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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

ECA, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is the regional arm of the

United Nations Secretariat, mandated to support the economic

and social development of its 53 Member States, foster regional

integration, and promote international cooperation for Africa’s

development.

ECA is a key pioneer in the area of ICT for development, imple-

menting the Africa Information Society Initiative (AISI) – an

action framework for promoting Africa’s digital agenda adopted

by the Conference of Ministers of Planning and Economic

Development in 1996 and subsequently endorsed by African

Heads of State. Major activities include the development of

national e-strategies for socioeconomic development and current

activities.

E-policies/e-strategies – ECA has been assisting some 28 African

countries in developing national e-strategies through the National

Information and Communication Infrastructure Plans, to address

MDGs and national Poverty Reduction Strategies. ICT strategies

have been introduced at sector-wide levels including support for

public administration (e-government), commerce/trade, agricul-

ture as well as health and education. At the sub-regional level,

activities are underway to facilitate the harmonization of national

strategies and regulatory frameworks in collaboration with the

Regional Economic Communities. Measuring the impact of the

Information Society is being undertaken through the Scan ICT

initiative to build statistical capacity of Member States and use ICT

indicators for development.

Information and knowledge resources – this entails building

the capacities of African policy makers, civil society organiza-

tions, the private sector and institutions through workshops,

training and exhibitions led by the Information Technology

Centre for Africa. Through VarsityNet, ECA is supporting the

research and development capacity of African universities and

research institutions for applications to serve African interests.

A WSIS African Academia Research Network has been in oper-

ation since 2003 where leading researchers are working on four

themes: ICTs and Industrialization; African Languages and

Cyberspace; the Enabling Environment; and Measuring the

Information Society. The African Virtual Library and Information

Network (AVLIN) provides Internet-based information and

knowledge resources and services to assist Member States and

their institutions. The Commission’s Geo-information

Programme is increasing its work to promote geo-spatial data

sharing and integrating geo-information policy into e-strategies

and plans, as well as fostering public participation in geo-infor-

mation management.

Partnership and networking – under the broad framework of

the Partnership for ICTs in Africa (PICTA), ECA works with part-

ners such as the Finnish Government, Industry Canada,

European Commission, German Technical Cooperation, Swiss

Agency for Development and Cooperation, International

Development Research Centre, International Institute for

Communication and Development, and Ford Foundation. Other

partnership mechanisms and activities include implementing the

regional node of Global ePolicy Resource Network (ePol-Net

Africa) to ICT policies – collaboration between ECA, Industry

Canada and the Canadian ePolicy Resource Center (CePRC). ECA

is also the regional focal point for the Global Knowledge

Partnership in building multi-stakeholder partnerships for the

Information Society, and provides secretariat support for the

African Stakeholders Network of the United Nations Information

and Communication Technology Task Force. ECA is also working

with the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and

Earth Observation (ITC), the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure

Association, EIS-Africa, and the International Federation of

Surveyors to mention a few, in implementing the Geo-information

programme.

Outreach and communication entails a series of activities to

promote AISI goals, involving key stakeholders, including acad-

emia, civil society, media, MPs, private sector, women’s groups

and the youth. Information outputs produced to promote and

create awareness include the ICT for Development video docu-

mentary

Africa Goes Digital

and the award-wining AISI radio

series, newsletters (iConnect Africa, PICTA bulletin), briefing

papers and web resources.

Website:

www.uneca.org/aisi

E-mail:

aopoku-mensah@uneca.org

Implementation of WSIS Geneva Action Plan

As part of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) framework, ECA has

been mobilizing Member States for their active participation in the WSIS

process starting with the first regional conference for the Geneva World

Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Bamako in 2002. The

Second Africa Regional preparatory conference held in Ghana under the theme

of “Access: Africa’s key to an inclusive Information Society” in February 2005

brought together over 2,000 delegates, including governments, civil society,

private sector, media and academia as well as representatives of the

international community, to prepare an African Regional Plan of Action

(ARPoA) for the second phase of the Summit (WSIS II) scheduled in November

2005 in Tunis. Among the high-level delegates was His Excellency Paul

Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, His Excellency Mohammed

Ghounnushi, Prime Minister of Tunisia, and His Excellency Mr Yoshio Utsumi,

Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), as

well as ECA’s Executive Secretary KY Amoako. The event was supported by

ECA’s key partners and the outcome was the Accra Commitments, which is

serving as a roadmap for Africa for the Tunis phase and beyond, focusing on

development orientations, resource mobilization including human resources,

international cooperation, with concrete operational aspects.

AISI activities include the development of national e-strategies for

socioeconomic development