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Technical Training Workshop on Universal Service Efficiency and Quality Infrastructure Data

Technical Training Workshop on Universal Service Efficiency and Quality Infrastructure Data
- The foundation for inclusive and affordable connectivity

Date: Tuesday, 2 May to Thursday, 4 May 2023
Time: 9:00-16:30 WAT
Place: Freetown, Sierra Leone

The three-day workshop was organised by ITU, the Universal Access Development Fund (UADF) and the National Communications Authority (NatCA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Communications. The stakeholder focused event brought together policy makers in relevant ministries and agencies, regulators, mobile and internet service providers, and development partners.

The goal of the workshop was, among others, to deepen collaborative inter-agency partnerships and strengthen broader stakeholder engagement with a view to creating a platform for inclusive and sustainable public-good connectivity model for Sierra Leone. It sought to leverage ITU’s Universal Service Financing Efficiency toolkit and other resources to expand the knowledge and understanding of public officials in selected government ministries, agencies and departments in need of universal service interventions.

The gathering also provided insight into how Sierra Leone can leverage energy and connectivity related programs for synergies and sustainability within the health, agriculture education and local government sectors further advancing on some key ITU-led areas of Giga in Sierra Leone. The workshop also discussed the status and good practices of infrastructure mapping and the need to adopt a roadmap that views infrastructure data as a strategic tool for planning and developing high quality and efficient infrastructure systems that support growth in the country.

Objectives

• Day 1 and 2: Universal service financing efficiency: Capacity building for productive use of the Universal Access and Service Fund Public funding is limited, and as such must be used strategically in order to achieve broad national aspirations, and get the desired return on social, economic and financial investment. The primary goal of this workshop is to increase the understanding of public officials, policy makers, regulators and digital development focal persons of priority sectors in the national development agenda in order to achieve acceptable universal access and digital services outcomes. It will provide practical insight for impactful and sustainable universal access and service implementation by using analytical tools, examples, and templates that are grounded in practical experience and designed to help them navigate common questions and challenges they face when using public funds to design, implement and finance programmes and projects that facilitate access to digital technologies and communication infrastructure. It will further create an open space where participants will have the opportunity have practical follow up interaction from the online training session with a view of having deep dive discussions in the context of Sierra Leone’s universal access and service aspirations.

• Day 3: Infrastructure mapping, the foundation for informed investment and inclusive access
Today, energy termination and internet connectivity are increasingly becoming inseparable from public good utility services that form the bedrock for equality, inclusivity, and the attainment of sustainable development goals. Day 3 of this workshop will be a gathering of technical experts whose interaction is aimed at supporting the objectives of Pillar 2- Digital Infrastructure and Access as articulated in the National Digital Development Policy & Strategy (NDDP/NDDS-2021). This will allow senior technical officers from mobile and internet service providers to join the participants present on the first two days. It will serve as platform for participants understand the state of telecoms and energy infrastructure in Sierra Leone, while equally discussing good practices across the region and the value in building collaborative framework for infrastructure data and mapping.

Participation

The event brought together traditional and non-traditional partners of ITU partners in Sierra Leone, including, officials in charge of energy/telecom/ICT such as those in the Ministry of Communications and Communications, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Ministries of Education, Energy Regulator, Directorate of Science Technology, and Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and other stakeholders. The workshop also brought together private sector players, including independent energy providers, mobile and internet service providers.

Agenda

Agenda
Tuesday, 2 May 2023

Day 1: Universal Access and Service Workshop

8:30 – 9:00	Arrival and badging at event venue
9:30 – 10:00	Remarks
10:00 – 10:10	Keynote address and formal opening of the training workshop
	Group photo
10:15 – 11:15	Session 1: Fundaments of Universal Access and Service This session will provide insight into the Universal Service Financing Efficiency Toolkit modules. It will shed light on the fundamental building blocks of universal access and service in the context of digital transformation, highlighting the socio-economic impact and financial returns associated with universal access and service. It will also discuss the key aspects for policy and regulatory interventions and funding which broadly cover the digital policy value chain, including connectivity, adoption, innovation and inclusion. Finally, it will look into the importance of cost reduction and risk mitigation in achieving universal access and service.
11:15 – 11:40	Tea/Coffee break
11:40 – 13:00	Session 2: The Financing Toolbox - Financing Tools and Approaches
11:40 – 13:00	Public funding is limited and as such must be used strategically in order to achieve broad national objectives, and get the desired return on social, economic and financial investment. This session seeks to explore various funding sources, keeping in view the interest contributors. It will discuss the roles of public versus private funding in universal access and service and introduce financing approaches innovative such as blended finance. It will further identify regulatory incentives and financing tools that can be used to reduce costs and risks and to incentivise investment using both traditional and innovative funding models.
13:00 – 14:00	Lunch break
14:00 – 15:15	Session 3: Designing, implementing and maintaining impactful universal service programmes
	This aspect of the training is focused on productive use of Universal Access and Service funds either through subsidies, grants or self-initiated projects. It will provide insight into assessing needs and selection of target communities for optimal impact. Further discussions will evolve around translating identified needs into keys elements from project conceptualisation, design, implementation, evaluation and reporting. The session will also help participants with useful knowledge and good procurement practices in the management of universal access and service fund.
15:15 – 16:00	Session 4: Emerging solution and approaches to sustainable connectivity programmes
	This session is aimed at supporting participants in planning, designing and assessing inclusive connectivity strategies and programmes. It will use existing public good connectivity programme as an example during this session, and explain the necessary research to design impactful school connectivity projects; and how to improve conditions for investment, collaboration and possible models to sustain and scale the initiative. In so doing the session will provide insights into global ITU and UNICEF Giga initiative to connect schools to the internet and the potential impact it could have on the country's knowledge economy.
16:00 – 16:30	Wrap up of the day and next steps

