WSIS Action Line C6: Enabling Environment “Collaborative Regulation Interactive workshop” with the active participation of Regional Regulatory Associations (RAs)

Collaboration for Impact: Advancing Digital Transformation through Regulatory Synergy at ITU’s Action Line C6 Session

The interactive session on the enabling environment for digital transformation, known as Action Line C6, was moderated by Sofie Maddens from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The session’s theme, “Collaboration for Impact,” underscored the importance of collaborative efforts in shaping the regulatory landscape to foster sustainable digital transformation.

The session opened with Maddens acknowledging the preparatory efforts of Gabriella de Wagner and her team for organizing the session and the Digital Regulation Network in Melbourne. Maddens delivered opening remarks on behalf of Dr. Cosmas Lakissane Zavazava, emphasizing the ITU’s initiative to accelerate sustainable digital transformation through collaborative digital policy, regulation, and governance.

Nancy Sundberg’s keynote presentation on “Regulation for Impact” highlighted the need for cross-sectoral collaboration to ensure safe, secure, and inclusive access to the digital economy. She traced the evolution of regulatory frameworks from command and control structures (Generation 1) to more liberalized and integrated telecom regulations (Generation 4), advocating for the adoption of Generation 5, which focuses on collaborative regulation across networks.

Panelists from various regions and regulatory bodies, including CRASA and ARPCE, shared their perspectives on how collaboration can advance national and regional digital agendas. They provided examples of successful collaboration, such as sharing best practices, regulatory harmonization, and establishing common frameworks for digital regulation. The panelists also emphasized the role of regulatory bodies as enablers and facilitators of innovation and competition.

Success was defined by the panelists in various ways, including the ability to keep up with evolving technology and changing the perception of regulators from showstoppers to enablers. Specific initiatives, such as the establishment of QoS software and legal text sharing servers, were cited as indicators of success.

Audience participation included representatives from the ECO Secretariat and Iyako, who highlighted the importance of collaboration and shared their experiences in advancing regional transformation through collaborative approaches.

The session concluded with a call for continued discussion and collaboration at the upcoming Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) in Kampala, Uganda. The overarching message was that collaboration among regulatory bodies, across sectors and regions, is crucial for creating an enabling environment that promotes innovation and supports the sustainable digital transformation of societies. The ITU’s role in facilitating this collaboration through initiatives like the Digital Regulation Network was highlighted.

Noteworthy observations from the session included the recognition of the uneven development in regulatory maturity and digital transformation readiness across different regions. The discussion also acknowledged the profound changes that regulators face, including the need to adapt to evolving business models, investment strategies, and technological advancements. The session underscored the importance of sharing experiences and innovations as crucial for regulators to adapt to the global industry trends and to align benchmarks for digital transformation.

