Annex 1
IMPLMENTATION REPORT OF THE ITU ARAB CENTRE
OF EXCELLENCE NETWORK (2008-2014)
ITU ARAB CoE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 GENERAL PROJECT INFORMATION…………………………………………………..2
2 PROJECT BACKGORUND INFORMATION………………………………………….2-3
3 PROJECT OBJECTIVES…………………………………………………………………..4
4 MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS…………………………………………………….5-6
5 ACTIVITIES IMPLMENTATION AND PERFORMANCE………………………………..7
6 LESSONS LEARNED & EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT………………………….9
ANNEX A: FINAL STEERING COMMITTEE REPORTERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
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1
GENERAL PROJECT INFORMATION
Description
Project Name
Project
Description
The aim of this project is to build the capacity in the Arab Region in various ICT related fields, through 4 Nodes, each one to take care of one major program: 1‐ Telecom Policies and Regulations, 2‐ Business Management, 3‐ Rural ICT Development, 4‐ ICT New Services and Technologies. The Nodes lead the design and implementation of training workshops in consultation with the CoE coordination unit and ITU and offers face‐to‐face as well as on‐line training activities. Project Manager
Ebrahim Alhaddad / Mustafa Al Mahdi
Project Sponsor
ICTDF
General
Comments
Start Date
Finish Date
Budget
2
2nd Phase of CoE Network in the Arab Region
Also Self‐Generated Fund element has been created from training fees and interest
Baseline
Actual
Variance
2008 2010 01/01/2008 31/12/2014 Addendums 1,2 and 3 PROJECT BACKGORUND INFORMATION
The CoE project in the Arab region has been operating since February 2002 and the first Phase was closed at the end of June 2007.This initial Phase was a success and all the countries in the region have expressed a desire that the project be continued. During the CoE's First Phase of operation, a total of 30 training activities were conducted, resulting in the training of more than 1000 professionals from all over the Arab region. The training covered all the major areas of CoE focus, namely Telecommunications Policies, regulation, New Technologies and Services, Business Management, and Rural Communications. The Within the region, there was a greater bias towards courses in New Technologies (almost 20 of total training), reflecting the rapidly changing technical complexity of the Arab Telecommunications market. Page 3 of 16
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The above successes were also accompanied by some challenges, which this second phase hopes to overcome. Firstly, the Arab CoE was a late arrival in the introduction of training fees, doing so in April 2005. This means by the time the project ended in July 2007, the CoE had not as yet been strong enough to be self‐sustainable. This has also been compounded by the fact that the collection of fees for courses already attended, has not been as effective as it should be, and needs to be improved upon. Secondly, the nodes around the Centre of excellence have not been fully developed and strengthened to add synergy to the Regional CoE mechanism. Thirdly, there is a strong need in the region to develop a more enduring project coordination mechanism that would provide a guarantee for continuity and good results. Based on the lessons learned from the previous years of implementing the first phase, and the inputs of regional project stakeholders during meetings and discussions, the second phase of the Centre of Excellence Project in the Arab region (or CoE‐ARB) has now been formulated taking into consideration several factors: o Firstly, the need to consider the likely impact on the project of the structural changes within the ITU in the near future necessitating bringing the management of the Centre of Excellence project under the Supervision of the ITU Arab Regional Office. o Secondly, in view of the first point, and recognizing the new oversight responsibilities of the ITU Area Office over the project, the need to review the Governance structure of the CoE and transform the role and functions of the Steering Committee into more Policy Making and Advisory roles. o Thirdly, the need to align operational practices of the Arab CoE to other CoE's globally so as to ensure a smooth integration of the Arab CoE into a Global network of CoE's. o Fourthly, the need to create a more long‐lasting and self financing CoE by reducing the operational cost to be financed externally, and , inversely, increasing the capability of the CoE to self‐ finance its operational activities. Page 4 of 16
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3
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
