WSIS Forum Discussion Message: ICT Policy Priorities

Week 1 Discussion: ICT POLICY PRIORITIES IN UGANDA

1. What are Africa’s continental ICT policy priorities?

The first week of the WSIS online forum focuses on ICT policy priorities for Uganda. The Paris meeting of African delegates organised by the Bamako Bureau in July 2003 identified a list of 21 priorities for Africa which it hoped would be addressed by WSIS.

Priorities are, by definition, issues that should be dealt with first. Too many priorities means that too little attention is devoted to any of them, both by their proponents and by the wider community to whom they are proposed. It suggests that agreement is being reached by listing aspirations rather than by choosing those issues that require most or most immediate attention (a common failing in international negotiations).

Interviews with non-African delegates at the Geneva WSIS meeting suggest that Africa’s priorities were unclear to them. Organisations might consider how the process of developing African input to the second phase could identify clear and clearly thought-out priorities on which delegates could focus their attention during negotiations. The intended focus of the second phase on practical implementation should be borne in mind in this context.

Again, much the same question could be directed to civil society organisations as to Africa as a whole. One way in which ‘real’ priorities can be identified is to require meetings to narrow down lists such as that emerging from the Paris meeting until a maximum of, say, five issues remains on which resources can then be concentrated.[i]

The Bamako Bureau’s list of 21 ICT priorities, which was drawn up during Prepcom 2 and reported to Prepcom 3 in September 2003 are the following:

Infrastructure and maintenance of infrastructure and equipment
Human resource development and capacity building
Gender issues and women empowerment in ICTs uses
Partnership between public and private sectors
Debt conversion (to back up ICTs development)
Environmental protection
Open and free software
National information and communication strategies with special support to the African Information Society Initiative (AISI)
Sectoral applications
Support to NEPAD
Digital Solidarity Fund
Technology transfer, particularly South to South transfer
Research and Development
Investment Strategies
Content development
Internet governance
Relations between traditional media and new ICTs
Legislative and regulatory framework
Intellectual property rights
Security
Regional cooperation

Contrast this list to the European Commission’s 2002 Action Plan, ‘*eEurope 2005: An information society for all’ *which states Europe’s priorities briefly as follows:

By 2005, Europe should have:

modern online public services
e-government
e-learning services
e-health services
a dynamic e-business environment
and, as an enabler for these

widespread availability of broadband access at competitive prices
a secure information infrastructure[ii]

Compare also the African Information Society Initiative’s (AISI) condensation of issues:

AISI is a common vision for Africa’s quest to bridge the digital divide. Several implementation activities have taken place in the following areas:

Policy awareness;
Democratising access to the Information Society;
Infrastructure development and internet connectivity;
National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plans;
Development information;
Sectoral applications; and
Training and capacity building.
By the year 2010, AISI intends to realize a sustainable information society in Africa.[iii]

Both the European Commission and the AISI have focused on a small number of priorities. In the second phase of WSIS, two policy issues were prioritised for special attention: Internet governance and financing ICT for development. The WSIS plan of Action established a Working Group on Internet Governance and a Task Force on Financial Mechanisms to address these issues. The WSIS Plan of Action directed governments to produce national e-strategies. However, there may be a case for developing regional e-strategies to enhance policy coordination across national borders.[iv] This could be done with the participation of all stakeholders and the policy window opened by the WSIS process has created a good context and environment to do this.

During the first phase of WSIS, civil society produced a set of seven ‘musts’ i.e. norms that should inform the development of ICT policy for a global information society. These are also important in terms of setting policy priorities for ICT as they emphasise the underlying norms and values from which policy positions must be built. The seven musts include:

Sustainable Development;
Democratic Governance;
Literacy, Education and Research;
Human Rights;
Global Knowledge Commons;
Cultural and Linguistic Diversity;
‘Information Security’.

The WSIS process has established a time horizon of 2015, within which its ICT goals are to be implemented in conjunction with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), http://www.un.org/milleniumgoals/.

2. What are ICT policy priorities for Uganda?

In the April 2005 WOUGNET/OWA consultative meeting, participants identified the following issues for Uganda with respect to the WSIS and the National ICT policy:

Financing mechanisms: Rural Communications Development Fund (RCDF), National Budget from the Ministry of Finance & Economic Planning and Development, Development partners, Private sector, Financial institutions.
A centralized ICT coordinating agency is needed to collect funds in one centre. This centre should coordinate other matters relating to ICTs.
On the issue of internet governance, there should be a regulatory framework and cyber crime is becoming a concern in Uganda.
There is need for capacity building in ICT use and application.
There is need for sharing of experiences: both best practices and failures.
There is need to review the ICT policy with a view to mainstreaming gender within the policy.
There is a need to put emphasis on mainstreaming ICT in the agricultural sector.
There is need to mobilize the involvement of communities in ICT-related activities in their respective areas.

3. Discussion questions

3.1 ICT policy priorities

What are Uganda’s policy priorities for ICTs? Can we state them clearly and simply?

Can we prioritise five ICT issues for Uganda?

3.2 Norms for the information society in Uganda

Are the seven ‘musts’ or norms suitable for underpinning Uganda’s ICT policy? Should the seven ‘musts’ or norms form part of an e-strategy for Uganda?

As applicable, do indicate examples and/or best practices of what we have in Uganda today.

4. Resources

[i] David Souter: *African Participation in WSIS: review and discussion paper*, prepared for the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) July 2004, p 20: http://rights.apc.org/documents/africa_wsis_review.pdf

[ii] Commission of the European Communities*: eEurope 2005: an information society for all*, June 2002, p3

[iii] Economic Commission for Africa: *E-Strategies: National Sectoral and Regional ICT Policies, Plans and Strategies*, October 2003, p 1; http://www.uneca.org/aisi/docs/E-Strategies.pdf

[iv] Willie Currie: *E-Strategies and the World Summit on the Information Society*, prepared for the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2004: http://rights.apc.org/documents/estrategies.pdf

This discussion paper has been adapted from an Africa Civil Society in the Information Society (ACSIS) discussion paper on the topic “ICT Policy Priorities in Africa”.

For further information about the WSIS 2005 online forum, please send e-mail to ictpolicy@wougnet.org. For more information about WSIS preparations in Uganda click here.

Last update: July-1, 2005