- Patricia Schlageter
- Aisha Jenkins
- Elind Sulmina
Intermediate
Event Organizer(s)
Supported by
Description
Designed for policymakers, regulators and technical specialists responsible for broadband mapping and digital connectivity policy, this course develops the practical capabilities required to use broadband data for regional investment planning.
Participants progress through three linked simulations that mirror the policy cycle.
- First, they analyse a cross-border corridor proposal and evaluate whether available information meets a donor’s appraisal requirements.
- Second, they use the identified gaps to develop common definitions, schemas, metadata, data-quality rules, governance provisions and sharing mechanisms.
- Third, they create a regional Community of Practice Framework and a sequenced Work Programme for 2027–2028.
The simulation-based approach combines technical analysis, policy negotiation, collaborative decision-making and plenary presentation. It gives participants the opportunity to test assumptions, compare national practices and develop solutions that recognise differences in legal frameworks, institutional capacity, confidentiality requirements and implementation costs.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to assess broadband-data readiness, formulate harmonised regional approaches, distinguish common requirements from national discretion, and assign practical responsibilities and milestones for implementation.
Remote participants will be able to audit the sessions online and contribute to discussions virtually through online discussion channels.
The Africa-BB-Maps Policy Training is organized within the framework of the ITU–EU Africa-BB-Maps initiative, which supports the development of national broadband mapping systems across eleven participating African countries.
Target population
This training is designed for policymakers, regulators, and technical focal points involved in the governance, regulation, or implementation of national broadband mapping systems.
Participants, 44 in total, will primarily include representatives from national regulatory authorities and relevant ministries Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe as well as the Regional Regulatory Associations CRASA, EACO, and WATRA. Additionally, representatives from AfricanTelecommunications Union, European practitioners and experts, and iPRIS (SPIDER) will attend. All project beneficiaries who are responsible for broadband infrastructure data governance and digital connectivity policy.
Kindly note this course is restricted to users who meet the following criterial:
Entry requirements
Qualifications or experience needed to participate in this training course:
- Participants need to have completed by 30 April the following two self-paced courses: Introduction to broadband mapping & Advanced broadband mapping.
- Having attended the National Events of Broadband Mapping systems in his/her country in 2025 is an advantage.
- Having attended a policy training event in Romania, Lithuania, or Poland is an advantages.
Selection criteria:
- Nomination by the participating countries
- Relevance of role to national broadband mapping implementation
Number of available places for the cohort: 44
Remote participation may be opened to additional participants from the beneficiary country delegations subject to technical capacity for the online instructor-led version of this course.
Learning objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Analyze broadband coverage, service quality, infrastructure, population, and cost data required to appraise regional broadband investment proposals.
- Assess the completeness, comparability, provenance, and limitations of national data submitted through a donor investment template.
- Identify and prioritize policy, institutional, governance, and reporting gaps affecting broadband investment planning across countries and corridors.
- Develop common definitions, schemas, metadata requirements, quality rules, licensing provisions, and governance arrangements for regional broadband data sharing.
- Differentiate between requirements requiring regional harmonization and matters that should remain under national authority.
- Formulate practical mechanisms for sharing data among regulators, ministries, operators, countries, and regional organizations while addressing confidentiality, commercial sensitivity, capacity, and cost.
- Design a regional Community of Practice framework specifying its purpose, membership, leadership, responsibilities, reporting arrangements, and resourcing.
- Create a sequenced 2027–2028 work programme that assigns priorities, responsibilities, milestones, and dates for implementing the agreed framework.
- Present and justify evidence-based recommendations developed through collaborative policy simulations.
Methodology
The course will be delivered through facilitated, face-to-face policy simulations combining short technical briefings, collaborative group work, negotiation, and plenary reporting. Participants will be randomly assigned to three working groups representing Corridor Red, Corridor Blue, and Corridor Green. Together, the corridors cover eleven anonymized countries, identified as Countries A through K, and three regional regulatory associations, identified as RRA A, RRA B, and RRA C.
The simulations are sequential. The data and governance challenges identified during Simulation 1 become the basis for the standards and data-sharing arrangements developed in Simulation 2. The framework produced in Simulation 2 then informs the Community of Practice and implementation work programme developed in Simulation 3.
Simulation 1: Responding to a Donor Data Submission Template
Duration: 3 hours 30 minutes
An international donor has signaled interest in financing one of the three corridors in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as a flagship broadband development investment. The Donor sends out the investment proposal to all member states in the SSA Region. The SSA Member states, under the coordination of its associated RRA decided to form a working group to prepare the corridor proposal.
- RRA A covers Corridor Red with Member States A, B, C and D;
- RRA B covers Corridor Blue with Member States Countries E, F, G and H;
- RRA C covers Corridor Green with Member States I, J and K;
The setup allows the simulations to address the real policy challenges without any delegation being identified with the difficulties raised and presents it to the donor at the start of the afternoon plenary.
The objective of this simulation is for the groups to come to the agreement the information needed to make the case - coverage of the corridor, service quality, existing and planned infrastructure, underserved population, cost per person connected - is defined differently across SSA countries in the same corridor, held by different institutions, and reported to different standards. Groups have then to identify and prioritise the policy, governance, institutional and operational challenges affecting broadband intelligence and agree which one's matters most for the corridor to be financeable.
Policy Questions:
- What are the most significant barriers preventing effective use of broadband intelligence for policymaking?
- Which challenges are common across countries within the same corridor and across corridors?
- How do these challenges affect investment planning, digital inclusion, infrastructure sharing and universal access initiatives?
