Delegates representing various ICT companies and governments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) converged here for the Pan African ICT in Government Summit from Monday to Wednesday.
The three-day event was organised by ForgeAhead, an ICT research and consulting company based in Johannesburg.
The aim of the summit was to explore ways of making government services more accessible to the people through technology.
Public sector delegates included representatives from the governments of South Africa, Mozambique, Burundi, Swaziland, Botswana, Kenya and Uganda.
The private sector was also represented by the telecommunications company Telkom, Microsoft, Fujitsu, IBM and McAfee, among others.
Pronouncing the declaration that emerged from the summit, North West Government Information and Technology Officer, Mmamathe Makhekhe Mokhuane reiterated that ICTs were instrumental in the alleviation of poverty.
All participants agreed to foster collaboration with and among governments in the region.
They acknowledged that ICTs were also important in the dissemination of information about diseases such as HIV and AIDS in a bid to ensure healthy societies.
"We shall pay particular attention to the special needs of the marginalised and vulnerable groups in all societies," reads the declaration.
In terms of capacity building, the stakeholders said that each person should have the opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge in order to understand and benefit from the use of ICTs.
They also pledged their support for international co-operation initiatives in e-government.
Speaking to BuaNews after the summit, the Managing Director for ForgeAhead, Jane Mosebi said the declaration took into account the needs of ordinary people in the region.
She said this was important because the citizens expected to access government services conveniently.
According to Ms Mosebi, there are 25 million cellphone users in South Africa.
For example, South Africans can now check progress on Identity Documents (ID) and passport applications via short message service (SMS).
This could be done by sending an SMS with the letters ID, a space, and then their ID number to 32551 at a cost of R1.
Ms Mosebi said the government had realised this development and was introducing means for cellphone users to access its services more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Another dimension of e-government that could help grow the economy in the region during the 2010 Fifa World Cup was e-tourism.
Ms Mosebi said the summit served as a platform for different countries to share knowledge on how to make their tourism products available through technology to tourists.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Thapelo Sakoana
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica , 10.05.2007
