A three-day capacity building workshop by the African Union Development Agency AUDA -NEPAD on the digitalization of rural services has ended in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The conference assembled experts and players from the public/private sector, international institutions, technical agencies and the media to proffer and find ways to better scale up services in rural economies with digitalization.
Opening the conference, the Director of Program, Innovation and Planning at AUDA -NEPAD Estherine Fotabong said, NEPAD was committed to working with the relevant stakeholders to ensure that the continent benefits from its resources.
She added that, with its expanded mandate AUDA-NEPAD was committed to ensuring that member states can benefit from the training and capacity building workshops, among others to ensure that the continent optimize its full potential.
The technical institutions include the UNECA, AUC, UNWTO, CAF,
The conference used transport as case study to analyse how member states can work with relevant agencies to achieve overall aims.
Discussions at the event included, overview of the operationalization of the blueprint for rural transformation, national experiences of rural transport policies and institutions among others.
Others included challenges to the digitalization of the transport sector in Africa (Management, infrastructure, and services perspectives)
The capacity building assembled experts from technical institutions, media, private sector, etc to develop a report the AUDA-NEPAD will eventually work on to help assuage the challenges in rural service areas.
This is in a series of events earmarked by AUDA-NEPAD to help member states optimise the use of technology.
