Mapping Africas initiative at building an information and communications infrastructure
Identifieur interne : 000356 ( Istex/Corpus ); précédent : 000355; suivant : 000357Mapping Africas initiative at building an information and communications infrastructure
Auteurs : Amos P. N. Thapisa ; Elizabeth BirabwaSource :
- Internet Research [ 1066-2243 ] ; 1998-03-01.
Abstract
The article explores Africas initiative at building a regional plan for the formulation and development of a National Information and Communication Infrastructure NICIP in every African state. The paper also examines the challenges and opportunities confronting Africa in its bid to launch itself into the information age. The role of information, communication and knowledge in accelerating African socioeconomic development is emphasised. The paper makes a critical examination of the globalisation of economies and argues that globalisation appears to favour the rich and not so much the poor. It challenges the Organisation of African Unity OAU to provide funding for the project if it is to succeed. It eventually concludes by making the observation that Africas Information Society Initiative AISI should promote Africa.
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DOI: 10.1108/10662249810368888
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Thapisa</name><affiliation><mods:affiliation>Senior Lecturer at the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana</mods:affiliation></affiliation></author><author><name sortKey="Birabwa, Elizabeth" sort="Birabwa, Elizabeth" uniqKey="Birabwa E" first="Elizabeth" last="Birabwa">Elizabeth Birabwa</name><affiliation><mods:affiliation>Masters Student at the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana</mods:affiliation></affiliation></author></titleStmt><publicationStmt><idno type="wicri:source">ISTEX</idno><idno type="RBID">ISTEX:AF1D1A3E8A451940D3909773BE42E88E4E0C4E94</idno><date when="1998" year="1998">1998</date><idno type="doi">10.1108/10662249810368888</idno><idno type="url">https://api.istex.fr/document/AF1D1A3E8A451940D3909773BE42E88E4E0C4E94/fulltext/pdf</idno><idno type="wicri:Area/Istex/Corpus">000356</idno><idno type="wicri:explorRef" wicri:stream="Istex" wicri:step="Corpus" wicri:corpus="ISTEX">000356</idno></publicationStmt><sourceDesc><biblStruct><analytic><title level="a" type="main" xml:lang="en">Mapping Africas initiative at building an information and communications infrastructure</title><author><name sortKey="Thapisa, Amos P N" sort="Thapisa, Amos P N" uniqKey="Thapisa A" first="Amos P. 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Thapisa</name><affiliation><mods:affiliation>Senior Lecturer at the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana</mods:affiliation></affiliation></author><author><name sortKey="Birabwa, Elizabeth" sort="Birabwa, Elizabeth" uniqKey="Birabwa E" first="Elizabeth" last="Birabwa">Elizabeth Birabwa</name><affiliation><mods:affiliation>Masters Student at the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana</mods:affiliation></affiliation></author></analytic><monogr></monogr><series><title level="j">Internet Research</title><idno type="ISSN">1066-2243</idno><imprint><publisher>MCB UP Ltd</publisher><date type="published" when="1998-03-01">1998-03-01</date><biblScope unit="volume">8</biblScope><biblScope unit="issue">1</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" from="49">49</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" to="58">58</biblScope></imprint><idno type="ISSN">1066-2243</idno></series><idno type="istex">AF1D1A3E8A451940D3909773BE42E88E4E0C4E94</idno><idno type="DOI">10.1108/10662249810368888</idno><idno type="filenameID">1720080106</idno><idno type="original-pdf">1720080106.pdf</idno><idno type="href">10662249810368888.pdf</idno></biblStruct></sourceDesc><seriesStmt><idno type="ISSN">1066-2243</idno></seriesStmt></fileDesc><profileDesc><textClass></textClass><langUsage><language ident="en">en</language></langUsage></profileDesc></teiHeader><front><div type="abstract" xml:lang="en">The article explores Africas initiative at building a regional plan for the formulation and development of a National Information and Communication Infrastructure NICIP in every African state. 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Do Not Edit! --><article dtd-version="1.0" xml:lang="en" article-type="e-literature-review"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">intr</journal-id><journal-id journal-id-type="doi">10.1108/intr</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>Internet Research</journal-title></journal-title-group><issn pub-type="ppub">1066-2243</issn><publisher><publisher-name>MCB UP Ltd</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1108/10662249810368888</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="original-pdf">1720080106.pdf</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="filename">1720080106</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="type-of-publication"><compound-subject><compound-subject-part content-type="code">e-literature-review</compound-subject-part><compound-subject-part content-type="label">Literature review</compound-subject-part></compound-subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="subject"><compound-subject><compound-subject-part content-type="code">cat-IKM</compound-subject-part><compound-subject-part content-type="label">Information & knowledge management</compound-subject-part></compound-subject><subj-group><compound-subject><compound-subject-part content-type="code">cat-ICT</compound-subject-part><compound-subject-part content-type="label">Information & communications technology</compound-subject-part></compound-subject><subj-group><compound-subject><compound-subject-part content-type="code">cat-CNWK</compound-subject-part><compound-subject-part content-type="label">Communications & networks</compound-subject-part></compound-subject><compound-subject><compound-subject-part content-type="code">cat-INT</compound-subject-part><compound-subject-part content-type="label">Internet</compound-subject-part></compound-subject></subj-group></subj-group></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>Mapping Africa’s initiative at building an information and communications infrastructure</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><string-name><given-names>Amos P.N.