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. The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) offers a vehicle for African leaders to drive the necessary changes, and within the NEPAD context the e-Africa Commission has been tasked to deal with issues related to ICT. Not only do Africa's leaders recognize the part that ICT can play in development, they also recognize that forming strategic partnerships with the public and private sector can contribute to their efforts. The Information Society Partnership for Africa's Development (ISPAD) will be a mechanism whereby the private sector and other actors can engage in the process. 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. Moreover, ground-level stakeholders must be included in policy-making processes at the outset, because their involvement and "buy-in" is critical to empower government to make and implement difficult, and at times conflicting, decisions.

The World Economic Forum and its members have held numerous discussions with the NEPAD Secretariat and the e-Africa Commission about how they can augment and complement NEPAD efforts and help to address technology-related policy issues within the context of broader development activities. The World Economic Forum-NEPAD E-Readiness Policy Programme is the result. Bridges.org undertook work on the Programme in September 2002 in partnership with the World Economic Forum, NEPAD, and the e-Africa Commission. World Economic Forum member companies Accenture, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft helped launch a coalition of supporters by providing the seed funding for the 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 key objectives of this programme of work are to:
⇒ Support the NEPAD Secretariat, the e-Africa Commission and ISPAD,
⇒ Assess the current status of ICT-related policies in Africa,1
⇒ Facilitate a dialogue and raise awareness among key stakeholders,
⇒ Produce recommendations to guide policy work, and
⇒ Build local capacity for ICT policy-making.

The World Economic Forum-NEPAD E-Readiness Policy Programme builds on previous work of the World Economic Forum Global Digital Divide Initiative (GDDI) and the initial steps of the e-Africa Commission in this area. It is intended as the first stage in a broader process to advance ICT policy and decision-making across Africa by building partnerships, helping to establish priorities, identifying stakeholders and, perhaps most importantly, informing policy processes. The 12-month programme of work has been broken into four stages, each covering an approximate three-month period:

Stage 1: laying the foundation
Stages 2: expansion and consolidation
Stages 3-4: ensuring sustainability and continued growth

Each stage has identifiable activities and deliverables – such as reports, briefings and workshops – but the stages are intended to build upon each other. Publications produced as part of this Programme will be distributed to all NEPAD countries and will be available as open content on the bridges.org website; they will also be offered for publication on the World Economic Forum and e-Africa Commission websites. It is intended that all activities and deliverables will be conducted in cooperation with, and published under the auspices of, all current and future members of the partnership.

This report describes the activities conducted in the first stage of the Programme, which bridges.org has led during September-December 2002. Key activities include:

• Establishing collaboration with the e-Africa Commission: The e-Africa Commission has indicated that it is supportive of the World Economic Forum-NEPAD E-Readiness Policy Programme overall, and expressed a willingness to engage in the Programme once it has formalized its own structures and strategies during the coming months. The Commission also invited World Economic Forum members and other private sector and civil society actors to participate in the ISPAD activities to be launched during 2003. It was agreed that future meetings, conference calls and other interactions would take place at regular intervals.
• Identifying key actors and mechanisms to engage them: Bridges.org has identified some of the leading organizations across Africa that deal with ICT-related policy issues, which the e-Africa Commission and ISPAD should consider involving in their activities. Annex 1 is a list of these organizations that describes the main focus and activities of each, and provides contact information. Annex 2 is a list of national government agencies that lead on ICT issues in each African country. An inventory of leading online news and discussion lists dealing with African ICT issues is included as Annex 3. Bridges.org has begun to monitor and participate in the lists, to gain a sense of which one might best serve the needs of the Commission and ISPAD for informing and engaging key stakeholders in the most effective ways.
• Collecting information on basic e-readiness in African countries: This section describes the landscape of e-readiness across the African continent overall. More detailed information on the status of e-readiness within each African state is contained in Annex 6, including specific information for each country on policy, infrastructure, ground level initiatives, and e-readiness assessments. Annex 5 contains more detail on the economic situation in each country.
• Creating a framework for examining the issues, and proposing country groupings according to e-readiness levels: This section sets out a framework that could be used for analysing e-readiness issues, and proposes groupings for the African countries according to their level of e-readiness. The framework template can help policy-makers and stakeholders examine issues that apply to groups of countries at comparative levels, so they can learn from relevant experience and best practice. Each African country is rated in a number of key areas and a country grouping has been assigned for use within the context of the proposed framework. Two examples are provided to illustrate how the Commission, ISPAD, and others could use the framework and groupings to examine ICT policy issues, raise public awareness, and build a dialogue. First, the framework is used to examine a relevant e-readiness policy issue and the different approaches that are needed across the groupings. Then, one issue that is characteristic of the kinds of issues affecting a particular country grouping is examined in more detail.

It was the intention of the initial partners and funders that the first stage of the Programme should represent more than just the drafting of a paper that would serve no further purpose. Therefore, the information set out in this report is intended as a foundation for the remaining programme of work, aiming to "kick-start" a longer process with broader vision and even greater results. The report describes the efforts so far to build a relationship with the e-Africa Commission. It 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 upon which a strategy could be built for achieving e-readiness across Africa in small, achievable steps. Finally, it represents an update on progress to inform and seek input from World Economic Forum members, the e-Africa Commission, and the coalition of initial funders, with an eye toward building on the initial investment in the work and consolidating support for the remainder of the Programme.

1 There are 54 independent countries on the African continent, and for the sake of completeness they are all included in this report. Morocco and Madagascar are not currently members of NEPAD, but negotiations are underway with Madagascar on membership. Madagascar is a member of the African Union, and therefore a potential member of NEPAD, while Morocco is not a member of the Union at this time.

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