Since the 1990s, Africa has moved back up the political agenda, thanks above all to the United Nations Millennium Declaration and to Africa’s own efforts to achieve reform and unity. The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to promote social development, on the other hand, continues on the whole to be marginalised in the international development policy debate. It is true that the subject has received a certain amount of attention, in which Africa has had its share, on account of the two-phase United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (2003/2005), but outside the continent, a development policy community comprising for the most part only non-government actors, a small number of »Northern« states and a handful of international organisations has adopted the issue so far.

A glance at the current programmes and strategies put in place by African states and regional organisations, the practices and representations made by the institutions of African civil society and the development in Africa – in some cases extremely rapid – of the Internet and mobile telephony, however, shows how topical the subject is. The fact that Africa itself is interested in putting information and communication technologies to use in a way that will benefit the continent’s development is in itself enough to ensure that German development policy and co-operation will have to devote its ongoing attention to this subject and clarify its own strategy.

It is against this backdrop that this report by the TAB investigates in particular the current state of Internet use in Africa south of the Sahara and its potential for the future. Three areas of application, which largely correspond to the priority areas designated by the German government, form the central focus of this analysis:

• Democratic development, government action and civil society;
• Economic development and trade;
• Education, research and technological development.

The enquiry, commissioned by the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment of the German Bundestag (i.e. the German parliament) in co-operation with the Committee on Economic Co-operation and Development, is primarily concerned with Internet use. Nonetheless, it does not regard the Internet as being detached from other information and communication technologies, whether conventional (e.g. radio and television) or new (e.g. mobile telephony). In consequence, the analysis also contributes to the overall discussion of the use of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D). As far as German development co-operation is concerned, an insufficient strategic clarification of the importance of »ICT4D« is evident.

This report will present an evaluation of the current and probable future importance for African development of the Internet and other ICTs, and an account of the study’s main findings with regard to the status quo in sub-Saharan Africa and the three key areas of application on which the study focused. In conclusion, concrete courses of action for individual areas of practice will be indicated, and general guidelines aimed at clarifying the strategic importance of ICT4D in German development co-operation will be put forward for discussion.