International Standards: A Commitment to Inclusivity

WSIS High-Level Dialogue Stresses Inclusivity and Collaboration in International Standards Development

At the WSIS High-Level Dialogue on International Standards, Charlyne Restivo welcomed attendees and introduced the session’s focus on the critical role of international standards in fostering innovation, addressing global sustainability challenges, and ensuring inclusivity. Philippe Metzger, representing the IEC, emphasised the necessity of coordination between the three organisations in managing the complexity of systems amid rapid technological change. He discussed the importance of inclusivity within the organisations and the coordination of standards development work to avoid duplication and ensure interoperability.

Sergio Mujica from ISO provided a tangible example of successful collaboration with the development of a video compression standard that has won an Emmy Award. He underscored the importance of co-creating standards and ensuring complementary solutions. Mujica also spoke about ISO’s commitment to supporting the climate change agenda by identifying impactful standards, reviewing their portfolio to be climate responsive, and engaging in strategic partnerships.

Seizo Onoe of the ITU highlighted the critical role of inclusivity in standardisation, mentioning ITU’s efforts to bridge the standardisation gap through training and financial support for developing countries. He stressed the importance of efficient processes to allow participation from all stakeholders and the role of voluntary standards in supporting public-private collaboration.

The session also touched upon the challenges of standardising rapidly developing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). The panellists discussed the importance of involving key industry players in the process and the efforts to keep up with the speed of technological development. An audience member inquired about the pace of AI standardisation and the involvement of leading companies in the development of these standards. The panellists responded by highlighting the multi-stakeholder approach to AI standardisation, involving experts from various countries and industries, and the collaboration with other organisations.

The moderator concluded the session by encouraging continued discussion on AI standards in the upcoming sessions at the WSIS, highlighting the importance of collaboration and inclusivity in addressing the global challenges of technology and sustainability through international standards.

Charlyne Restivo:
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, good afternoon, and welcome to this WSIS High-Level Dialogue on International Standards, a Commitment to Inclusivity. My name is Charlene Restiveau and I’m with the ITU and I am honored to be your moderator today for this session. I would like to take a moment to recognize the participants in the room and also those following the discussions online. Please bear in mind that you will have an opportunity to engage with our distinguished panelists towards the end of the session. So we have a very exciting and insightful discussions planned out for you with the executive heads of the International Electrotechnical Commission, the IEC, the International Organization for Standardization, ISO, and the ITU, the International Telecommunication Union. Together, the three world-leading standards-developing organizations sit under the banner of the World Standards Cooperation. So the WSC is a high-level collaboration between IEC, ISO, and ITU, which aims to promote the benefits of international standards for everyone, everywhere, and also in advancing the SDGs. So let me take a moment to provide an overview of the key objectives of this session. So as our world becomes increasingly interconnected and technology-driven, international standards are more critical than ever. They ensure seamless interoperability, compatibility, quality, efficiency, safety across many sectors and industries, providing a solid foundation for technological advancement. So today, our goal is to explore how international standards drive innovation, address global sustainability challenges, and also offer an inclusive approach by ensuring that all voices are heard. And this is also very much in line with the diversity of our WSIS audience here today, representing a wide spectrum of perspectives and interests. So ladies and gentlemen, get ready to explore the power of collaboration in shaping international standards and the key role of the World Standards Cooperation driving these efforts in the commitment to inclusivity. So a quick word about the session structure. So we’ll first start by setting the scene with one question per panelist. Then we’ll dive into a round of questions, part of our panel discussion. Then we’ll go into a Q&A and we’ll wrap things up by 5 p.m. So with that, I am delighted to introduce our distinguished panelists. Over to my very far left, Mr. Philippe Metzger, who is the CEO and Secretary General of IEC. Then over to my left, just here, Mr. Sergio Morica, who is the Secretary General of ISO. And over to my right, Mr. Cesar Onoé, who is the Director of the Telecommunications Standardization Bureau at ITO. All right. So let us start by providing a bit of background to this session. And I will first ask our distinguished panelists to keep to three minutes for answer, please. And I would like to ask Mr. Philippe Metzger, how are IEC, ISO and ITU coordinating their standards development work? Over to you.

