African Discussion List on the Global Alliance on ICT and Development
16 March - 9 April 2005
Summary of the discussions
Introduction
Within the context of the Regional Node of the UN ICT Task Force African Stakeholders
Network1 (ASN), hosted by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), online
discussions were organized by ECA from 16 March to 9 April 2005 to get the views of the African ICT development community on the creation of the Global Alliance on ICT and Development.
The discussions were launched in several African online discussion lists, including the following:
The UN ICT Task Force African Stakeholders Network (ASN)
The African National Focal Points for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
The African Civil Society for the WSIS
The Council for Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA)
Below is the summary of the debate.
On the success of the UN ICT Task Force and the African Stakeholders Network Participants reviewed the work undertaken by the UN ICT Task Force and its regional node and considered it as successful. Several activities which were jointly undertaken by the Task Force, the African Regional Node and ePolNet were cited by participants.
The following was extracted from the discussion lists:
• The UN ICT Task Force was a multi stakeholder forum where developing countries were getting their views heard at highest international level. In this regard, the Task force succeeded in increasing awareness of decision makers on ICT challenges and opportunities. This sensitization allowed the mainstreaming of ICT into all international decisions, especially at the levels of UN secretariat.
• There was transfer of knowledge between participants and continuous interaction between the North and South where both developmental and critical information on ICT were exchanged.
• Coordination of issues on ICT related activities was easier,
• The Task Force has contributed to the success of the first phase of the WSIS and continues to work in the same direction for the second phase.
1 www.unicttaskforce.org
• The UN ICT Task Force secretariat did a good job on coordination of relevant ICT activities
• The African Regional Node under the aegis of ECA in cooperation with the Bamako Bureau for the WSIS has done a tremendous work in mobilizing and sensitizing on ICT for development issues all the socio-cultural and economic groups of the continent including Governments, civil society, academia, members of parliament, local authorities, youth, women and the private sector.
On the continuation of the work of the UN ICT Task Force
Participants noted that the opportunity offered by the Task Forces' Working Groups and Regional Nodes presented a unique platform of advocacy on ICT for development issues.
They unanimously stressed the need to continue the work started by the UN ICT Task Force and the Regional Nodes. The following recommendations were extracted from the discussion lists:
• The activities of the UNICT Task Force should be continued in one form or the other. It will be a disaster to end abruptly the on-going activities.
• All the activities which were started by the Task Force should be continued and strengthened by the Global Alliance and the Regional Nodes.
• The Regional Nodes should be strengthened and empowered both financially and technically
On the need for the creation of the Global Alliance on ICT and Development
Participants recommended the creation of the Global Alliance. The following recommendations were made:
• The year 2005 coinciding with the end of the WSIS process, the implementation of a new perennial structure to succeed the UN ICT Task Force is essential and deserves to be considered, discussed and adopted by all stakeholders. It is important to safeguard what was achieved by the Task Force.
• Even though the statute of the Global Alliance is expected to be international, its programmes should be rooted at the regional and national levels involving all stakeholders.
• This new structure must be perennial, its work programme should include continuation of the innovative work already accomplished or planned by the UN ICT Task Force during its mandate.
• The Global Alliance should be supported by existing structure/institutions like the UN Regional Commissions which have a stable linkage with all Information Society stakeholders in their respective continents. At the African level, the new organ should continue to be hosted by ECA which has already regional and national focal points, information and discussion fora, and is equipped with the necessary expertise in the mobilization of ICT for development stakeholders.
• The Alliance should be strongly involved in the follow-up of WSIS decisions in collaboration with UN Regional Commissions.
On further recommendations to be tackled by the Global Alliance
Several issues were raised by participants, especially in relation to evaluating the performance of the Global Alliance, its full implication on the Millenium
Development Goals (MDGs) and Free and Open Source Software activities for developing countries, as follows:
• Even though the Global Alliance will not be involved in operational activities, there is need to develop clear monitoring and evaluation criteria for its activities.
• It is indicated in the draft Principles of the Global Alliance that the "Alliance will ... promote andfacilitate linkages between implementation of the outcomes and plans of actions ofMS + 5 and WSIS". However, there has not been active
mainstreaming of ICT in the MDGs debate so far, hence the Global Alliance should devise a clear mechanism to do so and step up its advocacy role on the
matter.
• Up to now, despite the tremendous opportunities offered by Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to developing countries, FOSS did not benefit from global advocacy support and was not properly tackled by the Task Force, hence it is recommended that the Global Alliance includes FOSS in its activities.
Conclusion
From the on-line discussions it was clear that the Task Force has done a useful job during its years of existence backed up by active Regional Nodes. This work needs to be continued and beefed up by the Global Alliance, which should be assigned a clear role in the WSIS follow up. It is expected also that the Global Alliance will develop clear guidelines on the role of ICT in implementing the MDGs. The Global Alliance should rely on existing institutions such as the UN Regional Commissions and their well established networks and focal points on ICT for development.
Concerning Africa, as announced in the beginning of the on-line consultations, a face to face meeting on the Global Alliance will be organized on 28 April 2005 in Addis Ababa as a side event of ECA's fourth Committee on Development Information (CODI) meeting to further discuss the results of the on-line discussions and
recommendations of the 8th meeting of the Task Force.
www.uneca.org/codi
