Mozambique, Maputo, 9-10 May 2005

Connectivity Africa (CA) together with the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the partnership for higher education in Africa, the World Bank, Open Society Institute for Southern Africa (OSISA) met in a discussion at the Open Access Conference to facilitate cooperation amongst donors in African university networking.

A the AAU (Association of African Universities) 11th General Conference held in February, in Cape Town, the university vice chancellors approved that the AAU start working on supporting a universities bandwidth consortium following PAREN study presentation. The Open Access Conference was an opportunity to present the outcomes of the recent study commissioned by Connectivity Africa to profile the extent of support and commitment for funding potential initiatives for research and education networking in Africa. The report, prepared by Kate Wild of Information for Development, profiled over forty organizations and identified their support for bandwidth management in African universities, for national research and education networks (NRENs), and for regional research networks.

Participants of the conference agreed on Connectivity Africa's various levels of support required to enhance university networking. the next steps will be to support African participants in the Internet2 meeting in Philadelphia in September 2005, leading up to a universities networking meeting in Tunis on 14 November at the WSIS . Donors will continue to support country level meetings to assist in discussions to form national research and education networks.

• Full version of PAREN Investment Report
• Executive Summary