moderated high-level policy sessions: concluding session · 5/3/2016 · concluding session. we...

https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2016/Agenda/Session/212 1

Moderated High-Level Policy Sessions: Concluding Session

Tuesday 3 May 2016 CICG, Room 1

14:00 – 17:00 Interpretation A/C/E/F/R/S

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(The ITU WSIS High-Level Policy Statements: Concluding

Session will begin momentarily. Please stand by.)

(Please stand by. The High-Level Policy Statements:

Concluding Session will begin momentarily.)

(The High-Level Policy Statements: Concluding Session session

will begin momentarily. Please stand by.)

>> MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we are right into the

time for the drawing the conclusions. Of the high level

https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2016/Agenda/Session/212




track. I would like to kindly invite you to take your seats

as we will be starting the concluding session just now.

Please put on pause all your conversations for some time.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, this is the time to prepare for the

concluding session. We would like to kindly invite you to

prepare for starting the session. We will have a special

guest just arriving to the room in a second.

Please, let me remind you that you have all facilities still

available. Let me welcome the remote participants, waiting

for the start of the concluding session which will be starting

just in a second.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the concluding session

of the high level policy statements track. This is an

exciting track of one and a half day debates in the

multistakeholder format with several interventions, dialogues

and discussions, debates.

All of them have drawn a lot of conclusions, but before we are

starting with taking a look and taking stock of what we

learned in Terrence of getting the high level guidance from

our leaders, we have the pleasure to welcome our special guest

for this session, the Honorable Prime Minister of TONGA,

Mr. ... please let me invite you for a round of applause. It

is my pleasure to invite His Excellency to address the Forum.

The floor is yours.)

>> Mr. His Excellency: Dealt and other international

agencies, complains, Distinguished Delegates, ladies and

gentlemen. It is a great honor to be here in Geneva at this

world summit on the Information Society and I thank the people

and the government of Switzerland, the ITU and other

international agencies cohosting this important event for the

warm welcome and hospitality extended to my Delegations since

our arrival this morning.

Since its 1998 followed by its two phases in Geneva, 2003 and

in Tunis 2005, and declaration of principles and action plans

at subsequent meetings, the Delegates have laid a solid

foundation for building a truly global inclusive and

development-oriented Information Society. Through WSIS and as



an essential tool which should be accessible to all, ICC has

enormous power to change the economic structures and greatly

contribute to the prosperity and in supporting general welfare

and cultural activities. Today ICT cuts right across the free

historical and ground breaking international agreements of

last year, the Sendai framework on risk reduction, the U.N.

sustainable development goals, and the various agreements on

climate change.

These agreements have the potential to change human life on

this plan et for the better. The Sendai framework reiterated

commitment to the factor risk reduction, resilient and

building better protections for disaster, a new chapter in

sustainable development and creating cost effective investment

in preventing assume losses.

The United Nations sustainable development goals can drive

commitment towards ending global poverty and creating a just

and equitable world. The best equipment is an unprecedented

ambitious from political leaders to respond to climate change.

One cannot be achieved without the other, realizing the SGD

and lifting millions out of poverty will simply not be

possible on an earth ravaged by climate change and disasters.

This is the first WSIS after these agreements and TONGA has

already identified ICT as an integral tool to achieving this

these goals and as an agent for improvement in our ICT policy

which focuses on health, education, and environmental

sustainability and early warning systems, energy, smart

islands, industry and multistakeholder cooperation for a

resilient and sustainable development.

We just have a new communication act to replace and modernise

its 2000 vision. Legislation introduces to provide greater

public confidence in using faster broadband Internet and a

more comprehensive sustainable competition regime in the ICT

sector.

Government has also established cyber challenges task force to

address the issues of cybersecurity, cyber safety, and cyber

crime since launching our first cable system in 2013, giving

access to faster and cheaper Internet.



There is currently in the process to establish TONGA computer

emergency response team to handle issues of cybersecurity.

TONGA is acceding to the Budapest convention on cyber crime

and there have been extensive training over the past years to

the judicial system and forensic, of these domestic issues and

punishment for criminal activities.

We are also in the process of setting up eGovernment whereby

to connect all government ministries, public enterprises and

agencies by fiber optic and to providing these services

online, including tech ... and basic information. At the same

time, it improves and enhances performance to support the

development of the private sector and better multistakeholder

coordination.

E education and eHealth are the two most important

applications of our eGovernment initiative. Government has

just started implementing M health initiatives with pregnant

women. The first 1,000 days of the baby from pregnancy to two

years. Through initially -- managing.

Next programme is addressing our joint effort to reduce and

avoid -- these are just some of the exciting programmes in

Tonga using ICTs.

And more to come.

I am sure other countries have the same experience. Without

doubt ICT has offered an historic and unprecedented

opportunity to us all and not only to achieving goals but also

to place its potential at the service of humanity to making

our world a better place.

Thank you, Mr. President.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Excellency, for this

message. So now, dear ladies and gentlemen, we would proceed

with the concluding session scenario. As I mentioned at the

beginning, we would like to discover now in the Plenary format

what has been debated during this 16th sessions moderated by

the high level track Facilitators which were identified by



different stakeholders, type groups and nominated to act as

the moderators, and also those who will be bringing to us the

message what was discussed now.

So His Excellency will be leaving in just seconds. Let us one

more time applaud and thank for his statement. Thank you very

much.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: It is my pleasure to invite to the lecture the

first high level track Facilitator, Dr. Tomasz Janowski who

was facilitating the 2030 agenda. Tomasz, the floor is yours.

>> TOMASZ JANOWSKI: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Section one focused on the broad theme of the WSIS action

lines and the 2030 agenda responding to the call foreclose

alignment between both processes. The session was takenned by

six high level speakers, including government representatives

from Russian Federation, Guinea because awe and the, the head

of nongovernmental organisations, Commonwealth

telecommunication organisations, international federation for

information processing, and DIPLO foundation.

The speakers covered the issues of infrastructure, services,

legislation, innovation, and entrepreneurship and capacity

building. The connection between both processes was

particularly important for this session. For particular WSIS

action lines included: Action line 1, promotion of

professional ICT communities; 2, mobile infrastructure; 4,

building capacity of local ICT communities, 5, cybersecurity,

6, government regulation and incentives; 7, eGovernment, E

business, eLearning, E financing.

8, local content creation. 10, including policy processes and

11, regional initiatives.

This spread of coverage for SDGs was also very impressive,

extensive. The LDGs covered DG1, affordable social rate for

Internet access for the poor. SDG3, regional health system,

4, education through ICT and educating ICT professionals,

SDG8, broad band infrastructure creating jobs in small

settlements. Sustainable development goals nine, finalizing



entrepreneurship. 10, involvement of small and developmenting

state and inclusive policy processes. SDG11, universal

provision of the Internet to small settlement SDG16, access to

information and inclusive policymaking. And SDG17,

collaborative regulation and policymaking.

As you can see, the topics intersect in various ways along the

WSIS action line and.

The highlighted section to bridge the digital divide to

develop knowledge societies and to enable sustainable

development.

Fresh priorities include innovation and entrepreneurship and

cybersecurity. Opportunities relate to expanding ICT user

base, including the poor and more ways through which we

interact with and through ICTs.

Challenges include slow pace of legislation to match the fast

pace of technology change and lack of local capacity.

Two interesting cases. Mobile payment services from Guinea

Bissau enabling commercial banks to offer loans, microsavings

and other financial products to the poor and universal service

funds from the Russian Federation to connect in the coming

five years all small villages and settlements with populations

of over 250 people with fiber optics in starting 2015-

kilometers of fiber optics based on 1.2 percent levy on the

telecom operators revenue.

The final quote, the SDGs are about leaving no one behind.

Our coal overall is to ensure that no one is left offline.

Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Dr. Janowski, for your

accomplishments and to all panelists. And now it is my

pleasure to invite the doctor Shailaja Fennell who is

moderating the high level panel on knowledge society capacity

building and eLearning.



>> SHAILAJA FENNELL: Thank you. Session 2 which I moderated

was on knowledge society, capacity building, and eLearning.

And we had a very knowledgeable and capable individuals in our

group. We had eight very senior and important responses from

Burundi, Cuba, the former Yugoslav, Macedonia, APT, Unitar and

national library of Latvia.

The key messages that came out of our session in terms of

vision was that knowledge society needed to be both socially

inclusive and to look at social justice because it is in this

way that we will also achieve the sustainable development

goals.

The second objective and vision that was shared by members in

the group was that both the digital divide and the global

north and south as well as the digital divide between the

rural and the urban within national context were equally

important.

In terms of the new priorities that the group set for

themselves and for us at WSIS, is to look at working with

youth. To understand that ICT provision goes from schools to

employment and to the larger society beyond. There was also a

focus particularly for Least Developed Countries of providing

both financial and technical support to prevent them from

falling further behind in relation to digital ladders.

In terms of the opportunities, there was a sense in the group

that both academic and vocational training were important

levers for international collaboration, not just at the

national level but through technology training across the

regions as well as through public data platforms for sharing

digital data.

A key area of challenge that the countries and the

institutions felt was the requirement in an ICT inclusive

world to remember that there would be regular upgrading and

this would mean both time and resources. Both the developed

and Developing Countries because as societies move ahead the

type of ICT that they would need, the areas in which it would

be important would change. So the dynamic setting, not a

static setting that we can review every ten years.



And finally, the case studies that came out most interesting

was the comparison between what is called big data in the

world today and the idea of small data in our first panel

which talked about measurements, particularly the idea of

microlearning. Measuring process rather than the final

outcome. Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Shailaja. Now let me

please invite the Facilitator of the high level panel 3 on the

WSIS action lines and SDGs, moderated by Ms. Karen McCabe.

>> KAREN McCABE: Good afternoon. As mentioned I facilitated

the high level policy session on the WSIS actions in the 2030

Agenda. So a broad mix of discussion on that indeed. We were

pleased to have as our high level speakers representatives of

the U.S., Laos, Mexico and Turkey and a representative from

the oakd.

For the vision, after the multitude of discussion and

tremendous insight provided in our session.

(OECD.)

>> KAREN McCABE: From the 2030 perspective, the digital

economy is and remains a powerful catalyst for growth, and

social inclusion and the SDGs have enabled all sectors of the

countries' economies to flourish. Plooking at it from a fresh

priorities perspective on what might be on the horizon

included open data to create new services and economic growth,

as it can fuel innovation and having stable, regulatory

frameworks which include a friendly platform for investment in

infrastructure so that we can enable new and emerging

technologies that come into the ICT space.

Emerging trends included taking into consideration growing

response from citizens in working in a collaborative

environment between governments and our citizens of the world

where we can potentially crowd source public policies. An

example was an example that was begin was from open data

policy in Mexico which was crowd sourced and based on

thousands of citizens' comments and input.



For opportunities, we were looking at increased participation

of commercial and noncommercial stakeholders in governments

and cooperative and collaborative two-way exchange and

probably even more than two-way change when we take into

consideration all stakeholders participating now and

participating in the future as our ICT technology and

opportunities grow before us.

A stable, predictable and transparent regulatory framework as

well as suggestions for the U.N. to be more active on security

and trust issues which can be best addressed through a U.N.

