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Written by Victor van Reijswoud & Amy Mahan
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Monday, 04 June 2007 |
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Page 4 of 11 Godfred Frempong
Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(STEPRI/CSIR) and Research ICT Africa
G8 Official Support for Digital Solidarity Fund
The Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF) should be on the agenda of the G8 and the G8 should discuss how they are going to concretely support the Fund to deliver on its objectives. DSF support of local, vibrant ICT initiatives – with their prospects for reducing poverty, unemployment, desolation and want in Africa – will go a long way towards reducing tensions on the continent.
Initiated by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and launched during the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS, Geneva 2003), the Fund was endorsed at WSIS II in Tunis. This is basically an African initiative with most of the founding partners from Africa and also from some cities in France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. The Fund subsists on voluntary contributions from stakeholders in the digital business.
A predominantly African initiative grounded in the need to bridge the gap between the haves and have nots in Africa, as well as the digital gap between Africa and the rest of the world, the DSF should attract more support and interest than it has received. Support from international organisations, governments and political grouping such as the G8, the African Union, the European Union, ASEAN, OECD, etc., is very critical for putting the Fund at centre stage of international fora on digital divide.
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