Research and Education Networks in Africa - An Update Boubakar Barry Association of African Universities Research and Education Networking Unit eGY Africa Planning Workshop Accra, November 2010

3 About the AAU Established in November 1967 in Rabat, Morocco. Based in Accra, Ghana 200+ member institutions in all African sub-regions General Conference once every 4 years, with election of the Board – Last GC: Abuja, May 09 Conference of Rectors, VCs and Presidents once every 2 years Several programmes and services (QA, Mobility, Leadership and Management, HIV/AIDS, DATAD, Gender, R&E Netwg,...)

4 11 th General Conference in February 2005 in Cape Town, SA: four-year Core Programme approved Prominent among other foci: support for the development if ICT for HE in Africa Strong mandate to the Secretariat to assume focal point role for ICT initiatives for African higher education institutions Focus on R&E Networking for collaboration and improvement of access to information and knowledge AAU and R&E Networking (1)

5 The REN Unit With support of IDRC and PHE in Africa: set up of a REN Unit within the AAU Secretariat Activities also funded by ACBF Activities: Establishment of strategic partnerships Participation in relevant events Organisation of workshops (awareness raising, policy dialogue and capacity building); LEDEV Development of policy guides Clearinghouse on R&E networking and ICT policy Support to REN establishment processes in Africa AAU and R&E Networking (2)

Strategic partnerships  Collaboration with various partners in and outside Africa to achieve AAU goals  Many informal, ad hoc collaboration activities  Collaboration formalized with a couple of partners through MoUs:  AfNOG (capacity building)  AfriNIC (number resources)  UbuntuNet Alliance (promotion of RENs)  IMPACT (cybersecurity research)  Internet2 (interconnection)  NAV6 (IPv6 deployment)

Why RENs?  Provision of bandwidth for high-demanding applications  Sharing of (scarce) resources, incl. bandwidth  Sharing of critical applications (DNS, security, etc.)  Improvement of access through blended learning (w/ eLearning applications)  Reduction of telecom and travel spending through VoIP and videoconferencing in private network  Enabler for collaboration at national and international levels  Reduction of researchers’ isolation and creation of critical masses  Participation in global research projects  Means for more Diaspora participation

Development in African R&E networking  Eastern and Southern Africa  UbuntuNet Alliance: established in 2005 with support and important role of the AAU  AAU appoints Chairperson of UA’s Board  Substantial progress in membership and networks development in UA (from 5 NRENs in 2005 to 12 to date)  UA taking advantage of new fibre infrastructure in the region  More important development expected next year  Drivers: infrastructure development and competition, implementation of AfricaConnect

1 (Democratic Republic of Congo) 2.EthERNet (Ethiopia) 3.KENET (Kenya) 4.MAREN (Malawi) 5.MoRENet (Mozambique) 6.RENU (Uganda) 7.RwEdNet (Rwanda) 8.SomaliREN (Somalia) 9.SUIN (Sudan) 10.TENET (South Africa) 11.TERNET (Tanzania) 12.ZAMREN (Zambia) UbuntuNet Alliance Members (June ’10)

Development in African R&E networking (2)  West and Central Africa  Still lagging behind in the continent (no NREN, until recently)  Efforts necessary at both regional and national levels  Process of establishing WACREN started end 2006  AfNOG (May 2006), AAU regional workshop (Nov. 2006)  Process revived at consultative meeting held in Nov 2009 in Accra  AAU mandated to set up Task Team to drive WACREN formation process  Task Team of 5 persons, each leading a working group, established

Development in African R&E networking (3)  West and Central Africa (cont'd)  Task Team and WGs looking at following issues:  Governance and admin. structure, Financing  Infrastructure and regulatory issues  Implementation strategy and partnerships  Capacity building  Content and Applications  Request to the AAU to assist in incorporating WACREN (target: October 2010)  WACREN incorporated in August 2010 (see  GARNET (Ghana) incorporated in September 2010

Development in African R&E networking (4)  Northern Africa  First region in Africa to have benefited from EC funding for connection to global REN through GEANT: EUMEDConnect  In its second phase (ending 2011)  Not really a regional REN: individual links to GEANT  Direct links between the NRENs envisaged for quite a while, but not established yet  New initiative aiming at having an pan-Arab REN: ASREN (Arab Scientific Research and Education Network)

Development in African R&E networking (5)

Challenges  Population:  1,000M (15% of world population), but:  Telephone penetration: about 5% (mobile: 38%)  Sub-Saharan Africa: <2%  World average:  25%  About 9% Internet penetration  World average: 27%  North America: nearly 80%  Only 2% of IP address space (IPv4)  Only 0.2% of world’s total Internet capacity

Challenges (2)  Generally, lack of clear and coherent national ICT Policies taking into account both regional issues and R&E specific needs  Inadequate telecommunications regulatory environment  Lack of competition in many countries  Use of costly technologies (satellite)  High cost of bandwidth (average of US$3,000/Mbps/month)  Deficient power supply  Human capacity development (training and retention of highly skilled network engineers)

Opportunities  Decision makers, telecom regulators and private sector (telecom operators) more receptive to REN message  Diversification of players for international connectivity (competition)  Bandwidth prices are coming down as new infrastructure get active (e.g. in Eastern and Southern Africa)  Willingness of development partners to support REN initiatives  Support from international REN community/family

Opportunities

Opportunities (2)

What next?  Awareness raising - what can infrastructure and advanced communications services do to enhance education, research and social benefit  Policy dialogue among all stakeholders and players  Identify champions and disciplines that can immediately benefit  Convince governments and funding agencies of the wisdom of investing in infrastructure, applications and collaboration environments  Start small, scale up; not all institutions will be ready at the same time

THANK YOU ! Boubakar Barry: Website: