Decision on the Report of the Fourth Ordinary Session of the African Union Conference of Ministers in Charge of Communication and Information Technologies (CITMC-4)

DECISION ON THE REPORT OF THE FOURTH ORDINARY SESSION OF
THE AFRICAN UNION CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS IN CHARGE OF
COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES (CITMC-4)
Doc. EX.CL/759(XXII)

The Executive Council,

1. TAKES NOTE of the Report of the Fourth Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Conference of Ministers in charge of Communication and Information Technologies held in Khartoum, The Sudan, from 5 to 6 September 2012 and the recommendations contained therein as well as the 2012 Khartoum Declaration requesting the Member States to accelerate the transition from Analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting, and the development of National Cyber-Security Legislation;

2. COMMENDS the Commission for the quality of the report;

3. RECOMMENDS the report to the Assembly for adoption;

4. ALSO TAKES NOTE of the progress made in the context of the implementation of the decision on the development of the AU Convention on Cyber legislation;

5. REQUESTS Member States to:

i) provide DotAfrica project with the required support where needed;

ii) accelerate the transition from Analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting;

iii) support the migration from the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) and the development of National Cyber-Security Legislation.

6. ALSO REQUESTS the Commission to:

i) submit the draft Convention approved by the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the AU Ministers in charge of Communication and Information Technologies (CITMC-4) Khartoum 2012, to the meeting of the AU Ministers of Justice for its finalization and submission for adoption to the next ordinary session of the Assembly of the Union;

ii) coordinate with the Science and technology sector to implement the recommendations of the feasibility study on the African Space Agency (AfriSpace) and develop a space policy for the Continent taking into account remote sensing applications and satellite imagery processing;

iii) develop an updated, integrated and coherent AU strategic Communication and Information Technologies (CIT) framework for Africa in collaboration with NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency (NPCA), Regional Economic Communities (RECs,) Specialized Institutions (SI), African Development Bank (AfDB) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), taking into account existing frameworks of all African CIT stakeholders;

iv) develop guidelines for the liberalization of the Postal Sector and a template for a legal framework for postal policies and regulations.

7. URGES Member States and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), to participate and support the Commission for accelerating the implementation of the above activities;

8. REQUESTS the Commission to seek assistance from the UNECA, the AfDB, the International Telecommunication Union, the World Bank, the ICANN, Internet Society, Specialized Institutions and relevant Agencies and development partners to support the implementation of this Decision.