Thursday, May 06, 2004
Nepad finding its feelers in the ICT worldBy Haru Mutasa
Here is a true story Samer Halawi, the Middle East and Africa director of Inmarsat, told delegates at the sixth International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Telecom Africa conference in Cairo Egypt.
"For a long time two remote schools in Lebanon were not exposed to the benefits of the Internet," he began, "This had negative effects on learning. Many of them left high schools without ever being introduced to the benefits of the Internet.
"Then through an initiative organized by Inmarsat, and created to promote development in impoverished areas, computers and Internet facilities were donated to the schools and opened up a whole new world for them.
"After just a few months teachers began to notice remarkable improvements in their children's' reading, writing and grasp of the English language."
As in Lebanon, Inmarsat has come to Africa and is one of many projects working with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) to accelerate development in Africa.
"About 70 per cent of the world's poor live in rural areas and suffer from what is known as Information poverty - the lack of knowledge because of a lack of ICT infrastructure," said Hawali.
But Nepad is not just about forming partnerships with donor agencies - African states, like Egypt, have also taken the initiative to improve development in their respective countries.
"Nepad is not just about ICTs, but development," said Raafat Radwan of the UN ICT Task Force, "That is what the Information and Decision Support Centre for Cabinet Ministers (IDSC) is all about. It uses ICTs to achieve Nepad's objectives."
Established in 1985 the IDSC is a think tank working under the Egyptian Prime Minister to accelerate socio-political development in Egypt. An area of particular concern is ensuring democratic conditions during elections. This has not been easy due to ghosts who periodically pay unexpected visits from the after life.
"The dead usually come to life when it is voting time," said Radwan, "It is a problem we have always had. We need to effectively use ICTs to sort out our national ID process using effective databases."
Discussing ways on how to use ICTs to achieve Nepad objectives delegates at Telecom Africa 2004 agreed to place more emphasis on the technologies present to reach Nepad's objectives.
"Africa is a frontrunner in wireless expansion so let's build on this to reach Nepad's objectives," said Rami Majzoubi Lebanese ICT specialist, "The ball is in Africa's camp - it is now up to Africa to return it."
It is not all smooth sailing and Nepad leaders were reminded that well thought out implementation policies need to be put in place for anything to work.
"Without implementation Africa will lose a glass opportunity for repartnership of African states," said Effat El-Shooky, Vice President of Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Centre in Egypt.
Wise words which hopefully Nepad leaders will take to task.
==========================
Here is a true story Samer Halawi, the Middle East and Africa director of Inmarsat, told delegates at the sixth International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Telecom Africa conference in Cairo Egypt.
"For a long time two remote schools in Lebanon were not exposed to the benefits of the Internet," he began, "This had negative effects on learning. Many of them left high schools without ever being introduced to the benefits of the Internet.
"Then through an initiative organized by Inmarsat, and created to promote development in impoverished areas, computers and Internet facilities were donated to the schools and opened up a whole new world for them.
"After just a few months teachers began to notice remarkable improvements in their children's' reading, writing and grasp of the English language."
As in Lebanon, Inmarsat has come to Africa and is one of many projects working with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) to accelerate development in Africa.
"About 70 per cent of the world's poor live in rural areas and suffer from what is known as Information poverty - the lack of knowledge because of a lack of ICT infrastructure," said Hawali.
But Nepad is not just about forming partnerships with donor agencies - African states, like Egypt, have also taken the initiative to improve development in their respective countries.
"Nepad is not just about ICTs, but development," said Raafat Radwan of the UN ICT Task Force, "That is what the Information and Decision Support Centre for Cabinet Ministers (IDSC) is all about. It uses ICTs to achieve Nepad's objectives."
Established in 1985 the IDSC is a think tank working under the Egyptian Prime Minister to accelerate socio-political development in Egypt. An area of particular concern is ensuring democratic conditions during elections. This has not been easy due to ghosts who periodically pay unexpected visits from the after life.
"The dead usually come to life when it is voting time," said Radwan, "It is a problem we have always had. We need to effectively use ICTs to sort out our national ID process using effective databases."
Discussing ways on how to use ICTs to achieve Nepad objectives delegates at Telecom Africa 2004 agreed to place more emphasis on the technologies present to reach Nepad's objectives.
"Africa is a frontrunner in wireless expansion so let's build on this to reach Nepad's objectives," said Rami Majzoubi Lebanese ICT specialist, "The ball is in Africa's camp - it is now up to Africa to return it."
It is not all smooth sailing and Nepad leaders were reminded that well thought out implementation policies need to be put in place for anything to work.
"Without implementation Africa will lose a glass opportunity for repartnership of African states," said Effat El-Shooky, Vice President of Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Centre in Egypt.
Wise words which hopefully Nepad leaders will take to task.
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