Blog – Page 156 of 164 – Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)

13Nov

Launch of The Information Economy Report 2011 in Uganda

admin November 13, 2011

By Ashnah Kalemera
What role are Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) playing in enabling private sector development in developing countries? And what are countries in Africa and other developing regions doing to enable ICT play a greater catalysing role in national development? These were some of the questions discussed at the launch in Kampala of the Information Economy Report 2011, themed ‘Information and Communication Technologies as an Enabler for Private Sector Development (PSD)’.
The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) and the College of Computer and Information Sciences, Makerere University, organised the launch of the report in Uganda, on October 19, 2011, the day it was released worldwide. The report is the sixth in a series published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
This year’s report addresses the role of ICT in accelerating development in developing regions. It seems to conclude that whereas there is great potential, in many countries insufficient effort has been given to enabling ICT to play a more robust role. Furthermore, the report states that substantial challenges remain for many countries that are seeking to leverage on ICT to enable social and economic transformation.
Various instructive cases of how ICT is working beneficially are captured in the report. There is ICT training of entrepreneurs in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Panama; ICT-based agricultural information services in Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia; Using ICTs for micro-finance in Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone; and mobile money, which has enabled a new range of financial services in Kenya and Mexico.
The report also provides global statistical analysis on ICT infrastructure and ICT use by enterprises of different sizes and in various industries. During 2009, international telecommunications infrastructure investments (with private participation) were led by Sub-Saharan Africa with just over US$60,000 million. South Asia came in second with slightly under US$50,000 million. East Asia and the Pacific invested the least – less than US$10,000 million.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, however, less than 20% of enterprises are reported to have websites. Senegal leads the continent in ICT utilisation, with 92% of its enterprises using computers, an average 84% using the internet and 2%-12% of them receiving and placing orders online. Second in Africa is Lesotho, where 34% of enterprises use computers and 17% use the internet. All this in pale comparison to the developed world where over 90% of enterprises use computers and the internet, 80% have their own websites and 15%-40% place and receive orders online.
The report argues that the internet is an important channel for enterprises to engage with governments. Access to relevant information and electronic services such as taxation and government assistance carries great potential for enterprise cost reduction and improved efficiency. UNCTAD data suggests that enterprises in the developing world hardly use the internet for obtaining information from government, and even less so for conducting transactions.
This year’s report reveals that government programmes’ more effective use of ICT to support Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) will help accelerate job creation and business growth. Indeed, mobile applications and social media are enabling numerous ways to provide services and information and connect buyers and customers. The report proposes a framework to help governments ensure that the services provided are truly demand-driven by involving the private sector in the design and provision of training and advisory services.
UNCTAD specifically challenges governments to help women entrepreneurs. The report observes that faced with challenges including difficulty in accessing finance and family commitments, many women are unable to take advantage of available opportunities. Therefore, initiatives targeted at women should assess gender needs and explore how different ICT solutions can address them.
Ultimately, the report calls upon governments to liberalise markets in order to expand and improve network infrastructure, especially in rural areas, and provide a conducive legal and regulatory environment for ICT advancements.
At the Kampala launch, however, participants expressed concern that Uganda was not well featured in the report, noting that it was not clear what achievements or challenges the country faced. Many contributors suggested that government should get more involved in investing in ICT and private sector development. Initiatives such as investing in local content development, increasing information flow from government to citizens, investing in open data, supporting local IT companies by providing local supplier authorisations to bid for government IT jobs, and removal of taxes on mobile phone handsets and airtime, were among those suggested.
The Director of e-Government at the National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U), Julius Torach, delivered a government statement while Ali Ndiwalana of Makerere University Directorate for ICT Support, highlighted the main findings of this year’s report with a focus on the East African region.
Mr. Torach stated that the report comes at a time when Uganda has taken giant steps towards promoting both ICT and private sector development. He cited the October 7, 2011 launch of the National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure/National Electronic Government project which is expected to trigger private sector development through the provision of high-speed internet access to facilitate Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), among others.
In collaboration with Makerere University, NITA-U has successfully trained 500 youths to work for BPO operations. “In all our endeavours, we have emphasised private-public partnerships in delivery of IT infrastructure and management of IT services,” said Mr. Torach.
At the policy level, Uganda is reviewing the national ICT policy, while the National Information Managements Services policy is also underway.
The IER 2011 Uganda launch was held at Makerere University and the event was graced by the media, ICT enthusiasts, private and public sector representatives as well as students. The IER 2011 full report and its databases are available here.

