International Policies, African Realities:

Economic Commission for Africa
http://www.uneca.org

Africa Action
http://www.africapolicy.org

Foreword

Today's global issues, from HIV/ AIDS to global warming, and from
trade policies to the failure of international peace-keeping, have
their most immediate and devastating consequences in Africa. Yet
global policymakers rarely take adequate account of African
realities, or benefit from the full participation of African
voices. The resulting inappropriate or simplistic agendas have
often been imposed on Africa, with minimal consultation.

Changing this pattern, through consultation among diverse African
partners and through projecting African voices into the global
arena, has been a central priority for the Economic Commission for
Africa (ECA). The Africa Policy Information Center (APIC, now a
part of Africa Action), has in recent years been a crucial conduit
for making African policy perspectives accessible to diverse
constituencies in the United States and around the world.

Last year, from January to May, the two organizations co-sponsored
"International Policies, African Realities: An Electronic
Roundtable," which brought more than 500 people together, with
African panelists and participants from Africa and around the
world, in a structured on-line discussion on a range of African
issues.

We are now releasing this new publication based on the Roundtable
because we think it contains valuable lessons for the ongoing
process of making effective and innovative use of new communication
technologies to advance African shaping of continental and global
policies. It contains selected extracts from the Roundtable
proceedings brought together by moderators Dr. AbdouMaliq Simone
and Karin Santi, as well as reflections on lessons learned from the
moderators and Africa Action senior research fellow William Minter.

In recent years, on-line discussions have helped expand the range
of participation and multiply the impact of Africa-wide meetings:
notably the 40th anniversary meeting of the ECA in 1998 focused on
women in development, and the ECA's annual African Development
Forums highlighting information technology (1999) and HIV/ AIDS
(2000). The ECA/ APIC Roundtable showed that, despite Africa's lag
in internet connectivity, there is already a critical mass of
Africans--in almost every African country--who are sufficiently
well connected to participate actively in international electronic
debates.

But we are still only beginning to harness the full potential of
technologies already available to use to advance Africa's agendas.
In order for Africa to confront the enormous challenges it faces in
the years ahead, Africans must not only communicate with each other
across the national borders and vast distances of the continent. We
must also find ever more effective ways to put forward Africa's
distinctive voices and change the world's priorities on global
issues that affect our future.

We must do that for Africa, and for our common humanity.

K. Y. Amoako
Executive Secretary
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

Salih Booker
Executive Director
Africa Action

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For links to the full report, in html and pdf formats, go to:
http://www.africapolicy.org/rtable

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