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27Jul

mGovernance Workshop: Potential of Technology on Water Governance in Kenya

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On July 5, 2012, iHub Research hosted a workshop aimed at engaging different stakeholders in Kenya’s water sector to identify and discuss current interactions between the stakeholders, understand how transparency, service delivery and citizen participation are currently being applied in the sector and identify the potential of mobile applications/platforms in promoting sustainable urban and rural water development.
Workshop participants were drawn from the government, the tech community, civil society, residents of various areas including the Kibera slums, media, academia and NGOs.
Water governance is the thematic focus of the mGovernance in Kenya Project.
Full insights from the workshop are available here. In addition, the report on technology use in Kenya’s water sector is also available for download here.
This article was published on July 24, 2012, about the ICT4Democracy in East Africa project, which brings together various partners in the region – among them CIPESA.

17Jun

Call for Expression of Interest to participate in the Youth Fellowship to attend the 5th East African Internet Governance Forum (EAIGF)

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The EAIGF was established to create a Community of Practice that will be a sustaining foundation for meaningful participation of East African stakeholders in Internet governance public policy debates at the national, regional and international level. The EAIGF model allows for the informed participation, contribution and engagement of community members through the sharing of experiences, information, addressing common problems and challenges, the creation of new knowledge and increasing local capacity.
Since its inception, EAIGF has continued to act as a catalyst for an inclusive information society in region and has to date addressed issues ranging from interconnection, IXPs, affordable access, Strengthening ccTLDs in East Africa, among others.
After four successful meetings, held in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda from 2008, the fifth EAIGF will be hosted by the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANET).
The EAIGF is now accepting applications from youth representatives to attend this year’s EAIGF to be held July 17 – 18, 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya.
As an EAIGF Youth fellow, you are expected to contribute to the wider regional IG policy debate while providing valuable expertise and know‐how to the policymakers and decision makers who participate in IGF meetings.
The Fellowship Award 
Youth Fellows to the EAIGF receive the following assistance:

  • a round‐trip, economy class airline ticket to attend the meeting
  • hotel accommodation for the duration of the meeting
  • a small stipend to offset incidental expenses

Expectations for the Fellows 
Youth fellows are expected to:

  • prepare in advance to make a presentation on a selected topic of the EAIGF meeting
  • participate broadly in the EAIGF meeting agenda
  • contribute to the EAIGF blog
  • share the experience and knowledge gained at the EAIGF with their local communities when they return home (including writing a report on the activities)

Who should apply? 
EAIGF youth fellowships are for Ugandans aged between 20‐30 who have a strong interest in the issues and themes of the EAIGF and have demonstrated interest in promoting Internet policy in Uganda.
Selection criteria
Selection for the fellowship is competitive. All applicants must:

  • be between the ages of 20 and 30
  • Present a strong motivation for attending the EAIGF meeting
  • Demonstrate an understanding of Internet Governance issues both at the local, regional and international environment.
  • Demonstrate experience in leading Internet governance discussions at the national/ regional/international level and in multi‐cultural environments

The selection committee will also attempt to achieve professional, geographical, and gender diversity in the overall selections.
How to apply 
Send your expression of interest stating your motivation to attend the EAIGF, and how you meet the criteria above, to Lillian Nalwoga, at [email protected] CC [email protected] no later than Monday June 18, 2012.

18May

Transition to Digital Broadcasting: Africa’s State of Unreadiness

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By Ashnah Kalemera
With three years to the global deadline for shifting from analogue to digital broadcasting as set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), some African nations are falling worryingly behind schedule. Among countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Uganda, there are variations in implementation progress, policy frameworks, service cost and offerings, funding availability, and consumer awareness.
The region’s regulators in April met in Kampala, Uganda to promote cooperation and share experiences so as to make the June 17, 2015 deadline. Organised by ITU, the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) and Uganda’s telecommunications regulator, the ‘Workshop and Frequency Coordination Meeting on the Transition to Digital Terrestrial Television and the Digital Dividend’ was held April 16–20, 2012. Participants were drawn from at least 19 countries, and included government officials, regulators, broadcasters and mobile operators.
Abdoulkarim Soumaila, the ATU secretary general, said digital migration was vital to the enhancement of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Africa because it would allow Africans to access quality radio, television, and broadband services.
Digital migration is the move from analogue to digital broadcasting. It provides for, among others, a variety of high quality audio and visual programmes, interactive services, supports new services such as high definition television, transmission of more content per channel, supports mobile/portable reception and ultimately releases frequency spectrum (“digital dividend”) for other uses, such as broadband provision after full switchover.
The transition requires the development of consumer devices known as set top boxes, and broadcasting and mobile telecommunication standards by key players. The key players are content providers, technical operators, signal distributors, and policy makers and regulators.
Country state of readiness reported at the workshop
Ghana
Ghana has more than 20 licensed terrestrial, satellite, and mobile broadcasters. The current analogue regime is faced with challenges of high industry management costs, poor infrastructure sharing and weak signal reception. Government and a digital broadcasting migration committee are spearheading the country’s strategy for transition to digital broadcasting. Working with other stakeholders, the committee is tasked with policy implementation, planning, budgeting, performance monitoring, and liaising with the public.
The proposed analogue switch off date is December 31, 2014. However, implementation is running four months behind schedule. Low public awareness, for one, could affect the uptake of services and lead to ‘panic’ in the run-up to the switch over deadline. There is also uncertainty about funding for implementation, and consumer incentives for the poor. Furthermore, no legal framework exists for analogue switch off.
Kenya
Migration started with government establishing, in 2007, a taskforce on digital migration hosted by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK). Soon after, a multi-stakeholder committee was set up to guide development of a migration plan.
The first broadcast signal distributor, Kenya Broadcasting Cooperation (KBC), was licensed in 2007 and its pilot digital broadcasting signal was launched in December 2009 in the capital Nairobi. KBC is expected to roll out digital services in eight other towns during 2012. A second broadcast signal distributor, Pan African Networks, was licensed in October 2011. It was expected to go on air in Nairobi in May 2012 and 12 other towns by the end of this year.
Consumer awareness campaigns on television and radio commenced in April 2012. With an original transition deadline date of June 2012, CCK anticipates 70% roll out coverage of the current viewing population by the end of 2012. Amongst the challenges faced are financial constraints – “the required funds are in direct competition with other government obligations such as emergency food supplies and the implementation of the new constitution,” said one government official. The lack of tax incentives or subsidies by government has also had an impact on consumer issues of set top box affordability and development of appropriate local content to populate the channels. The setting of a new transition deadline is subject to progress review at the end of this year.
South Africa
The South African Department of Communication gazetted the final Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy Amendment in February 2012. The set top box equipment standards are due to be finalised at the end of May 2012 and the first batch of boxes are to retail by September 2012. Digital services are due to be launched at the end of 2012 through to 2013. However, final analogue switch off – in line with the ITU resolution date – is yet to be announced. The precise date shall be determined in consultation with the cabinet and broadcasting industry.
The structure of South Africa’s proposed implementation plan is the division of the country’s provincial boundaries into “allotment areas” to allow for cost effectiveness and promote efficient and effective citizen uptake. The digital migration Policy Amendments has a provision for the establishment of the Digital Migration Office to project management of the transmission program.
Uganda
Uganda is faced with challenges similar to the other countries – funding, local content, affordability of set top boxes and lack of a regulatory framework. The government is yet to pronounce itself on a clear implementation plan. However, the work of the digital migration steering committee and digital taskforce in conjunction with the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) is on-going.
The country has one licensed signal distributor, the Uganda Broadcasting Cooperation (UBC), and four pilot digital broadcasting projects are underway in three districts – Kampala, Jinja and Masaka. The projects are pay TV services with some free-to-air channels by firms not licensed as signal distributors. According to UCC, these investment firms will automatically qualify for signal distribution licensing in the near future.
Workshop recommendations

  • In order to achieve economies of scale and development of an African-wide market for digital television set-top boxes, hence minimum cost for this equipment, consideration be urgently given by African States to the possibility of harmonising the digital TV transmission and definition standard, at sub-regional or regional level.
  • The following timeline be adopted in order to meet the deadline specified by ITU for the cease of analogue transmissions. The dates indicated are the latest possible dates to meet this deadline and it is preferable that they be anticipated, where possible:
  1. December 2012: adoption of a common digital TV standard at sub-regional or regional level in Africa.
  2. June 2013: Finalisation of the establishment of national legislative and regulatory frameworks for the transition to digital TV and the allocation of the digital dividend.
  3. June 2013: End of frequency planning activities (national and international) for the deployment of digital TV and analogue switch off.
  4. September 2013: Start of deployment of digital TV.
  5. June 2014: start of analogue switch off in the UHF band.
  6. 17 June 2015 : end of analog switch off in the UHF band
  • African states make available all necessary human, structural and financial resources to ensure that the above dates are met.
  • Concerning the information to consumers on set-top boxes, it was recommended that member states implement labeling of equipment which are compliant with the standards adopted to ensure that consumers are not mislead into purchasing non-compliant equipment.
09Feb

Workshop on Mobile Democracy in East Africa

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February 28, 2012, New Delhi, India
The ICT4Democracy in East Africa Network, which brings together various partners in the region – among them CIPESA will hold a stakeholder workshop on mobile phone enabled democracy at the 3rd International Conference on Mobile Communication for Development(M4D2012).
The workshop will showcase innovatice cases from East Africa.
Organisations and inidividuals interested in the role of mobile phones in democracy are invited to attend the workshop.
Further details are available here.

13Nov

Launch of The Information Economy Report 2011 in Uganda

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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.

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