Digital Divide Could Alienate Developing Countries

["Irfan Khan" <KhanIA@super.net.pk>]

[bear with me for yet another posting which is not about south asia 
per se. like my earlier post on ACT 2000 (3 september 2000), this one 
is also from africa. ik]


Digital Divide Could Alienate Developing Countries


African Church Information Service (Nairobi)

OPINION AND ANALYSIS
September 4, 2000 

Stephen Mbogo
Nairobi 


Africa could reap unequalled Information Communication Technology ICT 
benefits if it identifies and pursues partnership strategies with 
both the developing and the developed world. The development of ICT 
in Africa in all facets of its application lags behind in comparison 
with other world regions. But there are now promising initiatives in 
Africa towards the development of ICT.

Apart from low teledensity - telephone connections per 1,000 people - 
Africa still lags behind in the development of both hardware and 
software production capabilities required for the ICT revolution to 
take root.

Yet the digital divide is threatening to leave the poor countries, 
most of which are in Africa, more behind in terms of global 
development. "Promoting knowledge for development is a vast 
undertaking that cuts across all aspects of development," says Lalla 
Ben Barka, Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic 
Commission for Africa ECA.

"It is far too large for one organisation (or country) to undertake 
by itself. All aspects of development agenda need multi-stakeholder 
processes and partnerships. They need a co-ordinated partnership 
approach to accomplish the tremendous development challenges they 
represent".

In Africa, the ECA has been at the forefront of not only spearheading 
development of ICT but also of networking to realise this aim, for 
instance through the African Information Society Initiative AISI.

This is an action plan to build Africa's information and 
communication infrastructure rooted in 15 prior years of regional 
efforts to reduce the information gap between Africa and the rest of 
the world'

In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, according to Barka, the value 
of local knowledge and understanding must be recognised while 
implementing ICT development projects.

"The absence of local understanding and involvement in the design and 
implementation of development projects has been the source of many 
failures. Users from the community level on up must be incorporated 
into project and project design," the ECA official said.

"On the other hand, development agencies must put more emphasis on 
learning from the projects they support and disseminating results. 
The prerequisites for this are the sharing of information," Barka 
said this while addressing Global Knowledge Partnership Summit held 
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia recently.

Apart from ICT infrastructure, software development technologies are 
absolutely minimal in Africa. Most of the software in use in Africa 
has either been developed in India - the current global software 
production giant- or in the West.

The diversity of the Africa culture and languages dictates that 
Africans should develop own software that will feature the reality of 
African diversified applications.

"Software production is a potential entry point for Africa into ICT 
production. Compared to hardware, it is less capital intensive, more 
labour intensive and has a longer shelf life," says K.Y. Amoako, the 
Executive Secretary of the ECA.

Amoako was addressing a conference on India-Africa Co-operation in 
the Information Age in New Delhi in April this year. "While there is 
a limited software production expertise in Africa, India software 
houses face a large- scale migration of human resources".

"Nonetheless, there are opportunities for African Information 
Technology IT companies to work with India counterparts in gaining 
skills, resources and new software development culture and quality".

Indeed, India-Africa ICT partnership could be a "godsend" opportunity 
for Africa as it strives to put itself at the same ICT level with 
other global regions rather than be bypassed by the ICT itself.

Some facts about India IT revolution give weight to this assertion. 
The most popular form of Internet based e-mail, the Hotmail was 
invented by Sabber Bhatia of India before selling it to Microsoft 
Corp for US$ 400 million.

Over 700 ICT firms in Silicon Valley, the headquarters of the 
"computer knowledge" are owned by Indians. India has one of the most 
vibrant, government- led national information technology and 
communication strategy.

Software production is a mantra to India excellence. India has also 
been aggressive in the development of language infrastructure through 
IT- an area of considerable interest to Africa given its multiplicity 
of languages.

According to Africa Policy Information Centre, APIC based in Maryland 
USA, both private and public sectors in Africa are striving to build 
ICT related partnerships with the outside world. These partnerships 
are proving to be blessings beyond the formerly anticipated levels.

<...>


Publication Date: August 28, 2000


http://www.allafrica.com/stories/200009040179.html