[governance] Swiss work to bridge Africa's digital divide - F.Y.I.

[yehudakatz at mailinator.com]

Swiss work to bridge Africa's digital divide
SwissInfo.org - September 20, 2007 - 11:32 AM
 
Switzerland has backed a project to boost high-speed internet access in Africa
to help bridge the digital divide with the rest of the world.

The Connect Africa initiative will officially be launched in Rwanda next month
and aims to make internet connectivity widely and cheaply accessible.

Walter Fust, director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
(SDC), said "the continent should no longer be marginalised" in its access to
the worldwide web.

The head of the SDC made his comments at a presentation in New York on
Wednesday, organised together with the United Nation's Global Alliance for
Information and Communication Technology and Development and the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Fust said a planned Connect Africa summit should keep the issue high on the
political agenda. It will also broaden the discussion to innovative financing
mechanisms and local content, and support "the mobilising of the doers, not
only of the talkers", he added.
Switzerland has pledged SFr400,000 ($340,000) to the initiative.

 
Unleashing Africa's potential
 
Fust pointed out that the costs of internet and telephone connections in Africa
are very high because of the bad state of infrastructure.

Mobile phones overtook fixed lines on the continent six years ago and outnumber
them nearly five to one, with 137.2 million subscribers in 2005, the ITU says.
In sub-Saharan Africa, nine out of every ten telephone subscribers are using a
mobile.

But the shortage of fixed lines has limited internet access, enjoyed by fewer
than four out of every 100 Africans. And the cost of internet connectivity in
Africa, says the World Bank, is the highest in the world – some $250-300 per
month – and out of the reach of most Africans.

Mohsen Khalil, from the World Bank, said the initiative would create an
information 
revolution in Africa.

"When you give access to a human being you unleash the power of human
innovation and entrepreneurship. It is really so powerful all they need is
access," he said.

 
Global tax
 
Switzerland is a firm supporter of efforts to bridge the digital divide between
wealthy and undeveloped nations.

In May 2007 the Swiss communications minister, Moritz Leuenberger, unveiled a
proposal for a global tax on "information" at the UN in Geneva.

It is aimed at financing new information and communication technologies in
regions where people have little or no access to the internet.

Such a tax would be raised, for example, on paid-for information and computers,
while low-cost providers would be exempt.

"Today more than half the world's population don't even have a telephone," he
said. "Four out of five people don't have access to the internet. They are cut
off from information and any possibility of exchanging information, training or
improving themselves."


Swissinfo with agencies: 
INTERNET PENETRATION (% POPULATION AND GROWTH 2000-2007)
 
North America: 69%.
Australia/Oceania: 54%.
Europe: 40%.
Latin America: 20%.
Asia: 12%.
Middle East: 10%.
Africa: 4%.
Switzerland: 67.8% (139% growth).
United States: 69.7% (115.2% growth).
Britain: 62.3% (144.2% growth).
South Africa: 10.3% (112.5% growth).
Nigeria: 3.1% (2,400% growth).
Democratic Republic of the Congo: 0.2% (28,000% growth).
Ethiopia: 0.2% (1,540% growth).

 
CONTEXT
 
Connect Africa is a global multi-stakeholder partnership to mobilize the human,
financial and technical resources required to bridge major gaps in information
and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure across the continent.

The aim is to support affordable connectivity and applications and services to
stimulate economic growth, employment and development throughout Africa.

Connect Africa will be officially launched at a international summit in Kigali,
Rwanda on October 30, 2007.


--Ref:

Story:
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=8235212

Print View:
http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/swissinfo.html?siteSect=43&sid=8235212
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance