Ghana would from July 4 – 8, 2011 host two major International Telecommunications Union (ITU) events. The first would be the ITU Seminar for the African Region on Conformance and interoperability Testing slated for July 4 – 6, followed by the ITU Symposium on how ICT can contribute to combating Climate Change and its consequences from July 7 – 8, 2011. A statement on the ITU website said conformance and interoperability testing was necessary to ensure that ICT equipment like PCs, laptops and mobile phones being imported to Africa met global industry standards and specific standards in the African environment. It said conformance testing measures how accurately a product on its own meets technical specification on one network, whiles interoperability testing checks how the products working with other equipment on other networks meets technical specification and accepted standards defined by the industry. Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Communication, Mr. Issah Yahaya told senior journalists several product may have arrived on the shores of Africa “without necessarily being suitable for our environment but because we do not do proper conformance and interoperability testing we allow them to get on our markets and they go out of use in no time.” He noted that some ICT manufacturers and dealers abroad may be taking advantage of the loopholes in the implementation of standards in Africa to dump obsolete equipment such as used computers, electronic appliance and even new but inferior electrical and ICT products on Africa. Mr. Yahaya said the seminar would throw light on the critical issues and bring out recommendation that would help African countries to strengthen their respective conformance and interoperability testing centres to ensure strict adherence to ICT standards. The ITU said for service providers, conformance and interoperability testing was necessary to reduce errors on their networks which could impact commercial deployment and save them from losing market share as a result of customers experiencing the impact of poorly tested services and products. The seminar would be attended by policy and decision makers, industry regulators, ICT experts, service providers and representatives of multilateral organization from Africa and around the world. The ICT and Climate Change symposium would be the sixth in the series after similar forums in Cairo, Seoul, Quito, London, and Kyoto. Another statement on the ITU website noted climate change, which was largely caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, was a concern for all of humanity, saying since 1970, the production of GHG had risen by more than 70 per cent causing changing weather patterns. “It is expected that the global effects of climate change, including deforestation could increase the likelihood of floods and droughts caused by severe atmospheric and oceanic disturbances, affecting not only ecosystems but also human habitat,” it said. The statement said countries were required to take the necessary steps related to transfer of technology, funding, farming, insurance, deforestation, adaptation, mitigation, developing of new policies, monitoring among other things. It said ICTs could contribute to combat climate change and its consequences by playing an important role in environmental protection. “Besides working to reduce its own emissions, which are estimated to be around 2 to 2.5 per cent of the total of GHG emissions, ICTs can help indirectly to reduce GHG emissions from other sectors, as well as in climate monitoring, farming, helping to avoid further deforestation and setting up the necessary communications networks in the major emergencies and disasters around the world,” the statement said. The Symposium would also bring together key specialists in the field, from top decision-makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts and others. They would discuss topics such as the adaptation and mitigation of the effects of climate change in the ICT sector and in other sectors, ‘green’ ICT policy frameworks, and the use of ICTs in climate change science and in emergency situations. “The Symposium will be transmitted via the Internet in order that remote participants can see and hear presentations from wherever they are in the world,” the statement said. Story by: Samuel Nii Narku Dowuona/Adom News/Ghana