Digital Connectivity and E-resilience for Crisis Preparedness

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for the digital transformation and underscored its importance for mitigating the economic slowdown, sustaining wellbeing, and speeding up recovery. Social distancing has generated a high demand for fast and reliable connectivity to support the growing information flow. The quality of connectivity depends on the level of development of the ICT infrastructure, and COVID19 has revealed the yawning gap between under-connected and hyper-digitalized states in Asia and the Pacific, with those that are less digitally equipped being more vulnerable to the devastating effects of the pandemic. The EGM discussed the ways to enhance seamless digital connectivity in the region and for developing the monitoring framework and introduced the approach for development of an indicator dashboard on e-resilience readiness. In particular, the meeting discussed and collected the views and inputs from peers on: 1\. partnership portal for co-deployment ICT infrastructure with road transport and energy infrastructure (the link will be provided for participants of EGM upon attendance confirmation) 2\. toolkit for determining the most promising model of the new transport corridors' development 3\. overview of available ICT Indices, their Strength, Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats in relation to e-resilience of ICT infrastructure and networks and ICT for societal resilience 4\. overview of monitoring framework and e-resilience dashboard for RECI target countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia) and for SPECA countries Target audience: The virtual meeting is gathering technical experts among policymakers and, representatives from government agencies responsible for ICT, transport, energy infrastructure development, emergency situations, and for the SDGs, representatives of International Development Organizations and Academia. The peers and technical focal points from the RECI project’s pilot countries are invited to join the EGM, namely from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia, as well as from participating countries of SPECA working group on innovation and technology for sustainable development, namely from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan