<html><body><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div>Dear WACREN Colleagues,<br><br>2020 was a year in which we experienced many challenges to the African REN's growth due to the pandemic. As we develop plans to leverage the lessons learned, how ready are we to provide digital alternatives for our students and researchers?<br><br>Addressing this is the central theme of the <strong>2021 Eko-Konnect Users Conference</strong> taking place online next week from <strong>19 - 21 January.</strong><br><br>Speakers from the Nigerian Tertiary Education Fund(TETFund), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), GÉANT, and the WACREN CEO, Dr Boubakar Barry will provide insights on how we can fund the development and roll-out of these very critical services and infrastructure in a dedicated session on <strong>"Funding and policy innovation for research and education"</strong><br><br>We also invite you to participate in the session on the<strong> "The role of eduGAIN in Improving research"</strong> which will feature case studies of identity federations from Italy and South Africa. <br><br>WACREN has been promoting eduID.africa amongst our RENs in the region but most of us are yet to have functional identity federations in our countries. Come and learn how other NRENs have used identity federations and the eduGAIN interfederation to help with the challenge of identity access management and providing authentication access for our students and researchers.<br><br>Join us to contribute to these discussions. Please visit <a href="https://2021.eko-konnect.org.ng">https://2021.eko-konnect.org.ng</a> to register. <br><br>We look forward to meeting virtually with you!<br><br>Owen Iyoha<br>MD<br>Eko-Konnect<br></div><div><b style="font-weight: normal;" id="docs-internal-guid-ca9a8352-7fff-d39d-9d1a-f9e60f7a6888" data-mce-style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; overflow: hidden; width: 602px; height: 339px;" data-mce-style="border: none; display: inline-block; overflow: hidden; width: 602px; height: 339px;"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/zrAILTmhV8gthyTLii1UVDQ6N3YiwPhCs-8O9CwydrttvPIFvWbUiKFdF8kqrXRG3wCckvRgu2uJljBo_V6lpkYOIfF8oPkUCL94zVLV9emth7Z8g207MNnSOsgrLsMtX19n4Vw1" width="602" height="339" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" data-mce-src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/zrAILTmhV8gthyTLii1UVDQ6N3YiwPhCs-8O9CwydrttvPIFvWbUiKFdF8kqrXRG3wCckvRgu2uJljBo_V6lpkYOIfF8oPkUCL94zVLV9emth7Z8g207MNnSOsgrLsMtX19n4Vw1" data-mce-style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></span></span></b></div></div></body></html>