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The Specialized Technical Committees (STCs), which constitute an important technical organ of the African Union (AU), were established under Article 25 of the African Economic Community Treaty (the Abuja Treaty). With the transformation of the OAU into the AU, the STCs were carried over by the Constitutive Act of the African Union under Articles 14 to 16.

The STCs are expected to work in close collaboration with the various departments of the Commission (AUC) so as to provide well-informed inputs in their areas of specialization to the work of the Executive Council. They should also, be involved in monitoring programme development and implementation by the AUC and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on behalf of the Executive Council.

Therefore, the early operationalization of the STCs becomes imperative, given the overall objective of accelerating continental integration and the importance attached to the effective implementation of programmes and projects of the Union. To this end, the Assembly of the Union adopted The Decision; Assembly/AU/Dec.227 (XII) reconfiguring the existing STCs and created one on Communication and Information Technologies called Committee on Communication and ICT (CCICT);

The main activities and objectives of the CCICT in its areas of concern are :

I. Prepare projects and programmes of the Union and submit them to the Executive Council;

II. Ensure the supervision, follow-up and evaluation of the implementation of adopted programmes decisions taken by the organs of the Union;

III. Ensure the coordination and harmonization of projects and programmes of the Union;

IV. Submit to the Executive Council either on its own initiative or at the request of the Executive council reports and recommendations on the implementation of the AU programmes;

V. Carry out any other functions assigned to it for the purpose of ensuring the implementation of the provisions of the African Union Constitutive Act;

VI. Establish African Common e-strategies;

VII. Establish Pan-African TV and Radio Channels;

VIII. Discuss resources mobilization and capacity building for the implementation

IX. Oversee the promotion, co-ordination and the strengthening of CIT programmes for the accelerated economic growth of Africa;

X. Develop mechanisms through which CIT contributes to the establishment of the African information Society;

XI. Promote public investments on CIT infrastructure services and applications;

XII. Develop frameworks for the harmonization policies and regulations in the Continent.

The expected result is a Ministerial declaration with recommendations drawn from the reports, strategies and action plans for projects and programs implementation

ie.au.int/en/CCICT

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