Local capacity building is a priority area for the ETC heading into 2019 as the situation in Yemen becomes more complex.  In a country struggling with conflict, sharp economic decline, cholera and famine, the need to bolster local IT capacity among humanitarians is critical.

Thirty-three participants from 22 organisations (10 UN, 12 NGO) gathered in Sana’a this week for the ETC’s second inter-agency capacity building exercise.

As Wali Noor, ETC Coordinator, explains: “Participants, as local staff, will be able to support the provision of lifesaving IT service in areas which are inaccessible to us as international staff. Also, our dependencies on local markets and expertise which is very limited will be reduced. They will be more self-sufficient.”

The six-day training covered soft management skills including training of trainers (ToT), information management (IM) and information technology emergency management training (ITEMT) as well as four days of intensive technical training: radio, very small aperture terminal (VSAT) and networking.