UN-ESCWA in collaboration with the Central Agency for Information Technology (CAIT), the highest Kuwaiti official body responsible for information technology, held a training workshop on "Measuring ICT Indicators" in Kuwait City, Kuwait, from 29th March to 2nd April 2009. The workshop agenda was based on the “Core ICT Indicators” publication issued by the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development^[1].

The workshop, which was of sub-regional nature, provided a theoretical as well as hands-on training to participants on data collection of the core list of ICT indicators. The latter  included indicators on ICT infrastructure and access, indicators on access to and use of ICT by households and individuals, indicators on use of ICT by businesses, indicators on ICT sector and trade in ICT goods and indicators on ICT in education.

The workshop started by exploring the definitions of ICT indicators with emphasis on the core list of indicators and the methods of measurement in addition to specifying the extended list of indicators at the national level and potential sources for data collection. It also highlighted the status of ICT indicators data collection and the statistical methodologies used including the households and business surveys. It concluded by providing practical training on the different modules of the ESCWA Statistical Information System (ESIS) namely: administration, data management and dissemination of the core set of ICT indicators. It was an intensive hands-on training workshop of five days attended by 21 participants from GCC countries namely: Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait.

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