Highlights – April 2022
18 April - 1 May
Cybersecurity:
The first public Inspirational Keynote webinar of the 2022 Cyber Mentorship Programme took place on 19 April as part of the INSPIRE series. This series consists of a set of webinars spotlighting well-known and engaged female cybersecurity professionals across the globe, sharing their experiences and tips for a successful career in cyber. The keynote, Top 5 Reasons Why Women are Great at Cybersecurity by Carmen Marsh, focused on the value that gender inclusion brings to the cybersecurity sector and provided the audience with insights from the role model's experience in leading inclusion programmes in cybersecurity.
Digital inclusion:
The three finalists of the Generation Connect Global E-waste Iconathon have been selected. Find out more about Nguyễn, Rocio and Shergaun here!
They will work with a professional designer to develop their icon which will be presented in person at the Generation Connect Global Youth Summit in Kigali, Rwanda. The overall winner will be selected by online vote during the Youth Summit and the winner will be announced at the closing ceremony.
Digital inclusion: Asia and Pacific
The Ministry of Communications and Informatics of Indonesia, together with partners, organized an event on “Women in Digital Entrepreneurship: #RecoverTogether with Digital Entrepreneurship”. ITU delivered opening remarks together with the Minister of Communication and Informatics, the Minister for Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, the Minister for Tourism and Creative Economy, the Chair of Commission of House of the Representatives, the representative of UN Women in Indonesia, as well as other inspiring panels from private sector. The panel was organized as part of the celebration of the National Day in Indonesia, Kartini Day and Girls in ICT Day. During the event, ITU promoted WTDC and encouraged the participation of all stakeholders in Indonesia to join the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition leading up to WTDC.
Digital inclusion: Global
The Final Selection Jury Meeting for the Generation Connect Gender Champions was held on 14 April. Over 400 applications from 70 different countries were received. Successful applicants should hear back from us in the coming days. A special shout-out to all colleagues who supported the shortlist process as application readers!
Digital inclusion: Global
On 12 April, Generation Connect launched the consultation for the Youth 'Call to Action' outcome document of the Generation Connect Global Youth Summit. All youth and interested stakeholders are invited to join us on the UNDP SparkBlue platform, which allows for a constructive and participative dialogue on youth concerns, recommendations, and commitments about the future of ICTs. The contributions can be completed in different languages with a translation feature. We invite you all to join the discussions here: https://www.sparkblue.org/our-digital-future/stream. Each week, the dialogues will focus on how to build an inclusive and sustainable digital future for all, youth social action, and the actions that government decision-makers, ITU and UN organizations need to take to build a better digital future.
Digital inclusion: Global
On 18 April, ITU hosted a side event during the ECOSOC Youth Forum. The event was themed “Intergenerational Dialogues towards a more connected, sustainable future”, aimed at bringing together people of diverse ages to discuss their experiences in a world with evolving technology to find common ground that can connect generations for a sustainable future. During the main event on 20 April, members of the Generation Connect Visionaries Board spoke in two plenary sessions, ‘Financing our Future - SDG 17’ and ‘Q&A: Strengthening Solidarity with the World’s Young People’. The objective of the Forum was to engage young people in dialogue with Member States and other actors on concrete actions to rebuild from COVID-19 and to advance towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in this Decade of Action.
Digital innovation ecosystems: Asia and Pacific
On 18 April, ITU and TSDSI co-hosted the 5th session in the “Digital Technology Innovations – Case Studies From India And The Asia-Pacific Region” webinar series. With over 100 participants, this 5th session focused on Terrestrial/ Non-Terrestrial Technologies for Rural & Remote Areas. Topics presented included the Last Mile Connectivity Toolkit, and Intelsat highlighted ITU’s collaboration in reconnecting Tonga following the 2022 volcanic eruption and tsunami. The 6th and final webinar in this series on Data Protection and Privacy is scheduled for 12 May, in the lead-up to WTDC and the opening of the ITU Area Office in New Delhi.
Emergency telecommunications:
BDT's Emergency Telecommunication Team participated in the WSIS event on the Global Call to Action on Emergency Alerting which highlighted the opportunities of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) for public warning systems. CAP has been adopted as ITU-T Recommendation X.1303 and is a simple but general format for exchanging all-hazard emergency alerts and public warnings over all kinds of ICT networks, allowing a consistent warning message to be disseminated simultaneously over many different warning systems, thus increasing warning effectiveness while simplifying the warning task. CAP enables authorities to deliver early warnings and alerts to all people and communities at risk, and up to global scale through the use of different technologies. The workshop discussed CAP implementation levels and ITU's role and support to countries.
Policy and regulation: Asia and Pacific
The Extraordinary Meeting of the APT Preparatory Group for WTDC was held online on 21 April. H.E. Ms. Paula Ingabire, Minister of Information and Communication Technology and Innovation of Rwanda and WTDC Chair-designate, described the country's preparation and logistics arrangements.
I-CoDI: Arab States
A first ever two-day joint workshop organized by UN Joint Team on Digitalization and Innovation (JTDI) took place on 19 and 20 April. The workshop was chaired by the ITU Arab Regional Office and attended by 50 participants, including 10 ministries and 16 UN agencies. Up to 35 ideas and six ready-to-go projects were defined. The workshop was organized in partnership with UNESCO, UNIDO, the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office and the Ministry of International Cooperation of Egypt and facilitated ITU. Over the two days, participants ideated and innovated new project ideas, by using I-CoDI processes to implement the new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework of Egypt. Lead facilitators were appointed from the Government and UN agencies for the six selected projects with the goal to formulate those projects through a multi-stakeholder approach and to launch them before the end of the year.