Day 2: Universal Access and Service Workshop (continued)

8:30 – 9:30	Arrival and badging at event venue
9:30 – 11:00	Session 5: Deep-dive session 1 - Practical application
	This session will provide audience to digital focal persons of priority sectors in Sierra Leone's digital development strategy to share their digital connectivity and service plans and programme with the view to understanding the challenges, while highlighting opportunities for collaboration by leveraging synergies in the design of a whole-of-government program for inclusive and affordable access to digital connectivity and services: Health sector Basic and Secondary Education sector (Giga Sierra Leone) Agriculture sector Local Government sector
11:00 – 11:30	Tea/Coffee break
11:30 – 12:30	Session 6: Fund 2.0 - Designing and evaluating successful whole-of government Universal Access and Service (UAS) strategy
	This session will discuss approaches to review the effectiveness of Funds. It will address how to assess a universal service fund, and its performance; and the policy and legislative levers to use to influence the effectiveness of the Fund. It will also consider how the regulator and Fund can determine which instruments are needed to periodically review the Fund. Importantly, this session will discuss potential new roles for Fund 2.0, depending on how developed the institutional framework in the country.
12:30 – 13:00	Session 7: Regional learning experiences and knowledge sharing
	This session seeks to share experiences on countries that have completed the ITU Universal Service Financing Efficiency Toolkit, highlighting challenges, opportunities and good practices that could aid Sierra Leone in modelling a whole-of-government strategy for the efficient administration of the universal access and service fund.
13:00 – 14:00	Lunch break
14:00 – 15:30	Session 8: Deep-dive session 2 - Investment, partnerships and collaboration
	This will be a panel discussion session, focus of which will be to discuss and generate ideas on building a model for a whole-of-government approach to inclusive and affordable access to digital connectivity and services; keeping insights from deep-dive session 1.
15:30 – 16:30	Wrap up of the day and next steps

Day 3: Technical Workshop on Infrastructure Data and Mapping

8:30 – 9:00	Arrival and badging at event venue
9:30 – 9:45	Remarks
9:45 – 10:00	Keynote address
10:00 – 11:15	Session 1: The state of infrastructure data and mapping in Sierra Leone
	Energy infrastructure data and mapping Telecommunication/ICT infrastructure data and mapping Discussion around presentations
Group photo
11:30 – 12:30	Session 2: Why infrastructure data and mapping?
	This session will discuss the importance and potential impact of developing and maintaining a culture of quality infrastructure data mapping practices and its direct linkages national digital transformation agenda. It will further provide broader insight into ITU's collaborative engagement with countries within the region to infrastructure data mapping in the sector.
12:30 – 13:00	Session 3: Panel discussion
	In this session, panelists will share insights around concerns, ramifications opportunities around building trust for quality national infrastructure data mapping practices for sustained growth of the sector. The panel will be constituted by representatives from operators, regulator and universal service secretariat.
13:00 – 14:00	Lunch break
14:00 – 15:30	Session 4: Infrastructure data mapping deep-dive session
	The primary objective of this session is to have a deep-dive discussion around well-researched software tools and approaches to infrastructure data collection, formatting, processing, storage and presentation for insightful decision making. It will discuss templates and tools that can be adopted in building internal company procedures with regards infrastructure data good practices. Additionally, it will further discuss how to unify the collected data and its transformation into suitable format for business analysis. The session will conclude by helping by participants about some common software options, and how you can better determine which tool best suits your infrastructure data management needs.
15:30 – 16:00	Wrap up of the workshop and closing remarks

Social media

Twitter@ITUAfrica

Link to ITU website here

Link to Sierra Leone Link NatCA here

Link to Sierra Leone UADF here 

Documents and References

Participation and registration

Registration is now closed.
The organizing committee can be contacted at: itu-ro-africa@itu.int for any questions you may have.

Organizing Committee

The organizing committee can be contacted at itu-ro-afr@itu.int