Transcript The Ghana experience with ICT Policy Development William

The Ghana experience with ICT
Policy Development
William Tevie
[email protected]
Digital Divide Measures
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Population of Ghana ~ 20,000,000 people
Active Computers < 500,000 (2.5%)
local email Addresses < 100,000 (0.5%)
telephones < 400,000 (2%)
computer science & engineers/yr < 300 p.a
(0.0015%) {In - 0.1%} [EE produced < 50 p.a]
• literacy ~ 50% (opportunity!)
Scale of the Digital Divide
• Awareness: for 20m population and
population growth rate of 5%, must train 1m
people a year to keep the divide from
widening?
• To provide 1m additional PCs could be $1b,
additional 1m telephone lines could also be
$1b? Backbone costs much more?
• Government annual revenue < $2bn ( other
demands)
Knowledge Resource
Requirements
• Example:
– typical SW is 100 man year code, 1 million
lines of code
– need 100 new / enhanced products a year
– => 10,000 graduates active (minimum)
– LOTS more needed!
• May Cost $10,000+ to produce a graduate
Building IT
• Large R&D costs (Government critical in LDC)
• Build Technical Workforce (Knowledge in
People: they may leave to work for
Multinationals)
• Be very applied, reduce decision times
(requires less but sharp management)
• Move Up Value Chain ( where possible)
Internet Penetration and GNP Per Capita
percent of population
Internet users,
100%
10%
1%
0.1%
0.001%
100
1’000
10’000
GNP per capita, US$
Source: International Telecommunication Union, 2000.
100’000
Different ways of deriving ICT
policy
COUNTRY
POLICY
WEBSITE
EXTRACT
NEW DOC
ROUNDTABLE
Different ways of deriving ICT
policy
(OBJECTIVES)
POLICY
GOVT
MANIFESTO
GOALS
VISIONS
ICT
FRAMEWORK
1. HUMAN CAPACITIES
2. INFO / INFRA
DOMESTICATION
LOCAL
LANGUAGES
3. ENTERPRISE
4. CONTENT
APPLICATIONS
5. POLICY REGIME
ROUNDTABLE --- GROUND UP
Rules of behavior
• Rules of behavior important
• Purpose is to get buy-in of stakeholders
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They must be owners
Get their Insight
Seek Feedback, modification
Build trust between stakeholder, industry and
policy makers
Rules of behavior
• Therefore
– Must announce this policy development process
– Announcement must go with set of ideas,
questions
– Comments Period- anybody can comment
– Collated around key issues
• new position
• facilitator less a decision maker
• discussions must be trying to get closure.
Rules of Behavior
• Policy lags Technology
• Participate in Global Fora
• Start Roundtable from Ground up and refine
and refine till you get final document.
Ghana Policy -1975
• Establishment of civil service IT dept
(CSDU Central Systems Development Unit)
• Import Control (High Cost) demand
• Ministry of Transport and Communications
• Frequency Board ( Military)
• Telecom and Post were combined P&T
Ghana Policy - 2000
• Unification amongst Operators
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fixed (2 operators)
cellular (4 operators)
Value added services (26)
Internet (27)
• NCA Independent regulator,7 member
board
• Ministry of Communications
• Media commission content regulator
Ghana Policy - 2000
• Split Post and Telecom
• Private media , print , radio and TV
National Communication Policy
• Cabinet met on 6 October 2000
• Policy covered: Telecommunications, ICT,
Meteorology, Mass Media, Libraries,
Publishing, Postal
Ghana Policy-2000
ICT
• Considerations:
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Build an active local Market
Promote access and usage
put a cultural stamp on ICT
attain competitiveness in indigenous ICT
development
Ghana Policy- 2000
Government Shall
• Speed up computerization in educational
Institutions and others
• step up formal ICT education at all levels
• Computer Drivers License for informal
education
• Networking of public institutions
• Make Internet Access affordable
Ghana Policy- 2000
Government Shall
contd.
• Develop local manufacturing of ICT
devices
• Fiscal measures including tax incentives
• Explore, research and develop technological
capacity
• Forge closer relationship between education
and industry
Ghana Policy- 2000
Government Shall
contd.
• Mandatory National archival …. Folklore
etc
• Appropriate legal and regulatory framework
for e-commerce
• Greater participation of WOMEN
• Measures for preventing computer use for
malice
Ghana Policy- 2000
Government Shall
contd.
• Legal regimes to support ICT eg. Crimes
• Flagship projects:
– Education
– Health
– Agriculture
– Investment and Tourism
– Women and Development
– The Child, The aged and Challenged
Ghana Policy-2001
• Distributed Policy
• Separated Information and Communications
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ministry of transport and comm
ministry of information
Independent regulator- chairman minister
independent regulator by act of parliament
media commission by constitution
no license fee for private newspapers
Ghana Policy 2001
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Roundtable Conference
Listserve ([email protected])
document at www.ghana.gov.gh
Policy document not concluded yet
Exclusivity for telco’s end
Contract with telecom malaysia ends
New entrants being encouraged.
