If you flip all the way to the back of an older CONNECT magazine, you’ll find the page “GÉANT at a Glance” with the GÉANT Global Connectivity Map proudly displayed. Prompted by the map, I became curious about the international work of GÉANT. How did the map come to look this way? What is the situation in the region where the link lands? And who are the people making it work, either front-of-stage or behind the scenes?
For the first in a series of articles I’ll be writing about the international landscape, I talked to the project managers for AfricaConnect, formerly Cathrin Stöver and currently Leïla Dekkar, and AfricaConnect communications lead Silvia Fiore to help me piece together the history of AfricaConnect, a European Commission co-funded project soon entering its fourth iteration. As AfricaConnect3 comes to an end, this article looks back at the beginnings of AfricaConnect, how the scope of the project developed, and some milestones along the way.
Heads-Up
This article draws on three individual interviews with current GÉANT staff who have been involved in AfricaConnect. The interviews are part of a bigger series tracing GÉANT’s involvement in global activities. While this article does not represent the voices of the African NRENs, RENs, associate partner NRENs, and other stakeholders who are essential in making the project happen, it fully acknowledges the spirit of Ubuntu, which brought the African NREN community together: I am, because we are. We are, because I am.
The early days
Cathrin: “If you want international projects to happen, you need a champion in each and every country that is involved and you need to create strong, interdependent partnerships with the champions and their communities, built on trust and respect.”
Cathrin traces the beginnings of AfricaConnect back to 2005. “At the World Summit of the Information Society in 2005, that was the moment when everybody started talking about the lack of R&E connectivity in the African continent.” By that point, one of GÉANT’s predecessor organisations, DANTE, was already busy supporting the development of new regional networking projects across the globe: EUMEDCONNECT in the Mediterranean, ALICE in Latin America, and TEIN2 in Asia and the Pacific region. 2005 was also the year when the first contact with Francis Tusubira (or “Tusu”) from Makerere University in Uganda and Boubakar Barry from the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal was made.
“Tusu and I completely and immediately clicked. I think we knew from the very first time we met that we could work very well together. I don’t think I have ever had a better mentor than Tusu,” Cathrin recalls. Tusu’s home university was one of the most well-known knowledge hubs in sub-Saharan Africa, bringing many players to the table who had an interest in connecting to the university. Similar to EUMEDCONNECT and ALICE, the goal in the African continent was to support the build-up of regional networks, and that impetus increased with the establishment of the UbuntuNet Alliance – the alliance of NRENs in Eastern and Southern Africa. In 2009, WACREN was created as the West and Central African Research and Education Network under the leadership of Boubakar Barry, and in 2010 ASREN as the Arab States Research and Education Network emerged out of CAMREN and under the leadership of Yousef Torman.
First iteration of AfricaConnect 2011-2014
AfricaConnect set out to plan, procure, build, operate and maintain a dedicated high-capacity data-communications network for R&E communities across Eastern and Southern Africa, the UbuntuNet backbone. By connecting to the pan-European GÉANT network, African NRENs would be able to offer direct high-speed intercontinental connectivity for its users, the fastest possible network routes for their data traffic within Africa and to and from Europe. At the same time, European scientists would finally be able to connect to their African counterparts. The project also aimed to help build the capacity of other sub-Saharan countries so that they could join the project at a later stage.
The project had a total budget of €14.75 million, with 80% of the funding provided by the EDF (European Development Fund) following an agreement between the ACP (Africa Caribbean Pacific Islands programme) secretariat and the European Commission. The remaining 20% of the funding was provided by the many African partners on the basis of a cost-sharing model developed by the UbuntuNet Alliance.
Before AfricaConnect, five African countries were connected to Europe – all of them were connected as part of the EUMEDCONNECT projects, except for South Africa, where TENET had brought connectivity to Europe since the early 2000s. In a 2005 report from the Global VSAT Forum (GVF) on satellite access in Africa, the main challenges for access to the Internet and other telecom services were outlined as “restrictive regulatory frameworks, but also antiquated infrastructure, high fixed costs, low economic and investment activity, diverse geography, language and culture and much more”.
With the budget it had, these core challenges could not be resolved in AfricaConnect. Instead, the circumstances called for innovative approaches, like the cost-share developed by the UbuntuNet Alliance which was based on selling service credits to NRENs so they could participate before being connected, or the procuring of an indefeasible right of use (IRU) for submarine cable systems. The procuring of links was facilitated by new broadband submarine cable systems along the Eastern and Southern coasts of Africa, namely SEACOM (2009) and EASSy (2010).
