Wednesday, September 14 2011

The ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Digital Development and representatives of governments, private sector and civil society met have met in Rwanda’s capital Kigali to focus on challenges, priorities and strategies that can help get the African continent wired to high-speed networks.

The meeting focused on the role of youth in defining new ICT services and driving take-up. Rwanda has an exceptionally young population, with 42% of people under the age of 15.

Two high-level roundtable debates looked at the policies needed to help ensure African youth gain access to online services such as education, healthcare, and considered how government and industry can support strategies to encourage youth entrepreneurship.

At the opening of the Youth session, participants were told that broadband is the single most powerful tool available to accelerate progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and to drive social and economic development.

Although broadband prices are falling much of Africa remains unconnected. Figures released by ITU earlier this year show that worldwide, on average, consumers are paying 50% less for high-speed Internet connections than they were two years ago. However, this fall is mainly due to price decreases in developing countries, with steep declines often reflecting the extremely high cost of broadband in the developing world.

Africa still has relatively high prices. Fixed broadband Internet access in particular remains prohibitively expensive. By 2010, only one out of nine people in Africa had access to the Internet, and fixed broadband penetration was just 0.2% – compared to 24% in Europe and 26% in the USA.

Paul Budde is a special adviser to the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Digital Development