In line with the objectives of the global CoE network, the project will support the continued organization and delivery of 4 high‐level training programmes designed for governmental authorities, regulators, and the senior managers and executives of operators and service providers, in order to serve and facilitate the development of the telecommunication sector in the Arab region. The core objectives of ITU Arab CoE was: 1. Delivery of high‐level Trainings in 4 Areas (Telecom Policies and Regulations; Business Management, Rural ICT Development and ICT New Services and Technologies); 2. Creation of new nodes for providing e‐leaning activities; 3. Moving the Arab CoE project to self‐sustained model. 4
MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS:
The Phase 1 of the project was supervised by Steering Committee and Project Coordinator. Phase2 the approach was changed moving from to Steering Committee concept to Advisory Committee and there was a three main parties with responsibilities for the management and implementation of the project, namely: 1. The Project Advisory Committee; 2. The Project Coordinator; 3. The ITU. Collectively these parties shall ensure that the project is successfully implemented and that agreed targets are met. The Project was governed by Advisory Committee made up of representatives of the CoE main Nodes and the supporting Nodes from Ministries and Regulatory bodies from the different beneficiary countries and the ITU. The Advisory Committee met once every year and ITU Arab regional office act as secretariat and coordinator for the project. The first formal meeting of the Advisory Committee of the 2nd phase of this project was convened in Damascus – Syria 21‐22 January 2008. A key recommendations of the meeting was:  Adopt the main and secondary Nodes of the project as follows: o Syria as the main node for the Rural Communication Program and Sudan as the secondary Node. Page 5 of 16
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o Egypt is the main node for the New Technologies and Services program and Tunisia as the secondary node. o Oman is requested to host the main node for the Business Management Program, and Saudi Arabia to host the secondary node. o Morocco is requested to host the Telecom Policies and Regulation Program and Jordan will host the secondary node.  Adopt the Regional Representatives’ of the Advisory Committee Members, as follows: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Sudan. The representatives was nominated by their Administrations based on recommended Profile proposed by the Steering Committee. The other members are from the four main Nodes representatives and ITU. A total of 7th Advisory Committee meetings were organized, the second Advisory Committee meeting held in Cairo ‐ Egypt, 1 – 2 March 2009; the Third Advisory Committee meeting, held in 4‐5 November 2009 and hosted by Egypt in Cairo; the Fourth Advisory Committee meeting, held in Hammamet‐Tunisia, 10‐11 November 2010; the Fifth meeting of the Advisory Committee held in 30 September 2011 by Rabat ‐ Morocco, and the Sixth Advisory Committee meeting held in Cairo ‐ Egypt, 12 November 2012 and the Seventh Advisory Committee meeting held in 6th of Dec,2013 and hosted by Tunisia. These meetings discussed project implementation, recommendations on the governance of the Arab CoE, the Advisory Committee mandates as per the project document, analyzed the budgets and allocated activities to project nodes and their supporting nodes, and also agreed on the training fees for face to face (F2F) and online trainings. Below are the sample of photos have taken during the 7th Advisory Committee meeting hosted by the one of the CoE Node “CIFODECOM‐Tunisa” Page 6 of 16
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5
ACTIVITIES IMPLMENTATION AND PERFORMANCE
5.1 ACTIVITEIS IMPLMENTED
From the time of the first training in April 2008 to the December 2014, 53 training activities were conducted in the region, training a total of 1520 professionals and executives in various spheres of telecommunications and within the four program of the project. On average, 8 actions were run per year, and about 12 participants were trained per training programme. Breakdown by sub areas: The sub‐areas were covered by the project are: Telecom Policies and Regulations; Competition in Telecoms/ICT; VOIP regulation; Regulation in converged environment, Licensing; Spectrum regulation; Interconnection; Pricing; Dispute Resolution; Future of Voice, IP security; Triple Play; NGN; Universal Services and Universal Access; IPv6, Digital Broadcasting; Transition from Analogue to Digital; GSM; UMTS; Transition from IPv4 to IPv6; Broadband; Quality of Services (Qos) fro Mobile and Fixed Networks; Wireless Broadband; ICT Security; Infrastructure Sharing; E‐Learing; Long Term Evaluation (LTE); Fiber Optics Notations and Deployment; Rural Connectivity Solution; Communication Skills; Business New Trends; Spectrum Management for Developing Countries (SMS4DC); E‐Readiness; build an e‐Learning content using Adobe tools; Multi‐Protocol Label Switching (MPLS); Training Needs Analysis for ICTs; VSAT and Satellite Systems and Project Management for ICTs Implementation. Other activities implemented under the ITU ARAB CoE: 1. ITU/ITSO Program. As part of a capacity building partnership entered into between the ITU and the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO) for the delivery of satellite communications training. 2 activities has been implemented in 2013 and 2014 in areas of VSAT and Satellite Page 7 of 16
