Highlights February 2024
26 February - 1 March
Gender: Arab States
The Network of Women (NoW) in the ITU-D in the Arab Region, in collaboration with the ITU Regional Office for the Arab States, organized a training workshop titled "Leadership Skills." It equipped participants with the necessary knowledge and skills to become effective leaders and managers in their respective roles. This workshop was conducted as part of an ongoing series of joint training workshops offered by Ogero-Lebanon. This initiative reflects ITU’s commitment to ongoing professional development and collaboration with valued partners.
Capacity development: Asia and Pacific
The ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific contributed to the “Technical Capacity Building for Internet Development” session at the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT) 2024 in Bangkok which aimed to address the need for a skilled workforce in the Asia-Pacific region to drive sustainable Internet development. In a panel discussion, the role of the ITU Academy as the gateway to ITU’s capacity development activities was emphasized, along with key elements required for successful collaboration between the public and private sectors such as Partner2Connect, the role of ITU in fostering a conducive environment for skills development, and how emerging technologies are shaping the landscape of skills development.
Cybersecurity: Asia and Pacific
The ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific organized the Timor-Leste CIRT Maturity Assessment, together with the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANC) of Timor-Leste. This three-day program featured detailed interviews with the members of the Timor-Leste Computer Security Incident Response Team (TLCSIRT). ITU led two days of technical capacity building and tabletop exercises with participants and cybersecurity stakeholders representing different governmental agencies and academia. This Timor-Leste CIRT Maturity Assessment provided key recommendations for TLCSIRT in ensuring its effectiveness to enhance cybersecurity within the country.
Digital services and applications: Asia and Pacific
The ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific under the EU STREIT Program developed an e-learning management system (LMS) platform to support three value chain farmers, as well as schools and other interested stakeholders in East and West Sepik, Papua New Guinea. The Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUoT) is one of three ITU Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) in the Asia-Pacific region, started rolling out its training plan in 2020. The LMS platform has online courses such as digital skills, e-commerce, and business planning from ITU; PNGUoT has upload training courses on Project Management and Road Construction.
The Vice-Chancellor of the PNGUoT said: "It is a great opportunity for PNGUoT to work closely with District Administrators and community leaders as we implement online trainings in various sectors throughout the country. PNGUoT, using the LMS platform, will train teachers at primary, secondary and tertiary levels across the country, as well as all community members with a focus on youth, farmers, artisans and small and medium enterprises".
New Members: Europe
Founded in 1990, Systemics-PAB is a service provider in the area of QoS and network tests, providing services in the four main areas Measurements & Benchmarking, Consultancy & Analytics, End-to-End Service Assurance and Network, Application & Security Testing. Systemics-PAB runs presences in over 55 countries with over 13,000 employees. Since July 2023, Systemics is part of the Apave Group.
19 - 23 February
Capacity development: Africa
A capacity-building workshop for the Universal Access and Service Committee was held for Southern African Development Community (SADC) members in Botswana as part of the ITU and UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) project. Participants undertook training on the ITU Universal Service Financing (USF) Efficiency toolkit, and there was also a stakeholder consultation on the review of the SADC Toolkit on Universal Access Funding and Universal Service Fund Implementation with the goal to provide an update to the current toolkit.
Cybersecurity: Americas
The ITU Regional Office for the Americas participated in the European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean (EU-LAC) High-Level Political Dialogue. The meeting was an opportunity to explore areas of cooperation in cybersecurity with the EU-LAC Digital Alliance. ITU-D’s work and portfolio of programmes in cybersecurity were promoted, and the opportunity to work together and support Member States with ITU-D’s technical knowledge was discussed.
Digital services and applications: Asia and Pacific
The ITU Regional Office for Asia-Pacific made presentations on Smart Villages and Smart Islands during the “SIDS Partnership Symposium”, and presented an overview of Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative during the event “Progress with rolling out the Early Warnings for All initiative in Asia and the Pacific”. These were organized as side events of the 11th Asia-Pacific Forum for Sustainable Development (APFSD).
Network and digital infrastructure: Africa
The Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies of South Africa hosted an insightful stakeholder consultation for the Sustainable Connectivity and Digital Skills Models research in South Africa. The research, supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), included interviews with stakeholders and site visits, including to the Lindamahle Innovation Centre.
