The Ticad Workshop on ICTs 2002

Citation

Mêgnigbêto, E. (2002), "The Ticad Workshop on ICTs 2002", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 19 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2002.23919iac.001

The Ticad Workshop on ICTs 2002

Eustache Mêgnigbêto

1. Origin and objectives of the Ticad

"Ticad" stands for the Tokyo International Conference for African Development. Ticad is an initiative of the Japanese Government, in partnership with the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Office of the Special Coordinator for Africa and the Least Developed Countries (UN-OSCAL), the Global Coalition for Africa, and aims at African development through ownership and partnership. The first conference (Ticad 1) was held in 1993 in Tokyo, and the second (Ticad 2) in 1998.

Ticad 2 adopted an agenda for African development called the "Tokyo agenda for action" whose primary theme was "Poverty reduction through accelerated economic growth and sustainable development, and effective integration of African economies into the global economy". ICTs have been identified as one of the tools that could help African and Asian countries in accomplishing the Tokyo agenda's goals, by creating areas for exchanges and dialogues. Thus, the UNDP has formulated the "IT initiative" to accompany some actions. Among them, the Cotonou workshop whose central theme is "Africa-Asia-cooperation and public-private partnership in ICT development strategies in Africa." The Cotonou workshop follows the one held in Kuala Lumpur and Penang (Malaysia) in March 2002 on the theme "Promoting ITC in development cooperation."

2. Objectives and participants

The regional workshop held in Cotonou, Benin from 9-12 July 2002 aimed at reinforcing cooperation between African and Asian countries, and making political decision-makers and mainly private sector operators aware of the business opportunities provided by ICTs for development as well as economic growth. Participants came from Africa and Asia.

3. The opening ceremony

The official opening ceremony was marked by five addresses:

1. 1.

   The welcoming address was delivered by Mr Moustapha Soumare, coordinator of operational activities of the UN Agencies System, UNDP Resident Representative. He first made note of the two principles of Ticad, mainly ownership by African countries of the development of their continent through a permanent dialogue between private and public sectors, and the development of a global partnership in support of African countries' efforts. He also emphasized the previous meetings of Ticad and their achievements worldwide. Finally, he expressed his wish to see the workshop strengthen the current achievements of Ticad and reinforce Africa-Asia cooperation.

2. 2.

   Mr Ernest Nzekio, Director of the Special Unit Ticad at UNDP, delivered the second address. He presented the Ticad process as a way for African countries as well as the international community to address African development. He outlined some objectives of the workshop, and then specified that he did not doubt that they would be reached.

3. 3.

   The third speech was delivered by Mr Yoshifumi Himeno, Prime Secretary of the Japanese Embassy to Benin. He emphasized the fact that ICTs development was a necessity for cooperation among southern countries, mainly between African and Asian; then he expressed the wish that the objectives of the conference would be reached.

4. 4.

   The next speech was delivered by Mr Wassi Mouftaou, President of the Benin business house. He announced the forthcoming installation of an electronic commerce regional server to promote e-commerce exchanges between African and Asian businessmen in view of supporting the economic and social development of Africa through business development.

5. 5.

   The fifth and opening address was by Mr Gaston Zossou, the Benin Minister in charge of communication and ICTs promotion. The Minister underlined the theme of the workshop and said that ICTs were like a highway train for African development that African countries could not miss after missing the industrial revolution.

4. Communications

The second phase of the first day of the workshop began with the presentation of the Cotonou workshop objectives by Mr Claude Akotegnon, Director of New Technologies Promotion. In his address, Mr Akotegnon insisted on four major points. First, he gave some reminders, especially that Ticad is an initiative of the Japanese government in partnership with other developing countries in view of supporting African development. This global process includes the IT Initiative rubric which aims at promoting ICT. According to Mr Akotegnon, the present workshop, which fits within this scope, aims at identifying opportunities for co-operation between Africa and Asia in this field. Furthermore, he mentioned that African governments' high level advisers as well as private sector actors in the ICT field in Africa are the targets this workshop is addressing. Finally, he mentioned the anticipated result of the workshop, which was the need to have a shared vision of ICT in Africa by taking advantage of successful Asian experiences, in order to strengthen public-private co-operation between Africa and Asia in the ICT field.

Mr Philippe Tokpanou's presentation dealt with the co-operation between Africa and Asia. Giving some global trade exchanges statistics, he concluded that Africa is not as attractive as Asian countries despite the advanced liberalization level of the economies in most countries.

In his address, Mr Shadid Akhtar, the APDIP (Africa-Pacific Development Information Programme) Coordinator, after reminding the participants of the main findings and recommendations of the Kuala Lumpur workshop, defined the framework of ICT strategies for the promotion of growth in Asia. Indeed, on the basis that African countries should take advantage of successful Asian experiences to implement their own policies and strategies, Mr Akhtar mentioned that, in most Asian countries, donors showed less interest in ICT policies formulation because they considered this to be the Government's role; the guiding principles being to think big, start small and move fast.

Mr Denis Gilhooly exposed UNDP's perspective in order to specify its vision better. Madame Fatimetou Mint Mohamed-Saleck, Mauritania Secretary of State in charge of New Technologies, spoke about national strategies for ICT development and co-operation, and how this fits within the same perspective. She stated that Mauritania has a national strategy for ICTs development over 2002-2006.

