The Bureau of the STC on Communication and ICT held a meeting by video conference on 05 May 2020 at the invitation of H.E Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy at the African Union Commission.

The main objective of this meeting was to discuss urgent actions to support the continental strategy on the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to implement the recommendations of the AU Heads of State and Government held on 3rd April 2020. In this regard, the meeting considered recommendations and adopted an action plan, as the ICT and Communication sector’s response to the pandemic.
Dr. Abou-Zeid highlighted the urgency to deliberate and adopt a response to the crisis in order to mitigate the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Africans in all walks of life.
H.E. Dr. Abou-Zeid emphasized that it is necessary to strengthen and expand the digital infrastructure in Africa to deal with the large increase in demand for information technology, and ensure that digital services are running safely and are provided quickly to everyone in Africa.

The Commissioner also pointed out that the crisis of COVID-19 has become the biggest catalyst for large scale digital transformation in Africa, as electronic services have now become more essential for relations between the government and citizens.

The African Union Commissioner thanked African Information Ministers and all workers in the sector as well as telecommunications companies and digital applications for the great effort, procedures and exceptional services that were made available in light of this great challenge. Give a few examples

Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid called on all African states to take advantage of the current valuable opportunity to accelerate the process of digital transformation on the continent and allow rapid economic recovery and resilience by building a new reality based on technology and digitization.

She also stressed the importance of paying attention to issues related to the protection and security of information on the Internet, especially the protection of children through their use of modern technologies.

The STC Bureau Chair, H.E. Dr. Amr S. Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology of the Arab Republic of Egypt applauded the efforts by African countries and the African Union Commission to promote digital solutions and services and for the work done by the African Union Commission towards the adoption of the Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa 2020-2030 by the Heads of State and Government in February of this year.

The Honourable Minister stressed the importance of utilizing the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), particularly artificial intelligence (AI) in providing applications to address the crisis, through coordination with the African Union's AI Working Group, which was formed by a decision of the Ministerial Meeting of the Specialized Technical Committee for Communications and Information Technology, with the aim of formulating a unified African position on artificial intelligence through the guidance of Egypt's proposal in this regard.

Minister Talaat further underscored that the current crisis reflects the importance of formulating national strategies to build a digital society that will serve as the backbone of development, noting the importance of having a strong information and communication technology infrastructure to enable citizens to access all basic services while taking into account social divergence.

On their final declaration, the Honourable Ministers called upon “All multilateral financial institutions and partners, including the African Development Bank (AfDB), the World Bank and others to support rapid implementation of the Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (DTS) and contribute to the AU Digital Fund”.

Notes to the Editor

The Specialized Technical Committees (STCs), which constitute an important technical organ of the African Union (AU), were established under Article 25 of the African Economic Community Treaty (the Abuja Treaty). With the transformation of the OAU into the AU, the STCs were carried over by the Constitutive Act of the African Union under Articles 14 to 16.

Following AU Assembly referenced Assembly/AU/Dec.227 (XII) reconfiguring the existing STCs the STC on Communication and Information Technologies called Committee on Communication and ICT (CCICT) has been established as one the fourteen committees set up to work in close collaboration with the various departments of the Commission (AUC) so as to provide well-informed inputs in their areas of specialization to the work of the Executive Council. It’s also expected the Committee be involved in monitoring programme development and implementation by the AUC and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on behalf of the Executive Council.

The first and second ordinary sessions of the Committee took place in September 2015 and November 2017, respectively. In line with the provisions of the adopted Rules of Procedure that the STC should be organized every two years, the third ordinary session took place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, from 22nd to 26th October 2019.

The STC on CCICT gather Ministers in charge of Communications and Information Technologies and Ministers in charge of Information and broadcasting, senior officials, private sector and media from AU Member States in addition to participants from:
i. Regional Economic Communities (RECs).
ii. AU Specialized Institutions (African telecommunications Union-ATU, Pan African Postal Union-PAPU).
iii. African Development Bank (AfDB).
iv. Smart Africa.
v. UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
vi. African and International Specialized Organizations and partners (ITU, UPU, European Union).
vii. African Media Organizations and Houses (Federation of African Journalists-FAJ, African Editors Forum-TAEF, International Federation of Journalists-IFJ, African Media Initiative-AMI).
viii. Private sector, academia and NGO.

The current members of the bureau of the STC on CCICT are as follows:
- Chair: Egypt- Northern Africa;
- 1st Vice Chair: Burundi- Central Africa;
- 2nd Vice Chair: Malawi- Southern Africa;
- 3rd Vice Chair: Sierra Leone- Western Africa;
- Rapporteur: Djibouti- Eastern Africa.

For further media inquiries, please contact:
1. Ms. Esther Azaa Tankou | Head of Information Division | Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission | Tel: +251911361185 | E-mail: yamboue@africa-union.org |
2. Mr. Gamal Ahmed A. Karrar | Senior Communication Officer| Directorate of Information and Communication, African Union Commission | E-mail: GamalK@africa-union.org