Academic literature on the topic 'White Citizens' Councils'

Together with the city council elections, the citizens of Antwerp elected on 8 October 2000 nine district councils. This new decentralised political level is primarily initiated to restore the confidence of the citizens in the city (and district) government(s). By analysing the results of the city and the district elections we try to find indications whether citizens feel closer to their new district governments or not. Apparently district elections resulted neither in a higher voter turn-out, nor in less blank votes. Nevertheless, there is a significant correlation of voter turn-out and blank votes with population (density) of the districts. And although the differences between the electoral results of the city elections and the district elections are not huge, a different political landscape comes more or less into existence in the several districts. Quite surprisingly the number of list votes is higher on the district elections than on the city elections, while we would have expected a higher number of preferential votes. Correctingfor incumbents and famous candidates on the lists, our initial expectations hold much better. Generally spoken, we can conclude that the district elections do not give much proof of a closer connection between the citizens and the city government. Nevertheless we find some important differences between the districts.

The use of mobile instant messaging services is increasing among citizens. Applications like WhatsApp, with more than 2 billion users around the world, have changed the way we communicate. The objective of this research is to know how citizens make use of the WhatsApp service launched by the town hall of their municipality of residence. To do so, an online survey was carried out on 1202 citizens residing in Spain. The sample has been stratified considering the size of the municipality of residence of the respondents. The results show that the City Council’s WhatsApp service has greater penetration in smaller municipalities (up to 10,000 inhabitants). Therefore, these citizens would show more serious concern for local politics than the rest. Regarding its use, it stands out how residents in small municipalities use it more for informational purposes, while residents in medium municipalities (from 10,001 to 100,000 inhabitants) and large municipalities (more than 100,001 inhabitants) participate more and use it more frequently to register for the services offered by the City Council, as well as to raise doubts about the management run by the municipal corporation.

Abstract As part of the formulation of the first National Water Plan (NWP) in Uruguay, a mini-public process called ‘Citizen Deliberation on Water (Deci Agua)’ was developed in 2016. While the draft of the plan was being discussed in the formal arenas of water governance (Basin Commissions and Regional Water Resources Councils), a University research team (led by the authors), in coordination with the national water authority, adapted the mechanism of consensus conferences in order to incorporate the citizens’ visions and to contribute to public understanding of the NWP challenges. This article analyses the main aspects of the developed participation strategy and discusses them regarding a set of quality criteria used to evaluate deliberative processes. Although the final version of the NWP (passed by decree in 2017) incorporated some of the contributions of the Citizen Panel, an in-depth analysis of the scope of the deliberative process of Deci Agua allows us to delve into some key aspects related to the quality of participation processes and the challenges. A mixed approach that combines stakeholder participation and lay citizens is novel and desirable in water governance since it increases the scope of participation, deepens the legitimacy of decision-making and improves the public debate.

The main objective of this study is to explore the challenges of engaging citizens in urban disaster management (UDM) in the urban fire, waterlogging, and pandemic like COVID 19. A qualitative research approach, mainly in-depth interview method was applied to gain insights from different government officials of civil defense, police force, and ward councilors of Dhaka and Chattogram City Corporations, who were experienced in working at the field level UDM. The study tried to investigate the challenges faced by the officials during disaster rescue operations with special reference to the role of urban citizens. The findings of the study capture, in detail, the challenges faced by different personnel involved in UDM operations. While citizen engagement is expected to be a positive notion, in most cases, citizens themselves become the main obstacle of disaster management, due to their ignorance, negligence, and lack of patience in the given disastrous and pandemic situation, and thus, hinders UDM operations and crisis management. The lessons learned from contemporary urban disasters like fire and the COVID 19 pandemic are recorded elaborately. Based on that, different recommendations are made to ensure the active engagement of citizens to facilitate UDM activities in an orderly manner.

