Workshop “EC Support to Research and Education Networking in Southern and
Eastern Africa - Extending the reach of GÉANT”.
Brussels, 6 – 7 March 2006
1. Introduction
Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, and Venâncio
Massingue, Minister for Science and Technology of Mozambique, opened an important
workshop in support of the establishment of National Research and Education Networks
in Southern and Eastern Africa. The focus was on the deployment of a regional network in
this region (as proposed by the UbuntuNet Alliance) and its interconnection to GÉANT,
the European high-capacity and high-speed communications network for researchers.
The workshop was organised within the context of the European Union’s “New Strategy
for Africa”, emphasizing the role of ICT-based infrastructures in building the EU-Africa
partnership. The recent creation of the UbuntuNet Alliance is an important building block
for this strategy.
The workshop was attended by representatives from African and European countries and
from a number of international organisations. It was an opportunity to take stock of the
current achievements in the establishment of the UbuntuNet Alliance, and of the
associated Research Networks and International Programmes acting in Africa.
2. Summary of the conclusions and recommendations adopted
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There is an important momentum regarding the establishment of a Southern Eastern
Africa Regional Research and Education Network and its interconnection to GÉANT.
Such momentum needs to be sustained and the cooperation between the UbuntuNet
Alliance and the EC, involving African Government and relevant continental and
regional African organisations, within the context of the “EU Strategy for Africa”, will
be key. The current window of opportunity creates prospects to move faster and to
concentrate on reaching tangible results.
The relevance of this Regional Network would benefit from a better definition of its
scope, role and ambitions. The UbuntuNet Alliance undertook to carry this work.
GÉANT and other International Programmes will support this process.
The consolidation of this Regional Research and Education Network and its linkage to
GÉANT, facilitating multi-domain cooperation on areas of high societal impact in
both continents, is recommended to be considered as a strategic goal of a reinforced
EU-Africa partnership
In this context, African participants agreed to contact their Government officials to
identify the opportunities offered by the 10th European Development Fund to support
research networking initiatives, in order to inform the preparation of the relevant
National Indicative Programmes (NIP) and Regional Indicative Programmes (RIP).
The launching of a feasibility study during summer 2006 is considered very important.
UbuntuNet Alliance partners expressed interest in actively participating in such study.
A broader process of helping African NRENs to establish or consolidate themselves
and to share and adopt best practices needs to take place. The UbuntuNet Alliance
with the help of other funds and international programmes will undertake initiatives to
support these objectives by means of training seminars and targeted events.
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A deep involvement of users in the preparatory phases will be key for the success of
the deployment of this Southern and Eastern Africa Regional Research and Education
Network and its interconnection with GÉANT. Users and user communities should be
drivers in the identification of requirements to be satisfied by the UbuntuNet Alliance.
The on-line access to important repositories of information was considered as one of
the drivers for the initiative. International organisations and programmes have
available a wealth of information (including publications), which would be more
easily accessible to African users as soon as a good interconnection to GÉANT is
made available.
3. Concluding Remarks
The current discussion, taking place amongst Directors of NRENs and funding authorities,
need to be expanded to include senior African Government officials in all the partner
countries. A meeting for this purpose was convened to take place in Pretoria, within the
margins of the IST Africa Conference and the preceding e-Infrastructure Workshop, to be
held from 2 to 5 May 2006.