Deputy Head of IT, Medical Research Council, Fajara, The Gambia, a research institution specializing in tropical medicine. Responsible for managing a WAN spanning 4 sites with over 500 users and providing support services.

Also, Member of the Program Committee for Africa Network Operators Group (AfNOG). AfNOG is a forum for the exchange of technical information, and aims to promote discussion of implementation issues that require community cooperation through coordination and cooperation among network service providers to ensure the stability of service to end users.AfNOG holds a technical workshop and its annual meeting at various venues around the African continent.

John Dyer is the Chief Technical Officer at TERENA, the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association. TERENA is a not-for-profit organisation which helps European NRENs work together to reach consensus on technical, political and managerial issues. He is responsible for managing the Technical Programme and the technical staff at the Secretariat.

He studied Physical Sciences at Oxford Polytechnic and undertook Bio-engineering research at the Department of Paediatrics at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. In 1986, he joined the Joint Network Team, the organisation responsible for developing and running the UK academic network known as JANET. He remained with the organisation when it became UKERNA in 1994, managing the development programme and the SuperJANET applications programme before being appointed Business Development Director.

John joined TERENA on a permanent basis in April 1999. His main interests are in on-line information discovery and management, security issues, optical networking technology and business aspects of technological innovation. He is working with others to promote the development of a global Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (AAI) based on the concepts of federations and confederations.

He successfully completed a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) during 2001.

Douglas Hull

Doug Hull is the President, Connectivity Partners International Inc., of Ottawa, Canada. CPI assists governments in the development and implementation of their ICT and connectivity strategies. For example, CPI has supported the Government of Jordan’s with the creation of its Connecting Jordanians program and the design of the Jordan Broadband Learning Network. CPI is presently focused on determining the feasibility of a Pan Arab University Research and Education Network and supporting the Government of Ethiopia in the planning and implementation of the ICT component of its public service capacity building program. Other projects involve Chile, Lebanon and Kuwait.

From 2001 to 2003, Mr. Hull was Senior Director, Public Access and Learning Networks, Canarie, Inc. In this capacity he was involved in promoting the development of broadband access for Canada’s education and health sectors and community networks. He also undertook international consulting assignments.

From 1992 to 2001 Mr. Hull, working as Director General of the Information Highways Branch of Industry Canada, successfully envisioned, designed and executed major elements of the Government of Canada’s Connectedness Strategy, which aimed to place Canada at the forefront of Internet access and usage. On completion of his work Canada had indeed moved from 7 th to 1 st place in terms of Internet penetration levels. In significant part this was due to innovative Internet programs including SchoolNet, LibraryNet, Computers for Schools, NetCorps, VolNet, the Community Access Program, the National Graduate Register, Digital Collections, Web4All, Campus Connections and the Smart Communities Initiative. These programs have won scores of awards in Canada and internationally and have been adopted in various countries. He has also played a formative role in guiding Canadian policies regarding e-commerce, multimedia content development and information technology skills training, particularly for youth. His efforts have helped all Canadians and their communities get connected through 20,000 schools and libraries, 9,000 public access points and 10,000 voluntary organizations.

Mr. Hull holds a B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of Western Ontario. In 1996, he received an Honourary Doctor of Science from Ryerson Polytechnic University. Open University granted him an Honourary Doctor of Laws in 2000. He is the recipient of five Government of Canada Merit Awards, the 1994 Federal Government Technology Leadership Gold Medal and the 1995 CATA Award of Distinction for Public Sector Leadership in Advanced Technology, the 1998 CANARIE Information Highway Award for Technology Applications, the 1999 Collegium of Work and Learning Tribute for Distinguished Service to Public Education in Canada, the 2000 Treasury Board Award of Excellence, the 2001 Canadian Library Association William C. Watkinson Award for Outstanding Service to Public Libraries, the 2001 IT Hero Award from the Information Technology Association of Canada and the 2001 Smart Community Leardership Award from the Smart Winnipeg Association.

Mr. Hull has been a member of advisory bodies surrounding the Information Highway, including the Government of Canada’s Health Information Highway Advisory Board, the Advisory Panel on On-line Learning and the Broadband Task Force. He is a Director on various boards.

Mr. Hull lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife Rose and children, Greg and Kate.