Unlike the Senate of Republican Rome, this essay argues that councils were not the dominant or governing power in Greek oligarchies. Together with powerful officials and other powerful individuals, citizen assemblies mainly governed oligarchies, but admission to oligarchic assemblies was restricted by wealth. Before Solon, did the Areopagos Council govern oligarchic Athens? The principal source for this claim, [Arist.] Ath. Pol. 2-8, at least assigns the early Areopagos a broad judicial competence. Where did Ath. Pol.’s notion come from, and what is it worth? Although ‘some people’ (Aristotle) or ‘most people’ (Plutarch) believed that Solon established the Areopagos Council, Ath. Pol. (and also Aristotle and Plutarch) rejected that notion, possibly because along with others, Ath. Pol. and Aristotle thought that Solon founded Athens’ democracy, while for fourth century conservatives the early Areopagos was non-democratic. In part the competence of Ath. Pol.’s pre-Solonian Areopagos derives from and expanded its Solonian competence in Ath. Pol. 8.4, so that for Ath. Pol. democratic Solon will have reduced the Areopagos’ powers. In part it derives from fourth century conservative propaganda. This evidence is inadequate to claim that the Areopagos Council governed oligarchic Athens.

People rely on power plants to generate the electricity needed to run much of their lives. Power plants, though, are typically not the domain of the average citizen. Even if they stand near homes, schools, and other important places, the operations inside, not to mention the many social and environmental impacts outside, largely lack the scrutiny of most citizens. Is this a problem, especially when some governmental oversight already regulates the plants’ operations? The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) defines the main purpose of social studies education as creating effective citizens. This article describes an interdisciplinary unit of study by middle-grades youth about a proposed power plant in their city of Lansing, Michigan. It shows students scrutinizing the complex power plant issue through a variety of experiences and from different angles. While supporting NCSS’ stance on the teaching of citizenship, we call for a conception of citizenship extending beyond human communities and structures to the community of the earth and all living beings. We also encourage social studies teachers to take up the work of teaching for ecological citizenship.

This article examines a case of participatory budgeting in Japanese local government. The article demonstrates how cultural values interact with stages of budgeting (in our case, the co-planning or consultation phase of budgeting). We find three key stakeholders – councillors, administrators and citizens – have varying degree of participation in the budget process. While direct citizen participation has been limited and challenging, we find that local associations and councillors work as lobbyists to influence the budget less publicly. The budget desk led by the mayor plays the dominant role. This article contributes to the broader debate on local government reforms and their translation into varied contexts by problematising such a linear adoption of knowledge from a cultural perspective. Points for practitioners We offer caution to policymakers about the wholesale adoption of knowledge from one context to the other. In the Japanese context, we urge them to draw on the strengths of grouping behaviour. Hence, engagement with associations, communities and various interests groups must be emphasised instead of simply relying on direct yet remote communications to citizens. Political engagements by the departments – perhaps via political parties – can be adopted before budget proposals are made to the local authority council. This will allow more space for the councillors to make their case to citizens, and maintain harmony ( wa) within and between political groups.

This study aims to strengthen the democratic character of young citizens in an educational environment. In detail, this study's objectives are to (1) establish a democratic character for young citizens in schools, and (2) strengthen democratic character in young citizens in the classroom. This article is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach investigating the reinforcement of the democratic character of young citizens. The data were gathered using in-depth interview techniques. The validity tests consisted of three activities, namely: 1) data reduction, 2) data presentation, and 3) drawing conclusions or verification. The research results suggest that the strengthening of democratic character for young citizens has been provided through school and classroom activities. Schools play a role in strengthening students' democratic character through activities such as student council and extracurricular activities that facilitate students to develop their democratic character. Simultaneously, the teacher reinforces students’ democratic character in class while teaching. The reinforcement of democratic character is carried out so that students know that they have equal rights as students in the classroom and school

Abstract This article examines the means by which Israel has sought to fulfill the contradictory goals involved with maintaining contacts with emigrants while simultaneously sustaining a national mission that asserts Jews can only achieve fulfilment, security, and self-determination by residing in their own country. It describes three successive approaches by which Israel and the larger global Jewish community have addressed the challenges associated with Israeli emigration. These are condemnation, pragmatic acceptance, and the assent of the Israeli American Council.

In the early Cold War decades, the Citizens’ Councils of America (CCA) became the flagship conservative right-wing social movement organization (SMO). As part of its organizational activities, it engaged in a highly sophisticated propaganda effort to mobilize pro-segregationist opinion, merging traditional racist arguments with modern Cold War geopolitics to characterize civil rights activism and federal civil rights reforms as an effort to bring about a tyrannical, Soviet-inspired, dictatorship. Through a content discourse analysis, this research aims to contribute to understanding what factors determine how SMO’s deploy propaganda rhetoric. The main hypothesis is that geopolitical factors, defined here as specific geographic contexts in which sociopolitical issues are situated and from which propaganda rhetoric is deployed, are influential determinants. Since SMO rhetoric reflects its larger ideological orientation, SMO ideology is also influenced by geopolitical factors. For comparative analysis, propaganda literature from the Ku Klux Klan, as well as elite segregationist rhetoric from the same period is included. Relying on frame theory all rhetoric is quantitatively analyzed centering on the question of what factors drive SMO frame messaging. To contribute to frame theory a concept is proposed called frame constellation, which is a web of SMO frame rhetoric and symbolism that functions as an overlapping, intersecting and interrelated system of ideas which revolve around a central intellectual logic for collective action.

abstract: Rhetorical theorist Kenneth Burke has asserted the significance of paying equal, if not more attention to, propagandist rhetoric, arguing that "there are other ways of burning books on the pyre-and the favorite method of the hasty reviewer is to deprive himself and his readers by inattention." Despite Burke's exhortation, attention to white supremacist discourse has been relatively meager. Historians Clive Webb and Charles Eagles have called for further research on white supremacy arguing that attention to white supremacist discourse is important both to fully understand and appreciate pro-civil rights rhetoric in context and to develop a more complex understanding of white supremacist rhetoric. This thesis provides a close examination of the literature and rhetoric of two white supremacist organizations: the Citizens' Council, an organization that sprang up in response to the 1954 landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education and Stromfront.org, a global online forum community that hosts space for supporters of white supremacy. Memory scholars Barbie Zelizer, John Bodnar, and Stephen Brown note the usability of memory to shape social, political, and cultural aspects of society and the potential implications of such shaping. Drawing from this scholarship, the analysis of these texts focuses specifically on the rhetorical shaping of memory as a vehicle to promote white supremacy. Through an analysis of the Citizens' Council's use of historical events, national figures and cultural stereotypes, Chapter 1 explicates the organization's attempt to form a memorial narrative that worked to promote political goals, create a sense of solidarity through resistance, and indoctrinate the youth in the ideology of white supremacy. Chapter 2 examines the rhetorical use of memory on Stormfront and explains how the website capitalizes upon the wide reaching global impact of World War II to construct a memorial narrative that can be accessed by a global audience of white supremacists. Ultimately, this thesis offers a focused review of the rhetorical signatures of two white supremacist groups with the aim of combating contemporary instantiations of racist discourse.
Dissertation/Thesis
M.A. English 2013

More than fifteen years after the introduction of direct election, the mayors are still the most popular politicians in Italy. The personal relationship set up with the citizens and the strengthening of the city councils has restored energy and stability to the action of the municipal administrations. Nevertheless, these institutional reforms, while important, have failed to guarantee good government. The effects of the mayoral reform are, in fact, considerably different from one city to another, and from one type of policy to another. What does this variety of results derive from? The book provides an answer to this question through an investigation of the decisional processes of around a hundred "local collective assets" in six large metropolitan cities. To explain the different outcomes – in addition to the "council effect", that is, the relevance of policy, and the "sector effect", the relevance of the different decisional milieus – the authors also underscore the role of the "governance effect", namely the different approaches to decision-making and building consensus on urban policies.

Massive resistance to the civil rights movement has often been presented as sequestered in the South, limited to the decade between the Brown Decision and the Civil Rights Act, and attributed to the most vehement elected officials and the Citizens’ Councils. But that version ignores the long-standing work of white women who sustained racial segregation and nurtured both massive support for the Jim Crow order in the interwar period and who transformed support into massive resistance after World War II. Support for the segregated state existed among everyday people. Maintaining racial segregation was not solely or even primarily the work of elected officials. Its adherents sustained the system with quotidian work, and on the ground, it was often white women who shaped and sustained white supremacist politics.

White segregationist women nationwide believed that the Brown decision threatened their private, public, and political authority. Long committed to the Jim Crow order, they emerged as the mass in massive resistance. They painted the family as the center of political life, with parental authority eroded by a federal government. Because school integration eroded their ability to secure the benefits of white supremacy for their children, it compromised their ability to be good mothers. They called for school choice, lobbied for local choice plans, and worked for the white Citizens’ Councils. At times their political language minimized racial identity and replaced it with a particular gender identity, prioritizing motherhood and burying whiteness and offering a color-blind discourse for a national audience. But Brown also put black children at the forefront of the movement, forcing white segregationist women to cast aside a language of maternal concern for one that degraded black schoolchildren.

This chapter demonstrates how Florida attempted to address the problem of runaways but achieved mixed success at best. The legislative council and legislature passed numerous laws. Many reflected those of other southern states, although Florida offered lower rewards for the capture of runaways. The same laws anticipated that most white male Floridians would play a role in catching runaways. Private citizens, professional slave catchers, and others pursued and apprehended fugitives. Few owners and overseers pursued runaways personally because of the time involved away from plantations and farms. Slave patrols sometimes operated during times of crisis but proved, for the most part, ineffective in capturing runaways. Privately posted rewards generally brought better results, especially when combined with published notices that provided accurate information.

This chapter examines the history of Negro achievement in education in Illinois. In January 1825 the Illinois Legislature enacted a law calling for the establishment of common schools in each county of the state. These schools were to be open and free to every class of white citizens between the ages of five and twenty-one years, but it was not until the year 1841 that Negroes were given consideration. In the city of Chicago no discrimination was shown against Negro children in the public schools until 1863, when the council passed an order establishing a separate school for colored children. The first school for Negro children was opened by Miss Rebecca Elliott, who came to Peoria from Cincinnati in 1860. In Cairo, the first public school for Negroes was started in 1853. Also during this period, several churches in Alexander County conducted daily classes that taught readin', writin' and 'rithmetic. This chapter discusses various initiatives to increase Negro access to education in Illinois.

This volume focuses on economic institutions defined as rules and organizational arrangements that, if they govern the design and implementation of fiscal and monetary policies, can better align those policies with long-run citizen interests. Specifically, the economic institutions covered are those that promote more sustainable fiscal management, adequate implementation of monetary policy, and more resilient financial systems. On fiscal management, the book covers public revenue administrations, public financial management systems, public debt management institutions, fiscal rules, medium-term fiscal frameworks, independent fiscal councils, and the design features of sovereign wealth funds. While pension schemes are not a fiscal institution, they are also analyzed because of the fiscal burden and contingencies that these systems may entail. In terms of institutions that support effective monetary policy, the focus is on the importance of central bank independence and transparency. On financial systems, the book analyzes the relevance of financial regulation and supervision to promote more stable and efficient markets that are better suited to confront challenges and more resilient against external shocks. Some institutional enhancements that foster access to credit and deeper financial systems are also analyzed.

AbstractThis chapter presents the policies of Swiss institutions in their dealings with Swiss abroad, with a specific focus on the area of social protection. It shows how the Federal Council gained control over a large network of institutions during a relatively short period of time. Since the 1960s, the Federal Council has developed encompassing social protection policies for Swiss nationals abroad, while safeguarding the working of pre-existent cantonal and charitable associations. As a result, Swiss nationals abroad can access a wide set of social entitlements.

Chapter 1 explores the tensions that arose in southern evangelicalism between local church congregations and state- and nation-level bodies in the wake of the 1954 Brown decision. Such tensions reveal how Southern Baptists and Methodists negotiated the heightened antagonism emerging between denominational leaders and the people in the pews over civil rights in the mid-1950s. The chapter opens with South Carolina Southern Baptist churches rejecting broader Southern Baptist Convention efforts to advocate for civil rights in religious language and concludes with lay South Carolina Methodists defending the White Citizens’ Councils against criticism from a small number of Methodist clergy. Both these studies reveal the effective authority of local congregations in directing southern white churches’ responses to matters of race in the civil rights years. This chapter highlights that the congregational-level perspective gives the best vantage point for understanding white evangelicalism’s response to the civil rights movement, regardless of church polity.

The National Urban League initiated its Foster Care and Adoption Project in 1953 to increase African Americans’ participation in formal adoptions. League officials encouraged reforms in US policies and practices to eliminate the economic and social obatacles that limited African Americans’ adoptions. League officials also promoted greater integration of adoption agencies’ administrative and social work staff to advance the organization’s goals of encouraging interracial cooperation in social service agencies. The outcomes of the national project were inconsistent, in part because of resistance from some white child welfare professionals and the organized efforts of white citizens’ councils to defraud and defund many League branches. The project did highlight the social and institutional barriers that affected African Americans’ domestic and transnational adoptions. This chapter foregrounds the challenges adoption agencies faced when they endeavoured to placed Korean black children with African American families. It reveals why many successful agencies had to implement, on a case-by-case basis, many of the reforms that the League had hoped would produce national, comprehensive adoption reform.

