 170
Global Information Infrastructure ICT deployment, 11, 27, 114, 191
Commission, 103 ICT Focus Group, 131, 134
global Internet, 18, 179, 195 ICT Media Award Programme, The, 142
global Intranet, 36, 320 ICT Priority Areas, 200
Global Knowledge Conference, The , 51, ICT toolkit for Africa, 159
138 ICT Vision for Africa, The, 184
Global Knowledge Partnership, The, 145 ICTs in Mali, 141
Global Partnership, 25, 31, 39, 42, 145, IDRC, 34, 77, 133, 135, 140, 142, 150,
217, 286, 296–297, 310, 328 282, 304, 312, 316
Global Policy, 25, 87, 187, 189, 191–192, IETASK FORCE, 194
194–195, 300 IIA, 288–289, 323–324 see also Internet
Global VSAT Forum, The, 29, 321 Initiative for Africa
Globalisation, 19, 35, 43, 96, 133, IICD, 140–142, 150, 310, 313
171–172, 220, 281 India, 30, 113, 116, 167, 177, 216, 226,
Globalisation, The Essential Principles 238, 282
of, 220 Indian-ethnic organisation, 226
GMPCS, 158, 164 Info-communication, 45, 151–153, 155,
governance, 10, 13, 20, 25, 59, 80, 89–90, 157, 159, 161, 163, 165, 167, 169,
93, 97, 112, 118, 133–135, 142, 146, 171, 173
153, 166, 169, 186, 212, 224, 300, Information and Communications
306, 323 Divide, the, 45, 219
Government-on-line, 169 information flows, 96, 181, 272, 276
Gruppo CERFE, 27, 224, 237–238, 308 Information Technology Centre for
GSM Association, The, 269 Africa, the, 133, 140
Guy Olivier Segond, President, 49 Info-structure, 177, 181, 187, 189, 191,
196, 198
Infrastructure, 9, 12, 24, 31, 37–39,
H 41–42, 58, 61–63, 66, 72–73, 80, 82,
Heads of State Implementation 85, 89, 97, 99, 103, 119, 126–130,
Committee, 17, 37, 39, 42 132, 135, 138, 142, 147–148,
HealthNet Uganda, 234–235 151–155, 157–158, 161–166, 177,
Hewlett-Packard, 81 187–189, 191, 196, 198, 255, 291,
Horizon Map, The, 8 304–305, 307, 323, 329
ingenuity, 28, 287 Johannesburg Summit, 124

Interconnection to the Global Internet, John, K.J., 202
179 Johnson, Ellen Sirleaf, 288
International Development Research
Centre, the, 142
International Institute for
K
Communication and Development, Kagame, President, 144
the, 141–142 Kerby, Richard, 288
International Telecommunications Khan, Sarbuland, Dr., 18, 95, 333
Union (ITU), 18, 31, 249, 335 Kiswahili language, 233
Internet and Software Development, Knowledge, 2, 5–8, 11–17, 20, 28, 31, 50,
191–192 52, 54, 72, 77, 79, 82, 87, 91–93,
Internet and Software Laws, 199 98–99, 102, 112, 118, 126, 131–132,
Internet Corporation for Assigned 136–145, 148–150, 152, 156–157,
Names and Numbers, The, 139 159, 165, 167–168, 171–172, 178,
Internet Domain Names and Addresses, 184–188, 190–191, 193, 196, 200,
181 202, 205–206, 208, 225, 231, 242,
Internet Exchange Points, 74, 164 257, 286, 291–292, 299, 304–305,
Internet Initiative for Africa, 288–289 see 310, 316–317, 324–326, 332–333
also IIA Knowledge-Based African Renaissance,
Internet Measures, 178, 181 14, 19
Internet Revolution, The, 50 Knowledge-based Economy, 38, 88, 168,
Internet Troubadours for Africa, 288 202
Internet, 15, 18, 28, 41, 49–57, 60, 63–71, Knowledge-Based Empowerment, 14
74, 76–77, 81, 89, 92–93, 113, 118, knowledge-based global environment,
133, 137, 139–140, 142–143, 203, 220
153–155, 164–166, 170, 175, knowledge-based self-development,
178–181, 183–184, 187, 189, 13–14
191–192, 194–202, 209, 216, 228, Konaré, President Alpha Oumar, 17, 38,
233–235, 241–242, 244, 246–248, 47, 54, 131, 333
288–289, 300, 305, 309–310, Ku-Band VSAT, 64, 73
314–315, 317–318, 320–324, 332, 334 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, 102
IP standards, 194
Ipv4 address space, 181–182
ITCA, 133, 140, 150, 324
L
ITU African Regional Conference, 32 La Case des Tout-Petits, 83
ITU World Telecommunication LDCs, 7, 157, 160, 320, 323
Development Report 2002, 77–78 Leadership and Governance, the role of,
ITU, 18, 31–32, 34, 77–78, 124, 135, 150, 20
157, 194, 215, 221, 291, 301, leap-frog, 151, 156
313–314, 316, 320, 322–323, 327, 335 Least Developed Countries, 7, 323
IXP, 164 Leland Initiative, The, 53
Leland, Mickey, 289
Leyland Initiative, 289
J LinkdotNet, 246
Jensen Consulting, Mike, 29, 321 Local Area Networks, 64
Jensen, Mike, 18, 29, 55, 321 Loutfy, Yasser, 241–242, 246–247, 249
Index ✦ 343
National Information and

M Communications Infrastructure,
MacArthur Foundation, 314 72, 126–127, 142, 305
MailAfrica, 70 National Information Technology
Mali, 17, 31, 38, 47, 53–54, 57, 62, 65, 69, Council, the, 138
74, 118, 128, 131–132, 134, National Public Radio, 142
140–141, 318, 333 Nation-Building, 107, 122
Manufacturing, 12, 39, 116, 119–120, NEPAD ICT Projects, 39
167, 170, 177, 190, 215, 252, 256, NEPAD Implementation Plan, 39
258, 262–263, 283, 291 NEPAD, 17, 23, 26, 33, 36–39, 41–45, 73,
MAP, 8, 20, 53, 77, 138, 142, 285, 287, 79–80, 82–85, 91, 105, 110–111,
289, 291, 293, 295, 297 120, 124, 138, 147–148, 150, 156,
Marcelle, Dr. Gillian M., 251 158–160, 175, 206, 217, 286, 297,
marginalisation, 89, 93 316, 325, 333
Market Access, 37, 80, 153, 294–295 Network for Africa, 216, 223, 226–227,
Markle Foundation, 25, 159, 202, 315 237, 290, 299, 308, 311
Matsepe-Casaburri, Dr. Ivy, 33, 289 New African Initiative, The, 80, 138
Mayanja, Meddia, 242 New Partnership for Africa’s
McElvane, Roxanne, 289 Development, 17, 23, 26, 36,
Medical Sciences, 293 44–45, 79–80, 83, 85, 110, 138,
Mentorship Programme, 218 158–159, 206, 286, 306, 333 see also
Meyer, Mathew, 244–245 NEPAD
Microcredit, 104 NGO, 28, 58, 61, 66, 129, 152, 235, 300,
Microsoft, 81, 83, 209, 236, 289, 315, 335 317, 332 see also Non Governmental
MIGA, 160 Organisations
Millennium Declaration, 43, 88–89, 331 NICI Maps and Graphs, 142
Millennium Development Goals, 14–15, NICI, 72, 77, 126–129, 140, 142–144,
95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 191, 238, 286, 150, 305
309, 326 Niger, 57, 66, 69, 74, 78, 126, 129, 140
Millennium Partnership for African Nigeria, 21, 37, 39, 57, 66–67, 69, 183,
Recovery Programme, the, 138 202, 214, 234, 236, 290, 316, 334
Millennium Summit, 14, 88–89, 95, 286, Nigerian Information Technology
331 Professionals Association (NITPA),
Ministerial Oversight Committee, The, 290, 316
32–33, 289 NITC, 138
Ministers, 18, 32–33, 72, 126, 130, 133, Non Governmental Organisations, 92 see
136, 138, 157–158, 173, 288–289, also NGO
291, 304, 332 NORAD, 135, 140, 317
Modisakgosi, Edward, 117 Nortel, 218, 265
money motive, the, 27, 243
Monitoring the Digital Divide, 177
O
Mozambique, 25, 57, 65, 71, 78, 126, 128,
134–135, 140, 144, 306, 327 OAU, 23, 31, 37, 80, 111, 157
OECD, 56, 69, 283
offline security, 243
N Ohiorhenuan, John, 288
National ICT strategies, 97, 137, 140, 326 Okinawa Summit, 204
Okpaku, Sr., Ph.D, Dr. Joseph O., 1, PATU, 32, 156–157