Sofie Maddens:
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s 2.30, I think it’s time to start. Thank you very much for joining our session. This is the Action Line C6, it’s an interactive session on the enabling environment. So it’s really wonderful to be welcoming you today. My name is Sophie Maddens, I’m the Chief of the Digital Knowledge Hub Department at the International Telecommunication Union. I will be moderating the session. I would also like to recognize my colleague, Gabriella de Wagner, who did all the work to prepare this session and who has been working hard together with the team. I’ll introduce the rest of the team a little bit later to organize the session and to organize the Digital Regulation Network in Melbourne. She is remote, unfortunately she could not join us today. So before we begin our session, I do have the honor of delivering the opening remarks on behalf of Dr. Cosmas Lakisson-Zavazava, Director of the Telecommunications Development Bureau. But let me just keep my promise. I have to my right Ms. Nancy Sundberg, who is part of the Regulatory and Market Environment Team, who will be giving a presentation today. I also have Ms. Ekaterini Medadze, who is Commissioner from Georgia, and Mr. Arturo Robles, who is Commissioner from EFT in Mexico. Online we have Ms. Bridget Lindsey from CRASA, she is the Executive Secretary of CRASA, so the Communications Regulators Association of Southern Africa. We hope to have Mr. Louis-Marc Sacala, who is the Director General of the Agence de Régulation des Postes et des Communications Electroniques, ARPES. and Congo, who is also representing FRATEL for us. So with your permission, I will now have Ms. Ashwaq, who is on loan with us from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who is also helping us on the Digital Regulation Network. So good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It’s a great pleasure for me to open this session on behalf of the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the ITU, Dr. Cosmas Lakissane Zavazava. And I would like to welcome you to our Collaborative Regulation Interactive Workshop with the active participation of regional regulatory associations convened under the theme of Collaboration for Impact. As we gather here today, we stand at the intersection of regulation and innovation and recognize the pivotal role that collaboration plays in shaping our regulatory landscape for the better. Ekaterine and I were on a leader’s talk this morning, and we heard the word collaboration many, many times. In a sense, ITU launched the Digital Regulation Network initiative last year with the aim of accelerating sustainable digital transformation through common approaches to collaborative digital policy, regulation, and governance. We all know we need to work across economic sectors, we need to work across borders, and we need to work with the regional regulatory associations and their members so as to have impact at regional and global level. We work towards achieving this network’s goals and priorities and helping the members of the regulatory associations through the three main building blocks of the Digital Regulation Network initiative. Capacity development, thought leadership, and, of course, regulatory experimentation and innovation. Again, Ekaterine, this morning we heard that we need to be able to to be brave and innovate and experiment. So we foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among regulatory bodies worldwide and we have created a space for discussing those critical digital regulation challenges, sharing best practices and shaping policy frameworks. And harmonizing those regulatory approaches across borders is essential for a cohesive global network. Nancy and I actually met early in the 2000s working on the regulatory harmonization. We worked together on the UMEA, CDAO, WADRA harmonization in Western Africa. And today it’s even more important that we have those regulatory approaches, the harmonized regulatory approaches amongst regions. So since GSR23 in which the Digital Regulation Network was launched, we’ve worked on a number of activities. And we’ve worked on strengthening broadband infrastructure and services, working with EMEC and IAPEREC and of course our regional office for Europe, joint workshops on strengthening broadband infrastructure and service, including mapping. We’ve also shared experience to learn from other RAs. And Carmen was at IPEC, the ITU Policy and Economic Colloquium for the Americas region in September of 23 in San Jose, Costa Rica, where we worked with COMTELCA, CTU, ECTEL and REGELATEL and defining the priorities for the coming year for the Americas region. We also brought the RAs to the ITU study group meetings where we again we shared the work of the regulatory associations. We’ve piloted the GSR best practice guidelines consultation with the regulatory associations. We had a joint workshop with EUACAT on the digital regulation. We organized digital regulation sessions online. So there’s been a plethora of digital regulation. activities. Now, coming to the dialogue of today, let’s remain dedicated in our commitment to foster that regulatory environment that promotes innovation, while safeguarding the interests of all stakeholders. So, let’s embrace that spirit of collaboration, because our strength is our joint knowledge, exchanging that knowledge, harmonizing those regulatory approaches, and coordinating our actions for maximum impact. So, I encourage you all to actively participate, share your experiences, and contribute to the collective wisdom that we all have here today, because together we can chart the course towards a more resilient, inclusive, and digitally empowered future. And, of course, our discussions will continue at GSR, where, again, we will have a meeting of the Regulatory Associations and the Digital Regulation Network in Kampala, Uganda, from the 1st to the 4th of July, and we will talk about regulation for impact. So, thank you to all of you for joining us at this Action Line C6 workshop, and thank you for your attention. Now, let me just give the floor to my colleague Nancy, Senior Officer at the BDT Regulatory and Market Environment Division, who will deliver our keynote presentation

Nancy Sundberg:
on regulation for impact. Nancy, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you very much, Sophie. And, when we talk about regulation for impact, for us, it all goes through collaboration. It’s about collaboration across the sectors, but also collaboration within the sectors, across countries, and within countries. So, today our societies are becoming increasingly digitalized and therefore to ensure safe, secure and inclusive access to the digital economy, setting a fit-for-purpose policy and regulatory environment is a must and requires cross-sectoral collaboration. Regulators now deal with profound changes with far-reaching consequences. If you think of changes in businesses and investment models and financing of telecom ICT infrastructure, changes in regulatory processes and approaches to foster innovative regulatory approaches such as, for example, regulatory sandboxes or regulatory assessments or testbeds, change evolving and new concepts such as digital identity across a growing number of services, principles such as consumer protection, data protection and confidentiality, end-to-end process change and taking into consideration as well technology changes such as the advent of blockchain, AI across sectors like finance and health, for example. So a diverse set of complementary policy and regulatory tools and a wide range of governance structures can be leveraged to deliver such an enabling environment and this is what you need within the regulatory and market environment division. So why do we need collaborative regulation? So as a digital journey brings together all players from different backgrounds and sizes into one leading network, we see that a silo approach is no longer an option for navigating digital transformation. So a few years ago we started building a new concept, the collaborative regulation framework that is based on best practice experiences we found in countries and that we refer to as the gold standard for regulation. We found that collaboration is the defining element of digital regulation and the core asset of what we refer to as the fifth generation of regulation. Collaboration must engage a broad and diverse range of stakeholders and informed evidence-based rulemaking and decision making. Collaboration gives the opportunity to participate in decision making and contributing to the success of others and inclusive momentum around the mission of generating social and economic impact and with priority granted to social impact. Digital regulation now occurs across a network of centers of expertise and enforcement and shared focus and accountability among government agencies and stakeholders is replacing the ICT silo model. So regulators and policy makers need evidence to inform their decisions that can help them compare practices around countries and regions and this is why we developed the generation of regulation model that is based again on the gold standards of digital regulation. Generation one through four have gradually shaped the telecom market advancing telecom regulatory freeholds from command and control state-owned structures what we refer to as generation one to early market liberalization generation two to co-policy and regulation changes for liberalized market generation three to integrated telecom regulation generation four. While in parallel making their way through gen five countries have been climbing the digital transformation level at a different pace from transition from limited to transitioning to advance to leading. So where do we stand? So in terms of regulatory maturity of ICT markets there has been there’s been these have been evolving from command and control g1 to g2 G3, G4, and as we can see on the slide, there is an uneven development in the level of maturity of policy and regulatory frameworks, both between and within regions. While 90% of European countries are in G4, fewer than a quarter of countries in the other regions have achieved an enabling environment for telecom and ICT markets. In terms of policy and regulatory digital transformation readiness, the G5 benchmark, and taking into account the breadth and depth of collaboration between the ICT regulator and sector-specific or multi-sector regulators, we see that the development of digital policy, legal and governance frameworks across any region is uneven. Two-thirds of European countries have achieved an advanced level of maturity compared with the majority of countries in all other regions split between the transitioning and limited group, and fewer than a third of countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas are in the advanced group. So just this slide is just to highlight what Sophie presented, that is the digital regulation network, the collaborative network of networks. And again, as we said, collaboration is the name of the game. Regional regulatory associations and regional regulatory associations have a key role to play in fostering common collaborative approaches to regulation and digital transformation. And this is why the DDT director launched the digital regulation network, the network of regional regulatory associations. So the aim of the DRN, as we refer to it, is to accelerate sustainable digital transformation through common approaches to collaborative digital policy, regulation, and governance. This is just to highlight some of the pillars and the activities that are taken under the DRN. So, based on three pillars, path leadership, capacity development and regulatory experimentation and innovation, EDRN brings together regional associations and their respective members from across the region to participate in activities that are linked to capacity building. And I just want to mention that we are currently finishing a training organized by EMERG and EPREG on digital transformation regulation that was open also to all other regional regulatory associations and their members. And to conclude, just to say, remind you all, that we will be organizing the Global Symposium for Regulators 2024 in Kampala, Uganda, on the deepening regulation for impact. And we will have a meeting of the GRNRA on the 1st of July, where this will provide an opportunity to share experiences, updates and discussions. So, we hope you will all join us in Kampala, and we invite you to register. And looking forward to seeing you there. Thank you.

