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ICT Policy workshop identify critical issue to address universal access

11/03/2004 (APC) -- The meeting of animators and policy advisors and consultants of six African countries was held October 27-28 at the Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala. It was a CATIA/APC ICT policy advocacy forum to chart the roles different stakeholders have played and are expected to play in the future. Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, Ethiopia, DR Congo, Senegal and host country Uganda participated.

The meeting came after country consultations organised by the animators with key stakeholders to identify critical ICT policy issues that require advocacy in relation to universal access. Some of the issues addressed in Uganda are the kinds of challenges animators are likely to face in the field at home.

In Nigeria, major issues include harmonisation, convergence and collaboration in ICT initiatives, capacity building and local content creation and dissemination. Community Radio was also identified as the likely vehicle of deployment.

It was noted that the ICT private sector in Nigeria has already started to create national organisations to advocate change. In the vanguard of this movement are the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS), which is an amalgam of Computer Associations of Nigeria (COAN), Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN), Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON). There are also the Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPRCN), Internet Service Providers of Nigeria (ISPAN), Nigerian Internet Group (NIG) and others. So we find that several private sector players have been challenging and promoting policy change. In particular, the banks and financial institutions, oil and geo-exploration companies and mining companies as well as mobile operators now tend to see policy advocacy as a part of their corporate governance programme.

At the regional level, African civil society organisations have also played significant roles in a number of countries. They have, among other things, been advocating for universal access, human rights, freedom of expression and the treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. In turn, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and its member and partner institutions in the continent are mobilising civil society involvement within the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process.

From all this, it is expected that the advocacy process in Nigeria will soon grow to give rise to a critical mass of CSOs in ICT, whose participation in advocacy has so far been rather minimal.

To achieve this, it is necessary that the national media create broader public awareness and debate on ICT policy and regulatory issues. It needs to be emphasised that this is a crucial role for Nigerian and, by extension, African journalists.

It was therefore fitting that the Ugandan meeting rounded up October 29 with the animators honoring an invitation to a Panos of London media dialogue. This was a one-day affair that brought together key stakeholders and influential actors in Uganda's communications policy arena. It turned out to be a very rich opportunity to build the capacity of senior journalists and editors to report communication issues.

Such affairs are what we with key stakeholders shall be organising in the future to sustain media interest in ICT issues in Nigeria.

Umar is Association for Progressive Communications national animator in Nigeria and a PhD candidate of University of Abuja

Date: 11/03/2004
Location: Nigeria, Uganda
Theme: Access, National ICT Strategies
Source: APC
Contact: Jummai Umar