Innovations to provide the training for IT personnel to promote the digitalization of society (Lire en français)
Possible approaches might include, but not limited to:
Solutions to provide programming education and other services through remote technology and video
BACKGROUND
The government of Benin is promoting an e-government to realize digitalization of society, which includes the digitalization of public services and the introduction of e-identity cards. In addition, the government has endeavored to develop the digital economy with the aim of becoming a digital services platform at West Africa by 2021. Further, to raise the level of IT literacy in the nation which underpin the above initiatives, the government is promoting ICT education and the use of ICT in education.
While the government has endeavored human resource development for talented personnel such as engineers who can lead the digitalization of society, there are issues that the training curriculum for engineer tends to be theoretical and less practical.
JICA, therefore, decided to make a global call for proposals on innovative solutions that enable the training of IT personnel who has advanced IT skills such as programming in order to promote the digitalization of society.
WHY PARTICIPATE?
- JICA will provide Proof of Concept (PoC) opportunity by providing the PoC fund of up to 3~5 million yen
- If the PoC is successful, there are possibilities for technologies/services to be introduced in JICA projects
- JICA will support the PoC by introducing the government agencies and public institutions in the country
POINTS TO CONSIDER
- There are many areas in Benin that have a weak telecommunications environment. Proposals for solutions that can be applied to the weak communication environment are desired.
- As the official language of Benin is French, it is preferable to provide services in French.
- It is recommend that a PoC is implemented in collaboration with the government, local companies and local academic institutions.
- The Government of Benin’s focus
- Development of women engineers
- Training engineers for promoting the game Industry
- Training engineers in the field of cybersecurity
- Training application development engineers to promote youth employment
- Training for government officials in IT literacy and technical skill-up
- Initiatives to improve IT literacy for the general public
PoC
- It is possible that the government of Benin introduce educational institutions, private companies and industry associations to implement PoC, if necessary.
- In cases travel to the site is difficult due to COVID-19, it is anticipated that the PoC will be conducted remotely.
Reference:
the Government of Benin's ICT initiatives
The Government of Benin has implemented six flagship projects in the field of ICT in the National Development Plan ((PAG2016-2021), including ICT infrastructure development and e-government development, as well as various other initiatives. ICT Education and ICT utilization in education sector are included in one of the flagship projects.
- High/ultra-high speed Internet
- Shift from analog broadcasting to DTTV
- Smart governance
- Roll-out of e-Commerce
- Roll-out of digital technology through education and training
- Promotion and development of digital content
The Government of Benin's activities in the field of ICT
- Installation of high-speed internet access
- Transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting
- Two submarine cable landing stations
- Fiber-optic lines
- LTE Base Station
- 3G/4G antenna
(Internet penetration rose to 53% from 20% in 2015)
- Implementation of smart government
- Public service digitization (e.g. e-signatures, interoperability, open data, etc.)
- Introduction of e-identity cards
- Implementation of national and sectoral information systems
- National Digital Security Strategy approved in May 2020, focused on training cyber security personnel
- Roll-out of digital technology through education and training
- Sèmè City's training program aimed to train 200,000 people and create more than 190,000 jobs by 2030
- Collaboration with the ECDL Foundation (which operates the ICDL) to provide basic IT skills training in digital classrooms and community digital centers in educational facilities
- Promotion and development of digital content
- Roll-out of e-commerce
- West Africa's digital services platform by 2021
- Seme-city, Innovation Campus, (Seme One), Incub'IMA
- Digital Entrepreneurship Fund
SCHEDULE
October 5th ～
November 8th 2020
Application from entry form
November ～December 2020
Proposers will be notified of the results by November 20
Proposers will have a meeting※1 with JICA between mid-November and mid-December
Final presentation※2 will be conducted on December 17th
PoC will be implemented for about 3 months between February and June 2021
June ~July 2021
ENTRY
Click on the "Apply" button, go to the entry form and fill in the required information.
The evaluation criteria for proposals will be as follows. Please note that we will not disclose any evaluation results.
- Potential of the proposal as a solution to the given challenges
- Feasibility of the proposed solution
- Competitive advantage of the proposed solution
- Validity of the PoC plan
- Any relevant experiences of proposer
CONTACT
If you have any questions, please send them to the email address below. The secretariat will reply to your inquiry.
The secretariat for Africa Open Innovation Challenge powered by JICA
E-mail: jpopeninnovation-jica@tohmatsu.co.jp
NOTE
Contract for PoC
This verification testing will be conducted based on the business consignment contract, and the proposer will be required to submit the report specified in the contract as a product of the business consignment contract.
The management of this process is carried out in the Africa Open Innovation Challenge powered by JICA Management Secretariat (hereinafter referred to as the "Secretariat"). The secretariat is operated by a joint venture of Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support Co., Ltd., which is entrusted by JICA. Thus the proposer will make a business consignment contract for the implementation of the verification testing not with JICA but with the secretariat (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu).
- The secretariat and JICA will not disclose any evaluation details or results related to the selection.
- The ownership of the materials and equipment procured by the proposer with the budget allocated by JICA shall belong to JICA, and in principle, JICA will transfer the materials and equipment to the government agencies of the project implementing country after the completion of the verification testing.
- The intellectual property rights of the prototypes produced by the proposer and other organizations related to the verification testing shall belong to the proposer even after the termination of the business consignment contract. However the proposer grants the license to JICA and the government agency of the project implementing country. (separately confirmed in writing by the proposer and JICA).
- The intellectual property rights of the report prepared by the proposer, which is the product of the business consignment contract, shall be transferred to JICA.
- In principle, JICA will disclose the submitted report to the public. If the report contains confidential contents for the proposer, the contents will be kept private. The contents of non-disclosure will be decided after discussion among the proposer, JICA, and the secretariat.
- The verification testing may suspended or canceled due to local conditions or the spread of COVID-19 infection.