I was in Victoria Falls on Tuesday (4 July 2017) to attend an African Telecommunications Union event. The event was two events in one which were individually a mouthful so bear with me. The first was the African Preparatory Meeting for World Telecommunications Day 2017. At first I was not too chuffed about the idea of a meeting to prepare for a meeting. I got over my inhibition quickly though, I realised it is important for African policy makers and players within the technology sector to reconcile where they are individually as countries and then determine what the collective priorities are for the region viz the rest of the world.
The second event was the Preparatory Meeting for the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) Plenipotentiary Meeting. It’s a bigger mouthful I know. I had never heard the word ‘plenipotentiary’ before this. I have just done a quick Google search for the meaning and I am more confused. Let me tell you the definition I found and leave it at that, I will not attempt to guess what the ITU Plenipotentiary Meeting is all about. Plenipotentiary is a noun meaning a person who has the power to transact or act on behalf of another or a government e.g a diplomat. In my lay mind I would call it someone with powers of attorney…
Anyway these were two events to prepare for two separate international meetings. I went to Victoria Falls expecting to be part of these meetings but alas I did not meet the pay grade. The sessions were non of our (we the media and such) business. Looking closely at my invite I then realised I had only been invited to the official opening ceremony to the two meetings to prepare for meetings!
I came to peace with this, I should have scrutinized the invite… I also reasoned that for real debate to happen the delegates who converged in Victoria Falls from across the continent and beyond needed to feel safe that they would not be quoted by Techzim and its likes. It makes sense doesn’t it? This made me realise that these people had really come for serious business and were dismantling all barriers to open and candid dialogue among themselves. That’s a good story!
That as it was I still wanted to hack the system somehow and listen to the deliberations themselves. I didn’t want to be satisfied with travelling to Victoria Falls to hear a few speeches and see dignitaries go through the motions of officially opening something or the other- it’s always the same isn’t it? I wonder why we officially open stuff especially when they have already been open- the Victoria Falls event was one and a half days old by the time it was officially opened. But hey, ZITF is always officially opened on the last day of business so it’s cool.
The speeches happened: The POTRAZ Director General is quite a humorous man, I enjoyed his remarks on welcoming us to the resort town. After him came the ATU Secretary General who seems to be really passionate about telecoms. Two other people spoke after him (important people) then there was an interlude by a ‘traditional group.’ (Quotes because I don’t know if these things are still tradition, I think history and tradition are two different things but why digress right?).
After the entertainment, the Permanent Secretary in the Zimbabwe ICT Ministry introduced the Guest of Honour who was non other than the Deputy Minister in the same ministry: Ministry of Information Computer Technologies, Postal and Courier Services (Postal pfee pamamonya ipapo– I couldn’t resist and I am sorry I cannot translate neither can I give context to those who are reading this in the future). The Deputy Minister spoke briefly. I am deliberately leaving out what was said because all speakers eloquently and not so eloquently said the same: welcome to Vic Falls, Vic Falls is an appropriate host town and wished the delegates fruitful deliberations.
My hack came in the most simple of ways really, I didn’t feel like a hacker at all. All I did was stay in the room after the speeches. They then wrapped up the day by receiving reports from teams that had been tasked to document the resolutions of the last two and half days. What screamed at me as these submissions were being made and typos were being deliberately fixed was the part that said the ITU had asked ATU to come up with top three challenges they saw and also with top three achievements to pursue in the period 2020-2023.
Here are the three challenges that the African Telecoms Union agreed were pertinent:
- Cyber security, data protection and privacy
- Environmental issues, e-waste and climate change
- Insufficient budget
and true to our African form we had an extra one: Digital divide.
These issues were read out as a list like that and I am not privy to the flesh of the text. I hope I will be able to look at these issues later and discuss why these are pertinent to the African continent if they are. I hope also to then look at the top 3 achievements that our policy makers want to see in 2020-2023.
A note on consensus
My challenge with meetings like these is that they are driven by and towards consensus. Consensus reduces everything to the lowest common denominator and hence thorny issues fall on the sidelines because consensus cannot be reached. Unfortunately, it is the thorny issues that are really important otherwise there is no point in meeting to agree on what we already agree on- that is meeting to establish consensus. However, how else can autocracy be cabbed if not by consensus? That is the paradox of developmental and social issues isn’t it? Life itself is a paradox. I am reminded of the quote, “Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others,” which is attributed to Churchill although it seems not to have originated with him. Anyway, consensus is what we are stuck with and I wish the still ongoing preparatory meetings the best form of consensus achievable.
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