INASP Links & Resources
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT: 
Internet access and ICT infrastructure in developing countries

Africa on the Internet. Starting Points for Policy Information
Useful background paper (lasted updated June 1997), designed as a quick-start for anyone interested in Africa who is seeking policy-related information via electronic networks. http://www.africapolicy.org/bp/inetall.html

African Full Internet and Email Service Providers
A comprehensive inventory, as an eight page table in landscape format, of full ISPs and Email service providers in Africa (as at May 1997), with full contact information, Email addresses, and URLs. http://demiurge.wn.apc.org/africa/afisplst.htm

African Internet Connectivity Project
A forum to promote Internet connectivity in Africa, and to facilitate the use of the Internet by African scholars. Activities include organization of a major annual conference, training and support for personnel at various African universities, and various partnership projects. The site - under the auspices of H-Net and the African Studies Center at Michigan State University - includes a number of links to connectivity resources in Africa. http://www.matrix.msu.edu/connect/

African Internet Society-African Network Symposium
The papers from a 1997 symposium organized by the African Internet Society. http://www.isoc.org.gh/ans97/ansintro.htm

African Internet Status May 2001
A further update of Mike Jensen's authoritative, ongoing monitoring of the state of Internet access and connectivity in Africa, reporting about the growth of hosts, number of Internet users, ISPs, access costs, international bandwidth, and more. Particularly interesting is the accompanying 'Map and Tables' section (at http://www3.sn.apc.org/africa/afrmain.htm), which presents a range of tables, clickable maps, bar graphs, and pie charts, as well as a continent-wide status summary of Internet connectivity on the continent. http://www3.sn.apc.org/africa/afstat.htm

Asia Web Watch: A Register of Statistical Data
Maintained by T. Matthew Ciolek, this is an inventory of statistical data on Internet use in Asia, together with six papers analysing scholarly uses of the Internet, reviewing the role of the WWW in Asia, and setting out possible strategies for Southeast Asian scholarly networks. http://www.ciolek.com/Asia-Web-Watch/main-page.html

Association for Progressive Communications (APC/IGC)
A global computer communications and information network dedicated to serving NGOs and citizen activists working for social and environmental change. With links to partner organizations and other networks in Africa, Asia, Central and Latin America. http://www.igc.apc.org/

The Bellanet Initiative - Global Development Connections
The Bellanet initiative works with the development community to use ICTs more effectively to broaden collaboration, increase participation, and transparency of action of facilitate the diffusion of lessons learned. http://www.bellanet.org/

Bridging the Gap? Internet and E-mail Access with Universities in Developing Commonwealth Countries Commissioned by the Commonwealth Higher Education Management Service (CHEMS) this surveys sets out to discover the extent to which E-mail and Internet access is available within universities in developing countries in the Commonwealth, who accesses these tools within each institution, the problems and realities of access, etc. http://www.acu.ac.uk/chems/onlinepublications/952599435.pdf

Bytes for All
Voluntary organization that aims to make computing relevant to the people of South Asia, providing insights and reports about the development of the Internet in developing countries. Also offers an electronic mailing list service. http://www.bytesforall.org/

Global Connectivity for Africa
Report and background materials of an UNECA hosted conference held in Addis Ababa, 2-4 June, 1998. http://www.un.org/Depts/eca/globalc/index.htm 

I ConnecT Online
iConnect is described as a "jumping off point" for information on the application of knowledge and ICTs in sustainable development. It links resources and expertise, and encourages collaboration. Contents is drawn from many places and partners, and is organized under four sections: (1) Sectors: applying knowledge to development challenges; (2) Countries: national and local initiatives and communities; (3) Themes: tools and resources on knowledge and ICTs; and (4) Partners: organizations sharing ideas on ICTs in development. There is also an online discussion forum. 
http://www.iconnect-online.org/ 

The Internet and Poverty: Real help or real hype?
An interesting and comprehensive Panos briefing paper, by James Deane, on the Internet in the developing world, reviewing current constraints to Internet growth. http://www.panos.org.uk/resources/reportdownload.asp?type=report&id=1049  

Internet en America Latina y el Caribe
Hosted by UNESCO, and developed by the Researchers Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology in Columbia (ACASTC), this initiative aims to promote new communication technologies in the education sector in Latin America. http://www.apc.org/espanol/rights/lac

Internet Connectivity for Universities and Research Institutions
As part of Swedish Sida/SAREC's support programmes to introduce IT in development cooperation, and to assist universities and research institutions to get access to the Internet, this site reports about current progress of a number of Sida-supported IT projects in Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam. http://www.sida.se/Sida/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=535&a=5531  

Old Wine in New Wine Bottle: The Internet and the Techolonization of Africa (by Bosah Ebo)
An interesting article - albeit presenting a somewhat pessimistic view of the prospects of the Internet in Africa - which appears in the February 2002 issue of Mots Pluriels. The author concedes that digital communication technology has enormous potential to create sustainable national development for the countries in the South, but while the potential of the Internet shows exciting promise "the characteristics and tendencies of the technology as they have manifested tell a different story", and that the Internet relies on technology that is much less accessible and much more expensive in Africa and other parts of the developing world than in the industrialized countries. The author is wary of some of the hype surrounding the Internet and its rapid growth, warns about the danger of "cyberimperialism", and questions whether "Western corporations are digitizing Africa to bring the continent into the new global economy or to create more markets for Western products and services." He states that "we must technologically empower Africa and other parts of the developing world", but that "it is equally imperative that all initiatives to digitise Africa be needs-defined and needs-driven in order to incorporate indigenous considerations."  http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/MotsPluriels/MP2002be.html 

New Scenarios on Africa, African Studies and the Internet (by Peter Limb)
An article from the August 2001 issue of Mots Pluriels. Taking into account recent trends in publishing, new technologies, and developments in scholarly communication, the author reviews the many and diverse problems facing African scholars seeking to publish or communicate. It looks at the current state of Internet connectivity in Africa, and examines how people are seeking to harness new technologies in the face of severe material limitations and other constraints. The author concludes that, with the spread of the Internet, economic and cultural domination of Africa by the West and transnational corporations is likely to remain a problem, and will even intensify. However, "Africans are developing skills in employing electronic resources as tools in the educational and political spheres and it is thus also likely that they will forge new partnerships and strategies to endeavour to secure a measure of control over their own lives. Whether they succeed will depend largely on future ownership patterns of the Internet - but the danger of e-services becoming just another commodity in an unequal global trade is very real."
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/MotsPluriels/MP1801pl.html 

Nua.com
Published by Scope Communications Group in Dublin, Nua.com is a major online source for information on Internet demographics and trends. It provides links (all with short abstracts) to news items, reports, articles, surveys, and statistical data about Internet access and growth in all parts of the world, covering aspects such as Internet infrastructure, telecommunications networks - including their reform and liberalization in some countries - cost of access, availability of broadband connections, Internet user population, Web use, ecommerce, online trading, and more. Also offers a weekly newsletter.
http://www.nua.com/surveys/ 

US Internet Council—State of the Internet Report 2000
The latest version of this annual report provides data, analysis and trends on global Internet growth, including substantial information about trends and emerging Internet markets in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Rim. There are also sections on social trends, new technologies, and electronic business. http://www.itta.com/internet2000.htm 

This page was last updated on: 07 July 2003 © International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) 1998-2003.