A survey of investment in education & research networking in Africa Program for African Research and Education Networking (PAREN) IDRC May 2005

Who, what, where? to identify support for connectivity for education and research networking in Africa Part of IDRC effort to build synergies among programs: – Bandwidth subsidy – Content – Capacity building – Support to national networks – Support to regional networks

60+ Organisations, Initiatives, Projects Africa Commission Consortium - AAU, PHEA, AVU Multilaterals – WBG, UNESCO, NEPAD, ITU/UNU, AfDB Bilaterals – SIDA, CIDA, USAID, NORAD etc EU – Geant, Dante, EUMEDConnect La Francophonie – AIF, AUF, INTIF, AFD

60+ Organisations, Initiatives, Projects Infrastructure – sat, fiber, projects (NSF) Content – HINARI, AGORA, INASP etc Technical support & capacity – NSRC Private sector – CISCO, Geo, GVF Global Scientific collaboration – MSI, NMI, NSF, Internet2, GUS

Findings/gaps and countries of concentration In 6 countries no discernible activity – Congo (Rep), Equatorial Guinea, Libya Mauritius, Seychelles, Sudan In 10 countries 5 or more programs are active – Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda Focus on metropolitan areas

Findings/spread of programs Cisco networking academies in 40 countries AVU – 20 countries INASP (content) – 14 AUF - 15 GDLN, MIMCom, SIST – 12

Connectivity/different approaches EUMedConnect – 4 N African countries; 34 – 45 mbps - NRENs WB-Global Development Learning Network – countries – 384kbps – collaborative programs in own centres AUF – 15 countries – 128 kbps – 2 mbps – African science PHE/AVU – 5 countries – bandwidth consortium

Networks/relatively limited support from regional perspective National: North Africa, MALICO, TENET (SA), TENET (Tanzania), KENET, Nigeria – EU, OSISA, USAID, Carnegie Regional: EUMEDConnect; SARUA; campus numerique – IDRC, WBI; AUF User networks: Codesria, RIA, AERC – potential drivers?

Lessons – success factors Firm links to program needs of universities Involvement of top university mgmt as well as IT mgmt Synchronisation of network expansion with regulation and applications Long term planning cycles & financial commitment

Lessons – the bigger picture Link the connectivity agenda to: – University programs – Higher education agenda – Science and technology policy – National development goals – NREN outreach program

Findings – overall picture a wide spectrum of initiatives – disjointed exciting initiatives – fast changing many players, few core donors making significant ($) investments over time no single model for support – content, connectivity, capacity Lack of information sharing & collaboration Complications for national partners limits program impact

Signs of more collaborative future AAU AGM Cape Town, Feb 2005 Internet2 Washington, May 2005 Maputo Open Access workshop, May 2005 Internet2, Philadelphia September 2005 ITU, UNU, (AFUNET), CERN, September 2005 – Broad spectrum of African and devt partners – Growing momentum towards collaboration

AAU Conference on African Research and Education Network Infrastructure Tunis Nov 14, 15 WSIS parallel event Bring together many African stakeholders and international partners Foundation for future collaboration