Philippe Metzger:
Thank you very much, Charlene, and good day, everyone, here in the room and online. It’s a pleasure to be here together with my fellow colleagues from ISO and ITU. Well, maybe, first of all, three minutes is a really steep order. So we’ll have to focus on the really big picture. But I think nonetheless, what I wanted to say at the outset, I think we have to acknowledge the enormous pace of evolving technological change. I think that definitely shapes our work and it shapes how we are collaborating increasingly. I mean, the title of this panel is a commitment to inclusivity. And I think at the moment, maybe I’ll just focus on what you can call even internal inclusivity, meaning between our three organizations, because there is definitely a lot of inclusivity also towards other organizations. But I think what we are faced with, all of us in our standards work, is providing technical solutions for increasingly complex systems. I think that goes with the rapid technology evolution or even revolution that we’re experiencing. And nonetheless, of course, we need to leverage the tools and instruments that we have and that we can certainly enhance and also make more purposeful and I would say more efficient. The first level is really the core technical level. We have something called the Standardization Program Coordination Group, SPCG, where we are looking at our portfolio of standards that we all do, our three respective organizations, and where we want to make sure that what we produce, all of us, is interoperable, that we certainly avoid conflicting requirements, and that we also reduce confusion or even duplication, I would say, in the work that we are doing. I think all of our three organizations, ITU, ISO, IEC, have unique strengths and also, I think, unique or specific interests. And we offer, in many ways also, solutions that are close to our setup as organizations, to our stakeholder groups. But certainly, what we want to do is bridging as many gaps as possible in what we do on a day-to-day basis. So we really also look beyond what we just have on our own agenda. We look jointly together at what the three organizations are doing. We have a permanent dialogue for that. We share information. We would like to leverage synergies, and I think we’ll hear maybe a few examples of how that actually works in practice. And if you look at areas where we do that, I think it’s really areas of eminent relevance, of eminent forward and future-looking areas such as AI, big data, e-health, biometrics, IoT, cloud computing, etc., etc. So we are really in the eye of the storm here of our digital transformation, and the coordination that we do also spans to new areas of work. I mean, there are new work proposals to make sure we can coordinate that work as much as possible. We also are keen on identifying maybe new areas of interest that may come up on our work programs in the future. And what we use as tools is also sort of landscaping documents, landscaping tools that we have developed between the three of us. So I think we have a very strongly rooted technical base in collaborating, in coordinating, and being stronger together in the future, and especially in a digital environment. Above that, if I may call it above, because I don’t want to judge the relevance or the importance of all that work, is what we call the World Standards Corporation, WSC. And that is a channel, a cooperation platform that has been long-standing as well between the three of us, to promote what we do also at the international level. And I think over the past years, in addition to just representing what we do in terms of standardization, in terms of conformity assessment, we are clearly establishing our collaboration also in much more recent areas such as sustainability and climate change, such as smart cities. We have, I think, since last year at the latest within the COP process, a very, I think, a very close collaboration that not least was shaped by the ITU, by the ITU’s Green Digital Action Track, and we want to take that further into COP29 and beyond. We would like to leverage that also for a carbon-free world, for the zero emissions, where many of our standards and conformity assessment solutions can play an important role. So we’re definitely looking forward to strengthening that further in Baku as well this year, in November of 24. But beyond that, we’re also aligning whenever we can on strategic positioning. If I recall something that you may remember, a letter, an open letter that was published by the Future of Life Institute last year regarding safe and responsible AI developments. I think it was a very topical moment also for us to intervene and to recall publicly what we stand for, what we can offer for also a safe, trustworthy use of AI solutions in the future through our standards. And of course, that leads directly to a sort of maybe an additional final observation, because my time is up, and that is the aspect of human rights. We’re also engaging with very eminent leading organizations and indeed their leadership. We have, for instance, discussions with the Human Rights Commissioner of the UN, which also is a topic we took further. We were actually here last year, as some of you may remember, at the WSIS in 2023, participating in the dialogue there on the interplay between standards and human rights as well. So I think we can say both at the technical level, we are very committed and trying to be as early in the curve as we can be in accompanying digital revolution with our standards and coordinating that to the utmost extent. And I think more at the policy and advocacy level, also, I think we are increasingly making efforts to make sure that all those stakeholders who need the standards but don’t necessarily know that they exist, that we can offer them a foot in the door step, so to say, that they can come to us as well and engage with ITU, ISO and IC.

Charlyne Restivo:
Thank you, Mr. Metzger, for this comprehensive overview on how the three organizations collaborate, especially under the auspices of the WSE, the word standards cooperation. And thank you also for providing some examples in that same vein. I would like to now ask Mr. Mujica to provide a concrete example of a standard that has been implemented and is a result of the collaboration amongst the three organizations. Thank you.

Sergio Mujica:
Thank you, Charlene, and good afternoon to all of you. I always like to start with the why, not only with the how and the what, but with the why. Why do we need collaboration between our three organizations? And I think the answer is in the very purpose of our three organizations. We want to provide globally relevant solutions to address global challenges, and we need to make sure that we do not confuse stakeholders, governments, organizations, enterprises and so on. We need to provide solutions that are complementary and that make sense. And how do we do that? First of all, the highest prize, if you will, is to co-create standards, the three of us together, so we provide one single standard representing the views of the three organizations. But of course, as mentioned by Philip, that is not always possible because we are different organizations, complementary but different. So when that’s not possible, we should try to make it sure that we provide complementary solutions, or if not, we have mutual recognition schemes where without creating a new standard, I refer to the standard of another organization. So some of those tools we can use to make sure that rather to competing ourselves or confusing the stakeholders, we combine our talents to provide better complementary solutions. So that’s the why. Then about a success story that you were asking for, well I think we have a wonderful example here, and a very visible and sexy one, if you will. We’ve been collaborating for 30 years, the three organizations, to develop high-efficiency video coding. So that is a video compression standard, and I tried to explain this in simple terms for non-IT experts, being one of them myself. So what we’re trying to deal with now is ultra-high definition. That is very heavy, so you need to compress it to make it manageable, but when you compress it, you don’t want to lose quality. So that’s the challenge, and for that we have co-created a standard for video compressing. That standard has won an Amy Award, twice actually. So we are very proud of that, and I think it’s a very concrete manner that we can provide globally relevant solutions to everyone, and that is also recognized and make it visible through this high-level award.

Charlyne Restivo:
Wonderful, thank you Mr. Murica. With that strong example in mind, now let us consider the inclusivity aspect of standards. So I would like to turn to Mr. Shizuo Onoue, and ask what efforts do each of the WSC members have to make to ensure that standards are inclusive in their development and implementation?

Seizo Onoe:
Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Yes, the question is about inclusivity. Actually this morning, probably you have heard many times, inclusivity, inclusive, many times. So the inclusivity is very important, crucial for the standardization as well. So probably I believe that all standard bodies and all WSC members make an effort to address that issue. So for example, in ITU-ITUT, we have a program, a new program for the bridging the standardization gap, providing some training for the developing countries, sometimes for some financial support. Also today, this year, we have launched a new program, having two pillars, development and also implementation. So we have already some support activities for implementation standards all over the world. So together with that, we have promoted such activities on the bridging the standardization gap, and also we have a network of women. She’s very nice to me. So in standardization, so as such, standardization work must be inclusive to ensuring that it includes everyone, includes, benefits everyone. That’s a basic idea. So then that’s about the ITU, but our organization is also doing the same thing. As a WSC, we have some activities. Then I thought about wanting different things for today, this session, as a WSC. So I thought out to find some activities, WSC, for the inclusivity. But my conclusion is that inclusivity, to participate everyone, for participate everyone in the activities, the activity must be efficient. So they don’t need to spend a lot of resources for the work. So standardization work must be efficient. Then they already explained our collaboration work. WSC’s basic role is to coordination, for coordination among organizations, so that to maximize efficiency by avoiding the duplication of work. Sometimes, many times, many cases it happens with duplication of work, and in that case we need to coordinate. So to avoid duplication of work, the process will be very efficient. So the players with limited resources can participate in those activities. So that’s such a basic role of the WSC. will help inclusivity. That’s what I wanted to say additionally. Thank you.

Charlyne Restivo:
Thank you very much. So now we understand better the purposes of the World Standards Cooperation, the efforts to coordinate global solutions to address global challenges, illustrated by some concrete examples here. So now it is time to dive into the panel discussion. So I will first start the round of questions with Mr. Philipp Metzger and ask, how do international standards keep up with the rapid pace of constantly evolving technologies, while also ensuring that stakeholders’ needs are met? Thank you.

Philippe Metzger:
Thank you very much. Yeah, I think that’s obviously a key question for any organization that is as old as ours, but I think can be more relevant than ever before, provided it gets its mission right, it defines its purpose in a dynamic and forward-looking way. But I think that the reality is, in the technology landscape that I briefly depicted initially, that there are standards that play an even more important role in the safe and equitable access for use of technologies everywhere. And I think, therefore, we have no choice than to put in place tools, processes, but also engagements and interactions with stakeholders and potential partners, so that we can really continue producing responsive standards that will be addressing the changing needs of our society. Obviously, if you look at our committee landscape, in the case of the IEC, we have hundreds of technical committees which elaborate day-in, day-out standards in the field of electrical technology and electronics. And they, of course, have a very broad representation. If you look at the composition of these committees, they’re very diverse. And also, depending on the specific topic they have to address. And so, that, in the first place, for us, is, of course, the channel through which we want to absorb the new pace, the high pace of new technologies that we are confronted with and make sure we can really produce standards that are forward-looking. In addition, what we need is some kind of foresight functions, if you will. And I think every organization has that in one way or the other. In our case, it’s something that we call the IEC Market Strategy Board, which is trying to better understand the challenges of the future, emerging technologies, and trends that we can then bring into our work stream so that the technical committees really work on those promising new technologies. We also have what we call systems evaluation groups. I think it’s more and more important to look at the entire system when you look at challenges that are dealt with by standardization organizations. And I think they play an important role as well. And then, of course, we have cross-cutting technology committees which look at the impact of technologies from a wide range of angles. And if I can give maybe a few examples for that, certainly one that is very, very new and is just about to start is our Joint Technical Committee No. 3, together with ISO, on quantum technologies. That’s just about to start working because, obviously, of the immense potential that we see in quantum technologies, we have so far dealt with quantum aspects in one way or the other in different, very specific, maybe more vertical technical committees. But we wanted to have something that’s more ambitious and that is more all-encompassing and can look at interrelations across the spectrum of quantum technologies. And that’s why I think this is going to be a very important step going forward. We also have a Joint Systems Committee on biodigital convergence, another topic. I think that is gaining speed in our digital environment. I would like to particularly emphasize our first Joint Technical Committee we have at ISO JTC1, which has been created a while back, but which has, I think, a more relevant mission than ever. We have in particular in there also a subcommittee on AI, subcommittee 42. And I think it’s fair to say that this committee has already produced a number of really, I think, world-recognized standards to make the use of AI more seamless, but also to make it more trusting, more safe. Ultimately, I think we’re all on a path to discover how that should be governed. We will have further discussions later this week, also here hosted by ITU, to which we are looking forward. And I think ultimately what this boils down to as well, and I wanted to maybe conclude on that point, because it’s very easy to start listing sort of current achievements, current work streams, very specific technical efforts. But ultimately what it boils down to, and I’m still looking at the title of this panel here on inclusivity, that is that our three organizations are really totally committed to consensus, to diversity, to multi-stakeholderism, which I think is an approach dear also to ITU’s heart in its core mission. We are member-led, we are member-driven, we have several layers, we have an increasing diversity of stakeholders who engage with us, and I think it is very important that our respective strategic objectives are geared towards that, so that we will indeed not become less relevant, but quite to the contrary I think will become even more relevant. And I think there are a number of areas where we see how much more interest there is, also in the circles of decision makers, policy makers, regulators, of how to leverage our standards. So I wanted to maybe end on that note with regard to that question on the keeping on top of technology evolutions.

Charlyne Restivo:
Thank you Mr. Metzger, and as you also pointed out, technology’s rapid evolution can be a challenge, which brings me to another critical aspect, which is the intersection of human rights and standards. You also touched upon that, but I will ask Mr. Morica if you may enlighten us on the efforts of the WSC, the World Standards Corporation, to ensure that standards prioritize human rights considerations. Thank you.

Sergio Mujica:
Thank you, Sharlene. Well, standards represent technical specification or requirements that ensure that a product, a process, or a service is fit for purpose. In practice, that means standards are a universal language to ensure that something is fit for purpose. When it comes to human rights, they also represent a universal language, and how can we fight against injustice, repression, and abuse of power. So when it comes to the relationship between standards and human rights, the right question is, how can we help? And I have to thank the leadership of the ITU, because two years ago, during the meeting of the World Standards Corporation, you invited as a keynote speaker the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the three organizations asked the same question to him. How can we help? And there are at least three areas where I think we can be very useful to implement the global agenda on human rights. First is with our current portfolio of international standards. So the key message, please do not reinvent the wheel. There are proven solutions which are already available for us to support implementation of public policy, to support the implementation of the agenda related to human rights. And I can give you a couple of examples. We have a standard on anti-bribery, where we provide practical guidance to governments, organizations, companies, and so on, so everybody knows what kind of path to follow if they want to combat bribery. The second one is about social responsibility. So how do we make sure that we are not only successful in the core business we do, but how do we engage with the community to make sure that we are socially responsible, and that is very relevant today about the ESG agenda. Then standards on accessibility, standards on occupational health and safety, clean water and sanitation, and so on. And we have a very emblematic standard as well on sustainable events. And to give you just a very concrete example, in a couple of weeks in France, in Paris, we will have the Olympic Games. That huge event will be certified on sustainable events following our standard. So that I think is a very useful example. So that’s the first way we can help use our standards, use our portfolio to support the human rights agenda. The second way we can help is by providing a platform where new standards or new solutions can be developed. So when you know what you have, you can also identify what you don’t have, your gaps. And to fill those gaps, we can develop new standards in a very inclusive manner, because it’s not only the what, it’s also the how. That’s what makes us who we are, the set of values, the core values we follow. So we develop our standards by consensus, in an inclusive manner, with transparency, and also giving a voice to developing countries. So that’s the second way, use the platform to create new standards. And the third one is by being a role model, because when it comes to standards, a key element as discussed in the first part of this panel is diversity and inclusivity. So we need to make sure that everyone has a voice, not only in the technical dimension, but also those who will be affected by our standards, and especially the vulnerable ones, the developing countries. We need to make sure that when we create our solutions, we give everyone a voice.

Charlyne Restivo:
So thank you for these insights on how standards can contribute to human rights, inclusivity, and you also mentioned that we need to engage with the community. So this goes back to the next point about the importance of collaboration. And for that, I would like to turn to Mr. César Onoé, Mr. César Onoé, and ask why do companies collaborate on standards, and what would be your message to companies looking to engage? Thank you.

Seizo Onoe:
Yes, yeah, nowadays companies from private sectors are very active in the standardization work. Then my simple answer is because companies understand that the standardization is a powerful tool for their business. This is a very simple answer. I know that in the company, within the company, there are some heated debates at the early stage of the technology development, match-up phase. They may have two strategies, open strategy and closed strategy. But history shows that in the long run, standardization will benefit those companies eventually, ultimately. So, and then for the entire industry, standardization will benefit for entire industries, eventually for the societies. So as such, standardization is a first phase, standardization is a powerful tool for the industry, industry players. Then finally, it’s very good for the entire industry and society. Then what standard works? I summarized them below. Standardization scales market, streamline the ecosystem, provides access to the global market, ensures interoperability, and fosters delivery of the appealing products and services. Standards give trust among customers. Standardization efforts contribute to the sustainable development, and it demonstrates companies’ commitment to social responsibility. And ultimately, these efforts benefit their business. That is my story. Companies understand. I don’t know, but probably I believe that. Do you agree? I don’t know. So then, one more thing. Involvement in the early stage of standardization is a significant motivation for companies, as it secures their reputation and influence as industry leaders. Those elements convince companies to join, to be active in standardization. That’s my belief. So then, message to companies. But before that, to companies already participating in standardization, just I want to express my appreciation to their contribution to standardization. And already some discussions are there. The consensus is very important, and the spirit of collaboration and consensus are very crucial in the standardization work. So now, technology is changing rapidly, so speed is very important. So consensus, quick consensus, is very important. So anyway, thank you for the contribution to the standardization, and also the message to companies looking to engage or hesitating to invest in standardization. I urge you to understand the value of standardization and to join us. Thank you.

Charlyne Restivo:
Thank you. So on the way, San, we know that industry engagement is one of your top priorities at ITU, and here, and with this audience, we also have private sector members, along with civil society, government. So here was a little summary of the benefits of international standardization for private companies. So now, let me mark just a pose and introduce the next topic, which is the crisis, the climate change crisis that the world faces. And I would like to now go turn to Mr. Philippe Metzger and ask the role of standards in addressing environmental challenges here. If Mr. Metzger, you could explain to us the concept of an all-electric and connected society, and in what way does this address the sustainability challenges that the world faces?

