The Regional ICT Support Programme is funded by the 9th European Development Fund (EDF) and is a development framework between: Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC). Overall responsibility for the implementation of the RICTSP lies with the Secretary General of COMESA, as Regional Authorising Officer (RAO).

 

The overall objective of RICTSP is to contribute to the regional integration agenda through an effective and efficient Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) environment which will reduce the costs of trade and investment and thereby stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty. The purpose is to achieve a reduction in the digital divide by removing some of the constraints to the efficient use of ICT.

 

Responsibility for Programme components with a specific bearing on the other participating RIOs (EAC, IGAD and IOC) has been delegated to the Secretary General/Executive Secretary of these organisations, in their capacities as Deputy Regional Authorising Officers (DRAOs). Overall coordination and monitoring will be ensured through the Technical Steering Committee (TSC). The Programme Manager, under the authority of the RAO, and through the COMESA Director of Infrastructure Development Division, will be responsible for day-to-day coordination and monitoring of the Programme, assisted by ICT Coordinators at COMESA, EAC, IGAD and IOC Head Quarters.

 

In the context of RICTSP implementation, the beneficiary countries have been placed under the responsibility of the ICT Coordinators based at the Head Quarters of the Regional Integration Organisations. The following table lists the respective countries, and provides an indication of where French (F) is the first language:

 

COMESA	IOC	EAC	IGAD
Angola	Comoros (F)	Kenya	Djibouti (F)
Burundi (F)	Madagascar (F)	Tanzania	Eritrea
DR Congo (F)	Mauritius	Uganda	Ethiopia
Malawi	Seychelles		Somalia
Rwanda (F)			Sudan
Swaziland
Zambia
Zimbabwe

A National ICT Working Group (NWG) has been set up in each beneficiary country, which will be responsible for Programme activities to achieve the expected results, and will report to Senior Government officials and respective national policy organs.

A service contract is in place between COMESA and Danish Management (DM), Denmark, which provides for the Programme Manager based at COMESA, the four ICT Coordinators at COMESA, IOC, EAC and IGAD, and short-term experts (STEs) to carry out specific activities. The Contracting Authority for RICTSP is COMESA. However, all STEs will enter into a contract directly with Danish Management.