World Dialogue on Regulation

If ICT development is to have a significant impact on African economies and societies within the next decade, it will be necessary, working through NEPAD or through accountable national or regional structures, to create an African ICT Development Partnership of collaborating countries, enterprises and agencies spanning the private, NGO and public sectors. In each country or region this alliance would be anchored by an internal strategic institutional champion for ICT penetration, co-ordinating social and business uses of ICTs, monitoring progress and helping to redress challenges. The G8 could advocate the establishment or refurbishment of such structures in African sub-regions or countries, and offer to finance their core operation for a defined period.

Further, while mobile telephony is the most prevalent digitally distributed network in Africa, the development future demands higher levels of broadband technology interface with people's working lives. Africa needs a sustained programme of access to cheaper Internet-linked computers along with the necessary training for its young population. Where more rapid expansion of the wired network is challenged by distance, wireless broadband technologies could be deployed to link educational institutions, businesses, farms and communities using cost-effective access to desktop, laptop and more mobile palmtop applications. The idea would be to encourage not just mobile phone voice connectivity and message downloads, but also the creation and marketing of more substantial African visual and development data content available on the Internet. The G8 could assist in funding community hot-zones and financing the hardware, networking, research and training required, working through the national enabling institutions such as those suggested above.