2020B round of ICT regulation – policy and practice programme

The capacity building programme “ICT Regulation – Policy and Practice” will start the Online Sweden Phase for round 2020B 16 November, 2020. Training will mainly take place on the Zoom platform between 16 November and 9 December. Participants come from four countries in West and Southern Africa: Liberia, Nigeria, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

“This capacity building programme by SPIDER and PTS provides an excellent support to the regional development in the ICT sector” said Mr. Laminou Elh Maman, Exceutive Secretary of the regional regulatory organization for West Africa, WATRA, in his remarks during the opening session.

During the training the participants will first be introduced to the Swedish regulatory environment in thematic blocks presented by the Swedish regulatory authority PTS, and also hear of an industry perspective on regulation from Ericsson representatives. Fiber deployment will be discussed in sessions with STOKAB, the Foundation for IT Infrastructure in Stockholm.

In the second part of the training, change initiatives will be in focus with project management and gender equality sessions, discussions with regulatory experts. Change Initiatives are strategic development projects which each country team have been assigned to implement, by their respective Authority, over the coming 9 months.

Each group of participants will work on one change initiative. The change initiatives in this round includes important projects in Quality of Service, new model for universal access, development of regulatory framework for digital service providers, online license application platform, and consumer protection and development of digital hubs for youth.

Change initiatives will be supported during the implementation phases by the regional bodies for West Africa (WATRA) and Southern Africa (CRASA), and their representatives also take part in the training and online discussions.