Cologne, First of March 2004

InWEnt - it@ab Workshop 2-6 of March 2004 in Windhoek, Namibia

In close cooperation with InWEnt, Capacity Building International, IT@AB Namibia is hosting and organizing a SADC wide conference in Windhoek in the Information and Learning Resource Centre at UNAM - University of Namibia.

IT@AB stands for Information Technology in African Business. IT@AB is a capacity building network made up of 31 member organisations from the SADC region. The network was founded three years ago as part of capacity building activities of InWEnt and with the support of the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.

IT@AB Objectives
The main objective of the network is to vigorously promote the adoption and infusion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into SMEs and SEs as an enabling tool to foster sustainable economic development. Its primary focus is to reduce the digital divide between Africa and the developed world. IT@AB seeks to enable SMEs and SEs to participate in the global digital economy being acutely aware that companies and countries that do not participate effectively in the global digital economy will suffer economic decline.

Conference theme
The theme of the conference is “Inter-Regional Collaboration” from the perspective of the use of Information and Communication Technology as an enabling tool in the integration of Africa in the digital economy. Of particular interest is the exploration of public private partnerships; the interaction with the donor communities such as World Bank, IMF, European Union etc. We seek to explore how capacity building networks such as ours can collaborate with the donor community and leverage their grants and loans to bridge the digital divide between Africa and the developed world, in order to foster sustainable development.

Delegates
The delegates for this year’s conference will come from Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya, Namibia and of course from Germany. An international facilitator and a local facilitator will assist in conducting the sessions.

IT@AB Activities
Under the umbrella of InWEnt´s international training approaches IT@AB activities have also included training of junior ICT consultants in Germany. The aim is to train 60 consultants in the SADC region by the end of 2005. Last year (Sept 2002 – Sept 2003), 20 junior consultants received intensive ICT training in Germany at a cost of over 2 million Euros. Four of these were from Namibia. This year (September 2003 – September 2004) a further 20 are currently undergoing training and next (September 2004 – September 2005) year a further 20 will be trained. This will give the SADC region a strong ICT team that can meet tomorrow’s technological challenges.



Over the last three years, IT@AB in cooperation with InWEnt has held several workshops for senior consultants and business associates in South Africa, Tanzania etc..

Collaboration
IT@AB promotes collaboration between five business sectors both locally and regionally. Membership for IT@AB is drawn from the following sectors:

· IT-Consultancy companies
· ISP / ASP (Internet Service Providers and Application Service Providers)
· Universities (Computer Centre etc.)
· Trade promotion organization (with intentions on e-business)
· Training institutions

In Namibia the IT@AB is made of three organisations:
· BITS (Pty) Ltd (Business Information Technology Solutions) in the IT Consultancy Sector.
· Telecom Namibia – ISP / ASP etc
· University of Namibia ( University).

Discussions are underway to include organisations from the remaining two sectors.

Business Incubator Initiative:
This year all IT@AB has started preparing to set up Business Incubators in each member country. The purpose of the Incubators will be to take a number of high potential SMEs and SEs and through intensive training and skills transfer turn them into very effective and sustainable enterprises. Each incubator will be e-business enabled and turned into a global player. The resultant effect of this will be sustainable development and the effective reduction of poverty.

The Incubator initiative will in all likelihood be done in collaboration with InWEnt and with the World Bank. All the IT@AB member countries have applied for World Bank InfoDev grants, and effective collaboration between World Bank and the European Union is expected to lead to even more effective infusion of ICT in the SADC region as a tool for sustainable development and poverty reduction.

Further information under www.it-inwent.net