huridocs-tech Globalization and the Information Age

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Title: TECHNOLOGY-AFRICA: Globalization and the Information
Age

HARARE, Oct 21 (IPS) - Governments, the private sector,
civil society and representatives of bilateral and
multilateral organizations converge on Addis Ababa this
weekend aiming to position Africa to benefit from
globalisation and the Information Age.

The five-day African Development Forum (ADF), hosted by the
UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), begins Sunday and
marks the beginning of an initiative to promote an
'African-driven' development agenda that will lead to
specific programmes for implementation at the country level,
organisers say.

Theme of the forum is "The Challenge to Africa of
Globalization and the Information Age"  born out of the
conviction that "Africa cannot achieve sustainable
development unless the policies, strategies and actions are
designed, managed and owned by Africans themselves", says
the ECA.

"The issue of globalization and the Information Age has been
chosen for the inaugural ADF because of the importance of
defining African-owned and African-led strategies to engage
with the global information economy."

It is such thinking that brought African ministers of
development and planning to adopt the Africa Information
Society Initiative back in 1996. It is an African mandate to
use information and communication technology to accelerate
economic and social development in Africa.

It is also along similar lines that the younger generation
of African leaders such as Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and
South Africa's Thabo Mbeki are calling for an African
Renaissance -- development led and driven by the continent
itself.

"At ADF '99 you will hear about women entrepreneurs in Sudan
organizing national workshops on electronic commerce,
cybercafe entrepreneurs in some of the world's least
developed countries like Togo and Gabon," says Karima
Bounemra Ben Soltane, leader of ECA's organizing team.

"... schools in South Africa and Mozambique using computers
for education, young people from Senegal and Ghana, Egypt
and South Africa, talking about how their generation sees
it.

"You will also see how high-tech is being used to link to
the rural areas, to the grassroots. You will hear about
radio being used to link rural communities in Mali, about
networks of women's community radio...the list goes on.

Globalization and the movement toward an information economy
heavily dependent on knowledge-based products threatens to
see Africa's already tenuous position in the global economy
deteriorate further, according to economists.

Africa's main exports - commodities account for 90  percent
of all its exports - increasingly are being replaced by new,
relatively more efficient products from other regions.

"Advances in biotechnology, the next major revolution, and
material science are leading to synthetic substitutes for
primary products such as vanilla and sugar," notes a
discussion document for ADF 1999.

"Products such as cocoa and palm oil also are under attack
as Western firms undertake genetic research to develop
outright synthetic substitutes or varieties that can be
produced in their laboratories or non-traditional
environments."

The concern therefore, is how African farmers and industries
can take advantage of global opportunities and develop the
necessary skills to compete as new technologies eliminate
traditional agriculture.

It will not be an easy sell, given that policy and strategy
networks for the African private sector are mostly weak and
ineffective in influencing important debates on world trade
-  the African share of world trade being only about two
percent.

Under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other forms of
regional trading blocs, business has become globalized and
while it they offer better exporting opportunities, these
developments have changed the requirements and rules of
competition.

ADF 1999 intends to tackle these new issues. The conference
expects to attract among others heads of states, ministers,
multinationals and leaders of the Organisation of African
Union such as secretary general Salim Ahmed Salim.

The Forum will address four substantive themes:

- Strengthening Africa's information infrastructure. -
Africa and the information economy. - Information and
communication technologies for improved governance. -
Democratizing access to the information society

ECA says what is unique about this forum is that for the
first time, it will "demonstrate how much is being done in
Africa, by Africans, in harnessing ICTs towards development.
Much is already underway, and yet it is not well known, even
within Africa itself."

It expects to come up with concrete plans for national
information and communication infrastructure development. It
will also set up an African position for major global
decision-making forums including the Global Knowledge II
conference to be held in Malaysia in March.
(END/IPS/gm/mk/99)




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