Developing information and communication technologies (ICT) is both an objective and a means of development in Africa. This is why ICT research holds a special place in the framework of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy. The 4th EuroAfrica-ICT Cooperation Forum on ICT Research (14-15 November, Cape Town, South Africa) is looking at how Euro-African cooperation in this field can best be fostered and strengthened.

Strategies to support efficient and innovative ICT public-private partnerships (PPP) play an important role in this context: “[They] allow the joining together of the efforts and resources of private and public actors that are needed to achieve the organisational and financial conditions necessary for successful and sustainable projects, assuring that all required actors are involved and act for a common purpose, for example those associated with Living Labs,” explains Luis Magalhães, European Co-Chair of the 8th EU-Africa Partnership for Science, Information Society and Space.

Because the low actual densities of researchers and industries in Africa require purposeful action to bring together the relevant actors.

Luis Magalhães

The special attention paid to Living Labs as a policy instrument is one of the recent developments in the framework of this partnership. “The objective of Living Labs is to create knowledge and ensure the delivery of applications by bringing together the full set of actors that have to intervene while adapting the developments to local reality,” says Mr Magalhães. “Both of these aspects are of special importance for information society projects in Africa because the low actual densities of researchers and industries in Africa require purposeful action to bring together the relevant actors.”

Living Labs are a real-life test environment for innovations. Registered labs exist in numerous African countries including Egypt, Tunisia, Senegal and South Africa. They form part of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), an international non-profit association benchmarking Living Labs worldwide.

As Mr Magalhães explains, specific solutions are required for information society applications to thrive in Africa, including the consideration of applications based on mobile communications and mobile phones, the bypassing of the existing limitations of physical infrastructures, and the development of new business models adapted to local characteristics, material as well as financial resources.

An overarching challenge

While investments in ICT research and the development of the information society bring a number of immediate benefits, they also make a substantial contribution to the attainment of other development objectives. Many projects of the EU-Africa Partnership on Science, Information Society and Space have connections with other EU-Africa partnerships, and close coordination is taking place to maximise the effectiveness of the activities carried out.

The investment in network infrastructures is to allow scientists, researchers and universities [in Africa] to interact with European researchers.

Duncan Martin

The AfricaConnect project is one example of an ICT initiative contributing to different partnership objectives. Aiming to connect Eastern and Southern African National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) to the European Research and Education Network GEANT and to foster the development of NRENs in Africa, it is expected to trigger benefits in terms of regional integration and infrastructure development while contributing to employment and education objectives.

“The investment in network infrastructures is to allow scientists, researchers and universities [in Africa] to interact with European researchers,” explains Duncan Martin, chief executive of TENET, the South African NREN. European researchers also stand to benefit from the initiative: “[The project aims to] allow European researchers […] to interact with and benefit from the research capabilities and interests elsewhere in the world.”

ICT Forum will [help to] inform the participants about the project, obtain their insights and comments, and make sure that we are coherently building the project together.

Moctar Yedaly

Another internet-enhancing priority project is the African Internet Exchange System (AXIS). It supports the establishment of internet infrastructure in Africa through national and regional internet exchange points. “The Axis project comes at the right time to provide capacity building for African countries,” says Moctar Yedaly, Head of the Information Society Division within the AU Commission, explaining that the deployment of such infrastructure is considered crucial as it will generate huge cost savings and improve the quality of services. Activities will include technical assistance as well as training to achieve these objectives. In this context, he welcomes the organisation of the ICT Forum as a networking opportunity: “It will [help to] inform the participants about the project, obtain their insights and comments, and make sure that we are coherently building the project together.”