Introduction - The Kingdom of Eswatini

The Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland) is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered by South Africa to the North, South and West and Mozambique to the East. Eswatini consists of four administrative regions (Hhohho, Manzini, Lubombou, and Shiselweni) as shown in the map. It has a surface area of 17,363 square kms. The population is estimated at 1.087 million inhabitants (est July 2018 CIA World FactBook) with a literacy rate of 87.5%. 61.8 percent of the total population is between 15 and 64 years of age. Mbabane, the capital city, has a population of 68,000 (2018, CIA World Factbook). The official languages are English and Siswati. Eswatini is classified as a low middle-income developing country with a GDP per capita of US$9,800 (2016 est).

In relation to Communications, Eswatini has three telecommunications service providers (Eswatini Posts and Telecommunication Corporation, Eswatini Mobile and Eswatini MTN) with over 80% mobile penetration. The country's backbone infrastructure is NGN and is connected to the SEACOM undersea cable through Maputo, Mozambique. For redundancy, more connections to Telkom and Broadband Infranco in South Africa have been established. For Telkom links, cables exit through Ngwenya and Lavumisa and for Infranco, cables exit through Mahamba terminating at Terraco. Fibre optic is laid throughout the country. There are thirteen Internet providers including the Government Computer Services Department and 414,724 Internet users representing 28.6% penetration (July 2016 est). According to 2016 figures (CIA World FactBook), there were 44,612 fixed phone lines compared with 967,262 mobile phones. The National Internet Exchange Point (IXP) was put in place in April 2014. Free Internet access is planned to be provided to schools and hospitals through an ITU and Wanderport Eswatini projects.

There is one public university (the University of Eswatini) and four private institutions of Higher Education: The Southern Nazarene University, Limkokwing University, the Christian Medical University, which opened in August 2013 and Amadi.

ICT Background

The major policies in the ICT sector include:

- The Eswatini Post and Telecommunications Corporation Act of 1983 (revised 2013)

This Act of Parliament regulated the Communication Industry until 2013 under the Ministry of information Communication and Technology. A new Law (Eswatini Communications Commission Act 2013) replaced this Act in July 2013 and liberalised the telecommunication industry by establishing an Independent regulator.

- ICT Policy 2004 (subsumed by NICI Policy 2006)

Within Government, IT services are provided by the Government Computer Services (GCS) Department which is responsible for providing efficient and cost-effective Information Technology (IT) services to all Government Ministries and Departments, and to respond to parastatal and public enterprise organizations. It will do this by:

- Assisting clients to manage Information by leveraging on ICTs;

- Setting up and maintaining a reliable network infrastructure;

- Providing a secure environment for data;

- Keeping abreast of ICT Development regionally/internationally by attending seminars, subscribing to ICT Publications

- Developing its IT Human resource to sustain on going as well as planned development

The NICI Policy 2006 subsumed the ICT Policy 2004.

- National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) Policy 2006

This Policy, which is under the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology was approved by Cabinet in August 2006. Subsequent to this an implementation plan has been developed with assistance from the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) a UN agency through its Subregional Office (ECA-SA), and the Government of Finland, through the Cooperation in the Development of Information and Communications Technologies in Africa Programme. The National Information and Communication Infrastructure Implementation Plan for 2012-2016 (NICI Plan 2016) is based on the principles espoused in the National Development Strategy (NDS) and will guide Eswatini in the exploitation of (ICT) as a catalyst in the national development efforts.

- STI Policy 2012

The STI Policy is a more recent development but the efforts to develop the policy started more than a decade ago. This policy is within the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology and was developed with assistance from UNESCO and approved by Cabinet in April 2012. The vision of this policy is: Harnessing, utilising and advancing STI in order to become an innovative and competent nation, thus achieving the goals of Vision 2022 (NDS).

The Department of Research, Science, Technology and Innovation (RSTI) under the Ministry of Information, Communication and technology has embarked on an important exercise of developing, reviewing and amending all STI Policy regimes aimed at creating an enabling environment for research and development. The department has also been given a mandate to operationalize the newly established Royal Science Technology Park, which was established in terms of the Royal Sciences Technology Park Act, 23 of 2012. The Department of RSTI is currently reviewing the National Research, Science and Innovation Policy of 2012. The department is also reviewing the National Research Council Bill, which was drafted in funding from United Nation Development Programme (UNDP). The Bill is envisaged to resuscitate the defunct National Research Council, which was initially established in 1974.

As part of the policy review process, in December 2016, the department of RSTI collaborated with the Central Statistics Office in the Ministry of Economic Planning, Royal Eswatini Technology Park (RSTP), Eswatini Economic and Policy Analysis (SEPARC) and the University of Eswatini (UNISWA) in hosting an in-country training workshop on Research, Experimental Development & Innovation data collection and analysis, for the production of related internationally comparable core indicators. NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) and UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS Dakar) facilitated this workshop. The Ministry of ICT commissioned the Royal Science and Technology Parks and Eswatini Economic Policy Analysis and Research Centre to conduct a National Research & Development and Innovation Survey in March 2017. The survey results were then utilized to draft policy briefs, which will be used for the policy review exercise and publication in the third edition of the African Innovation Outlook (AIO).

The reviewed National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy is in line with the country's National Development Strategy (NDS) and Vision 2022. The reviewed policy is also in line with the international and Regional Frameworks and Strategies.

The country is also in the process of developing its Bioeconomy strategy to enable operationalization of the Biotechnology Park.

In an endeavour to strengthen the national system of innovation the country is also angaged in the following activities:

- A constitution for the academy of science has been drafted with the assistance of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

- In the process of signing memorandum of understanding with the Republic of South Africa, Kenya and Mozambique on Research, Science and Technology. This MOUs will enable the country to fund research in a cost effective manner. The MOU between the Republic of Mozambique and the Kingdom will be signed in January 2019, with the MOUs between the Kingdom and the Republic of South Africa and Kenya due to be signed by March 2019.

- The country has also engaged TWAS to assist with the development of the national WISET chapter in line with Regional Frameworks and Strategies

- The country is in the process of developing the Indegenous Knowledge System Policy in line with SADC Frameworks and Strategies

- Eswatini Communications Commission Act 2013

The Swaziland Communications Commission Act empowered the Swaziland Communications Commission as an independent regulator in July 2013. It is now responsible for regulating and supervising the operations of electronic communications networks and the provision of electronic communications services in Swaziland, including the regulation of data protection in electronic communications. The Act transfered the regulatory powers and functions of Swaziland Posts and Telecommunication Corporation relating to communications, as provided under the Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Act, 1983 to the Commission. The Commission regulates the Communications industry and may also advise government on policy and legislative measures, including radio and television broadcasts, postal services, electronic commerce and data protection in electronic communications. More information is available on the government website www.gov.sz

- Electronic Communications Act of 2013 (ECA): sets the tone for the transformation purpose of EPTC. gave EPTC exclusivity to construct, maintain and operate the national backbone infrastructure, which includes the international gateway. makes it compulsory for EPTC to create a subsidiary Telecoms Company that will operate in the retail space.

- Cyber Security Laws:

Swaziland is in the process of developing cyber security laws:

- Computer Crime and Cybercrime Bill, 2017: criminalise offences involving computers and network related crimes.

- Data Protection Bill, 2017: shall govern the collection, use, disclosure and care of personal data.

- The Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill, 2017: shall regulate electronic transactions and electronic communications, facilitate the use of e-government services and ensure the protection of consumers.