After the series of presentations, a discussion moderated by Mr Richard Kerby was held. Most questions were posed by African participants about Asian approaches with a view to reducing poverty in Africa.

The second series of presentations was oriented toward e-governance. Four talks were given. The first, by Mr Dandjinou was about public-private partnership and regulatory environment. Before outlining the need for a regulatory environment, Mr Dandjinou made a situation analysis about ICT strategies in Africa. This allowed him to restate the necessity of setting up a public-private partnership, which requires a stable, predictable and transparent regulatory environment.

The second presentation was delivered by Mrs Danielle Houngbedji, OHADA UNDP Technical Adviser, and dealt with OHADA and ICTs development in Africa. Before mentioning ICT's contribution to harmonized business law, Mrs Houngbedji insisted on the general presentation of OHADA. According to her, it is a new domain where harmonization is at start-up point. This requires the training of young African lawyers.

The last two presentations included case studies : one about India, by Dr Gairola and the other about Senegal by Moustapha N'Diaye. In both cases, the question was the practice of ICT in support of public services. The Indian case was about computerization in passport and driving licenses.

On the second day, the participants dealt with the institutional framework that supports ICTs policies and strategies. African countries presented first their situation. Eight case studies were presented : Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Guinea, Mali, Burundi, DR Congo, and Uganda. It was clearly noticed that some countries did not even have a national, clearly defined strategy. The ICTs infrastructure in these countries is either non-existent or obsolete. This general situation, characterized by a quasi-total absence of enabling legal protection, requires a definition of different partners' roles.

Dr Matin Aamir presented then the case study of Pakistan. He was followed by other participants who presented respectively the cases of Benin, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Angola, Togo, and the Ivory Coast.

From most presentations, it was noticed that the strategies for the ICT ownership pay less attention to the training of the new manpower in full expansion. This situation is persisting because they ignore the fact that the ICT sector also generates employment and creates new jobs. It is therefore urgent that African ICT strategies lay more emphasis on computer training within the educational system, just as is the case in most Asian countries. In the same vein, strategies must ensure software development in national languages in order to support the introduction of ICT in the most marginalized and disadvantaged areas.

On the third day, the workshop dealt with the analysis of ICTs policies and strategies to grasp opportunities in the private sector and to build capacity. The first intervention was by Mr Richard Kerby. He outlined UNDP's perspectives on ICT ownership for entrepreneurship promotion and capacity building in the private sector. After pointing out the judicious and realistic character of UNDP's point of view, Mr Kerby made five proposals, including particularly the reinforcement of Africa-Asia partnership. He was followed by Dr Mohamad Nadzim Shaari who presented the Malaysian case, Mr Philippe Coupet who took the opportunity to present all the potential of Microsoft, and Dr Nii Quaynor who delivered the case of Ghana. Mrs Najat Rochdi's presentation dealt with what women can do through ICTs to come out of exclusion. The second series of presentations on capacity building through ICT ownership mainly examined the community perspective. Here, two case studies of India and Mauritania were presented.

5. Conclusions and recommendations

The fourth and last day of the workshop focused, on the one hand, on lessons and opportunities to be learned from Africa-Asia co-operation in ICT. On the other hand, discussions were held on perspectives and the place of ICT for development in the Ticad process. In the end, recommendations and conclusions were made under the responsibility of Mr Moustapha Soumare, UNDP Resident Representative in Benin. The recommendations could be categorized as follows :

1. 1.

   Country to country:

2. 2.
   • •

     The workshop suggested that the improvement of connectivity at the regional level be facilitated in the framework of NEPAD assistance.

   • •

     Successful experiences should be shared in terms of:

   • •

     – vision definition;

   • •

     – private sector contribution;

   • •

     – strategy and policy development.

   • •

     Exchanges with Northern African countries on their ICT experiences should be integrated.

3. 3.

   Africa-Asia:

4. 4.
   • •

     Take advantage of the Asian experience to enable accumulation of African entrepreneurs' experiences in the ICT field in view of supporting African pioneers.

   • •

     Enable transfer of technology and expertise including development of local content. A champion, the Malian Representative, will identify useful technologies to analyse the needs with the methodological assistance of Malaysian, Mr Nordin Othman. As for Simputer, a direct partnership with the promoting private company has been envisaged.

   • •

     It was recommended that OHADA liaise with ASEAN via Dr Nadzim from Malaysia to take advantage of the Asian experience in terms of Internet regulation.

5. 5.

   Co-operation:

6. 6.
   • •

     Partnership between Malaysia's MASSCORP and CICEC via Dr Chia from EPU-Malaysia. CCIB will also get in contact with the Kampala business centre.

   • •

     A regional programme for capacity building in ICT should be considered in the framework of Ticad support to NEPAD.

   • •

     The workshop recommended the reinforcement of the ICT Trust fund to support formulation of ICT policies and strategies as well as the strengthening of Ticad IT Initiative's financial resources to extend the number of pilot countries and strengthen regional initiatives.

Additional information is available at: http://www.ticad.net; http://www.ticad.gouv.bj; http://www.undp.org/ticad

Eustache Mêgnigbêto(eustachem@ yahoo.fr) is a documentalist at the consultancy firm in the information science Bureau d'études et de recherche en science de l'Information (Bersi) in Cotonou, Republic of Benin.