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Page 1 of 11  The UK high-level policy forum, Africa after the African Commission: What priorities for the German G8, brought together senior DFID and NGO staff, members of parliament, private sector representatives, development academics, and journalists for high-level discussions on the future of Africa in the run-up to the G8 meeting in Germany.
The experts were asked to identify priority areas for G8 attention in Africa. By the end of the day the group had identified a set of key messages for the G8 covering a variety of areas related to African development: aid, China, conflict, ICTs, climate change, civic engagement and accountability, and voice in international institutions.
In the area of ICTs, the main document, by Richard Heeks from the Development Informatics Group at the University of Manchester, e-Africa and m-Africa: How can ICTs deliver?, proposed a focus on five suggestions for the G8.
- Put ICTs back on the G8 agenda, as part of a recognition of science and technology's role in African development.
- Commit to support at global and national levels for Open Digital Economies that remove the legal and infrastructural barriers to African participation in the digital economy.
- Initiate a MOT Force - a global collaborative Mobile Opportunities Task Force to harness the development potential of mobile devices.
- Support a Digital Enterprise Initiative for Africa that would incubate new enterprises, and kickstart the developmental use of outsourcing.
- Support capacity-building for African ICT-based innovation.
The World Dialogue on Regulation invited a select group of ICT policy and regulation experts to reflect on the commission's suggestions and asked what message they would most like to convey to the G8. Godfred Frempong, Hopeton S. Dunn, Heloise Emdon, Anders Henten, Seán Ó Siochrú and Victor van Reijswoud contributed their thoughts. Send your own Word to the G8 to
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. We will post a selection of the comments received.
Read the Words to the G8 sent by regulateonline.org visitors:
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