- Which challenges should receive immediate regional attention?
- What actions could be pursued at national, regional and institutional levels?
Expected Deliverable:
Consolidated response to the donor submission template - as an input to Deliverable 1, the ITU–EU Investment Mapping and Prioritisation Guidance.
Simulation 2: Developing a Common Data Standards and Data Sharing Framework
Duration: 5 hours 45 minutes
The three corridor groups reconvene with the previous day's findings in hand. Regional Association A now holds a mandate from the ministers of the eleven countries to propose, jointly with Regional Associations B and C, a common framework that responds to what the donor submission template asked for and to the gaps the groups exposed in trying to complete it. Governments, regulators, investors and partners need comparable information; operators and governments hold legitimate concerns about confidentiality, commercial sensitivity, administrative burden and cost. Countries apply different reporting approaches, different legal frameworks and different levels of institutional capacity.
Groups negotiate a practical regional framework - common definitions, schemas, metadata and quality rules, governance, licensing, and mechanisms by which data is shared between countries and with regional bodies - that creates enough consistency and interoperability while respecting national realities. Each provision addresses a specific field of the donor submission template or a specific gap the groups identified, and the framework specifies what remains at national discretion and what does not.
Policy Questions:
- What information should form part of a common regional reporting framework?
- Which definitions should be standardised across countries?
- What governance principles should underpin data sharing?
- How should confidentiality and commercial sensitivity be managed?
- What responsibilities should be assigned to regulators, ministries, operators, and regional organisations?
- What implementation model is realistic given varying levels of institutional capacity?
Donor appraisal:
Each group will present its corridor proposal to a donor panel. The panel will not select a corridor for financing. Instead, it will identify which sections of each proposal can and cannot be appraised using the information provided and explain what would need to be true of the underlying data for the proposed investment to be financeable.
The gaps between the information requested and the information available will provide the evidence base for Simulation 2.
Expected Deliverable:
Draft Common Data Standards and Data Sharing Framework - Deliverable 2.
Simulation 3: Establishing a Community of Practice Framework and Action Plan
Duration: 3 hours 45 minutes
The Framework has been agreed in substance the previous afternoon. Regional Associations A, B and C now propose that the eleven countries establish a single regional community of practice to sustain the cooperation, take forward the issues the Framework could not settle, and support implementation of the Framework at country level. Experience from previous programmes has shown that progress quickly slows once activities end if no mechanism sustains collaboration, peer learning and implementation support.
The three working groups design the community: its purpose, membership, working arrangements, chairing and reporting, the responsibilities of the regional associations and of ITU in the first year, and the resourcing needed to sustain it beyond the programme. Groups then draft the work programme for 2027–2028 - priority areas drawn from the outstanding issues surfaced during the week, sequenced with owners and dates for the first six months.
Policy Questions:
- What should be the primary purpose of the regional community of practice?
- How should leadership and governance be organised?
- Which thematic areas should be prioritised during the first year?
- What mechanisms should be used for knowledge sharing and peer learning?
- How can implementation of agreed frameworks and recommendations be monitored?
- What resources and partnerships are needed to sustain the initiative?
Expected Deliverable
Draft Community of Practice Framework and Work Programme 2027–2028 - Deliverable 3.
Assessment and grading
Activities & Weighting:
- Participation in discussions and case study analysis: 30%
- Policy simulation exercise (onsite) or scenario reflection assignment (remote): 30%
- Final policy recommendation presentation or written assignment: 40%
- Total: 100%
A total score of 70% or higher is required to obtain the ITU certificate for face-to-face participants. Participants need to be present for all sessions to qualify for the certificate or badge.
Onsite participants will complete the assessment activities during the training.
Certificate of completion
Upon completion, you will receive an ITU Academy certificate confirming that you have met the course requirements and achieved the learning outcomes.
Training details and instructional approach
Day 1 | Mon 30 Nov: Broadband mapping for investment readiness
Exercise 1 — Exposing the challenges
Content: Short framing, then the corridor exercise: country teams prepare their own segment, then the group tries to combine them into one proposal.
Output: Challenge walls populated.
Day 2 | Tue 1 Dec: From investment readiness to data standards
Exercise 1 closes, Exercise 2 opens
Content: Groups improvise a workaround and submit; the financing panel takes all three corridors; debrief; European practice at the point of need; first responses drafted.
Output: Deliverable 1; Regional Data Challenge Register adopted.
Day 3 | Wed 2 Dec: Common data standards, data governance and data sharing
Exercise 2 — Solve
Content: Definitions, schemas, metadata and quality; governance, licensing and sharing; the corridors re-submitted against the common template.
Output: Deliverable 2, Common Data Standards and Data Sharing Framework.
Day 4 | Thu 3 Dec: Community of Practice; Study visit and adoption
Exercise 3 — Institutionalise
Content: Community of practice designed; adoption of the three deliverables; transposition to national notes; study visit at EU premises from 14:00; closing.
Output: Deliverable 3; Community of Practice Framework and Action Plan; three deliverables adopted.
Day 5 | Fri 4 Dec: Project governance
Content: General Advisory Committee (morning, two complementary sessions with iPRIS); Project Steering Committee (afternoon, restricted).
Output: Advisory recommendations; Steering Committee decisions and action matrix.
Registration information
Unless specified otherwise, all ITU Academy training courses are open to all interested professionals, irrespective of their race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, economic status and other diverse backgrounds. We strongly encourage registrations from female participants, and participants from developing countries. This includes least developed countries, small island developing states and landlocked developing countries.