</given-names> <surname>Thapisa</surname></string-name><aff>Senior Lecturer at the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana</aff></contrib><x></x><contrib contrib-type="author"><string-name><given-names>Elizabeth</given-names> <surname>Birabwa</surname></string-name><aff>Master’s Student at the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana</aff></contrib></contrib-group><pub-date pub-type="ppub"><day>01</day><month>03</month><year>1998</year></pub-date><volume>8</volume><issue>1</issue><fpage>49</fpage><lpage>58</lpage><permissions><copyright-statement>© MCB UP Limited</copyright-statement><copyright-year>1998</copyright-year><license license-type="publisher"><license-p></license-p></license></permissions><self-uri content-type="pdf" xlink:href="10662249810368888.pdf"></self-uri><abstract><p>The article explores Africa’s initiative at building a regional plan for the formulation and development of a National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICIP) in every African state. The paper also examines the challenges and opportunities confronting Africa in its bid to launch itself into the information age. The role of information, communication and knowledge in accelerating African socio‐economic development is emphasised. The paper makes a critical examination of the globalisation of economies and argues that globalisation appears to favour the rich and not so much the poor. It challenges the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to provide funding for the project if it is to succeed. It eventually concludes by making the observation that Africa’s Information Society Initiative (AISI) should promote Africa.</p></abstract><kwd-group><kwd>Africa</kwd><x>, </x><kwd>Communications</kwd><x>, </x><kwd>Globalization</kwd><x>, </x><kwd>Information</kwd></kwd-group><custom-meta-group><custom-meta><meta-name>peer-reviewed</meta-name><meta-value>no</meta-value></custom-meta><custom-meta><meta-name>academic-content</meta-name><meta-value>yes</meta-value></custom-meta><custom-meta><meta-name>rightslink</meta-name><meta-value>included</meta-value></custom-meta></custom-meta-group></article-meta></front><body><sec><title>Introduction</title><p>The biggest infrastructural problem found in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is the lack of telecommunication networks that can support distributed applications. This constitutes the biggest obstacle to the incorporation of electronic data interchange (EDI), which has advantages such as reduction of error and increased speed of transactions (Gangopadhyay, 1996).</p><p>Toffler (1990) warns that presently the world is split between the fast and the slow. This he argues is not simply a matter of metaphor but reality. Whole economies are either fast or slow. Historically power has shifted from the slow to the fast. In fast economies advanced technology speeds production. Pace is determined by the speed of transactions, the time needed to take decisions (especially about investment), the speed with which new ideas are created in laboratories, the rate at which they are brought to market, the velocity of capital flows, and above all the speed with which data, information, and knowledge pulse through the economic system. Fast economies therefore generate wealth and power faster than slow ones. The information of the twenty‐first‐century economy will operate at nearly real‐time speeds and this means that the entire wealth‐creation cycle will be monitored as it happens. The new system for making wealth therefore consists of an expanding, global network of markets, banks, production centers and laboratories in instant communication with one another; constantly exchanging huge and ever increasing flows of data, information, and knowledge. This is the fast economy of tomorrow Toffler submits.</p><p>This debate prompted Trevor Haywood (1995) to respond that if information moments define who we are and what we can do, the stock of information held by communities and nations at any one time now tends to define their place in the hierarchy of world wealth and power. He submits that, although the geographic proximity of some nations to important raw materials like diamonds in Botswana, copper and cobalt in Zaire, coffee in Kenya, gold in South Africa and oil reserves in the Middle East, still endows them with a fluctuating source of wealth and economic power, their customers increasingly pay in currencies earned by selling information, knowledge and intelligence. The continuing capacity to innovate and to create distinctive stocks of information and knowledge is what now gives one nation an advantage over another. This is what Haywood, calls the “knowledge surplus,” which is the ability to give away or trade information in the complete confidence that one retains a sufficient stock of core competencies and intellectual capital to stay ahead of the competition.</p></sec><sec><title>UN‐ECA</title><p>It was with this background in mind that when the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa met in Addis Ababa in April 1995 to discuss issues relating to “Telematics for development” (Dlamini, 1996; ECA, 1996), they believed that Information Technology would assist Africa to make a quantum leap from economic stagnation to some possible economic transformation. This would be the basis of a revolutionary process that would provide advanced high speed information and communications systems and engender socio‐economic mutation (Adam, 1995). This development in telecommunications technology has changed most societies and Africa could not be left behind (Higgins, 1996). Developed countries have already instituted high speed links, as seen above, which create a new kind of economy, the information economy, where trade and investment are global and firms use their networking agility to trade in information and knowledge (Talero and Gaudette, 1995).