WSIS Action Line C4: Capacity development in emergency telecommunications: Building resilience through digital skills

Expert Panel Discusses Enhancing Disaster Preparedness through Capacity Development in Emergency Telecommunications

An expert panel convened at the SDG stage to discuss the crucial topic of capacity development in emergency telecommunications, moderated by Halima Letamo, a senior capacity and skills development officer at the ITU. The panel featured Giacomo Mazzone of InVision Eurovision, Mariella Machado from IEEE, and Leonard Jukwa from Zimbabwe’s Ministry of ICT, who each provided valuable insights into enhancing disaster preparedness and response capabilities.

Giacomo Mazzone highlighted the essential role of media, particularly radio and television, in disseminating information during disasters due to their wide reach compared to the less pervasive internet access. He introduced the “Media Saving Lives” project, which trains media professionals to communicate effectively in emergencies and prepare audiences in advance. Mazzone underscored the need to use all communication tools, including analogue media, to ensure no one is left behind, especially in regions with low internet penetration.

Mariella Machado discussed IEEE’s MOVE programme, which involves trucks equipped with telecommunication and energy systems to provide connectivity in disaster zones in the United States, in partnership with the Red Cross. She also mentioned the Internet for All programme, which aims to bring connectivity to unconnected areas and includes grants for infrastructure deployment. Machado emphasised the importance of equipping engineers with soft skills and leadership abilities to manage disaster relief effectively in resource-limited settings.

Leonard Jukwa shared Zimbabwe’s experience in hosting ITU disaster management satellite equipment for the SADC region and the establishment of a national ICT disaster committee. He outlined Zimbabwe’s proactive measures, such as developing a national emergency telecommunication plan and enacting a data and cyber act to protect personal data during disasters. Jukwa highlighted the importance of regional collaboration and the need for policies that support the development and deployment of ICT infrastructure in remote areas.

The panel and audience discussions underscored the importance of regional coordination and the challenges faced during recent disasters in the SADC region, such as Cyclone Freddy. The need for a comprehensive approach to skills development was emphasised, including technical competencies, soft skills, and leadership training.

In conclusion, the panel agreed that capacity development in emergency telecommunications is multifaceted, requiring strong policy support, stakeholder engagement across sectors, and comprehensive training programmes. The conversation highlighted the critical role of resilient infrastructure, the value of leveraging existing community resources, and the necessity of a holistic approach to skills development to enhance disaster readiness and response capabilities.

Halima Letamo:
Let me take this opportunity to invite you who are still walking around, if you’d like to join us, please take a seat at the SDG stage. We are talking capacity development in emergency telecommunications. So if this is a topic of interest to you, please feel free to take a seat and come and join us. We will be beginning our conversations soon. You’re welcome to join us at the SDG stage. We still have a couple of seats available. If you want to come in and sit down, please feel free to come and sit with us as we discuss capacity development in emergency telecommunications. We are building resilience through digital skills. Come and join us. This is a very important topic for us. We’ll be hearing from colleagues who have been working in this space, and we will also even hear from governments, at least one government that will share with us what they have done in building capacity for emergency telecommunications. Feel free to come and join us. We are happy to have you here. We still have a couple of seats. Feel free to come and join us. Hello again. Maybe this is the time that we can start our discussion for this morning. Let me introduce myself. My name is Halima Letamo. I am the senior capacity and skills development officer here at the ITU. I will be your moderator for this session today. You’ll be hearing less from me and more from my distinguished guests that I have on the panel with me. Maybe I should at this point introduce my guest to you. I have on my mediator left, Mr. Giacomo Mazzone, who is the secretary general of InVision Eurovision from Italy. Mr. Mazzone is one of the experts in this space, and we are excited to hear about the great work that they are doing in building skills for emergency telecommunications. Next to Giacomo, I have Ms. Mariella Machado, who is the senior director of humanitarian technology from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. I think we just easily call it IEEE. As you may see, I still have another seat empty, which will be filled pretty soon. That seat belongs to engineer Leonard Djukwa, who is the chief systems engineer and personal advisor to the permanent secretary from the Ministry of ICT, Postal and Career Services of Zimbabwe. So these are the experts that will be talking to us this morning. And as I mentioned, we are discussing capacity development in emergency telecommunications. As we may all appreciate, when emergencies happen, there’s a lot of panic most of the time. And it is important that when we reach events like that, people are prepared, not just the citizens that are affected by these emergencies, but also the staff and the personnel that is tasked with the responsibility to ensure that people are rescued, people have the necessary skills and the capacity and are able to respond in a way that can preserve lives, but most importantly help them to bounce back and ensure that they go back to some level of normality. It is for this reason that at the ITU we find it very important to ensure that we prepare citizens, we prepare technicians, we prepare policymakers, we prepare all of us at all levels to ensure that when disaster strikes, we are ready to respond to these emergency situations that are unfortunate, we do not plan, and sometimes we are not even able to focus, irrespective of how much technology we have. We find ourselves caught sometimes with situations where we are not prepared for these disasters when they strike. The best way we can be prepared is to make sure that we have built the necessary skills, we have delivered the necessary digital skills. And as I mentioned, this will range from building skills relating to the use of the equipment or the technologies that are available to us in the aftermath of disasters. It also means emotional preparedness. It means physical preparedness to be able to respond when these situations find us. And this technology that we have around us is helping us because it’s giving us all the possibilities that we can imagine, and we are able to respond because of this. But without the skills, we can have the technology and we will not have anything, or we will not be able to do anything with this technology. So I am going to invite our speakers or our distinguished panelists for us to start this conversation. And I’m going to start with you, Giacomo. Just maybe this morning, start by sharing with us. We know you have a lot of experience, as we’ve mentioned, in this space. So based on this experience, can you elaborate a little bit for us the role and use of radio communications in emergency contexts? And maybe while you are at it, touch a little bit on some of the existing capacity development initiatives that are in place to train people to dispatch this equipment during emergency situations and crisis.

