Emerging Information and Communication Technology Policy Framework for Africa

While emerging information and communications technologies (ICTs) offer possible solutions to some of the problems of applying ICTs in Africa, there are many challenges that have to be addressed in order to create an environment that is conducive for harnessing these technologies. This chapter, therefore, reviews emerging ICTs and their potential for application in leveraging Africa’s efforts towards meeting its development efforts. The Chapter highlights the digital divide barriers that may inhibit emergent ICTs in Africa. A review of current ICT policies of selected African countries indicates that the policies are geared towards application of ICTs other than their production. The review also reveals a lack of appreciation for emerging ICTs in Africa, both at the national as well as the sub-regional economic bloc levels. The chapter proposes policy frameworks for emerging ICTs for Africa that are necessary for creating an enabling environment for harnessing the emerging ICTs that will propel the continent into the 21st Century and beyond. The barriers to ICTs cut across many different issues. As such, they require multi-pronged policy approaches to address them. And that an emerging ICT environment must be anchored on a number of strategic policy frameworks including the legal, regulatory/administrative institutional framework, infrastructure, technology advocacy, financial, human resources, education and research frameworks. It concludes that Africa can prepare for its future by creating an appropriate environment for fostering the adoption and application of emerging technologies. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61692-012-8.ch008 International Journal of ICT Research and Development in Africa, 1(3), 46-64, July-September 2010 47 Copyright © 2010, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. now on the threshold of the third wave, where computing is moving away from an individual to the environment. This is an era of widespread computing, which will be characterized by one individual-to-many computers, dominated by handheld, intelligent, and everyday devices with imbedded technology and connectivity. This is the era of pervasive computing, which Agoston, Ueda and Nishimura (2000) have described as being characterized by “Anytime/Anywhere, Any Device, Any Network, Any Data” total connected computing environment of the third wave (p.3). Owing to a variety of factors, Africa and most of the developing world were largely by-passed by the first two waves of the ICT revolution, which were the building blocks for entry into the digital age. The consequence of this has been what has been termed as the ‘digital divide’ that currently exists between the developed countries of the North and developing countries of the South. The digital divide also exists within the countries of the South between the majority of the rural-based citizens who have no access to ICTs and a tiny urbanminority that has access to ICTs. Emerging ICTs can assist the digitally excluded regions of the world, including Africa to leapfrog the digital divide and catch up with the digitally connected world. Emerging ICTs, if well harnessed through the creation of an appropriate environment, offer opportunities for bridging the digital divide in Africa that can be used to leverage its development efforts. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss issues of the digital divide in Africa and how emerging ICTs can be employed to address the issues of the digital divide towards achieving Africa’s development goals. The chapter is presented in six main sections as follows: a discussion on the concept of the digital divide and its impacts on Africa; based on the global strategic vision of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a discussion on how ICTs can contribute towards realizing issues of development in Africa; a review of developments in emerging ICTs and how they can be used to overcome the digital divide, a review of ICT policies of selected African countries and regional economic blocs in Africa vis-à-vis emerging ICTs, and; a presentation of a policy framework which Africa should put in place in order to create a conducive environment for harnessing the emerging ICTs to leverage Africa’s development goals.