Proposed IEEE/Microsoft Mini-grant partnership for standards capacity building Johan Eksteen Regional Standards Officer: Sub-Saharan Africa Microsoft December 2010

Contents Need Reality Nature of Approach Approach Benefits

Need Standards play an important role in economic development – Technology transfer – Market creation – Consumer confidence and protection Strong drive for socio-economic development in Sub- Sahara Africa – standards can contribute Need a predictable standards process to reap benefits. A predictable standards process requires broad, informed and expert participation in the local standards processes. The role of academia to both contribute current expertise and build capacity for future participation is clear.

Reality Low levels of participation from academia in students seen in Sub-Saharan Africa – participation quite often skewed towards the higher age groups with little new talent flowing into the system There are little incentive for academics and students to get involved in standards, especially in the Sub-Saharan Region Need to find ways to incentivise academia in the region to get involved positively in standards – bring new talent and capacity into system

Nature of the Approach Build on solutions to avoid fragmentation of efforts across different organisations – smart partnerships Focus on solutions that has low risk and financially sustainable to convince decision makers from all stakeholders Look for solutions that might be replicated in other regions Create political support and buy-in in the region to sustain and possibly extend programme

Approach Partner with IEEE-SA Partner with ARSO Incentivise students and lecturers that uses standards explicitly in their final year or post-graduate projects with a focus on Sub-Saharan organisations High level launch of partnership to gain even more visibility – “Users” – Political capital – UN, AU, others

Approach (2) Build upon existing IEEE programme Extend the programme by offering similar incentives to Sub-Saharan students and faculty Determine with IEEE whether this is Depth (more money for the same), Breadth (focus on more standards areas), or Scope (focus on other areas such as stds governance) Limit risk by doing pilot first (substantive enough to measure effect) Plan for expansion (e.g. larger, bringing more partners into initiative) based on outcome of pilot Partner with ARSO as political sponsor.

Benefits (partnering) Link to IEEE – stand on the shoulders of giants – IEEE has good standing in the region – Avoid fragmented efforts by building on existing programmes – Broaden reach beyond ISO in the regional approach IEEE seems to be better recognised in academia than ISO in the region Linking to existing programme – Familiar to target audience – better acceptance – Shorten time to success of partnership – Address perceived lack of progress in many capacity building efforts by leveraging and supporting successful IEEE programme – Use of Standards Maturity Chain in real world example Link to ARSO – Tangible contribution, something that they can celebrate, thereby creating opportunities into the future

Benefits (Ecosystem) Get more expert academic participation in standards and building future base of standards (aware) professionals Bring more voices to the table countering aging demographics and contributing to predictable standards system Make stronger case for highlighting role of standards in socio- economic development Demonstrate on-going international commitment to human resource development in region, a key policy issue, opening doors to other opportunities e.g. AU, UN agencies etc. Opportunity to highlight standards efforts and commitment with high level PR (e.g. launch event MS, IEEE, ARSO, hopefully on President/VP level.) Leverage Microsoft presence in region to create more opportunities within the region/other partners/organisations Should be replicable in other regions

Extra Information

IEEE programme IEEE is offering mini-grants for graduate and upperclassman design project student application papers. Grants include US$500 for students, with additional mini-grants for faculty mentors. More info: ation/standards/applications.html

Standards “Maturity” Chain and audience mapping AudienceAwarenessUnderstandingUseParticipateContributeDevelop Individual (Students) Understand role of standards in discipline Able to read stds, understand stds processes in order to use in projects Use stds in work/projects Company (University) Aware of role and impact of stds on university Understanding the impact of stds on Univ include stds issues in planning NSB Country/region (Govts)