Leaders TalkX: Partnership Pivot: Innovating International Cooperation to Scale Digital Inclusion

Leaders talk 13: Innovating international cooperation to scale digital innovation

At the Leaders Talk 13 event, themed “Partnership Pivot: Innovating International Cooperation to Scale Digital Innovation,” Helen Harris of Amazon’s public policy team opened the session focusing on WSIS Action Line 11, addressing the digital divide affecting 2.6 billion unconnected people. She emphasised the need for collaboration among various stakeholders to promote universal access.

Dr. Bilel Jamoussi from the ITU highlighted the importance of international co-operation in implementing Action Line 11, noting the varying speeds at which countries adopt ICTs and digital transformation mechanisms. He stressed the value of countries assisting each other and the significance of partnerships among UN agencies and international standards organisations like the IEC, ISO, and ITU.

Mr. Hiroshi Yoshida, Vice Minister for Japan, underscored the progress made in connectivity and the contribution to the SDGs, while also acknowledging the challenges that remain, including climate change. He called for deeper industry involvement in international cooperation and highlighted Japan’s support for ITU initiatives, including those addressing climate change.

Dr. Irina Sofky from Germany discussed the country’s first strategy for international digital policy, which focuses on principles such as human rights online and offline, an open and free internet, and multi-stakeholder cooperation. She detailed Germany’s active engagement in international multi-stakeholder forums and its commitment to making these forums future-proof.

Ms. Tripti Sinha from ICANN explained how ICANN’s multi-stakeholder governance model can guide international collaboration for digital projects and WSIS Action Line implementation. She emphasised the importance of linguistic inclusion for digital inclusivity and outlined ICANN’s initiatives to enable domain names in local languages and scripts, which align with the goal of making the internet accessible to non-English speakers worldwide.

Mr. Bocar Ba, CEO of Samina Telecommunications Council, identified access to capital as the most compelling element to unite stakeholders for digital inclusion. He highlighted the need for investment, finance, and funding, and commended the innovative frameworks being implemented in countries like Nigeria and Rwanda to bring more people online.

The session concluded with a consensus on the importance of multi-stakeholder co-operation in fostering international co-operation to bridge the digital divide. The speakers also agreed on the need for a supportive regulatory framework to attract private sector investment and the significance of respecting multiculturalism and multilingualism globally. Unfortunately, technical difficulties prevented Engineer Gloria Carvalho from Venezuela from contributing to the discussion.

Helen Harris:
I think they said, it is on, there we go. Hi, welcome everyone. Good afternoon, distinguished guests. Welcome to Leaders Talk 13, Partnership Pivot, Innovating International Cooperation to Scale Digital Innovation. My name is Helen Harris, and I work with the public policy team at Amazon, and I’m delighted to be here facilitating this session, which focuses on WSIS Action Line 11. By now, we are all aware that there are 2.6 billion people who remain unconnected. In order to promote universal access and bridge this digital divide, all stakeholders, government, international organizations, civil society, private sector, and the technical community need to collaborate and work together. Today’s speakers will be examining the pivotal role of international cooperation to support infrastructure development and digital projects. I would like to remind all of our speakers to limit their comments to three minutes, unless you want to hear the ringing bells. So I would like to start with Dr. Bilal Jamousi, Deputy Director of Telecommunication Standardization Bureau at the ITU, who will provide an overview of how the ITU was implementing Action Line 11.

Dr. Bilel Jamoussi:
Thank you very much. Very pleased to join you this afternoon. The implementation of Action 11 in terms of the international cooperation, especially these days, is critical. And the WSIS process has showed over the past 20 years that it has been robust in guiding member states on the implementation of the various action lines. And we heard this afternoon from the Ministerial Roundtable how important this process has been in guiding all of the action lines, and particularly the one that we’ll talk about today. International cooperation is important because countries have different speeds in terms of implementation of ICTs, deployment of connectivity, deployment of digital transformation mechanisms. And as we look at today’s technologies of artificial intelligence, quantum data flows, that difference in speeds between different countries is actually enriching because countries can help each other. And there was a call in our ministerial panel to twin countries so that they can move forward together. In terms of international cooperation, there is also the dimension of the partnership among the UN agencies. Today, as we look at the digital transformation, it is a multidisciplinary activity that requires cooperation between, let’s say, ITU and WHO when it comes to digital transformation of health, UNECE and ITU when it comes to transportation and smart mobility, FAO when it comes to digital agriculture. So this aspect of cooperation between UN agencies is paramount. And the other dimension that I wanna mention is also the international standards organizations, IEC, ISO and ITU have a very strong collaboration through the World Standards Cooperation Mechanism on all of these topics. I will close by saying that bridging the standardization gap has been a overriding theme across the three organizations.

Helen Harris:
Thank you for pointing out that how digital transformation is a multidisciplinary activity and how we need more cooperation among agencies. I would like to turn now to His Excellency, Mr. Hiroshi Yoshida, Vice Minister for Policy Coordination of International Affairs at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication of Japan.

Hiroshi Yoshida:
Thank you. This process has made tremendous progress in connectivity with multi-stakeholder participation while contributing to achieving the SDGs. On the other hand, 2.6 billion people are still offline and there are many challenges left. In addition, climate change showed that the temperature in 2023 showed the highest ever, 1.45 point Celsius above pre-industrial levels. To ensure that no one is left behind, we need to strengthen international and regional cooperation along the VC suction line and achieving the SDGs. I would like to highlight two elements today. The first is the involvement of industry. Industry plays an important role in the digital field. It is necessary to deepen the involvement of industry in promoting international cooperation. The ITU has an advantage in that industry is also involved in ITU activities as a sector member. So one of the important initiatives by TSP is the, so bridging the standardization gap activity and Japan is supporting its activity. And also Japan is contributing to support the Green Digital Action and new initiatives led by the ITU related to climate change. Industry involvement is also key in this green initiative. And we also have to, we are going to offer capacity building for developing countries and others through workshops and others. Next is the cooperation of international organization. Each organization, international organization has its expertise and work closely is getting important. Just for example, in 2022, UN Secretary General launched the early warning for all initiative. And in this initiative, not only ITU, many UN organization including UNWMO, IFRC working together. So ITU is expected to play a role in the field of warning dissemination and communication. And Japan is also contributing to this initiative as well. Last but not least, I would say a few words about Global Digital Compact. And it is important to avoid duplication with existing organization initiatives and to promote international cooperation in an efficient manner. And so, just we had the IGF in Kyoto last year. So such a multi-stakeholder discussion is very important. And the WSIS process, including the IGF, important of those initiative is not changed. So that those WSIS process is a good, can be a body for them, for implementation and follow-up of the GDC. Thank you very much. I’m sorry, I ring the bell.

Helen Harris:
Thank you, Mr. Yoshida. Now I would like to turn to Dr. Irina Sofky, Director for National, European and International Digital Policy at the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport of Germany. Dr. Sofky, in early 2024, Germany unveiled its first strategy for international digital policy. How does this strategy promote global cooperation?

Dr. Irina Soeffky:
Yeah, thanks a lot. And it’s indeed a pleasure and an honor to be part of this panel here today. Well, we’re still pretty excited because indeed it is our first ever strategy for international digital policy. And what we basically did is that we really laid down the guiding principles that are supposed to lead our international digital policy in the future. This is for the sake of transparency, clarity for everybody, also for predictability. And there are many important principles enshrined there. So obviously we say something about the validity of human rights online and offline. We talk about the open and free internet that needs to be preserved, but there is one aspect that is, well, actually also particularly close to our hearts. And I think particularly important at this forum here, and this is the principle of multi-stakeholder cooperation in this field. And we reiterated that this, we are still very much committed to this principle and want to translate it into practice as well. And this is true not only on the international sphere, but also nationally. And this is also why when elaborating the strategy, we involve stakeholders very intensively, not only national stakeholders, but also international. And we intend to continue this now in the face of implementation. And then this is looking at the national level, on the international sphere, we really try to live up to what we have laid down in our strategy. And that is really actively engaging in all the important multi-stakeholder fora that already exist and that take place currently. So for example, not long ago, we took part of the NetMundial Plus 10 in Brazil, which was a really important multi-stakeholder event, and which managed to draw up a closing document, laying not only down principles for multi-stakeholder involvement, but also dealing with their implementation and practice, which is very important. We’re here at WSIS, obviously, we will send a high ranking delegation to ICANN meetings that are coming up, and this is also true for the IGF. And so we go there to actively participate and not only to talk, but also to really listen to what stakeholder groups have to stay and really fill this multi-stakeholder cooperation with life. And what is really important to us in the implementation of the strategy is to make these fora that I just mentioned, those international fora, like for example, the IGF, future proof, and to make sure that they can work well in the future as well, and form the basis for developing international digital policies. And we are very happy to build on what is already there, but also to discuss how it can become better in some fields, because I think looking at the mandate, you will see that some things have already been done really well, others perhaps less, and we are really open to the discussion and look forward to do this in a multi-stakeholder way. Thank you.

Helen Harris:
Thank you, Dr. Soffky. I particularly enjoyed your remarks regarding the importance of multi-stakeholder cooperation in the field internationally and nationally as well. I would like now to try to turn to Ms. Tripti Sinha, Chair of the ICANN Board at the Internet Cooperation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Ms. Sinha, how can ICANN’s collaborative governance model guide international collaboration for successful digital projects and WSIS Action Line implementation, particularly to scale digital inclusion?

Tripti Sinha:
Thank you very much for the question. It’s a delight to be here. the panel. The fundamental power of the global internet is its single and interoperable nature. ICANN’s multi-stakeholder model ensures that we include various perspectives into the development of DNS policies by including governments, the business sector, civil society, academia and the technical community. Now coming to the importance of collaboration for successful digital projects, a global interoperable internet requires an inclusive and multi-stakeholder approach. Encouraging collaboration between all stakeholders guarantees that a wide range of expertise is incorporated into the development of policies. Partnering with groups such as the ITU, UNESCO, Smart Africa and the African Telecommunications Union helps raise awareness and promote a stable and secure internet. By working together, different stakeholders in the internet ecosystem can effectively tackle local and regional needs. Now coming to WSIS’s action line implementation and how we impact a multilingual internet and digital inclusion. In reality, the de facto language of science and technology is mostly the English language which in turn has resulted in application services being available primarily in English. As we all know, and it goes without saying to state the obvious, the world’s global population is multicultural and linguistically diverse. ICANN supports a digitally inclusive internet by enabling domain names and local languages and scripts. Our initiatives align with the necessity to make the internet accessible and useful to non-English speakers worldwide, driving greater digital inclusion. ICANN’s efforts to enable domain names and local languages and scripts through programs like Internationalized Domain Names, the IDNs and Universal Acceptance, the UA, are central to this. Realizing UA is essential to digital inclusion and consumer choice. Years of efforts have gone into ensuring that the internet operates in all languages by ICANN and partners like the Universal Acceptance Steering Group, ITUD and the UNESCO. This lowers obstacles and promotes linguistic and cultural variety, so directly advancing the knowledge and access with these action lines. The UA Readiness Report points out that just 20 to 3 percent of email servers and 10 percent of website support internationalized email addresses. ICANN, with our technology stakeholder partners, intends to change this. In terms of partnering with our stakeholders, we will work with governments to promote acceptance by all and create policies requiring that email addresses and domain names and local languages can be supported, with technology companies to make software defaults to support emails and domain languages in your local languages and domain names in your local languages, and universities to include in their curricula universal acceptance into IT courses, and civil society to encourage and spread knowledge of using emails and domain names in the local language. So one of the most more notable regional partnerships that we have is the Association of African Universities to Advance UA in Academic Institutions under the Coalition for Digital Africa, launched in 2022. The coalition works on bringing together stakeholders to enhance Africa’s domain name industry, focusing on local challenges and opportunities to support Africa’s digital economy. So in conclusion, ICANN works beyond technical robustness to guarantee the internet remains inclusive, secure, and stable. Our dedication to digital inclusion and access is shown in projects like UA and the Coalition for Digital Africa. ICANN looks forward to partnering with the ITU and other stakeholders, and we look forward to the ongoing global digital compact discussions and the WSIS plus 20 review next year with hopefully positive outcomes for the single interoperable internet. Thank you.

Helen Harris:
Thank you for pointing out that while the internet is, for the internet to be fully inclusive, you really need to be cognizant of linguistic inclusion as well. I would like to turn next to Mr. Bokar Ba, Chief Executive Officer of Samina Telecommunications Council. Mr. Ba, in your perspective, what is the single most compelling element that could unite all stakeholders in pursuit of universal digital inclusion?

Bocar BA:
Thank you for the question. As we all know, we are living in a very complex ecosystem, and if you ask me the most single compelling element that will unite all stakeholders for digital inclusion is the fact that, in the spirit of the theme of discussion today, which is international partnership, I would elect to choose one element, and when it comes to that element, we all have cold feet. How do we mobilize resources to reach our objective? Let’s be pragmatic, and the subject is unlocking access to capital. We need investment, we need financing, we need funding, and today I believe most of the stakeholders would not mind to sit around the table, have a dialogue that will be centered about unlocking access to capital, and that is not a new subject. We’ve been discussing that for many years, and what has been done at the level of the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, we have issued a report of 200 pages which is available, and I invite all stakeholders to have a look at it on the internet. Regretfully, the provision of interpretation into six languages has now come to an end. However, English and French interpretation only will continue for the remainder of the sessions today. Thank you for your kind understanding. It’s natural that we contribute to make it happen, so the concept of broadening the base calls open all stakeholders, and that is not a mandatory contribution. It’s a contribution that could be led and championed by the government. An example of contribution for unlocking access to capital is the right policies that will foster investment, the agile regulatory framework that incentivizes the private sector to invest, not for profitability but for sustainability and for predictability for the private sector. So this report is available. This is a discussion that I have been, over the past two years, spreading the gospel all around the world, and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the government of Nigeria, the government of Rwanda. We issued in Mobile World Congress in February in Barcelona innovative framework that we are going to implement in Nigeria, in Rwanda, the next country is going to be South Africa, we are thinking about Senegal, Philippine, going to Latin America, a number of developing nations that we believe will bring the 2.5 billion people online if we have everyone online before 2030. Thank you very much. agree not on an entity basis but on an engagement commitment with results oriented to be able to

Helen Harris:
Thank you, and thank you for pointing out the importance of a healthy regulatory framework to bring in private sector investment. Last but not least, I would like to turn to a remote participant, Engineer Gloria Carvalho, President of the Foundation Institute of Advanced Studies and Ministry of Popular Power for Science and Technology of Venezuela. Is Ms. Carvalho with us? Is Ms. Carvalho online? It doesn’t seem so. Okay. So, there we go. Hello. Hello, Engineer Carvalho. Good to see you. So, Ms. Carvalho, the question that I have for you is what is the importance of international cooperation on digital inclusion for countries, specifically for Venezuela? If you could speak to that, please. You’re muted. We can’t hear you, Ms. Carvalho. We can’t hear you. We’re not hearing the audio. No, we still can’t hear you. Can you remove the headphones and see if that improves? I still don’t think we can hear Ms. Carvalho. Can you turn on your screen? Yeah, I’m trying to. The mic is open, but it’s not working. Can you try speaking now, Ms. Gloria? I think that we’ll just wrap it up. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hear Ms. Carvalho through the Zoom call. So, I think that the overarching thing that we discussed today is the importance of multi-stakeholderism in fostering international cooperation in order to bridge the digital divide, and as well as fostering a regulatory framework that is supportive of the private sector and, at the same time, being respectful of multiculturalism and multi-linguists around the world. And with that, I would like to thank all our panelists for being here today, and I hope you enjoy the rest of WSIS. Thank you.