04Nov

Uganda: The Challenge of Accessing Public Information

admin November 4, 2011

The inhabitants of Bushenyi District in Uganda have seen their right to access information blatantly violated by public bodies; reflecting the plight of thousands of ordinary citizens who wish to hold their leaders accountable.
Unusual and suspicious delays in the execution of a contract to build a new stadium in the District of Bushenyi amid rumours that the District had issued certificates against which payments were made when work had not been done prompted this community led by Civil Society Forum, a local NGO, on December 8, 2009 to demonstrate and file a series of requests for access to documents related to the contract.
The first request was made to District Local Governments with copies to the Resident District Commissioner, the President’s representative at district level whose duty is, amongst others, to monitor government programmes on the President’s behalf.
With a mute response from local authorities, the residents again led by Civil Society Forum brought the matter to the attention of the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister as well as the Department of Ethics and Integrity, Office of the President in December 2010. Still these efforts did not help citizens get the documents or the contract executed as required.
The contract entailed improving and constructing a stadium in the district at the cost of 906 million Ugandan Shillings (about $ 377 500). It was awarded in 2005 to HABA Construction Company, an entity owned by Mr. Hassan Bassajabalaba, a member of the NRM Central Executive Committee, the ruling party’s top policy organ.
Facing these huge obstacles to enjoying their constitutional right to information, this community had to seek external help. The Human Rights Network of Uganda (HURINET) stepped in and joined the CSO Forum to take the matter to court in the beginning of 2011. On the scheduled date of the hearing, HURINET lawyers were ready and attended court but hearing did not take place because the Chief Magistrate was reportedly sick.
In a letter dated 10th May 2011 (but received in July 2011) the District finally yielded to pressure and responded by providing ,among others, the architectural plan of the stadium, the four certificates of completion, contract agreement with bills of quantities and evidence of payments made. According to these documents, the contractor did not only receive the contracted sum but also took the Local Government to Court and won an additional 40 million Ugandan Shillings (about $16 667) for breach of contract yet very little work had been done. Following the filing of the case in court by CSOs the District Local Government contracted another company Rose ST to complete the works.
These developments may be a victory for access to information, but they also confirm how far mindsets in public institutions need to change from secrecy to openness to ensure effective enforcement of Uganda’s access to information legislation.
Concerns similar to that of Bushenyi were the basis for information requests made by Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) to the Uganda Land Commission, Ministry of Education and Sports as well as the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development. All the three public bodies have refused access and have never reported to Parliament on information requests received in compliance with Section 43 of the Access to Information Act.
It is not clear why the Auditor General has never raised questions. There is also no information as to why the Resident District Commissioner, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity did not act on the reports by the Western Civil Society Forum. It remains to be seen if the Inspector General of Government will take interest in the matter now that records have been made available and clearly something went wrong somewhere.
Republished with the kind permission of AFIC.