Philippe Metzger:
Thank you very much, Charlene. Yes, I think this notion of an all-electric and connected society, I think, is a fundamental strategic objective for us as an organization, one that has been formulated in that very explicit way and targeted way quite recently. And maybe as a sort of a backdrop to my answer to your question, I mean, the reality is, if you look around you today, electrification, electrotechnology, electronics is ubiquitous. It’s everywhere in whatever solutions, whatever services or tools we are using. It’s really everyday life matter. You can look at healthcare, financial services, housing, sanitation, water management, etc., etc. So, if you put this in contrast with how the world looked in 1906 when IEC was founded, it’s a completely different dimension. And I think that’s why I think we have, I think, on the one hand, an opportunity as IEC to contribute even more to the development of the world today than we used to have when essentially the focus was on safety, you know, making sure that electricity could be used, that you did not get electrocuted when you turned on a light bulb, for instance, but very much so also for sustainability. And I think at the heart of our concept, of our strategic objective of the all-electric and connected society is the ambition to leverage, I would say, intelligent and also green electrical energy with the help of digital technologies and to do that, to create ultimately a decarbonized environment. I think that’s what it boils down to. Of course, doing that requires activities, actions, in our case, standards that will allow universal access to affordable energy that is generated from renewable, from clean sources, and I think we have a number of standards in our portfolio that are testament to that. If you look at a quite recent standard on low-voltage direct current, I think that is life-changing for many citizens around the world, especially in countries that are less developed. So I think that’s really a core, become a core strategic mission for us to work to that goal. We have to know how from the 20,000 or 30,000 experts, if you look also at the conformity assessment world who contribute to that, to be at the forefront of this development, but I think it’s very clear that we have to go towards electrification if we want to become sustainable as a global community, and we very much would like our standards and conformity assessments or solutions and services be used exactly for that, and that’s also what they are geared to be. If I’d look at sort of the SDGs as a whole, I don’t want to go into too many details, but if you think about the different standards we produce and how we run the conformity assessment of that, it directly contributes, sometimes also indirectly, to all, really, of the SDGs. Of course, some like energy access and so on are more maybe directly targeted and impacted by what we do, and what I also find important is that we explore continuously new ways of delivering our know-how. For instance, we have just launched quite recently, a few months ago, what we call a carbon footprint verification scheme. I think all of you are familiar with claims by many actors of how small their carbon footprint or that of their products and services is, and we have now put out there in our offering also a verification service so that that can be actually calculated and can be corroborated, how the carbon footprints are actually panning out, and one more important example, I think, which is very much also speaking to our ambition of an all-electric and connected society is what we call the IEC Global Impact Fund. We have created a facility, a financial facility, certainly modest, but nonetheless, a facility that is at the disposal for projects, especially in countries that are less developed in terms of electrification, also in terms of digital connectivity, to leverage our know-how, our standards, our conformity assessment for objectives which are really directly contributing to a cleaner, to a more sustainable world. Our most recent example is in Kenya. It’s about how we can use e-waste, use batteries, old batteries, and make them, through transformation and recyclability processes, actually e-resources, if you will, going forward. So I think that explains fundamentally what we stand for in our strategic goals through the leveraging of digital technologies contribute to this all-electric society and connected society that then, of course, is a key driver for a sustainable world, a decarbonized world, and one also, and to come back to the initial point of inclusivity, that collaborates, an ecosystem that collaborates with many different partners. We have, for instance, now partnerships, I think, in a new way that we have, for instance, with the International Renewable Energies Agency, which was not, if you look 10 years ago, a typical partner for the IEC, and I think that speaks as well to how we try to collaborate with ISO and ITU.

Charlyne Restivo:
Thank you. Mr. Metzger sharing the visions on how also can standards contribute to a decarbonized environment. Now, more about climate change and the collaboration aspect I would like to turn to Mr. Morica and ask how does ISO standards help organizations and governments tackle climate change and environmental issues?

Sergio Mujica:
Thanks again, Sharlene. I think I mentioned before that at ISO, we do not create policy, we do not compete with policymakers, we support them to implement their policy goals. And in this context, the Sustainable Development Goals and the challenges related to climate change, I think, are the most relevant policy that we want to support to address those challenges. The SDGs represent a global consensus, once again, about what is it what we have to do if we want to improve the quality of life of people in this planet, including the challenges related to climate change. So we know what we have to do. The problem is that we are not doing it as simple as that. And the latest report of the UN proves that less than 25% of the SDGs are on target, which is really sad. We know, but we don’t do it. And then we also know by the IPCC report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that climate change is not a promise for the future, it’s something that is happening right now as we speak. So some of the consequences of climate change are already irreversible, such as the raising the sea level. We also know that every year, 42 million people are displaced because of natural disasters related to climate change. Or we know that this last summer here in Europe, this last summer, 70,000 people died because of the heat wave. And by the way, nearly 70% of them women. So it’s happening as we speak, and we believe that we need to mobilize the standard community to support this agenda. How do we do it? Number one, by putting climate change and support to SDGs at the top of your priorities as an international organization. And at ISO, we did that a couple of years ago when we came up with our new strategy. If you look at the vision of ISO, it’s not about technical specifications or requirement or expertise, it’s about people, making people’s life easier, safer, and better. So we put human beings at the center of the ISO strategy. That’s number one. And number two is a public commitment to support the climate change agenda. And how are we doing that in practice? Number one, by identifying the most relevant ISO standard that can support the fight against climate change. We cannot say to the world we have a portfolio of 25,000 international standards, use them wisely. It doesn’t work like that. We need to package them in a manner that makes sense for small and medium-sized company, in a manner that makes sense for energy organizations and so on. So identify the most powerful and impactful standards. The second thing we need to do is to review our portfolio to make it sure that it’s climate responsive. Many of our standards were created many years ago where climate change was not a priority as it is today. So we need to ask our technical committees to review our own standard to make it sure that they are climate responsive. And believe me, this is not as simple as it sounds because our experts, super expert in their respective fields, not necessarily like to be advised about what to do. So we need a lot of change management in that process. And we are in the process of reviewing 81 very relevant international standards. The other thing we’re doing here is to engage with a strategic partnership because this is a very crowded field. A lot of organizations are saying that they have the magic solution for everything and they promote standards, but a very different kind of standards compared to the standard that we develop with those core values that I referred to some time ago. So we need to talk to other standard developer organization to make it sure that we combine our talents, we combine our effort. And the third area is capacity building because we will not win this battle from Geneva. We need to mobilize everything we have. In the case of ISO, 170 members. And we need our members to be able to deliver both at the national and at the international level if we wanna provide impactful solutions to combat climate change.

Charlyne Restivo:
Thank you, Mr. Morica. So I take note that you’re, to address climate change and environmental issues for standardization, a strategic partnership is essential, which brings me to my next point and turn over to Mr. Sisono to explore the collaborative nature of standards development in the context of public-private partnerships. So I would like to ask Mr. Sisono, public-private collaboration receives considerable emphasis at WSIS Gathering, as you know. So how do standards support this collaboration?

Seizo Onoe:
Yeah, actually the standards are the result of the public-private collaboration. So standards definitely support its collaboration. So then for the development of the standards, we need, require the involvement of various stakeholders. Of course, the government is responsive for the policy and the regulation. Also, companies from private sector for the implement, technical proposal and implementation for the standards. Also, academia may contribute something. So even that companies and stakeholders representing nations, but such various stakeholders in combination is necessary for developing standards. So then how do standards support this collaboration? Probably it’s very good to talk about something one answered already with a concrete example. But in general, I would say that voluntary standards, our standards, the voluntary standards, voluntary standards can offer valuable support to the achievement of the policy objectives. So here I have one example in ITU. At ITU, just one example, regulators promoting good service quality work together with companies specializing in service quality KPIs and monitoring tools to develop a standard that capture common understandings between companies and regulators overseeing their industry. This is just one example. One more thing, how to support. Policy and regulation can establish the rules. Then technical standards can provide technical way, practical ways to uphold these rules. That’s all, that’s my answer. Thank you.

Charlyne Restivo:
Thank you for sharing examples of how technical standards support public-private collaboration. Now, as we draw almost to the end of this session, I would like to ask our audience if there are any questions. I see Mr. Yuri Green, please.

Audience:
Yeah, thank you very much. First of all, I’d like to congratulate all distinguished speaker, excellent presentation. Everything is clear and congratulate with good cooperation. But I have one maybe a bit tricky question for all of you. I hope you will manage to answer. Both Philippe already mentioned that you are doing some standard for artificial intelligence. And I know that in TSB, you are doing a lot in this area. In fact, we will have a meeting in couple days here where this issue, not standards, but artificial intelligence will be discussed more in depth. So my question is, knowing that artificial intelligence is probably one of the most fastest developing technology, how do you cope in your standardization with the speed of development of technology? This is first question. And second question, who are your main partners in development of those standards? Because in reality, it’s not so many leading company who are put in the framework for development. So are they really heavily involved and cooperate with you in this standardization activity or not? Thank you very much.

Charlyne Restivo:
Anoysen, would you like to take that one up?

