Ayitic Goes Global Strengthening Technical Capabilities in Haiti

30/05/2018

Strengthening Internet infrastructure in Haiti is one of the three pillars of Ayitic Goes Global, an initiative promoted by LACNIC and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), which seeks to foster the development of the digital ecosystem in this Caribbean country. Within the framework of the Telecommunications Week in Haiti, project partners LACNIC, Transversal and Ecole Superieure d’infotronique d’Haiti (ESIH) held intensive training sessions for technical professionals in order to boost local skills and achieve greater robustness for their Internet infrastructure.

With the support of local Ayitic coordinator Max Larson, LACNIC R+D Engineer Alejandro Acosta offered IPv6 training activities for computer network managers of local ISPs, .ht ccTLD, as well as banks and tertiary education institutions and universities.

The week’s activities continued with two face-to-face working sessions led by Alejandro Acosta during which two ISPs – Access Haiti and Haiti Data Networks – received guidance for their IPv6 deployment.

Access Haiti has implemented IPv6 on its servers and networks and deployed IPv6 on its DNS equipment. It has also prepared an IPv6 addressing plan, among other technical tasks, said Acosta. Meanwhile, Haiti Data Networks has configured IPv6 and laid the groundwork for setting up an IPv6 addressing plan. “We are trying to help ISPs take the first significant steps towards IPv6 deployment,” Acosta said.

In parallel to these training activities, Ayitic officially launched its first round of online training courses within the framework of a global training initiative offered by ESIH, the first of which is being offered to 50 women and 50 technical professionals. The programs designed for persons with a technical background will address network management and Internet security, while those for women will help them develop skills in line with possible online job opportunities.

“These activities offer an unprecedent opportunity for the Haitian ICT community. Various organizations such AHTIC, ISOC Haiti, .ht ccTLD, LACNIC, Conatel, academic institutions, Women in ICT organizations and ISPs, have been able to work on various projects, discuss on collaboration opportunities and how to create synergies in the Haitian ICT sector,” noted Max Larson Henry, Project Coordinator in Haiti.

Ayitic Goes Global is an initiative of the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address Registry and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in collaboration with Transversal and Ecole Superieure d’infotronique d’Haiti (ESIH).

Between 2018 and 2019, Ayitic plans to launch three editions of the three courses and train 300 women for online employment and 150 technicians in network development and security.