Forum and mechanism.

Key challenges included how Least Developed Countries than ka

achieve the SDGs by 2030 given the challenges of the current

digital divide, infrastructure investment and capacity

building and skill development.

For case studies, some were definitely mentioned that could be

leveraged moving forward. We look forward to having more

dialogue around them in the future including increasing online

access to education. An example given by La Oh, and there was

a national dialogue in Mexico to improve conversation between

government and citizens for co-creation of public policy.

Again that whole concept of open collaboration and including

all stakeholders.

So I think that concludes our session and thank you very much.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much for this brief. Now let us

move to session 4 on inclusiveness, access to information and

knowledge for all. Which was moderated by Klaus Stoll.

>> CLAUS STOLL: Thank you very much. As was mentioned I was

the moderator for session nosh, inclusiveness, access to

information and knowledge to all. And we had a very diverse

group with complains from Algeria, Bangladesh, Costa Rica,

Iran. But also three Civil Society groups, African Civil

Society on Information Society, the 25th century technology

limited and the health alignment programme.



As you can imagine, in such diverse groups you have a lot of

diverse approaches. But what I tried to do is actually to

find and to describe commonalities. One of the, I found four

which I think is worth mentioning. One of the commonalities

in the speakers was very strong feeling that connectivity

without content is not really connectivity and it is not

something which has to, which makes sense. So a lot of people

really emphasized that if you are talking about connectivity,

we have to also talk about content.

And in that area but also coming on very, very strongly is

locality. Local empowerment, local content, local solutions.

And in that sense also that we are talking of inclusion, but

for example, we are forgetting diversity and languages.

Sometimes we really in the area of forgetting the basics. I

think something that was really refreshing that we came back

to reminding ourselves of the basics.

The conclusion is very obvious but we should mention again

that ICT is basically relevant for all SDGs. There is no,

there is no priority or there is something which is not

relevant to the SDGs, I think ICT has a huge contribution to

all for SDGs and we need to really challenge ourselves to make

use of it.

And last but not least that what I found another commonality

was about awareness and capacity building. This is a basic

necessity for Internet development. It doesn't help us if it

starts with literacy. We need to tackle literacy and then we

can tackle further causes. We have to spend everything from

basic literacy to coding and involvement in high Internet

governance processes. We have to build awareness and we have

to build capacity also because then we are coming to the

question of legitimacy.

What struck me not only in this panel but in a lot of other

panels, I think it is worthwhile mentioning that there was

also a very positive outcome and outlook to a lot of things.

Normally we sit in panels and a lot of people start

complaining. This time there was a lot of people saying okay,



we are talking. Now let's get it done and we can do it!

Let's get going! I think that is an important message.

Sometimes I fear that ICTs, the time of talking is over and

let's get to work. That brings me to a personal point. I

would like to thank the Excellencys and the Delegations for

their cooperation because Excellencies and, because it was not

easy for them to go forward. I want to thank them as

moderator for that. Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Now let's move to bridging the digital divide

moderated by Madam Chinmayi Arun.

>> CHINMAYI ARUN: Thank you. So I was moderating session 5

on bridging the digital divide. We had a diverse representing

USA, Gabon, Japan and as well as representatives of EFIET, the

dot net economic Forum, Euro link France and the ICT alliance.

It was clear from this session that everybody felt that the

digital divide remains a critical issue. And that

contributing factors include problems of infrastructure,

affordability, skills and awareness and relevant content.

People also felt that while people with access to the Internet

shall prospering, the digital gap on both sides of the digital

divide is widening and needs to be addressed rapidly.

The priorities identified in my session included

infrastructure, investment, that is necessary for bridging the

digital divide a transparent regulatory system that doesn't

add to the costs of Internet infrastructure. Utilizing recent

innovations in ICTs to address the digital divide more

effectively. 200 sources, working on skill, capacity building

so users are able to take full advantage of the Internet and

coordination globally and regionally to address this very

critical issue.

Emerging trends identified in the session including private

sector experimentation like Google, Microsoft's Whyte spaces

project and as well as the identification of recent

innovations such as TV Whyte space and solar powered



environments for high-speed data sharing to help bridge the

digital divide in certain countries.

Opportunities that were identified in the session included

experimentation with different ways to bridge the digital

divide. This could be public sector, private sector or

public-private joint experimentation. Global and regional

coordination to work out how best to leverage resources and to

collaborate to address the issue.

Multistakeholder approach in creating policy frameworks that

would be useful towards this. Local language relevant content

that would pursue aged people to come online and use the

Internet in a useful manner and capacity building to deal with

the social and knowledge component of the digital divide.

Challenges that the speakers identified included investing in

and building the infrastructure especially to connect

physically remote areas, reducing costs that are created by

local regulation and taxes. Creating coherent and new trigger

regulatory frameworks and human resources development and

capacity building.

Great and inspiring examples that came out through this panel

included building communities centers in Ethiopia, building

out broadband infrastructure in Gabon and Japan in particular

is collaborating with various countries in different

experiments that included solar powered environment for high-

speed data sharing in Cambodia, wireless Internet access in

the mountainous regions in Nepal, and wireless broadband

systems that use TV Whyte space in collaboration with

Indonesia and Philippines.

Further, the road ahead. The panel identified the world

economic Forum Internet for all initiative that has identified

four factors around which work can be done to bridge the

digital divide. The panel also mentioned that the G7 has made

a joint commitment to refocusing on connectivity. And the

WSIS plus 10 outcome document contains a strong commitment to

bridging the digital divide. Thank you very much.

(Applause.)



>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. And the moderator of the

session 6 was unfortunately called by the emergency and he

could not stay with us. But he will be represented by our

colleague who will present the outcomes of the session 6

later. And now it is my pleasure to invite moderator of

session 7, Anriette, who is moderating session 7 on enabling

environment.

>> ANRIETTE ESTERHUYSEN: Thank you. Thank you, Chair and

thank you for the opportunity for us to do this. This session

focused on action line C6 which is enabling environment. And

the panel consisted of high level from South Africa, Maldives,

Zimbabwe, Cote d'Ivoire and senior representatives from the

African telecommunications union and Nokia. Key points.

Enabling environment is cross-cutting. It is the action line

that under pins all the other action lines and integration of

SDGs as we are moving beyond the agenda 2030.

The starting point is that they need to be a clear vision of

how information and communication and ICTs as part of that can

be a driver for economic and social development without this

vision, a strong vision at national level, one that is adopted

by government, and departments of government, effort and to

get buy in from other stakeholders, it is very difficult to

achieve the necessary enabling environment. We need an

approach that goes beyond focusing on telecom infrastructure

and beyond focusing on market regulation. It needs enabling

policies that will strengthen supply, access for all, but also

demand. The ability of institutions and individuals to make

use of that access, to create content, to innovate. And it

also needs an integrated approach to get the level of human

capacity. Good governance. Investment in business

development and reduction and re-limb nation of tariff that

makes devices unaffordable particularly for poor people, but

focusing on this integrated approach to development, with

human capacity really being at the core of it.

It also needs an environment in which human rights are

respected and enforced. And it needs the free flow of

information and particularly the freedom of expression. It

also needs awareness of exclusion, of gender inequality but



also forms of social exclusion. Enabling policy environment

needs to look at the differences and realities of different

groups of people. And people that live in rural areas. Older

people, people with disability. And this needs to be

reflected in the policy and regulations and the strategies

that are made.

So going forward what should we do more of? Invest in the

integrated approach to an enabling environment. Invest in

development in general. Not just in Information Society

development. There is an inextricable link between

sustainable development and people with inclusive Information

Society development. If it is to achieve access to all, it

should provide predictable environments for operators and

support the petition and encourage the market entrance that

they should also focus on public access. For example, in

libraries or community centers and facilitate community-owned

network infrastructure and solutions. And look at spectrum.

Spectrum regulation both in a predictable way on one hand and

also on the dynamic band.

We need to remember that the WSIS documents are a rich

resource for integration of SDGs. They are practical

proposals in the Geneva plan of action which is all in mind

key ways for that type of information in mind. We should

revisit those and put more emphasis on implementation and

application. And on learning lessons. So enabling

environment needs to be self corrected, self learning. We

need to learn from policies and practices that were not

effective and modify our policies and practices going forward.

We should use Internet governance Forums at national, regional

and local level as a spring board for awareness racing on ICTs

in the ICT sector but also as a platform for learning and

reflecting.

Finally all stakeholders must work together. We need

coordination and we need collaboration and to achieve the

integration that I have been talking about we do all have to

work together at a multistakeholder level, but also at a



national level between different governments, departments,

between education, agriculture, communications, and finance.

That's it.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much for this. As you all

recall, we are reminded.

(Bell ringing.) by our Facilitators when the speakers are

exceeding the time. Now I take the pleasure also to say our

high level Facilitators will use this means to remind about

the time. So now let me invite Elizabeth Thomas-Raynaud who

was facilitating her high level section on the ICT

applications and services. Thank you very much.

>> ELIZABETH THOMAS-RAYNAUD: Hello. Thank you for the

opportunity to share our session with you. Our session looks

at the role of ICT applications and services, as you've heard.

Our speakers came from governments of Argentina, owe man,

Albania, that I land. And joined experts from Oxford

university, Accenture and systemics to consider how the ICT

services could be implemented in different economies to

promote the sustainable development goals.

The vision articulated by our different speakers included

striving for better communication and leveraging ICTs. The

Secretary General of ITU was quoted in that our underlying

goal would be for a better life for all.

The citizen centered approach to eGovernment was highlighted.

The need for user targeted technology, well designed ICT can

increase inclusiveness such as using icons and audio to

overcome things like the literacy obstacle. Looking at

society as a whole and including all stakeholders.

With regard to opportunities identified, in Albania they set

out abroad band national plan for 2013 to 2020. They are busy

undertaking a number of lome regional projects on health,

education and employment. The government of Thailand shared

unique experience using ICTs to help SDGs to. They see this



work as important in developing an economy strategy that will

increase Thai exports.

We heard how the availability of open data will lead to a

revolution in services and we were alerted that we need to be

prepared for this. The investment opportunity of ICT use for

improving life of citizens, for example in preventing road

accidents, can lead to lives saved, injuries avoided as well

as a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions.

Regarding challenges we heard from Argentina that efforts in

their ministry of modernization are being focused on bringing

the citizen into the center of government services. So along

the servant leadership style that Arturo was speaking about.

These services could be used to improve governments

relationships with their citizens.

We heard from our European speakers about the importance of

putting in place measures to facilitate a digital single

market. In that I land challenges were spoken about eCommerce

still being under developed with very few using secure online

payments and challenges of rural engagement from SMEs as an

ongoing challenge that the government is currently working to

overcome (correction Thailand.) they raised the issue of local

language as a challenge given the limited content and they are

trying to address this in Thailand.

We heard that ICT development is indeed important, but

services, whether they be health, banking, mobile payments,

all rely on the proper functioning of networks and that must

not be forgotten.

With regard to the WSIS action lines and sustainable

development goals, Albania highlighted the importance of

leveraging ICT for education as a means for them to address

the digital divide. In Argentina, the mandate of the ministry

of modernization is very much aligned with the eGovernment

action line. And we heard that every single country has

achievement gaps to overcome in striving for sustainable

development goals.



From a recent report on this, assessing the impact of ICT and

sustainable goals we heard highlights that digital will be

indispensable for the sustainable development goals. They

evaluate that ICT can actually help deliver the quality 40

years earlier than otherwise. They also identify that ICT can

help reach 50 percent of the 169 targets that are listed under

the 17 sustainable development goals.

We benefited from hearing about some case studies. In owe man

they have an ambitious initiative where they fill 20 community

knowledge centers and ten of these are dedicated to women.

They made PCs available to those who can't afford it or who

have disabilities. They have youth in their focus. They are

giving them a platform to establish their own businesses.

This is an effort on their, with their SME strategy to fight

unemployment and to give young people the right platform in

partnership with universities. They also spoke about an

important programme they have called invest easy where they

are helping business and facilitating trade and providing 61

services online and they have a framework to establish

business in less than two minutes. For the road ahead ICT

applications and services have an extremely important role to

play in paving the road ahead towards the 2030 Agenda. We

heard that sharing is important. By sharing and including key

stakeholders success can be achieved. Again we heard very

positive and encouraging messages as Klaus was explaining

before. Owe man shared its view that a successful strategy

for projects involved three key elements. Leadership,

integrated platforms, getting away from silos, a silo approach

to working and having the right technology partners. Again

there was a reinforcement that the quality of the network and

its availability would be crucial and that it has this

important impact on the economy, the industrial economy, now

being replaced by the digital economy.

And designing ICT and services to meet the needs of citizens

and factor limitations due to language, literacy, remote or

basic network access. These efforts can bridge the digital

divide rather than increase it. And finally, all countries

must rise to the challenge to meet these goals, but the



digital development provides an opportunity to leverage ICT

applications and services to reduce the time that it will take

us to get there.


(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. And now let's move to the

next session, session 9 on the WSIS and SDGs. One more

reminder that the time is really very short. But I believe

that we will be on time. Thank you.

(Laughter.)

>> NIGEL HICKSON: Good afternoon, Secretary General, Mr.

Chairman, Ambassador, your emplanes, ladies and gentlemen, it

gives me great pleasurer to stand here and make a long

statement. Oh, no, that's the wrong speech! I won't do that.

No, it has been a pleasure to be a high level Facilitator. I

didn't know what one was, but I do now.

So I had the pleasure of facilitating session 9 on WSIS action

lines and the 230 sustainable agenda, financing for

development and the role of ICTs.

And we had an excellent session. And the reason we had an

excellent session is that we had a number of ministers and

experts that were totally committed to being able to look at

the real importance of developing ICTs in their country for

the whole issue and for the whole mission and for the whole

objective of implementing sustainable development goals.

We were fortunate to have the minister for Georgia, for

Paraguay, minister for the State of Palestine, minister for

Sudan and the permanent representative Ambassador for Uruguay,

experts from just net coalition and ECMidici framework for

exoorption.

As I said, Mr. Chairman, it was a very good session and the

key point that came out of this session -- I'm not going to

quote action lines. I'm not going to quote SDGs, but the key

point that came out of this session was the virtuous circle

that we have in this respect. As we use ICTs, as a take-up of



ICTs is accelerated in Developing Countries, in particular,

but in itself reduces the digital divide and that in itself in

a symbiotic way enhances our ability to meet the targets of

the sustainable development goals. So the key issue amongst

the panel was on the acceleration of the use of ICTs. Here,

of course, many development countries had many different

challenges. Many countries have gone about it in a different

way, but I think in our panel we found a common thread to

this. A common thread on the need to accelerate the take-up

of ICTs through education, through the delivery of public

services, to the public and also to the business, in

respecting cultural norms, in promoting the development of

local content. These were some of the issues that were

raised. These were some of the experiences that the ministers

talked about.

And it is much more, as the minister said, than access. It is

a cultural environment. It is taking the ability to implement

ICTs in a holistic manner. Of course they identified

challenges. They identified challenges of cybersecurity.

They identified challenges of complex and difficult

regulations. Especially regulations that perhaps were imposed

on them in Developing Countries from other countries. They

recognised the difficulties of cybersecurity, of data

protection. And of bad content in general. All the ministers

were determined to work on these issues to find solutions.

And there were some great examples in the different countries

on the progress that had been made in terms of updating the

infrastructure, in terms of moving forward with public

services, as I said, in reducing poverty through the

implementation of ICTs.

So what is the vision for the future? I mean, the will panel

we had an hour where we expected to come up with a vision for

the future. Well, we identified certain aspects of the vision

for the future. And I think part of this is cemented here in

this WSIS Forum. The ability for us all to come together here

at this WSIS Forum to hear what we are doing collectively in

our countries,tor learn from one another,tor learn about our

progress. To learn about our successes, to learn about our



failures. To talk about what the ITU, what UNTAD is doing,

what the IGF is doing and other bodies are doing to try to

facilitate the take-up of ICTs in a holistic manner.

I think we had an excellent discussion and thank you very much

indeed for the opportunity to moderate it. Thank you.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much for the brief. And it is

my great pleasure to introduce Madam Marilyn Cade who was

moderating the session on digital economy and trade.

>> MARILYN CADE: Thank you, Secretary General, Chairman,

Ambassador, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. It is also my

pleasure to join you to give a short brief on the section 10,

digital economy and trade. We were welcomed. Malcolm

Johnson, the deputy Secretary General and Ambassador Sepulveda

to join us. We had four countries that came together to

present expert opinions. With he were joined by Indonesia,

Iran, Sri Lanka, and by the United Kingdom.

