The winds of change: African communications reform

Citation

Gillwald, A. (2011), "The winds of change: African communications reform", info, Vol. 13 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/info.2011.27213caa.001

The winds of change: African communications reform

Article Type: Guest editorial From: info, Volume 13, Issue 3

There is a growing recognition among African policy makers of the role of ICTs in the growth and development process. There is also a great deal of debate over what the best ICT policy is for confronting the challenges and opportunities of globalization and harnessing the potential benefits of the knowledge economy. This is clearly illustrated in continent-wide initiatives by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the African Telecommunications Union, the African Connection and in various programs of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). These initiatives reflect policy-makers’ growing belief in the potential of ICTs to accelerate broad-based growth and sustainable development, and for reducing poverty.

Despite the rhetoric and public statements of commitment to utilizing ICTs for development in Africa, the vast majority of African countries still appear ill prepared to optimize the potential of ICTs. By and large they lack the financial and human capital, along with the policies and institutions required to exploit the knowledge economy. While such conditions pertain, the danger of African countries remaining on the wrong side of the global digital divide and indeed of perpetuating the digital divide within countries owing to the uneven nature of diffusion of ICTs, is a major policy issue. If ICTs are a new source of economic growth, there is indeed cause for concern that ICTs could become a factor contributing to the widening of income differentials between countries. Domestic digital divides often mirror existing inequities within developing and developed countries and are therefore likely to reinforce them rather than contribute to developmental objectives. Moreover, fears that the rapid pace of change in ICTs can contribute to the deepening of technological dependency and economic underdevelopment in large parts of Africa are not entirely unfounded.

While these concerns are pertinent to those responsible for ICT development throughout the world, decision-makers in Africa have seldom had the benefit of research and analysis, particularly the kind of contested analyses enjoyed by policy-makers in research-rich environments, to inform their policy processes. Research in the field of ICT and development in Africa is limited, fragmented and typically undertaken as isolated and disconnected projects, seldom published and even less often part of public policy processes.

The collection of papers for this special info issue emanates from an initiative by Research ICT Africa (www.researchICTafrica.net) to respond to the growing demand for data and analysis necessary for appropriate but also visionary policy that is required to catapult the continent into the information age. With the support of the International Development Research Council (IDRC) of Canada and CPRsouth in Asia, it has created an annual conference, Communication Policy Research Africa (CPRafrica) to nurture and showcase African ICT policy and regulatory research. The purpose of CPRafrica is to promote intellectual endeavor and research in the area of ICT policy and regulation in Africa through the creation of a forum in which African academics and researchers can engage and showcase their research and which can provide a base from which they can contribute to global debates from an African perspective. The papers in this issue were drawn from the first conference held at the University of Cape Town in April 2010.

This purpose of developing indigenous intellectuals able to engage critically on the basis of rigorous research is seen as key to providing a sound basis for evidence based policy formulation on the continent. In a recent paper which attempts to document the African contribution to international academic research in the area of ICTD (ICT for Development) the authors note that it is typically between 1 and 9 percent of publications across sub disciplines:

The low output of African authors in the ICTD field suggests that theories around the appropriate design, mechanisms of adoption and impact of ICTs in developing counties are being formed without significant influence by African scholars (Gitau et al., 2010).

The overall objective of CPRafrica is to nurture policy intellectuals capable of informed and effective intervention in ICT policy and regulatory processes in specific developing country contexts, and while daunting challenges remain in this regard, the papers in this issue reflect the progress that is being made. The route to building the credibility required to influence research agendas and engage in international and local debates is through the production and publication of rigorous research. The failure of African researchers generally to do so is widely known and largely accepted as given. The reasons for this are well documented in the Gitau et al. paper mentioned above which cites the absence of a publishing culture, institutional constraints, lack of access to information, peer review cultural bias, lack of conference attendance as some of the main factors. It recommends precisely the gathering of researchers together under mentoring conditions to build confidence, exposure to conference debate and defense, all with the purpose of producing high quality research and publications. The CPRafrica conference and the window of opportunity provided by info to consider the collection of best papers for publication is a first concrete step to the realization of these objectives.

The papers in this issue cover a diverse range of topics from alternative strategies for interconnection and roaming regulation to issues of equity in ICT access usage, and from the regulatory challenges posed by a convergence environment to copyright, and ensuring access to knowledge. They are bound by a common concern with poor policies, regulatory vacuums or unintended policy and regulatory outcomes and the commitment to address these through rigorous research and analysis.

Participation in the CPRafrica conference by researchers in the global south and wider collaboration by them is seen as an important part of this exercise, hence the inclusion in this issue of Asian papers which together with the predominantly African authors were selected through the peer review process and evaluated by the conference as amongst the top performers. I would like to thank the authors for contributions to this issue, their responsiveness to revisions and to Alexandra Allem for her liaison with the publishers and her efforts to keep us all on schedule!

I particularly wish to thank the review panels of CPRafrica and the eminent group of referees for this issue who have long stewarded research efforts towards the improvement of policy on the continent – Lishan Adam (Research ICT Africa, Ethiopia), Colin Blackman (Editor, info), Anders Henten (Aalborg University, Denmark), Hernan Galperin (Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina), Laurent Gille (Télécom ParisTech), Tim Kelly (infoDev), Dick Kawooya (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Robin Mansell (London School of Economics and Political Science), William Melody (Technical University of Denmark), Rohan Samarajiva (LIRNEasia), Leo Van Audenhove and Simon Delaere (both Vrije Universiteit Brussels).

Finally I would like to acknowledge the ongoing support of the IDRC, without which the research that underpins this initiative would not be possible.

Alison Gillwald

A About the Guest Editor

Alison Gillwald is Director of Research ICT Africa (www.researchictafrica.net) and Adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, Management of Infrastructure Reform and Regulation Programme, Box 228 Green Point, Cape Town, Western Cape 8051, South Africa. agillwald@researchictafrica.net

Alison Gillwald is based at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.