Digital Divide, eGY-Africa and the way forward

Victor CHUKWUMA1, Babatunde RABIU2, Monique PETITDIDIER3, Les COTTRELL4, Charles BARTON5, 1 Department of Physics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, PO Box 351, Ago-Iwoye

Ogun State, NIGERIA Tel: +234 805 5075 270, Email: victorchukwuma@yahoo.com

2Department of Physics,Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria.

Tel: +234 803 070 5787, Email: tunderabiu@yahoo.com

3 Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, 10-12 Avenue de l'Europe, 78140 Velizy, France. Email: monique.petitdidier@latmos.ipsl.fr

4Stanford Linear Accelerator, Computer Services, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, 2575 Sand Hill

Rd, M/S 97, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA Tel: +1 650 926 2523, Email: cottrell@slac.stanford.edu

5Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200., Australia

Tel: +61 2 62737477, Fax: + 61 2 6257 2737, Email: cebarton@gmail.com

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Research and higher education in Africa

• Most research carried out in higher education institutions• Almost entirely financed by government• Lack of resources (infrastructure, equipment, financial and other

incentives)• Little university-industry linkage• Isolation of researchers/research teams• Tertiary gross enrolment rate: 5% (World average: 24%; North America +

Europe: 70%)• 600+ higher education institutions• As at May 2009, Association of African Universities has 213 members from

the following 45 African countries.• Aging faculty• Brain drain

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Targets of eGY-Africa

• Reverse digital divide between Africa and industrialized countries.• Brain drain

Need to reduce brain drain as result of frustration (lack of intellectual reward due to isolation)

• Brain gain Tap potential of diaspora for its contribution to African development

• Massification Blended distance learning as one response to the problem

• Scarce resources Need to share (not only information, knowledge, pedagogical resources, etc. but also

human resources)

• Regional/continental integration• Collaboration with AAU

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Update on the internet penetration

World Regions Population Internet Users Internet Users Penetration Users Users( 2008 Est.) Dec. 31, 2000 Latest Data (% Population) Growth % of

2000-2008 TableAfrica 975,330,899 4,514,400 54,171,500 5.60% 1100.00% 3.40%Asia 3,780,819,792 114,304,000 657,170,816 17.40% 474.90% 41.20%Europe 803,903,540 105,096,093 393,373,398 48.90% 274.30% 24.60%Middle East 196,767,614 3,284,800 45,861,346 23.30% 1296.20% 2.90%North America 337,572,949 108,096,800 251,290,489 74.40% 132.50% 15.70%Latin America/Caribbean 581,249,892 18,068,919 173,619,140 29.90% 860.90% 10.90%Oceania / Australia 34,384,384 7,620,480 20,783,419 60.40% 172.70% 1.30%WORLD TOTAL 6,710,029,070 360,985,492 1,596,270,108 23.80% 342.20% 100.00%

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Update on the internet penetration 2

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Update on the internet penetration 3

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AAU member-Universities and Internet Usage in Africa

Country Number of Universities

Penetration (% Population)

% Users in Africa

Algeria 8 10.4 6.5 Angola 1 4.0 0.9 Benin 2 1.8 0.3 Botswana 1 5.1 0.2 Burkina Faso 2 0.5 0.1 Burundi 1 0.7 0.1 Cameroun 6 2.0 0.7 Cape Verde 1 8.7 0.1 Central African Republic 1 0.3 0.0 Chad 1 0.6 0.1 Congo 1 1.8 0.1 Cote D’Ivoire 4 1.5 0.6 Dem. Rep. Congo 4 0.3 0.4 Egypt 15 12.9 19.4 Eritrea 1 2.2 0.2 Ethiopia 3 0.4 0.5 Gabon 3 5.5 0.2 Ghana 9 3.8 1.6 Kenya 14 7.9 5.5 Lesotho 1 3.3 0.1 Liberia 3 0.6 0.0 Libya 5 4.2 6.5 Malawi 1 1.0 0.3

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AAU member-Universities and Internet Usage in Africa 2

Country Number of Universities

Penetration (% Population)

% Users in Africa

Mali 1 0.8 0.2 Mauritius 1 26.7 0.6 Morocc0 4 19.2 12.2 Mozambique 4 0.9 0.4 Namibia 2 4.8 0.2 Niger 1 0.3 0.1 Nigeria 34 6.8 18.5 Reunion 1 27.4 0.4 Rwanda 3 1.0 0.2 Senegal 2 6.1 1.5 Sierra Lone 1 0.2 0.0 South Africa 17 9.4 8.5 Sudan 24 8.7 6.5 Swaziland 1 3.7 0.1 Tanzania 7 1.0 0.7 Togo 3 5.5 0.6 Tunisia 1 27.0 5.2 Uganda 4 2.4 1.4 Zambia

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4.3

0.9

Zimbabwe 9 11.9 2.5

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Collaborations with NRENs in Africa

• Established NRENs:TENET (South Africa), KENET (Kenya), MAREN (Malawi),EUN Egypt), MARWAN (Morocco), RNU (Tunisia) ,CERIST (Algeria)

• New NRENs (UbuntuNet momentum): Eb@le (DRC), MoRENet (Mozambique),RENU (Uganda), RwNet (Rwanda),SUIN (Sudan),TERNET (Tanzania)

• Emerging NRENS: ZAMREN (Zambia), NAMREN (Namibia), NgREN (Nigeria, Commitment of 10s of VCs to have it established by end of 2008), GARNET (Ghana),Cameroonian REN (embryo exists with RIC),Senegal (RENER), Côte d'Ivoire

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Collaborations with UbuntNet AllianceConnected to GEANT since January 2008 through 1 Gbps link

• Formal REN, advanced network and sufficient bandwidth: NONE

• Formal REN and underlying operational infrastructure: Kenya, South Africa, Sudan

• Formal REN but no underlying operational infrastructure: Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, DRC, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique

• REN in formation: Botswana, Swaziland,• Lesotho, Ethiopia, Namibia, Somalia,

Eritrea

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