World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC)

African Regional Preparatory Meeting-Youth Workshop
Abuja, Nigeria, 1-4 July 2005

As part of OVF's effort to position itself as an integrator of best practices to maximize the potential of the youth, an OVF delegation made up of Country Directors Kafui Prebbie of OVF-Ghana and Olaposi Abiola of OVF-Nigeria participated in the African Region Youth Preparatory Workshop for the WTDC ’06.

Kafui chaired the first day's Youth Workshop Sessions held at the Y'Arudua Conference Center, Abuja and also participated in a Roundtable Discussion on the African Youth ICT4D Network (AYIN), which Kafui is one of the founders of (more about OVF and AYIN here). The discussion centered on “Connecting the Bridges: WSIS Platform, Africa’s Youth and Networked Efforts.” Roundtable panelists included Titi Akinsanmi (WSIS Facilitator), Leopold Armah (African Youth Initiative Co-Founder), Theodore Somda (African Youth ICT4D Network Bureau Chair), Muratha Kinuthia (NEPAD Kenya), Gbenga Sesan (African Technical Advisory Committee Vice Chair). Other sessions of interest included: "African Youth Input into the WTDC Process" - Roxana Butos, ITU Youth and Gender Unit; "Telecommunications as a Major ICT Tool" - Calisthus Okoruwa, CEO XLRS; "Words and Action: An Urgent Need" - Prof Gideon Chonia, lecturer Univ. of Zurch Switzerland; "E-Applications in African and Challenges to the Youth" - Dr. Yassin Mshana, ICANN Councilor for Africa.

Background
In the past several years Information Development efforts have converged around the subject of youth and ICT. Youth have demonstrated great dynamism and will to promote ICT as a tool for the development of their societies. The Federal Republic of Nigeria, in coordination with the ITU, has designed a series of workshops to address the future needs of key African stakeholders in advancing the development goals for the region utilizing ICT. The WTDC-APRM Youth Workshops are an opportunity for youth in the West African region to come together and discuss these issues in a comprehensive manner. These workshops are seen as preludes to the Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting (APRM) and the WTDC-06, which will take place in Doha, Qatar on 7 to 15 March 2006 (Doha, Qatar).

APRM-WTDC-06 Goals and Objectives
Built upon earlier stakeholder meetings these workshops produced recommendations for consideration at the African Regional Preparatory and are seen as a means to enrich the ITU-D programs and activities.

Past Meetings and Conference Track History
The APRM-WTDC is part of a conference track that builds on the momentum achieved from past physical and virtual conferences including:

1.	WSIS, E-Youth Summit, Accra-Ghana (WSIS phase II Africa Regional Conference) Bamako 2002 African preparatory meeting to the WSIS, May 2002
2.	UNESCO consultation with Civil Society conducted prior to the African WSIS Bamako preparatory meeting, May 2002
3.	African Information Society Initiative (AISI)

Conference Summaries and Declaration
The OVF delegates reported that workshop sessions during the WTDC- APRM, Abuja went well and culminated in separate declarations:

1.	ITU-D program on the private sector focused on considerations that would enrich all aspects of the Doha Plan of Action. The recommendations resulted from a previous meeting, the African PPP/Regional Working Party Meetings that took place in Kampala, Uganda in November 2004, Maputo, Mozambique in April 2005 as well as the more recent WTDC event in Abuja.
2.	ITU-D program on Youth focused on how to further encourage a convergence of youth to further facilitate youth empowerment programs by getting multi-sectoral support from various key sectors of society. The recommendations were a synthesis of meetings of African youth, including alumni of the ITU Youth Forums, that have taken place in various locations in Africa and culminated with the July 2005 Youth WTDC- 06/APRM Workshop in Abuja.
3.	Women, New ICTs and Socio-economic Transformation Workshop included recommendations from the African Regional Preparatory Meeting for the World Summit on the Information Society held in Accra, Ghana in February 2005.

Integration of Declarations into APRM-WTDC Track in Prep for Doha Conference
A committee was formed by the chair of the joint closing session, Ms. Walda W. Roseman (Pres. & CEO of Compass Rose Intl.) to integrate these declarations into the APRM. Two representatives each from the sessions were selected to complete this at a working session at the Hilton Hotel on 4th July, 2005. OVF-Ghana Country Director, Kafui A. Prebbie was involved in this session.

These declarations play an important part of developing a concerted global effort towards effective use of ICT by encouraging various sectors of society to play a more active role in Digital Development including government, business and civil society. OVF has outlined the preconditions towards rapid economic growth and development around an ICT augmented national infrastructure, which we refer as Digital Development Dynamics (DDD). For DDD to begin to become a reality in emerging markets, declarations need to backed up with practical support for field efforts on the ground that are moving us forwards towards the larger more comprehensive goals expressed in the declarations.

Looking forward, WTDC conference delegate Kafui Prebbie says it is important to showcase concrete solutions at the Nov. 2005 WSIS Conference in Tunis as well as other ICT4D events, to make the world more aware of the compelling nature of the approaches and technologies that we are now developing through our work and the impact they are having on the ground. Another key component of conference tracks should be to clearly outline goals of conferences in terms of measurable improvements that relate to capacity building as well as economic development efforts including evidence on how ICT4D leads to real progress on the MDGs.