Harmonisation – Our Strategic Business Plan Focus

Regional economic integration has been on the top agenda of the SADC leaders since the 80’s. This regional integration is part of the wider strategy for accelerated equitable economic growth in the region. It has been argued that slow economic development of the region was more prominent due to lack of coordinated effort among the nations.
The intended positive results through this integration are various. The initial intention is to merge the small national markets to relatively larger ones and enable firms to exploit the achieved economies of scale. It is intended that these enlarged markets will provide a fertile ground for both domestic and foreign investment while at the same time increase competition in various markets. The increase in competition may lead to rationalisation of production since domestic firms would be exposed to wider competition and thereby, induced to cut prices, and decreasing internal inefficiencies.
It is not only the gains in the SADC markets that regional integration intends to achieve, the region has also ambitious plans to improve its negotiating power at various international fora and thereby placing the interests of the SADC citizens to be recognised at such fora. The coordination of various positions of SADC countries into a common position would increase credibility, visibility and better negotiating outcomes at the international fora than an individual country could achieve. It has also been recognised that the region has limited knowledge base and the leaders intend to pool and share their available knowledge resources to the betterment of its citizens.
The trend now is that SADC countries are also coordinating their policy reforms to achieve greater credibility and thereby encouraging inward foreign investment. In recognition of this, the ICT regulators in SADC established an Association, Communications Regulators’ Association for Southern Africa (CRASA), whose aim is to promote the establishment of regional harmonised ICT regulatory frameworks and related integrated markets in the region. The SADC ICT regulators saw the need of harmonising their regulations in the bid to create a common ICT market and thereby developing regional competitiveness and economies of scale in the sector.

The Current Journey for CRASA
The journey towards the Common ICT Market still continues. Over the decade CRASA has been formulating the best practice guidelines on regulations to be adopted by its Members in the bid to address the inconsistency in policy content and coordinate the effort in policy and regulatory reform. Various tools have been provided to the regulators in enhancing their capacity to deliver their respective domestic markets from the “natural monopolies” to being liberalised markets.
The speed, at which the region introduced autonomous ICT regulators with exception of a negligible percentage, is a clear indication of the effect that the Association had on policies of the region. Together with the SADC policy makers, the ICT regulators have effected changes which have meant great improvements for consumers.
The provision of enhanced negotiating platform that CRASA has been made available has enabled common strategies and positions of the regional ICT agenda to be formulated and adopted. It has even further become inclusive and allowed the private ICT sector to join the Association as Associate Members. These achievements were enabled by the great will of the CRASA founders and Members and extra investment of resources that they availed to the organisation.

The Next Phase of the Journey
With the pace at which convergences are occurring in the communications world, the challenge to stay a step ahead of these developments by regulators has been an uphill. CRASA need to continue the journey with intense focus on aligning the best practice guidelines on regulations to these developments and ensure that the region is not pushed to the periphery of the digital world.
There is still much more that we need to do to achieve this vision. It is in this regard that CRASA reviewed its vision and goals. The new CRASA vision and goals, which have been developed through various roundtable discussions, set out bold and ambitious plans. Throughout the review of CRASA business plan, the common voice was assurance of speedy harmonisation of ICT regulatory framework which will allow for the regulatory frameworks within the region to be updated and aligned to current developments. The new CRASA vision itself, make clear that more support to the Association is needed if a Common ICT market is to become real. Achieving this dream requires CRASA to work in partnership with various regional and international organisations that also seek to promote harmonisation in policy and regulations.
 The immediate tactics that CRASA intends to follow are:

• CRASA will focus on speedy harmonisation of ICT regulatory framework. The focus had been on establishment of autonomous regulators, now the focus will be on accelerated liberalisation of the markets, harmonisation of pricing and quality of services and benchmarking the progress on adoption of Common best practices in regulation.
• Aligning CRASA Action Plans with relevant regional and international organisations Action Plans with regards to access. The need to avoid SADC region being pushed to the periphery of the digital world is critical and as such review of CRASA plans should reflect the regional and international ICT agendas.
• Ensuring that the regulatory frameworks within the region are updated and aligned to current developments. We will develop a model regulatory map for the region which allow for transparency in the liberalisation of ICT markets. It is critical that all regulators should be obligated to develop their own specific and timetabled action plans towards liberalisation programs. Greater transparency assists in increase in investment by reducing uncertainty.
• Supporting initiatives that will enable increased infrastructure development and promote the provision of high quality and affordable services. CRASA has already set the pace at which it is supporting the regional and international agendas of ICT infrastructure development such as African Union Africa Connect Initiatives, Nepad Broadband Project e.t.c. During the year it hosted a conference on ‘Regional Alliance in Infrastructure Development” which brought together various stakeholders to debate on the best strategies for SADC to roll out ICT infrastructure for increased access.
• Ensuring that scarce resources within the region are managed and allocated in the most efficient way. One of the critical issues at the moment is ensuring that the region migrate to digital broadcasting. CRASA is currently developing the Regional Migration Plan in order to ensure congruent movement. Spectrum usage and management is a critical issue to be looked at.
• Encourage utilisation of regulatory tools ensuring roll out of information and communications networks where the market forces fails to do so. It is recognised that some of the markets especially for fixed services are still with the “natural Monopolies”. It is the intention of CRASA to ensure that in such markets, consumers are being provided with affordable access to ICTs.
• Sensitizing Policy makers and ICT stakeholders on effective regulatory framework that can then create appropriate regulatory environment. The role of the regulator is to advise the Government on issues of ICT regulation and implement the government policies. The changes in the Ministries responsible for ICT in various Member countries urges CRASA to continuously engage in sensitization campaigns as well as making the Policy Makers aware of regulatory changes.
• Maximising synergies with national, regional and international institutions on matters related to ICT capacity building to assist Members in building their institutional capacities. Currently, there are several institutions which are engaged in research and development; and training of ICT issues. We will work with these institutions to increase our Members capacities and ensure that we incorporate them in our journey towards harmonisation of ICT policies and regulations.
• Encouraging the establishment of a Policy Makers and Regulators forum to discuss crucial and current ICT Key issues on legislation and regulatory framework within SADC region. We propose to encourage innovative approach to consultations between policy makers and regulators to allow for real dialogue without generating consultation fatigue. 
• Developing communications Strategy. Redesigning of the website and development of extranet will allow for improved communications.
• Reviewing Specialised Committee’s Mandates to take into account of new developments and ensure vertical and horizontal integration. Currently CRASA has various specialised committees that develop CRASA common positions on regional and international regulatory issues. Mergers will occur of certain committees to benefit from improved efficiencies due to substantive synergies that will be gained from the combined committees.
• Pursuing revenue generation initiatives and subscription model review. It is acknowledged that there are numerous projects lined up for CRASA. However, resources, that are available for such, are limited. CRASA will focus on how to achieve its long term sustainability.