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Research and Education Networks in Africa - An Update

Research and Education Networks in Africa - An Update. Boubakar Barry Association of African Universities Research and Education Networking Unit. eGY Africa Planning Workshop Accra, 24-25 November 2010. About the AAU. Established in November 1967 in Rabat, Morocco. Based in Accra, Ghana

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Research and Education Networks in Africa - An Update

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  1. Research and Education Networks in Africa - An Update • Boubakar Barry • Association of African Universities • Research and Education Networking Unit eGY Africa Planning Workshop Accra, 24-25 November 2010

  2. 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,...) 3

  3. AAU and R&E Networking (1) • 11th 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 4

  4. AAU and R&E Networking (2) • 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 5

  5. 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)

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. UbuntuNet Alliance Members (June ’10) • Eb@le (Democratic Republic of Congo) • EthERNet (Ethiopia) • KENET (Kenya) • MAREN (Malawi) • MoRENet (Mozambique) • RENU (Uganda) • RwEdNet (Rwanda) • SomaliREN (Somalia) • SUIN (Sudan) • TENET (South Africa) • TERNET (Tanzania) • ZAMREN (Zambia) 1

  9. 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

  10. 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 www.wacren.net) • GARNET (Ghana) incorporated in September 2010

  11. 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)

  12. Development in African R&E networking (5)

  13. Development in African R&E networking (5)

  14. 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

  15. 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)

  16. 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

  17. Opportunities

  18. Opportunities (2)

  19. 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

  20. THANK YOU ! • Boubakar Barry: barry@aau.org • Website: www.aau.org

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