ICT Indicators Workshop “Measuring The Digital Society For Digital Inclusion”

Background

ICTs are essential to the effective and efficient development of modern societies. It is critical to effective service delivery and business processes in both the public and private sectors, and it underpins citizens’ quality of life providing them with the communications, information and service access they require. It is also an important economic sector in its own right.

The thrust to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires an in depth focus on the monitoring and evaluation of ICT indicators on a national and regional level. The measurement of ICT indicators is critical to identify challenges in planning, implementation and adaptation in projects, policies and strategic planning. The ongoing measurement and monitoring of ICT indicators in the Caribbean region will help shape and evaluate ICT policies that drive socioeconomic development and their effectiveness. ICT indicators will enable the management of knowledge for the better decision- making and planning and the availability of socioeconomic indices to support the tracking of global indicators enables national learning, international comparability, and sharing of data.

ICT Indicators Workshop

The CTU works in strategic partnerships with its members and other stakeholders to optimise the returns from ICT resources, for the benefit of its Member States, stakeholders and the citizens of the Caribbean. In March 2022, the CTU hosted a workshop on the ‘Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for ICT Indicators in the Caribbean’, which sought to outline a process for Member States to identify ICT indicators and targets that align with the goals and objectives of their national ICT strategic plans. This one-and-a-half-day ICT Indicators Workshop on ‘Measuring the Digital Society for Digital Inclusion’ is being be held in partnership with the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) to further this initiative.

The ICT indicators that will be developed for the Caribbean, will measure the levels of digital inclusion in the region, which will serve as an input into evidence-based policy formulation and decision-making to advance the socioeconomic development of the region, and specifically for underserved, marginal and vulnerable populations in the region.

The Caribbean ICT indicators can be utilised in the following areas:

• Measuring digital inclusion
• Policy and Strategy Formulation
• Monitoring and evaluating of developments in the field of ICT and projects being implemented to derive ICT benefits
• Business decision making for the private sector
• Displaying the reality of the digital divide to develop strategies to eliminate it
• Benchmarking to compare the positions of groups and identify areas of improvement and replication across domains
• Document the impact of ICTs on development

This workshop will build on existing international indices and indicators, conceptualising and adapting these to the data realities, special circumstances and needs of the Caribbean region. These indices and indicators have established methodologies which serve to ensure that indicators are relevant, valid and globally comparable. Some international indices and sources of indicators that will be used to identify potential Caribbean ICT indicators include:

• Handbook for the Collection of Administrative Data on Telecommunications/ICT
• Manual for Measuring ICT Access and Use by Households and Individuals
• Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, Core list of ICT indicators
• Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, Thematic list of indicators for the SDGs
• OECD (2019), Measuring the Digital Transformation: A Roadmap for the Future
• UNCTAD, Manual for the Production of Statistics on the Information Economy
• UNESCO, Guide to Measuring Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education
• Calvino et al. (2018), taxonomy of sectors by digital intensity
• Global Partnership on E-Waste Statistics, E-waste Statistics: Guidelines for Classification, Reporting and Indicators
• Inter-American Development Bank, Sources of Data on Digital Talent in Latin America and the Caribbean
• GIZ and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, The 2030 Agenda’s data challenge: Approaches to alternative and digital data collection and use
• UNESCO, Internet universality indicators

The intention behind the development of the Caribbean ICT indicators is that these regional measures will be fed into the development of the international ICT indices. The mechanism for streamlining this data submission will be discussed at the workshop.

Workshop Agenda

The ICT Indicators Workshop on Measuring the Digital Society for Digital Inclusion will be a one-and- a-half-day workshop held on March 27th and 28th 2023. The workshop will be preceded by a meeting of the CTU’s Executive Council on the morning of March 27th 2023.

Day One (afternoon session) of the workshop will discuss:

• A review of the findings of the ECLAC study on Digital inclusion in Caribbean digital transformation frameworks and initiatives
• The concept of digital inclusion, its importance and need
• The role of gender, youth, the elderly, and persons with disabilities within the framework of digital inclusion

Day Two of the workshop will focus on discussions on:

• Opportunities for economic growth and development, as well as skills building within the advancement of digital inclusion in the Caribbean
• The findings of the previously held workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for ICT Indicators in the Caribbean
• ICT Indicators currently being measured by the ITU and data gaps of relevancy to the Caribbean region
• The prioritisation of ICT Indicators for the Caribbean

Outputs

The expected main output of the ICT Indicators Workshop on Measuring the Digital Society for Digital Inclusion is agreement by Member States on a way forward and next steps to achieve the following:

1. A defined prioritisation list of Caribbean ICT Indicators

2. Establishment of focal points in each country for data collection on the Caribbean ICT Indicators

3. Identification of needs regarding capacity building on ICT Indicators

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AGENDA

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Day One: March 27^th 2023

Time	Item	Presenter
02:00	Opening Remarks	Mr. Rodney Taylor  Secretary General Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU)
02:05	Welcome Remarks	Ms. Diane Quarless Director ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean
02:10	Implications of ECLAC Study “Digital inclusion in Caribbean digital transformation frameworks and initiatives for measurement”	Mr. Dale Alexander Coordinator, Caribbean Knowledge Management Centre ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean
02:40	Data for Digital Inclusion	Ms. Lika Doehl Diouf Associate Programme Management Officer ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean
03:10	Coffee Break
03:25	ITU’s Digital Transformation Wheel	Mr. Cleveland Thomas Area Representative, ITU Regional Office
04:10	Questions & Answers Segment / Open Floor	Mr. Nigel Cassimire Deputy-Secretary General, CTU
04:50	Day 1 Wrap-up	Mr. Nigel Cassimire, CTU
05:00	End of Day 1

Day Two: March 28^th 2023

Time	Item	Presenter
09:00	Opening Remarks	Mr. Nigel Cassimire Deputy-Secretary General, CTU
09:05	Caribbean ICT Indicators – Work Done by the CTU Thus Far and the Road Ahead	Ms. Nia Nanan  Senior Research Analyst, CTU
09:25	International Telecommunication Union’s Core List of ICT Indicators and ICT Development Index	Mr. Cleveland Thomas Area Representative, ITU Regional Office
10:10	Open Discussion – Priority Areas of Member States and Caribbean Priorities	Mr. Nigel Cassimire, CTU
10:50	Coffee Break
11:00	Presentation: TATT’s Digital Inclusivity Index	Ms. Annie Baldeo Executive Officer, Policy, Planning and Economics Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT)
11:30	UN E-Government Index	Ms. Arpine Korekyan Governance and Public Administration Officer, UNDESA
12:15	Questions and Answers Segment	Mr. Nigel Cassimire, CTU
12:30	Lunch
14:00	In Person and Online Working Group Breakout Sessions: Prioritisation of ITU’s Core List of Indicators for the Caribbean	Facilitators: In person – Mr. Cleveland Thomas, ITU Online – Ms. Nia Nanan, CTU Online – Ms. Michele Marius, ICT Pulse
14:45	Open Discussion on feedback from working group breakout sessions	Facilitator: Mr. Cleveland Thomas, ITU
15:30	In Person and Online Working Group Breakout Sessions: Data Gaps in the Caribbean and Measurement of ICT Indicators to Address these Gaps	Facilitators: In person – Mr. Kwesi Prescod Consultant, ECLAC  Online – Mr. Gary Kalloo Director, Business Development, CTU Online – Ms. Shanea Lewis, Policy Analyst, CTU
16:00	Group Presentations of discussions conducted during working groups	Facilitator: Mr. Kwesi Prescod Consultant, ECLAC
16:30	Open Forum: How do We Move Forward?	Facilitator: Ms. Nia Nanan, CTU
17:00	Wrap-Up and Closing Remarks	Mr. Rodney Taylor, CTU
17.05	End of Workshop

DAY 2
Arpine Korekyan	UN E-Government Development Index (EGDI)

Digital Inclusion in Caribbean Digital Transformation Frameworks and Initiatives

List of Indicators - ITU Indicators Database

Core List of Indicators - March 2022