National ICT Roundtable Conference Tanzania (1998) - Summary report

Executive summary

This report summarises the results of the National ICT Roundtable in Tanzania held June 4-10, 1998 in Dar es Salaam. The workshop was chaired by Mr. S. Mworia who coordinated it on behalf of the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) with support of the Ministry of Transport and Communication (MoCT) and the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD). Global Business Network (GBN) facilitated the workshop.
At the Roundtable, 31 representatives of various stakeholders gathered to reflect on the role of new Information and Communication Technologies in the development of Tanzania. The 31 participants represented government institutions, the private sector and the academia.

1. Objectives

The purpose of the National ICT Roundtable in Tanzania is to deepen the shared/common understanding of the potential role of ICT in the development of Tanzania and to develop a series of annotated project ideas.

In terms of outcomes, the Roundtable therefore has two primary objectives:

· Suggest recommendations for a Tanzanian ICT policy;
· Generate annotated ICT project ideas.

In order to arrive at these objectives, the Roundtable participants followed a process of scenario building, supported by the facilitators of Global Business Network.

2. Recommendations for a Tanzanian ICT policy

The ICT policy recommendations were developed with the help of:

· Creating basic scenarios for the future of ICT in Tanzania;
· Development of a vision for ICT in Tanzania;
· Identification of ICT leverage and priority areas.

A first series of conversations focussed on the role of ICT in the development of Tanzania, whereby the stakeholders had a series of structured conversations on the future of ICT in Tanzania. The stakeholders together developed scenarios and a vision on the role of ICT in the development of Tanzania over the next decade. Furthermore, the participants selected a number of priority areas, where ICT is thought to contribute most to such development.

In the discussions, the key elements of the national development and ICT policies have been taken as a starting point. A reference report based on national policy proposals (vision 2025) and including an overview of the current ICT landscape was used . The scenarios, vision and priority areas resulted in a series of ICT policy recommendations, which can be used as input for future ICT policy making in Tanzania. These recommendations include:


General

· There is an urgent need for the formulation of a comprehensive coherent national ICT policy;
· ICT policy priority areas are:

Improved quality of life;
Good governance;
Improved learning environment;
ICT-based economy;
Improved mobility infrastructure.


Regulatory framework

· ICT policy statements should be embedded in a legal framework to ensure continuity;
· ICT policy should be adaptive, and new policy decisions should be consistent with existing parliamentary acts;
· ICT policy should recognise the importance of timing in relation to physical infrastructure development;
· A well balanced regulatory framework shall recognise the importance of standardisation whilst still allowing user choice to drive development;
· ICT policy shall pay due attention to the ongoing communication infrastructure policy process.


Social

· ICT policy should address the fear for loss of cultural heritage and threats to cultural values and traditions;
· ICT policy should pay particular attention to social implications of ICT initiatives, e.g. integration of the older generations and recognise the knowledge they may be able to contribute;
· ICT policy should ensure gender neutrality of ICT initiatives;
· ICT policy should enable the concept of teleworking in conjunction with applicable labour laws and regulations;
· ICT policy should consider potential environmental impact consequences of ICT.


Skill base

· ICT policy should support necessary curricula to develop the availability of an adequate ICT skill base;
· ICT policy should address the need for new institutions;
· ICT policy should encourage relationship networking amongst various research institutions.


Financial resources

ICT policy should allow for innovative financial structuring of ICT projects.


Technology

· It is important to have standards allowing connectivity of varied information sources;
· ICT policy must address possible abuses, e.g.: corruption, fraud, pornography and breaches of security;
· ICT policy should recognise the important role of the implementation of man-machine interfaces to foster wide-spread adoption;
· ICT policy should consider identifying relevant criteria to ensure sustainability of ICT initiatives, e.g. Maintenance concepts, contingency planning.

3. Project ideas

The scenarios, vision and priority sectors served as a context for the development of annotated project ideas in each of the priority areas. These project ideas will serve as a basis for the development of pilot/demonstration projects in Tanzania by the participants together with local and foreign partner organisations.

Annotated project ideas are developed for applications in the following priority areas:

· Improved learning environment;
· More ICT-based economy;
· Improved quality of life/social amenities;
· Higher mobility infrastructure;
· Good governance.

At the Roundtables, the participants developed 5 project ideas. The project ideas are developed in each of the priority areas defined during the Roundtable on the basis of the scenarios and a vision on the role of ICT in Tanzania. In this section a short description is given of the project ideas, the relevance for national development and the agents of change. The agents of change are the owners of the project and will carry forward the development and implementation of the projects.
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Priority area	Project idea	Agents of change
Improved learning environment	Improving awareness of ICT	Institute of Finance Management
More ICT-based economy	Public sector/Nationwide communication system	Central Establishment
Improved quality of life/Social amenities	Development of regional telecentres	University of Dar es Salaam
Higher mobility infrastructure	Geographically based information system	UCLAS
Good governance	Computerisation of district profiles	UCLAS

Improving awareness of ICT

Project Description
The project aims at various aspects of enhancing the awareness in the Tanzanian society about current and future implementations of ICT in all sectors of society. Such public information activities are expected to go hand-in-hand with demonstrations of applications (preferably of a low-tech or even no-tech level) which can subsequently form a nucleus of ICT implementations for the entity served by the awareness activities. The application is expected to focus on the gathering and dissemination of information to secondary schools (and students) that can be found on the web, free of copyrights, and which is relevant to the secondary school curriculum.

Public sector/Nationwide communication system

Project Description
The project aims at improving the information flow within the government system for the purpose of enabling offices of the District Development Director (the authority in each district) to acquire access to data outside of the district, provide communications with the rest of the government, and facilitate internal management information, and office automation for efficiency and effectiveness of daily operations. The demonstration application(s) are to be identified in an initial consultation by the group around the agent of change with the office of the Kinondoni district authority.

Development of regional telecentres

Project Description
The project aims to establish a network of regional tele-centres (total 21, one in each region of mainland Tanzania; and one on Zanzibar), that would render services to the general public, NGO's, the business community, school leavers and government institutions. The services rendered will include information, communication, training, and education.

Geographically based information system

Project Description
The project will provide a geographically-based information system (GIS), that will form an index to other more enhanced systems and will be supported with a multi-layered overlay system of narrative, graphical and multimedia data to be utilised by utilities, investors, tourists, researchers, local administration: education, health, social welfare, law enforcers and community based organisations.

Computerisation of district profiles

Project Description
The project aims at establishing an information point (web site) for a number of districts in Tanzania (entire country has over 120 districts) that would provide up-to-date statistical information on all relevant economical and social aspects of the district, to support public decision makers, potential investors/current investors, business community, farming community, tourists, researcher & academician and the donor community.

4. Follow-up activities

The Roundtable workshops are subsequently followed by a series of activities, which are to result in realisation of the project ideas within a period of about 12 months

· Project formulation: The agents of change will develop a draft project proposal. IICD will provide assistance to the development of a sustainable project proposal with a 5-year planning period.

· Fundraising and partnering: The agents of change and IICD will raise required funds among multiple institutions including local and foreign governments, commercial development banks and donor agencies. In addition, foreign partners interested in the exchange of information and expertise are identified.

· Start-up: IICD will assist in the implementation of the project and in capacity building for the agents of change.