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Systems in cooperation with National Telecom. Corporation of Sudan and National Telecom. Regulatory Authority of Egypt. The 2 training attend by 120 participant’s represents all the Arab countries. 2. Activities for Arab LDCs : As part of the implementation of some WTDC & PP res on supporting the Least Developing Countries in region and in meeting a specific needs of these countries in training in Telecom./ICTs areas, the following activities has been implemented under the umbrella of ITU Arab CoE project: ‐
ITU Training workshop on Fundamentals of Cloud Computing for Palestine; ‐
ITU Training workshop on IPv6 Deployment for Palestine; ‐
ITU Training workshop on International Computer Driving License (ICDL) Core module for Somalia; ‐
ITU Training workshop on Training Needs Analysis for Arab Least Developing Countries. The samples of photos that have been taken during the CoE activities can been in Annex 3 attached to the project closure report. Page 8 of 16
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5.2 PERFORMANCE (2008-2014)
The participation of Member States and Sector Member in the activities of this project was decided at the beginning of the project. It was decided there is two categories of participation fees; for Face to Face (F2F) it was decided that the fees is $ USD 500 and free for online training then was reduced to become $ USD 300 for F2F and decided that the online activities should be charged with $ USD 100; an exemption from participation fees for Arab LDCs has been provided and fellowships also was granted for Arab LDCs to enable them attend the activities that have been designed especially for them. A total of 53 face to face training activities were conducted and 6 online activities has been implemented, resulting in the training of 1520 professionals in the sub areas of the four major areas, namely; Telecommunications Policies, regulation, New Technologies and Services, Business Management, and Rural Communications. 6
LESSONS LEARNED
Firstly, Sound stakeholder cooperation is essential for the success of the project Secondly, Good Financial management resulted in the project date closing while the project still had funds. Thirdly, The nodes around the centre of excellence have not been fully developed and strengthened to add synergy to the Regional CoE mechanism.. Fourthly, there is a strong need to develop a more effective mechanism for collecting training fees. Fifthly, The Arab CoE operation was partially moved to self‐sustainable model. 7
EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT
At the end of each training activity, an evaluation was undertaken to assess the satisfaction of participants with the quality of the training content as well as the training delivery by the trainer; activities organization reports also was submitted by Nodes and their supporting Nodes. A satisfaction rating of 75% and above had been set out at the beginning of the project as an indicator for all activities, implementing of least 8 face to face workshops per year and 2 online training per year. The overall assessment of satisfaction with the implemented activities over the project period averaged (53 actions per 7 years) 80 %, which was above the cut‐off mark. Page 9 of 16
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Financially, the project has good finance situation and finance governance mechanisms recommended to be in place for future work. As part of information gathering for this document and for purpose of project evaluation, views of the beneficiary countries/supporting Nodes were sought on their overall assessment of the project Annex B attached to this report provide the responses, views and suggestions of the nodes that implement the project. Page 10 of 16
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ANNEX A: FINAL STEERING COMMITTEE REPORT
1ST STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING OF THE ITU ARAB CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE NETWORK PROJECT (7RAB07016) Khartoum ‐ Sudan, 4th December 2014 1. Introduction: The 1ST Meeting of the Steering Committee of the ITU Arab Centers of Excellence
Network was held in Khartoum-Sudan, on 4th of December 2014 and hosted by Sudatel
Telecom Academy for Telecommunications (SUDACAD) premises. Representatives
from the Member States and from the new selected Centers of Excellence attended the
meeting, below are their names:
1234567-
Dr. Ahmed Hassan Awad El Sayed, Director, SUDACAD, Sudan.