Seizo Onoe:
Yeah. But today’s session, we intentionally avoid AI issues because we have another session of the AI for Goods Group Summit. But I will reply to your answer. But you know, we have already lots of work on AI in IT. Of course, ISO-IC has some management system. So then, by counting that, IT has hundreds of standards. Also, we are ongoing work on the 120 items ongoing. So we have already doing that. So then, who is the partner? They are already IT members. Or some people joining for the focus group, they may be a non-IT member. But anyway, such members joining our activities. So as you say, there are many various partners there. So are you sure that you are doing well? And how do you do standardization? Yeah, I would say, good. Also, I should not say this, just a tethering. In the last day of the Growth Summit, we have a workshop on watermarking. It’s a very good example. Standards help AI practical way for the AI governance. That’s for the very good activities against deepfakes and misinformation. So standards can give us some countermeasures against that. So this is just one example. So we need to try such new areas for the AI, not only for AI technology, but the countermeasures or some negative aspect. We can do that. At this moment, I don’t know if we are doing good or not. Yes, that’s a fact. Thank you.

Charlyne Restivo:
And I would invite you all to join the WSE session, taking place on Wednesday, 29th of May, from 5.45 to 6.15, that will deal with the role of AI standards as an implementation tool. Would you like to complement Mr. Sisono’s point, please?

Sergio Mujica:
Yeah, to the point, your two questions, timing, can be tricky. It’s true, because we follow some core values that I mentioned before. So consensus building is a painful process, or can be a painful process. Inclusivity, transparency, voice to developing countries, and so on. So it’s not easy. So at the end, it will depend on the level of consensus you want to achieve, and also the sense of urgency you want to work on. And we have wonderful examples that we can make it in three months, six months, even, if we apply the right process. So we don’t need to develop a full international standards all the time. We can work in a different kind of deliverables that require a lower level of consensus. For example, a workshop agreement. We can do it. We have done it. So we have proved that this is possible. Second question is about inclusivity. Are the right people sit on the table? And we do this together with the IEC in our JTC1 committee, which is a very creative name. JTC1 means Joint Technical Committee, number one. And it’s on IT matters. And we have a subcommittee specifically dedicated. to AI. So in that subcommittee, we have 60 countries sitting around the table. So we are very confident that we have the right people there, because those experts are not appointed by the central secretariat. Those experts are appointed by our members, and they normally come from the industry. So we are very confident we have the right people, and we also collaborate with other organizations on this, such as the Council of Europe, UNESCO, or OECD.

Charlyne Restivo:
Thank you very much. Philippe?

Philippe Metzger:
Yeah, thanks very much. I just wanted to add a few thoughts to what Noa-San and Sergio have already said. I think obviously we have to be modest here. I mean, nobody can claim that they have cracked the AI conundrum, that they have the solution, that they have the perfect framework. We are very much, of course, on an exploratory path here, but I think there is an increasing awareness of the need for safe, trustworthy use of that. Maybe I can just briefly refer to the work on the Global Digital Compact, because we are involved in that as well, also together as WSC, with ITU and ISO. If we look at the principles that are underlying the work on the GDC, this is closing digital divides, advancing safe and secure digital future for all, accelerating progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goals. And I think all these principles, and of course also the one about the innovation and the participation in these endeavors, really play, I think, underpin what we are trying to do with our standards work. And so I think we are all on a learning path. We have to do even more of multi-stakeholderism, of working together. We did a little test, in a sense. We had a bit of a lab a few years ago here in Geneva, when we organized an international conference on AI. And that was not a conference that was just for the technical experts, the engineers. It brought together people with ethical backgrounds, economists, lawyers, et cetera. So we see that there are many dimensions that need to be addressed. This is also what our joint subcommittee is doing. We’re not just focusing on a technical formula here. But of course, this needs much more efforts going forward. That’s why, of course, ITU has such an important role to play with the AI for Good conference later this week, to which we will be contributing as well. So we’re all on a learning path. We all have to be a bit modest. But I think there’s an increasing awareness, and you see it from the media. You see what key drivers of AI developments themselves say, what they would like to see in terms of stability, in terms of frameworks, and so on. And I think it’s also a matter of reaching out more and explaining more what we are doing to generate more interest. Because of course, at the outset, somebody who is very innovative, wants to produce some fancy technological solution, doesn’t want to be disturbed too much at the outset. But I think we see increasingly the enormity of the challenge, because it’s a huge opportunity as well. And if we can frame this better, and we’ve seen it in other fields, obviously AI is one of a fundamentally transformational dimension, then I think we can move in the right direction.

Charlyne Restivo:
Thank you, Mr. Metzger. And so, as we conclude this session, I invite you to join our upcoming AI-related session later this week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, to pursue this conversation. Our time is now up, so please give a round of applause to our panelists. Thank you very much for joining us today, and let’s continue this conversation. Bye-bye.