</p><p>When the leaders of the Southern African Development Community states met in Lesotho in 1996 they were also aware that regional and global communication was a prerequisite for the promotion of economic growth, development and improvement of quality of life. They agreed therefore to take advantage of developments in communication technology in order to establish their own regional, global, high quality and effective information and communications infrastructure (SADC, 1996).</p><p>To benefit from this transformation, Africa has to transmute its information and telecommunication infrastructures to a level where it will be possible for it to link up with the rest of the world. The belief here is that, if Africa does not seize this opportunity now the gap between it and the rich North will be widened at an alarming rate. As Mbeki (1995) also believed, bringing Africa on to the Information Superhighway constitutes a colossal challenge. “We have to address this challenge if we are to promote economic growth and development...and to enable all to gain access to the best in human civilisation, within the common neighbourhood in which we all live.”</p></sec><sec><title>Global Information: a brief background</title><p>The Global Information or Information Superhighway as we know it today, was championed by US Vice President Al Gore (Griffith and Smith, 1994). In March 1994, at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)’s World Telecommunications Conference held in Buenos Aires, Vice President Al Gore challenged the participants to create a Global Information Infrastructure (GII) which would help “educate our children and allow us to exchange ideas within the community and transcend the barriers of time and distance” (Gore, 1994).</p><p>Since 1994, discussions and activities on the establishment of GII have intensified. A number of high level meetings and conferences by world leaders, scientists, researchers and various interested parties have been held. Such conferences include: The Internet Society’s 1995 conference on “The Internet: Towards a Global Information Infrastructure,” The G‐7 conference on “The Information Society,” Brussels, February 1995, and many others. This is indicative of the importance which the world’s leading authorities place on global information issues (Chisenga, 1996). For Africa, therefore, the pressure is on. For the G‐7, and their partners, the desire is to play a leading role in the development of a global information society (Tocatlian, 1995). The conferences, as mentioned above, have pointed to exciting opportunities and to a global awareness of the importance of information and knowledge as critical resources for development (Launo, 1994). While Africa, on the other hand, is still grappling with problems of reducing the gap between the rich and poor within its own borders by devising ways and means of distributing its meager resources equitably.</p></sec><sec><title>Information and communication infrastructures in Africa</title><p>It is no exaggeration to say that Africa is lagging behind the race to cash in on the information revolution. There is a general absence of modern telecommunications equipment and techniques in the region (Thapisa, 1996). Most countries are still using analog systems over twisted copper wires. Use of digital systems and optic fibres is still a dream for most (Chisenga, 1996). The present communication and information infrastructure in Africa, is to a great extent a heritage of the colonial era. African countries found on independence that their low level communication systems linked them to their former colonial masters and not to themselves. For example, calls from Dakar in Senegal to Lusaka in Zambia by 1995, were still routed from Dakar to Banjul, Banjul to London, and London to Lusaka (PANOS, 1995). This colonial pattern of communication ensures that African revenue is drained from Africa to the North through high telecommunication tariffs. African governments, however, might be to blame for having allowed this to continue unchallenged.</p><p>Akhtar and Laviolette (1995) make the observation that Africa’s information infrastructure is by far the least developed in the world with the smallest number of telephone lines <italic>per capita,</italic> most restricted access to computer equipment and most inaccessible media systems, which have resulted in the continent’s relatively slow economic and social development. Data shows that telecommunications diffusion in Africa is the weakest in the world with the least tele‐density. ITU reports indicate that the average telephones per 100 people in Africa was 1.6 in 1993 (Adam, 1995). In most of sub‐Saharan Africa, governments are the sole providers of telecommunications. Telecommunication companies where they exist, charge monopoly fees for international calls, refuse licences for new entrants and restrict users to outdated equipment (PADIS, 1995). For example the conservative Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) until recently refused to provide Internet services. It also tried to ensure that data links go through its X.25 network. This made full Internet connectivity prohibitively expensive. Although the BTC has now relented to providing only backbone Internet service its reluctance to let others participate prevented an early introduction of full Internet connectivity. The Ethiopian Telecommunication Authority (ETA) also refused to allow other competitors to what it regarded as its natural service and had the temerity to order the ECA’s PADIS e‐mail to close down (Jensen, 1997).</p></sec><sec><title>The current state of telecommunications infrastructure</title><p>The scenario may now be changing. Some countries such as Uganda have gone far in relaxing telecommunications regulations and fees, while others like Sudan have privatised telecommunications. In Uganda the government hopes to expand the existing system from 42,000 lines to 300,000 by the year 2000 if it allows the participation of foreign concerns. Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) has now allowed at least one foreign firm (Vodacom) to provide cellular telephone services and full Internet connectivity has now been achieved. Likewise, the Ghanaian authorities have also decided to sell off 30 percent of Ghana Telecom (GT) finally to a strategic investor. Whoever takes up these shares is expected to provide about 225,000 lines over the next five years (Kokutse, 1996).</p><p>These trends indicate that Africa is conscious of the need to build information infrastructure and eager to join the Information Superhighway. By the end of 1995, well over half of the African countries, 33 of the 54, had developed some form of low cost dial‐up service with a gateway to the Internet (Jensen, 1995/96). Fourteen countries had even achieved live Internet public access services: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique, Mauritius and of course South Africa, which is among the top 20 countries in the world ranked by number of Internet nodes. Of these, only South Africa and Egypt have local dial‐up facilities outside the capital city. Full Internet access has now been achieved in Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia. Projects are under way for full Internet access in Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi and Swaziland (Jensen, 1995/1996).</p><p>If these patterns continue, there will be few African countries left without live Internet facilities before the millennium is out. However, these patterns can only be maintained and enhanced if Africa comes up with concrete organisational, financial and political strategies at the regional level. Some of these strategies are already in the making as we are to explore in the rest of this paper.</p></sec><sec><title>Earlier efforts taken to build information and communication infrastructure</title><p>The efforts made to build Africa’s information and communication infrastructure can be traced as far back as the 1960s, a period when most African countries attained their independence. According to Abidi (1991), African leaders conscious of the irony that they were linked in communication to the colonial countries, with little or no links within the region, realised the need for establishing communication links between the newly independent countries.</p><p>The first step was the establishment of the Union of Africa National Radio and Television Broadcasting (URTNA), in 1962. Unfortunately URTNA has not been able to execute its goals substantially, due to problems of high cost, and language as well as cultural differences. In 1977 another decision was taken to establish a Pan African News Agency (PANA) at the OAU, Information Ministers Conference held in Kampala. However, PANA could not take off until 1983. PANA too has not been efficient due to limitations of telecommunication facilities and language (Abidi, 1991). In 1967, at its eighth session in Lagos, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa emphasised the need for a high quality telecommunications network for Africa, and a preliminary study was conducted by the ITU.</p></sec><sec><title>Current efforts</title><p>The strategies being developed to overcome the information gap and to utilise the new electronic revolution for social and economic growth in the region are being spearheaded by the Economic Commission for Africa, (ECA). The process began in April 1995 with the African Regional Symposium on Telematics for Development organised by ECA, ITU, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). This symposium brought together some 300 Information Technology experts, senior government officials, and private sector leaders from over 50 countries and resulted in further conceptualisation of an African Information Infrastructure (AII) (PADIS,1995).</p><p>At this conference participants worked out strategies to assist Africa in taking advantage of the new technologies that will enable it to join the emerging global information infrastructure. Among the many resolutions and recommendations generated, the most urgent was to put the issue of telematics for development at the top of the agenda for the highest level of decision and policy making. Another major focus for the conference was the urgent need to get every country fully on to the Internet (Jensen,1995a). This conference was the largest ever on telematics in Africa. It was a landmark for Africa, as it helped to accelerate connectivity in Africa by stimulating the subsequent conference of African ministers responsible for economic planning to direct ECA to set up a high level working group on Information and Communication Technologies in Africa, to chart Africa’s path on to the Information Highway.</p><p>In fact, as a follow up of this, the IDRC, which has the longest history of support for developing electronic networking in Africa, has lent its supporting hand to Africa by launching the Acacia program. Acacia is a series of efforts toward helping in the development of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) and the UN Special System Wide Initiative for Africa’s Harnessing Information for Development program (Jensen, 1997).</p></sec><sec><title>Conference of African ministers</title><p>At the 21st Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Social and Economic Development and Planning in Addis Ababa, 3 May 1995, a major declaration in support of building Africa’s information highway was made. The Ministers adopted resolution 795(XXX) entitled “Building Africa’s Information Highway.” The resolution set in motion the establishment of a high level working group of technical experts charged with the responsibility to work out an information and communications strategic plan for the continent. This resolution was further endorsed by the Organisation of African Unity Council of Ministers in Yaounde, 1‐5 July 1996. In resolution CMRES 676 LXIX they called on African States to take immediate measures to implement AISI (PADIS, 1996).