Africa comes prepared to the world summit on the information society

Abstract

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) comes prepared to make Africa's voice heard at the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to take place in Geneva from 10-12 December 2003. Thousands of delegates from around the world will attend the Summit, which is intended to adopt a Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. Under the framework of the Partnership for ICTs in Africa (PICTA), ECA will launch a WSIS African Academia Research Network at the AISI exhibition area with support from the Ford Foundation Office for Southern Africa. The objectives of the Network includes building research capacity of Academia on key policy issues with respect to African needs and strengthening scholarship in various areas that are of significant importance to countries. AISI is the regional framework for ICT development, a vision for ICT4D in Africa, designed to meet economic and social development challenges of the continent. AISI serves as a regional framework and cornerstone of the ICT component of the NEPAD Plan of Action.