Mission
APCICT was inaugurated on 16 June 2006 as a subsidiary body of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and is located in Incheon, Republic of Korea.
The Centre’s mission is to strengthen the efforts of the member countries of ESCAP to use ICT in their socio-economic development through human and institutional capacity building. To meet this objective, APCICT’s work is focused on three inter-related pillars – Training, Research and Advisory Services. Together they form an integrated approach to ICT human capacity building.
Disaster Reduction Goal
In pursuance of its mandate, the Centre has two flagship programmes: the Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders (Academy) and Turning Today’s Youth into Tomorrow’s Leaders. The Academy aims to build the knowledge and skills of policymakers and government officials in Asia and the Pacific to leverage ICTs for achieving national development goals. It currently comprises of 11 training modules covering basic to more advanced concepts in ICTD.
The second flagship programme aims to build a cadre of future leaders equipped with knowledge and skills to use ICT for achieving national development goals. It targets students and youth - who comprise the policymakers and decision-makers of tomorrow. Under this programme, the Centre developed a core curriculum called the “Primer Series on ICTD for Youth”, which are learning resources that can be integrated in undergraduate and graduate programmes of universities in the region, thereby expanding the coverage of ICT for development in institutions of higher learning.
Recognizing that the Asia-Pacific is the most disaster prone region in the world, APCICT produced under its two flagship programmes training content focusing on the use of ICT for disaster risk management. In particular, the Centre developed Academy Module 9 on “ICT for Disaster Risk Management” and Primer Series 3 also on the same topic. These two resources continue to be rolled out by APCICT and its partners in national capacity building efforts for government officials and policymakers as well as students/youth.