Giacomo Mazzone:
Thank you very much for inviting me, and I’m happy to be here to share with you our experience. Talking of concrete examples, I think that the most adept is the project that we called Media Saving Lives. It consists in training mediators, that means journalists, media professionals, especially in the broadcasting sector, how to deal with emergency situations, how to communicate during the emergency situation, but also how to prepare the audience before. You said that emotional preparedness, but also technical preparedness is very important, and people can save their lives if they know exactly what to do when a situation unexpected occurs. So this is a very important work that needs to be done, and this work can be done through the media. Why through the media? Because it’s the best way to reach all of the population, especially people that are not easily to reach. And this means that we have also, not to be only digital, but we need to use all possible tools that are available, including the analog tools. Just to remember you, we have an internet penetration of 70%, less than 70%. But this means it’s an average worldwide. It means that in certain countries, the internet penetration is less than 50%, and even less than that. So it means that you have to reach the people through other means and other tools, and we try to do this through other media. For instance, just to remember you, the penetration of radio is around 96% of the world’s population. Penetration of TV is 85% of the population. And this is even more important in countries where the internet penetration is lower. So we need to be ready to use all the spectrum of possibility. Welcome to our colleague on the stage. And in order to do so, we have launched this training all over the world. We are aiming to reach the 100 more exposed countries that are exposed to risk of climate change, but not only, also other kinds of risk. And for the moment, we have reached 80 countries, and we plan to reach the 100 next year. This has been done across four continents for the moment. We have left apart Europe, because it’s, let’s say, the area where the disaster management preparedness is better done, and North America. The rest of the world, we have covered, and more than 2,000 professionals have been trained over two years and a half. This is a concrete example. I think that we can start with this.

Halima Letamo:
Thank you very much, Giacomo, for that. And yeah, I think, as you mentioned, the issue of internet penetration is a big challenge in a number of countries. But maybe as we continue our conversation, we look at situations where disaster strikes and infrastructure is completely damaged. Because this is the situation that we find most perplexing, you know, when there is absolutely nothing on the ground, all our towers, terminals are down, and nothing is working. So let’s also maybe reflect a little bit on these situations as we continue our conversation. But maybe for now, let me move over to Mariella. And Mariella, share with us how is IEEE contributing to imparting the necessary digital skills training for emergency response? And I think while answering that question, maybe touch a little bit on how you mobilize stakeholders at local level, especially taking into consideration that these are the most vulnerable communities. When disaster strikes, it is those hard to reach, as Giacomo just mentioned, that will be mostly affected and maybe difficult to reach. Over to you, Mariella. Thank you.

Mariela Machado:
Hi, everyone. And thank you, Halima, for having me here. Going one step back, and she mentioned already, I’m the senior director for technology for good and humanitarian technology at IEEE. And I will stop for one second here and ask who here has heard about IEEE? Raise your hand. Okay. So we’re a good crowd, and I also have my colleagues here. So we’re cheating a little bit. So I’m going one step back and telling you a bit about this, because this is an engineering perspective that we’re bringing to this panel and to WSIS at large. We are the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. We’re present in 190 countries, and we are 460,000 members across the globe. So I just want to mention that, because it’s relevant to the programs that I will mention, the tangible examples that we are deploying. And at humanitarian technologies at this department, we are really focused on designing and implementing programs that are mobilizing the technical skills for technology for development. And I’m making a caveat there, because disaster response for us is included in this bucket. Since the training that is needed, it’s also relevant to what we’re bringing also for technology for development, ICT, digital skills. So we are the largest engineering society, and I’m going to mention this, because we believe that our engineers, our members, already have the technical skills. But we believe at IEEE that we need to train these engineers with the soft skills that are needed to actually deploy these solutions. As Halima mentioned, these are very vulnerable populations, and the engineers usually don’t get the training that they require to deploy these solutions in under-resourced settings, so with no electricity, no communications. So the first program that I will mention is called MOVE. The MOVE program, there’s trucks that have been designed by IEEE volunteers and engineers. They’re modular, and they move around. They’re used mainly in the U.S. and doing disaster response for hurricanes. These trucks actually have telecommunication infrastructure within the truck. The particular thing about this program is that it’s run by volunteers in conjunction with the Red Cross. So the Red Cross will go into the disaster zones, will identify the need for the infrastructure being down, and it will call the trucks. The volunteers are trained by the Red Cross, and actually trained by IEEE to be sure that they have the necessary skills to be sure that they know how to handle no electricity, for example, because engineers, we know how to work with problems, but with having all the necessary tools. When those tools are not around, that’s when we come in. So this program is very relevant to what we’re speaking about because it’s totally aligned to the telecommunication and energy systems needed in emergency response. And the second program that I will mention in the context of sustainable development that I just mentioned is the Internet for All program. The Internet for All is the telecommunication infrastructure program, and we aim to bring connectivity to rural settings and unconnected areas. While doing that, we provide grants of up to $10,000 to deploy connectivity in rural settings or remote areas or emergency settings. The important thing about this is that we actually train these engineers, again, you know, something that I just want to highlight and keep highlighting, because we’re coming from the engineering perspective, is that we’re not doing ICT skills here. We’re doing the opposite. We’re training these engineers to be equipped with the soft skills, leadership skills, with the disaster response skills that they need to actually tackle these challenges. So at the end, you know, I just want to highlight that, that IEEE and Tech for Good and humanitarian technologies, we believe that engineers need to be equipped with these two things, and the same with the ICT, you know, for the rest of the development practitioners maybe sitting in this room, we need to train in ICT skills, and they’re both needed to actually tackle the emergency response and the disaster relief when we are not having any telecommunication connectivity. So I will stop there. We have many other programs, but I will stop there. Thank you.

Halima Letamo:
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks, Giacomo, and thanks, Mariella. I think you touched on a very important topic at the end of your intervention there, Mariella. You mentioned the need to train in soft skills. So maybe we can also reflect a little bit on how we link the technical part of our skills development to the soft skills and leadership skills particularly because I think these are some of the key competencies that are required in situations of emergency. Then maybe I can move to engineer, and welcome to the panel. Thank you. We know it was a rushed morning for you, so we thank you for being able to join us. Thank you. received training on the use of emergency telecommunications equipment. Can you share with us what you learned through this training, and maybe also touch a little bit on what are the requirements that you have seen that are emerging for the people of Zimbabwe, for the government, and maybe even the region as a whole? Because we know you have the responsibility of hosting equipment for the ITU, which is supposed to cover the whole of the South African region. Over to you, Leonard.

