Assignment Background

In accordance with the Programme Document, Sub-Result 2.2 seeks to develop and or strengthen gender responsive and rights- based policies and regulatory frameworks for licensing and universal access. In this regard, six related activities are envisaged:

• Activity 2.2.1: Develop or review policies and regulations that support licensing related to Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) and downstream service providers.
• Activity 2.2.2: Develop policies and regulations to promote open competitive market entry on a non-discriminatory basis, including unified licenses, licenses to new alternative operators, and reasonable licensing fees.
• Activity 2.2.3: Carry out a study on existing national and regional policy and regulation on authorization and universal access and compare with best international practices and identify needs and gaps.
• Activity 2.2.4: Develop or strengthen policy and regulation incentive mechanisms that promote and encourage access to and use of ICT by disadvantaged groups such as women, people with disabilities (PWDs) and youth.
• Activity 2.2.5: Develop or incorporate e-waste management regulations in the authorization regime.
• Activity 2.2.6: Support country level reforms to domesticate the developed regional policies and regulations.

The Terms of Reference (ToR) apply to the assignment for Activities 2.2.1, 2.2.2 and 2.2.5. It is worth noting that all three activities concern the development of policies and regulations for authorization and licensing. The output of Activity 2.2.1 should be an authorization and licensing framework for MVNOs and downstream providers while that of Activity 2.2.2 should be a licensing framework that, among other things, promotes an open and competitive market entry and the licensing of alternative (i.e., non-incumbent) providers. On its part, Activity 2.2.5 seeks to realize an authorization regime that incorporates provisions for e-waste management, or generally green ICT. In view of the foregoing, and to facilitate coherency in the substance of the three outputs, it is advisable to merge the three activities into one activity whose output is a single, comprehensive, and coherent policy and regulatory framework for authorization and licensing.

Activity 2.2.3 is a study and precedes all activities in the series; its scope encompasses baseline assessments and analyses necessary for undertaking activities in the series.

Activity 2.2.6 refers to national transposition of the outputs (i.e., regional frameworks) realized from the preceding activities, and will therefore, be undertaken through a subsequent assignment.