Africa: Make ICTs more accessible

Highway Africa News Agency

The 5th International Conference on Open Access ended last week in Bagamoyo, Tanzania after successful deliberations.

Leadership, ICT infrastructure for development, ICT infrastructure, M-Applications and ICT in business were some of the issues that were discussed at the conference.

It was also observed that the translation of policy to meet the demands of ICT and leadership is often problematic due to obstacles that can be attributed to human capacity, financial resources, institutional arrangements, political will and appropriate leadership.

Speakers agreed that there is need to engage politicians in dialogue on ICT4D and to involve all players in the debate including the private sector, civil society and government, while building awareness of obstacles.

There is also a need to share lessons learned on ICT policy formulation, implementation mechanisms and structural review and update, particularly with countries that do not have a national ICT policy.

ICT and development actors should engage in bottom-up and action-oriented activities, which can trigger top-down changes from policy makers.

The conference also observed that ICT is a tool to enhance community development and socio-economic and that governments must do more to engage better with citizens, the private sector, public servants, and in providing more cost-effective services through e-Government.

There is an urgent need to manage political risk and other non-technical issues which hold up increased and better investment in ICT infrastructure and to create a critical mass of understanding and sense of urgency in rural and disadvantaged communities of the opportunities that ICTs offers.

Lack of electricity with no cost-effective alternatives in both rural and urban areas hamper community access to ICTs. There was also agreement that the current debate on undersea cables should be widened to include the concerns of communities and other private stakeholders.

Accordingly, there is an urgent need to roll out adequate, affordable and accessible backbone infrastructure through public-private partnerships and universal access funds.

As far as M-Applications and ICT in business are concerned, it was observed that African entrepreneurs are innovating rapidly, creating remarkable ICT solutions. However, considerable constraints in access to finance, over-or inappropriate regulation, lack of business advisory support, etc. exist. Solutions involving business incubation, institutions of higher learning, knowledge and technology parks, etc should be investigated.

The conference confirmed a major shortage in numbers and breadth of skills of qualified and experienced ICT personnel in Africa, which hampers socio-economic development.

It was also observed that mobile service providers are the new incumbents, reaching more communities than the Internet, computers or even landline telephones. This 'last mile' connection offers great opportunities for business and other applications.

It was noted that open source affords increased opportunities for locally developing sustainable solutions, which satisfy local and community needs.

There is also a need to converge ICT applications across technology, legal and country boundaries requiring new and proactive regulatory perspectives.

The participants also suggested that local applications and content should be made readily and easily accessible through local means.

The next conference on Open Access takes place in Malawi in November 2008.