</p></sec><sec><title>Expert group initiative</title><p>The high level working group, which consisted of 11 members, held its first meeting in Cairo in November 1995. It also met in Dakar and Addis with an effort to come up with a strategy document to be presented at the 22nd Session of African ministers of economic planning. The result of this work is a document entitled, “Africa’s Information Society Initiative (AISI): An Action Framework to Africa’s Information and Communication Infrastructure.” The document was submitted to the 22nd meeting of ministers in May 1996 and it was adopted by Resolution 812(XXXI) entitled “Implementation of the African Information Initiative” (ECA, 1996). This is about Africa’s development; its challenges and opportunities in an information age. It addresses specifically the role of information, communication and knowledge in shaping African information society to accelerate social economic development.</p></sec><sec><title>Vision</title><p>The vision of the AISI is to support and accelerate socio‐economic development across Africa. By the year 2010, the AISI should realise a sustainable information society in Africa, where information and decision support systems will be used to benefit decision making in all major sectors of the economy where every man and woman, schoolchild, village, government office and business can access information and knowledge resources through computers and telecommunications.</p></sec><sec><title>Implementation of the AISI action plan</title><p>The implementation strategy of the AISI action plan will seek to create a continent‐wide information and telecommunication infrastructure which will allow low‐cost and reliable communication in Africa and across the globe. This will take place at country level, starting with the development of respective National Information and Communication Infrastructure Plans (NICIPs), which will be perfected through programs and pilot projects reflecting national needs and priorities. However, a master plan for building national information and telecommunication infrastructures will be required. This will obligate ECA to work closely with its partners and respective nations to come up with National Action Plans (NAPs). Programmes and projects will be developed to help support systems of government, business and society. Cooperation will be encouraged at sub‐regional and regional levels.</p><p>By 1996 several United Nations agencies, with UN‐ECA as the lead agency, together with IDRC were already in the process of preparing a joint proposal to seek funds to start implementing the AISI action framework. The funds will be used to develop national policies and sectoral workshops, develop national information and communication infrastructure plans, and implement a few catalytic activities (ECA, 1996). To achieve all this there is dire need of support and commitment from individuals, governments, the private sector, NGOs and the media.</p><sec><title>Role of governments</title><p>Under AISI, governments will be expected to provide a vision, strategy and an enabling environment to develop national information and communication infrastructures, and to play a coordinating role by establishing a framework and mechanism that ensures the participation of all sectors in implementing the national information and communication infrastructures and to guarantee that all sectors of society benefit from it. To achieve these objectives governments are expected to do a set of things, but the most important are to: <list list-type="bullet"><list-item><label>• </label><p>encourage the liberalisation of national telecommunication and public broadcasting services; and</p></list-item><list-item><label>• </label><p>put in place legislation and rules that will encourage the use of new technologies and also take care of issues of intellectual property, privacy and the free flow of information (ECA,1996).</p></list-item></list></p><p>However, the deregulation of telecommunications strikes fear in the hearts of many and failure to deregulate may hinder connectivity in Africa. This was clearly displayed at the G7 sponsored Information Society and Development Conference (ISAD) held in South Africa in May 1996 where there was extensive bulwarking by many developing nations against throwing open their networks to foreign operators (Sergeant, 1996). Some participants raised fears that many first world countries had their home markets saturated and were running out of markets and thus scrambling for Africa which still has a virgin market with less competition. Other participants argued that their countries should not be forced to enter the competitive fray, but should rather be allowed to move toward privatisation as and when it suits them. Another concern was about intellectual property rights and free flow of information. It was argued that if privatisation and intellectual property rights continue to be determined and controlled by the North, there is a possibility that developing countries could simply become absorbers of information content created by the developed world, and Africa could lose its valuable cultural diversities.</p><p>Irrespective of the fears raised about the electronic future, African governments still have a major role to play in providing universal information and communication services within their respective countries. They do not have to serve as regulatory organs only, but have to ensure that the industry delivers to the poorest and least profitable sectors of society. This can be achieved through community‐based schemes that cover a multitude of service applications and content through multipurpose community centers, such as the phone shops installed in South African communities. These centers can be run on a commercial basis, provided that this does not exclude the poor and marginalised (Richardson,1996).</p><p>Likewise Gilbert <italic>et al.