This chapter recounts the nativist revolt in Philadelphia that laid siege to the Irish Catholic population and describes the riot that was stirred by leaders of the mob when they declared that they must defend America from “the bloody hand of the Pope.” It analyzes how both the Mormon and Catholic communities were considered outcasts from America's Protestant society. It also explores why many Americans in the nineteenth century perceive Catholics and Mormons as a direct threat to the nation's democratic order, while members of both denominations proclaimed that the nation's Protestant majority had failed to protect their rights as minority groups. The chapter places Mormonism's political actions during the 1840s within the context of Catholicism's similar struggle, which took place around the same time. It focuses on electoral politics as well as controversial forms of sovereignty, especially Mormonism's Council of Fifty.

Chapter 2 introduces the building blocks of an alternative political–moral order, as viewed from the perspective of council estate residents. It argues that official understandings of deservingness and respectability have at times dovetailed with, but more often diverged from, what residents understand to be a righteous person and by extension also a rightful citizen who is deserving of public resources and protection. In the post-war period, a fragile moral union existed between paternalistic welfare policies that prioritised the white, male-headed nuclear household and tenants’ aspirations for respectable homes and neighbourhoods. This fragile moral union, however, became dismantled in the decades that followed, when the ideal of the worker-citizen was replaced by that of the consumer-citizen and those renting on council estates increasingly seen as subjects of failure and lack. Today, working class residents’ own understandings of what makes a good person, based on their reliance on informal networks of support and care, stand in stark contrast to classed portrayals that see them as citizens of lack.

As developments in communication technologies impact upon many spheres of public and private life, they influence the way in which the public sector engages citizens. While most governments have an online presence, this is mainly applied to the provision of one-way (i.e. government to citizen) information and services. However, available technologies such as the Internet and mobile telephony provide opportunities for governments to enter into a two-way dialogue with citizens, increase transparency of their operations, and encourage democratic participation outside election time. As the government closest to the people, local government is particularly well placed to use online technologies to enhance and expand participatory democracy through strategies such as e-consultation. The implementation of an e-consultation strategy by local government presents a number of challenges to local governments seeking to enhance their dialogue with constituents using information and communication technologies (ICTs). This chapter draws from an external evaluation of an Australian local government initiative, Darebin eForum.1 Conducted in 2007, this evaluation included a survey of e-consultation participants2 and interviews with Council Officers responsible for moderating the site.3 The findings provide a snapshot of some of these challenges. 4 Though modest in size and ambition, the experiences of Darebin eForum provide valuable insight into the challenges faced by governments seeking to use ICTs to engage in dialogue with their constituents.

In New Zealand, climate scientists predict that climate change-induced sea level rise will have an earlier and greater impact on coastal communities than previously anticipated. In Auckland, the “City of Sails,” Aucklanders’ prize the opportunity to sail on the ocean and live near the beach. However, in 2019 Auckland Council released information that by 2060, a projected increase of 50 cm sea level rise would inundate the homes of 43,000 citizens. If citizens are to safeguard their lifestyles, they need to make effective decisions about how and where they choose to live. While artists are not often qualified to disseminate scientific knowledge, they are able to offer artistic comprehension through aesthetic intelligence, experientiality, and the creation of mental imagery. Building on this position, this chapter explores how an art-science exhibition, Blue Radius, deployed a range of sensorial, emotional, and scientific perspectives to imaginatively engage citizens with the phenomena of climate change-induced sea level rise and present relevant scientific information to assist citizens develop informed decision-making skills.

