Bridge the Digital Divide Sierra Leone (BDDSL), the latest centre to have joined the DTC network, conducted an awareness raising campaign and a digital skills train-the-trainer programme in the Kambia district, with funding support from the ITU Regional Office for Africa and ST Foundation. The 1-week campaign was implemented from 30 September to 4 October 2024 and aimed to raise awareness on the importance of digital skills for community development as well as to encourage residents of Kambia to participate in upcoming citizens training activities to be held between October and December in four local training centres in the district. As part of the Campaign, DTC Sierra Leone engaged with various local stakeholders such as local radio stations and the Motorcycle Drivers Union who contributed to disseminating the information and messages across the chiefdoms. Following the campaign, BDDSL organised a three-day training of trainers in October to enhance the skills of trainers in informatics and computer basics and to equip them with the necessary knowledge to effectively deliver digital literacy courses and programmes in their respective communities. The training brought together 23 educators and community leaders from seven local training centers of the Kambia District, who were selected based on their teaching experience and potential to create a positive impact in their communities. The training featured lectures, hands-on workshops, group discussions and practical demonstrations. Throughout the sessions, participants were encouraged to engage actively and share their experiences. Feedback sessions were held at the end of each day to assess understanding and gather suggestions for improvement. 

The ICT Literacy and Competency Development Bureau (ILCDB) of the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) of the Philippines conducted a one-month train-the-trainer and citizens training activity for community members of Barangay Baganihan, Marilog District, in Davao City, from 2 to 28 September 2024. The programme was implemented by DICT with support from ITU and the Government of Norway through the DTC Project and was tailored to meet the digital skills needs of community leaders (training of trainers), as well as those of women entrepreneurs and out-of-school youth (citizens training) residing in the Matigsalug, Manobo and Lumad tribes. 

Barangay Baganihan is one of the Philippines’ Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDA) whose population comprises mostly indigenous people. It is also a region prone to challenges pertaining to Internet connectivity and accessibility of ICT infrastructure. To address some of these challenges, DICT collaborated closely with PLDT-Smart (a partner of the DTC Initiative) and benefitted from their logistical support through the provision of devices and data for training beneficiaries. Throughout the sessions, 22 community leaders (of which 19 female) and 50 community members (of which 36 female) were introduced to the Cisco Networking Academy and HP-LIFE platforms; and were trained on basic and intermediate level courses, covering the use of computer and mobile devices, introduction to cybersecurity and digital business skills. The sessions were facilitated by instructors from DTC-Philippines, who will continue to support, engage and follow-up with the participants, particularly community leaders, to monitor their progress in cascading the knowledge gained and imparting digital skills within their respective communities. 

From 3 to 7 September 2024, the DTC in Ivory Coast, Ecole Multinationale Supérieure des Postes d’Abidjan (EMSP) conducted a citizens training programme for middle school students as part of its “Digital Holidays” activities. The 3-day training took place in the localities of Abengourou, Daloa and Korhogo, and was supported by ITU and the Government of Norway through the Project “Boosting Digital Skills through Digital Transformation Centres”. It brought together a total of 92 students (including 50 girls) and was facilitated by trainers who successfully completed EMSP’s “Young Digital Ambassadors (Jeunes Ambassadeurs du Numérique, JEAN) programme in 2023. Participants were trained on basic digital skills and had the opportunity to explore some of the latest digital literacy courses offered under the DTC Initiative (such as the Cisco courses on “Digital awareness”, and “Using a Computer and Mobile Devices”, etc.). The training also provided a platform to initiate conversations with students on the basics of cybersecurity and to raise awareness on the importance of online safety. Moving forward, the DTC in Ivory Coast plans to roll-out the programme in the localities of Azaguié and Adzopé, by the end of 2024 with support from the DTC Project. 

As part of their on-going support to the Digital Transformation Centres (DTCs) through the Project “Boosting digital skills through Digital Transformation Centres”, ITU and the Norwegian Government funded SMART Zambia Institute (SZI)’s latest digital literacy programme for citizens. From 15 July to 26 September 2024, the DTC in Zambia conducted a series of training activities across the six (6) localities of Mongu, Mumbwa, Chipata, Chibombo, Kafue and Choma, reaching 243 beneficiaries (56 per cent of which were female) in total. The sessions were designed for members of cooperatives and brought together women, out-of-school youth and elderly people based in rural and underserved areas. Through this programme, SZI aimed to provide beneficiaries with basic digital skills, focusing on essential computer literacy, Internet usage, cybersecurity and digital communication. Activities were implemented by the DTC in close collaboration with local entities, governmental bodies, and corporate benefactors. 

Although the activity was designed and delivered as a citizens training, each training cohort participant has committed to train five (5) members from his/her respective cooperative. SZI relies on this scaling model to ensure that the knowledge and skills acquired can be effectively cascaded within cooperatives and to maximise the programme’s impact within communities. As a follow-up to the training, SZI will be organising evaluation sessions to monitor and assess the progress made by participants in transferring their skills and enhancing digital literacy in their cooperatives.   

On 29 July 2024, the Virtual University (VU) of Pakistan organised a one-day training seminar under the theme “Empowering Girls with ICT skills”, with the support of ITU and the Government of Norway through the Project “Boosting Digital Skills through Digital Transformation Centres” along with technical support from Cisco.  The training was organized with the aim to inspire female high-school students to pursue ICT and STEM education through various learning platforms and guide them in their studies and future careers.
The seminar took place at the VU Lahore and Raiwind Road Office Lahore and brought together 40 onsite participants, in addition to 60 girls who joined remotely from the VU campus in Karachi Orangi Town, and from a school in Islamabad of Telecom Foundation Education System (TFES). Participants primarily consisted of high-school girls in the 9th and 10th grade who have little to no basic digital skills and who come from underserved or underprivileged communities.
The programme started with a panel session featuring national and international ICT professionals: the discussion highlighted the collaborative efforts of the ICT sector leaders in Pakistan and shared insights on the achievements of the DTC Initiative and its impact to date in the country. The panel was followed by an overview presentation on the Digital Transformation Centres Initiative and demonstration of the Cisco NetAcad and Skills for All platforms.
Students were also introduced to the HP-LIFE platform through a practical and hands-on session held in Urdu. After registering on the platform, they had the opportunity to enrol and complete several courses and benefitted from the guidance and support of VU Pakistan trainers and facilitators. A virtual follow up session will be held in August after the summer break, so that participants can share their feedback and impressions on the HP-LIFE courses.
 

From 8 to 26 July 2024, Concept, the DTC in Senegal, conducted a three-week train-the-trainer programme to roll-out the course on “Introduction to Computer Basics for the Visually impaired” (ICBVI) in Kolda, Senegal. With the support of ITU and the Government of Norway through the Project “Boosting Digital Skills through Digital Transformation Centres” as well as ST Foundation, the DTC was able to bring the ICBVI course into an untapped region. 
The ICBVI course is designed to include a train-the-trainer component, through which Concept trained four trainers – two visually impaired instructors and two sighted facilitators -, and a citizens training component for trainers to practice the skills learned with a group of 10 (five female) visually impaired citizens from Kolda. The course focused on basic computer skills to allow learners to use the keyboard, access the Internet, write an e-mail and use basic applications for word processing or simple calculations.
Alongside the training activities, Concept undertook several outreach activities and benefited from the presence and support of local authorities (mayor’s office, local associations), which will contribute to raising awareness on the importance of digital skills training for persons with visual impairment and ensuring sustainability and scalability within the province.
Over the next few months, Concept will continue the roll-out of the ICBVI course in Ziguinchor, Guediwaye and Kolda, by conducting refresher sessions for existing trainers and cascading the training to citizens. 

The event was attended by the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation and included panel discussions featuring various local stakeholders to share their approaches, experiences, successes and lessons learned in sustaining the project going forward. The event provided an opportunity to recognise the efforts and hard work of DTC trainers/centre managers and to celebrate the achievements of training beneficiaries. It also served as a platform to showcase the digital skills acquired by students of the coding clubs and robotics workshops conducted over the past three years. Several course participants were able to make their voices heard by sharing their inspiring experiences and empowerment journeys through digital skills. 

Since its launch in 2021, the DTC Project has transformed the lives of over 22,000 people (68 per cent women) from underserved communities across Ghana, exceeding its initial targets. Women entrepreneurs, for example, acquired digital marketing abilities that allowed them to take their business activities online. School children were taught programming languages such as Scratch and Python, sparking an early interest in technology. Testimonials from training participants are featured in the Project video documentary, which was also showcased during the closeout event.

In December 2023, the « Secrétariat National pour le Renforcement des Capacités » (SENAREC), the DTC in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officially launched its Digital Ambassadors’ programme under the name of “Congolais Ambassadeurs du Digital” (CONADIG). As the national capacity development hub in DRC, and strongly endorsed by the Ministry of Planning, SENAREC recognizes the need to train young digital ambassadors who will become key actors in raising awareness on the importance of digital tools sharing knowledge and cascading training interventions at the community level. In particular, the DTC intends to leverage the CONADIG platform as the main implementation channel of the DTC Initiative to scale basic and intermediate digital skills training nationwide.

With the support of ITU and the Government of Norway, as part the ITU Project “Boosting Digital Skills through Digital Transformation Centres”, SENAREC kick-started the implementation of CONADIG with a series of train-the-trainer activities nationwide. Through this training, over 70 trainers will be trained and certified across SENAREC’s network of Centres of Excellence and equipped with the skills and tools necessary to deliver courses from the Cisco Networking Academy and Skills for All platforms, as well as courses from the HP-LIFE curriculum. These activities represent the first step of SENAREC in building a network of local, motivated, and committed instructors and facilitators capable of providing training to rural and urban populations, and will cascade digital knowledge and skills within their respective communities. As of April 2024, the first phase of the programme was concluded in the Kinshasa province, and will be extended to Bukavu, Mbuji Mayi and Lubumbashi until July 2024.

From 22 January to 2 February 2024, the DTC in the Dominican Republic “Centros Technologicos Comunitarios” (CTC) conducted a train-the-trainer activity on the Cisco and HP-LIFE programmes. The training was supported by ITU and the Government of Norway through the ITU Project “Boosting Digital Skills through Digital Transformation Centres”: It aimed to strengthen the capacities of CTC instructors in delivering quality basic digital skills for underserved and rural communities and ensuring an effective pedagogical approach. In total, 50 facilitators (25 female) were selected by CTC area supervisors across the country, on the basis that they have the capacity and bandwidth to scale and cascade the knowledge and skills acquired, as well as the motivation to empower themselves and their communities. The training was delivered in a hybrid modality combining classroom and self-paced learning (70-30 ratio) and provided an opportunity for participants to focus on acquiring the skills to use digital tools and teaching techniques, as well as learn about best practices to deliver Cisco and HP-LIFE courses such as “Introduction to Data Science” and “Entrepreneurship”.

Following this training, DTC – Dominican Republic will establish virtual support platforms and online learning communities to enable facilitators to maintain contact and share their experiences and resources. Refresher sessions and networking opportunities will also be organised on a regular basis to keep facilitators up to date with the latest trends, advancements and changes in the Cisco and HP LIFE platforms. Ensuring effective monitoring and evaluation will also be crucial for CTC to measure progress and seek continued feedback as they train citizens in the communities.