Sofie Maddens:
Thank you very much, Nancy. Thank you very much, Nancy. With that, we move on to our panel discussion. So, we have four distinguished panelists with us today. Ms. Ekaterini Medadze, Commissioner of the Georgia National Communications Commission and outgoing Chairperson of the APREG-EU Eastern Partnership. Mr. Artur Rogles, Commissioner, Chair of the Permanent Consultative Committee to PCC2, Radio Communications of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission, and also Commissioner of EFD. We have Mr. Bridget Lindsay, the Executive Secretary of the Communications Regulatory Regulators Association of Southern Africa, CRASA, who is joining us remotely. And Mr. Louis-Marc Sakala, Director General of the Agence de Régulation des Postes de Communication Electronique Congo, the Republic of Congo, who’s also representing FRATEL, he is also with us remotely. So the first question, in your opinion, how can collaboration help to advance the national and regional transformation agenda? And if you could stick to three minutes. Ekaterine, please.

Ekaterine Imedadze:
Thank you very much, Sophie. It’s an honor to continue on delivering and sharing the thoughts around this enabling environment, which is, as I was mentioning, this is most vocalized motto for every regulator. And with time, it’s becoming a bit more and more challenging, because what means being an enabler? It’s on one hand side, of course, it really sounds very nice. But we also have our legacy role to maintain the proper competition on the market to safeguard what are the subscriber protection laws. And at the same time, in this very evolving digital landscape and market to ensure that innovation is somehow supported as well. And we know with 5G especially, this is becoming more and more important how to make regulators work for innovation, and not also to give up with a strong gas pump that competition is safeguarded on the market. So in this regard, and as far as digital and telecom in a legacy scope, and now digital markets are more and more global, with social consumption, proper collaboration with different regulators and regulatory networks, as well as with the ITU, because ITU is the most global platform we can imagine. and it provides, I would say, that really immersive information, very extensive information, training resources. As we’ve just mentioned, it’s very important that we are given this opportunity to learn about the digital transformation, also to hear how other regulators are transforming into digital regulators from the legacy role of just telecom regulators. The first step was not to call ourselves the watchdogs, but to call ourselves not only just facilitators on the market, enablers on the market, but we, of course, need to keep up with our legacy roles, how to protect also the market from, for example, unequal distribution of powers on the market. So this is a really challenging task, and the international collaboration is kind of the safeguard and saving point for us, because you can always reach out. Now we can reach out also to ITU and MRT through bilateral agreements, and we have expanded. We have a smaller network, which is Eastern Partnership, five countries. There is also European regulators. There is South American regulators network also, as well as emerging area regulators. But with ITU, this is the platform where we can share absolutely easily this perspective, as well as have the basis of knowledge and information, because the data you are gathering, this is crucial for us to make decisions on one hand side, and also to see how we can transform, for example, market solutions, how we can, you have globalized indicators in the ITO and we can see whether our benchmarks are aligned with new benchmarks on the market or not. So this is for me examples how this kind of collaboration helps us to transform ourselves to see where our room improvements, where we can get trainings, where we can get more data and more platforms to engage and to share and digital regulators network actually gave this first start to this kind of trilateral or other kind of cooperation. And if time allows me, last week we had a meeting in Bucharest, EAPREC plenary meeting and you know that EAPREC is supported also by BEREC which is European Regulatory Network and we took first initiative, first time in this kind of plenary meetings. Every regulator was asked to share what are the key strategic projects they are now working on. We thought we know each other for a while, we know what are the tasks they are working on but it came out that there were very interesting new projects that regulators are working and on day-to-day work it’s very difficult to share every time but having this kind of platform it encourages you to give the, how to say, this helicopter view what are the strategic projects and then encourage others to think did I catch this project in my area or not. Exactly. This is, I don’t know, this is more than 50% of our work to look into experiences around the world because as I said digital and telecom and digital are the most global and is the most global industry now.

Sofie Maddens:
Absolutely, thank you very much Ekaterine and really you hit the nail on the head, regulators have to be enablers and facilitators. And it really is about sharing experiences and sharing innovations as well. So I’m going to turn to Arturo. Can you give us some examples about how collaboration helped to advance your national and regional transformation agenda?

