We began
discussions with the African Union's Representational Mission to the United States of America
in Washington, DC,
by writing to Her Excellency Ambassador Amina Salum Ali in late July 2007.
In reply,
we were invited to meet with her. On 6 September 2007, we discussed a number of
issues relating to a cooperative relationship that will benefit the African
Union.
We continued to have periodic discussions with the African Union, utilizing the
NEPAD Council as our liaison representative. In late June 2008, at the
direct invitation of the African Union to do so, we presented a preliminary written proposal for consideration.
 —
Download our
correspondence of 23 June 2008.
Further Correspondence with African Union
Letter
dated 11 August 2009 to AU Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy
Contains
Technology Readiness Assessment regarding the SWANsat System. Also includes
a fax copy of a determination letter issued by the U.S. Department of State
(and referencing a communication from the U.S. Department of Commerce),
dated 10 August but delivered to SWANsat Holdings on 11 August, showing that
the SWANsat Technology Readiness Assessment is not subject to export
restrictions.
Technology
Readiness Assessment
with DoS and DoC determination letters included
Letter
dated 11 August 2009 in RE Landing Rights and AUric Gold Standard
to AU
Draft
Note Verbale in RE Landing Rights in Microsoft Word DOC file
format
Draft
Note Verbale in RE Landing Rights in Adobe PDF format
Draft
Note Verbale in RE AUric Gold Standard in Microsoft Word DOC file
format
Draft
Note Verbale in RE AUric Gold Standard in Adobe PDF format
Joint Interest Agreements
On 17
July 2009 the SWANsat System and Global Settlement Foundation (GSF)
entered into a
Memorandum of Understanding and Joint Interest
Agreement which delegates the
management of the AUric to the GSF.
PGP
Signatures:
GSF
SWANsat
MetaNET
Keys:
GSF
SWANsat
MetaNET
On 6
August 2009 NEPAD Council and GSF entered into a
Memorandum of Understanding and Joint Interest
Agreement to promote the use of the
pan-African AUric as a deliverable unit of account in Africa. Dr. James
Kajete has accepted the dual roles of GSF Liaison from NEPAD Council and
Europe-Africa Chair from the GSF.
PGP
Signatures:
GSF
NEPAD Council
Keys:
GSF
NEPAD Council
 The
NEPAD Council is lobbying on behalf of
SWANsat by recommending that the AU grant landing rights to SWANsat in return for SWANsat providing 200 free video channels to each member state of the AU
and to the AU's Office of the Secretariat. The
NEPAD Council endorses SWANsat as
a
worthwhile initiative for Africa, provided the promised €1 per 2 Meg/second
of symmetric bandwidth for third world countries will indeed be achievable.
We will be willing to endorse the project based on that assumption.
After a
series of negotiations and discussion regarding the wording of a formal
agreement, we sent a final draft for signature. The
NEPAD Council ratified the agreement on 16 November 2007.
—
Download PDF
Version of Joint Interest Agreement with Draft AU Note Verbale.
Then
on 28 September 2007 we wrote to the
NEPAD Council with a proposal by which
NEPAD Council would provide support to
SWANsat regarding liaison representation on our behalf before the African
Union.
—
Download our
letter of 28 September to NEPAD Council.
We'll be presenting
a special tutorial workshop
on how SWANsat will serve as
a modern Marshall Plan for the African Union at the
NEPAD Council's ICT Africa 2008
conference from 13-15 February 2008 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
ICT Africa 2008
will address a wide range of ICT issues in Africa.
The conference
will bring together engineers, developers, leaders, managers, educators,
financiers, and representatives from all over Africa. We will present a
printed white paper to the conference, as well as a PowerPoint presentation:
—
Download
Our White Paper On How to Bring ICT to the African Union by 2013.
—
Download
Our PowerPoint Presentation for the ICT Africa 2008 Conference.
The NEPAD Council has begun publication of a quarterly magazine concerning issues of interest to the
African Union business community. As of June 2009, the inaugural edition
was to feature prominently a cover story on the SWANsat project. Click on the links below to
read pre-publication drafts of this main article, which is entitled
Low-cost ICT: Golden Key to Africa's Economic Future:
Download Microsoft
Word DOC file
or Adobe
PDF file
We were also asked to
contribute a second article on our Gold Standard proposal. Click on the links below to
read early pre-publication drafts of this second article, which is entitled
On Letting Justice Roll Down: Introducing an Honest
Gold Standard for Africa:
Download
Microsoft
Word DOC file or Adobe
PDF file
Click on the link below to
download both articles in a single PDF file:
Adobe
PDF file showing Low-cost ICT article
as lead
Adobe
PDF file with cover mockup showing Low-cost ICT article
as lead
We were asked
to produce an edition of our gold standard article to reflect interest by
the Republic of Zimbabwe:
Download
Microsoft
Word DOC file
or
Adobe
PDF file
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