Highlights May 2024
27 May - 31 May
Capacity development: Americas
The ITU Regional Office for the Americas, in partnership with the Administration of Paraguay (CONATEL), the Ministry of Women, and Huawei, held a workshop on the ITU Digital Transformation Toolkit for Micro and Small Enterprises. This toolkit will benefit local entrepreneurs. ITU also participated and supported the celebrations of Girls in ICT Day 2024, organized by CONATEL with the participation of Huawei. Collaboration with the Ministry of Women allowed for more than 40 women entrepreneurs to participate in the celebrations.
Cybersecurity: Arab States
The ITU Regional Cybersecurity Readiness Exercise held in Marrakech, Morocco, brought together the cybersecurity community from across the region, fostering international cooperation. It emphasized the role of national Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRTs), Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs), and Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) in building cyber resilience and protecting critical information infrastructure.
Digital inclusion: Americas
During the Latin America Zero Project Conference 2024 in Santiago, Chile, the ITU Regional Office for the Americas moderated the panel on “The transformative potential of new technologies” which discussed how ICTs can improve the quality of life by facilitating the participation, autonomy and independence of people with disabilities (PwD). ITU’s work in digital accessibility and digital inclusion in the Americas and across the world was also presented. Informal talks were also held with several organizations that leverage technology for the inclusion of PwD in LATAM as well as exchanging ideas for potential collaboration opportunities.
Digital inclusion: Asia and Pacific
As part of the Child Online Protection Global Project to start the Child Rights Taskforce in Indonesia, the ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific joined a facilitator training to discuss youth recruitment process, upcoming workshops, and the training agenda.
13 May -17 May
Digital inclusion: Asia and Pacific
The ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, the Department of Telecommunications of the Ministry of Communications India, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), and the Broadband India Forum (BIF) co-hosted the launch event of Girls in ICT Day in India. The celebration featured a series of discussions centred on 'Leadership,' along with 'talking tech', 'skills for the future', and 'inspirational talks from young women leaders in ICT'. Over 1000 participants from various sectors joined the dynamic event. This event concluded with commitments from all partners in India to continue collaborative efforts towards promoting leadership among girls and young women through STEM and ICT education, including a digital skills training programme for students, girls, and young women across the country.
Digital services and applications: Asia and Pacific
Under the EU STREIT (Support to Rural Entrepreneurship, Investment and Trade in Papua New Guinea) Program, the 5th Resource Centre in Angoram Secondary School located in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, was established to provide access to broadband networks needed for the delivery of digital skills and digital services for all beneficiaries, especially women, youth and people with disabilities. This centre aims to facilitate collaboration among all partners for cross-sectorial initiatives, including UN agencies, provincial administrations, government agencies, local communities, farmers, private sector, and NGOs. It also aims to conduct various types of training of trainers (TOTs) sessions in the agriculture-sector, financial sector, and digital literacy programs.
[This activity is the result of a BDT project. You can find more details of the project here]
6 May- 10 May
Digital inclusion: Asia and Pacific
As part of the ongoing Girls in ICT Day celebrations held in Thailand, ITU delivered an opening remark at the ‘STEAM Secondary School Teachers Networking’ event organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Office of the Permanent Secretary, the Bureau of Information and Communication Technology, the Office of the Basic education Commission, the Bureau of Teaching and Learning Technology, and the Institute of Promoting Science and Technology. The event welcomed 200 secondary school teachers and highlighted the important role of STEAM female secondary school teachers in fostering a supportive learning environment. This initiative, marking its third year, facilitated an exchange of experiences and strategies among educators to enhance engagement and achievement of female students in ICT. This network aims to support and inspire female educators across Thailand, bolstering their ability to encourage girls to pursue careers in technology.
Digital inclusion: Asia and Pacific
The Girls in ICT Samoa event, organized by the Office of the Regulator and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Samoa, featured a high-level panel discussion including inspiring female ICT leaders, experts, and participation of over 100 students and participants from Samoa. ITU delivered special remarks during the panel discussion, emphasizing the digital gender divide and initiatives such as the UN's Digital Economy Report: Pacific Edition 2022 and the "Pathway for the Development of Samoa 2021/22-2025/26," along with the National Digital Transformation Strategy and Smart Islands (Manono-Tai). These initiatives aim to extend digital transformation benefits to rural communities, underscoring the importance of girls' and young women's active participation in Samoa’s digital advancement.
Digital inclusion: Asia and Pacific
The Pacific Girls in ICT Day 2024: “Aspire and inspire to lead Digital Pacific” jointly organised by ITU, the Pacific Islands Telecommunication Association (PITA), and the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC), in Vanuatu, featured a series of discussions centred on this year's Girls in ICT 2024 theme, "Leadership." Participants included high school and university students, ITU Digital Transformation Centre (DTC), government ministries and agencies, networks of national women and girls in ICT as well as stakeholders of the Smart Islands in the Pacific, private sectors, and UN agencies from across the Pacific, including Australia, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tuvalu, Tonga, and Vanuatu. The event concluded with commitments from all partners in the Pacific to continue collaborative efforts towards promoting leadership amongst girls and young women through STEM and ICT education.