20–21, 23, 45, 105, 124, 203, 221, PDCA Cycle, The, 193
285, 288, 334 PeopleLink, 61
OleKambainei, Emmanuel, 18, 45, 151, PICTA, 77, 91, 136–137, 141, 143, 145,
334 149–150, 305
OMEGA Plan, the, 138 Plan of Action, 24, 43, 90, 102, 132
OosyNet, 133 Plan-Do-Check-Action Cycle, The, 193
Open Society Initiative for Southern Plessey, 118, 265, 318
Africa, The, 142 points of presence, 56–57, 68
Opportunities, 4–7, 13, 17, 21, 24, 30, 53, Policy, 10, 12–13, 17–18, 25, 31–33, 35,
59–60, 84, 91–93, 96, 99, 120, 122, 41, 53, 58, 82, 87, 89–90, 93, 96, 103,
131, 141, 147, 152–154, 159, 163, 118, 120, 125–126, 128–129,
172, 186, 203, 205, 208, 217–219, 132–133, 140, 142, 144–147,
223–227, 230–231, 244, 249, 262, 149–150, 153–154, 158–163,
272, 290, 295, 301, 309, 316 168–169, 187–189, 191–192,
Oracle, 289 194–195, 199, 255–257, 259,
ORBICOM, 177 277–278, 280–282, 290–291, 294,
Orbicom-CIDA Project, 2002, 177 300, 304, 310–311, 314, 316, 319,
Organisation for Economic Cooperation 322, 327, 333–334
and Development, 69 PrepCom 1, 132
Organisation of African Unity, 23, 80, problem solving, 2–5, 8–9, 106–107, 207,
157 239
Ouedrago, Pierre, 202 Problem-Dependence, 204
Out of Africa, 51, 142 Problem-Solving, The Metamorphosis
Out of School Youth Network, 133 of, 205
Owerri Digital Village, 234 Public Telephone Operators, 63
Ownership of Problems, 4, 20, 106–107,
123–124, 221
Q
Quaynor, Dr. Nii Narku, 18–19
P
PAG-NET, 40
PanAfrican Governmental Network, 40
R
Pan-African Initiative on e-Commerce, Radio Netherlands, 141
133 RASCOM Satellite Project, The, 32
Pan-African Telecommunications RASCOM, 29, 32, 304, 321
Union, 32, 290 Re-definition of Development, 1
Partnership and Consultation Regional African Satellite
Mechanisms, 136 Communications Organisation, 32
Partnership for Global Policy Regional Bureau for Africa, 288, 323
Participation, The, 25 Regional Cooperation, 88, 147, 159, 295
Partnership for ICTs in Africa, 77, 91, Regional Internet Registries, 181, 202
141 Regional Nodes, 90
Partnership for Information and Regulation, 31, 39, 130, 142, 146, 158,
Communications Technologies in 166, 294, 313
Africa, The, 136 Regulator, 35, 211
Index ✦ 345
Regulatory Authority, 31 98–102, 104, 126, 129–130,

Regulatory Matters, 31 132–133, 137–139, 143–144, 148,
Renaissance, 5, 12, 14–15, 19, 207 156–157, 159, 162, 164–165,
Republic of Mali, 17, 38, 47, 54, 131, 318, 168–170, 172, 194–199, 206–209,
333 216, 219, 229, 237–238, 243,
Research and Development, 10, 12, 29, 286–287, 290, 299–301, 303–304,
33, 36, 115–116, 119–120, 142, 310, 312, 323, 325, 327
167–168, 215, 291–293, 316 SMEs, 28, 134, 186, 200, 209, 218
Resource Mobilisation, 11, 37, 90, 136 SMME development, 163
response capacity, 5–6, 10 Snow, Jr., Crocker, 19, 45, 241, 335
right of ownership of problems, The, 4 social upliftment, 178
Road Map, 20, 285, 287, 289, 291, 293, Social Venture Fund for Africa, The, 27,
295, 297 228–229
Rockefeller Foundation, 310 Social Venture Fund for South Asia, the,
Root Server, 139, 199 229
Roselyn Egosangwa, 241–242, 249 Software Development, 12, 30–31, 119,
rural connectivity tool-kits, 169 175, 191–192, 197–200, 216, 294,
309
Software, 12, 30–31, 38, 64–65, 70, 89,
S 116, 119, 153, 166, 170, 175, 178,
SABC, 62 187, 191–192, 195–201, 216, 234,
SADC, 26, 130, 150, 159 236, 252, 261, 263, 270–271, 273,
Safm, 142 294, 300, 309, 312, 315, 334
SatCom Africa 2002 Conference, 29, 45 Soltane, Karima Bounemra Ben, 19, 125,
SatCom Project, The, 29, 45, 321 332
SATELLIFE, 234–235 South Africa, 29, 31, 33, 37, 56–57, 59,
SCAN-ICT, 135, 137, 140 61–63, 66–69, 71, 74, 78, 105, 124,
SchoolNet, 133, 158, 248, 318 142, 150, 155, 157, 164, 177, 183,
SDC, 138–139, 141 252, 266–269, 289, 309–310, 312,
Second International Conference on 315, 318, 322, 327–328
Electronic Commerce and Southern African Development
Intellectual Property, 20, 124, 221 Community, 26, 130
Secretary-General of the United Nations, Southern African Economic Summit,
14, 17–18, 47, 87, 286, 331 26
SEL Process, The, 229–230 South-South Partnerships, 217
Senegal, 17, 21, 37, 39–40, 42, 57, 62, 64, Special Report for United Nations ICT
66, 69, 71, 74, 78–79, 81–83, 126, Task Force, 241
134–135, 140, 148, 150, 166, 177, Specialised Governance Networks, 118
217, 335 State Council, 49
Sentech, 29, 321 State of California Technology, Trade
Shope-Mafole, Lyndall, 202 and Commerce Agency, 30, 119,
Siemens, 218, 265 216, 294, 309
Sintim-Misa, Mavis Ampah, 18, 151, 173, Strategic Partnerships, 11, 98, 238
335 strategic response, 4, 10, 285
Smart Subsidy, 10, 19, 21, 24–25, 27–31, Summit of the African Union, 111
33–37, 39, 42–45, 49–50, 53, 88, 91, Sun Microsystems, 30, 119, 216, 294, 309
sustainable development, 9, 52, 92, TRASA, 31, 130, 159

