ICT Sub Committee Session 2 Report on implementation of the Recommendations of the Subcommittee on I

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ICT Sub Committee Session 2Report on
implementation of the Recommendations of the
Subcommittee on ICT of CODI III

• Mohamed Timoulali
• 26 April 2005

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Introduction
Provide information on the implementation of CODI
III recommendations by - Member States (13
responses to the questionnaire Benin, Cameroon,
Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria) - ECA
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1. Accelerating the process of the formulation,
development and implementation of NICI plans
Member States
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1. Accelerating the process of the formulation,
development and implementation of NICI plans
(Continue) ECA
  Sub regional offices increase their
involvement in the NICI development processes,
particularly in the area of e-governance and
Promotes ICT networks for African
parliamentarians and helps increase their
capacity to promote the development of
e-governance at the parliamentarian level and
enhance the participation of members of
parliaments in the formulation and implementation
of national ICT policies.
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Information Policy Development and Implementation
Involvement of ECA Sub-Regional Offices (SRO)
in e-strategies

• East African SRO participated in the launching
  workshop of the EAC e-government policy
  development, and involved in Rwandas
  e-Government strategy.
•  
• Central African SRO has been active in the
  Cameroon NICI process and stakeholders Network
  promotion.
• MPs
• ICT4D Tanzania MPs Network Launched, More than 70
  MPs received training on ICTs

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2. Promotion of participatory approaches
Member States
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2. Promotion of participatory approaches
(continue)
ECA
Support member States in mainstreaming gender
issues in ICT policies and plans and
E-Pol-NET activities should be included and
linked to the AISI Outreach Programme and other
African-based ICT initiatives, such as IMPACT
Africa that can strengthen information and
knowledge sharing among member States.
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Promoting Partnership and Networking
Stakeholders Involvement in the Information
Society

• Gender
• ECA/DAW workshop from 10 to 14 January 2005 to
  build the institutional capacity of information
  managers working for National Machineries
• A Gender forum was also held during the Accra
  WSIS conference

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Outreach on Information Society Development

•  
• AISI Radio Series
• AISI Video illustrate the extent of the
  implementation of the National Policies and shows
  that ICT is not a matter of choice, but that its
  a necessity
•  
• Stakeholders discussions lists platforms are
  functional and constitute a framework for
  Information and Knowledge sharing and capacity
  building on Information Society issues
• Websites

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3. Putting in place a mechanism to measure the
progress in ICT
Member States
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3. Putting in place a mechanism to measure the
progress in ICT (continue)
ECA
In collaboration with member States, develop
gender indicators in ICTs and also aggregate data
within the framework of SCAN-ICT Together with
partners, extend the SCAN-ICT project to include
other African countries and Create performance
indicators for the implementation of AISI.
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Information Policy Development and Implementation
Creation of Performance Indicators for the
Implementation of AISI

• In collaboration with IDRC a workshop was
  organise in February 2004, to assess and conclude
  the first phase of the SCAN-ICT
• ECA/ITU Regional Workshop on ICT Indicators held
  in Gaborone, Botswana from 26 to 29 October 2004
  - discussed the issue of indicators. And launched
  the second phase of SCAN-ICT to include other
  nine African countries
• One of the four Academia Research Network is
  working on Indicators for measuring and
  benchmarking Information Society
• Contributed to the WSIS Thematic Meeting on
  "Measuring the Information Society" Geneva, 7
  9 February 2005

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4. Improved content creation and assistance
towards enabling African languages
Member States
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4. Improved content creation and assistance
towards enabling African languages (continue)
ECA  With the support of its member States
should develop Africa-wide sectoral portals
and Together with its partners support the
development of local African languages for
content creation through the effective
appropriation of open source software for
utilization in the governance process and to
enable citizens to gain access to ICTs in general.
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Information and Knowledge Development and
Management Promotion of Africa-Wide Sectoral
Portals

•  
• ECAs ITCA has been developing sectoral portals
  on good governance, regional Integration, health
  and a database of African experts and the
  Diaspora, Online training for Policy makers and
  media professionals (VLAC)
• AISI web pages has been improved

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• ARN
•  African Language and Content Development in the
  Cyberspace

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5. Enhanced partnerships and collaboration
ECA
 Together with member States, establish national
committees on NICIs, NEPAD and WSIS
Operationalize AVLIN and intensify the
participation of ATAC and civil society for
providing assistance to member States In
collaboration with partners, provide assistance
to existing information and knowledge networks
among different sub regions, taking into
consideration geography and balance
and  Together with GKP, should address the need
for wider use of radio in Africa through CSOs in
order to reach the grassroots The African
Stakeholders Network (ASN)  Should initiate
ICT activities in member States with support from
ECA.
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ECAs Partnership Initiatives

•  
• PICTA
• ECAs collaboration with partners in
  implementing the AISI continued under the PICTA
  framework. Annual PICTA meetings were held in
  Tunisia (October 2003) and Mauritius (September
  2004.)
• Monthly PICTA bulletin is produced by ECA
•  
• GKP
• ECA continues to act as regional focal point for
  GKP
• A Multi-stakeholders partnership (MSP) session
  brought together more than two hundred
  stakeholders to discuss on the Information
  Society Issues and Africas position during WSIS
  Accra

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• ePolNet
• Assessment/survey to identify the e-strategy
  needs in African countries
• Development of web resources
• ePol-NET experts database - expert-country
  matrix of potential experts
• Requests for assistance in the development of
  e-strategies
• Requests from Benin, Lesotho, Uganda, Ghana,
  Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Burkina Faso,
  Gambia and Niger have been received
• Civil Society Network in the Information Society
  (ACSIS) official launched in Tunis- Road map from
  Accra to Tunis adopted with ECA support

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6. Enhanced role of libraries
Member States
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6.Enhanced role of libraries (continue)
ECA
Assist member States to develop infrastructure
of African libraries and other information
institutions Support member States to promote
African local content/indigenous knowledge, oral
tradition with respect to information society
development, particularly in the context of the
AVLIN project and    Assist member States in
undertaking baseline studies on the availability
of information and library services within
countries and ensure that AVLIN coordinates at
the national level and with the other
subcommittees namely Geoinformation and
Statistics.
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Information and Knowledge Development and
Management Enhancing the role of the Library
and operationalize AVLIN

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• Fully integrated library information system
  online references through its information portal
  is implemented- AVLIN website is operational
• Library and technical information services is
  provided to the secretariat and member States.
• Several socio-economic information sources for
  use by African researchers and policymakers in
  member States is produced and disseminated

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• Value-added informational materials targeted at
  policy makers, researchers, economists and
  similar groups are produced
• Workshop was organized to build ECA Sub-regional
  offices library staff capacity
• AVLIN members participated to WSIS Accra and were
  involved in ARN on language and OSS activities

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7. Promotion of free and open source software
Member States
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7. Promotion of free and open source
software(continue)
ECA
 Together with partners and member States
establish an interAfrican collaboration and
networking mechanism to promote open source
software and a portal site on success
stories  Assist civil society to sensitize and
organize awareness activities on the need to
create associations promoting the use of open
source network Develop capacity-building
programmes on open source software utilization
for the development of ICT industry in Africa
and   AVLIN and the other subcommittees should
promote the use of OSS in their work.
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Information and Knowledge Development and
Management Promotion of OSS and Localization

•  
• ECA - OIF Partnership to promote the use of open
  source software in the continent
• ECA/FOSSFA workshop on the Digital Commons in
  January 2004, FOSSFA Council program activities
  was launched
• ECA - Ford Foundation support to Addis Ababa
  University in research activities on OSS and
  Ahmaric localization
• ECA- IUCEA including Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania,
  support to e-government platform research
  activities based on OSS
• ECA - UNCTAD - Expert Meeting on Free and Open
  Source Software, held from 22 to 24 September
  2004 in Geneva.
• WSIS-OSS workshops during WSIS Accra

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8. Facilitating the public-private partnership
(PPP)
Member States
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8. Facilitating the public-private partnership
(PPP)(continue)
ECA

•  Establish a framework for public-private
  partnership (PPP) for Africa in the use of
  ICT-enabled equitable development.
• Private Sector
• Nurturing ICT innovations workshop was organized
  for Africa Private sector in Tunis, two
  pre-conference workshops on public-private
  partnership (PPP) during WSIS Accra

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9. Rationalization of initiatives
Member States, ECA and the international
community Promote and coordinate ICT initiatives
to narrow the digital divide between Africa and
the rest of the world with the objective of
establishing a digital solidarity fund for Africa
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Members States
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Information Policy Development and Implementation
Promote and Coordinate ICT Initiatives

• World Summit on Information Society (WSIS)
• WSIS Africa Regional preparatory conference held
  from 2 to 4 February 2005 in Accra, Ghana under
  the theme Access Africas key to an inclusive
  Information Society ,
• More than 2000 Participants, more than fifteen
  workshops were organized on
• E- strategies, financing mechanisms, internet
  governance, partnership and the way ahead beyond
  Tunis 2005
• Key principles, development orientations,
  resource mobilization including human resources,
  international cooperation, and operational
  aspects including the way to Tunis 2005
• Africa Ministers Meeting was organised and
  adopted the Accra Commitments for WSIS Tunis
  2005 ,an Africas position to key issues of the
  WSIS process. And agree on the formulation of
  African Regional Action Plan (AFRAPE)

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• NEPAD
• ECA contribute to various NEPAD meeting

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Conclusion
Mechanisms for collecting information on
recommendations implementation in Member States
to be improved
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Thank you
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