</italic> (1995) argue that national governments have a responsibility to take strategic positions in facing the coming information intensive world. These strategies include: <list list-type="bullet"><list-item><label>• </label><p>creating a shared vision of the new communications era;</p></list-item><list-item><label>• </label><p>intensifying the process of information acculturation;</p></list-item><list-item><label>• </label><p>generating the necessary human resources;</p></list-item><list-item><label>• </label><p>strategic planning and management;</p></list-item><list-item><label>• </label><p>accelerating the development of communications infrastructure;</p></list-item><list-item><label>• </label><p>technology assessment and forecasting;</p></list-item><list-item><label>• </label><p>initiating and facilitating organisational restructuring.</p></list-item></list></p></sec><sec><title>Role of the private sector</title><p>Under the AISI, the private sector will play a major role in realising the African information society by stimulating growth and assuming market leadership in developing national information and communication infrastructures through investment in relevant areas. There are, however, many compelling reasons for allowing private business to develop their own telecommunications network (Stribos, 1996). First, businesses such as banking, insurance, and mining have the funds to create their own networks. In so doing they will not need any substantial support from the PTT, freeing up government funds for other use. Second, jobs created by the installation and operation of networks will provide a boost to the economy. Third, once the network is operational the business using them could operate more efficiently and effectively using high quality connectivity. Finally, this enhanced connectivity would provide a gateway to improved commercial capabilities through access to outside markets and sources of revenue.</p></sec><sec><title>Role of the media</title><p>In terms of the implementation of the AISI, the media should be used not only as a means for information dissemination, but also as a channel of communication which reaches out to all the citizens rich and poor, urban and rural. Jensen (1995b), argues that this can be done through broadband multimedia transmission networks that broadcasters already have in existence. He argues that with mushrooming satellite capacity over Africa, transport capacity could also be dedicated to broadcasting information gathered from the infoban, as is already being done to transmit Internet News groups by Planet Connect Inc. in the Americas and Asia.</p></sec><sec><title>Role of NGOS and international agencies</title><p>Many of the networks operational in Africa today have been set up by NGOs and international agencies, who have the best local connections and funds to purchase the latest communication technologies and ability to reach out to the rural communities. NGOs can play a catalytic and co‐ordinating role with government and private sector, providing a balance to a market‐oriented service industry and helping to ensure that universal service objectives are realised. Such initiatives have been made at the regional level. For example, the Pan African Development Information System (PADIS) has become increasingly convinced of the essential link between documentation, information and electronic communication, thus setting up projects like Capacity Building for Electronic Communication in Africa (CABECA). The project aims to bring about sustainable computer‐based networking in Africa, at an affordable cost and accessible to a wide variety of users (Hafkin, 1994).</p><p>International agencies can also smooth the way for the introduction of the information world by financial support, research, education, and sharing of information (Gilbert <italic>et al.</italic>, 1995). Some agencies like the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) have already played this role since their inception. UNESCO, too, has drawn up plans to conceive and promote policies for the development of information highways which will not lead to further marginalisation of developing countries to new types of exclusions within societies (Tocatlian, 1995). Following an ITU‐sponsored study, the US corporation AT&T is soliciting investors for Africa One ‐ a US$ 1.9bn very high capacity fibre optic cable around the continent (PANOS, 1995).</p></sec></sec><sec><title>The litmus test</title><p>The information society initiative in Africa has already started with a high level of political commitment from the leaders of African nations as pointed out above, but political passion alone does not always deliver. It is at national level that the real test will be determined. Will there be a concerted strategy at national level to share the vision of creating an African Information Society with all the stakeholders, information specialists, scholars, politicians, engineers, business men and women, community leaders, and the youth involved? How will individual nation governments raise the money for their information and communication infrastructures? Of course they will be required to follow the scheme of things as outlined above. Will that be sufficient? It would appear to us that the Action Framework to Build Africa’s Information and Communication Infrastructure document is silent on the particular issue that relates to money. Should not the OAU Council of Ministers have committed the OAU to funding the information and communications project? The onus has been left to respective African governments to review and rework their national information and communication policies and strategies as a matter of urgency and to link up with other countries on the Internet. What will the OAU do? Our fear is that whoever will fund Africa’s information and communication projects may call the shots in terms of use, language, content and coverage. Is that what Africa wants? Most African countries are at different levels of economic development (hence the need for a central body like the OAU to take up regional projects); some have limited budgets needed to finance education, famine relief and agricultural development. In some countries electronic publishing is still a very expensive endeavour owing to layered Hyper Text Mark‐up Languages (HTML).