Cathrin: “The first time we ever procured an IRU was along the east coast of Africa, and with that we unlocked BELLA, and later-on the GN4-3N network refresh. AfricaConnect helped us understand how buying IRUs worked; we had a new way of acquiring capacity all over the world.”
For AfricaConnect, this model meant that the costs of running the network could be handed over to the UbuntuNet Alliance at the end of the AfricaConnect project, as only O&M costs remained. Similarly, the project was reliant on the Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and the ACP countries for reciprocal duty-free access to local markets, meaning that there were no import duties on equipment. Things were falling into place, and at the end of the four-year project WACREN had become involved too.
The second phase of AfricaConnect 2015-2021
AfricaConnect2 saw WACREN and ASREN officially joining, extending the scope of the project to a pan-African level supported by the African Union. The project was set up in three clusters, increasingly relying on local leadership and acknowledging the geographical, cultural, and organizational context of the regions. As the scope increased, so did the funds, and the total contract value of €26.6 million is evidence to that. The European Commission’s DG for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) contributed €20m, with the funding levels adapted to the three clusters. Slowly the NRENs received more recognition, a development that continues today. Leïla points out that a milestone was achieved in the course of AfricaConnect3, with the political recognition of NRENs in the African Union’s 2022 Digital Education Strategy, highlighting the need for strong and sustainable NRENs to promote digital infrastructure for the education sector.
With the extended scope of AfricaConnect, and the increasingly mature business models of some RENs and NRENs, AfricaConnect2 had to manage new challenges around pricing and availability of equipment. The West African connectivity market offered more choice between different providers, but prices were a lot higher, and monopolies could still easily block efforts to procure dedicated capacity for research and education.
The third phase 2019-2024/5
At the end of 2019, the UbuntuNet Alliance, WACREN and ASREN, in partnership with GÉANT, signed a €37.5 million contract agreement with the European Commission for AfricaConnect3. The project has become a success story, and AfricaConnect3 counts 35 member countries with a total of 40 participating R&E organisations. The NRENs in Africa are evolving in a way that is very different from their European counterparts. The traditional model, centred on connectivity, is no longer enough. The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced this new reality, making it clear that NRENs must go beyond the network to offer value-added services that directly support institutions and research communities (see this 2021 AfricaConnnect interview for more information).
Leïla: “To be a student or a researcher in the 21st century, you need connectivity, you need ICT services, you need the right devices, and the skills and digital literacy to work with them.”
As connectivity costs decrease, a big priority will be to expand the NRENs’ service portfolios. Depending on the country and region, that could mean edtech solutions like Moodle, access to digital publications, cloud services, open science, hands-on IT support, and much more. As AfricaConnect has grown and connectivity has become much more of a commodity, the project has also started to embrace a broader paradigm: connectivity is a first step, the ultimate goal is to foster sustainable economic growth and development.
Leïla: “What is achieved in AfricaConnect at the regional level needs to be complementary with the hard work of the NRENs and the research institutions at the national level to be impactful. In AfricaConnect3 we started to see a significant joint effort from multiple stakeholders: African governments, development partners (e.g. World Bank, European Union), the Internet Society and institutions contributing financially to fill the gaps.”
Highlighting the achievements of the project and the community is a crucial part of achieving that sustainability. The communications team behind AfricaConnect3 has worked tirelessly to bring these achievements to the forefront, be it through workshops, dedicated material, or an impact analysis of the African NRENs’ contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It is a team effort, and much like AfricaConnect itself, the work of the communications team is driven by colleagues in the NRENs and RRENs who know how to tailor messages to resonate with their respective audiences effectively.
Silvia: “Visibility, engagement, and advocacy. Those three pillars drive AfricaConnect’s communications strategy. Without strategic communication, the world would not see the vital role NRENs play in increasing Africa’s digital inclusion.”
AfricaConnect3 concludes in April 2025, and preparations for AfricaConnect4 are underway. 20 years after the World Summit of the Information Society in 2005, where everybody started talking about Africa, the project has become a success story. Beyond university end-users profiting from the NRENs and RENs services portfolio, the project has led to decreased bandwidth prices throughout Africa, improved career opportunities and access to education, and built a community that will continue its work into and beyond the next phase of AfricaConnect.
Curious to read more about GÉANT’s international activities? On connect.geant.org you will soon find a designated space for articles and interviews focused on our global links, the regions to which they link the GÉANT Network, and the people making it happen.
