Activity File
Expanding Affordable Access in Africa
Support for a consensus building workshop on the EASSY submarine cable project
Summary
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC), along with other African and international organizations committed to expanding affordable access to information and communication infrastructure and services in Africa, have been engaged in advocacy and policy dialogue with public, private and civil society stakeholders in Africa. The dialogue has focused on how to promote flexible approaches for the financing and ownership of the proposed Eastern and Southern Africa submarine cable project (EASSY) so as to assure affordable and competitive access to the international communications bandwith that will be provided by that cable. This work builds upon substantial work that APC has already been doing, in cooperation with other partners with substantial finding from the UK Department for International Development, on policy advocacy for expanding affordable ICT access in Africa.
Background / Terms of Reference
Interest and concern has been mounting in recent months among a broad array of stakeholders and potential beneficiaries that the financing and ownership model for the EASSY project might be overly restrictive, and might repeat some of the unfortunate experiences of the SAT-3 cable project in West Africa, where a closed "club" consortium of incumbent telecom operators had little incentive to offer reasonable prices for access to bandwith that would promote the growth of affordable ICT services in that region.
For this reason, APC and its partners brought together, in Mombasa, Kenya, a broadly representative group of stakeholders from governments, the private sector (including members of the proposed EASSY consortium), civil society and international organizations, for a one-day intensive workshop on March 10, 2006 to discuss concrete options for more effective po!icy gdvocacy to explorg flexible options for the financing and ownership of the cable system. This workshop, "Ensuring affordable and open access to EASSy: a consultation for key stakeholders on the East African Submarine Cable System," and the associated follow-up activities, had several key objectives:
To bring together, and share more effectively, information and analysis on:
- The deliberations and negotiations on the EASSY project
- Various options for the financing, ownership and corporate structure of the project
- The possibilities posed by, and the financial and structural implications of, new models of financing ICT infrastructure, including open access models
To identify critical opportunities and urgent needs for greater awareness-raising and public debate about these issues and options
To propose, both to the organizations organizing the workshop and to a broaderrange of interested organizations (including infoDev and its donors and partners), possible follow-up activities and efforts to promote flexible, sustainable and competitive approaches to expanding access to ICT in Africa.
To support these objectives, infoDev provided a grant to:
- Assure the participation of key stakeholders and experts from Africa and elsewhere by supporting the travel, accommodation and per diem costs of roughly 20 to 30 participants
- Assure the success of the workshop by supporting associated workshop costs as necessary
- Capture knowledge, recommendations and lessons from the workshop by supporting the preparation and production of a comprehensive Workshop Report and associated issue papers or other analytical work as agreed during the conference in consultation with infoDev.