The GIEC Participates in the I-CoDI Global Workshop and the First Meeting of ITU Acceleration centres from March 4 to 8, 2024.

As part of capacity building and information sharing among key stakeholders in the GIEC Programme, GIEC Kenya participated in the inaugural meeting of all the Acceleration Centres in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), from March 4 to 8, 2024. The meeting, which is being under the auspices of a partnership between the ITU and the Telecommunications and Digital Regulatory Authority (TDRA), aims at achieving the following objectives:

(a)  Kicking off the activities of the ITU Acceleration Centres.
(b) Building a common understanding of the new institutional and human capacity-building framework to accelerate digital innovation.
(c)  Building capacity on two strategic objectives (i.e. Strategic Foresight and Ecosystem Initiative Development) to operationalise services of the Acceleration Centres using the ITU playbooks applicable to these objectives.

The key highlights and takeaways from the workshop included the following:

Global Collaboration and Engagement: The workshop successfully initiated the activities of the Acceleration centres by convening the first meeting of the Network of Acceleration Centres, with participants from 14 centres. This was indicative of the stakeholders’ commitment to collaboration and engagement within the network - a strong foundation for future cooperation and knowledge exchange among diverse players in the ecosystem.
Ecosystem-Driven Approach to Digital Innovation: The workshop made it apparent that leveraging a holistic ecosystem-driven approach to digital innovation and reducing siloed approaches is key to accelerating digital innovation. The ecosystem-driven approach is essential for the creation of sustainable and impactful solutions that address core issues in the digital space.
Operationalising Services of the Acceleration centres: The workshop focused on enabling capacity for the centres to operationalise their strategic services. Through the training on the application of the strategic foresight playbook, the workshop highlighted service delivery in a manner that anticipates future trends and scenario planning to shape digital ecosystems. In addition, the training on the use of the ecosystems initiative development playbook emphasised holistic, sustainable and scalable solutions for ecosystem-driven opportunities.