“Serving and adapting to the needs of African Research and Education users:

AfricaConnect in the COVID-19 context”

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2020 e-AGE Conference15th December 2020

Stéphanie Truillé-BaurensEuropean Commission - DG DEVCO

AfricaConnect• AfricaConnect is aimed at connecting African education

and research communities to affordable, high capacityresearch and education networks to enhance research,teaching and learning.

• Working with (from North to South…):• ASREN• WACREN• UbuntuNet Alliance

In partnership with the Pan European R&E network GEANT

• AfricaConnect3 (2019 - 2023) builds on the work carried out by the EUMEDCONNECT (2004-2015), AfricaConnect (2011-2015) and AfricaConnect2 (2015-2019)

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National Research and Education Networks in Africa

AfricaConnect (2011-2015) – E&S Africa

AfricaConnect3 (2019-2023) – pan-African

AfricaConnect2 (2015-2021) – pan-African

A Pan-African Network in the Making

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• Since AfricaConnect started in 2011, 19 out of 38 African NRENs are connected to their regional network:

• UbuntuNet Alliance: Burundi, DRC, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe

• WACREN: Ghana, Nigeria and Togo

• ASREN: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia

• All three regional networks are still growing.

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Expanding High-speed Networks: ASREN

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• 4 connected countries: • Algeria (10G/s)

• Tunisia (1G/s GRE tunnel)

• Morocco (1G/s GRE tunnel)

• Egypt (via 622Mb/s Enstinet link)

• Upcoming upgrades: • Tunisia 1Gb/s dedicated

link

• Morocco 1Gb/s dedicated link

AfricaConnect: evolving nature

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• Enhance human capital development in Africa.

• Unlock the potential of education and research through increased access of African education and research institutions to digital infrastructures and technologies.

Output 1: Access to affordable and adequate e-infrastructures is increased

Output 2: Dedicated R&E services and applications are developed

Output 3: Adequate human resource capacity and expertise is built

Output 4: Awareness on the importance of digitaltransformation in research and education is raised

Developing dedicated R&E Services

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•Proactive Cybersecurity for NRENs and their digital assets

• Trust and Identity services for seamless access

• Federated Identity Management for Libraries to build a community for Open Science

•Cloud services

• Service outreach to science communities (earth observation, astronomy…)

Building Capacities for R&E

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• Sharing NREN best practices

• Africa Training Initiative for R&E

• Network operation and management

• Cloud implementation and services

• eduroam, eduGAIN…

• Research and science Hackfest

• Women engagement and empowerment

And then…

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R&E networks during COVID-19 Pandemic

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• Lockdown and temporary closure of R&E institutions to contain the spread of the virus.

• Initially, unpreparedness for shift to online learning/collaboration :

• lack of devices, content, skills

• limited broadband connectivity

• Gradually:

• Requests to e-learning, videoconferencing, and collaborationtools exploded

• Huge demand on the national infrastructures which were not prepared -> quality of service deteriorated

• “Universal and inclusive education” undermined by unequal access

R&E networks during COVID-19 Pandemic

NRENs have worked tirelessly to support their research and educationcommunities to provide remote delivery of education and access to remoteresources

• Tunisia: in partnership with the Ministry, CCK set up a videoconferencingtool to allow faculty members to hold synchronous classroom sessions withtheir students. It also facilitated access to e-learning platforms and scientificresources and engaged with telecom operators to grant students free 4Gaccess to benefit from distance learning

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• Morocco: in partnership with the Ministry,MARWAN hosted an online learning platform withover 3000 courses accessible to primary andsecondary education students - used by over half amillion Moroccan students daily.

• Somalia rolled out its video-conferencing platformto enabled its member universities to deliver theirclasses online

• “CCK will strive to make sure that no student is left out, particularly for more disadvantaged areas, and to facilitate the continuity of education for all through remote learning”

• CCK General Director, Prof. Habib Youssef

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Any questions?

Thank you

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