</p><p>In whose interest will the information and communication infrastructure be built? Many will say that, “it will obviously be built in the interest of the Africans.” It is our view that this should not be taken for granted. The end result of the African Information Society (AIS) will depend largely on who controls its processes and on whose primary needs it is predicated. It is our view that the AISI should have the ability to decentralise informatics in such a way that it empowers all citizens. This means that it should not lead to the creation of worldwide just‐in‐time delivery of tradable information and knowledge by increasing the marginalisation of African rural communities and the labor force (Thapisa, 1996), thereby uprooting the non‐virtual groups. That is to say, the AISI should not serve the exclusive interests of developed nations who might turn out to be the main sponsors of this project. It stands to reason that a deliberate effort must be taken to ensure that sustainable development does not as of necessity emanate from outside but from within and that there is sufficient money to support development initiatives. The aim should be to establish an equitable regional and international information order based on the realisation that the needs and goals of the African continent are vastly different from those of the developed world. According to Lewis (1997) a view of an information society must go far beyond the goal of “economic development” to encompass the full range of social development issues which include not only the empowerment of African people but also the removal of poverty and the reduction of inequity. This means that sustainable development must not include sustained poverty and in this regard Africa has to be far more than just a mere market for the G7 software and hardware. In order to overcome infor‐colonialism and an ongoing cycle of dependency, weakness and impoverishment, vigilance should be exercised here.</p></sec><sec><title>Globalisation</title><p>According to the APC‐EU Courier (1997), the word globalisation means no more than the transition to a geo‐finance system which manifested itself particularly during the 1980s, at which time consideration was being given to;</p><list list-type="bullet"><list-item><label>• </label><p>how a global strategy for multinational undertakings should be defined;</p></list-item><list-item><label>• </label><p>how international trade should be organised ‐ on a regional or multilateral basis.</p></list-item></list><p>Since then, financial globalisation has led to the mobility of capital and in the 1990s, international competition has expanded to include financial services, transport, the audio‐visual sector and telecommunications. The main objective of globalisation is to have access to the world markets, the outcome of which is that global power is now characterised by the compression of time and the plummeting of the cost of transmitting information. The speed at which information travels is now a crucial factor in world trade. This is where Toffler (1990) opines that the speed with which data, information, and knowledge pulse through an economic system defines the power of that economy. Fast economies therefore generate wealth and power faster than slow ones. However, the key aspect of a free market economy is availability of and equal access to information, including the ability to make some sense of it. The “leveling of the playing fields” therefore is unachievable in a world of unequals. True globalisation should entail a shared equal ability to control information and interdependence.</p><p>Globalisation, the World Bank’s brain child, as it relates to Global Knowledge Development refers mainly to economics and commerce and not necessarily to the empowerment of the poor and the removal of visages of dependencies through information and knowledge. Globalisation would appear to favour the rich nations and not so much the poor. As David Steinberg (1997) argued, globalisation does not mean that the world is globalised because only a few internationally competitive firms are globalised, and represent 75 percent of global activity while the remaining huge majority of the world continue to eke out a subsistence survival at even greater personal expense post‐globalisation. We concur with Steinberg’s submission that although globalisation was meant to liberate people and their economies through a network of cooperative endeavors, in fact, it has not. It would appear to prevent LDCs from protecting their fledgling industries from the economic giants of the World. As the honorable Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir Bin Mahamad, said at the First Southern Africa International Dialogue, “open and free competition is great but every time we open and we compete, we lose out.” We need to heed these warnings, the information revolution is a revolution of the élite and powerful which may not have complete regard for human solidarity and the principles of equity. This revolution therefore might leave billions of illiterate people in Africa with absolutely no access to information and knowledge if it is not harnessed and harvested properly.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>In conclusion therefore we want to argue that the AISI should promote within all African societies indigenous values, ideas, information, knowledge and action. As Kofi Anani (1997) said, the main concern is to devise ways of how to use the electronic media to enhance the effectiveness of the existing forms of communication because, as Kofi would assert, the importance and relevance of the indigenous modes of knowledge dissemination lie not in their sophistication but rather in their accessibility and availability. His namesake Kofi Annan (1997), Secretary General of the United Nations in his address to the First Formal Meeting of the Working Group on Informatics in New York, also acknowledged that communication and information technology have enormous potential, especially for developing countries, and in furthering sustainable development. He emphasised that priority must be access ‐ making available the capacity to receive, download and share information through electronic networks. And he warned that, so far, the benefits of the communications and information technology revolution are not yet evenly spread. He reiterated the views of the Administrative Committee on Coordination regarding the role and responsibilities of the United Nations system in making sure that all countries and all regions must have fair access to the benefits of the communications and information revolution. We call on the OAU therefore to take a similar stand for Africa ‐ to undertake the funding of an African Information Society Initiative and to build an African information and communication infrastructure.