This is according to an official who was part of a three-member delegation from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to the country last week. The delegation was on a visit to assess the country's state of ICTs.
Hopestone Kayiska Chavula, the delegation's team leader, made a presentation to reporters and Joel Kaapanda the Minister of Information and Communication Technology about the delegation's findings.
According to him few stakeholders play an active role in the ICT policy development and implementation process, adding that there is limited coordination at national level notwitstanding the existence of ICT policy documents and initiatives.
"Most organisations visited are at the early stage of their establishment," he said.
New Era recently reported that Namibia is one of the worst performing countries when it comes to the usage of new ICTs. Namibia has been described as a country where the usage of ICTs is low and expensive.
The country also lacks an innovative environment to fully exploit the potential of ICTs, while government usage of technology has been described as appalling. Chavula's report states that there is low human capacity development for the ICT sector.
He added that there is also a lack of ICT awareness with regard its potential in development in some government departments. He added that there is a lack of mechanisms for data collection and statistics to inform policy formulation and implementation processes.
Chavula said raising awareness about the role of ICTs in development, as well as the availability of relevant, timely and internationally comparable ICT statistics are some of the main challenges.
Nevertheless, "you have the infrastructure and that is the starting point," said Chavula. Kaapanda said the reason for the visit of the delegation is the result of contacts "we made with this body during international meetings".
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Alvine Kapitako
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 24.04.2012
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