Joint ITU/ECA regional workshop on
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Indicators
Gaborone,
Botswana
26-29 October 2004
The Regional
Workshop on ICT Indicators was held in Gaborone, Botswana from 26 to 29
October 2004. The workshop was hosted by Botswana Telecommunications
Authority (BTA) and was organized jointly by Telecommunication
Development Bureau (BDT) as part of its regional telecommunication/ICT
statistical capacity building exercise and by the UN Economic Commissions for
Africa (UNECA) as one of the key activities highlighted in the Partnership for Measuring ICT for
Development[1].
The workshop has three main objectives: to (i)
identify the core telecom/ICT indicators to collect; (ii) identify data
collection, storage and dissemination methodologies and analytical techniques
(iii) identify barriers to data collection and dissemination and to find
necessary/immediate solutions.
The
workshop was attended by some 122 participants from 31 African countries
representing regulatory agencies and ministries (61); national statistics
offices (23); telecommunication operators (12); universities/ NGO/ media
(17); as well as representatives from
international organizations such as OECD and UN ICT Task Force; and regional
organizations such as TRASA, SADC and COMESA (see list
of participants). It was divided into two parts: the first two days highlighted issues related to ITU telecommunication indicators (
see list of telecom indicators)
as well as its data collection and dissemination activities. The last two days
discussed issues related to use of ICTs by individuals, households, businesses,
health and government sectors (see agenda and documents).
Countries also identified the barriers that
they face related to data collection and dissemination. Lack of collaboration
and coordination between various ICT players in the development, harmonization,
data collection and dissemination of ICT indicators; lack of statistical
capacity in the regulatory agencies and/or ministries; and lack of
software/application that they can use to collect, store and disseminate data
were among the barriers identified. The ITU was asked to address these issues in
its regular work and to revisit the issues during the World Telecommunication
Indicators meeting in February (conclusions/recommendations).
The workshop also highlighted the experiences
of national statistics offices and the result of the metadata collection
exercise done in the region. Although national statistics offices collect some
ICT statistics as part its national data collection, data available are
sometimes outdated, not comparable across countries or do not reflect actual
usage of households, individuals and business. Countries expressed theirwillingness to carry out the survey, either as a part of
existing survey or a separate ICT survey. However, national statistics offices
pointed out the lack statistical capacity and funding to carry out the data
collection and verification. They called all stakeholders to be aware of the
situation and come up with possible solutions.
The core set of ICT indicators that was
presented during the workshop and accepted by African countries will be
discussed again during the global meeting in February 2005 (see list
of ICT indicators).
Nine countries were also selected for the
second phase of the SCAN ICT project (see list of
countries).
[1] Partners on Measuring ICT
for Development include ITU, UNCTAD, OECD, UNESCO Institute of Statistics,
World Bank, Regional Commissions (ECA, ECLAC, ESCAP, ESCWA), UN ICT Task
Force, and national statistics offices.