Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) legislators have recommended the establishment of a Parliamentary Forum ICT policy and strategy to guide the development and adoption of ICT at the regional level. The development, widely seen as a move to harness and promote effective use of ICT in the legislative assemblies was adopted following a three-day workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The workshop, attended by members and staff of parliaments from 12 SADC countries was aimed to discuss strategies of involving parliaments in building an inclusive information society in the region. The countries were; Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and the members of the provincial legislatures in South Africa.

Sponsored by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the Africa Capacity Building Foundation, SADC Secretariat, GIJIMA AST and the UNDP Regional Services Centre, the workshop was also attended by two MPs from the Ugandan legislature. The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) was one of the facilitators.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the workshop, the legislators emphasized the critical role of a dedicated structure within parliament to focus on strategizing ICT for development to accelerate the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “Parliaments can play an important role in the development of national and regional e-strategies in developing appropriate and supportive legislation and securing innovative financial mechanisms. We also note the important role of legislation and enforcement in electronic economic exchange,” read the communiqué.

Under the proposed strategy, the effective involvement of parliament inn e-strategy processes at national and regional levels will include advocating for the development of national e-strategies, promoting information exchange and organising thematic debate for a with ICT or related ministries. Other programmes will include organising capacity building and awareness raising workshops on different ICT issues and organising study missions in countries with best practices, initiating and enacting adequate legislation in the framework of e-strategies and initiating debates on e-strategy pillars within parliaments.

The strategy also proposes the promotion of e-democracy tools such as e-governance, creation and use of communication tools such as websites linking to other parliaments’ websites and participating in e-parliament initiative at sub-regional, continental and global levels. “Our vision is that of creating an e-parliament; through which we can promote partnership for ICT4D activities,” said B. H. Lijenda, Chairperson, Media and Communications Committee, Malawi parliament.

Participants also vowed to emulate Uganda’s initiative to create a fully-fledged ministry of ICT and an independent ICT committee within their parliaments. “Uganda has set the pace and I am returning to ask my government to do the same,” remarked a legislator from Botswana, following a presentation of the “Ugandan parliament’s experience” by ICT committee chairperson, Edward Baliddawa.

In two separate presentations, CIPESA highlighted the need for legislation and enforcement of copyright and other intellectual property rights (IPR) laws and full commitment to the NEPAD Broadband Infrastructure Network project.