LINK Centre Annual Report 2001 1   Executive Summary 2   Advisory Board 3   Staff 4   Courses 5   Customised training 6   Executive workshops 7   Consultancy 8   Projects 9   Research and Journal 10  Publications 11  Conferences 12  Further Studies and Qualifications 13  Public Processes and Appointments 14  Budget and Finance LINK Centre Annual Report 2000 LINK Centre Annual Report 1999

The centre is one of the few in the world to offer professional development programmes in the telecommunications regulatory area.

During 2001, the LINK Centre, based at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management (P&DM), consolidated the gains made over the previous four years. Through its training, research and consultancy it extended its contribution to policy, regulatory and management capacity in the areas of information and communications technologies in the Southern Africa region.

The Centre is one of the few in the world to offer professional development programmes in the telecommunications regulatory area and has offered courses to regulators across the SADC region, building skills transfer relationships with the Universities of Dar Es Salaam, Eduardo Mondlane and Abuja. Further, LINK is a founder member of an initiative of the SADC Telecommunication Regulators Association of Southern Africa (TRASA) to establish a regional training and research network.

With the addition of the Certificate in E-Government to its curriculum, the Centre has developed four flagship certificates in which more than 578 students have been trained. It also runs an executive seminar series, which culminated in a high-level international course for regulators last year, which LINK offered in partnership with the Danish-Dutch regulatory collaborative LIRNE.Net.

This was followed by the delivery to TRASA of a Wits accredited training programme which LINK developed with the support of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) and International Telecommunications Union. The presentation of the Certificate course was also the culmination of an Australian Government supported Training of Trainers programme, in which LINK worked with four African universities to develop telecommunications regulatory training capacity. They were the Universities of Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique, Fort Hare in South Africa, the Lesotho Institute for Public Administration and Management and subsequently the Universities of Abuja and Nigeria.

The Centre expanded its offerings in the ICT stream on the Graduate School Masters of Management, which includes an innovative online elective on "Globalisation and the Information Society" with participation from students at the Universities of Michigan, American in Washington, Fort Hare and P&DM. This is conducted synchronously using voice over the Internet together with the use of PowerPoint presentations, chatrooms and near real time lecturer and student interaction.

In the area of information and knowledge management, the Centre has been responsible for customising training for the state agency responsible for public sector training, SAMDI, as part of a major training drive at provincial government level.

The Centre continued to support the Information Literacy Training Project (Infolit) it initiated in 1999, which now has a network of 29 centres and has trained over 3 000 participants. In particular, the Centre provides a quality assurance service to the project in terms of the University accreditation requirements.

The LINK Centre has established itself as the first port of call for research for multilateral organisations and international development agencies seeking ICT case studies or project evaluations. It has been commissioned by the ITU and CTO, the Canadian International Development and Research Centre (IDRC) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to work on projects from multimedia broadband to community access.

The Centre is also a consultant to various government agencies in the ICT sector and has participated in several public processes. In 2001 the Centre assisted the national broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) with its review of local content requirements for radio and television. Peter Benjamin was appointed to the group established by the Department of Communications to review the Universal Service Agency and its work over its first five years of existence. The Centre director, Alison Gillwald, was appointed the chairperson of the national Digital Broadcasting Advisory Body, established to advise the Minister of Communications. She also serves on the African Ministers' Advisory Group. The Centre also participated in the public processes that informed the new telecommunications legislation and electronic communications bill.

The LINK Centre has established itself as the first port of call for research for multilateral organisations and international development agencies seeking ICT case studies or project evaluations.

In addition to a strenuous teaching and consulting programme, the Centre managed to produce a second issue of the Southern African Journal of Information and Communication, which among the high level of contributions from all over the globe, included papers by two LINK staffers. However, the Centre has been concerned by the lack of rigorous and independent research both within the sector and more specifically at the Centre. With the founding and establishment phase - supported with R2million funding from the Vodacom Foundation over three years - ending at the end of 2001, the Centre embarked on a strategic planning exercise to assess its needs for its next phase of development. While the Centre is committed to consolidating the training and consultancy gains made over the last few years, it identified the need for a well-structured research programme in order to meet the national need for policy and regulatory research on the deployment of the ICTs in the public sector. With the support of the Director General of Communications, the Centre has received support from multiple funders to launch such a programme in 2002. This will be complemented with the establishment of the Vodacom Honorary Professorship, the first incumbent of which will be distinguished international professor, William Melody.