The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak is being endured throughout the world, and the European Union (EU) is no exception. The rapid spreading of the virus effected, among other things, restriction on the freedom of movement. The EU member states introduced national response measures to contain the pandemic and protect public health. While broadly similar, the measures differ with regard to strictness and the manner of introduction, reflecting the political legitimacy of the respective country. With the ‘Guidelines concerning the exercise of the free movement of workers during COVID-19 outbreak’ – its first COVID-19-related Communication – the European Commission (EC) attempted to curb differing practices of the EU member states and ensure a coordinated approach. Ultimately, this action was aimed at upholding of fundamental rights as guaranteed to EU citizens, one such being the freedom of movement. Thus, from the very start of the pandemic, the coordinated actions of EU institutions sought to contain the spread of COVID-19 infections with the support and cooperation of EU member states. This is confirmed by the most recent Council of the EU (Council) recommendation on a coordinated approach to restrictions to freedom of movement within the EU of October 2020. While they did prevent the spread of infection and save countless lives, the movement restriction measures and the resulting uncertainty have greatly affected the people, the society, and the economy, thereby demonstrating that they cannot remain in force for an extended period. This paper examines the measures introduced by EU member states and analyses the legal basis for introducing therewith limitations on human rights and market freedoms. To what extent are the EU and member states authorized to introduce restrictions on the freedom of movement in the interest of public health? Have the EU and member states breached their obligations regarding market freedoms and fundamental rights under the Treaty? And most importantly: have they endangered the fundamental rights of the citizens of the EU?

This study is aimed at identifying the problems of tax collection in Yewa North Local Government Area, Ogun State, Nigeria. The study emphasizes the extent to which the tax collection irregularities hindered sustainable infrastructural development that arises from low-income generation by the local council, in the study area. The opinions of the population of study comprising taxpayers and authorities were sought through a structured questionnaire to elicit the opinions of fifty (50) respondents in the study area, then analysis of data was done by using the simple percentage method, while the formulated hypotheses were tested using the chi-square of fit technique at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that there were inadequate facilities and infrastructure for the people, income generated by the council through taxes and levies was grossly inadequate. The study concluded that the local government needs to focus on improving the quality and condition of infrastructures such as inner roads within the communities. It was recommended that the citizens should pay tax correctly, and as at when due, the local government authority should make payment of taxes and levies to be very convenient for compliance. Keywords: Tax, Tax collection, Small Scale Business, Local government, infrastructures