Mavis A. Ampah

Mavis is Sr. ICT Policy Specialist and joined the policy unit in 2003. She is the regional coordinator for the Sub-Saharan Africa Team of the Policy Group. Prior to joining the Bank, Mavis worked in South Africa for 2 years as Chief Executive of the African Connection Program. Mavis has a BA in Economics from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), and an MA from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Mrs. Asenath Mpatwa

In February 2001, I joined as a Coordinator for the Africa Unit in the Field Operations Department of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) at ITU where, among other duties, I am responsible for assisting Sub-Sahara African countries in solving a number of issues related to development and operation in the ICT/telecommunication sector. These range from policy and regulatory issues, training in various fields, network planning, resource mobilization, follow up of project implementation etc.

After University in 1975, I started as Project officer with a Development Bank in Tanzania and later joined the national operator, Tanzania Telecommunications Company, Ltd.(TTCL) for more than 20 years. I occupied several key positions as Chief Economist, Director of Business & Strategic Planning, Director of Privatization and Chief Executive Officer. Throughout this period, I was responsible for project planning, coordination of technical assistance, resource mobilization as well as overall coordination between the government and donors and monitoring project implementation among other project related activities.

I was closely involved in the liberalization of the telecommunications sector in Tanzania beginning with sector restructuring, liberalization which saw entry of five mobile operators, several data communication, and paging as well a number of ISP operators. I also played a leading role in the implementation of the Telecommunication Restructuring Project and the subsequent privatization of the incumbent operator, TTCL from 1997-2001.

Harry De Backer

Harry De Backer is responsible for New Technologies ICT, Science and Technology, Earth Observation, Space Technology] in the European Development Fund. The EDF is a 13.5BEUR fund that provides grants to various economic and social sectors such as education, transport, trade, health, etc.

In the EDF ICTs are being considered as a tool in support of other development priorities.

Presently, the EC is in the definition phase of an EU-Africa Partnership on Infrastructures which will mirror the demands formulated by the AUC/NEPAD.

ICTs are prominently figuring within this Partnership.

Silas Lwakabamba

Born in 1947 and educated in Tanzania, Professor Silas Lwakabamba had to go to the University of Leeds for his training in engineering as there was no engineering school in Tanzania. After graduating with a Bsc (1971) and PhD (1975) in Mechanical Engineering from Leeds, he returned to Tanzania to join the staff of the Faculty of Engineering, which had just started at the University of Dar es Salaam.

He progressed rapidly through the ranks to obtain professorship in 1981. He gained managerial experience along the way, becoming Head of Department, Associate Dean and eventually Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.

In 1985, Professor Lwakabamba joined the UN-sponsored African Regional Centre for Engineering Design Manufacturing (ARCEDEM), based in Nigeria, as a founding Director of Training and Extension Services. For the next 12 years he was responsible for organizing many workshops and training programs for the benefit of the whole region.

As founding Rector of the Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and Management since 1997, he is now in a still more challenging pioneering role: developing a programme to train both engineering and technician personnel, of which there was always a shortage, but which scarcity was exacerbated by the Rwandan Civil war and genocide of 1990-1994 which depleted the country’s human resources.

Professor Lwakabamba is a member of several boards and committees, national, sub-regional and international. He is particularly proud to have participated in the setting up of the African Network of Scientific and Technological Institutions (ANSTI) under UNESCO, and especially the setting up of the sub-networks on Water Resources Engineering, Mechanical/ Production and Energy/Power (1976-1986).

Margaret E Ngwira

Margaret Ngwira has worked in University of Malawi Libraries since 1968 and currently heads Kamuzu College of Nursing Library. From 1996 – 2002 she took time out to establish the Agriculture Libraries of the University of Namibia. She is Secretary of MALICO, the Malawi Library and Information Consortium. A great part of her career has been spent in applying ICT to information delivery, using CDS/ISIS for database management and an early application of CD-ROM in the late eighties, designing a Hypertext Information System using GUIDE software in 1990, designing web based training for information specialists in Southern Africa in 2000, recently working within the framework of MALICO to procure VSATs for major academic sites in Malawi and deliver e-resources to the research and learning community. She is currently is part of the AAU ICT Task Force and the SARUA Fibre Initiative. She is a founder member of the Malawi Research and Education Network Task Force. She holds a BS and MS from University of British Columbia and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.