Highlights: 15 – 19 November 2021
15 – 19 November 2021
Americas
ITU participated in the celebration of the 25th anniversary of SIT (Regulator) in Guatemala.
Capacity development: Asia and Pacific
ITU delivered a congratulatory message on the 15th Anniversary of the United Nations Project Office on Governance (UNPOG) at the Regional Symposium on “Effective Governance and Digital Transformation for Building Back Better and Accelerating the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” organized by UN DESA / DPIDG / UNPOG in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety of the Republic of Korea. ITU also shared a presentation on “Assessing digital skills readiness for digital transformation” during a session titled “Changing mindsets and upskilling of Civil Servants”.
Capacity development: Asia and Pacific
ITU recognized UNPOG’s achievements in supporting capacity development efforts, especially in the areas of promoting innovation, harnessing ICT, and digital government as well as acknowledging the partnerships and continued collaboration with UNPOG which includes UNPOG’s participation to the ITU Webinar on National Digital Skills Assessments-Preparing for current and future digital society in Asia and the Pacific, Regional Symposium, and Co-organizing the webinar on Digital Transformation for the Next Normal: Towards an Inclusive and People-Centered Digital Society in the Post-COVID-19 Era during the OGP Summit on 15-17 December 2021.
Capacity development: Asia and Pacific
ITU co-organized Latest Trends in Satellite Broadband Access with ALTTC, India under the auspices of CoE programme in Asia and the Pacific from 15-26 November. A total of 19 participants took part in this training to learn and discuss the concepts of satellite communication technologies & its applications, the role of LEO and MEO in wireless broadband communication and future trends in satellite communication.
Cybersecurity: Global
The first ITU Policy Brief on Child Online Protection was launched on 4 November. Based on the ITU COP Guidelines and drafted in partnership with experts from the COP community, it provides step-by-step guidance for policy-makers on how to develop and implement an inclusive multi-stakeholder national child online protection strategy. The Policy Brief includes all relevant areas of intervention for policy actions: policy, regulatory and law enforcement frameworks, capacity building, education, social welfare, and engagement of relevant stakeholders including academia, the ICT industry, carers/educators, children, and social services.
Cybersecurity: Global
The ITU COP Guidelines were recognized by the G20 Rome Leader's Declaration. The G20 Rome Leader have highlighted the COP Guidelines as a fundamental tool to improving internet safety and countering online abuse, hate speech, online violence and terrorism while protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Digital Inclusion: Americas
A Letter of Agreement was signed between ITU and the Mexican Administration (SCT) in support to the Project “Overcoming Barriers to Digital Inclusion: Americas Girls Can Code.”
Digital Inclusion: Africa
The webinars for women in the textile and apparel sector in Ethiopia continue, with one held this week on 2022 Consumer Trends and Business Crisis Learning. During this session, participants had the opportunity to learn more about the future global and digital trends for 2022 as well as the importance for businesses to have a back-up plan. Our international expert gave an overview on the critical items that need to be implemented to prepare for changes due to outside factors.
Digital Inclusion: Africa
The ITU-EIF joint project “Tech as a Driver of Women’s Economic Opportunity” presented two workshops last week in Burundi. The workshops were organized under the EQUALS Tech4Girls initiative and offered introductory courses in e-commerce for girls and young women from the rural area. The first workshop on 12 November was attended by around 40 young women in the rural area of the Bubanza Province. The second workshop, on 13 November, was held in Burundi’s capital of Bujumbura and was attended by about 70 girls and women from urban areas. The workshops were organized as part of the EIF-ITU project in the country with contributions by EQUALS partners such as GSMA, Women’s Worldwide Web (W4), the Burundi ministries of technology and commerce, IPSDI Burundi, FemDev Burundi and, Verizon and EIF as funding partners.
Digital Inclusion: Africa
The past 10 and 11 November, the local EIF-ITU project team in Burundi with the support of the Ministry of Communications, Information Technology and Media, planned an inward mission to the Province of Muramvya in Burundi with the goal of discussing with beneficiaries and provide an information session on the contribution of digital tools to increase competitiveness and increase access opportunities to national, regional and international markets. Women farmers and representatives of cooperatives were part of the meeting. This discussion was conducted in preparation of the next steps on the digitalization of women farmers in the upcoming five months of the project.
Digital Inclusion: Asia and Pacific
As part of the Girls in ICT Day Pakistan celebration, a series of digital skills trainings EQUALS Tech4Girls workshops on “Mobile application development” organized and supported by EQUALS, GSMA, W4, ITU, CodeGirls, and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication of Pakistan was conducted on 19 and 20 November 2021. ITU delivered opening remarks and shared a presentation on online safety introduction for girls. Each online course targeted 100 girls who participated from Islamabad, Karachi and other areas in Pakistan.
Digital Inclusion: Africa
On 17 November, a workshop with Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) and all stakeholders on Cryptocurrency in Cameroon was organized and chaired by the Minister. Recommendations were made for all actors and transmitted officially to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications for follow-up. ITU presented the ITU-T Digital Financial Services activities.
Digital Inclusion: Africa
Meetings were held the past 15 and 16 November in Bujumbura by members of the EIF-ITU project with, Ms Jennet Kem, UN Women representative in Burundi and her team, Ms Rose Nitunga, the UNDP, Unit Manager, and with Mr Anicet Niyonkuru, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communications, Information Technology and Media of Burundi. Moreover, meetings with local organizations such as IPSDI Burundi and KitHub FemDev to discuss collaboration in the next activities of the project were also organized.
Emergency telecommunications: Arab States - COVID19 response
Within the framework of support to Arab countries to be better prepared to respond to disasters and pandemics, the Arab Red Crescent and the Red Cross (ARCO) in partnership with ITU and the Arab Organization for Communication and Information Technologies (AICTO) organized the first Arab Annual Forum on the Role of Modern Technologies in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Action. The Forum aimed to to provide an opportunity to exchange experiences and expertise in the field of using new ICTs technologies for disaster management and humanitarian action. The Forum brought together representatives of governments from national red cross and crescent entities, policy-makers, the private sector, and ICT developers all over the Arab states, as well as humanitarian organizations and ICTs agencies.
Giga: Asia and Pacific
ITU participated in the Ministerial level Panel discussion on Inclusive Access for Blended Education for Bangladesh on 18th November 2021 and presented Giga. ITU spoke about the Giga initiative to help the Government entities to design the Blended Education framework in Bangladesh. Hon'ble Education Minister, Telecom Minister and ICT State Minister for Bangladesh were also part of the discussion. The panel discussed how a blended education system in Bangladesh needs to be inclusive and accessible for all learners and how the appropriate policies, management systems, and partnerships - local and global - would be required to support an inclusive blended education ecosystem.
Other: Africa
ITU and Gabon // National ICT Mapping Systems Initiative held on 16 November. Gabon will set up a mechanism to collect the regular information and communicate to ITU the relevant Data by SPIN (The entity in charge of optic fiber cables)
Click here to read highlights from 8 - 12 November 2021.