If the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was the summit of opportunities, Connect Africa can be best described as the summit of assurances.
If the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was the summit of opportunities, Connect Africa can be best described as the summit of assurances.
Listening to panelists at the first day of the International Telecommunications Union’s Connect Africa Summit in Kigali one cannot but wonder why, if connecting Africa is going so well, why it was necessary to convene the summit at all.
During two panels, one on a ‘vision to connect Africa’ and another on ‘ICT broadband infrastructure gaps and solutions’ panelist after panelist reassured the audience, made up mainly of ICT operators and government officials, that the private sector, in particular the mobile telephony operators, was actively taking care of needed investment in infrastructure.
We were also reassured that ICT regulators in Africa are now well established and independent from government.
Governments, it was repeatedly stated, should relax, sit back, and simply ensure that there was an ‘enabling environment’ for the private sector to fulfill its commitment to ensuring Africa gets the connectivity it currently lacks. All this enabling environment requires is liberalising the ICT sector, lowering taxes and tariffs, harmonising policy and regulation, and removing any other barriers that might hamper or discourage private sector investment.
Some speakers did stress the need for harmonising policy and regulation at regional level. None mentioned that efforts to achieve this have been in place for at least the last ten years.
When Mr. Walter Fust of SDC (Swiss Development Cooperation) asked what panelists felt about a role of consortia made up of multiple stakeholders, including government, to work on coordinating their strategies for investment, infrastructure development and so on, the response from the GSM association was: No, no need at all. The private sector is playing this role more than adequately.
We were also told that Africa mobile operators are exceptional in their concern for the region, and in their innovation of new products and services.
The example of regional roaming in East Africa which allows users to roam from one country to another without any additional charges we described without any reference to how the consumer pressure in a competitive mobile market was a major driver for this innovation.
What was not said? A lot.
A speaker from the World Bank did mention the reality of market failure in some areas (e.g. where prospects for a high return on investment are not very good). He mentioned the need for government intervention in such areas, but did not go into detail of how this would happen. Nor was there any debate on how this perspective relates to the more dominant perspective of the meeting, that there is no need for government intevention in infrastructure development at all.
As a result, there was no discussion of the real-life problems associated with, on the one hand, private sector-lead consortia, (or public private partnerships) that do not have public accountability (e.g. SAT3); and on the other hand government lead initiatives that tend to get bogged down in political agreements.
Innovative public private initiatives were not discussed at the level of detail that they should be in a forum like this. E.g. what forms of corporate governance should private sector, or public private partnerships, that build and/or manage public infrastructure adhere to? The governance structure of TEAMS, a Kenyan public private cable initiative, includes a representative of KeNet, the Kenyan university network. They could go even further and invite a civil society network like KictaNet to participate, and include a consumer association. There is a lot to learn from current experience. And there is a lot to learn from talking to people that really have a stake in access to infrastructure. They range from local ISPs, to libraries, to local government, to NGOs working in public health, to universities and to also to mobile phone users in rural areas.
Intergovernmental institutions like the ITU, and financing institutions like the development banks, can and should play a role in building inclusive and accountable governance in the ICT sector and either require, or strongly urge that investment efforts adhere to them. They also need to support independent research that will give the public access to data on the ICT sector that can support both investment and decision-making and implementation.
No mention was made of the challenges faced by regulators, who are, in many cases, caught between the fires of powerful operators on the one hand, and recalcitrant governments on the other.
No mention was made of consumers. I had a surreal feeling that if I had asked a question from the floor about either the rights, plight or participation of consumers that half a dozen men in suits who have looked at me blankly and said ‘who?’.
But this is of course not at all what they would have said. They would have responded articulately and convincingly (to some) that consumers are very important, that the industry and governments take them seriously, and all that all their efforts are in fact in their best interest. In fact, they would probably have reassured me that in Africa we have such benevolent ICT operators that consumer activism is really not needed; like governments, consumers can also sit back and relax, and rely on the vision and goodwill of the multinational mobile operators (and other large ICT businesses).
Perhaps I am overstating the case. But not by much. In a statement released yesterday APC and partner organisations from Africa endorsed the important role of private sector investment in filling the infrastructure gap. We also believe that regulatory barriers need to be addressed; not only at the level of how they impact on large multinational investors, but also at the level of how they impact on locally owned and operated ICT enterprises or community driven efforts.
Precisely because of the mobile revolution in Africa, and the real possibility of closing the infrastructure gap, governments and intergovernmental institutions should be considering their role in ensuring their citizens have access to a holistic information and communications infrastructure that will strengthen longer term sustainable development.
These conversations are taking place in some spaces, but in a very fragmented manner, and not inclusive of the range of stakeholders that should be involved.
Why is it that after nearly 2 decades of "ICT for Development’ there is still such a lack of a coherent or holistic approaches?
Why is it that a Connect Africa Summit gave so little air time to the real initiatives, networks and work done by African institutions and networks? And so little attention to the every day challenges people working to build connectivity, and to empower citizens and institutions to benefit from it, face?