In an effort to expand the outreach of the “Introduction to Computer Basics for the Visually Impaired” (ICBVI) training programme nationwide, the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) conducted a second train-the-trainer activity for 49 Community ICT Center (CIC) managers in Kyebi, in January 2024. The training was held in partnership with Tech Era, a local Ghanaian non-profit organization that is skilled in providing digital skills training to persons with disabilities. It comes as a follow-up to the first training of trainers held in Accra in November 2023 with the support of ITU and the Government of Norway, which served as a kick-off for the implementation of the ICBVI programme in Ghana.

Under the ITU DTC Project, DTC-Ghana conducted a citizens training to cascade the programme across the country from 18 March to 9 April 2024. More than 474 (221 female) visually impaired individuals (aged 12 to 45) from communities were selected from the 13 regions where GIFEC’s CICs are based and benefited from an intensive three-week programme to learn about computer fundamentals and assistive technologies. Additionally, the training focused on empowering participants to use digital tools to perform various daily tasks independently and communicate effectively through e-mail, instant messaging, and social media platforms. An additional 120 visually impaired citizens will be trained in June as part of the final cohort of beneficiaries.

With the support of ITU and Cisco, l’Ecole Multinationale Supérieure des Postes (EMSP) d’Abidjan organised a train-the-trainer programme on basic and intermediate digital skills as part of its Young Digital Ambassadors initiative (Jeunes Ambassadeurs du Numérique – JEAN). The training was conducted across the five localities of Azaguié (South), Korhogo (North), Adzopé (South-East), Abengourou (East) and Daloa (South-Westt) between 12 June and 20 October 2023, and brought together 82 young trainees, including 13 women.

These activities were conducted in a face-to-face modality and consisted of a first training phase aiming to assess the digital skills proficiency of participants within the designated localities, as well as their motivation to continue to engage and contribute to building the digital capacities of citizens, as Digital Ambassadors. Courses were delivered through the Cisco Skills for All platform and focused on Operating Systems Basics. Following the first phase, participants completed 65 hours of self-paced learning between 30 October and 1 December (phase 2), after which they will attend the third and final phase of the programme, to be held subsequently in December 2023. 

From 11 to 22 September 2023, BPPTIK conducted a training of trainers on basic digital skills programmes of the Cisco Networking Academy, with support from ITU and Cisco. The training was held virtually on the first week and face-to-face on the second week, at BPPTIK training centre in Jakarta. In total, 60 trainers, including 24 women, attended the training and were divided into three groups to maximize learner-instructor interaction over the course of the 10-day programme. Participants were introduced to the Cisco Networking Academy system and were trained on how to deliver effective face-to-face and online digital skills training to citizens, considering the connectivity and device limitation of users, particularly those living in remote areas.

A Joint Declaration on strengthened collaboration in the field of capacity and digital skills development between Indosat (PT Indosat TBK) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was signed on 13 September 2023 by Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau and Mr Vikram Sinha, President Director and CEO, PT Indosat TBK. 

This collaboration aims to strengthen digital literacy and skills of citizens in underserved communities, and promote digital inclusion in Indonesia, with particular focus on the Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) Initiative, which supports countries to develop the capacities and digital skills of their citizens.  

The Declaration builds on the takeaways of the ITU-Cisco DTC Workshop for Telecommunication companies, during which participants discussed joint projects and support modalities to effectively engage telecommunication companies in the work of the Digital Transformation Centres and the overall Initiative.  

The signing ceremony took place during the ITU Regional Development Forum for Asia and the Pacific, held in Bangkok from 13 to 15 September 2023.  

From 19-21 July 2023, the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) of the Philippines, with support from ITU and Cisco, conducted a training-the-trainer course on basic digital skills, in General Santos City, Philippines. The activity brought together 70 designated trainers who support the DTC Initiative at the regional level and was delivered by Cisco-certified instructors. Participants were trained on how to manage and navigate the Cisco Networking Academy and deliver effective online and offline digital skills training.