Arturo Robles:
Thank you, Sophie. First of all, thank you for the invitation. And thank you for this work in order to gather all of us regarding this specific topic. As you just mentioned, the digital transformation is a transversal transformation. And there is no way to make the digital transformation without collaboration. We have different layers, as you just said. We have agencies, the data privacy agencies, the consumer protection agencies. So we need to be collaborative in order to have any kind of digital transformation. In this regard, there in Mexico, since we were created in 2014, this new regulator, our law, it’s established to be collaborating with other authorities as security agencies. As we are independent from other powers, we are obliged by law to be collaborating with them. And also, we run all our process in order to be a five-generation regulator. But I think that the biggest lesson there was the lockdown with the COVID. We were forced to be collaborating everywhere. Not only in telecommunications, not only in digital, but everywhere. So I think that helped us. and other authorities in order to be very sensitive regarding how collaboration works. And also they start some sandboxes, because, for example, for net neutrality, they start making some light regulation in order to allow which kind of content or how to manage the traffic of internet in order to not rush out the networks. And that’s why there in Mexico we have very big commitments with the color regulation. And also we have this international view, as you just mentioned. So probably 20 years ago, our challenge and our opportunities, they are very different between Europe, Asia, America and probably Oceania and the continents. But right now we realize that we are together. We have almost the same challenge, almost the same opportunities, and almost at the same time there is not a big gap regarding 20 years ago when they are really, really big debates. So right now I think that our big challenge is for regulators as an enabler, is not only to fulfill the traditional gaps as the coverage, the access, the affordability or the literacy, but also this meaningful gap, that is how to transform the life of the people using the digital. Because if they do not transform the life, they are not really transforming or living the digital transformation, they are just using it and we need that they really have a meaningful change there when they are using digital.

Sofie Maddens:
Thank you very much, Arturo. It’s been an honor and a pleasure to work with Mexico. I’ve worked with all the commissioners in Mexico on the digital financial inclusion and I’m really mad. great progress in the digital financial inclusion and in working with the EFT on the collaboration with the other sectors. But it’s interesting, you mentioned as well that it’s really key to have the regional and global because there are the issues, the risks and the challenges but also the opportunities that by sharing good practices it helps you to advance your agendas. So thank you, Arturo. I’m going to turn over to online now. We have Bridget Lindsey, who’s online. Bridget with CRASA, the executive secretary of CRASA. Bridget, would you like to share in three minutes your opinion on how collaboration has helped to advance the regional and national transformation agenda? Bridget, the floor is yours.

Bridget Linzie:
Thank you so much, Sophie. And also thank you to ITU for successfully integrating the wake of regional regulatory associations at WSIS. And also for the various projects that CRASA is partnering with the ITU headquarters, including also the ITU regional office in Zimbabwe. Sophie, in terms of the Southern Africa, we really believe that for us to be able to harness the potential of digital technologies, for us to drive the social economic development of our region, as well as also enhance regional integration and improve quality of life for citizens. We as ICT regulators, we cannot work in silos and we need to collaborate as well as also work and partner with other regulatory entities, especially for the other economic sectors in within the region. CRASA, as an implementing organ of SADC, we first… facilitating and assisting the region to successfully achieve its digital transformation strategy, which was just adopted last year by the Sadiqa Essential Ministers, and in our facilitation role for us to achieve regional integration, especially when it comes to digital transformation as CRASA, we have already set our strategic foresight to ensure that we collaborate in our wake with other regulatory entities, especially those which are looking into economic sectors that ICTs have been enhancing the growth of those sectors, and this one does include the sector for financial services. We have worked for a long time with ITU, and CRASA has been part of the ITU focus group on digital financial services, the FGDFS, and we worked closely with ITU to facilitate the security of the digital financial systems. And as CRASA, with a partnership with ITU, we’ve been able to conduct clinics where we brought capacity to our members as well as also awareness on the ITU frameworks on digital financial services security, as well as also we facilitated the adoption of these frameworks by our SADIG ICT ministers. However, on the question of collaboration in terms of regulation, we recognize the need for cooperation amongst critical stakeholders, and in the initiative to ensure that we bring in effective security for digital financial services, especially to ensure that there’s universal access and service when it comes to digital financial services in the region. Through the SADC we’ve been able to influence other regional regulatory groupings, especially the Committee of Central Bank of Governance, the CCBG, which deals with fostering monetary and financial cooperation among central banks in the region. So through SADC Secretariat we’ve been part and parcel of discussions at CCBG and ensuring that we bring awareness on the need of universal access to digital financial services in the region, as well as also need to enhance the security of the digital financial services. But also through this collaboration, regulatory collaboration with CCBG, we have also encouraged our members, that is the ICT regulators, on the need for them to have collaboration and partnership with the central banks, especially encourage them to sign agreements that would create an enabling environment for digital financial services, while at the same time protecting the consumers or the users of digital financial services. So just a thing to conclude since I was given three minutes. At CRASA we do believe in collaborative and inclusive governance and thus we have already established model frameworks on collaborative frameworks with other regulators, as well as also frameworks that considers digital inclusions for all segments of society, including marginalized and those underserved communities. Thanks so much Sophie.

Sofie Maddens:
Thank you very much. and thank you very much for joining us. So I’ll turn to the DG, Mr. Sakala, for your intervention.

Louis-Marc Sakala:
Thank you, Sophie. Thank you, everyone. I saw you all heard me. Forgive my English because I’m French, guys, and I will try to speak in English. For me, how can collaboration help to advance the national or the regional transformation agenda? We know ICT become like a global village. We need the good collaboration between all of regulators to facing of a new challenge. In Africa, one saying said, you can go fast if you are alone, but we can go very far if you are together. And today, to have a collaboration inside within the kind of regulation help some country to move on. I speak as a president of FRATEL and also as a president of ARTAC, which are association of regulator in Central African country. To work together in ARTAC, for example, help give some of the country the feeling of not staying behind of a country and moving to work together. And the feeling of belonging to the group and moving with a group. We are so in a different country, how to work together in a different kind of association help this country inside the… their government to bring a new text because the stakeholder in our governments in ICT has so strong and in different kind of country change the law to change the text of law it’s more difficult for for for this for the regulatory of government and have the feeling of a group to help there to to change the law to change the text it can move it can give him opportunity to move on and to to to had a new text just like her mobile money regulatory or monitoring and to share a good practice today it’s it’s very very important to work together in the kind of different association associations and give every country the opportunity to know uh what it is the position uh between uh within a group and the sharing of the new experience in different kind of association helps the country to to take a good decision what I can say uh for collaboration for the national of regional transformation agenda thank you Sophie

Sofie Maddens:
thank you very much and indeed I think that’s a very valid point that between the regional associations especially with countries with diverse situations it really helps we saw that way in back in the 2000s with WTO as well with the WTO that it can help you step out of the national pressures and really follow best practice So we have 10 minutes left, so I’ll give you each one minute to let me know, to give an example of what does success look like? And I’ll mix it up a bit. Arturo, why don’t you give it a start? What does success look like?

Arturo Robles:
I think that if we achieve this very final goal of transforming life, this is the meaningful, not the meaningful exit, but the meaningful change of life of the users, obviously with a lot of collaboration, because we cannot do it as, even if we are a telecom regulation or digital regulator, we cannot achieve by our own. We will be in the next step for this big death that we have hit all the population, that is to really turn off the light with the technology.

Sofie Maddens:
And you mentioned the example of COVID, right? So what does success look like? Innovate and collaborate to change people’s lives. Ekat?

Ekaterine Imedadze:
Yes, I think that the best we can do is like keep up with evolving technology. And also for me, maybe it’s maybe personal also, but regulators are very much called like we are showstoppers in developing new technologies, and success would be like seeing us as facilitators, or how to say, giving us the opportunity to show that we are actually the facilitators. And this is the collaborative effort, definitely. So using as much platforms as possible, including political platforms to show that to drive the digital improvement, to narrow the gap, digital gap, it’s important to accept that regulatory efforts is also facilitating efforts, and to reduce this negative stock attitudes, especially the great success, for example, and collaboration is crucial in changing this mindset. So facilitators through collaboration. Yes.

Sofie Maddens:
DG Sakala, can I give you the floor now?

Louis-Marc Sakala:
Yes, I will show you two examples. Firstly, in Fratel, we are facing a lot of, a lot of countries, a lot of regulators have a problem of QoS, QoS of the quality of services in the mobile network. And we, with the help and the financial and technical of French Agency of Development, we are, we are set up new software to help every French-speaking country to have this new system of QoS, to help different regulators to have good news about the quality of service in their country. And so in ARTAC, we have set up a server and sharing the different access of all the legal texts in our region, in Central Africa, and give opportunity of all of regulators inside ARTAC to improve the law text and to share between our association and help different regulators. We are also set up a new thing about the development of HR in our sector, and it’s more easily to travel inside the country, in Central Africa, for sharing experience and sharing the different kind of training. It’s, I can say, this is a very good success to have facing in FRATEL and in ARP TAC also. Thank you.

Sofie Maddens:
Thank you very much. And moving to you, Bridget, just in one minute, what does success look like?

Bridget Linzie:
Sophie, for me, success is to see a regulation being utilized to integrate digital technologies in regional developmental agendas and to advance sustainable and equitable outcomes for all SADC citizens. For me, success is to see more of my members in Southern Africa to join South Africa, which is now categorized by HEU as being part of the G4 regression, as well as also seeing most of the SADC countries, which at the moment they are sitting under transitioning portion in terms of the generation of ICT regression, for them to move towards the G5. And that one, I will call it success. But as CRASA, our strategy at the moment is to seek for agile and flexible approach to regression. So since 2023 with our strategic plan, we’ve been providing platforms for discussions on how our regulatory landscape can achieve effective regression and also continuous improvement in establishing consumer centric regression. We have already also started talking on issues of ethical and responsible innovations. I believe one of our ITU experts also joined us. in Eswatini recently, where we were discussing these issues. And for us, it’s to seek for ethical and responsible innovations, especially for emerging digital technologies, as well as also its application. But more so, we believe in collaboration, inclusive governance, and this we do through adoption of best practices in regards to regulation, and for us to move in harmony as ICT regulators towards the G5 regulation. Thank you, Sophie.

Sofie Maddens:
Thank you very much. Before concluding, we have one question from Eko. You may take the floor, sir. Just one minute. Thank you.

Online panelist:
Thank you very much. My name is Ekbar Khodairi. I’m Director of Transport and Communication of VCO Secretariat. I just want to share, let’s say, the progress we have made in the region. As you might know, ECO has 10 member states and is mandated with the regional integration, economic integration among its membership. So far, we have organized three ICT ministerial meetings in our region, and we have also, with the cooperation of ITU, we have adopted our strategy for regional, for information society development, through which we have identified regional regulatory cooperation as a major, let’s say, as a major subject of cooperation. And in this connection, we have taken a few steps, including establishment of ECO regional regulatory framework that initially is going to start working in the framework. as high level working group of regulatory authorities of the member states. In this connection, I think that the Digital Regulation Network or DRN initiative in the framework of today’s event is, let’s say, is a pivotal platform for fostering collaborative efforts towards an inclusive and effective regulatory environment. So, in this connection, we are very much interested to further strengthen our collaboration with the ITU and within this network. And we hope that through this initiative, we can leverage the capacities for building institutional capacity, sharing best practices and advocating for outcomes that are beneficial to all stakeholders, particularly in our region. In conclusion, I want to emphasize our dedication to working with the ITU and other regional regulatory frameworks for a better future, and thank you very much.

Sofie Maddens:
Thank you so much, and we hope to see you at our GSR at the Regulatory Association meetings. We’ve run out of time, but I see just one more hand. So, Andrew Iyako, please stick to one minute maximum so that we can give you to the floor. Thank you.

Online panelist 2:
Thank you. Yeah. I simply wanted to also add my voice on the side of Iyako to emphasize the need for collaboration and also the collaborative approach that we have actually used to advance the regional transformation agenda. I must say that in all the works that we do, most general legal and regulatory frameworks, we actually use the collaborative approach. In terms of the developments of the different countries that we have, of course, we have some that are much advanced than the rest. And the collaborative approach actually helps the ones that are a little below the rest to advance in all that they do by actually sharing experiences. The work that we also do, we have working groups and committees that comprise of the membership from all the partner states. And so that actually helps us share the experiences within the region for both those that are a little advanced. So I also wanted to add my voice on emphasizing the need.

Sofie Maddens:
Thank you very much, Andrew. Unfortunately, we caught most of what you said. So with that, we have my apologies. I’ve taken three extra minutes of your time. But I really appreciate your thoughtful comments and insights. We look forward to seeing you all in GSE. in Kampala in July, where we can continue our discussion. And thank you very much and have a nice afternoon.