The Capacity-building Workshop on Information Society Measurement: Core Indicators, Statistics, and Data Collection

The Capacity-building Workshop on Information Society Measurement: Core Indicators, Statistics, and Data Collection (Amman, 10-12 December 2006) was organized by the Arab Regional Office of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology of Jordan, the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics (AITRS). The Workshop aimed to build on the outcomes of the Geneva and Tunis phases of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS); to consider ways of implementing actions that were already agreed upon and endorsed by the first Capacity-building Workshop on Information Society Measurement: Core Indicators, Statistics, and Data Collection (Beirut, 7-10 June 2005); and to explore new steps towards fulfilling the mandates outlined in the Arab Initiative that was presented at the fourth World Telecommunication Development Conference (Doha, 7-15 March 2006). In the light of these meetings and regional initiatives, the Workshop considered the critical dimensions of capacity-building for promoting the adoption and collection of information and communication technology (ICT) indicators within a framework of evidence-based policymaking at both national and regional levels. Specifically, the country presentations and panel discussions focused on the key areas in need of development and improvement as identified by the participating countries through evaluation forms, modality of progress in the Arab region and challenges faced by countries in measuring ICT indicators. The objective of the recommended actions issued by the Workshop is to achieve the expected results indicated in the Arab Initiative in four major areas, namely: (a) information society indicators for the Arab region; (b) world telecommunications and information society indicators databases; (c) information society studies and research; and (d) institutional capacity-building.