Deliver 400,000 new fixed lines in 2 years
National ICT Strategies
• Liberalization in the sector maybe too fast
since with, Globalization our market is
becoming captured.
• It is difficult for natives to keep up
• Conflict in “affordability” and “cost” of
service.
• Focus on National Capacity/Domestic
Market + Support for Development Goals
– Look for Poverty Alleviation and Wealth
Creation Opportunities
Main Areas of Concern
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Human Capacity
Infrastructure
Policy
Enterprise
Content (applications)
Human Capacity: Skill set
Challenge
• Limited availability of Skill set is an
important impediment in growth (cant
produce fast enough and cant attract
nationals overseas to return - cant pay) [The
Universities never had opportunity to lead
industry and should be given opportunity to
get it right this time]
• Brings Intellectual order, too few graduates
Human Capacity Strategy
• A goal of X10 Graduates produced p.a in
number of years (5 yrs.), consistent quality
• Strengthen the EE and CS departments at
the government Universities
• Follow this Development Model:
“Concentrate on training creators of money,
managers, spenders in sequence.”
Infrastructure
• Ghana is ahead of several west african
countries including Nigeria telephone
penetration higher, Internet bandwidth (e.g.
NCS BW is bigger than many West African
Telco’s 10mb)
• Telecommunications assets of GT, GBC and
VRA maybe strategic to development
• Private sector is becoming foreign owned
– e.g South Africa 30% empowerment, 49% foreign max
investment in Policy Framework, force alignment
Policy
• ICT Policy development is inter-sectoral
and must be coordinated
• Clear Separation of operators, regulators,
policy development eases the Industry
• Standardization and technical policy is
global (participation can be difficult)
• Encourage stakeholder networking (avoid
capture)
• South- South Cooperation necessary
Programs in Support of Policy
• “Silicon Valley” - leverage university + csir
areas
• Basic Information Systems:
– all individuals,companies,laws,….,knowledge
– civil service operations+related+private
sector+community
• Universal Access solutions, for Government
Communications is important
Enterprise
• Local Enterprises and operators should be
challenged with projects to develop skills,
infrastructure and services ( large projects
are routinely awarded to large more
experienced multinationals)
– gives post project completion blues
….sustainability, many reasons including bank
guarantee requirements.
– (native empowerment, silent protectionism,
development goals)
• Target Groups: Youth, Female
Content (Applications)
• Store and preserve our material for access
(biggest complaint about Africa is no
content)
• Preserve history digitally, folklore,
language, art….
• Meanwhile foreign companies take/put our
information freely on their information
services (usurping our wealth & identity while
feeling proud they helped a poor African)
IT Related Laws
• Privacy Act
• Intellectual Property, Marks - “Robert Burch, Quebec vs
NCS, Ghana”
• secure transactions (authentication and secrecy in
Commerce)
– build certification authorities, key escrows
• Anonymous Online speech and protections
• Anti-Intrusion laws (against Spam, viruses, worms)
– IT security alert centers
– Crime and Fraud laws
Some IT Industry Categories
(Opportunity Areas)
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Information Processing
Manufacturing
Infrastructure
Services
Applications
SAT-3
• Landing countries : South Africa, Portugal,
Angola, Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin,
Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Canary
Islands,
• Spain Purchasers : Marconi, Sonatel, Cote
d'Ivoire Telecom, Ghana Telecom, OPT
Benin, Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd,
Camtel, OPT Gabon, Angola Telecom,
Telkom SA Ltd, BT, Cable and Wireless,
Teleglobe (USA), AT&T, Telefonica
Internet Technical Policy
• Standardization and technical policy is
global (participation can be difficult)
– IETF, ICANN
• Stakeholder networking with Public sector
essential
The Changing Global Policy
Horizon
• Local => more global
– affects technical policy, standards
• Regulated => self-regulation
– more players, more private sector
• ensured participation => if able to
participate
– Traditional Institutions forced to change
Need for New Relations
• Traditional Regulator, Standards Bodies
change to become global participation of
individuals and operators
• More participatory and self-organized
• Must coordinate, Fund & organize positions
• Public-Private Partnerships required
Info-Structures (1)
• ccTLDs
– most Tech POC outside country
• gTLDs (7 new )
– none in Africa, attempt to claim .africa
• Registrars (> 150)
– none in Africa
• UDRP Resolution Providers(5 accredited)
– 5 approved (1-Asia, 0-Africa)
Info-Structures (2)
• Regional Address Registries (RIR)
– one per region
– ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, LACNIC (provisional)
– AfriNIC in formation
• Root Servers
– very difficult
Conclusion
• We are a poor nation
• UN Millenium goal to halve poverty
• Poor people have needs
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Education
Agriculture
Health
Shelter
Conclusion
• We have to scale our ability to provide
needs
• We have to scale the capacity of the
resources we have
• We have to be able to use ICT to alleviate
poverty by scaling the resources we have
• We need to be able to use ICT tools in such
a way that they are able to serve people and
serve them better