TECHNOLOGY: Africa Urged To Develop Its Own Communications System

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Lewis Machipisa

ADDIS ABABA, Oct 29 1999 (IPS) - Malian president, Alpha Omar Konare, whose country has one telephone line for every 500 people, seems to be the right African leader to talk about the need for the continent to own and develop its own Information Communication Technologies (ICTs).

“Issues of new technology are issues of the future but are also issues of today. I don’t see how our countries can develop without an ownership of these ICTs,” says Konare.

Kanore, who attended the first African Development Forum (ADF) in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa from Oct-24-28, says Africa needs to create suitable ICTs models for the region’s estimated 700 million people.

“Globalisation is inevitable…but we should globalise from the point of our cultural realities, our history. We have to look at it from the point of our own need. If not, we will have all the formulas imposed on us,” warns Konare.

The forum, organised by the Addis Ababa-based UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), brought together some 750 delegates involved in the area of information communication.

“We are facing a dilemma. We don’t have enough financial resources, we have areas where we have low intellectual capacity…and areas where we do not have any energy…That is the challenge we should take up. If we are to go by ma percent of Mali’s 11 million population use the internet.

Like in Mali, key challenges to applying ICTs for an improved governance in Africa, are the pervasive illiteracy, the needs for use of appropriate technologies such as radio in rural areas where 70 percent of the region’s population live. Another is the fast moving technology and the inability for institutions to catch up, and the creation and exploitation of local contents.

Across much of Africa, millions have never made a telephone call let alone use the internet. Statistics from the Technology Centre for Africa says, only two countries, Seyche than one percent of the population use the internet, although the continent is home to 12 percent of the world’s population.

Concrete initiatives that emerged from the ADF include Schoolnet Africa.

A working group was established to move forward the implementation of Schoolnet Africa, “a continent-wide initiative aimed at an African generation of critical thinkers who will play a major role in the global information society.” The group will meet within six months to review a programme of action.

A group of 15 representatives of companies, buso formed to focus on the impact of ICTs on women in Africa which will be launched at the Sixth African regional Conference on Women. The Beld in Addis Ababa in November.

More than 40 non-governmental and community batwork in ICT. This network will be dedicated to exchanging infor capacity for policy understanding and enhancing the effective use of ICTs for development and empowerment.

The forum also saw the creation of the Global he training and the connection of end users. The initiative will be promoted by a coalition of ADF participants from several countries who are coming together to implement the initiative.

The theme of next year’s ADF is HIV/AIDS.