The Commonwealth African Rural Connectivity Initiative (COMARCI) took another step towards achieving real and felt results in connecting the unconnected rural communities in Africa, when the 2-day in-country COMARCI workshop for Sierra Leone, hosted by the National Communications Commission of Sierra Leone, was launched in Makeni recently.
COMARCI was initiated in 2007 as a Pan-Commonwealth response to the perennial challenge of asymmetric connectivity that tends to marginalise rural areas. Having studied the status of Commonwealth Africa in terms of connectivity, policies, regulation and adoption of technology in the context of comparative policies and regulation of 5 countries; Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia and the US, together with innovative technologies and novel business models, the CTO issued the African Rural Connectivity Report in December 2008. Realising that to bring connectivity to marginalised communities require a more active role by stakeholders, the CTO is conducting a series of in-country workshops to facilitate the building of Public Private Peoples partnerships. The resulting partnerships are expected to bring new connectivity and new services to rural communities.
The workshop in Makeni is being attended by some 300 delegates representing all the ICT operators, some manufacturers, donors and importantly, the community representatives, who will examine and debate issues impacting rural connectivity. National Communications Commission is facilitating these consultations with the help of the CTO and will help to identify potential partnerships for nurturing. These partnerships will be anchored on local needs as community representatives will be involved in the process from an early stage.
Launching the workshop and declaring it officially open on behalf of the President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, the Minister of Presidential Affairs Hon Joseph Koroma read a welcome message by the President drawing the attention of delegates to the need to empower local people and communities through ICT connectivity by using Public Private Peoples partnerships.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop attended by several Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Parliamentarians, operators, civil society organisations and other stakeholders, the Hon Minister of Information and Communications, Mr I B Kargbo referred to the importance the Government of Sierra Leone attaches to ICTs. “Sierra Leone is the second country in the African Continent to have its President as the head of the ICT Council, after Rwanda. We understand and appreciate the role played by various stakeholders in improving ICT access and services in order to leverage the full potentials of ICTs for broader development goals. In that sense it is encouraging to note that COMARCI focus on not only the Public and Private sectors but has extended the engagement to the Peoples sector as well.”
Adding his words of encouragement, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah(photo), the Chief Executive Officer of the CTO said that “these COMARCI workshops are not an end in themselves. It is rather a means to an end, one that we all have been pursuing for a long time – connecting the unconnected rural communities so they can have access to knowledge. Our aim is not simply to connect all but to provide appropriate connectivity for all, without which the vast majority of the people of our member countries will not be able to benefit from the marvels of modern ICTs”.
Importantly the Makeni workshop has drawn attendance by a number of regulators of the region who are keen to observe the next phase of COMARCI at work with a view to replicating this successful model in their countries including representatives of regulators of Gambia, Ghana and the West African Regulatory Assembly (WATRA) are also in attendance.
The National Communications Commission under the able guidance of the Chairman Mr Siray Timbo has been able to gather a large number of key stakeholders to ensure that the outcomes of the workshop form the basis of successful implementation of rural connectivity projects. The heavy presence of civil society representatives and the traditional chiefs of Sierra Leone was a striking feature of the workshop and bodes well for the activities beyond-Makeni. Other community –based organisations represented agricultural cooperations, health service workers, teacher unions, mining and forestry societies, and women’s associations.
COMARCI’s Public Private Peoples partnership (PPPP) model is structured on a risk and reward sharing business platform involving multiple partners. It is founded on the understanding that when rural-based organisations take interest in co-owning and co-managing ICT infrastructure it helps to mobilise additional investments for the stakeholders. Such PPPP based ICT investments become also more sustainable as they involve cost recovery, revenue generation and beneficiaries as co-managers.
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