[WSIS CS-Plenary] [WSIS THETHA] [kenyawsis] Government offices to acquire internet access

Tue Mar 2 09:02:50 GMT 2004

In French bellow,
Dear Sangonet,
Just a little comment on E-government... It seems for
many african countries that this is a driming option
so far as 99% of the population has not access to
internet and in many countries internet is only
possible in the capital or in few main cities.
I just would like to say that there is a fabulous
experience made in Cape Verde where Egovernement is
really working for many years... and what i observed
is that through this improvment the Digital culture is
progressing more quickly than in other african
countries... an example to be followed...
All the best
Cher Sangonet,
Juste un petit commentaire sur le E-gouvernement...
cela peut sembler pour beaucoup d'africains qu'il
s'agit là d'une chimère aussi longtemps que 99% de la
population n'a pas accès à internet comme beaucoup de
zones géographique.
Il y a une expérience fabuleuse de E-gouvernement qui
fonctionne au Cap Vert et ce qui est remarquable c'est
que ce E-gouvernement a généré une culture
d'utilisation généralisée d'internet dans ce pays...
Un exemple à suivre...
Bien à vous
Djilali 
--- Sangonet <thetha at sangonet.org.za> wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> hope you all read this story - quite an ambitious
> project by the government.
> 
>
http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/28022004/News/News2802200426.htm
> l
> 
> a few things come to my mind.
> 
> 1. About the upcoming civil society involvement at
> the ICT board and
> upcoming participation the National Strategy ICT
> workshop. While It is a
> good strategy to speak as an insider, I fully
> support comments from others
> of the need to be cautious and ensure that civil
> society maintain the
> reputation of being the voice for the voiceless and
> also for the call for a
> strategy meeting to thrash out the  objectives of
> Kenya civil society and
> specific issues relating to Kenya's ICT policy.
> 
> This also reminds me that the Kenya civil society
> caucus on WSIS also needs
> to reach out to other civil society actors who are
> involved in related
> policy matters and speaking to various government
> structures such as during
> the Kenya consultative group meeting in November
> last year -
> http://www.worldbank.org/ke/cg03.htm. The civil
> society present at the
> meeting (ActionAid Kenya, Institute of Economic
> Affairs, and the NGO
> Council) did present a paper about various policy
> issues from a civil
> society perspective in Kenya.
> 
> Looking at the papers presented at this consultative
> group meeting, there
> are already conflicting areas between KEPSA's paper
> and the civil society
> paper. The KESPA paper covers some major issues that
> need to be addressed in
> infrastructure development (including the ICT
> sector) by advocating for a
> greater framework for private sector participation,
> while the civil society
> paper calls for government to ensure provision of
> basic services as the
> rights of citizens. This raises a serious question
> about how the Kenya civil
> society caucus would work within KESPA and how it
> relates to the wider Kenya
> civil society organizations?
> 
> To these effect I would urge the meeting agenda to
> discuss ways of working
> closely with other civil society actors to ensure
> that civil society
> participation in policy engagement is strengthened
> and well coordinated. For
> example would this have been effective
> collaboration, the civil society
> paper presented at the consultative group meeting
> would have been stronger
> and covered more on ICT policy issues.
> 
> 2. The second issue relates to the specific story
> below.....two things
> 
> One it seems the government is not presenting a
> clear position on a
> centralised ICT strategy, here we see Minister
> Murungaru spearheading this
> e-government strategy without a clear position on
> the role of Information
> minister and the transport and communications
> minister. It is a high time we
> start seeing an integrated ICT approach!
> 
> 3. Open Source and Free Software Issues..
> 
> This might related more directly to my colleague -
> Mr. Bill Kagai. While
> this ambitious e-government strategy gets in place,
> your call for 'Building
> Govt. Contacts Database' is more urgent than ever to
> target these policy
> makers so that come 2007 we will not have expensive
> proprietary software
> further deteriorating the current state foreign debt
> more so at the expense
> of local expertise and business opportunity as those
> presented by free and
> open source solutions.
> 
> Please Mr. Kagai forward this development to the
> FOSSFA network and lets
> hope the advocacy campaign and other directed
> efforts will yield better
> results to Africa.
> 
> regards,
> 
> Njenga Njuguna
> --------------------
> 
> Government offices to acquire internet access
> By NATION Reporter
> 
> All Government ministries and departments will be
> accessed on the internet
> as from June this year.
> 
> National Security minister Chris Murungaru said
> yesterday the ambitious
> programme, under which websites would be developed
> for each ministry and
> department, would cost Sh2.5 billion spread over
> five years.
> 
> Dr Murungaru said the undertaking, a product of the
> e-government strategy,
> would enable the Narc Government to deliver services
> efficiently to the
> public.
> 
> "The e-government will facilitate better and
> efficient delivery of
> information and services to the citizens. It is a
> fundamental element in
> modernisation of government," he said.
> 
> The minister was speaking at his Harambee House
> office accompanied by the
> head of the Civil Service, Mr Francis Muthaura, and
> a special adviser to the
> Cabinet, Dr Peter Gakunu.
> 
> The programme, set to be implemented in three
> phases, will enable the public
> to apply for identity cards, passports, and to
> access Government ministries
> online.
> 
> Under the first phase, which ends in June this year,
> the Government will
> ensure that the infrastructure to implement the
> strategy is in place.
> 
> The second phase, which is scheduled to end in 2007,
> will see the Government
> linking up its ministries and departments through
> the internet.
> 
> "By the end of this medium term phase, the
> Government should be able to
> communicate within itself," he said.
> 
> However, it is the third phase that will open the
> Government to public.
> 
> The project will enable the public to vote on line
> in the next General
> Election. It will also be used to trade in Treasury
> bills and bonds, and to
> get other services on line.
> 
> Comments\Views about this article
>
http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/28022004/News/News2802200426.htm
> 
> 
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=====
Djilali Benamrane : dbenamrane at yahoo.com
Tél/Fax : (331) 01 45 39 77 02 Paris - France
Page web sur l'Afrique et la globalisation : http://www.multimania.com/djilalibenamrane/
Groupe de discussion: http://www.egroups.com/list/afriqueglobalization

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