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author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the

CTBTO

T4.1-P16 Overall effect of Capacity Building Project on NDC Data and Product access Remmy Lemekani Phiri, Mario Villagran-Herrera, Martin Kalinowski, Dale Roblin, Misrak Fisseha, Marlene Kabore,

Lucrezia Terzi, Lamine Seydi, Jennifer Phoa-Sun (Preparatory Commission for the comprehensive nuclear-test ban

treaty organization, Vienna International Center, P.O. Box 1200, 1400)Vienna, Austria) Remmy.Phiri@CTBTO.ORG

Introduction

The objectives of the Capacity building programmes is to improve CTBT verification capabilities in a sustainable manner. This is done by

integrating States Signatories to fully participate in and contribute to the implementation of the CTBT Verification System through:

1. Enabling them to participate in, and to contribute to, the implementation of the CTBT verification regime; and

2. Enhancing their use of Preparatory Technical Secretariat (PTS) data and products, including for civil and scientific applications.

A Secure Signatory Account (SSA) is established for each State Signatory to access International Monitoring System (IMS) data and

International Data Centre (IDC) products. Through this account, a State Signatory designates a National Data Centre (NDC) and users to have

access through the four access methods, which include requests via email, subscriptions, IDC secure web service and IDC external database

service.

As can be seen in Fig. 1, the programme faced various challenges, chief being:

I. To increase the number of SSAs among the remaining 70 States Signatories and any new states

II. To increase the number of users in the 97 SSAs

III. To increase the number of active NDCs

Abstract

The Capacity Building Project aims at integrating States signatories to fully participate in and contribute to the implementation of the CTBTO

monitoring and verification system. The PTS using its own funding, together with the EU (through EU Joint Actions III and IV, EU council

Decision V) aimed to facilitate and strengthen States Signatories' participation in the CTBT verification regime through enhanced access to IMS

data and IDC products. These data and products may also be used for civil and scientific applications.

The PTS has provided support in form of Training/Workshops for NDC technical staff, PTS experts-in-the-field visits at NDCs and donation of

NDC basic equipment. The targeted regions are, Africa, MESA, EE and SEAPFE.

It has been shown that over the past years between 2008 - 2014 there has been a 7-fold increase in data access in Africa and LAC, a four-fold

increase in both EE and SEAPFE. There is a direct correlation between the start of the project in individual countries with their increase in data

access activities.

There are still challenges of having qualified staff retention at NDCs as well as maintenance of Capacity Building Systems installation installed

at selected NDCs. Follow-on capacity building projects in the near future are designed to address some of those challenges.

The following actions were identified to meet these challenges:

A. Questionnaires and country profiles to identify the needs and potential of each State Signatory

B. Create tailored technical support packages responding to the needs and interests of States Signatories

C. Give high priority for technical support to states that do not have access to the services

D. Encourage expert visits to the PTS by targeted NDC experts

E. Where possible, visit the targeted NDCs to offer technical assistance such as training on location for reasonable time and expenditure

F. Use NDC Development Workshops to increase participation of existing NDCs and help establish more NDCs

Observations

By the end of 2014, the number of State Signatory Accounts (SSA) had increased by 37 from 97 (in 2008) to 134 - a vital reflection in the

number of NDCs accessing data and products. This great improvement is reflected by the fact that during the same period there were only 6

more countries that signed the Treaty, meaning more 'inactive' States Signatories where reached by this programme. The number of authorized

users more than doubled from slightly over 700 to 1634. See Fig. 1, right insert table.

Even though the Pacific and the Far East (SEAPFE) region has consistently been active (Fig. 4) there has been tremendous efforts by the rest of

regions to do likewise. This is clearly so in Fig. 4 (note that countries that are not targeted by the programme are excluded from SEAPFE and

Eastern Europe (EE) regions’ statistics). These excluded countries have comparable participation in verification-related activities as those from

the NAWE region. The pie charts inserted in the figure also show that these efforts have seen more training being conducted for staff from the

regions of interest. The regions have also been recipients of more CBS equipment (Fig. 5) compared to others. These efforts clearly show a rise

in data volumes being received in Africa (from 2009 on wards) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) later in 2011. Support for the rest of

the targeted regions has intensified in the last two years.

However, as can be seen from Fig. 4 and 6, there is still a challenge to maintain this level of activity in the targeted regions. As stated in the

2014 National Data Centre (NDC) Workshop report (CTBTO, 2015), emerging NDCs are facing problems related to human resources, access to

technology and acquisition and maintenance of equipment. Some NDC representatives reported on problems revolving around obtaining stable

Internet connections.

On individual States Signatory level, there has been a direct correlation between the beginning of implementation and roll out of the project,

especially in Africa and LAC. Fig. 6 shows how individual NDCs were positively affected by the start of the programme in their countries,

showing earlier periods for Africa and later for LAC. Even the few individual countries that were included in the earlier phase of the programme

from EE, MESA and SEAPFA regions, show this phenomenon (See more information about these corresponding periods of EU Capacity

Building programme phases in the insert table at the top left of Fig. 1). On the other hand, there is less activity with the countries that are yet to

be targeted as seen on the right-hand side of Fig. 6.

E-Learning was used as a tool to help implement the Capacity Building Strategy since it was as a pre-requisite for all training courses and

workshops. This freed up more classroom time which was then devoted to hands-on and practical training. In total there are 45 E-Learning

modules that have been developed during this period. Eighteen of these have been translated into the 5 other UN official languages.

Efforts are continuing in extending the NDC-in-a-Box software distributed to NDCs. This software is well suited to the needs of NDCs in terms

of automatic reception and processing of data, array processing, automatic bulletin production and interactive data review. See components

shown in Fig. 2.

Conclusion

Efforts to integrate States Signatories into full participation and contribution to the implementation of the CTBTO monitoring and verification

system have yielded encouraging results. This has resulted in more than doubling the number of users who access PTS data and products,

especially from Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean regions, the areas initially targeted in this programme. These regions have also

experienced a seven-fold increase in receiving data from the PTS.

In addition to the primary verification purpose of the CTBT monitoring and verification system, the technologies and the data of the IMS are of

considerable use to scientific institutions, civilian and government agencies.

Maintaining this level of activities in the target regions will be a challenge. However, the experience so far gained by the PTS will be valuable in

addressing these challenges to sustain the efforts.

Reference

Remmy Phiri, Misrak Fisseha, Dale Roblin, Mario Villagran, Lucrezia Terzi, Jun Hee Lee, Martin Kalinowski, Lamine Seydi, Belkacem

Djermouni, John Coyne and Lassina Zerbo, CTBT Science and Technology 2013 Conference, T2-P10. Building Capacity to enhance use of data

and products by States Parties.

CTBTO, “Report on the 2014 National Data Centre Workshop”, 13 March 2015, CTBTO Information Paper.

Acknowledgement

Funding support under EU Council Decisions III, IV and V from 2008 – 2015

Fig 2

The PTS has been running this programme from 2008 with voluntary contributions from the EU, US, Monaco and others (Phiri et al., 2013)

Key outputs for this programme are:

1. Increase in States Signatories opening SSAs

2. Increase in access to data and products

3. Number of NDC staff trained and participated in NDC Development Workshops