The vision that became very, very clear is that the digital

economy and trade are in fact essential for all, for the

success of all of the SDGs because we clearly cannot solve the

poverty or food problem or other problems unless we also are

engaged in embracing the digitization of the economy and the

complete integration of digitization that is transforming the

world today, but is even going to accelerate. The second

thing I would say about the vision is that achieving the SDGs

and the 2030 Agenda was viewed as a very common goal. There

was an expression of positivism and commitment that I found

extremely exciting and look forward to seeing actualized as we

go forward.

There was acknowledgment that ICTs can be used to enable

better lives, both socially at the civic level but also

economically. And that the digital economy and the benefits

of the digital economy and digitalization are not limited just

to the business world or to the delivery of government

services but also to improving the work that NGOs and civic

life itself.



As a fresh priority I would emphasize that adapting to the

digital economy was viewed as being required for all citizens

in their personal lives and in their work, and it was

recognised that this will take an accelerated focus on

understanding how to help people build digital skills and how

to adapt themselves to the very fast pace of the

transformation -- the transformative role of technology while

human behavior moves and human acceptance of change moves at a

much slower pace.

In emerging trends we saw a reflection of the increased

engagement of citizens in affecting the design of services

both from the government and also from businesses and the

strong cooperation across stakeholders in working with

governments at all levels and multiple agencies, not in a

single ministry or in a vertical way but across all agencies

to help to design how their government is able to adapt to and

exceed their goals in adapting to the digital economy.

We also heard about the creation of new kind of work and

opportunities that prevent new kinds of work opportunities for

both unemployed youth population but also remotely

distributed, even individual entrepreneurs who are very far

away from a particular urban area but can be brought together

with work opportunities through embracing the role of the

digital economy.

On key challenges we did acknowledge that in the pervasive

digitized world there is the risk of new digital divides.

That capacity building and skills and enhanced infrastructure

access are absolutely essential. We heard several country

examples. They are in the report so I won't reference them

but note that several examples were mentioned by the

governments.

Finally on the road ahead a couple points that I would like to

make. We talked about the opportunity to continue to talk

about these challenges, the integration of the SDGs, and

acknowledge the role of the CSTD, the commission on science

and technology for development, which will be the next -- will

be meeting next week and it will be interesting to see how the



WSIS follow-up and the SDGs and the integration of that work

is taken up at CSTD. We talked about the opportunity and

importance of continue willing to talk about these issues and

the integration of the SDGs at the Internet Governance Forum

in Mexico in December and also to try to encourage the

national IGFs of which there are now about 43, to also take

these issues up.

Finally, the question from the audience, there was an

acknowledgment mailed of the G7 statements made recently and

also a reference to the importance of business engaging in

helping to address the risky parts of the changes and use of

technology as well as the opportunities.

Thank you.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Now let's move to session

11 on bridging the digital divide by Greg Shannon, facilitated

by Greg Shannon.

>> GREG SHANNON: Thank you. It is an honor here. I had the

honor of moderating one of the three sessions on bridging

digital divides. Theetion are real stories of success. We

heard from representatives from Cyprus, Maurice should say,

Zambia, economic and Microsoft, and E world or E worldwide

group and USA.

Last year the SDG matrix linking WSIS action items with SDG

weds. The word access occurred 257 times. Access is a key

component of the digital divide. Speakers agreed that

relevant content and effective use are essential for

meaningful access. The eliminating those gaps are essential

to achieving all of the SDG weds and all of WSIS action lines.

The digital divides are varied. This session showed that

digital divides in access to content are narrowing due to

innovation in public policies, governance, and technology. To

touch on a few items, a few cases here in the participants, in

Cyprus they have achieved 96 percent broadband access. In

Mauritius they use post Os as wifi hot spots to reach remote

communities especially those with limited economic capacity.



Use of universal access funds in Vietnam and Zambia provide

access to remote communities and financially challenged users.

Use of under utilized TV broadband bandwidth by Microsoft in

Africa is reaching remote locations. And Asia training mid

level civil servants about ICT policy and governance has

helped engender broader adoption of ICTs. And use of

application development competitions to empower communities as

active ICT ciewmples, not just passive, by (indiscernible) con

has been a success. The road ahead is that relevant content,

effective users, effective use are key challenges for emerging

as access issues are addressed. And innovation is the

solution to bridging digital divides and the bridging of those

divides will also improve innovation. Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much for the brief and now let's

move to the dynamic environment including sib are security

climate change moderated by Anna Slomovic. I ask the

Facilitators to be short because we are running out of time

and request the interpretation to extend the time by 15

minutes. Thank you very much for your understanding.

>> ANNA SLOMOVIC: Thank you. Session 12 addressed action

line C5, building confidence and security in the use of ICTs,

action line C6, enabling environment and SDG 13, action on

client change.

The session had a diverse panel that included Delegates from

four continents representing governments, intergovernmental

organisations, NGOs and the private sector.

The participants expressed the vision in which client change

would not be a sole responsibility of -- climate change would

not be the responsibility of governments. ICTs would support

the fight against poverties. ICTs can be used to bridge the

digital device an a multishoulder approach can assure that

resources are sustainable and available for generations to

come.

The will panel identified sever priorities in using ICTs for

development. These included creating incentives for ICT



operators to provide services outside urban areas, improving

and maintaining trust in the use of ICTs through the creation

of appropriate regulatory framework, for protecting security

of networks and users, as well as through training of ICT

professionals to build in human rights by design.

Participants identified several opportunities, such as new

legislative and regulatory frameworks during barriers to ICT

development and deployment, using partnerships and economic

development money to deploy fiber on a large scale. Improving

data center environmental resilience and energy efficiency by

taking advantage of new green technologies, and creating

mentorship programmes and toolkits for training ICT workforce

to go account for different approaches in different countries.

Of course, there are challenges. African countries with large

territories require significant investments in order to deploy

sufficient fiber to cover the land area. Telecoms operators

need proper incentives to operate infrastructure particularly

outside cities. There is a need to encourage positive uses of

the Internet while restraining harmful and illegal uses.

There needs to be greater capacity and diversity in the ICT

workforce as well as greater professionalism in the workforce.

Lack of trust in ICTs slow down development and reduces

economic benefits. And issues liken cription are complex and

lack super framing and simple solutions.

Nevertheless, participants mentioned several examples of

success. The session presented a way forward in which

governments work in partnership with all stakeholders to

maximize uses of ICTs and this work is done in a

multistakeholder manner to assure sustainability of resources

and improve quality of life. Thank you.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. And now let me invite Dr.

Cisse Kane, who was Chairing the session on bridging the

digital divide.

And we have request for keeping the time short.



>> CISSE KANE: Thank you, Honorable Secretary General,

Ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, I had the honor to moderate

the session 13 on bridging the digital divide. With

representatives from Guinea, India, and Internet Society. So

the vision was on how to complement digital divide by putting,

by giving -- getting on board people who do not speak

languages of the computer. So this was the core vision.

Taking into account local languages and local cultures so that

we can allow them to be on bowrtd having to be at school, for

example, because some of these people cannot go at school at

all. It is too late for them. Integrating local contents and

they can be helped. This was the local vision. Fresh

priorities and not only business models but also try to take

into account these local cultures and also try to help to get

people concerned about the issues. Not only use fellow,

follow the business model which is, for example, there is lots

of gadgets, lots of fun on it, but concentrate on the

education, for example, and realities and priorities of the

population.

So that they are concerned. And if you allow them to speak

their own language it will help.

About the emerging trends, we noted the software in local

language, like, for example, in India. Also networking events

organised by ISOC in some African countries.

About opportunities, we noticed that some countries like in

Africa the market is really, potential of growth is very high

because Internet access is very low. We have a big potential

there. Cultures and local contents is a huge market for the

business, for example.

And under the key challenges was really about finance because

one of the big challenge of the WSIS process is finance,

access to finance, infrastructure, especially in the

Developing Countries. And also nurture the system by helping

technical skills in emerging and Developing Countries. Also

foster inclusion in rural areas and quality of service. About

examples, we had very good examples from Guinea developing a

national plan and also trying to computerize all Guinean



schools. We also had the networking issue developed by ISOC,

and also the best example was also from India who has very big

investment in access plan, recently developed IXPs in all

Indian countries. And also developing lots of local contents.

The road ahead is really about increasing investment and

infrastructure. The other big issue is how to capture more

resources from the business and from the telecom sector to

invest in infrastructure and also to invest on social aspects

of the digital divide. Means, for example, local languages,

for example computerized schools, for example train and

technical skills.

And also maybe help in developing digital literacy. So I was

really pleased to moderate. It was an honor for me. I

congratulate the organizers for having set up this format.


(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Now let us move to the

session on SDGs which was moderated by Iffat Gill.

>> IFFAT GILL: Iffat Gill reporting on action ryans and the,

financing and the role of ICTs.

We had panelists from Azerbaijan, that anybody I can't,

Portugal, and Tunisia I can't and the vision that came out of

our very interactive session was, number one, zero poverty.

And number two, knowledge is being the powerful catalyst for

up take of ICTs and knowledge being the key to uplift

underserved communities from poverty. Ensuring ICTs for all.

And in Developed Countries need to support Developing

Countries to reach their goals of implementing and financing

ICTs for development. Inclusion of under represented groups,

especially women. Being at the heart of implementing and

financing development through ICTs.

Fresh priorities. Making knowledge and its availability at

the heart of financing ICTs for development. Up take of

broadband and implementation strategies. Digital schools for

inclusion for next generation of leaders, the importance of

SMEs and startups by governments. Role of international best



practices to accelerate progress. And high cost of

connectivity that contribute to the up take of broadband.

Emerging trends that came out of our session, the role of ICT

being a tool for nurturing development and meet of goals of

WSIS action lines and 2030 agenda and things like WSIS Forum

and IGF Forum for inclusive strategies for ICT development.

Opportunities that came out of the session, sharing knowledge

and learning from the best practices in both.Ed and Developing

Countries. Following progress of countries that are involved

in WSIS Forums and Internet governance Forums and looking how

the impact of progress is affecting the countries involved in

it. Facilitating development of Least Developed Countries on

ICTs, such as broadband and public access.

One of the key challenges that came out was the training, or

digital know how, the skills step and aligning them to the

needs of the local community to access knowledge. Case

examples that came out of our session was we heard story of

the national strk plan of Tunisia to develop ICTs, and the

concept of digital schools for children in Indonesia. We

heard how Azerbaijan is financing small and medium startups

and also the impact of hosting Internet governance Forum in

Baku Azerbaijan and how it impacted on shaping p and

implementing policies for ICT development in their country.

We also heard from Argentina and how the Argentinan commit

government commitment, set up a new ministry of communication

in Argentina, only four months old. The road ahead. Working

towards ICT for all, inclusion of all groups in representative

-- under represented communities. Regional and global

cooperation to enable access to all. ICT as a tool for

implementing development and bridging the digital skills gap

by training capacity building of the skilled labor, of the

labor to make use of the ICTs to improve life and eliminate

poverty. Thank you.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. And now we are on to the

last briefing. Last briefing will be done by Madam Lori

Schulman and this session will be on diverse, media, cultural



diversity, heritage, as well as ethical society and knowledge

societies. Ms. Schulman.