Leonard Jukwa:
Thank you, Halima. Thank you, colleagues. Thank you, the audience. Zimbabwe, yes, we consider ourselves lucky because we were one of the four countries that were picked to host the IC for Disaster Management Satellite Equipment. And we are playing host to the equipment for the Southern African Development Community region, which is composed of 14 countries. We did receive training on the deployment, assembling, the use, and use of the ICT for Disaster Management Equipment. What we actually learned from the training is that disasters, they come at a time when we least expect, but we should be prepared to make sure that the impact is lowered. And we got training as a coordinating team that included all the key institutions that are needed in terms when disasters strike. We recently constituted what we called a computer incident response team together with the ICT for Disaster Management team. These included authorities like the customs, the regulatory authority, the ministries responsible for disaster management, the ministry responsible for ICT where I come from. And this in itself, you would find out that it helped us to be prepared, it helped us to realize the criticality of ICT infrastructure. It should be available to the most vulnerable communities of our countries and to be able to help these people. We have realized that the people, they need to be capacitated to really understand what should be done when disaster strikes. We also now are pushing for police support to help develop especially the ICT infrastructure in those very remote areas. And some of the strategies that the government of Zimbabwe is doing is that we are using the existing infrastructure, social infrastructure like schools that are already there to be centers where the communities can actually rush to and be able to make reports and be able to get support from the main ICT infrastructure. We were also looking at turning some of the health centers as well to be part of the broader infrastructure for disaster reportage when the natural disasters strike. From the police side, I think we all appreciate that data sovereignty, privacy, data protection also becomes key in times of disaster. So we have recently enacted a data and cyber act that actually looks into that. We have also come up with an authority, the data protection authority, that will also make sure that when disaster strikes, when people are actually sharing information, pushing a lot of private data on the web, they are actually protected. And as a region, we are also hoping to have a platform where we can actually share experiences. You know, each and every country has got its own unique situations, and we are hoping that as a region, we will actually be able to share. Recently we got support from the ITU in coming up with a national emergency telecommunication plan, and the expert actually moved across from Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania in trying to make sure that we come up with a plan that appeals to the needs of the region going forward. In brief, Halima, this is what I can say. Thank you.

Halima Letamo:
Thank you. Thank you so much, Leonard. I think you also introduced another very interesting element, which is the policy position of countries when it comes to these responses. And I think this is another very critical area that we need to really investigate a little bit into, because as you mentioned, it is the case that most countries may not have the necessary policies in place to ensure response, but most importantly also to look into other areas that we haven’t been considering previously, like data protection that you just mentioned. I want to just pause here for a minute and see from the audience if there are any interventions or specific questions that you would want to ask to our panelists at this stage before we move to the second section of our questions. Any comments? Yes, I’m seeing a hand over there. Gio, do you mind helping me with the microphone?

Audience:
Hi. Thank you so much. My name is Jessica Mayenda. I’m a senior manager at Village Reach for Health Center by phone. It’s quite interesting. I think it’s for the engineer. I wanted to find out, because there was Cyclone Freddie in Malawi, which heavily impacted Malawi and Mozambique not so long ago. And I think even last month, Malawi again was faced with a lot of flooding, and we were at the center of Cyclone Freddie providing telecommunications support through the National Health Call Center. So, I wanted to know if there’s any lessons you’re picking from how that coordination happened during Cyclone Freddie, which was a major disaster, and in SADC, how you’re helping countries like Malawi and Mozambique, who continuously every year face climate crises, in trying to see how they can coordinate such efforts that they’re already doing on their own, and how they come into this agreement that you have with the ITU.

Leonard Jukwa:
All right. Thank you. Yes, we had a discussion when we actually had the training this year on the disasters in Mozambique, Malawi, and recently, I think, in Kenya. The equipment is there upon request. I think what’s critical is for the regional countries, for them to make requests in the event of a disaster happening, because it’s there for use in the region. And normally, the ICT for disaster, the satellite equipment, is normally deployed when the terrestrial infrastructure is damaged. When the infrastructure that is already there is still working, we wait until we have that infrastructure now not open. But I know in certain regions, especially remote areas, definitely there would be need to quickly deploy the equipment before even much of the infrastructure is destroyed. So the thing is, there is a need for the affected country to make a request to the regional office, the ITU regional office. That in itself will actually help us to mobilize the local teams and deploy the equipment to the affected countries. So that’s what is key, the request from the affected country. It’s unfortunate, you know, it’s an initiative that is actually taking off. And at times, the information and the coordination might not be there. But it’s one area that we are saying, as a region, we should actually establish even the core ICT disaster teams in those countries. Say that come disaster, you exactly know who to call. We exactly know who to conduct in those countries. And we can be able to alleviate the damage that comes. We really had a discussion with that, especially the recent one in Kenya. Thank you.

Halima Letamo:
Thank you very much, Engineer. I think this goes a long way in saying there is need for digital skills or for skills development, whichever side we look at it, prior to disaster striking. And as you are rightly pointing out, these are some of the interventions that maybe the government of Zimbabwe, together with the ITU, should be looking into to see how they can skill the responsible stakeholders within the region to know what to do and who to contact and how to access this equipment that the government of Zimbabwe is currently hosting. I’m seeing another hand on the floor. There’s a hand here.

Audience:
Thank you. Thank you very much, Halima, for that great conversation. I think it’s something that is worth discussing, especially now with the climate change issues that are happening. I’d like to maybe just to contribute on the issue of the emphasis on the coordination part for regions. Because I think, as Engineer mentioned, Zimbabwe is the host for the ITU regional office. And I believe that the coordination element should house on the government of Zimbabwe and the ITU. And we thank the ITU for actually affording us the opportunity to lead in this process. So I think the issue of having a coordination team within the region, which then deploys the equipment once disaster happens, or if we know that this disaster will be happening. That was my contribution. Thank you very much.

Halima Letamo:
Thank you very much for that intervention. It actually brings me to the next set of my questions. And maybe just to also say to colleagues around the stage to say we are discussing capacity development in emergency telecommunications. Feel free to come and join us. We still have a few seats available. So if you are standing up and want to join in the conversation, please, you’re welcome. The next question that I want to pose to our panelists is on the issue of collaboration and coordination. How important is involvement of other stakeholders in the work that you are doing? You mentioned, Giacomo, that one of the works that you’re doing, you’re using volunteers. I assume there’s a key stakeholder. And it may be interesting for us to learn how do you involve these volunteers? How do you identify them? How do you access them? And most importantly, what is the greatest value add that these stakeholders bring to the work that you are doing in this space? Not just them, but all the other stakeholders that you are working with. We know that you work in collaboration with other agencies. So maybe you can share a little bit about who you work with and the importance of their contribution to your work.

Giacomo Mazzone:
Thank you. The project Media Saving Lives is based since the beginning on close cooperation with horizontal and vertical. The interlocutor on the broadcasting side is the World Broadcasting Union. That means the six unions in the world that gathers broadcasters around the world. So 90% of the broadcasters of the world are reachable through these unions. Within this, of course, those that are more interested are the regions more at risk, as I explained before. But then this cooperation is also horizontal, because we need to work closely with the ITU, that is one of the partners, with the WMO, because the Met Office, as you can imagine, is crucial in early warning and spreading the information in time. Then we work also with the UNDR for the cooperation with the national agencies for disaster preparedness. And we work with UNESCO for the oceans, especially for what is the tsunami alert, because there is a network covering all the oceans around. So the cooperation is key, because each one of these organizations can bring, and their national interlocutors, of course, can bring a part of the puzzle. If you only look at one part of the puzzle, or if you do it alone, you miss all the rest. The problems are global and need a global solution, not only geographical terms, but also all around the spectrum of the problems. Then the second part about the volunteers. What happens is that we leave to the national broadcasters, then to their relation with the community, how to self-organize locally. For instance, in Asia, we have done a very interesting experience with community radio that are very often the nearest to the population, because they can reach the community and they have a strong link and a strong trust within the community. So they are essential for preparedness, because through them we can train people to have the right reaction in the short span of time that they have to react. An essential point that you need to remember is that the infrastructure are different. The telecom infrastructure, especially the mobile ones, with a lot of small antennas. This means that when there is a big problem, these antennas are often the first to go down. down, while the broadcasting infrastructure, they have to respect some ITU requirements that make them more resilient. For instance, they have to be less dense. So the relationship is that when you have a broadcasting antenna, instead for mobile telephony, you need 100 antenna to cover the same area. So of course, it’s easier to make more resilient when you have one instead of 100. But this, for instance, in the recent cases, two years ago, the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the broadcasting infrastructure in two hours was able to recover and to restart broadcasting, while the telecom infrastructure in the region, in Turkey, was able to be there only 48 hours later in certain zones, and in Syria even later, because the rapidness is less. So we have to keep this in the picture and to be sure that we are ready to react properly according to the territory, to the population, to the vulnerable part of the population. There is a recent report that has been published just last month that is called Radio in Times of Crisis that is available for you on the website of ebu.ch slash mis. And this shows you cases of what happened in the last years with the use of radio. They recensed the only new, this is only for Europe, but of course, what happens in Europe can be replicated in other parts of the world. In the case of 1,672 major natural disasters that have been recorded in Europe, in 95% of the cases, the broadcasting radio infrastructure was still able to provide assistance and to communicate to the citizens. So that’s something that we need to keep in the picture. Thank you very much.

