The Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (UN-APCICT/ESCAP) today launched its online Communities of Practice(CoP). The CoP is a collaborative online platform that enables participants with common interests to share knowledge and best practices related to topics on ICT for development (ICTD). The CoP will initially include interactive forums on two topics of APCICT’s Knowledge Sharing Series (KSS), which aims to provide government officials with easy-to-reference, policy guidelines on different aspects of ICTD:

• ICTD Institution Buildingexplores the importance of institution building to effectively develop ICT capacity for national socio-economic development. It outlines the necessity of developing a common vision and strategies, directing and securing resources, defining roles and responsibilities, and promoting coordinated efforts and partnerships that makes ICTD possible and effective
• Cybersecurity explores the steps needed to develop cybersecurity policies and strategies, and in setting up and enforcing effective national cybersecurity initiatives to detect, prevent and mitigate cyber threats.

The original authors of the KSS will serve as the initial facilitators of the CoP forums, providing feedback to all submitted comments and questions. Additional forums on ICTD education for youth and other topics are also under development.

The user can subscribe to CoP forums by clicking on the interested forum from the introduction page and registering/logging in on the next page. Participants can create a new discussion topic for facilitators or other users to reply.

Click here to register and start using the CoP now