This report maps the African landscape of Open Science – with a focus on Open Data as a sub-set of Open Science. Data to inform the landscape study were collected through a variety of methods, including surveys, desk research, engagement with a community of practice, networking with stakeholders, participation in conferences, case study presentations, and workshops hosted. Although the majority of African countries (35 of 54) demonstrates commitment to science through its investment in research and development (R&D), academies of science, ministries of science and technology, policies, recognition of research, and participation in the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI), the following countries demonstrate the highest commitment and political willingness to invest in science: Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. In addition to existing policies in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), the following countries have made progress towards Open Data policies: Botswana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, South Africa and Uganda. Only two African countries (Kenya and South Africa) at this stage contribute 0.8% of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to R&D (Research and Development), which is the closest to the AU’s (African Union’s) suggested 1%. Countries such as Lesotho and Madagascar ranked as 0%, while the R&D expenditure for 24 African countries is unknown. In addition to this, science globally has become fully dependent on stable ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) infrastructure, which includes connectivity/bandwidth, high performance computing facilities and data services. This is especially applicable since countries globally are finding themselves in the midst of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), which is not only “about” data, but which “is” data. According to an article1 by Alan Marcus (2015) (Senior Director, Head of Information Technology and Telecommunications Industries, World Economic Forum), “At its core, data represents a post-industrial opportunity. Its uses have unprecedented complexity, velocity and global reach. As digital communications become ubiquitous, data will rule in a world where nearly everyone and everything is connected in real time. That will require a highly reliable, secure and available infrastructure at its core, and innovation at the edge.” Every industry is affected as part of this revolution – also science. An important component of the digital transformation is “trust” – people must be able to trust that governments and all other industries (including the science sector), adequately handle and protect their data. This requires accountability on a global level, and digital industries must embrace the change and go for a higher standard of protection. “This will reassure consumers and citizens, benefitting the whole digital economy”, says Marcus. A stable and secure information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure – currently provided by the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) – is key to advance collaboration in science. The AfricaConnect2 project (AfricaConnect (2012–2014) and AfricaConnect2 (2016–2018)) through establishing connectivity between National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), is planning to roll out AfricaConnect3 by the end of 2019. The concern however is that selected African governments (with the exception of a few countries such as South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia and others) have low awareness of the impact the Internet has today on all societal levels, how much ICT (and the 4th Industrial Revolution) have affected research, and the added value an NREN can bring to higher education and research in addressing the respective needs, which is far more complex than simply providing connectivity. Apart from more commitment and investment in R&D, African governments – to become and remain part of the 4th Industrial Revolution – have no option other than to acknowledge and commit to the role NRENs play in advancing science towards addressing the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals). For successful collaboration and direction, it is fundamental that policies within one country are aligned with one another. Alignment on continental level is crucial for the future Pan-African African Open Science Platform to be successful. Both the HIPSSA ((Harmonization of ICT Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa)3 project and WATRA (the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly)4, have made progress towards the regulation of the telecom sector, and in particular of bottlenecks which curb the development of competition among ISPs. A study under HIPSSA identified potential bottlenecks in access at an affordable price to the international capacity of submarine cables and suggested means and tools used by regulators to remedy them. Work on the recommended measures and making them operational continues in collaboration with WATRA. In addition to sufficient bandwidth and connectivity, high-performance computing facilities and services in support of data sharing are also required. The South African National Integrated Cyberinfrastructure System5 (NICIS) has made great progress in planning and setting up a cyberinfrastructure ecosystem in support of collaborative science and data sharing. The regional Southern African Development Community6 (SADC) Cyber-infrastructure Framework provides a valuable roadmap towards high-speed Internet, developing human capacity and skills in ICT technologies, high- performance computing and more. The following countries have been identified as having high-performance computing facilities, some as a result of the Square Kilometre Array7 (SKA) partnership: Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Tunisia, and Zambia. More and more NRENs – especially the Level 6 NRENs 8 (Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, and recently Zambia) – are exploring offering additional services; also in support of data sharing and transfer. The following NRENs already allow for running data-intensive applications and sharing of high-end computing assets, bio-modelling and computation on high-performance/ supercomputers: KENET (Kenya), TENET (South Africa), RENU (Uganda), ZAMREN (Zambia), EUN (Egypt) and ARN (Algeria). Fifteen higher education training institutions from eight African countries (Botswana, Benin, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, and Tanzania) have been identified as offering formal courses on data science. In addition to formal degrees, a number of international short courses have been developed and free international online courses are also available as an option to build capacity and integrate as part of curricula. The small number of higher education or research intensive institutions offering data science is however insufficient, and there is a desperate need for more training in data science. The CODATA-RDA Schools of Research Data Science aim at addressing the continental need for foundational data skills across all disciplines, along with training conducted by The Carpentries 9 programme (specifically Data Carpentry 10 ). Thus far, CODATA-RDA schools in collaboration with AOSP, integrating content from Data Carpentry, were presented in Rwanda (in 2018), and during17-29 June 2019, in Ethiopia. Awareness regarding Open Science (including Open Data) is evident through the 12 Open Science-related Open Access/Open Data/Open Science declarations and agreements endorsed or signed by African governments; 200 Open Access journals from Africa registered on the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ); 174 Open Access institutional research repositories registered on openDOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories); 33 Open Access/Open Science policies registered on ROARMAP (Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies); 24 data repositories registered with the Registry of Data Repositories (re3data.org) (although the pilot project identified 66 research data repositories); and one data repository assigned the CoreTrustSeal. Although this is a start, far more needs to be done to align African data curation and research practices with global standards. Funding to conduct research remains a challenge. African researchers mostly fund their own research, and there are little incentives for them to make their research and accompanying data sets openly accessible. Funding and peer recognition, along with an enabling research environment conducive for research, are regarded as major incentives. The landscape report concludes with a number of concerns towards sharing research data openly, as well as challenges in terms of Open Data policy, ICT infrastructure supportive of data sharing, capacity building, lack of skills, and the need for incentives. Although great progress has been made in terms of Open Science and Open Data practices, more awareness needs to be created and further advocacy efforts are required for buy-in from African governments. A federated African Open Science Platform (AOSP) will not only encourage more collaboration among researchers in addressing the SDGs, but it will also benefit the many stakeholders identified as part of the pilot phase. The time is now, for governments in Africa, to acknowledge the important role of science in general, but specifically Open Science and Open Data, through developing and aligning the relevant policies, investing in an ICT infrastructure conducive for data sharing through committing funding to making NRENs financially sustainable, incentivising open research practices by scientists, and creating opportunities for more scientists and stakeholders across all disciplines to be trained in data management.