Mr. Abderrahman RAFI, Secrétaire Général, INPT, Morocco.
Dr. Iman ASHOUR, Acting Director, NTI, Egypt.
Ms. Wala T. Latrous, CERT, Tunisia.
Eng. Babiker Ibrahim Al Torabi, Director of International Relations, NTC, Sudan.
Mr. Zied ROUISSI, CIFODECOM, Tunisia.
Eng. Mustafa Al Mahdi, ITU representative.
The meeting was also followed online via Skype by:
1- Mr. Mike Nxele, HCB, BDT, ITU.
2- Mr. Musab Abdalla, TRA, Bahrain.
2. Meeting Agenda Section 5 shows the meeting detailed agenda.
3. Meeting Activities 3.1 Opening Session: The meeting was inaugurated with welcoming speech made by the representative of the
ITU Arab Regional Office, who welcomed the Steering Committee Members
congratulating the selected Centers of Excellence in the Arab CoE Network, and
welcoming Mr. Musab Abdalla, who attended online as the representative of TRA Bahrain.
Then Dr. Ahmed Hassan Awad El Sayed, Director of SUDACAD, welcomed the participants and wishing them a nice stay in Khartoum, apologizing for any lack could have encountered them and concluded his speech by inviting the participants to cooperate for achieving the meeting’s agenda. Page 11 of 16
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According to the new strategy of the Arab CoE Network, which is the legal reference for
the network’s work, which states that the host country is to be the Chairman of the Steering
Committee, so, the participants agreed that Dr. Ahmed Hassan Awad El Sayed, Director of
SUDACAD, is the Chairman of the 1ST Steering Committee Meeting for the ITU Arab
CoE Network.
Dr. Ahmed Hassan Awad El Sayed, Director of SUDACAD, headed the meeting,
reviewing the agenda of the meeting, each item-by-item and raised it to the participants for
their approval and it’s approved unanimously.
According to the agenda of the meeting, the Chairman of the meeting has requested the
representative of the ITU Arab Regional Office (ARO) to give a summary report on the 7th
Meeting of the Advisory Committee of the ITU Arab Centre of excellence for the year
2013, as well as a summary report on the implementation of the operational plan of the
ITU Arab CoE for 2014.
The representative of the ITU ARO presented the two summary reports and they were
discussed and approved by the Steering Committee Members.
3.2 Second Session:
The Chairman of the meeting has requested the representative of the ITU ARO to present
a performance report for the 2nd Phase for the Project of the ITU Center of Excellence from
2008 to 2014.
The representative of the ITU ARO presented the performance report for the 2nd Phase for
the Project of the ITU Arab CoE from 2008 to 2014, strengthening on the lessons learned
and the final situation of the project along with the recommendations that could develop
the quality of service of the new network for the ITU Arab CoE.
The meeting recommended the necessity of benefiting from the remaining budget in the
project for the benefit of the Arab Region.
The meeting adopted the performance report for the 2nd Phase, recommending the need to
benefit from the remaining amount on this project.
3.3 Third Session:
This session started by an intervention through Skype from Mr. Mike Nxele, who
welcomed the participants, and congratulating SUDACAD for the Membership for joining
ITU CoE Network and thanking them for hosting the meeting.
Mr. Mike has reviewed the basis of forming members of the Steering Committee (SC) for
the governance of the CoE Network, stating that there are two remaining members from
the Member States that they don’t have CoEs been selected.
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From his side, Mr. Nxele has praised the level of participation in this meeting and wished
them a successful meeting.