A high profile Advisory Board continues to provide the Centre with advice and guidance. Members include information strategy and management consultant Ms Lucienne Abrahams, Mr Mandla Langa, chairperson of ICASA, Mr Andile Ngcaba, Director General of Communications, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Wits, Prof Leila Patel; Mr Joe Tsotetsi of Motswedi Technologies and Mr Mthobi Tyamzashe of the Vodacom Foundation. With LINK's increasing relations with African countries, long time African telecommunications advisor and secretariat-head to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities of South Africa, Mr Simon Moshiro, was welcomed on to the board.

Two full-time academic staff, including the Director, Alison Gillwald and senior lecturer, Gordon Oyomno, staffed the Centre last year. A third full-time staff member, Charley Lewis, joined the Centre in August bringing to the Centre several years of experience in the ICT sector and labour movement. Peter Benjamin who had been on study leave since 1999 completed his PhD through Arlbourg University in Denmark and returned to the Centre full-time towards the end of the year. The Centre employed three administrative staff including the Infolit Project Co-ordinator, Leonorah Khanyile, Ntomboxolo Currie and Boitumelo Molefe. A number of high-level LINK associates were also drawn in for training and consulting purposes.

Despite the evident need for growing human and intellectual capacity for the development of policy and management of ICTs, the demand for training from the public sector has been disconcertingly low. While middle managers appear to appreciate the need for training, senior decision-makers and human resource managers appear not to in many cases. Public sector training budgets appear be too low to embark on any substantial training on the one hand, and yet it is regularly reported that training budgets are underspent. The courses that are well or oversubscribed tend to be courses for the telecommunications sector, where competing companies seem to appreciate the need for regulatory training and the regulator has committed itself to training to keep up with changes in the industry it regulates.

The financial implication of this concerning trend is that the Centre is not sustainable on the basis of the formal training programme alone and training currently needs to be cross subsidised by other activities.

Customised training continues to provide a significant revenue stream and last year the Centre completed the development of an information and knowledge management course for the South African Management Development Institute, SAMDI that will be delivered to staff of the nine provincial governments. The Centre also commenced delivery of a customised training programme for the Free State Department of Housing and Local Government as part of the province's commitment to build a smart province. Participants in the course included senior managers from various Free State municipalities.

The Centre was contracted to develop curricula for four regulatory courses as part of a partnership between the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation and the International Telecommunications. These were:

• Introduction to Regulation



• Interconnection



• Licensing



• Universal Service

The Centre successfully developed these courses and a course on Internet Policy in collaboration with LINK associates, Ant Brooks, Anriette Esterhysen and Lisa Thornton. The four modules were piloted by the CTO and ITU through presentation of a three week certificate course for the Telecommunication Regulators Association of Southern Africa (TRASA), but also included non-SADC countries Ghana and Nigeria.

The Centre was able to secure the time and expertise of Professor William Melody to provide a two-day seminar for the new Council of the merged telecommunications and broadcasting regulator, ICASA, on some of the most pressing issues facing them. So successful was this induction seminar that several councillors and senior management attended a week-long executive course on Telecom Reform: Regulatory Strategies for Effective Policy Implementation conducted by LIRNE. Net a collaboration between the technical universities of Denmark and Delft (Netherlands) run by Professors Melody and Rohan Samarajiva, and attended by senior operators and regulators from the region, including Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Prof Samarajiva was also the international lecturer on the Telecommunication Policy Regulation and Management certificate course and in addition ran an extremely timely and exciting executive course on Alternative Dispute Resolution.

A substantial portion of the LINK revenues in 2001 came from consulting. Mostly this takes the form of research consulting but it has also included technical assistance to the regulator. In 2001 the Centre assisted ICASA with their review of local content regulations for the broadcasting industry.

A South African case study on the policy and regulatory implications of broadband was conducted for the International Telecommunications Union (http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/casestudies/#broadband). The Centre contributed to an international internet costing study sponsored by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through the development of a South African case study (www.antelope.org.uk ) in partnership with Mike Jensen Consulting.

The Centre has published the second issue of its journal - The Southern African Journal of Information and Communication - the only local academic journal focusing specifically on the area of ICT policy and regulation.

As the Centre is entirely self-funded, the time of its staff is largely consumed in income-generating activities such as training and consultancy, leaving insufficient time for the level of research generally conducted by tenured university academics. In the time available, the Centre has published the second issue of its journal - The Southern African Journal of Information and Communication - the only local academic journal focusing specifically on the area of ICT policy and regulation.