Cybersecurity: Global
The recordings from the ITU and the World Bank joint Global Policy Dialogue and Briefing on Cybersecurity Strategy Design and Implementation held on 6 April are available here: Video 1, Video 2
11 - 17 April
Cybersecurity: Global
On 6 April, ITU and the World Bank held a joint Global Policy Dialogue and Briefing on Cybersecurity Strategy Design and Implementation. The event kicked off with a policy dialogue panel featuring diverse perspectives and country examples on designing and implementing cybersecurity strategies. It was followed by a learning session highlighting good practices around national cybersecurity strategy lifecycles.
Digital inclusion: Global
On 4 April, the EQUALS Global Partnership held its partnership-wide call. The agenda included welcoming two new partners – the National Communications Authority of Somalia and KMOP, an NGO based in Greece. The lead EQUALS coalition partners for Access, Skills, Leadership and Research presented recent work and ITU offered partners an overview of P2C and an invitation to join the initiative with pledges.
Digital services and applications: Americas
ITU is working with PAHO and local telecom operators to deliver awareness-raising and educational information to people in the Caribbean to address vaccine hesitancy and to encourage adherence to recommended health & safety measures. The campaign delivers relevant recommendations and educational content directly to people’s mobile devices by leveraging a public-private partnership model developed as part of the joint WHO-ITU Be Healthy Be Mobile initiative. To date, the campaign has reached more than 200,000 people in four Eastern Caribbean countries: Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Capacity development: Asia and Pacific
ITU co-organized an ITU Academy training on Conformity and Interoperability relating to 5G with CAICT, China under the auspices of CoE C&I programme in Asia and the Pacific from 11-24 April. A total of 160 participants registered for this training to learn and discuss the general development and standards of 5G and testing relating to 5G equipment. ITU contributed through a recorded lecture on its C&I program and together with CAICT, addressed the inquiries of participants in a virtual Q&A chat session on the 13 April.
Emergency telecommunications:
BDT participated in the WSIS session on tackling disasters and reducing risks through awareness of citizens, to highlight the importance of information and communication technologies, networks and services for disaster preparedness and response. Discussions revolved around the most efficient ways and new opportunities, for example in the area of mobile services, to reach citizens at risk. The session also showcased BDT's work on disaster preparedness and response, including its disaster connectivity maps initiative and coordination with key partners, including the Emergency Telecommunication Cluster (ETC).
WTDC: CIS
The ITU Regional Offices for CIS and Europe jointly contributed to the UNECE Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, held online and in Geneva, from 6-7 April. On the margins of the Forum, ITU together with UNECE (through UNDTG4ECA) organized a peer-learning session "Accelerating digital transformation through multistakeholder partnership" dedicated to SDG17 and, in particular, the Partner2Connect initiative. A side event on "Digital inclusion for persons with disabilities" was organized by the Regional Office for CIS and was dedicated to SDG4, and served as a platform for regional preparation for WTDC. A second side event on "Cross-cutting session: digital transformation beyond the COVID-19 pandemic" dedicated to SDGs 4, 5, 14 and 15 was organized by UNDTG4ECA (ITU and UNECE). Generation Connect CIS and Europe representatives spoke at both side events. As a conclusion of the Forum, the Chair invited all stakeholders (over 1000) to engage in P2C. All sessions of the Forum contributed to the WSIS Forum.
28 March - 3 April
Partner2Connect: Americas
ITU Americas presented the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition to URSEG (Uruguay), ORACLE and Ecuador. Examples of the importance and opportunity offered by P2C was highlighted.
Environment: Africa
In Kigali in the framework of the joint ITU-UNEP project “Implementing the EPR Concept in Policies and Regulations for the Sound Management of E-waste", the ITU Environment Team facilitated the first E-waste National Consultation Workshop of the public sector in Rwanda. Representatives from key ministries, agencies and local authorities - including the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), the Ministry of Environment, the Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA), and Enviroserve, currently the only recycling facility under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) - were invited to discuss the status of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in the country, including current waste management legislation and type-approval regulation, with the objective of supporting RURA and the Ministry of Environment in implementing extended producer responsibility (EPR) for the sound management of e-waste in Rwanda.
Policy and regulation: Asia and Pacific
ITU participated in the Working Level Meeting on the Country Level Implementation Financing for Development Initiative - Cluster III: Technology Component. This hybrid meeting was in conjunction with the 25th Session of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD). The meeting discussed the zero-draft background paper on Advancing Country Level Implementation of Cluster III on Finance and Technology: The Technology Tracks. The goals of the finance track include increasing investment in sustainable infrastructure, while the technology track aims at accelerating the closing of the multifaceted digital divides. ITU, together with Cluster III members, shared insights on policy options to address financing challenges and how to support the emergence and development of innovation ecosystems in developing countries.
Policy and regulation: Asia and Pacific
Following a kick-off meeting of the G20 Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) held on 15 March, a first workshop was held at the end of March. Delegates and representatives of G20 members, invited countries, as well as national and global knowledge partners attended the meeting. The Ministry of Communication and Informatics (MCI) of the Republic of Indonesia, had invited ITU as a global knowledge partner. ITU presented its work and addressed the comments and feedback from other G20 member countries.
Other: Green GovStack Rwanda
The Green GovStack initiative was presented during the Government Consultation Workshop to set up the basis for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) implementation in Rwanda. The country has been developing a strong regulatory e-waste framework, including the digitization of the EPR process following a building block approach using GovStack technical specifications and reusable software components. All this will accelerate the implementation of current e-waste regulation. Green GovStack is a joint collaboration between the circular economy and digital services team at ITU, GovStack Global is a partnership between EE, GIZ, DIAL and ITU.
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