PANEL DISCUSSION ICT and Economics Development in Underserved Markets – A Chicken and Egg Problem

Abstract

Good afternoon to everybody. We are approaching the final hour of our conference and I have the pleasure to introduce to you our panel this afternoon. I start with Anriette Esterhuysen. She came from South Africa to this conference, and she is the executive director of the Association for Progressive Communications, APC. This is an international network of more than 40 civil society organisations dedicated to empowering the supporting groups, especially with respect to the strategic use of information and communication technologies. Before, she was an executive director of Asengonet, an internet service provider, a training institution especially dedicated to the development sector in South Africa. She is also a founder of Womensnet in South Africa and has served on the African Technical Advisory Committee of the UN‘s Economic Commission for African information society initiative. She was also a member of the United Nation‘s ICT task force. So, I think she is best equipped for our discussion this afternoon.