Joint ITU/ECA regional workshop on 
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Indicators
Gaborone, Botswana
26-29 October 2004

Provisional Agenda

Information and communication technology (ICT) is having a profound effect on economic and social development. The impacts merit measurement. At the same time data is also needed for regulatory purposes to track the development of universal service and access, monitor market dominance and assess the overall state of the ICT sector. Impacts and analysis is difficult to measure in many developing countries due to a lack of timely and relevant statistics. Statistical capacity building is essential for developing expertise to collect and disseminate ICT indicators. 

The four-day workshop is aimed at ICT regulators, sector ministries and national statistical offices. It will be facilitated by the presence of experts from national, regional and international organizations. 

The workshop will be divided into two parts: two days will be dedicated to sector ministries and regulators and two days to national statistical offices. During the first part, data collection and dissemination of statistics relating to access to ICTs will be discussed. The second part of the workshop will cover issues relating to use of ICTs by households, businesses and individuals. It will include discussions on data collected from official household surveys, usually conducted by national statistical agencies. ECA will present the results of the regional metadata collection of available ICT surveys in the region.

Upon the conclusion of the workshop, it is expected that national regulatory agencies and statistical offices will have a sound idea of their role in collecting, compiling and disseminating telecommunication/ICT statistics. Specifically, they will have identified the key indicators to collect, collection/storage and dissemination methodologies and analytical techniques. Countries should be in a position to begin compiling the necessary data with the aim of all participants posting a basic set of telecommunication/ICT statistics on a national web site within the coming year. As such the workshop represents an important step towards the implementation of the goals and objectives articulated in the WSIS Plan of Action adopted at the first phase of the Summit. In particular the Plan of Action calls for the development of comparable statistical indicators to monitor progress towards achieving international development goal: 

“Appropriate indicators and benchmarking, including community connectivity indicators, should clarify the magnitude of the digital divide, in both its domestic and international dimensions, and keep it under regular assessment, and tracking global progress in the use of ICTs to achieve internationally agreed development goals, including those of the Millennium Declaration.” (WSIS Plan of Action)

1. Regulators. Telecommunication/ICT Indicators: Data identification, collection, processing and dissemination

An important task—often overlooked by nascent regulatory authorities—is the collection and dissemination of statistical information regarding the telecom sector. This session will identify the statistics that should be collected by national regulatory agencies with a focus on international comparisons. The session will also look at national regulatory authorities’ experiences in compiling telecommunication/ICT statistics and present a best practice case. 

2. National Statistics Offices. ICT Usage Indicators and Pilot ICT Surveys

The most appropriate and methodologically sound way of obtaining data on ICT usage is through surveys carried out by national statistical offices. The lack of ICT usage surveys in countries makes it difficult to assess the level of individual, household and business use and adoption of ICTs. The session will discuss the available surveys in the region as well as experiences and problems faced by countries in conducting these surveys. Most importantly, ECA will discuss the results of the regional meta-data collection and a common set of indicators for the region on ICT usage will be defined. This common set of indicators at the regional level will be presented at a global meeting in Geneva in February 2005 with the aim of consolidating existing statistics and of developing a set of internationally comparable set of data. The possibility of conducting a pilot ICT usage survey in countries in the region will also be explored. Model household, business and individual surveys on ICT usage will be presented. The experience of some national statistical offices in collecting ICT data through an official survey will be presented.[1] 

3. Data storage and dissemination

The session will discuss the data storage and dissemination tools to facilitate maintenance of market information. Areas such as the design of a statistical reporting system, frequency of updates and dissemination via the Internet will be covered. Examples of best practice will be highlighted. 

4. Regional experiences

ECA has conducted surveys in the following six African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal and Uganda. EUROSTAT has also conducted surveys in its member countries. The session will present experiences and discuss the survey methodology. Other organizations will discuss the importance of information for regulatory and policy analysis. Multi-lateral agencies will explore possibilities for technical assistance.

5. Conclusions and recommendations 

The following is expected at the end of the workshop:

• Agreement on a core set of ICT indicators for regulators and national statistics offices and commitments to compile and deliver within an agreed timetable.
• Candidate countries for pilot ICT usage survey.
• Conclusions and follow-up mechanisms.