Research ICT Africa
From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations
Alison Gillwald
Director
Research ICT Africa
Tel: + 27 + 11 + 717-3645
Fax: + 27 + 11 + 717-3910
Email: gillwald@iafrica.com
Website: http://www.researchICTafrica.net
Description
Research is critical to establishing the needs of countries and of particular groups within them, and to developing approaches that are likely to be effective in resolving country-specific problems. Strengthening institutional capacity for research, analysis and debate in developing countries is an indispensable element in the construction of knowledge societies. It was in this context that Research ICT Africa - an initiative of the Learning Information Networking and Knowledge (LINK) Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa - was created in 2003.
Research ICT Africa seeks to fulfil a strategic gap in the development of a sustainable information society and knowledge economy on the African continent by building information communication technology (ICT) policy and regulatory research capacity in Africa needed to inform effective governance.
Through a network of African researchers it will generate the information and analysis needed to inform appropriate but visionary policy formulation and effective regulation of ICTs across Africa. It will embark on sustained and rigorous research to provide decision-makers with the data and analysis to make informed decisions in the public interest. The Research ICT Africa partners include tertiary institutions and development agencies in Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Members include CEDRES, a centre at the University of Ouagadougou in Burking Faso, the CEFRED of the national university of Benin, the CIRES of the Cocody university in Cote D’Ivoire, the Link Centre at the university of Witwatersrand, SA, the Cheikh Anta Diop university in Senegal, Dar-es-Salaam university in Tanzania, University of Nigeria, national university of Rwanda, university of Nairobi, University of Makerere, university of Addis Ababa, University of Botswana, University of Zambia and the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute.
Research ICT Africa’s main donor is the IDRC.
Track Record
Research ICT Africa has consolidated and extended the development of a rigorous and relevant African information and communications technology (ICT) policy research base that allows governments to make informed decisions leading to widespread diffusion of ICTs and the reduction of the Digital Divide. The research addresses the broad nexus of social, economic, gender and development issues surrounding ICTs in Africa, including infrastructure development, policy and regulation. One of the outputs of Phase I of its programs was a postgraduate program, Master of Management in ICT Policy and Regulation, established in collaboration with the African training network, NetTel.
All research conducted is in the public domain, incrementally creating a repository of information for African policy makers, regulators, researchers and the media, stimulating debate and innovative solutions.
Research ICT Africa holds periodic seminars, workshops and conferences, and publication of the electronic and print reports improves interaction amongst African centres and other leading research centres and networks in other continents. This is specifically done through the inclusion of LINK into the international network of universities doing research for the infoDev initiated and ITU supported World Dialogue on Regulation for Network Economies project; and it allows for the development of Africa’s first Masters and PhD programs in this field at LINK Centre, as a foundation for similar developments at other universities.
Research ICT Africa builds on the gains made by the IDRC sponsored African Research for Information Society Emergence (ARISE) project. The resulting research agenda is broadly concerned with what human capital is needed to stimulate the flow of financial capital in developing markets, especially what is required for network expansion and specifically to create social capital for development.