96–97, 101, 139, 147, 149–150, 159, Tyson, Diane, 288
162–163, 165–166, 196, 247, 307,
314, 322–323, 329
Swiss Agency for Development and Co-
U
operation, the, 138 U.S. Federal Communications
Swiss Cooperation for International Commission, 289 see also FCC
Development, the, 141, 145 UEMOA, 130, 150
Uganda, 27, 57, 61–62, 66, 69, 74, 129,
135, 140, 164, 234–235, 242,
T 247–248, 252, 267–268, 303, 316,
Tarjanne, Pekka, 18, 87, 335 321–322
Task Force Secretariat, 18, 137 UN ICT Task Force Initiatives, 91
TCB system framework, The, 253, 258 UN ICT Task Force, 17–19, 23, 25–26,
Technology Transfer Processes, 254–255 34, 36, 43, 87, 89–91, 99, 101–102,
Technology Transfer, 157, 198, 251, 104, 137, 149, 159, 215, 237, 280,
253–255, 257–262, 264, 266, 274, 296, 305, 308, 325, 333
279–283, 316 UN Member States, 89
Technotrons, 115 UN Millennium Declaration, 43, 89
Telecom Africa Continental UNDP Human Development Report
Telecommunications Network, 216, 2001, 77, 223, 323
320 UNDP, 25, 34, 45, 77, 150, 176, 202, 215,
Telecom Africa Corporation, 1, 18, 23, 223, 288–289, 301, 322–324, 326, 334
29–30, 34, 105, 117–119, 203, 210, UNESCO, 61, 77–78, 83, 135, 150, 215,
214, 216–218, 220, 285, 288, 294, 247, 303, 305–306, 316, 320, 324
318–319, 321, 334 UNFIP, 27, 224, 238, 308
Telecom Africa Virtual Research Unicode, 194, 199
Laboratory Project, The, 36, UNIFEM, 27, 224, 237–238, 308, 323
119–120, 215, 320 UNISA, 29, 321
Telecom Africa Vision, the, 218 United Nations Agenda for the
Telecom Africa, 1, 18, 23, 29–30, 34, 36, Development of Africa, 37
105, 117–120, 124, 157, 203, 210, United Nations Development
214–220, 285, 288, 291, 294, Programme (UNDP), 25, 34, 45, 77,
318–321, 334 150, 176, 202, 215, 223, 288–289,
Telecommunications Regulatory 301, 322–324, 326, 334
Authority of Southern Africa, 31 United Nations Educational, Scientific
TELEMEDICINE, 29, 40–41, 134, and Cultural Organisation, 83, 303,
320–321 305, 316
Telkom S.A., 32 United Nations Fund for International
Tension, 296 Partnerships, 27, 224, 238, 308
Terrapin, Ltd., 29, 321 United Nations ICT Task Force, 16, 18,
Tesfaye, Sarah, 289 44–45, 87, 89, 91, 93, 96, 102, 148,
Tevie, William, 202 206, 224, 237, 241, 286, 299,
Thumler, Justin, 19, 335 332–334
Tijani Muhammed Bande, 105 United Nations Millennium Summit, 14,
Tiscali, 81 95
Index ✦ 347
United Nations, 14, 16–18, 25, 27, 37, Web-Sat, 73

43–45, 47, 53–54, 83–85, 87–89, 91, Wibisono, Ambassador, 47
93, 95–96, 102, 124, 139, 148, 176, Wikyo, Benson, 244–245
203, 206–207, 217, 221, 224, 226, WIPO, 20, 124, 150, 221, 328
237–238, 241, 249, 268, 281, 286, Wisdom, 20, 113, 115, 203, 208
288, 299–301, 303, 305, 308, 313, Working Groups, 90, 137, 237, 300
316, 322–326, 328, 331–335 World Bank Poverty Site, 176
Universal Service Funds, 164 World Bank’s InfoDev program, 133
Universities, 83, 93, 232, 235, 244, 277, World Economic Forum, 18, 25–26, 44,
333 91, 102, 206, 218, 306, 311, 319, 332
University of the African Future, 83 World Health Organisation, The, 134,
UN-NADAF, 37 235, 331
US Agency for International World Health Organization (WHO), 143
Development (USAID), 133, 140, World Intellectual Property
150, 159, 289, 314, 317, 327 Organisation, 124, 328
utilities, 9, 165, 219 World Radio Network, 142
World Summit on the Information
Society, 31, 91, 131, 159, 171, 333
V World Trade Organisation, 295, 329
Value inherent in problems, 4 World Wide Web, 61, 93
VarsityNet, 133 Worldlink, 158
Virtual Research Laboratory, 36, WorldSpace, 29, 62, 321, 329
119–120, 215, 320 WSIS, 91, 131–132, 150, 159, 172, 313
virtual security guards, 60
Vision for Africa, 44, 110–111, 175, 178,
184
Y
Vision for Information Freedom, 175, Youth for Technology Foundation,
201 Nigeria, 234
Visual Identification Technology, 117
VIT, 117
Vortex of SMEs, The, 209
Z
VSAT, 29, 64, 73, 164, 321 Zormelo, Mawuko, 202
W
Wade, President Abdoulaye, 17, 21, 39,
42, 79, 85, 217, 335
WATRA, 31, 130