Halima Letamo:
Thank you very much, Giacomo, for that intervention. I’m going to allow Mariella to respond to the same question. I know you also work through a collaboration with a number of stakeholders, so share with us a little bit what’s happening in that space. And if possible, touch a bit on the capacity development or training collaborations that you have.

Mariela Machado:
Thank you, Halima. And for us at IEEE, we believe since we are the engineering society, we understand very well of having deployed these programs for more than 15 years in all parts of the spectrum. So we have social entrepreneurship. We have skills, soft skills, digital skills, you know, combined. We have many programs, many layers, grants of implementation programs that serve also as training. And we understand that we cannot do this on our own. So we partner with the relevant stakeholders needed to carry that out. I will share two examples. The ones that I shared earlier on the MOVE truck. The MOVE truck, as I mentioned, is with the Red Cross. Of course, you know, these trucks were equipped and built by the IEEE volunteers. They designed the emergency telecommunication systems and energy systems that provide connectivity, lightning for charging the phone. They all designed this. But again, the technical skills are not the only thing needed. So they understand and we understood that very quickly. And we partner with the Red Cross. They’re the ones that go in and identify that we’re needed. And they call us and we are deployed. Something that I didn’t mention, and Halima also asked me at the beginning, how are we deploying these volunteers? It’s a very efficient system, actually. And I mean, Giacomo touched upon their volunteers as well. They get training beforehand and they’re multiple. So, you know, if you’re needing 10 to be deployed, we have maybe 100 that are, you know, trained and ready to be deployed in the sector or close to the sector where we know the disasters happen in the south of the U.S. As I mentioned, this is a program that is U.S.-centric. So the Red Cross is very important because the Red Cross also builds on their capacity to be ready to tackle this with their standards. We also have academia jump in and help us draft the trainings that are used internally for us to train on basic things about emergency and disaster relief. And again, sustainable development and soft skills and disaster management. You know, it’s a lot of skills that maybe we are not conscious about, but we as engineers, because we have failed so many times, we understand, you know, that that’s needed. For the other program, the Internet for All One, we partner internally and we’re actually looking for external partners because we’re wanting to scale this program. This one is the connectivity infrastructure in rural settings. We understand that these programs are mainly used for training, and the training involves a lot of the engineering skills, but also the technical skills. So our internal partner is the society. We are many societies in IEEE, and I won’t go into the specifics, but it’s the telecommunications engineering department, and they are the connection with the – because we are electronics, electrical, and computer science, we have many engineering spectrum there. You know, when we talk about ICT skills, you know, for me being a telecommunication engineer, it’s also what is ICT, right, because it can be computer, but it’s also telecommunications. What spectrum, what part is it? So we partner with the telecommunication department, and they have the access to the local chapters of telecommunications engineers all over the world because they’re IEEE members, but they’re signed up for their specific engineering expertise. So we partner with them for the technical aspects because we do need engineers to be involved in the deployment of the systems. So they help us – all these engineers that are volunteers and also part of our leadership help us decide what projects to fund, help us train the engineers to do this better in low-resource settings, help us vet, and then track metrics. Of course, we do that in conjunction with the social aspects, the soft skills, and all of that. So our partnership usually is in conjunction, again, with academia in training modules for these applications to actually be fruitful. For example, these projects are not considered if they don’t have a local partner that we’ll maintain and where we can pass the digital skills that are needed to support this very specific project. So again, for us at IEEE, Humanitarian Technologies and Tech for Good, we believe that without the partnerships, we cannot thrive. And again, I have mentioned this, Halima, many times, but I will mention it one more time. The engineers need both training and also the development practitioners need also the digital skills. So we need a holistic approach to what we call ICT to be more comprehensive, to be the soft skills, the leadership skills, and then the technical skills. Thank you.

Halima Letamo:
Thank you very much, Mariella, for that. I’m just going to throw the question again to Engineer Jukwa before I intervene. Engineer, over to you. Tell us a little bit about the partnerships and stakeholder engagement at country level, because we know this is where some of the complexities tend to arise. The collaboration between the different ministries, which ministries do you need to bring on board to get this work done in the country? And for yourselves, maybe you can also touch a little bit in relation to which counterparts you need to be able to get the equipment in and out of the country. Over to you, Engineer. Sorry, I know I put two dimensions to this question.

