By Phyllis Johnson – SANF 04 no 06
The SADC Executive Secretary, Dr Prega Ramsamy says the plan of action for technology development approved by world leaders last month in Geneva, will be a “living document” to guide this region toward an inclusive information society.
He said the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) provided a platform for development of a common understanding of the information societies within, between and amongst nations on a new equal partnership.
The progression of technology is eminent in SADC’s development goals, and the WSIS Action Plan can guide this region in the development of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), he said.
SADC’s strategic development plan recognises the importance of ICTs as “a tool for development and as an evolutional cross-cutting key factor for regional integration and development, globalisation and modernization.”
SADC thus recognizes the need for basic strategies and policy options that promote ICT development.
A study in 2002 on the E-readiness of SADC member states highlighted the challenges and made recommendations on priority areas. Despite the diverse stages of ICT development in the region, three key groupings were identified.
The Fundamental Level addresses the need for strategy and policy options on basic
telecommunications, electrification, human resources development and capacity building; and the cultivation of awareness and positive attitudes towards ICTs.
This situation is common in the majority of SADC countries, with South Africa, Mauritius and Seychelles taking the lead in basic infrastructure.
The Middle Level addresses the expansion and strengthening of strategy and policy options on telecommunications services and the increase in personal computers (PC) penetration, and is prevalent in Seychelles, Mauritius and South Africa, with notable variations in the rest of the region.
The Advanced Level addresses the strategy and policy options on increasing internet access and utilisation, development of the banking infrastructure, advanced content development, and development of an e-commerce infrastructure and culture. This exists primarily in South Africa, according to the SADC study.
Another study undertaken by UNDP for the Global Human Development Report 2001, Making New Technologies Work for Human Development, defines a new “Technology Achievement Index” calculated by the following indicators:
Creation of technology, measured by the number of patents and receipt of license fees.
Diffusion of recent innovations, measured by the number of Internet hosts, and high- and medium-technology exports.
Diffusion of old innovations, such as telephones (mainline and cellular), and electricity consumption.
Human skills, which mean years of schooling and gross enrolment ratio at tertiary level in science, mathematics and engineering.
This technology index is categorized according to “Leaders” and “Potential Leaders”, mostly industrialized countries of the North with a few developing countries such as Singapore, Chile, Costa Rica, Romania and Malaysia.
They are followed by a category called “Dynamic Adopters”. This is where the first African index appears, from the far north and the far south of the continent: Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
These are counted as dynamic in the use of old and new technology, and most are developing countries with significantly higher literacy than those in the next group.
The last group is called “Marginalized”, in which technology diffusion and skills building have a long way to go and large parts of the population have not yet benefited from access to education or the diffusion of old innovations, that is, electricity and telephones.
Most of the rest of SADC falls into this category, with the exception of the islands, although if a new indicator were added for policy and commitment, countries such as Mozambique would fare much better.
With a dynamic national website (https://www.mozambique.mz) that includes current legislation passed in parliament, and a national node for distance learning, Mozambique benefits from its commitment to ICTs,
This reaches the highest levels of political leadership, with perhaps the only Prime Minister who has gone to visit Bill Gates at Microsoft in Seattle, resulting in support for a pilot educational technology project.
Mozambique hosted a SADC Communications Investors Forum last year, to promote the region as an attractive investment destination, especially for telecommunications, and to present commercially viable investment opportunities.
The SADC Executive Secretary said at his year-end briefing that, while efforts have been channeled towards the development of ICTs in the region, many challenges still prevail.
He gave examples of some relevant statistics.
He said there is a low proportion of electrified households in most member states, with only Seychelles and Mauritius at close to 100 percent electricity penetration and the rest of the countries below 50 percent.
Telecommunications facilities are generally poor and fixed line teledensity is low, less than five percent of the population in the majority of SADC countries.
Personal Computers (PC) penetration is very low, with Seychelles and Mauritius at a little over 120 PCs per 1,000 people, due to smaller populations and the existence of a larger middle-class proportion. The other SADC countries have a range of between two and 60 PC s per 1,000 people.
Access to television and radio is low with less than 20 percent of the population having access to TV and less than 60 percent to radio in the majority of SADC countries.
Despite the high quality of schooling in some areas, access to education remains limited, especially tertiary, and low literacy levels persist in most of the region. (SARDC)
