A) To facilitate active participation in development of relevant recommendations and promote capacity building through workshops, meetings and training with regards to combating counterfeiting, signalling security issues to combat fraudulent communications and conformance and interoperability issues;
B) To encourage the active participation of Administrations, regulators, manufacturers and operators and service providers of the region in the activities of ITU-T Study Group 11 (SG11), as well as in the implementation of ITU-T Recommendations;
C) To act as a forum, using both face-to-face as well as electronic meetings, for information-sharing related to SG11 activities;
D) To facilitate the broader inclusion and more active participation of African countries in SG11 activities, given the limited abilities to attend SG11 meetings in Geneva;
E) To encourage and promote participation of African countries in workshops, SG11 Rapporteur meetings and other SG11 events;
F) To assist African Administrations in the organization of SG11 events, e.g. workshops, trainings, seminars, etc. on SG11 selected emerging topics;
G) To strengthen standard-making capabilities of African countries in accordance with Resolution 44 on "Bridging the standardization gap between developing and developed countries" (Rev. New Delhi, 2024);
H) To identify needs for training and develop and implement training plans on current ITU-T SG11 standardization areas, topical issues and future technologies, in coordination with ITU-T SG11 and ITU-D as appropriate;
I) To identify the regional priorities as they relate to the mandate of SG11, focusing initially on conformance and interoperability (C&I) testing, signalling security issues to combat fraudulent communications as well as combating counterfeiting of ICT equipment, as follows:
1) to support regional contributions on C&I issues based on inputs provided by different African parties;
2) to support regional contributions on combating counterfeiting based on inputs provided by different African stakeholders, e.g. customs, vendors, regulators, certification bodies, testing laboratories, etc.;
3) to support the implementation of ITU-T Recommendations that define procedures for integrating and validating digital public-key certificates (ITU-T X.509) at the signalling level, enabling the signing of Calling Line Identification (CLI) across existing, future, and legacy SS7-based networks. This aims to enhance the security, reliability, and trustworthiness of global voice communications.
4) to foster African stakeholders participation in ITU-T Conformity Assessment Steering Committee (ITU-T CASC) meetings, encouraging their proposals on possible ITU-T Recommendations which may become new national/regional/international certification schemes;
J) To identify ITU-T Recommendations which are adopted at National level in the African region and therefore propose to develop relevant test specifications when this need is recognised;
K) To discuss both traditional and emerging topics in ITU-T SG11 from the African regional perspective, aiming at developing regional multi-country contributions to be submitted to SG11;
L) To facilitate the coordination of the African regional support for the development of new and revised ITU T Recommendations, addressing both traditional and emerging areas of interest within SG11;
M) To improve liaison, collaboration and representation between the African region and other world regions, through other regional groups and/or the parent group, on relevant standardization matters under the mandate of SG11;
N) To serve as a forum to promote the recognition and/or development of C&I testing laboratories and centres in Africa, development of MRAs and sharing of information among African countries;
O) To promote the engagement of Testing Laboratories from African region in applying for official recognition by ITU;
P) To encourage African countries to have regulatory framework for C&I;
Q) To cooperate with ITU-T SG11 in the development of framework, standards, guidelines to control counterfeit and substandard ICT equipment;
R) To raise public awareness within Africa region about the dangers of counterfeit devices, with particular emphasis on environmental concerns related to their disposal.
Working Methods
The term of office for both chair and vice-chair of SG11RG-AFR shall not exceed two terms of office between consecutive assemblies or conferences.