Leonard Jukwa:
Okay. Thank you, Halima. Maybe to start on the part of capacity building, inclusion, equity, and partnership. As a country, Zimbabwe has actually taken advantage and rode on the ITU programs. You would find out recently, yes, we had the commemorations of girls in ICT. What Zimbabwe has done, it has taken those platforms, those commemorations, to promote the adoption of STEM programs, especially by the girl child, as well as children from disadvantaged communities. You’d find out that Zimbabwe has got programs like the She Tech program, where we are actually pushing the girl child to take ICT-related programs. For your information, we also work hand-in-glove with higher education institutions like universities. Of interest, we have come up with certain programs like ICT entrepreneurship and sustainable community development as an undergrad degree program. The trust being that we want to bring the aspect, as my colleague has rightly said, the issues of the technical skills, the entrepreneurial skills, as well as the community development, soft skills, all in one. So as Zimbabwe, we have come up with some of those programs. One of our operators, the fixed telecommunication and fiber company, Tel One, we have actually come up with an institution, a training center that has got partnerships with universities to make sure that, yes, we have that partnership with universities, but majoring on bespoke programs that promote the adoption, inclusion, and use of ICTs within our communities. Through the regulator, we have also come up with hackathon programs, where we are saying, let’s give all and sundry across the social spectrum, across even the ages, to say, even if you are a retired someone, but you are an ICT enthusiast, come up with your proposal. We go through it, we adjudicate, and maybe, probably, adopt and commercialize it. So by use of the regulator, Universal Saves Fund, we are also promoting those startups through hackathons. The last part of Halima’s question to say, what are we doing in terms of partnerships, partnering, and collaboration with other important key stakeholders? What we have done, we have come up with a national ICT disaster committee. You’d find out in that committee, we have a number of countries that are involved in that committee. Yes, ICT is leading. We have got the revenue authorities, they are there, because since we are hosting equipment that can be used by regional countries, we need to have the customs team to be on board, so that we are able to deploy within the shortest time possible. We also have the import and exporting of that equipment when need arises. We also have the home affairs, where we involve our police force, we also have the public, we have the unit that actually deals with the civil protection unit, that is actually in the local governance systems. We have also brought it on board, such that we have a holistic team. We also have the Minister of Health team, that also is composing of this national emergency team. So at the end of the day, we have actually picked those in the academia that are part of that team, to make sure that everyone is abreast, and in terms of disaster management, we are on point when disaster strikes. Thank you.

Halima Letamo:
Thank you very much, Leonard. Maybe before I wrap up, can I have just one extra minute for any intervention from the audience? Anybody wants to make an intervention or ask a question? OK, I’m not seeing any, so maybe we do just a quick wrap up of this session. Thank you very much, our distinguished panelists, for the great insights that you have shared with us. I have picked just one or two things that I think are important to carry home after this interesting discussion. One of them being that while we are looking into capacity development for emergency telecommunications, policy support is crucial. We need to be looking into ensuring that the policies that we have taken to consideration development of skills. Both at, let me just say, at all levels. I think you covered all levels where skills development is required. You mentioned the importance of leveraging existing infrastructure. This is another point that I picked. I think you mentioned examples of schools being available to where digital skills can be done, or where digital skills development can be done. And the other infrastructure that is available in different communities. You have mentioned the importance of ensuring that preparedness of the technicians is not just focusing on the technical skills or competencies, but also looks at soft skills and leadership skills. You mentioned the importance of involving as many stakeholders as possible. And I think what was interesting for me is to hear of stakeholders that come from communities that are not usually considered when we are looking into telecommunications issues. Engineer mentioned the involvement of the health sector and the customs. Who would have thought we would be needing to collaborate closely with these stakeholders to be able to ensure that we are safe. And when disasters strike, we are able to respond as quickly as we possibly can. I think the last word that I want to probably leave us with is that which I think one of our panelists mentioned, that disasters come when we least expect them. They come when we least expect them. The best we can do is to ensure that people have the skills and the competencies to respond appropriately and be able to save as many lives as possible, but also to bounce back from these disasters as much as possible, including the choice of appropriate infrastructure, infrastructure that is resilient and that can be able to bounce back as quickly as possible in the aftermath of disasters. I think with this, let me thank our panelists again. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure to have you here with us. And if you don’t mind, let’s give them a round of applause. And thank you to our wonderful audience. Thanks for joining us through this conversation.