Then, the representative of the ITU ARO resumed the meeting by presenting a brief report
on the Governance of the ITU CoE, explaining the duties and tasks of the SC, the
governance of the works of the network, the fees of the training courses and the ways of its
collection. The proposed percentages for distributing them among the ITU and the CoEs
according to the new strategy and also issuing of the certificates, their signed and the
position of the ITU Logo and the Certificates, ensuring on the need to held exams at the
end of each training course for granting the Certificates based on the results.
The ITU ARO representative confirmed that the membership of the SC of the Arab CoE
Network includes, Six CoEs in the region, the CIFODECOM of Tunisia has two voices (as
Member representing in the CoE Network and as a member of the GCBI of the ITU) as
well as the INPT in Morocco. In addition to the representative of the ITU ARO as
Coordinator of the network and the two Members who will be selected from the Member
States of the Arab Region. The representative of the ITU Arab Regional Office informed
the participants that there is a tentative acceptance of both the UAE and Jordan to join the
members of the Steering Committee of the Arab CoE Network.
3.4 Fourth Session:
After a lunch break, which was sponsored by Sudatel Academy "SUDACAD", the
representatives of the CoEs presented their proposals for the operational plan for 2015
(OP15). The meeting adopted the OP15 and encouraged the new CoE to be active in its
implementation.
3.5 Final Session:
Pursuant to the guidelines set out in the strategy of ITU CoEs and those relating to
meetings of the Steering Committee, it was agreed with the Kingdom of Bahrain under the
auspices of the TRA to hold the second meeting of the Steering Committee. In the case that
it was not possible to be hosted by the Kingdom of Bahrain, the SC meeting will be hosted
by Tunisia under the auspices of the CIFODECOM.
In conclusion, the Chairman thanked the presence for the active participation during the
course of the meeting, for the proposals made and for the consensus on the working
mechanism and the governance of the ITU Centres of excellence Network, wishing a safe
trip back for the participants.
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4. Resolutions and Recommendations adopted by the 1stSteering Committee Meeting: 4.1 Approval of the Implementation Report of the operational plan of 2014.
4.2 Approval of the Implementation Report of the 2nd phase of the ITU Arab Centre of
excellence Project for the period 2008 to 2014 including the financial report of the
project and recommending the use of the remaining amount in the following areas:
 Human Capacity Building on IPv6 related matter;
 Development of an online Content to be used for Arab region;
 Human Capacity Building on Training Needs Analysis of ICTs for all Arab states.
4.3 Approval of the operational plan for the year 2015 in accordance with the guidelines set
forth in the strategy documents of the ITU CoEs, with the consensus to work according
to the following models in delivering the training courses:
The ITU is the responsible for collecting training fees and deposit it in a separate
account for the ITU Arab CoEs network.
‐
The partner (CoE) will receive 80% from the collected training fees and 20% will be
kept for ITU Arab CoE Network to ensure sustainability of the network.
‐
The ITU to send the 80% from the collected training fees to the partner (CoE) on
training courses organized and after one month from the completion date of the
training not to exceed the six months.
‐
To facilitate the participation of some Arab countries which have difficulties in
transferring money outside their countries, the participants/countries could use one of
the following ways:
 To deliver the fees of the course to the Coordinator of the Center for excellence,
which in turn will coordinate with the ITU to deposit the amount received in the
UNDP Office in the host country of the course.
 The possibility of paying training fees in local currency to be a settled later
between the CoE that organized the training and ITU.
‐
Adoption of the following categories for course fees:
 In the case of Face-to-Face (F2F) training courses to be charged with $ 100/day.
 In the case of Online training courses, the following categories will be applied:
Type number (1): In case of using, the training content directly (Streaming
Training) to be charged with $ USD 50 per 40-hour;
Type number (2): In the case of interactive sessions (Interactive Training)
using the trainer, to be charged with $ USD 100 for every 40 hours;
Type number (3): In the case of virtual training (Virtual Training/Class), to
be charged with $ USD $ 150 for every 40 hours.
4.4 The meeting welcomed the CIFODECOM offer for providing the online training sessions
of type 1 above, free of charge to Arabic LDCs.
