Annex III
Proposed projects

The programmes proposed within part III above to develop the components of the information resources will include different projects. Each programme will be designed to achieve its objectives and will be based on the design and implementation of a set of projects that will help in achieving its objectives in different aspects.

Following are a set of projects that are recommended for African countries to be implemented within the framework of this initiative and within the regional programmes previously recommended:

(A) Debt management objective: Support economic development through better debt management.

1. beneficiaries: society, top-level government decision-makers;
2. goals:
1. establish/enhance loan databases and guarantee integrity and validity of loan databases;
2. reduce the national debts of African countries (by 25 per cent by the year 2005);
3. secure dynamic tracking components for crisis avoidance and debt management.

(B) Education and training objective: Improve basic education and work force skills.

1. beneficiaries: teachers and students in public schools, employees of SMEs (upgrading their skills and improving their productivity), local libraries (will have access to national and international libraries and archives), people tied to their homes and in remote areas;
2. goals:
1. linking public schools and the main public libraries to the national communication backbone (all African public schools should be linked by the year 2010);
2. establishing distance learning centres in major cities to support on-the-job training for workers and to promote interaction between researchers, academia and industry.

(C) Higher education and research objective: To act as a vehicle for pooling national and regional intellectual and human resource to help contribute to research and development efforts in the continent.

1. beneficiaries: researchers at universities (have easy access to current research and publications elsewhere), industrial and private research centres, and society (from the diffusion of research);
2. goals:
1. building communication network infrastructure at every university;
2. connecting universities and research centres to the national communication backbone (all African universities should be linked by the year 2000);
3. promoting and supporting collaboration among professionals;
4. providing remote access to national and international databases, libraries, research laboratories and computing facilities.

(D) Trade and commerce objective: Providing value-added network information services to business people and organizations in order to leverage the continent's competitiveness in trade and investments.<

1. beneficiaries: small- and medium-size enterprises, manufacturers, traders, investors, importers, exporters, bankers, and capital investors;
2. goals:
1. link chambers of commerce and trade associations to the national communication backbone (all chambers of commerce should be linked by the year 2000);
2. provide the business community with timely and accurate economic and financial indicators;
3. provide channels for the promotion of products and services;
4. improve access to stock market and commodity information;
5. improve access to capital markets.

(E) Employment and job creation objective: Reducing the unemployment rate in Africa by increasing accessibility to job openings nationally and internationally.

1. beneficiaries: work force, employers, placement offices;
2. goals:
1. provide on-line job matching on national, regional and international levels (reduce unemployment by 25 per cent by the year 2005);
2. create/enhance databases on human resources to support education planning at the national level;
3. provide access to national and international teleworking opportunities.

(F) Environmental monitoring and natural resource management objective: Provide the essential infostructure for coordinated environmental management.

1. beneficiaries: society, governmental and non-governmental environmental agencies;
2. goals:
1. improve the management and monitoring of the implementation of environment related projects;
2. creating/enhancing national and regional databases on all major areas related to the environment: fresh water, seas, air, land, natural resources, etc.;
3. assisting and supporting environment-related decision making at the national and regional levels;
4. disseminating environment-related indicators to governments, NGOs, research centres, and international bodies.

(G) Tourism objective: Support international and local tourism in Africa.

1. beneficiaries: society, tourists, local businesses;
2. goals:
1. provide international promotion of tourist attractions (increase tourism revenues in Africa by 25 per cent by the year 2000);
2. assist travellers and tourists in travel planning and booking reservations;
3. create/enhance on-line regional databases of facilities, up-to-date transport schedules, and tourism service providers.

(H) Cultural preservation objective: Assist in protecting the African cultural heritage.

1. beneficiaries: society, museums, cultural organizations, research institutes;
2. goals:
1. putting Africa's museums on-line(all museums should be on-line by the year 2010);
2. preservation and documentation of manuscripts and artifacts;
3. increasing accessibility of rare manuscripts and artifacts to the general public and to researchers.

(I) Health care objective: Achieve more efficient and affordable health care.

1. beneficiaries: society, health care providers;
2. goals:
1. establish and maintain databases on public and private medical centres, physicians and health care providers;
2. provide on-line access to national and international medical databases and expertise (telemedicine);
3. link health administration for improving distribution of drugs and medical supplies;
4. link health care systems with centres for disease control for early warnings of plagues and infectious diseases;
5. link health care systems with insurance companies, medical practitioners, and the public.

(J) Food security and agricultural production objective: Improve the production and distribution of food and agricultural products in Africa.

1. beneficiaries: society, farmers, food producers and distributors;
2. goals:
1. link meteorological centres with agricultural advisory services;
2. provide access to international networks on food production technology and databases on food stock;
3. provide access to databases of national food storage facilities.

(K) Public administration objective: Facilitate government management and improve public service.

1. beneficiaries: governments, public;
2. goals:
1. improve internal revenue management;
2. improve social security administration;
3. facilitate electronic tendering systems;
4. improve accessibility to national public administration networks, especially to citizens who live in rural areas.

(L) Legislation and legal services objective: Support national and regional coordination, cooperation and standardization of regulations and legislation.

1. beneficiaries: organizations, businesses, lawyers, legislative bodies, regional cooperation bodies;
2. goals:
1. creating/enhancing national legislation databases which will be accessed on-line by end-users;
2. linking the databases in a regional forum that allows the exchange of legislation necessary for economic integration and business development among countries;
3. avoiding duplication of efforts in setting up standards, protocols, procedures, guidelines, systems and tools for establishing national databases.

(M) Transportation of goods and people objective: Improve the quality of life by electronically managed roads and airways.

1. beneficiaries: passengers, air transport industry, transportation companies;
2. goals:
1. link road traffic control centres for better road traffic management, thus reducing the fuel consumption, air pollution, wasted productivity;
2. create an African air traffic communication system providing ground-to-ground connections between African air traffic control (ATC) centres and air-to-ground connections between aircraft and ATC's across Africa.

(N) Business development and administration objective: Support national and regional business development.

1. beneficiaries: SMEs, business and banking communities;
2. goals:
1. provide international access points for SMEs;
2. establish links to public authorities;
3. facilitate on-line business transactions;
4. link the business community to the banking systems.