Digital innovation ecosystem: Asia and Pacific
ITU presented the key findings of the latest Facts and Figures on LLDCs, the Smart Villages and Smart Islands initiative and GovStack as whole-of-government innovations for the achievement of the SDGs at several side events held during the Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (ESCAP) Session in Bangkok.
Emergency telecommunications: Asia and Pacific
As part of the Disaster Readiness, Resilience, Critical Infrastructure & Network Continuity session at the 28th PITA Annual General Meeting, Business Forum and Expo held in Port Villa, Vanuatu, the ITU Asia and the Pacific Regional Office delivered a presentation on role of ITU as pillar 3 lead of EW4A and its service offering under the initiative. Cell Broadcast as a EW4A message dissemination and alerting tool received positive interest from telcos and administrations.
Emergency telecommunications: Global
The first Training of Trainers on developing Emergency Telecommunications tabletop simulation exercises was jointly organized by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) and ITU to train staff to deliver the simulation exercises which are crucial to help members review and refine national plans and strategies including policies and regulatory frameworks that allow the use of digital technologies for disaster management. These types of exercises also give an opportunity to increase coordination among stakeholders and to provide feedback from private and public sector on whether systems are in place and ready to be used for disaster response.
Emergency telecommunications: Africa
At the Media Summit organized by the African Union of Broadcasting, insights on Early Warning for All Initiative Pillar 3 “Warning dissemination and communication” were shared, highlighting the use of mobile based early warning systems, a multi-channel approach combined with the Common Alerting Protocol and the need for regulatory approach for enhanced coordination among all stakeholders.
Network and digital infrastructure: Asia and Pacific
The ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific organized a Training on Spectrum Management System for Developing Countries (SMS4DC) during the 28th PITA Annual General Meeting, Business Forum and Expo held in Port Villa, Vanuatu. The training received very positive feedback and enhanced the technical capacity of participants from 10 Pacific SIDs (FSM, Tonga, Tuvalu, SAMOA, Vanuatu, PNG, Solomon Island, Kiribati, Fiji and Palau) to efficiently manage spectrum by automating the processes through SMS4DC.
29 April - 3 May
Capacity development: Asia and Pacific
In collaboration with the ILO in Manila, the Government of Japan, and the Department of Information & Communication Technology in the Philippines, a new Digital Transformation Centre was inaugurated in Pampanga, the Philippines, as part of the ITU / Cisco Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) Initiative to boost Digital Skills in the region. The DTC hosted a cybersecurity training session as part of the Girls in ICT programme.
Digital innovation ecosystem: Asia and Pacific
During the 80th session of the Economic & Social Commission for Asia & the Pacific (ESCAP), a side event was organized by the Government of India and the Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT) which discussed Digital Public Infrastructure for accelerating the implementation of SDGs in Asia-Pacific using GovStack’s whole-of-government approach.
Digital services and applications: Arab States
Under the GovStack initiative, Djibouti kick-started the implementation of two Building Blocks (BB) - Document Management System BB to enable eCabinet services, and Registries BB - to enable the Registry of eConstruction Permits. A workshop was held to showcase key achievements, including the successful deployment of the two BBs and provide a comprehensive training for Djibouti's digital teams from MENI (Ministry of Digital Economy and Innovation in Djibouti), DATUH (Department of Urban and Planning), and ANSIE (National Agency of Information Systems) on the GovStack approach for microservices architecture.
Additionally, integration plans with other applications in the Djibouti Stack were developed, and end-users were onboarded for the eCabinet and Construction Permit Services, facilitating valuable feedback for platform configuration.
Digital services and applications: Asia and Pacific
During the side event on Digital Public Infrastructure for Accelerating Implementation of SDGs in Asia-Pacific (22 April 2024) organized by the Government of India and APCTT, ITU shared its experience on whole of government approach using GovStack and its role in building DPIs.
Digital services and applications: Asia and Pacific
Under the EU STREIT (Support to Rural Entrepreneurship, Investment and Trade) program in partnership with FAO, the National Weather Service in Papua New Guinea conducted a Capacity Building Training in the remote village of Ambunti in East Sepik. The training empowered participants - namely, cocoa and vanilla farmers, fisheries workers, small & medium enterprises, women and youth - with improved skills on e-commerce, online marketing, and Agricultural Meteorological Advisory Monitoring and Services (AMAMAS).
2 workshops were also held in Port Moresby to assess the technical and business requirements of the Management Information System (MIS) for the Department of National Planning and Monitoring, showcasing the proposed MIS architecture and finalizing the ownership of the Information Systems to ensure sustainability, with future action points agreed upon.
[This activity is the result of a BDT project. You can find more details of the project here]
Study Groups: Global
The ITU-D Study Group 1 Rapporteur Group Meetings and Workshops were attended by 208 participants, representing 154 member states, 43 sector members and 7 academia members. A total of 132 contributions were received from membership and were discussed at the meetings. A series of public workshops covered topics aligned to the study Questions, including strategic mainstreaming of ICT accessibility; evolution of broadcasting systems; personal data; transformative satellite connectivity; and resilience in Disasters.