Information technology vital for African development

The head of the UN's Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Monday urged the continent to swing behind the information technology revolution sweeping the world.

Kingsley Amoako said that information and communication technology would form a central plank to development in Africa. Information technology had a vital role to play in improving education and health across the continent, he stressed.

Launching a two-day meeting in Addis Ababa of the UN’s Information and Communication Technology Task Force (UN ICT), he said Africa had already made great strides. Over the last three years almost every African country had become connected to the Internet allowing access to global information networks, he noted.

But he told delegates from around the world that much had to be done to help build an African information infrastructure. "So I think we made a lot of progress," he said. "But we still face huge challenges...And the challenges that we face include the need to mobilise the resources to implement ICT programmes in areas such as health and education."

"The information revolution, along with its attendant explosive growth of knowledge, and the related phenomenon of the globalisation of the world economy, have brought about the Information Age, which affects all aspects of economic, social and political activity," he said. "Insufficient appreciation of this phenomenon leaves African countries at the short end of an information and technology gap, the disparity between information rich and information poor."

He said the time was ripe to "overcome this gap and utilise" the ICT to promote social and economic growth in the region. The ICT would "transform" the continent, he stressed, adding that its central role would be to enhance development and poverty eradication programmes.

The task force plans to help build networks between the private and public sector, and involve governments and local communities. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan launched the UN ITC - which will also act as his advisory body - in November 2000.