Support for the Establishment of Harmonized Policies for the ICT in the ACP

1. Support for the Establishment of Harmonized Policies for the ICT in the ACP Sandro BAZZANELLA ITU-EC Project Manager Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

2. A global Project for the ACP countries • An effectively functioning ICT sector is a key driver for development, growth and employment • ITU and the European Commission signed in December 2007 a global project which aims at providing “Support for the establishment of harmonized policies for the ICT market in the ACP states” • It is a component of programme “ACP-Information and Communication Technologies @CP-ICT • This global project entails three regional sub-projects addressing specific needs: • Short terms Experts will be recruited during the implementation of the project to support the Project Coordinators

3. Objectives Global objective of this project is to provide support towards creating harmonised policies for ICTs and an efficient regulatory environment, conductive to massive investments required by ICT infrastructures and applications in the ACP countries; Detailed objectives are as following : Developing and promoting ICT market policies and guidelines for individual ACP Countries Supporting the regional organizations and the sub-regional economic groupings to develop and promote the use of harmonized ICT market policies and regulations in the area concerned Building human as well as institutional capacity in the field of ICT through a range of targeted training, education and knowledge sharing measures This Project urges for a demand-driven bottom up approach; The methodology will facilitate and consolidate the ownership of the project by the beneficiary countries; In general terms, this project will pay specific attention to link the substance of policy and regulation to Capacity Building. 3

4. Project implementation at Regional level 4 • A launching meeting (Kick Off) in order to convene all stakeholders and validate the project’s global approach, the priorities and its operational structure. All stakeholders were invited to participate; • HIPSSA (Sub Sahara) Kick Off: 11-12 December 2008, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) • HIPCAR (Caribbean) Kick Off: 15-16 December 2008, St Georges’ (Grenada) • A Regional Steering Committee in order to adopt a work programme & plan of action and overview its implementation; • HIPSSA SC: 12 March 2009, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) • HIPCAR SC: 5-6 March 2009, Bridgetown (Barbados) • Production, validation and adoption of • policies and • harmonized legislative and regulatory frameworks at regional levels in the Caribbean and sub-regional levels in Sub Sahara Africa based on best national, regional and international best practices. • A first raw of actions in favour of institutional and human capacity building

5. Project implementation at National level 5 • Further to the completion of the Regional activities, the implementation at national level will include the following steps: • Appropriation of harmonized regional framework by stakeholders in each beneficiary country • Transposition of regional guidelines into the national legislative and regulatory frameworks of beneficiary countries in coherence with the national strategies of each of them • A second row of of actions of institutional and human capacity building at national level with a focus on national experts

6. Sub Project 1: HIPSSA (Sub Sahara Africa) 6 • 3 years programme • 43 Countries divided in 4 geographical regions • Project Coordinator based at ITU Regional Office for Africa • While the HIPSSA Project is a scale up project of a pilot project successfully implemented in West Africa, the methodology has been adapted to reflect the diversity between the sub-regions and their differences in the legal systems

7. Sub Project 1: HIPSSA - Template

8. Sub Project 1: HIPSSA - Western Africa

9. Sub Project 1: HIPSSA - Central Africa

10. Sub Project 1: HIPSSA - Southern Africa

11. Sub Project 1: HIPSSA - Eastern Africa

12. Sub Project 2: HIPCAR (Caribbean) 12 • 3 years programme • 15 Countries • Project Coordinator based at Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) • Further to the Kick Off meeting (15-16 December 2008) and the first Steering Committee (5-6 March 2009), three working groups will be set up: • ICT Policy: data protection, eEvidence, eTransaction, cybercrime, freedom of information and interception of communication; • Revision of various Telecommunications Acts: • Universal Service Framework; • Licensing Guidelines in a convergent environment; • Interconnection Guidelines. • eGovernment (in collaboration with CARICAD) • Other areas to be determined, budget permitting.

13. Sub Project 3: ICB4PIS (Pacific Islands States) 13 • 2 years programme • 15 Countries • Project Coordinator under recruitment. Location: Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) premises; • Aims at building human capacity building in the field of ICT through a range of targeted training, education and knowledge measures; • Develop background material for possible harmonized policies for the ICT markets; • Ongoing discussions with the EU and the Governments regarding the extension of the programme to cover harmonization of legislative and regulatory framework.

14. Thank you for your attention Sandro BAZZANELLA sandro.bazzanella@itu.int Phone: +41 22 730 6765 http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/projects/ITU_EC_ACP/index.html