>> LORI SCHULMAN: Good afternoon, Your Excellency,

Ambassador, Your Excellencies and colleagues, we are last but

not least, I would say that the keyword that came out of this

session is cyber optimism. This is a very lively and engaging

session on what NGOs are doing to empower communities to

create local content and to create points of accessibility for

all. Three of our panelists represented organisations who won

the 2016 WSIS prizes. They highlighted their initiatives

which are empowering communities through creating local

content and perennial websites, promoting literacy, expanding

the boundaries of technology through virtual reality and

providing opportunities for youth and women in developing

economies. There were three women on the panel including

myself as moderator and vice secretary Johnson sat in the

meeting in place of secretary shale.

We identified that local content is key to connectivity and

accessibility. It is no longer a side bar issue. Also it is

important that sophisticated users continue to share knowledge

with new users of ICTs. It is also important to note we are

using technology that is typically associated with

entertainment for educational, health, and creative arts

applications.

There are many opportunities here to share what has already

been learned from programmes like the WSIS Forum and to reach

out to small and emerging businesses and to encourage them to

participate as representatives of the private sector at WSIS

and other Forums.

There are many challenges identified. Some of the key

challenges were how to provide access for users with

disabilities. How do we keep up with the pace of

technological growth? How do we open up the multistakeholder

model begin challenges with language, funding, use of strip

specific jargon. And digital amnesia. We have to transmit

knowledge and preserve it for future generations. All of the

work of our panelists are linked to the SDGs, specifically



nine of the 17 sph-r SDGs are being addressed through their

work. Some of the examples are the cyber volunteers and

Podera live programme where sophisticated users are teaching

new users. Bridge Africa is creating websites in means of

trade using laptops and phones, Bangladesh, communication is

empower youth and women buy producing local content using

radio and telephone technology.

Where does the road lie ahead? The road ahead is exciting, as

there is a growing awareness of the power of ICTs to bridge

divides and language, culture, and gender equality. While

ICTs are clear economic drivers, the social aspects are

equally important as we advance ICT usage through the creation

of local content, making ICTs relatable to all users, whether

male or female, young or old, urban or rural or whatever

language they speak.

The next steps include working more in local context,

fostering digital literacy and creating a global Internet

citizenry. The programmes of the types described by our

panelists should be supported and expanded wherever possible.

There was a suggestion to include community Brad casters and

academics at next year's WSIS in order to continue evolving

the multistakeholder process. Thank you.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Dear ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.

Thank you to the high level track Facilitators and for all the

efforts. Let's applaud them with one round of applaud for all

efforts and for strengthening the multistakeholder engagement

character of the WSIS Forum. And now we arrive to the

concluding part and the final statements by the Ambassadors

Sepulveda and His Excellency the floor is yours.

>> DANIEL SEPULVEDA: Thank you. I want to thank all of you

for participating. So you know the, all of your statements,

as well as your photographs will be on the Internet, the WSIS

Forum high level policy statements page so that we can all

show back home the work that we did. I want to thank our

expert Facilitators for their success in making this a truly

interactive and dynamic Forum.



What struck me most about the conversations had at the policy

sessions was the positive tone of the discussions. What this

Forum highlighted is that we really are in this all together.

We are all trying to collectively bridge the digital divide,

create enabling environments, and understand how to use the

WSIS framework to achieve the SDGs. Consistent with the U.N.

General Assembly recognition last year, this forel has proven

itself a valuable platform for fult stakeholder discourse and

exchange. I was honored to Chair it. On behalf of my nation

and WSIS organizers we thank you and appreciate you. Thank

you very much.

(Applause.)

>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Ambassador for this

statement. Now it is my pleasure to invite the Secretary

General of the International Telecommunication Union to

provide some remarks but also to perform the ceremony.

>> Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we are

coming the close of the high level Forum session. I would

like to share the opinions and appreciation from our Chairman,

Ambassador Sepulveda, for all the work done by our

Facilitators and also the participation of all of you to this

very importance stanlt meeting. Time is very short. We have

so many sessions here and so many excellent private sector

participants. The topics are very rich and we don't have

enough time. Anyhow, we managed to conclude this high level

sessions by now and I would like to really express my

appreciation to all of you.

I don't want to take too much of your time. However, I would

like to identify one of you, individuals, our Ambassador

Daniel Sepulveda, for his excellent inspiration to the work of

WSIS. Ambassador was the leader for your dedication to the

whole WSIS review last year and he made a tremendous effort to

mobilize resources and mobilize stakeholders to support the

efforts for the WSIS Forum. We do appreciate your

contributions. So this is a small token of our appreciation

for your wonderful contributions to the WSIS Forum. Thank

you.



(Applause.)

>> HOULIN ZHAO: Another tradition, this is the medal we all

wore on distinguished individuals. And this may be your last

time to come to activities out near ... (Speaker away from

microphone.) we would like to congratulate you for all of the

distinguished efforts (Speaker away from microphone.) we

appreciate very much your support of the ITU. Thank you.

(Applause.) may I like to be invite you, we like to have a

group photo with all Facilitators. We don't have much

opportunities to have them here with us. We would like to

invite all of you to come here for the photo and together with

our Chairman of the Forum, Ambassador Daniel Sepulveda.

>> MODERATOR: Maybe in the front?

(The session.

>> INTERPRETER: The interpreters would like to kindly inform

you that interpretation would cease at this point. Thank you

very much.

(The session concluded.)

(CART provider signing off.)

***

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Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided

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be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.

***


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