SPIDER at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa
The 14th Ordinary Summit of the African Union was held in Addis Ababa from 31st January to 02 feb 2010 at the UNCC-ECA permises. More than 1000 participants from 53 African participated in the Summit. Many countries were represented by the heads of their respective governments. The Summit’s theme was “Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Africa: Prospects and Challenges for Development”. In conjunction with the Summit, an exhibition was organized where several organizations and companies, primarily from Africa presented their achievements in the field of ICT.
SPIDER was also present at the exhibition under the banner of “Government of Sweden” adjacent with the European Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. On behalf of Sweden, the exhibition was attended by Dr Afzal Sher and Magnus Lundsten from SPIDER, Klas Grönqvist from LEKAB Communication Systems, a private company with expertise in business communication and unified messaging sms gateway and Rustam Nabiev from Karolinska Institutet.
The exhibition was visited by a large number of the summit participants. Some heads of the states also visited the exhibition, but they primarily went to the booths of their respective countries. At the exhibition, SPIDER presented its activities to the visitors and provided those interested with printed information material about SPIDER. LEKAB had a slide show and explained how the unified messaging system could be used in the context of Africa. Amongst many other dignitaries, the Minister for Science and Technology of the Republic of Mozambique, Dr Venancio Masingue visited the Swedish booth and held discussion with SPIDER and LEKAB on implementation of a pilot of the unified messaging system for flood relie
On 4th Feb, as a post-event the “Euro-Africa Cooperation Forum on ICT Research” organized a one-day conference on Learning and Reflecting on ICT Collaborative Research and Development - Projecting the Future of ICT Research in Africa. There were more than 250 participants from 44 countries representing African and European organizations for an interactive and a participative conference. (The list of attendees can be found at http://www.euroafrica-ict.org/forum2_attendees.php). In the session on ICT for Education, Dr Afzal Sher made a presentation on the advantages on technology enhanced learning including e-learning with specific examples from SPIDER supported projects. (see http://www.euroafrica-ict.org/forum2.php for more details). Professor Björn Pehrsson from KTH presented the findings of the AfricaConnect Feasibility Study where the aim was to examine the viability of working with African NRENs & other stakeholders to establish a sustainable & expandable regional research network infrastructure in Africa.
The event was successful for highlighting the importance of ICT in development of Africa and the role that Sweden is playing in this area. SPIDER established a number of new contacts in Africa and a large number of ICT-related people from Africa became aware of SPIDER and its goals. The event also provided opportunities for discussing ICT4D issues with officials of the European Commission.
