The Smart Africa Alliance is a Public-Private platform dedicated to shaping and driving Africa’s Digital Transformation. Launched in 2013 by seven African Heads of State, the Alliance has grown to 22 member countries and dozens of private sector and academia members. Its founding members include the African Union Commission (AUC), the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), African Telecommunications Union (ATU), New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the GSM Association (GSMA) and ICANN.
The Transform Africa Summit held in Kigali, Rwanda on 28th-31st October 2013 saw the adoption of the Smart Africa Manifesto document by 7 African Heads of States in which they committed to providing leadership in accelerating socio-economic development through ICTs.
On 30th-31st January 2014, The SMART Africa Manifesto was endorsed by all Heads of State and Government of the African Union at the 22nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa.
This development places the Manifesto at the heart of the ICT agenda in Africa beyond just the 7 original signatories at the Summit to all the 53 African countries.
The Alliance is a framework for implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the SMART Africa Manifesto, designed to make it actionable. Currently, the Alliance is a partnership bringing together all African countries adhering to the Manifesto represented by the AU, the ITU, World Bank, AfDB, ECA, the GSMA, ICANN and the Private Sector.
Besides its initial membership, other organizations and countries sharing the same vision, interests and goals will be admitted to the Alliance.
The SMART Africa has 5 pillars which reflect the 5 principles of the Smart Africa Manifesto. These pillars are
The pillars mentioned above are built on four, cross-cutting enablers which will support the implementation of SMART Africa. These enablers are