The integration of ICT into teaching, learning, research, information dissemination and management activities has been a priority issue in African higher education for many years. Among the many initiatives in this regard, the AAU initiated an ICT project in 2001 under the title, “Study on the Use and Application of Information and Communication Technologies in Higher Education Institutions in Africa” , with the limited objective of creating a toolkit for the institutional self-assessment of ICT maturity. The report on this study and the guidelines developed out of it have been disseminated to AAU member institutions and downloadable from our website.

Under its Strategic Plan 2003-10, the AAU is establishing a role as coordinator of the many ICT initiatives currently underway. This follows a very strong mandate issued by the 11th General Conference of the AAU held in Cape Town, South Africa, in February 2005. Matters were taken a step further at the 3rd International Workshop on Open Access which was sponsored by the Swedish International Cooperation Agency, the International Development Research Centre and the United Nations' ICT Task Force, in Maputo, Mozambique in May 2005, when participants as well as donor agencies active in ICT initiatives in Africa agreed on the need for coordination and the role of the AAU at the continental level.

In further consultations, the AAU undertook to convene a parallel session at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) scheduled for Tunis, Tunisia, from the 16th to 18th November 2005. The session, which is planned for 14th November 2005, will be sponsored by the World Bank, the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, OSISA and IDRC. The meeting is expected to bring together about 100-150 people who are the key players in the field to deliberate on a fairly open agenda. In advance of the meeting, the AAU, with support from the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, has commissioned a consultancy report on the development of a coordinated bandwidth consortium, with the longer term aim of networked learning, research and community outreach. The report would form the basis for a policy and master plan covering arrangements and support at the institutional, national, sub-regional and continental levels. The development of the plan will involve substantial consultation, including an e-forum, organized among key stakeholders, to canvass opinion and general comment on the plan. The plan, thus developed, would form the substance of discussion of all aspects of the issues during the parallel session in Tunis.

It is proposed to divide the session into four sections relating to the different levels of university networking, namely,

• Campus level networks - Presentations at this level could include projects that focus on supporting campus-level infrastructure, bandwidth management, surveys of university-level access, etc.;
• National Research and Educational Networks that are emerging on the continent;
• Sub-Regional Initiatives such as the Southern Africa Regional Universities Association (SARUA) and the emerging VSAT consortium managed by the AVU with sponsorship from the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa; and
• A Continental Vision for African Research and Education Networking – envisaged as one of the main outcomes of the event.

An important feature of the session will be a roundtable with development partners, at which major commitments to the plan will be firmed up. This can be expected to lead, not only to a refinement and operationalisation of the plan, but also to buy-in by major stakeholders and commitment of support by development partners. The end-result will be that, to the extent feasible, all of the major players – higher education and research institutions, national and sub-regional networks, and donor agencies – will, in the future, be pulling in the same direction.