12 - 16 February
Digital inclusion: Global
A Generation Connect Arab State Youth Envoy participated in the Global Digital Compact informal virtual stakeholder consultation led by members of the UN General Assembly. He shared highlights from collaborative discussions with other Generation Connect Youth Envoys about what they as young leaders want Member States and decision makers to consider when creating policies and tools for a more open, accessible, and secure digital future.
New Members: Europe
Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Aachen, Germany, Utimaco is a cybersecurity company offering solutions for a diverse range of industries and applications. Products include security solutions for location-based messaging, mobile warning, key management, encryption and more. The company started with hardware-based security appliances. Utimaco has subsidiaries across multiple continents. In 2021, Utimaco joined the German “Charta of Diversity”.
New Members: Arab States
Founded in 2014, CTM 360 is a cybersecurity company based in Bahrain with offices in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. CTM 360 is a part of EDX LABS. The core offer of CTM360 is the “Digital Risk Protection Platform” with the same name, offered as a SaaS cloud solution, including multiple tools for different use cases (e.g., HackerView, Cyber Blindspot, Threatcover). Customers of CTM360 include over 300 entities in 30 countries, with a focus on financial institutions and banks.
5 - 9 February
Digital inclusion: Africa
The ITU shared Insights on digital inclusion of people from rural remote and indigenous communities were shared at the Africa Community Network Exchange "Unlocking Impact: Igniting Sustainable Change through Supporting Capacity Building (COPs) and Knowledge Resource Production" webinar, part of a series organized by APC, Tanda Community Network, Rhizomatica, and others. The workshop moderated by the Africa Policy Coordinator & Association for Progressive Communications of the Local Networks Initiative (APC LOCNETLOCNET), aimed to tackle digital inclusion for rural and indigenous communities, sharing strategies on community network development and solutions to digital challenges for participation in the digital society, economy and environment of these communities. Capacity building initiatives were highlighted alongside contributions from experts across sectors, earning recognition as a model for community network development and digital empowerment in rural and indigenous areas.
New Members: Arab States
Founded in 1987 as Qtel Group, Ooredoo Group provides telecommunication services from Qatar to a total of 10 countries. In addition to mobile and fixed connectivity services, Ooredoo Group also provides IoT and cloud solutions (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), services, Ooredoo Group also provides IoT and cloud solutions (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), collaboration services, roaming and cybersecurity solutions. collaboration services, roaming and cybersecurity solutions.
29 January - 2 February
Digital services and applications: CIS
At the high-level Digital Almaty 2024 forum in Kazakhstan, the ITU Regional Office for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS CIS) addressed topics that encompassed digital transformation in the industry and innovative solutions in areas such as GovTech, Industry 4.0, ESG, Smart City, and others. The forum, featuring an extensive business program, addressed topics that encompassed digital transformation in the industry and innovative solutions in areas such as GovTech, Industry 4.0, ESG, Smart City, and others. The panel discussions included contributions from over 200 speakers, heads of government from the Eurasian Economic Union, industry leaders, and leading innovators in IT and business. During the visit to Kazakhstan, the Regional Director conducted bilateral meetings with key figures, including the Deputy Minister o f Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan; the First Deputy of the Republic of Belarus; the Minister of Digital Development of Kyrgyzstan; and representatives from the International University of Information Technologies in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
New Members: Asia and Pacific
China Tower was founded in 2014 by combining the towers and related assets of the three main telecom service providers of the People’s Republic of China China: China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. As of 2018, China Tower is publicly listed. The company focuses on infrastructure solutions in areas such as telecommunication towers, network coverage in high-speed railways and subways, and large scale indoor distributed antenna systems.
New Members: Americas
Founded in 2017, Resecurity specializes i n cybersecurity services, with a focus on endpoint protection, risk management and threat intelligence for large companies and the public sector. Its main product is a SaaS platform that provides endpoint protection as a service to end clients in a unified approach. Resecurity operates from its headquarters in Los Angeles and has additional locations in the United States, Italy, Saudia Arabia, Egypt, Myanmar, Mexico, Jordan and Senegal.