Session Description:  Updates on UNESCO’s Global Open Science Partnership with international examples of national frameworks and lightning talks from African countries implementing pilots to transition to Open Science.

Objective: Share experiences and launch LIBSENSE national open science policy roadmaps 

Participants:

• Dr. Peggy Efua Oti-Boateng – Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building in the Natural Sciences Sector – UNESCO
• Prof Kazu Yamaji – National Institute of Informatics, Japan
• Ognjen Prjnat – GRNET and NI4OS -Europe
• Pamela Abbott – University of Sheffield – LIBSENSE update

Contributors [Lightning Talks]:

• Cecile Coulibaly  – Côte d’Ivoire
• Owen Iyoha  – Nigeria
• Magreth Mushi – Tanzania
• David Bukenya – Uganda
• Horacio Zimba – Mozambique
• Margareth Gfrerer  – Lessons Learned in Ethiopia

Moderator: 

Sarah Jones, GEANT

Session Description:

Moving beyond the initial crisis response to COVID, what were the lessons learned and how do we get beyond sharing best practice and case studies to a co-created, sustainable, innovative new horizon for learning and teaching?

 Panellists will share their countries’ experiences and lessons learned in the initial crisis response to COVID.  They will discuss the challenges of moving to digital teaching and learning and what it means for infrastructure, platforms for acquiring digital skills, and collaboration – nationally, regionally and globally.

Panellists:

• Prof Tiemoman KONE – UVCI 
• Prof. Claude Lishou – UCAD/CAMES
• Victor A. Sesay – Ministry of Technical and Higher Education, Sierra Leone
• Prof Goski Alabi – ACDE, Ghana

Moderator: Esther Wilkinson, JISC – UK

Session Description: Responding to the COVID crisis:  Perspectives from African Centres of Excellence, University and International Research Institute from the WACREN region.

Participants:

• Prof. Christian Happi – Director,  African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID)
• Lucas Chigabatia – Chief Technology Officer, University of Ghana
• Prof. Mamadou WELE – USTTB (ACE in Bio-informatics (ACE-B))
• Prof El-Hadji Bamba DIAW – 2iE Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Moderator:  Prof. Ousmane Moussa TESSA (CEO, Niger-REN)

Session Description: New and emerging technologies such as IoT, Cloud Computing, AI, Robotics, Blockchain, AR/VR, etc., are shaping our societies across all disciplines.  The concept of education is also changing globally to meet the skill set required for these technologies and the new era.  Is it possible for NRENs and their communities to position themselves as leaders of influence in these changing dynamics and increase their capacity to provide meaningful contributions as key players within the entrepreneurship ecosystem? 

Speakers with broad experience in education, entrepreneurship and REN administration will share insights on how NRENs and their university communities might exploit the disruption in the education sector that has taken centre stage with the COVID crisis.

Panellists:

• Erik-Jan Bos – Policy & Strategy Officer, NORDUnet
• Paschal Anosike – Centre for African Entrepreneurship and Leadership (CAEL)
• Dr. Tshiamo Motshegwa – CEO, BotsREN

Moderator:  Prof. Simon Taylor, Brunel University

Session Description: Leaders of pan-African scientific and university membership organisations will discuss ethical considerations and information assurance requirements for a sustainable digital future that is secure, reflects African diversity and is equitable.

Participants:

• Prof. Etienne Ehouan EHILE – AAU
• Prof. Catherine Ngila – AAS
• Prof Bertrand Mbatchi – CAMES
• Prof. Abiba Sanogo – CRUFAOCI

Moderator: Moctar Yedaly

Session Description: 
A meeting of cybersecurity stakeholders to discuss trust-building and cooperation amongst CSIRTs in Africa and an introduction of the TrustBroker Africa Service

Objective:  To improve the pragmatic cooperation of CSIRTs in NRENs and other organisations in Africa

• Participants:
  Jean-Robert Hountomey – AfricaCERT
• Ouanilo Medegan – ANSSI-BENIN
• Jacques Houngbo – OCWAR-C
• Nick Small –  Cyber4Dev
• Lourino Chemane – MoRENet

Moderators:  Omo Oaiya, WACREN & Don Stikvoort, OCF

Session Description: A panel discussion on Network Performance, measurements tools and initiatives with experts’ presentations on the areas below, followed by group discussions and experience sharing.

• PerfSONAR deployments and roadmap update for 2021 
• The NEA3R Collaboration: Expanding Support for Global Science
• The Internet Resilience Framework (metrics to measure Internet Resilience) – MIRA

For his PerfSONAR presentation, Antoine Delvaux  will first show the current and future perfSONAR deployments and performance measurements on the WACREN network and in the NEAAR project area. He  will demonstrate the value they bring to the operation of the networks. We will also present the latest perfSONAR software features and its development roadmap going forward, including a preview of the two new GUI tools mentioned above.

During his presentation on the NEA3R collaboration, Edward Moynihan will begin by providing an overview of the NEA3R project, highlighting changes and improvements to the NEAAR infrastructure. The talk will then focus on the services being provided, specifically on how the NEA3R project is using NetSage to better understand network usage and data transfer performance of international circuits. He will close the talk by highlighting practical science engagement use cases centered on US/West Africa science collaborations and show how network engineers, researchers, network planners, and CIOs can use NetSage to understand network usage and data transfer performance.

AFRINIC and ISOC will present the MIRA (Measuring Internet Resilience in Africa) project. The first part of the talk will present an Internet Resilience framework which will be used to evaluate the ability of a network (and by aggregate a country) to provide stable and reliable means of connectivity to the Internet. As such we will present the metrics and the methodology adopted to calculate an Internet Resilience Index. In the second part of the talk, we will present some preliminary analysis of throughput in countries where the MIRA pods (measurement devices) where deployed.

Objective: Highlight the importance of network performance on the Internet in general and on RENs in particular, present various measurement initiatives and engage partners in enhancing collaboration on Network Performance and measurements in the WACREN service Region.

Participants:

• Antoine Delvaux PSNC
• Edward Moynihan NEAAR
• Amreesh Phokeer AFRINIC
• Kevin Chege ISOC

Moderator:  Alain Aina, WACREN