A report on the state of e-readiness in all of Africa's countries is the foundation for a year-long programme of work designed to build ICT policy-making capacity in Africa and develop partnerships between government, civil society and the private sector in support of the New Partnership for African Development's (NEPAD) sectoral objectives.

Bridges.org, an international non-governmental-organisation (NGO) and World Economic Forum (WEF) member companies Accenture, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft helped launch a coalition of supporters by providing the seed funding for the WEF-NEPAD-e-Africa Commission E-Readiness Policy Programme. The goal of the Programme is to help African countries develop e-readiness policies and remove or reduce the policy obstacles that limit the use of ICT throughout the region. The report on activities, "Building Capacity to Bridge Africa's Digital Divide from Within", was presented to the WEF annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on 27 January 2003.

The countries of Africa face a diverse range of challenges and obstacles as they strive to develop their economies, decrease their dependence on the developed world, and ready themselves for participation in the global economy. Achieving e-readiness, and the effective use of information and communications technology (ICT) as a tool for social and economic development, are key elements in these processes. Africa's leaders recognise the part that ICT can play in development, and that forming strategic partnerships with the public and private sector can contribute to their efforts. However, before anything can be achieved, there must be a clear understanding of where things stand now and what needs to be done, and a realistic timeframe for moving forward. The bridges.org programme of work aims to help the African governments and stakeholders to move forward on these issues.

The report offers tools that can be used to develop partnerships and collaboration among government, private sector and civil society stakeholders as part of an inclusive participatory process. And it sets out a framework for examining e-readiness policy issues that takes into consideration the varying levels of development of different countries, to highlight appropriate priorities. An overview of the status of e-readiness within each African country is also presented, including information for each country on policy, infrastructure, ground level initiatives, e-readiness assessments, and the overall economic situation.

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