WHO WE ARE (and what we're doing)

We are a group of Tanzanians from various walks of life who have been concerned for some time at the lack of coordination on information communication technologies (ICT) as they impact Tanzania and its development.  A number of key drivers prompted our group to constitute ourselves as an informal association, which we agreed to call the eThink Tank.  Some of our founder members kindly offered to host and facilitate the eThink Tank's early discussion sessions, inviting potential partners in the public and private sectors to engage in dialogue on a weekly basis.

Our first meeting was held on 8^th February 2000 in Dar es Salaam and was followed by scheduled meetings on Thursday evenings at various locations.  Our Information Document (available in the "Documents Archive" of this website) sets out clearly the vision, mission, and goals of the eThink Tank, and the steps we envisaged as at its date of publication, 22nd June 2000.  With the development of our mailing list, in mid-2000, our tradition of weekly meetings was superceded by email communications.  But in order to not lose the value of face-to-face interactions, we also hold   open sessions once in a while, in the form of conferences or workshops where the general public and mass-media organisations are also invited to participate. 

By October 2001, the eThink Tank had grown to over 200 members, mostly senior executives and managers from a wide range of public and private organizations (and not only those specialised in ICT), who have voluntarily chosen to take ownership of the eThink Tank initiative. Members are not only located in Tanzania, but include individuals in far-flung countries including South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, UK, Canada, Japan, USA, the Scandinavian countries, etc.

As part of a public/private/non-profit partnership with UNDP and the Government of Tanzania, the eThink Tank members (eThinkers) "own" the initiative that arrived at establishing the eSecretariat and its Interim Steering Committee, which drafted an ICT policy framework paper for submitting to the Government of Tanzania, in the quest to catalyse the emergence of a national focal point for e-Leadership in Tanzania. Basically, the over-arching goal of eThinkers was to make a proposal to Government to establish a national ICT organization as a focal point to harness ICT for Tanzania's development. Rapid progress was expected once the eThinkers met on 19th October 2001 to endorsed that the draft be finalised for publication

The said policy framework paper was completed and handed over on 13th December 2001 to a special Task Force on National ICT Policy, that had been recently created by the Minister for Communications and Transport, Honourable Professor Mark J. Mwandosya (MP).  This Task Force prepared a draft National ICT Policy document, which was first presented to the general public on 25th May 2002.  The draft was subsequently discussed in numerous fora, including at a special seminar for Members of Parliament in Dodoma during their Budget Seating that same year, as well as through email exchanges on the eThinkTankTz mailing list.

After being greatly enriched by the numerous inputs, which included a study tour of Sweden's ICT industry by courtesy of the Swedish Government, the National ICT Policy document was reviewed, completed and submitted by Honourable Professor Mark J. Mwandosya (MP) to the Cabinet on 6th March 2003.  It received a conditional approval, subject to some adjustments requiring further research, which were completed by July 2003 when the document was published.  A detailed implementation strategy with an institutional framework is currently in preparation, while a host of initiatives are at different stages of taking-off on the strength of the existence of the policy-level recognition of ICT for the development of Tanzania.