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‘ICT POLICY DELAY ENCOURAGING MARGINALISATION’
Related to country: Malawi

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

‘ICT POLICY DELAY ENCOURAGING MARGINALISATION’

The civil society has expressed concern that delay by government to process the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy, whose draft was submitted two years ago to government for scrutiny, is promoting marginalization among people in the country.
Speaking during an ICT for Development workshop in Lilongwe on Monday, acting board chairperson of Young Advocates for the Advancement of ICT (YAAICT) Grey Nyali said, “Since ICT was creeping into every aspect of work, members of the civil society must be awake so that they does not bring further marginalization into the society, especially women and people in rural areas”. But Minister of Information and Civic Education Mrs. Patricia Kaliati (MP), said the policy was at an advanced s tag.

“Some of these things are supposed to be done with care and thoroughness. We had to consult before coming up with the final draft but the Policy is now at an advanced stage,” said Kaliati.

According to Nyali, it was the civil society’s responsibility to ensure that messages on ICT get through both members of the society both in rural and urban areas.

“As Civil society, we have been there since 1998 when the policy draft was first developed and it’s disappointing to note that up to now, the final draft is not yet out,” said Nyali.

According to him, some of the people involved in formulation of the policy draft are computer vendors and civil society members.

Among other things, the policy contains issues of surtax removal on IT accessories such as Computers and other computer peripherals.

“Even though government has removed duty on computers, when they come and surtax is added they become even more expensive,” said Nyali

In other development the government regulatory body on communication has warned that it would take an unspecified action on all telephone bureaux and Internet cafes operating without a licence. But this has irked some local operators who accuse the regulator of trying to kill their business and being out of tune with the prevailing economic environment on the ground.

The body said, some internet operators are connecting the internet at slow speed modems thereby disadvantaging their customers, but some people in the business argued with the body and said that, this is so because of the poor communication system and expensiveness of the Internet Service Providers ISP in the country. It therefore could have been better for the government to take control measures on the charges of these ISP so that people can afford to pay the internet at a lower price hence improving the speed of the internet by subscribing to the higher band width.

This means that people in the rural areas will have a chance of using the internet facilities because more people will join the business of internet cafes which will make the price for surfing on the net be cheaper because they will be more competitors.

January 24, 2008 | 4:25 AM Comments  0 comments

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BANK REAFFIRMS ON MDG goal six.
Related to country: Malawi

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

BANK REAFFIRMS ON MDG goal six.

KONDWANI

The World Bank has reaffirmed its commitment to support African Countries including Malawi to halt and begin to reverse the effects on not paying particular attention to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number six.

MDG goal six spells the need to combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Specifically, it talks about halting and beginning to reverse the spread of the pandemic and other diseases.

The bank says it will move from its initial emergency response to the next phase, contributing to a long-term sustainable multi-partner response.

To that, the bank has provided US$1.5 billion (K210 Billion, at Malawi’s official exchange rate) for the diseases’ programme in over 30 countries and five sub-regional projects addressing cross-border issues through the Multi-country HIV and AIDS programme for Africa (MAP).

“ The Bank’s support has contributed to results in prevention, care and treatment, impact mitigation and system strengthening reaching millions through prevention education messages, enrolling women in preventing mother to child transmission, supporting vulnerable children and working to strengthen health, fiduciary, monitoring and evaluation systems and AIDS institutions,” says the bank in a statement.

The commitment from the Bank could not have come at an opportune time like this when the newly released 2007 UNAIDS epidemic update shows that AIDS seams to have reached its peak and death rates are failing – Africa continues to bear the greatest burden.
“We recognize HIV and AIDS is a serious development challenge and dilutes our poverty reduction efforts,” says Obiageli Ezekwesili, the bank’s vice president for Africa region.

“The bank is determined to remain engaged over the long-term, working within our comparative strengths.” More than three quarters (about 76 %) of all AIDS – related deaths in 2007 and 68% of global new infections occurred in Africa and women, about 61%, are living with virus.
The bank’s new agenda for action is the result of an intensive analytical and consultative process that engaged over 1000 people from over 30 African partner countries plus donors and UN agencies.
Countries were consulted at all levels, including community, faith based Organisation and civil society organizations, research institutes, universities and people living with the virus.

