The African Information Society Initiative (AISI) - United Nations ...

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10.5 The African private sector The AISI spells out a role for the private sector, stating…”in developed countries, the private sector has assumed a vital role in establishing the information society. It is crucial in Africa that a critical mass of local business ventures arises, capable of supporting and using the information infrastructure”. In the next decade of implementing AISI, indeed, greater efforts must be put into strengthening the Information Society Private Sector (ISPS) if the gains made in the last decade are to be sustained. ECA’s interaction with the African private sector under the AISI framework thus far has revealed the need for the following: • The need to organize within countries and at the sub-regional level round tables for the private sector, government and civil society to develop actions plans to promote a better participation of the private sector in the process of building the Information Society. • Develop forward-looking policies to promote the local private sector in strengthening their involvement in various national ICT investment and procurement programmes. • Create sound financial mechanisms and incentives to support SME and their use of ICTs for business and entrepreneurship development. • Development incubations centers in countries as part of the NICI implementation process to nurture the local private sector. • Develop and implement a continuous capacity building, mentoring activities for the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME); SME play a vital role in economic development, and are key to promoting job growth and innovation in Africa. Fig. 26: Business and Technology Incubation Model: Example from Mozambique ICT Incubation Centre (MICTI) Mid-level course Short term course Enabling environment Research & Development projects Business incubator Decision Point Small and medium Enterprise - Existing in Market Small Enterprise, Just after the incubation Students/MICTI client The concept of business and technology incubation is gaining currency in some countries and is seen as a way for nurturing local private ICT entrepreneurs to support Information Society activities. An example is the Mozambique ICT Incubation Centre (MICTI) concept from entrepreneurship aptitude development to business incubation for the Global market. 114
The goals of the Mozambique Information and Communication Technology Micro and Small Enterprises Incubator (MICTI Incubator) are twofold: to identify sustainable opportunities for technology-based businesses in priority development areas; and to test the assumption that technology-based businesses can mentor the development of micro enterprises in these areas. By allowing potential entrepreneurs to gain skills and access resources otherwise unavailable in Mozambique, this program is creating employment and generating wealth in a sector of the economy critical to the country’s future. “Most students are poor and cannot afford loans to start a new business. What we have seen happen is that through experiencing what it is like to work in a supportive incubator, these young people are discovering that with a good idea, a few shared services, an office space, access to a laptop and overhead projector and telephones and the Internet, they can create a viable business. They are discovering that they are smart and can generate their own employment.” explained Americo Muchanga, Director, Centre for Informatics, Eduardo Mondlane University. The first incubated businesses include a law firm offering online services such as arbitration, legal resources and consultation; a company developing the first Mozambique Internet search engine as well as building Web sites and managing events; and a sports webcast site focusing on soccer. 10.6 Emerging areas 10.6.1 Internet governance Since the launch of the AISI framework, a number of issues have also taken center stage. One of these issues is the Internet Governance debate emanating out of the WSIS process and the implications for African countries. The controversy on Internet Governance increased during the first WSIS when debates pointed to the need to enhance the role of all key stakeholders in making the Internet a development tool and a global public good of multi-stakeholder nature. In this context, a number of developing countries questioned the role of ICANN, a private US based company in the management of Internet related issues. The debate pitted developing countries against developing country governments throughout the WSIS process, and at the Tunis phase of the Summit, the only point of agreement by all the stakeholders was that a consensus on Internet Governance is important, as it is a critical global development issue. AISI considers the Internet as a major tool for development. This was reiterated by the Accra Commitments, adopted by the African Regional Preparatory Conference on the WSIS held in Accra in February 2005, where Governments and African stakeholders exchanged views on the developmental policy, technical, ethical, societal, security and legal dimensions etc. related to Internet Governance. In order to make Internet Governance issues more relevant to the African context, the Accra Commitments recommended that “Internet Governance aspects should be mainstreamed in the establishment of national and regional e-strategic plans”. As the NICI development process provides an avenue for African countries to address a number of the emerging IG public policy issues within their NICI Policies, this would also offer an opportunity to discuss international IG related issues and enable preparation of positions at the national and regional levels. Mainstreaming IG in the NICI process accompanied by the necessary capacity building activities should provide stakeholders with the skills and knowledge 115
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Economic Commission for Africa The
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Table of Contents Acronyms and Abbr
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Acronyms and Abbreviations AAU Addi
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SAMTRAN Southern African Media Trai
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initiative (which included social i
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cialists to develop similar databas
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• The world’s lowest resource a
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Box 2: Resolution 812 (XXXI): Imple
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1.4 The AISI Vision The AISI propos
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1.6 The African Development Forum,
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A I S I Chapter 2 AISI and National
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On the action lines, the Plan of Ac
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Fig. 4: Status of NICI Policy Devel
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2.4 Links to national, regional and
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The NICI policy was therefore set w
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Whilst governments have a leading r
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A I S I Chapter 3 Indicators for Be
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• Individual numbers of staff usi
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Even though mobile costs were comin
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The chart below (Fig. 12) shows the
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Scan-ICT II countries are expected
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The model classifies ICT4D indicato
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These include: • Public sector ma
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knowledge environment, increase dia
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countries organised sub-regionally
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Given this background, it is eviden
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• Marginalisation of Africa in th
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• Definition of offences in relat
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4.5.2 Harmonization and domestic la
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and standards of service delivery a
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5.2.2 On-site and On-line Learning
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the skills of the customs officers
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The training was comprised of lectu
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6.2 WSIS and stakeholders involveme
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technical coordinator, the ECA led
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