4.5 To identify the priority areas that are not selected and asking the ITU for the possibility
of allowing the new six centers of Arab region to work in these areas in addition to the
areas that were the CoEs selected for.
4.6 The meeting emphasize the need for representatives from Arab countries that they
don’t CoEs have been selected, to take part in the Steering Committee and attend its
meetings.
4.7 The meeting emphasize on the cooperation between new CoEs.
4.8 The meeting thanked the efforts of the representative of the ARO of the ITU for the
meeting and expressed its satisfaction for the reports presneted as well as the efficient
of the ITU Arab CoE for the previous period.
4.9 The meeting addressed the need to make use of accredited CoEs of the ICDL to provide
these courses in cooperation with other CoEs.
4.10
The meeting noted the poor participation of the Gulf countries in ITU CoE
activities and invite them to participate in the activities of the new network of ITU Arab
CoE.
‐
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4.11
The meeting took note of the possibility of using the E-Learning Platform of the
ITU Academy for providing online trainings (Type 1) under the activities of the ITU Arab
CoE network.
4.12
The meeting emphasize on the role of the Chairman of the meeting on the
Network and decided that the chairman is responsible for the implementation of the
operational plan for the network in coordination with the ITU Arab Regional Office.
5. Annex of the meeting Draft Agenda
Registration

Opening session: “Welcome”
Welcoming Speeches
-
ITU ARO Representative -
Host Country Representative  Nominate the chairman of the meeting
1st Session: Implementation of 2013 & 2014 operational Plan
8:30-09:00
09:00-9:30
09.30
10.30
–
10:30
10:45
-
10:45
11:15
-
11:15
12:15
-
This session will provide an overview of the operation and implementation of the ITU Arab CoE activities and for operational plans of 2013 and 2014. Reports on: 

Minutes of the last Steering Committees Meeting. Report on the Performance of the Arab CoE activities for the 2014. Speaker: Mustafa Al‐Mahdi, ITU ARO Representative Coffee/Tea Break and Networking
2nd Session: Report of ITU Arab CoE project 2008‐2014
This session will review the closure report of ITU Arab CoE project 2008‐
2014. Report on: 
The closure report of ITU Arab CoE project 2008‐2014. Speaker: Mustafa Al‐Mahdi, ITU ARO Representative 3rd Session: The ITU CoE Network Operation & Steering Committee Guidelines and Roles
This session will provide an opportunity for participants to discuss how to operate the CoE and organize the activities of the network based on the Page 15 of 16
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new strategy docs. Also will review the roles and responsibilities of the new Steering Committee of the new ITU Arab CoE Network. Speaker:
Mustafa Al-Mahdi, ITU ARO Representative
Lunch Break
12.1514.00
4th Session: Proposed Action Plan for 2015‐2017
14.00-16.30
This session will discuss the proposed operational plan for period 2015‐
2017 and detailed activities of 2015. Speakers: Representatives of the new ITU CoEs
Closing Session: Closing Remarks & Place and date of Next SC 16.30-17.00
meeting
Chairman of the meeting Page 16 of 16
Annex 3: Addendums 4, 3, 2, 1 and the Project Document To Project Closure Report 7RAB07016 Annex 3: Photos
MoICT-Jordan/ITU: Optimizing the Transition to a Next Generation Networks (NGN)-Amman–Jordan, 3-7
August 2008:
Syria Telecom Establishment-Syria/ITU: Wireless Broadband Internet Access In Rural Areas Damascus-Syria, 10 – 12 Oct 2010:
NTI-Egypt/ITU: LTE - Smart Village (6th October), Giza - Egypt, 6 - 8 December 2011
NTC-Sudan/ITU: Dispute Resolution in ICT- Khartoum-Sudan, 1-4 April 2012
SUDACAD-Sudan/ITU Project Management for ICT Implementation- Khartoum-Sudan, 1-3 Dec 2014
Annex [B]: TESTIMONIAL
1) CIFODECOM‐ Tunis: 2) SUDCAD‐Sudan 3) NTI‐ Egypt