03Nov

Here’s How Social Media Could Promote Democracy

admin November 3, 2011

By Ashnah Kalemera
Social media is fast becoming one of the major uses of the Internet. Wikis, blogs and other social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube have been added to the Internet as enablers for developing, storing and disseminating instant information to audiences of people in diverse locations at a fairly low cost.
Social networks could potentially be used for a broad range of participatory activities, such as demanding for public services like education and water, contacting leaders, political campaigns and discussions, and fighting corruption. They also could play a critical role in citizen engagement and advocacy, which have a major bearing on transparency and accountability in governance and the conduct of public affairs.
With growing numbers of Africans becoming internet users, monthly web information analysis by Alexa.com shows that there are a significant – and rising – number of users of social media on the continent. Facebook, a social networking platform that allows highly interactive processes, claims that it has 750 million users, half of whom log on daily with the average user having an estimated 130 friends.
In June this year, Alexa.com ranked Facebook the second most visited site in the world. The site was ranked the most popular for social networking in Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria and Sudan. In Algeria, Cameroon, Congo, South Africa and Uganda, Facebook was ranked the second most used website.
Twitter, another social networking and micro blogging service with instant dissemination of up to 140 character strokes, has also greatly attracted citizens and policy makers on the continent. Ranked the 9th most popular social networking website globally by Alexa.com, it was widely used by South Africans, Nigerians, Kenyans and Ugandans, taking 7th or 8th position of these countries’ internet traffic.
Overall, users of social networking sites form a network that provides a powerful means of sharing, organising, and finding content and contacts. Citizens, with the capacity to undertake independent analysis of issues, form opinions and influence others, and can leverage on social media for policy engagement. This engagement can be with other citizens as well as with their leaders. For instance, administration complaints can be made more easily by directing them to public institutions’ Facebook accounts or by mentioning them on Twitter.
For governance in particular, information flow through the smooth collaboration of information providers could help in overcoming various institutional problems such as graft. Citizens’ and governments’ use of social media platforms translates into becoming bound to one another through exposure to a common class of problems, pursuit of joint solutions and thereby embracing ‘change’. With more and more applications being developed by individuals and groups, social media stands to become even more interactive, far-reaching and viral.
However, most African governments have not taken significant steps toward making the use of social media and networks within administrations official and widespread. In fact, the policy environment remains un-conducive with most government Internet related regulations aimed at protecting political interests at the expense of enabling citizen participation.
Ultimately, the prospects and potential of social media remain anchored in the complexity that is the socio-economic, technological, political and cultural environment. Access to the internet, ability to effectively use diverse media tools, as well as time and security issues and citizens’ knowledge of how best to use the mediums, will determine how much civic participation, transparency and efficient public service delivery can thrive via the social mediums available.
Although social media networks are unlikely to replace traditional policy and governance processes in Africa, it is un-doubtable that they can effectively contribute to meaningful citizen motivation, sensitisation, education, mobilization and ultimately, influence. What is required is for governments to leverage on these technologies in service and information delivery.

02Nov

Tanzania Should Support Its Netizens

admin November 2, 2011

By Lillian Nalwoga
Tanzanian citizens are increasingly using social media networks to share information and, to a lesser extent, demand more transparency in the conduct of public affairs. But there are concerns about the apparent intolerance by Tanzanian authorities of online activity deemed critical of the government.
For over 40 years, Tanzania under the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has enjoyed political stability and national unity more than most of the country’s neighbours. However, the October 2010 election won by incumbent president Jakaya Kikwete saw CCM’s popularity slide from 80.2% of the vote in December 2005 to 61.2%.
This decline seems to have brought with it a worrying intolerance for critical media, both online and offline. Journalists have been intimidated and harassed by state officials for questioning the government’s democratic credentials. Some political and social demonstrations have been repressed. To fight this new authoritarianism, several Tanzanians, including politicians, have resorted to social media to express their views.
The country has laws that seem to improve citizens’ rights to information and the freedom of expression, parts of the legislation are restrictive. Article 18 of the Tanzanian Constitution for instance guarantees the right to freedom of expression, and to seek, receive and impart information. These constitutional guarantees are insufficiently implemented in the Tanzanian domestic legislation. Besides, the government has been implicated in attempts to block websites and weblogs whose content it perceives as a threat.
Despite the above scenario, Tanzanian web forums such as Jamiiforums serve as citizens’ channels to comment on key issues such as corruption. The website editors have been interrogated on numerous occasions over issues that government has considered sensitive information. Unconfirmed reports have also surfaced that the Tanzanian government is attempting to clone these forums to portray information that befits it.
Social media has also played a part in sharing vital information about sensitive topics in Tanzania. Such a case was the Gongo la Mboto blasts that killed over 20 people and injured at least 184 people in the Dar es Salaam army base in February 2011.
Although army officials declined to discuss the cause of the blasts, netizens captured events of the blasts by uploading and sharing photos of victims. Tanzanian twitters using #BombsInDar shared information about the possible causes of the blast while calling on government to investigate their cause. The netizens demanded the resignation of the Minister of Defence, a call supported by the country’s opposition.
This rise in use of social media can perhaps be attributed to the growth in internet penetration from 5% in 2005 to 11% in June 2010 (Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority statistics). In addition, there are 21 million mobile phone subscribers.
The Tanzania government needs to make information more accessible to the public for transparency and accountability, as well as to invest in infrastructure, literacy, policy and regulatory frameworks to boost internet usage in empowering citizens.

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