Related Documents

• 2001 Budget Justification
• Mission Website

Illustrative USAID-managed IED Activities

Telecomm Policy/Access

• In May 2000, five senior South African telecommunications regulatory officials participated in a two-week study tour and training program hosted by USAID and the FCC, including visits with private sector entities such as the Corporate Council on Africa, the Global Information Infrastructure Commission, and the National Telephone Cooperative Association.
• This has led to a joint development work plan for strengthening South African regulatory capacity.
• USAID works closely with the Telecommunication Regulatory Association of Southern Africa (TRASA) on capacity building and harmonization of pro-competitive policies throughout the region, and is soon to embark on a twelve-month series of live and virtual training events.
• The Ministry of Education, EDDI and USAID/South Africa have collaborated on a feasibility study and strategy for "wiring" the provincial education offices and outreach to the nearby schools.

Training/Programs

• An Emergency Medicine training partnership between Howard University Medical School and the University of Transkei Hospital will soon migrate from mailed video-cassettes to an Internet training platform, using equipment provided by the EDDI.
• This will help to increase the amount of training and the quality of care for the Transkei Hospital, a facility that serves 45,000 emergency room trauma patients each year.
• With EDDI and Leland support, five South African universities have linked with seven U.S. universities in the Knowledge Exchange and Learning Partnership (KELP), a multi-faceted network that develops joint courses and collaborative research and service projects in a wide range of development disciplines.

Other Activities Supportive of IED Objectives

Telecomm Policy/Access

• South Africa's Telecommunication Act of 1996 established the South African Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (SATRA), which regulates the telecomms industry in South Africa.
• Plans are now being implemented to merge SATRA with the broadcast regulatory authority.
• SATRA has been a major player in the creation of Telecommunication Regulators Association of Southern Africa (TRASA), through USAID support, to encourage cooperative discussion, capacity building and policy harmonization.
• TRASA provides a forum of information exchange, capacity building, and bandwidth.
• The National Telecommunications Operator, Telkom was partially privatized in 1997 with 20 percent being sold to SBC and 10 percent to Telecom of Malaysia.
• Telkom will retain its monopoly on basic services until 2002 (see http://www.telkom.co.za).
• There are two GSM cellular telephone providers-Vodacom (50 percent owned by Telkom, web site at http://www.vodacom.co.za) and MTN (web site at http://www.mtn.co.za).
• A third mobile telephone operator's license is being considered by SATRA.
• Telekom has been looking north to sell its expertise and infrastructure. With its high capacity international link and sophisticated ISDN services, Telekom is in an attractive position to sell bandwidth to other parts of Africa, especially through satellite connections.
• Transnet, South Africa's parastatal transport, shipping and rail corporation, has recently leased transponders on PanAmSat's PAS4 which will allow it to use C-Band and KU-Band VSAT technology to connect to other countries and to remote areas inside South Africa.
• Universal Service Agency, responsible for ensuring universal access to all telecommunications services (voice, fax, Internet, etc.), aims to establish 100 telecentres nationwide.
• These will be in very rural areas and provide access to photocopying, telephones, fax, e-mail, the Internet, and TV/video. The first one was officially launched in Ga-Saleka, Northern Province in March.
• To assist the program the US has developed a detailed specification of telecenters (for more information go to: http://www.icdl.co.az/ or contact: Tshepo@usa.org.za).

Training/Programs

• Rhodes University in collaboration with UniNet has succeeded in promoting the development of academic and international networking in South Africa.
• Specifically, it has established the first full Internet link in Sub-Saharan Africa, and has hosted trainees from many surrounding African countries.
• The Department of Communications (DOC) is in the process of preparing legislation for e-commerce, digital signature, multimedia convergence, and encryption.
• A committee has been established to look urgently at the development of a multipurpose smart card.
• A Center for Information and Communications Technologies will be set up, as an advisory body comprised of both the public and private sectors.
• The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is acting as the host of the South African IT in Distance Education Consortium (http://www.csir.co.za/ or contact info@csi.co.za).