Monday, January 31, 2005
WSIS Regional Prepcom in Accra, Ghana
Hello, good morning and welcome to Cybersurf – coming to you from an incredibly hot and sticky Accra in Ghana. I am your faithful cyberhost Steven Lang, and I just happen to be attending a conference called the Africa Regional Prepcom for the World Summit on the Information Society.
To cut a very long story short – it is all about African people preparing an agenda to carry to the World Summit on the Information Society which is set to take place in Tunisia, in November this year.
The summit itself has many facets, but from an African perspective, the aim of the process is to help bridge the digital divide – a catch-phrase meaning to bring the internet “have-nots” up to speed with the internet “haves”.
So this week several African leaders, fresh from the AU summit in neighbouring Nigeria, will join a number of communications ministers and other officials here in Accra, in an attempt to plot an ICT course for Africa.
All concerned agree that Africa is way behind the developed world in terms of ICTs – everyone agrees that this is a bad situation that needs to be corrected quickly. Almost everyone agrees that great deals of money are required to bring Africa upto speed – but the cracks in the consensus appear when they discuss – who should pay up the money – and worse – who should spend it.
There is some harmony in that most people believe - those who can afford it, i.e. the rich countries, should pay for it. The donor nations argue that since they are the ones coughing up the money, they should decide how it is spent. Third world states – including virtually all African countries - say that since they know where the funds are most needed – THEY should decide how the cash is spent.
Essentially everyone agrees that you need to bridge the digital divide – but there is a clear cut rift between the rich and the poor – between the north and the south - on HOW that goal should be achieved.
(T) The process also creates significant rifts between governments and the private sector – and we have a classic example of the differences right here in Accra.
We are attending a government organized conference on ICTs – where internet connectivity is slow and sporadic.
Down the road is the biggest, most fantastic, internet café I have ever seen. Right here in the middle of hot, clammy Accra is a brand-new, fully air conditioned, modern building with two million dollars worth of the latest IT equipment installed.
There are two hundred PCs with flat screens all hooked up to the internet with oodles of bandwidth. It is a business centre, an ISP and a restaurant. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week – and customers literally take a number to wait their turn.
But here I am at the conference centre – no air conditioning, patiently waiting to send a short e-mail. Hope it gets through this time.
Thanks for listening to this special edition of Cybersurf from Ghana. Please tune in again next Monday – and remember to keep on surfing.
To cut a very long story short – it is all about African people preparing an agenda to carry to the World Summit on the Information Society which is set to take place in Tunisia, in November this year.
The summit itself has many facets, but from an African perspective, the aim of the process is to help bridge the digital divide – a catch-phrase meaning to bring the internet “have-nots” up to speed with the internet “haves”.
So this week several African leaders, fresh from the AU summit in neighbouring Nigeria, will join a number of communications ministers and other officials here in Accra, in an attempt to plot an ICT course for Africa.
All concerned agree that Africa is way behind the developed world in terms of ICTs – everyone agrees that this is a bad situation that needs to be corrected quickly. Almost everyone agrees that great deals of money are required to bring Africa upto speed – but the cracks in the consensus appear when they discuss – who should pay up the money – and worse – who should spend it.
There is some harmony in that most people believe - those who can afford it, i.e. the rich countries, should pay for it. The donor nations argue that since they are the ones coughing up the money, they should decide how it is spent. Third world states – including virtually all African countries - say that since they know where the funds are most needed – THEY should decide how the cash is spent.
Essentially everyone agrees that you need to bridge the digital divide – but there is a clear cut rift between the rich and the poor – between the north and the south - on HOW that goal should be achieved.
(T) The process also creates significant rifts between governments and the private sector – and we have a classic example of the differences right here in Accra.
We are attending a government organized conference on ICTs – where internet connectivity is slow and sporadic.
Down the road is the biggest, most fantastic, internet café I have ever seen. Right here in the middle of hot, clammy Accra is a brand-new, fully air conditioned, modern building with two million dollars worth of the latest IT equipment installed.
There are two hundred PCs with flat screens all hooked up to the internet with oodles of bandwidth. It is a business centre, an ISP and a restaurant. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week – and customers literally take a number to wait their turn.
But here I am at the conference centre – no air conditioning, patiently waiting to send a short e-mail. Hope it gets through this time.
Thanks for listening to this special edition of Cybersurf from Ghana. Please tune in again next Monday – and remember to keep on surfing.
