MS chums up with African leaders

African leaders swear allegiance to Microsoft. This is only one of the impressions coming from Microsoft`s Government Leaders Forum that left the media and observers with mixed feelings about its goals and achievements.

However, before I go further about these impressions, let me start at the beginning. Microsoft holds a series of conferences for government leaders throughout the world. These centre on certain regions, for instance there was one held earlier this year focused on governments in the Americas. The conference in Cape Town was the second to focus on Africa and was held from 10 to 11 July.

Essentially, these conferences, or Government Leaders Forums (GLFs), are designed to focus on solving the various problems governments may have in implementing e-government strategies and how they can use information and communications technology (ICT) to help boost their economies through improving education standards and health services. Bridging the digital divide, of course, is also a topic of prime consideration.

Also discussed was how ICT could help alleviate African-specific problems such as the continuing cycle of civil wars, the rampant corruption in many countries, how to improve food security and so on.

None of these topics are new. They have been discussed numerous times at countless conferences and meetings held between government, non-governmental organisations, businesses, and regional and global bodies. A key objective of the World Summit on Information Society, held over the past two years, was to address these specific issues and, despite all the fanfare, next to nothing was achieved there.

The biggest drawcard for the GLF was the appearance of Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates and that of former US president Bill Clinton. The prospect of seeing one of the world`s most powerful figures in the ICT sector with the pragmatic politician, both with relatively new found senses of egalitarianism, was almost too much for many of Africa`s politicians to miss.

The message was clear. It is time for African leaders to do something.

Paul Vecchiatto

The number of African leaders who attended is almost too long to list. The first day featured keynote addresses from Mozambique president Armando Guebuza, Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete, and South African deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

A South African government official told me that more African government leaders were in attendance at this conference than at the World Economic Forum on Africa in May.

On the evening of the first night of the GLF, a press conference was held with some of the African leaders in attendance. Since they were all from Francophile countries, something could have been lost in the translation. However, the messages they delivered seemed straightforward. They all believed ICT was important for their respective countries` development, outlined the huge developmental challenges and profusely thanked Microsoft for holding the event.

According to some of the various government officials I spoke with informally, Microsoft paid for their travel and accommodation during the conference. Microsoft did not respond to my queries about this.

However, many of the governmental delegates claimed this was a constructive conference.

Lyndall Shope-Mafole, director-general of the Department of Communications, told me that despite her initial misgivings about a company-sponsored event such as the GLF, it turned out to be of great value.

During the question and answer session, mainly for the delegates, after the two Bills had spoken, minister of education Naledi Pandor asked two questions relating to training standards and why there were so few women at the conference.

Clinton`s answer illustrated his pragmatism, saying: "I am glad that you, as minister of education, are here. Because it is your job to find creative ways to encourage more women to participate in the sector."

The message was clear. It is time for African leaders to do something.

During Gates` speech, several Microsoft partnerships were announced: educational programmes, the Window on Africa tourism initiative, and the joint venture with MTN to bring affordable finance for South Africans to buy Intel computers with Windows Starter and get connected at reasonable rates.

He also alluded to finding a solution to Africa`s connectivity problems through "an affordable long-distance wireless technology that is currently being developed". However, no other details were provided.

At the end of the day, these initiatives are really commercial propositions. They are the manoeuvring of a company that wants to tie up its potential market as soon as possible. Africa saw a growth rate of 5.8% last year and this makes it one of the fastest growing regions in the world. Naturally, companies such as Microsoft want to be part of this.

So while the conference seemed to be productive and gave African leaders the chance to hear from two of the world`s most eminent personalities, it still leaves an uncomfortable feeling centring on the relationship between big business and governments.

A reason for this is the corralling of the media into a specific area during the presentations. Interaction between the media and the delegates was also actively discouraged. Some members of the media commented they felt like they were placed in the children`s section of a restaurant.

This leads to one of the key issues facing Africa`s development: transparency. This is vitally important, as a cause of many of the conflicts is that people mistrust their governments as they are seen as merely an engine to enrich a few. So when big business and governments begin to look too chummy, the mistrust grows. The only way to overcome this is through greater transparency and that is where ICT can really help.