Radio Miraya
2669: Miraya Breakfast Show: Town-hall: Connecting South Sudan
Now an annual town hall meeting connecting South Sudan initiated by the National Communication Authority and co-sponsored by the telecom sector is taking place here in Juba. The town hall aims to bridge the gap between stakeholders and consumers. Now the platform is safe to serve as a center for transparency and accountability within the telecom sector. Let's hear more about this and we are glad to have with us here in the studio Dr. Labanya Maghret who is the director for corporate affairs in the National Communication Authority. Dr. Labanya, good morning and it's good to have you on the Miraya breakfast show. Great morning. Well thank you so much for joining us and this town hall meeting is now of course on sessions is taking place in Juba. Could you briefly just tell us about the full annual town hall meeting. What is it all about? Thank you very much. Thank you glisten. As you had already mentioned it's about bridging the gap between the stakeholders, the government and also the M&Os and the consumers themselves. But unlike the previous one, this town hall is also a review of what the National Communication Authority has been doing in the past year. The National Communication Authority is now on board to showcase and also to prove to the consumers themselves what they have been doing and the way forward and then we will get recommendations afterwards. But above all this town hall is different in a way that is also bringing in the young people, the innovators to incubate their ideas and also to give them avenue of how they can reason and bring out what is inside their heads as well as strongly advocating for girls in STEM and also girls in digital avenues and above all in connectivity. That's what we are looking at during this town hall. Great. Now as you did mention one of the most important thing that you're doing as well in this town hall is to review what the National Communication Authority has been doing. The citizens could love to know that. Briefly tell us what has the National Communication Authority been doing? One of them is capacity building and that can be seen in this town hall, how capacity building is taking place. You see the young ones, the innovators, you get it? To rule their various avenues like the Googas and the build providing mentorship as one of them. Number two, the National has been working on connecting the rural areas. Honestly, without connectivity our people are completely cut off. Can you imagine living in this century, knowing so well, you can not use your mobile phone or climbing on a tree and they've been embarking on that. I think of recent you've heard what National Communication has been doing in that arena. But above also reforming the institution, making it a corporate ability to be able to become parable to the other bodies in the same area of business. That's what they've been doing and we're really grateful to the Director General for spearheading that. He is so passionate about capacity of the young people and looking more on the girls. Everybody's talking about the Gauthierl Gauthierl and that is what National Communication is focusing on, you know, igniting interest in these young people, you know, for them to feel like, "Yes, we have this arena. We need to play in it. We need also to bring in our their ideas." And they have that. Yes, that's what Maribor Paul to prove to the community, the population, that transparency and accountability, you know, we need to account for what we have been promising to our population. We might be a little slow, but we are on track. Great. Talking about that, a little slow, but on track. I like hearing that. But that's, of course, because you did mention we came a long way. We came a very, very long way from climbing trees looking for an an hill so we can get a connection. And one of the biggest challenges right now in South Sudan is the internet connection, of course, and which is affecting many, many areas. And of course its affordability is another big concern. Now in this town hall meeting, how is this being addressed, basically, and what plans do the National Communication Authority have in addressing one of accessibility first of all and the affordability of services? And that's why you hear the jingles coming from the NCA for the town hall says, bridging the gap between the stakeholders, the policy makers and the consumers. The consumers are saying, "We need network." And the government to do NCA saying, "Please, shareholders, stakeholders, could you do it? Could you create here?" And that's what they are now doing. And I would like to repeat it that a recent NCA has launched some new sites which had already been finalized. One was in Atukwil, which I attended was such a beautiful, beautiful moment. To have a population having a network, finally, no window. Atukwil is in Gogriela. I think Gogriela was. That's where we came from recently. And there's also been launching others. So he's on track and he's PR heading the work very well. But above all, in consultation with the MNOs, you need to have a conversation with them. They also need, because this is business, they also need to know that really there is need here. You don't need to concentrate with services in one place. So rural connectivity is the way to go this time. Great. Now, of course, this is the fourth annual meeting. It has happened three more times before this one here. Looking back, what are some of the changes and the success stories of previous years that you can point taking from it to, of course, after this year and even making it better? Yeah. I would say that I was not there before that. But looking at the documentation and the reports that NCA has produced, but also looking through the work that NCA has been doing, it means that the previous one had the recommendations in terms of increasing accessibility, which I believe is now moving on, but also in the previous one was describing more over discussions and seeing how to bring everybody on board. Also, you know, your game role in it. But this time round, we are also looking at how NCA has managed to fuel that relationship in order to ensure that the stakeholders and the policymakers