“The inputs of the stakeholders are reflected in the main messages of the agenda for action,” adds the statement.
“The agenda’s strategic objectives are explicitly linked to results and include: assisting national development agenda, accelerating implementation and closing the implementation gap between available funding, strengthening nation and health systems and improving donor coordination and knowledge generation and sharing knowledge generation and sharing.

To accelerate the implementation purposes, the Africa region’s agenda for action is organized around four pillars, reflecting the critical human institution and financial challenges for the next generation of support.

The global pandemic is not a conventional disease and Africa is not a conventional region, says Elizabeth Lule, the Manager of the bank’s African region AIDS programme.
She adds: “If you add to that the everyday reality that the national health systems are overwhelmed and that most government lack the fiscal space to cope with the often volatile and unpredictable funding of the programmes…. There is need for the bank’s continued active engagement in the region.”

Since the bank launched its emergency response, funding for the mitigation of the disease has grown dramatically from US$1.6 billion in 2001 to US$8.9 billion in 2007 mainly from the Global Fund to find AIDS, tuberculosis and Malaria and the US President’s Emergency Plan for the AIDS relief (PEPFAR).

“Nonetheless, financing gaps exits and estimates US$18 billion is required in 2007 alone mostly needed for sub-Sahara Africa,” says the statement.

By October 2007, the bank has provided US$1.5 billion for HIV and AIDS programmes in over 30 countries (Malawi inclusive) plus 29 multi-country programme for Africa (MAP) countries and 5 sub-regional projects to address cross-border issues. (The Guardian News Paper of December 08.07)

December 10, 2007 | 9:16 AM Comments  0 comments

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MALAWI MISSES FROM NEPAD E-SCHOOLS INITIATIVE.
Related to country: Malawi

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Malawi is not among the African countries whose primary and secondary schools will be equipped with International communication Technology (ICT) funded under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development electronic Schools (NEPAD e-schools) Initiative because of its poor ICT status.
The NEPAD school initiative was publicly launched in Durban at the Africa Summit of the World Economic. Forum on June 12, 2003 with the aim of imparting ICT skills to young Africans in primary and secondary schools as well as harness ICT technology to improve, enrich and expand education in African countries.
The NEPAD e-Schools initiative will over a 10 –years period develop all African primary and secondary schools so that they become NEPAD e-schools.
Deputy minister of Education , Science and Technology Olive Masanza said the ministry is not part of the NEPAD programme because of various problems but was quick to add that it was her ministry’s wish to catch up with NEPAD.
What the ministry has done, said Masanza, is to launch internet learning in 17 selected secondary schools.
The ministry has provided computers to such schools.
Minister of Information Patricia Kaliati said “Malawi cannot benefit from the ICT bodies because of the ICT policy.”
The country developed a National ICT for Development policy in 2006 but it is not yet implement.
“We are going to take it to the Cabinet. In fact, we are fighting against time. We cannot have ICT infrastructure without the policy in place,” Kaliati said,.
The countries invited to participate in the first phase of the NEPAD e-schools initiative are those which have acceded to the Memorandum of understanding of the NEPAD Africa Pear Review Mechanism (APRM).
These countries include Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameron, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.
According to NEPAD e-Schools initiative details, 600,000 schools will be involved.
The initiative seeks to provide ICT skills and knowledge to primary and secondary school students that will enable them to function in the emerging information society and knowledge economy.
It is also aims to provide teachers with ICT skills to enable them to use ICT tools to enhance teaching and learning. It also wants to provide schools managers with ICT skills so as to facilitate the efficient management and administration of the schools.
Before rolling out the initiative, NEPAD e-Africa Commission is conducting a demonstration in six Schools in each of the following participating countries: Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.
Each school in the demonstration project is equipped with a computer laboratory containing at least 20 PCs as well as server and net working Infrastructure and peripherals such as scanners, whiteboards and printers,
“The Implementation of the Demo in the rest of participating countries will be completed by December 2007,” details say.
According to NEPAD documents Implementation of all activities are expected to converge into large –scale roll out in 2007/2008.