The conference was organized by UNESCO, the Youth Technology Development Organization (YTDO), the Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal services with the support of UN Women, Huawei, Ericson, and Forcier Consulting.

Delegates identified the ICT gaps, discussed solutions and made recommendations on the way forward. Participants also deliberated on key aspects of the role of ICTs in development including:

• concerns over ICTs penetration in South Sudan,
• the fundamental Infrastructure,
• level of uptake of ICTs by Government ministries, institutions and parastatals in service delivery,
• lack of human and technical capacity,
• innovative ways of use of social media to promote peace and development; and
• the role of ICTs in promoting gender equality

Mr. Thomas Muto, YTDO Chairperson emphasized the importance of this conference, noting that being the first South Sudan Youth ICT for Development Conference is ground breaking for YTDO as a youth Organization for the young people, who are a backbone of this new and young nation and at the same time, it helps put a foundation stone to the nation.

A key highlight of this conference was the presentation and demonstration of skills acquired by 43 South Sudanese youth, who have been undergoing training supported by UNESCO and Zain, on mobile applications development and use of Innovative technology.

Ms Martha Chumo, Director of The Dev School (Kenya) and the trainer on mobile raised great concern over lack of equal number of women and men venturing into technology, stating that "the gender disparity in technology only becomes apparent as learners get into high school and one sure way to ensure gender equality in technology is to introduce concepts such as mobile apps development, game development and hardware hacking to children while they are young and build a learning environment that both girls and boys can excel in".

Concerns were raised over the limited use of information technology in South Sudan due to the low penetration rate of personal computers as a direct consequence of the very low level of household income, computer illiteracy and the very limited broadband infrastructure.

The participants also deliberated on the importance of use of ICTs to empower people with disabilities in South Sudan. Dr. Toyin Aderemi working with the light of the world, outlined accessible ICTs for people with disabilities and called on the government to develop & update ICT, disability & education legislation and policies to include accessibility and integration of Sign language interpretation in newly developed educational plans, including Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET). In this regard, the conference participants urged the policy makers to promote and mainstream inclusive education at all levels.

Calls to establish an Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in South Sudan and having a neutral institution to champion and facilitate the establishment of an IGF chapter in South Sudan and to also serve as a secretariat was one of the key recommendations.

UNESCO’s call for the dire need to establish a technology innovation hub for the youth was strongly recommended by presenters and participants. In this regard, UNESCO committed to spearhead and mobilize partners to support this initiative as a laboratory to incubate information and technology ideas and with a view to creation of jobs and youth self-employment.

Other recommendations emanating from this conference included the need for gender mainstreaming in the ICT sector, establishment of a fund to support research in innovation technology, support to exchange programmes in technology, establishment of ICT training centers for the youth in all the states and Innovation exhibition forums were also highly recommended as important elements for that will improve the citizens livelihood and development of the country.

This ICT conference also comes at a time when South Sudan’s new fibre optic cable is expected to not only open up regional connectivity, but also ensure faster and cheaper internet access in the country. It also coincided with the Mobile Learning Week held in Paris and with the launch in South Sudan of the One Network Area that covers Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan, treating all calls inside the region as local and making all these Countries connected with uniform Telecommunications service, which significantly makes the use of mobile telephony across the boarders cheaper.