ICT For African Development

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Edited with Introduction by

Book Production by Third Press Publishers, 222 Forest Avenue,

Interior Design & Typesetting by Desktop Miracles, Stowe, Vermont

The United Nations ICT Task Force

I wish to acknowledge and thank Mr. Sarbuland Khan, the Director of

intellectual purposes. Their graciousness in responding to our impossi-

Preface by José María Figueres, Chairman, UN ICT Task Force xi

Information And Communication Technologies:

Introduction Information and Communications Technologies

Chapter One Background on Information and Communications

Chapter Two Restoring Africa’s National Space 47

Chapter Three The Current Status of Information and

Chapter Four Information and Communications Technologies in

Chapter Five The United Nations Information and

Chapter Six Information and Communication Technologies

Chapter Seven The Role of Information and Communications

Chapter Eight Regional Information and Communications

Chapter Nine Info-communication for Development in Africa:

Chapter Ten Africa’s Digital Rights 175

Chapter Eleven Building the Digital Bridge—-Challenges,

Chapter Twelve Digital Bridge to Africa:

Chapter Thirteen Tip-toeing Across the Digital Divide:

Chapter Fourteen From Technology Transfer to Strategic

Chapter Fifteen Towards a Road Map for Information and

Appendix I UN ICT Task Force Initiatives in Africa 299

Appendix II Shortlist of ICT for Development Initiatives in Africa 303

Notes on Contributors 331

challenges, including fighting diseases, famine and poverty while striv-

For this reason, this book makes invaluable reading. I wholeheart-

On several occasions, the Secretary-General of the United Nations has

Clearly, if we are to succeed, the process must engage all stakehold-

Towards a New Definition of Development

The quintessential dream of any group of peoples or nations is the pur-

The context of that dream, the compelling condition which the

transformation, and the comparative condition of its immediate and

Innovation, Development, Problem Solving

While I have postulated that innovation and development are a direct

motive or motivation, and that motive or motivation, I would argue, is

The Right of Ownership of Problems

If problems are critical strategic assets, the response to which is the

The Value Inherent in Problems

The deduction, therefore, that having problems is desirable, would not

“Response Capacity” as the Key to Self-Development

In this paradigm, our perception and conceptualisation of the devel-

Notions of Poverty and Wealth

Self-Confidence, Development and African ICT Experts

number of highly qualified and capable Africans who would other-

Development Assistance and the Dynamics

Development assistance, then, becomes the disposition of that regional

The Intrinsic Benefits of Development—Defining the Horizon Map

It is axiomatic that before embarking on any major enterprise such as

Information and Communications Technologies for Development

Central to all of these issues are knowledge and information, their

technologies and applications which have come to be (and are continu-

Information and Communications Technologies

Assessed in terms of its global reach, Africa’s existing capacity in ICT as

new capacities necessary for Africa’s irreversible transformation can be

Masterminding Africa’s Development

• problem identification, definition, diagnosis and solution;

• concept development, strategy and policy;

Towards an African Renaissance