have the same ideas gearing towards the same objective. And the objective is about digitalization, connectivity, accessibility, you get it? And all these comes in form of building capacity. Do you know that when you connect to people, you also improve their capacity, you bring businesses closer to them, you allow them to naturally create ideas by using the connection to increase their livelihood. And that is what I believe NCA picked up from the previous town halls and are now gearing towards the future. Great. Dr. Lavana, just take us briefly to now this town hall meeting inside the rooms. What are some of the standout topics and conversations and messages that you like to share with my listeners? Yeah. Listening to all the conversations you studied on the first day, it was around capacity. It was around South Sudan standing out in innovation. And you should have been there to see the young people showcasing ideas very young. Honestly, the population is young. And this is very good for a country like South Sudan coming from so many conflicts. You have these young people, they have these ideas. And they are creating them, incubating them into very tangible, you know, and realistic things. And that is what came up. And also, the second thing that came out was on capacitating the Gauss. I'm sorry to repeat Gauss all the time. It doesn't mean we are not including the boys. No. In fact, most of the presenters of innovation, we have boys yesterday. But also, it is an avenue to give room to the Gauss to grow. So that came out very clearly. And the other thing that came out yesterday was support to these young people, to be able to move towards competing in other arenas. Because we are not in a vacuum. We live in a community, you know, the global community would also like to see ideas coming from a country like South Sudan. Great. And as you mentioned, young people, many of them are casting innovations and ideas. First, what really is the biggest challenge these young people are facing when bringing these particular innovations and their ideas to reality? And how will this kind of a town hall meeting with the support from the National Communication Authority help these particular ideas coming to reality? Remember, some of them just finalized school. Maybe they were looking for jobs and they couldn't get the jobs. They decided to start creating ideas. But let me start with a good part of it before the challenge is the mentorship they'll be receiving from the other avenue and bodies that give them, allow them to create those ideas. But other challenge, imagine you're out of school. And you're looking for a job. It's very difficult to get a job. Yet you have your ideas. Putting that idea down needs money. So the second challenge they're facing is monetary support. Funds are missing in their support. The other one, we have not gone deep, but if you see it, they also need emotional support. So they need people to gather around them. They need a pinion. They need somewhere where they can have to go under and be able to be supported. So we realized that the biggest challenge was really money. The idea is wonderful, but the money to move that idea to the next level is now the bridge that is missing. And that's the bridge that they are requesting for. All right. And will they get that bridge? Nobody can tell the future, but it's good for you to speak out, you know? Naturally, we say, I mean, from the support that the National Communication Authority is providing them, and also from this town hall meeting, will they be able to get this bridge? We hope for the best. That's what I will say. All right. Just fair enough. Now let's talk about some of the ideas. You did mention they came with quite a lot of ideas. What are these ideas? No. If I touch on these ones now, I will be destroying the evaluation that is taking place, because they have to be evaluated and be given the same kind of marks in an open and transparent amendment. Remember, we talked about transparency and accountability. So let the evaluation take place and later on, it will be published. Again, fair enough. All right. Let's look now at your expectations and what you expect to achieve after this particular meeting, after this fall, a town hall meeting. What are the expectations of this meeting? There's no better expectation than good recommendations, but there's also no better expectation than negative recommendation by the given in the right for it. This is the right forum for read. So we are expecting to, the good one saying, "Oh, you've done very well here," and the other one saying, "No, you need to improve." So that's what is our expectation. The negative one will help us to run faster and work harder to make it better in the next town hall. What are the conversations today as the meeting started yesterday? Today, what will be the discussion be all about? The discussion more, you see, the way they did this, like the organizers, they followed through. They had the blogs, but today it's about media. Media plays a very vital role in everything we do. So it will be discussing media and there are various avenues. You get it? And that is the conversation. Today, we have many more people who will be joining to listen to how media makes our lives better. All right, Dr. Alavanya, thank you so much for coming to Mirai Studios. That's the time we have. What will be your final remarks and message that you'd like to send? My final remarks and message is one. We have a very, you know, with this population of young people, we really need to encourage them to fight harder and also to, you know, to be given avenues and room to incubate their ideas. But also we expect more people to be there and also to come and, you know, get some of the good innovative ideas being shared and conversations around digitalization, innovation, incubation, transparency and accountability. I really wish you all well during this fourth session of the Connecting South City. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming to Mirai Studios. We do appreciate your time and we wish you all the best. Shukran. Shukran. You're listening to the Mirai Breakfast Show and that's Dr. Alavanya Margaret, Director for Corporate Affairs in the National Communication