This has been possible through the continued support of the international editorial board. Those generously giving of their time and intellect include: Luci Abrahams (SA), Sandra Brahman (US), Polly Gastor (Mozambique), Heather Hudson (US), Richard Joseph (Australia), Emmanuel OleKambanei (Tanzania), Ellison Kahn (SA), Tim Kelly (ITU), Robyn Mansell (UK), Bill Melody (Holland), Jonathan Miller (SA), Muriuki Mureithi (Kenya) and Joseph Opaku (US).

The journal again showcases some of the research conducted by academics in the Centre but also includes contributions by a number of local and international ICT practitioners. While the eminent international advisory board maintain the highest academic standard in the refereeing of articles, the intention of the journal is also to provide decision-makers with practical and informed insights and analysis on topical issues. The last issue covered matters ranging from a comparative analysis of e-commerce in three African countries to a legal consideration of privacy and surveillance issues to an institutional analysis of regulatory structures to a review of universal service and next generation networks.

While the Centre is proud of the initial inroads it has made into the research area, the lack of independent, primary research feeding into the ICT policy and regulatory processes is an area of concern. Unlike other parts of the world committed to participatory policy formulation processes, in South Africa there are no independent agencies contributing to these processes in the broader public interest on the basis of rigorous applied research.

To fill the strategic gap that exists both within the Centre and nationally, the Centre will establish a dedicated ICT policy and regulatory research programme to generate the information and analysis needed for formulating appropriate but visionary policy and for effective regulation of the sector. The multiple-funded programme will respond to the research needs of the sector by tracking developments within the sector and anticipating forthcoming policy and regulatory issues.

To fill the strategic gap that exists both within the Centre and nationally, the Centre will establish a dedicated ICT policy and regulatory research programme to generate the information and analysis needed for formulating appropriate but visionary policy and for effective regulation of the sector.

Benjamin, P (2002) Reviewing Universal Access in South Africa, Southern African Journal of Information and Communication, Link Centre, P&DM, Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg.

Gillwald, A (2002) Experimenting with Institutional Arrangements for Communications Policy and Regulation: The case of telecommunications and broadcasting in South Africa, Southern African Journal of Information and Communication, Link Centre, P&DM, Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg.

Cohen, T (LINK), Gillwald, A (LINK), Mlazi, M (LINK), Oyomno, G (LINK), Tselanyane, J (LINK) contributing authors in James T (Ed) (2002) An Information Policy Handbook for Southern Africa, IDRC, Ottawa. Other contributors: Neil Butcher, Daniel Espitia, Anriette Esterhysen, Jonathan Miller, Yokow Quansah, Claire Sibthorpe, Leo Van Audenhove, Kate Wild.

• Both Peter Benjamin and Alison Gillwald delivered papers at the ITU Africa Telecom 2001 – Bridging the Digital Divide held in Johannesburg in November. These are available on http://www.itu.int/AFRICA2001/index.html



• Alison Gillwald delivered a session at the course on International Regulatory Reform presented by LIRNE.Net in Denmark last year on "Institutional Experimentation and Convergence Regulation" as part of a partnership programme with LIRNE. Net.



• Alison Gillwald presented the "South African Case Study" that the Centre was commissioned to prepare for the Broadband Workshop of the ITU Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU) at the ITU in Geneva in May 2001.



• Alison Gillwald addressed the Broadcasting Africa conference held in Midrand on the "Challenges and Opportunities of Digital Broadcasting for a Developing Country".



• Gordon Oyomno attended the E-Government ll Conference (marcus evans conferences) held in Somerset West in August.



• Peter Benjamin, Charley Lewis and Gordon Oyomno participated in and presented papers at the Open Society Initiative South Africa (OSISA) Conference Damn the Digital Divide held in Johannesburg in November. Papers included "Electronic Governance: concepts, opportunities & challenges (Gordon Oyomno), "Experience from South African Telecentres" (Peter Benjamin) and "Striking back: Unions and the Digital Divide" (Charley Lewis). The papers are published in the Damn the Digital Divide conference newsletter.

Peter Benjamin completed his PhD after three years of study through Aalborg University in Denmark. His thesis is entitled "Universal Capability: A study of the telecentre programme of the Universal Service Agency, South Africa 1996 – 2000'. This was successfully defended in September 2001 and the doctorate awarded.

Gordon Oyomno attended the course "Communications Networking Infrastructure" at the WFI Academy in Sweden from 26th February to 31st March.

Alison Gillwald was appointed by the Minister of Communications to chair the national Digital Broadcasting Advisory Body, established to advise the minister on the introduction of digital radio and digital terrestrial television. The body, consisting of experts from the broadcasting industry, is required to make its recommendations to the Minister in 2002.

As a member of the African Ministers' Advisory Body, Alison has also had the privilege of contributing to continental developments in the area of telecommunications.