Research and Education Networks in Africa - An Update

Research and Education Networks in Africa - An Update

Boubakar BarryAssociation of African Universities

Research and Education Networking Unit

eGY Africa Planning WorkshopAccra, 24-25 November 2010

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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,...)

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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

AAU and R&E Networking (1)

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The REN UnitWith 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 policySupport to REN establishment processes in Africa

AAU and R&E Networking (2)

Strategic partnershipsCollaboration 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)

Why RENs?Provision of bandwidth for high-demanding applicationsSharing of (scarce) resources, incl. bandwidthSharing 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 networkEnabler for collaboration at national and international

levelsReduction of researchers’ isolation and creation of critical

massesParticipation in global research projectsMeans for more Diaspora participation

Development in African R&E networking

Eastern and Southern AfricaUbuntuNet Alliance: established in 2005 with

support and important role of the AAUAAU 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

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1.1. Eb@le (Democratic Republic of Congo)Eb@le (Democratic Republic of Congo)

2.2. EthERNet (Ethiopia)EthERNet (Ethiopia)

3.3. KENET (Kenya)KENET (Kenya)

4.4. MAREN (Malawi)MAREN (Malawi)

5.5. MoRENet (Mozambique)MoRENet (Mozambique)

6.6. RENU (Uganda)RENU (Uganda)

7.7. RwEdNet (Rwanda)RwEdNet (Rwanda)

8.8. SomaliREN (Somalia)SomaliREN (Somalia)

9.9. SUIN (Sudan)SUIN (Sudan)

10.10. TENET (South Africa)TENET (South Africa)

11.11. TERNET (Tanzania)TERNET (Tanzania)

12.12. ZAMREN (Zambia)ZAMREN (Zambia)

UbuntuNet Alliance Members (June ’10)

Development in African R&E networking (2)

West and Central AfricaStill lagging behind in the continent (no NREN, until

recently)

Efforts necessary at both regional and national levels

Process of establishing WACREN started end 2006AfNOG (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

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, FinancingInfrastructure and regulatory issuesImplementation strategy and partnershipsCapacity buildingContent 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

Development in African R&E networking (4)

Northern AfricaFirst 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)

Development in African R&E networking (5)

Development in African R&E networking (5)

ChallengesPopulation: ≈1,000M (15% of world population),

but:Telephone penetration: about 5% (mobile: 38%)Sub-Saharan Africa: <2%World average: ≈25%About 9% Internet penetrationWorld average: 27%North America: nearly 80%Only 2% of IP address space (IPv4)Only 0.2% of world’s total Internet capacity

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 supplyHuman capacity development (training and retention of

highly skilled network engineers)

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

Opportunities

Opportunities (2)

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

THANK YOU !

Boubakar Barry: [email protected]

Website: www.aau.org