BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin participated in the official launch of the ITU-Norway partnership on the Digital Transformation Centres Initiative, in cooperation with Cisco and Ghana. Other distinguished speakers included Mr Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of ITU; H.E. Aksel Jakobsen, Deputy Minister of International Development of Norway; H.E. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications of Ghana; Ms Wendy Mars, President of Cisco's Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia region.
ITU, the Norwegian Government and the Government of Ghana signed agreements to support the Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) Initiative in Ghana. The new partnership will scale up and strengthen digital skills training for underserved communities in Ghana, in collaboration with Cisco and the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC). It will provide around 14,000 citizens with job-ready digital skills, in particular women entrepreneurs, pupils, teachers and marginalized groups, through 200 centres across the country.
Launched by ITU in partnership with Cisco in 2019, the Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) Initiative is operational in nine countries, with the goal of supporting countries to equip their people—including women, students, youth, teachers and other marginalized communities— with the skills needed to effectively participate in today's digital society and economy.
Ms Bogdan-Martin drew attention to the need to address the digital skills gap, in order to close the digital divide. Research by ITU and others has shown that the lack of digital skills is one of the main barriers to Internet uptake. She noted that ''even in areas where Internet access is available and affordable, people are not able to connect to the internet simply because of a lack of digital skills.''
She explained that ITU's new partnership with Norway will scale up and strengthen the ongoing digital skills training for underserved communities in developing countries, with a particular emphasis on Ghana. ''Ghana has an excellent network of local centers across the country which provide the basic capacity and infrastructure to train thousands of citizens'', noted Ms Bogdan-Martin.
During the COVID pandemic, a lack of digital skills among both teachers and students has been a major impediment to introducing distance education, even in the world's most developed countries. The digital skills gap is also a challenge for the business community, as most jobs today already require some level of digital skills. With regards to addressing this gap, Ms Bogdan-Martin stated that ''this will only become more important as the world transitions to a post-digital age, where digital is no longer a feature, but a given.''
