Immediately after South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011, a lot of vital radio infrastructure was left in Khartoum, including expertise. Even legacy regulatory were not shared with Juba as expected. To try and recompense for this, The Government of South Sudan (GOSS) began the process of setting up a National Communications Agency (NCA) in line with the Communications Act of 2012.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency specialised in telecommunication and information technology, provided an initial assistance package to South Sudan. This included US‑made state‑of‑the-art radio spectrum monitoring equipment, hardware, a radio planning software tool and initial accommodation for the radio spectrum management department.
Last December, Albany Associates and Internews provided an intensive training course over the period of a month. This was designed to identify the most urgent needs and to provide initial assistance and training on the equipment provided by the ITU. A large component of this was on effective use of the spectrum management software, known as SMS4DC (Spectrum Management System for Developing Countries). This is a low budget, customized tool that is standardized, developed and provided by the ITU.
The training used real life examples, including a complete simulation of the licensing process from a client’s first contact with the authority, following the process until finally issuing a license. The result was exceptionally good. Most of the staff have understood problems that are not always obvious for inexperienced engineers.
Among others, issues identified and tackled during the training included placing the agency’s function in the overall process, operating with transparency and consistency, and avoiding excessive bureaucracy. The staff expressed great interest in the training, and proposed to extend the training to radio monitoring and license compliance monitoring. Albany is currently looking at ways to conduct further training as it believes such institutions are key to developing and maturing the media environment in the world’s youngest country.
For more information about our project and activities in South Sudan, do not hesitate to contact Project Manager Anna Staevska.