</p><p>We also concur with the view that in a global economy, where global knowledge is traded, there has to be an agreed on unit of exchange, other than national currencies (Wyllie, 1997). This will enable nations to buy and share knowledge for development and also to build smart partnerships which empower the poor with knowledge and information, and to foster regional and international dialog on development. This means also that the dialog should be extended to the citizen stakeholders, academics, information specialists, business and the youth.</p><p>Respective African national governments should establish within their borders Information and Communication Think Tanks (ICTTs) whose main and broad objective is to harness the informatics revolution for the benefit of all their citizens. For example in South Africa the South African Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) already has an officer who co‐ordinates COSATU’s involvement in the National Information Technology Forum (NITF) (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.apc.org/nitf">http://www.apc.org/nitf</ext-link>) which seeks to bring together all major players in the ICT arena into an ICT policy development and advocacy forum. 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URL:‐<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.trendmon.demon.co.uk">http://www. trendmon.demon.co.uk</ext-link></mixed-citation></ref></ref-list></back></article></istex:document></istex:metadataXml><mods version="3.6"><titleInfo lang="en"><title>Mapping Africas initiative at building an information and communications infrastructure</title></titleInfo><titleInfo type="alternative" lang="en" contentType="CDATA"><title>Mapping Africas initiative at building an information and communications infrastructure</title></titleInfo><name type="personal"><namePart type="given">Amos P.N.</namePart><namePart type="family">Thapisa</namePart><affiliation>Senior Lecturer at the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana</affiliation><role><roleTerm type="text">author</roleTerm></role></name><name type="personal"><namePart type="given">Elizabeth</namePart><namePart type="family">Birabwa</namePart><affiliation>Masters Student at the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana</affiliation><role><roleTerm type="text">author</roleTerm></role></name><typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource><genre type="other" displayLabel="e-literature-review"></genre><originInfo><publisher>MCB UP Ltd</publisher><dateIssued encoding="w3cdtf">1998-03-01</dateIssued><copyrightDate encoding="w3cdtf">1998</copyrightDate></originInfo><language><languageTerm type="code" authority="iso639-2b">eng</languageTerm><languageTerm type="code" authority="rfc3066">en</languageTerm></language><physicalDescription><internetMediaType>text/html</internetMediaType></physicalDescription><abstract lang="en">The article explores Africas initiative at building a regional plan for the formulation and development of a National Information and Communication Infrastructure NICIP in every African state. The paper also examines the challenges and opportunities confronting Africa in its bid to launch itself into the information age. The role of information, communication and knowledge in accelerating African socioeconomic development is emphasised. The paper makes a critical examination of the globalisation of economies and argues that globalisation appears to favour the rich and not so much the poor. It challenges the Organisation of African Unity OAU to provide funding for the project if it is to succeed. It eventually concludes by making the observation that Africas Information Society Initiative AISI should promote Africa.</abstract><subject><genre>keywords</genre><topic>Africa</topic><topic>Communications</topic><topic>Globalization</topic><topic>Information</topic></subject><relatedItem type="host"><titleInfo><title>Internet Research</title></titleInfo><genre type="journal">journal</genre><subject><genre>Emerald Subject Group</genre><topic authority="SubjectCodesPrimary" authorityURI="cat-IKM">Information & knowledge management</topic><topic authority="SubjectCodesSecondary" authorityURI="cat-ICT">Information & communications technology</topic><topic authority="SubjectCodesSecondary" authorityURI="cat-CNWK">Communications & networks</topic><topic authority="SubjectCodesSecondary" authorityURI="cat-INT">Internet</topic></subject><identifier type="ISSN">1066-2243</identifier><identifier type="PublisherID">intr</identifier><identifier type="DOI">10.1108/intr</identifier><part><date>1998</date><detail type="volume"><caption>vol.</caption><number>8</number></detail><detail type="issue"><caption>no.</caption><number>1</number></detail><extent unit="pages"><start>49</start><end>58</end></extent></part></relatedItem><identifier type="istex">AF1D1A3E8A451940D3909773BE42E88E4E0C4E94</identifier><identifier type="DOI">10.1108/10662249810368888</identifier><identifier type="filenameID">1720080106</identifier><identifier type="original-pdf">1720080106.pdf</identifier><identifier type="href">10662249810368888.pdf</identifier><accessCondition type="use and reproduction" contentType="copyright">© MCB UP Limited</accessCondition><recordInfo><recordContentSource>EMERALD</recordContentSource></recordInfo></mods></metadata><serie></serie></istex></record>Pour manipuler ce document sous Unix (Dilib)
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