AU-EU: Digital transformation of HE, connectivity discussed

The African and European unions have outlined measures to promote AU-EU digital cooperation for developing skilled human resources, along with promoting digital innovation and entrepreneurship for job creation.

The measures for setting up an AU-EU partnership for digital transformation were unveiled during the first Africa-Europe Digital for Development (D4D) Hub Multi-Stakeholder Forum, which took place virtually on 18 March 2022, under the theme ‘Digital Transformation for Sustainable Development in Africa’. The forum was co-hosted by the African Union Commission and the European Commission.

The AU-EU Digital for Development (D4D) Hub supports African institutions in creating an enabling environment for an inclusive digital transformation through providing demand-driven technical assistance as well as promoting knowledge sharing and facilitating dialogues.

The digital transformation partnership is the first step in implementing the declaration of the sixth European Union-African Union Summit 2022.

It is in line with EU Global Gateway, a strategy set out to boost smart, clean and secure investments in connectivity, the AU Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa 2020-30, which aims to transform Africa’s economies and societies by harnessing digital technologies and the outcomes of the 35th AU Summit 2022, which called for the acceleration of Africa’s quality infrastructure development.

Digital transformation partnership

Ana Pisonero Hernandez, a European Commission spokesperson, told University World News that a “key topic of the forum was connectivity”.

Since only 43% of people in Africa have access to the internet, compared to a world average of 64%, closing the digital divide has become a top priority in AU-EU relations.

Thus, under the partnership, the EU will scale up investments, support innovation, and sees bridging the digital divide as a key in fighting inequalities.

The partnership will also focus on investing and supporting digital skills development using best practices to support local digital innovation for job creation.

Hernandez said: “In order to ensure that digital transformation of African universities translates into sustainable development on the entire continent, the EU will include vulnerable groups, women and girls, in digital skills training and entrepreneurship initiatives.

“It is essential to tackle the digital divide, recognise its existence and address it through targeted measures,” the spokesperson emphasised.

She added: “The perfect illustration of the digital gender divide is the huge under-representation of women in ICT careers. Men are four times more likely to be an ICT specialist than women.

“Also, digital skills should not be seen as purely technical skills, but rather as digital competences that also encompass soft skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and collaboration.

“As such, digital competences do not only prepare the youth for the 21st-century economy, but also for 21st-century citizenship. With this perspective, digital transformation of the African universities is ever more important,” Hernandez added.

The partnership will also focus on building Africa’s digital infrastructure and develop human resources to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in the education sector, among others.

Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, an AU commissioner for infrastructure and energy, was quoted by the European Commission as saying: “The African Union welcomes the enhanced partnership with the European Union that is based on respect, transparency, equal opportunity, [a]win-win approach and agreed tangible outcome and further engagement with African and European stakeholders to accelerate the digital transformation of our continent.”

Significance for universities in Africa

Hernandez said one of the forum’s recommendations was that joint AU-EU investments should address last-mile connectivity.

This would allow, for example, to connect public institutions such as schools, universities and training centres to the internet and facilitate blended or hybrid learning.

“In this way, students’ access to the open and free internet for self-study and connecting them to the global research community would be ensured,” Hernandez said.

According to her, many of the African universities are already jointly organising themselves through National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in order to ensure high-speed and stable connectivity at an affordable price.

“Through AfricaConnect3, the third phase of the Africa Connect project, the EU collaborates closely with the regional networking organisations that bring together and support these NRENs, in order to provide reliable internet connectivity for the teaching, learning and research communities of Africa,” Hernandez pointed out.

Expanding further, Anriette Esterhuysen, a senior adviser on internet governance, policy advocacy and strategic planning at the Association for Progressive Communications, told University World News: “The forum can give African universities insight into the opportunities and areas of interest for research, linked to current discussions on Africa-Europe partnership.”

“I hope that the outcome of the forum does create the opportunity for partnerships that can increase capacity in African universities, through the NRENs, through support for graduate programmes on internet governance and data governance, to mention a few areas,” added Esterhuysen, who was a speaker at the forum session entitled ‘The Global Gateway in action: Advancing digital transformation and joint infrastructure projects on digital connectivity’.

“We need African research and development (R&D) and African universities are the most appropriate institutions to grow African R&D programmes.

“Partnerships, including with European institutions, can contribute to meeting African research and development needs as well as play a role in building awareness of African innovation on the global stage,” said Esterhuysen.

African universities’ role in digital transformation

“African universities have historically played an important role in finding solutions for Africa’s challenge,” Esterhuysen said.

“In fact, ‘community networks’, one of the locally driven solutions to bridge the access divides, have benefited enormously from work done at African universities – research into technical solutions and business models.

“The role of institutions is critical to sustainable people-centred and development-oriented deployment of the open internet in Africa,” Esterhuysen emphasised.

“Just building internet infrastructure is not enough,” she said.

“As some of the speakers at the forum said, there needs to be investment in ‘supply’ – the availability of infrastructure – and in ‘demand’ – the people and institutions with the capacity to use the infrastructure – for content, for education, for cultural heritage, local language development, good governance and more,” she said.

According to her, African universities are essential institutions in stimulating such demand.

Expanding further, Henk Sol, emeritus professor of business and ICT and founding dean of the faculty of economics and business, University of Groningen in Netherlands, told University Word News: “African universities have a long-standing reputation with e-learning, such as the University of South Africa, known colloquially as UNISA, and the Open University of Tanzania.

“African higher education and universities can play an important role in digital transformation by developing specific BSc, MSc and PhD programmes in co-operation with European partners,” added Sol, who was a speaker at the forum session entitled, ‘Investing in digital skills to unleash Africa’s digital entrepreneurship and innovation potential’.

“[The] focus should be on addressing issues that matter and engaged scholarship,” Sol emphasised.