انقلاب اطلاعات آفریقایی : ترازنامه

This paper provides a policy and institutional framework to describe and analyze the diffusion of information technology and the global information revolution (IR) in Sub-Saharan Africa and the major factors that influence this diffusion. We begin by examining regional diffusion and find substantial cross-national diffusion differences across the continent, with considerable variation in regional diffusion of telephone, internet, radio, and television. This pattern undermines technologic and economic explanations as sole determinants of variation in diffusion. Then we conduct an analysis of the IR in Sub-Saharan Africa based on a policy framework. This framework identifies four key policy balances (1. public and private initiatives, 2. monopoly and competition “markets”, 3. domestic and foreign ownership or control, and 4. centralized and de-centralized administrative controls) as important elements to a better understanding of the diffusion of the IR. We find that a necessary condition for an explanation of the diffusion of the IR is a policy and institutional framework that incorporates these four balances.

Africa, like all other regions of the developing world, stands on the doorstep of a global information revolution (IR) that presents a seeming cornucopia of opportunities. New technologies like the Internet and cellular telephones proliferate rapidly, as do traditional media like radio. In one country after another, the local press serves up lively commentaries and news reports about the latest trends in information and communications technology (ICT). Yet the speed of these changes, their breadth and their inherent complexities make it difficult to reach unambiguous conclusions about the extent and meaning of the IR for Africa. Is Africa where it should be in the IR? Is it ahead or behind where one might realistically expect, given its other conditions? How does Africa compare to other developing regions? Regrettably, there are very few available studies that provide a coherent overview of these critical ICT changes. Yet Africa's future growth and the well-being of its people will hinge in part on its capacity to make these new resources widely available. This essay provides an analytic framework to help us answer the following key questions: • What is the global IR? • How does Africa compare to other regions in the diffusion of ICTs? • Does the diffusion of the technologies vary by sub-region? • What are the major factors that explain these patterns of ICT diffusion in Africa?