| D.4-1 Capacity building |
| D.4-2 Telecommunication/ICT statistics |
| D.4-3 Digital inclusion of people with specific needs |
| D.4-4 Concentrated assistance to least developed countries (LDCs), small island developing states (SIDS) and landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) |
D.4-1 Capacity building
(PP Decisions 5, 13, PP Resolutions 25, 71, 72, 137, 139, 140, 176, 188, 189, 197, 199, 202, WTDC Resolutions: 1, 5, 9, 15, 20, 21, 22, 30, 32, 40, 73, 77)The selection of the new centres of excellence under the new strategy was completed. Thirty-two centres of excellence signed their Cooperation Agreements with ITU. Steering Committees were established for each region and the first steering Committee meetings were held. Centres have implemented agreed training programmes for 2015.
Many trainings and workshops were organized, including: a regional workshop on the role of Human Resources in the migration to DTTB and digital economy; a training programme on Communication Innovative Tools for the strengthening of Indigenous People; an E-learning Train the Trainer Training programme; online training activities delivered through the ITU Academy platform; national training workshop on Spectrum Management; national seminar on “Towards the digital economy Thailand: telecommunications regulatory best practices”; national Workshop organized on “Conformity and Interoperability Assessment; Regional workshop dedicated to the Girls in ICT Day; and several face-to-face and short-term trainings.
Direct assistance was provided to several countries including assistance in building human and institutional capacity of the national ICT regulator, assistance for Girls in ICT, and assistance in the framework of new technologies and telecommunications businesses.
D.4-2 Telecommunication/ICT statistics
(PP Decisions 5, 13, PP Resolutions 25, 71, 72, 137, 139, 140, 176, 188, 189, 197, 199, 202, WTDC Resolutions: 1, 5, 8, 30, 37, 43, 51, 52, 57, 60)In 2015, a number of statistical products were released to enhance the information and knowledge of policy-makers and other stakeholders on current telecommunication/ICT trends and developments based on high-quality, internationally comparable statistics, including: “The World in 2015: ICT Facts and Figures” (May 2015); the World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database (June and December 2015); the Little Data Book on ICT (November 2015); and the Yearbook of Statistics (December 2015).
Increased capacity and skills of producers of ICT statistics to carry out data collections at the national level was achieved by holding a Regional Training Workshop on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Indicators in Barbados in April 2015. Eleven countries attended and participated. A Regional Training Workshop for the African countries took place in October 2015 in Addis Ababa, attended by around 140 participants.
The 6th meeting of the Expert Group on Telecommunication/ICT Indicators (EGTI) and the 3rd meeting of the Expert Group on ICT Household Indicators (EGH) were held from 22 to 25 September 2015, in Geneva. The meetings were attended by around 120 participants from more than 50 countries as well as regional and international organizations, private sector, academia and civil society. The meetings agreed on a number of decisions concerning the future work on ICT statistics, which were presented to the 13th World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium.
The 13th World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS) took place in Hiroshima (Japan), from 30 November to 2 December 2015. The event was attended by around 600 participants from 88 countries, 45 other entities, and regional and other international organizations, the UN and its specialized agencies. WTIS-15 adopted a number of conclusions and recommendations which will guide countries as well as ITU in future work on ICT measurement.
During WTIS-15, the “Measuring the Information Society Report 2015” was launched. The Report includes the results of the ICT Development Index (IDI) 2015, a quantitative assessment of the Connect 2020 Goals and Targets, new data on ICT prices, and an analysis of the Internet of Things in the context of big data. The Report received wide media coverage with over 1,600 news articles.
Other related achievements were: MDG indicators report and the MDG gap report concerning ICT developments; collection of price data on mobile and fixed telephony and broadband services; and the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development proposal for ICT indicators for the SDG indicators framework.
D.4-3 Digital inclusion of people with specific needs
(PP Decisions 5, 13, PP Resolutions 25, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 64, 70, 71, 131, 139, 140, 175, 184, 198, 202, WTDC Resolutions: 1, 5, 9, 11, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30, 32, 55, 58, 68, 76, 77)In 2015, the
Model ICT Accessibility Policy Report was published in Arabic, French, and Spanish as well as accessible English e-book versions being made available and shared with members and disabled persons’ organizations around the world, including the World Federation of the Deaf and the Pacific Disability Forum.
Over 350 ITU Members benefited from training on ICT accessibility policies and practices at the Rapporteurs Group and ITU-D Study Group Question 7/1 meetings. Recognizing the importance of public procurement in ensuring that accessible ICTs are widely available to persons with disabilities, BDT developed an extensive set of online training materials on “Public procurement of accessible ICT products and services” which were delivered in an online training course via the ITU Academy.
BDT raised awareness on ICT accessibility policies and practices in meetings and workshops around the world, including in Accessible Americas II in Colombia; the M-Enabling Summit in Washington, DC; a series of EUR Regional Initiative meetings in Barcelona, Brussels, Rome, Serbia and Slovenia organized with key European partners including the European Commission, EBU and EUR academic institutions; ARB and CIS Regional Initiative meetings; and a UN DESA/HABITAT meeting on disability and development for Africa.
In cooperation with Fondo Indígena, almost 300 indigenous leaders in the Americas were trained via the ITU Academy platform on digital tools for the development of indigenous communities and web tools to develop, manage and operate local network radio-stations. ITU, the Philippines Administration and Tinder Foundation launched a trial of interactive online curriculum in the Philippines to test its relevance for English-speaking developing countries. Nearly 140 rural teachers in the Kyrgyz Republic were trained on ICTs for education.
ITU committed to lead the digital skills and tech hubs thematic area of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth (GIDJ4Y) and launched related research on coding bootcamps to be published in 2016. BDT shares resources with youth on digital skills for employment and entrepreneurship in the
Youth Employment Resources Database and a range of digital inclusion practices and strategies on the
ITU-D Digital Inclusion news log. More than 66,600 girls and young women took part in 1,800 celebrations of International Girls in ICT Day 2015 in 130 countries worldwide. The ITU
Girls in ICT Portal received 337,936 page views in 2015 and saw a 40 per cent increase in users accessing the Portal from mobile devices this year.
D.4-4 Concentrated assistance to least developed countries (LDCs), small island developing states (SIDS) and landlocked developing countries (LLDCs)
(PP Decisions 5, 13, PP Resolutions 25, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 70, 71, 123, 124, 125, 127, 135, 159, 160, 161, 193, WTDC Resolutions: 1, 5, 10, 15, 16, 18, 26, 35, 52, 53)In 2015, enhanced awareness of LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS on interconnection regulations and IP based environment, enhanced capacity of LDCs, SIDS and LLDCs to implement their priority ICT needs, and enhanced knowledge of LDCs, SIDS and LLDCs through reviewing existing ICT policies and broadband roadmap were achieved.
As part of the Concentrated Assistance programme, several countries benefited from direct assistance from ITU-D in 2015.
