A) To facilitate active participation in development of relevant recommendations and promote capacity building through workshops, meetings and training with regards to combating counterfeiting 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” (Rev. Dubai, 2012);
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 as well as combating counterfeiting of ICT equipment:
1) support regional contributions on C&I issues based on inputs provided by different African parties;
2) 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) involve African stakeholders to participate in ITU-T Conformity Assessment Steering Committee (ITU-T CASC) meetings, fostering their proposals on possible ITU-T Recommendations which may become candidate of the new joint IEC/ITU certification scheme;
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 (e.g. VoLTE/ViLTE interconnection), from the African regional perspective, aiming at drafting regional contributions to be submitted to SG11;
L) To coordinate the African regional support towards the development of new and revised ITU T Recommendations focusing on both traditional and emerging areas of interest in 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 labs and centres in Africa, development of MRAs and sharing of information among African countries;
O) To encourage African countries to have regulatory framework for C&I;
P) To cooperate with ITU-T SG11 in the development of framework, standards, guidelines to control counterfeit and substandard ICT equipment;
Q) To educate our citizenry about the possible dangers posed by the counterfeit devices including environmental disposal issues.
Working Methods
The management team, including Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the SG11RG-AFR, shall be appointed for two terms only.
