Geneva — The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) may well serve as the backbone for a digital solidarity fund for developing countries. Speakers at the final forum at the Africa Telecom 2004 conference in Cairo, Egypt, have called on African states to use NEPAD as a foundation for the fund. The fund is intended to provide financial support for information and communication technology (ICT) growth in developing countries.

The concept of a digital solidarity fund was proposed by Senegal at the first phase of World Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva in December 2003. It was the subject of heated debate as the developed and developing worlds at the summit in Switzerland strongly disagreed on the need for such a fund.

The topic has been resurrected at the end of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) business gathering in Cairo.

The Director of the Information Services Division of the Economic Commission for Africa, Karima Bounemra ben Soltane, urged African countries to take advantage of the NEPAD program - the brainchild of Senegalese and South African presidents.

"Existing and emerging markets will gain from this ICT-based platform," she said. Ben Soltane said setting up the fund was becoming increasingly urgent as more African countries implement e-strategies.

"Thirty of 53 African countries have already formulated e-strategies," she pointed out. "Their implementation will depend on what financial mechanisms are available for them."

She also called for the strengthening of public-private partnerships, saying they were the "weakest links" in the process of developing communication technologies on the continent. The lack of foreign direct investment in Africa has been a popular topic at the Cairo summit.

The other keynote speaker at the final session, Egyptian International Relations expert, Dr. Nadia Hegazy, also gave NEPAD two thumbs-up.

"NEPAD is the hat for solidarity - it's what we agreed on for the African countries, and it's what we should be using," she asserted to an applauding audience.

Hegazy said NEPAD's already-formed E-Africa commission was a starting point that the fund could be built on. The commission's offices were opened in Pretoria, South Africa, last month. It intends to serve as an ICT development advisory body for African countries.

Hegazy also called for regional integration that would help curb the costs of implementing technologies on the continent. "We must pool our money, our resources and our expertise," she said.

The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society - to be held in Tunisia next year - also came under the spotlight at the closing session. Director General of the Tunisian, National Agency of Frequencies, Khadija Ghariani, called on the international community to support the second phase, because global participation had been "fundamental to the success of the first phase".