ICTs For Democracy: Connecting The Dots

CIPESA is spearheading a multi-year programme that catalyses the use of ICTs in enabling and monitoring democracy. The programme, to be undertaken with various partners, is still under construction but will be multi-faceted. Initial work has started, such as a baseline study to establish the current state of play and the opportunities for intervention. Raising citizen participation in community/ public affairs via ICTs is central to this initiative. For more information about the initiative, please write to [email protected]

Measuring e-readiness in Africa

E-ready for what? E-readiness in developing countries: Current status and prospects toward the Millennium Development Goals 
This study considers the use and usefulness of e-readiness assessments, based on an in-depth evaluation of the e-readiness assessment initiative of the World Bank Information for Development Program (infoDev). Top-down, international initiatives waste money and effort on poorly conceived and under-supported e-readiness assessment programs and can be better targeted toward concrete development goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals. The focus needs to move from “how much bandwidth?” to “how much bandwidth is needed for remote diagnosis to reduce child mortality?” Even before this report made it to final publication, the infoDev e-readiness initiative was retired and many of the statements made in this report are now taken as a given.
Download the full report here.

Swaziland Consults On ICT Policy

Participants of the consultation meeting on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy have called for government to change the name of the ministry of information, communication and technology (ICT) because it was confusing.
One of the participants Sipho Dlamini said ICT fell under Science and Technology and the ministry needed to be renamed. However, he did not come up with a suggestion.
http://www.observer.org.sz/index.php?news=24024

OECD Estimates Economic Impact of Shutting Down Internet And Mobile Phone Services in Egypt

The current shutdown of internet and communications services in Egypt will have a pronounced economic impact. It is estimated to have incurred direct costs of at minimum USD 90 million in lost revenues due to blocked telecommunications and internet services. However, this amount does not include the secondary economic impacts which resulted from a loss of business in other sectors affected by the shutdown of communication services, such as e-commerce, tourism and call centres. Read more: