WS #32 Harnessing Youth Voices to Transform the Data Economy

Summary

This discussion focused on the importance of youth participation in shaping the data economy and digital policies. Speakers from various organizations highlighted the challenges and opportunities in engaging young people in these crucial conversations. They emphasized that youth, comprising a significant portion of the global population, bring unique perspectives and innovative ideas to the table.

Key issues discussed included the need for digital literacy, data privacy concerns, and the importance of contextualizing data solutions for diverse youth communities. Speakers stressed the importance of addressing intersectionality, particularly considering the challenges faced by young women and marginalized groups in accessing and benefiting from digital technologies.

The discussion highlighted several good practices for youth engagement, such as ITU’s Generation Connect Leadership Program and regional youth-focused events like YouthLock IGF. Participants emphasized the need for intergenerational collaboration and the integration of youth voices into governance structures and decision-making processes.

Challenges in youth participation were also addressed, including the scheduling of youth-focused sessions at major forums and the need for more funding to support youth-led initiatives. Speakers called for raising awareness among policymakers and other stakeholders about the value of youth contributions to the data economy.

The conversation concluded with a call for broader inclusion of diverse youth voices, emphasizing the importance of moving beyond tokenism to meaningful engagement. Participants agreed that youth involvement is crucial for creating a more equitable, innovative, and sustainable digital future.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– The importance of including youth voices in shaping data and digital policies

– Challenges in defining “youth” and addressing intersectionality within youth groups

– The need for digital literacy and skills development for youth, especially in rural/marginalized communities

– Creating incentives and mechanisms for meaningful youth participation in policymaking

– Building trust through inclusive approaches to technology development and governance

Overall purpose:

The discussion aimed to explore ways to bridge the gap between youth and decision-makers in the data economy, highlighting the importance of youth perspectives in shaping digital policies and technologies.

Tone:

The tone was collaborative and solution-oriented throughout. Speakers shared insights from their work engaging youth, while also acknowledging challenges. There was a sense of urgency about the need to better include youth voices, balanced with optimism about youth potential to drive positive change. The tone became more reflective towards the end as participants considered next steps and key takeaways.

Speakers

– Sophie Tomlinson: No specific role mentioned

– Mariana Rozo-Paz: Moderator, from the Datasphere Initiative

– Celiane Pochon: Senior Policy Advisor at the Swiss Federal Office of Communications, International Relations Department

– João Moreno Falcão: Lead facilitator for the Youth Standing Group from Internet Society

– Jenny Arana: Program manager at International Telecommunication Union, working on digital inclusion and Generation Connect initiative

Additional speakers:

– Francola John: Caribbean Telecommunications Union

– Gregory Duke Dey: Member of Internet Society, works with Be Tech Connected

– Melody Musoni: Digital policy officer at European Centre for Development Policy Management

– Emad Karim: UN Women regional office for Asia and the Pacific, leads innovation portfolio

– Online Audience (Advocate Zainouba): Cyber lawyer from South Africa

Youth Participation in Shaping the Data Economy and Digital Policies

This discussion, moderated by Mariana Rozo-Paz from the Datasphere Initiative, focused on the critical importance of youth participation in shaping the data economy and digital policies. Speakers from various organisations highlighted both the challenges and opportunities in engaging young people in these crucial conversations.

Importance of Youth Participation

There was strong consensus among speakers on the value of youth involvement in digital governance. Mariana Rozo-Paz emphasised that youth are early adopters and innovators of digital technologies, while also facing unique vulnerabilities in the digital age. Jenny Arana from the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) digital inclusion area highlighted youth as catalysts for innovation and social movements, bringing fresh perspectives and creativity to the table. Celiane Pochon from the Swiss Federal Office of Communications noted that youth are aware of topical issues and advocate for important values.

The speakers agreed that youth, comprising a significant portion of the global population, bring unique perspectives and innovative ideas that are crucial for creating a more equitable, innovative, and sustainable digital future. João Moreno Falcão from the Internet Society’s Youth Standing Group stressed the importance of youth expertise in shaping policies that will affect their futures.

Challenges in Youth Engagement

Despite the recognised importance of youth participation, several challenges were identified:

1. Digital Literacy: João Moreno Falcão pointed out a significant gap between using technology and meaningful participation in digital governance.

2. Trust Issues: Celiane Pochon highlighted a lack of trust in data governance arrangements, which hinders digital inclusion and innovation.

3. Intersectionality: Emad Karim from UN Women emphasised the need to address intersectionality, particularly considering the challenges faced by young women in accessing and benefiting from digital technologies.

4. Defining ‘Youth’: Melody Musoni raised an important point about the varying definitions of youth across different cultures and regions, ranging from 18-35 years in Europe to up to 70 years in some countries.

5. Digital Divide: Gregory Duke Dey from Be Tech Connected stressed the need to address digital inclusion challenges in rural areas.

6. Lack of Representation: Melody Musoni pointed out the lack of youth representation at the IGF itself, highlighting a broader issue of youth inclusion in important forums.

7. Understanding Emerging Technologies: Advocate Zainouba emphasized the importance of youth understanding emerging technologies in the context of territorial integrity and data sovereignty.

Strategies for Meaningful Youth Engagement

Speakers proposed several strategies to enhance youth participation:

1. Institutionalisation: Jenny Arana advocated for institutionalising youth participation in governance structures and showcased ITU’s Generation Connect Leadership Program as an example.

2. Multi-stakeholder Inclusion: Celiane Pochon suggested including youth in multi-stakeholder forums and consultations.

3. Education: Enhancing data literacy programmes in schools and universities was proposed as a crucial step.

4. Diverse Representation: João Moreno Falcão emphasised the need to broaden reach to include more diverse youth voices.

5. Context-specific Approaches: Mariana Rozo-Paz stressed the importance of contextualising data solutions for diverse youth communities.

6. Prioritizing Youth Sessions: Melody Musoni suggested scheduling youth sessions earlier in conferences like IGF to ensure better participation.

Youth for Data Future Project

Mariana Rozo-Paz detailed the Youth for Data Future project, an initiative by the Datasphere Initiative. The project aims to engage youth in data governance discussions through three phases:

1. A global survey to understand youth perspectives on data issues.

2. Regional workshops to dive deeper into specific concerns.

3. A policy hackathon to develop concrete policy recommendations.

The project has reached over 500 young people from 80 countries and has already influenced policy discussions at various levels.

Thought-Provoking Insights

Several comments sparked deeper reflection:

1. Celiane Pochon highlighted trust as a fundamental issue, connecting individual empowerment to broader societal outcomes in the digital space.

2. João Moreno Falcão shared a striking statistic: one child accumulates 72 million pieces of personal data by their 13th birthday, raising important ethical questions about youth data rights and privacy.

3. Ahmed Karim challenged assumptions about young women’s participation in digital spheres, noting that while many are fighting for space, the sector is not providing equal opportunities.

4. Sophie Tomlinson pointed out that 90% of AI datasets come from Europe and North America, with less than 4% from Africa, highlighting the lack of global representation in AI development.

5. João Moreno Falcão emphasized the importance of youth understanding what they are dealing with in terms of digital policy to participate meaningfully.

6. Celiane Pochon stressed the importance of returning to core questions about why youth voices are important in these discussions.

Conclusion and Future Directions

The discussion concluded with a call for broader inclusion of diverse youth voices, emphasising the importance of moving beyond tokenism to meaningful engagement. Participants agreed that youth involvement is crucial for creating a more equitable, innovative, and sustainable digital future.

Several follow-up questions emerged, including how to effectively define youth in the context of digital inclusion, strategies for engaging rural communities, addressing the gender gap in digital transformation, and ensuring AI and language models reflect local cultural heritage.

The conversation highlighted the complex, multifaceted nature of youth engagement in the data economy and digital policy-making. It underscored the need for nuanced, context-specific approaches that consider various cultural contexts and intersectional identities when addressing youth engagement in digital policy and technology development.

Mariana Rozo-Paz concluded by mentioning the Datasphere Initiative’s commitment to the UNICEF data governance initiative, further emphasizing the organization’s dedication to youth inclusion in data governance discussions.

Sophie Tomlinson: sure. Oh yeah, thank you. Yeah, I was saying yes, so great. Great. Brilliant. And we have, so we can see Mariana who’s our moderator, but can also the videos of Celiane and Jenny be activated by the sound technicians? I’m not sure if they can turn on their videos. I can’t turn on mine. But perhaps, yeah, we can have online participants’ videos activated so the people in the room can see us. That would be, that would be great. Celiane and Jenny, are you able to unmute yourselves? And also, I can see we’ve got participants Gregory and Lawrence as well. It’d be great to have your insights for the discussion. So if you can also unmute yourselves. No, they can’t unmute themselves. So yeah, if we can, I see Jenny’s now a co-host, so hopefully she’ll be able to. Okay, I think you’re okay. Yeah, so now I can have my video and now we can see Jenny too. Great. And yeah, so if we can also have the same for Celiane and Gregory and Lawrence, if you’re okay with that, we’d love to see you as well, since we’re quite a small group. Be nice to have as many participants as possible.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: But actively influence the policies and innovations that will define their future. We’re seeing lately that we’re living in a time where youth and various youth communities are more connected to digital technologies than any generation before them. Yet, they’re paradoxically the most disconnected from the decision-making spaces that govern those technologies. They are, in a way, the early adopters, the innovators, and in so many ways, the ones that are most deeply impacted by digital transformation. But not having them in the conversation is creating a series of challenges, both for them and for other actors and stakeholders. This gap is definitely not sustainable. And we’re also seeing that youth are facing unique vulnerabilities in the digital age, from the risks of social media dependency and online abuse, to also being disenfranchised as data subjects. of experiencing both the promise and the perils of digital transformation. So while this is happening, we’re also seeing that policies and technologies that shape their lives are often being designed by those who may not fully understand or prioritize their needs. So we’re seeing different platforms creating services that they’re hoping young people to be utilizing as main users, but they’re not being included as one of the main stakeholders in the conversation. So at the Datasphere Initiative, we believe that to unlock the true value of data and digital technologies for everyone, we must assign much more bolder, inclusive, and creative solutions to engage young people in these conversations. And that means building spaces where their insights, their ideas, their concerns can truly shape data policies and technological innovations to make them more equitable and effective, and actually make sense for the context of young people. So this panel today is an invitation to explore how can we really bridge this gap. And we hope to be discussing issues that matter most to young people today, from the rise of artificial intelligence and generative AI, to climate change, mental health, education, and the urgent need to reskill for the future. We’ll also examine how we can create pathways to engage youth from every region in the world in these crucial conversations. And now before I turn it to our amazing speakers today, which I thank again for joining, I just want to share very briefly about our Youth for Data Future project at the Datasphere Initiative, which has been one of our flagship initiatives over the past two years. So to give everybody some context, around 2023, at the beginning of the year, last year, the Datasphere Initiative was one of the winners of the Future of Data Challenge, which was a challenge put out by the Meteor Network. And we were selected to be able to materialize our youth project, which pretty much sought to address this gap that I was mentioning before. So we’re really seeing that youth are absent from these conversations, and we wanted to explore ways in which we could really bring them in and get them familiarized with the data governance conversation, with data and digital policies, and create spaces for them to engage safely and to be able to voice their experiences and their concerns about how digital technologies are being both developed and governed. So the project has had two phases. The first phase, which was a social media campaign. You can actually, I think, look for us both on Instagram and TikTok as the Youth4Data project. And you’ll see that we launched a social media campaign that sought to engage young people in this conversation. So there are different fun videos. and funny videos, pretty much talking about various data governance topics and really how are young people being impacted and could be engaged in this conversation. And then after that social media campaign, for the past year, we have been engaging youth in the conversation around how would they like new policies to be shaped. So we have engaged young people through a series of youth labs that we have hosted in different parts of the world. And that has also been a very rewarding experience. And our workshop today marks pretty much the end of a very exciting year in terms of engagement. So let me just share some, and I hope that people, so in the room and everybody can see my screen. So this is pretty much a summary of what has been going on with the Youth for a Data Future project. I can share the link to our website in the chat a bit later, or maybe Sophie can post that so that you can all access that. So over the past two years, we have engaged over 15,000 young people through our social media campaigns, through the workshops that we have been hosting and the labs that we have been able to organize. We’ve hosted over seven youth labs and workshops over the year. And as you can see, we have two pictures here. The first picture is from the UN World Data Forum a couple of weeks ago in Colombia that brought together the data community, the global data community. And we were able to engage youth, particularly coming from Africa and Latin America in this conversation. And then the picture from below is from a workshop that we hosted at the COP16, which was focused on biodiversity. It was organized in Colombia this year, and we brought together over 90 young people to think about how data and AI could be better leveraged to address biodiversity change. challenges. And what to me is most exciting and valuable about the project has not only been able to talk to youth directly. And this first picture that you have down here on amplifying youth voices to shape the data future was a campaign in which we engage young people from all of the regions in the world to pretty much share their experiences with data. And what I’m mentioning regarding the most exciting thing is actually being able to translate all of the insights from the project into concrete policy recommendations. So we have been able to engage with the G20. And the process that has been led by Brazil this year, and as well, who’s one of our speakers today can speak more about this. But we drafted together a policy brief, sharing more about the challenges and the concerns that young people are experiencing in the online era. And at the same time, the solutions that they’re thinking about and the possibilities to really create solutions that make sense for the context of various youth communities. And we’re also very proud to announce that we have joined UNICEF data governance fit for children commitment, which is bringing together various partners working on data governance, that response to the context of children and youth. So hopefully, we’ll also be able to share more insights about that in the coming months. And if there is anybody interested in joining that commitment, we will be happy to share more details later. And with that, I I’ll finish my monologue. And I’d love to give the floor to our amazing speakers, I’d love to also give them the chance to introduce themselves and maybe briefly tell us what what what work are they doing with young people, maybe how they ended up working in this topic. And I know that the majority of our speakers were also pretty young. So that’s one of the reasons, but yeah. So for now, I’d like to give the floor to Céliane, who’s the first person that I have right here next to me. So Céliane, thank you. Welcome, and yeah, please introduce yourself. Thank you so much for your introduction. So my name is

Celiane Pochon: Céliane Pochon. I’m joining you today from Switzerland. I’m a Senior Policy Advisor at the Swiss Federal Office of Communications in the International Relations Department, and we mainly work on internet governance, AI governance, and data governance. So that is why I’m here to talk today, and I think I am still considered youth, so I think I can also give my insight working in this field, and I’m very happy to be here today. Thank you.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Thank you. Amazing. Thank you for joining us. And now I see that João is also in the room, but now we can see his face online, which is great. So João, over to you.

João Moreno Falcão: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining. Well, my name is João. I’m Brazilian, and I’m the lead facilitator for the Youth Standing Group from Internet Society. There, we work to empower young voices inside of internet governance-related events through engaging with them, making them create connections inside this ecosystem and last their views and share what they want to the internet of today and tomorrow.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Amazing. Thank you. And now, over to you, Jenny.

Jenny Arana: Thank you so much, Mariana, and nice to meet you, everybody. Nice to see all the speakers and participants today. So my name is Jenny Arana. I’m also joining from Switzerland, by the way, from Geneva. I’m from the International Telecommunication Union and working specifically in the area of digital inclusion. So, I’m a program manager and specifically for this, I’ve been working on youth for the past five to seven years as part of the Generation Connect initiative of ITU, which is an initiative that’s been in place since before the year 2020 and aiming to engage global youth and encourage their participation as equal partners alongside the leaders of today’s digital change. We work together with young people, empowering young people, but hearing the voices of young people, but empowering with skills and opportunities to advance the vision of young people for a connected future. So, thank you very much and looking forward to the conversation.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Love this, amazing. All right, well, fantastic. You’ve heard from our amazing speakers and now I’d like to kickstart the conversation, maybe venturing much more into the challenges. As you can see, we have a diverse and exciting pool of speakers. So, I’d love to ask each of you what issues related to the data economy and youth are you most concerned about? And this can be from like the different emerging technologies that we’re seeing to also development challenges that we’re experiencing as pretty much humankind. So, that can be like climate change or education, but I’d love to hear about your experiences and then what issues related to the data economy are you most concerned about? Let’s start with that question. I don’t know if anybody would like to jump. Joelle, maybe you can start. Oh, Jenny, go.

Jenny Arana: Thank you, Mariana. Thank you so much. Yeah, yeah. So. From the perspective of the International Telecommunication Union, we recognize several pressing issues related to data economy and use, including the rapid development of AI, which raises concerns about ethical usage, as we all know, data privacy, but also potential biases in algorithms that we find that disproportionately impact use, as many other groups as well that are traditionally disadvantaged, let’s just say. But this is not just based on, you know, it’s actually even based on consultations. Recently, we led some consultations with our youth networks, the Generation Connect Youth and Boys, and specifically I’ll talk about one of the groups, the group of, the regional group of Africa, you know, shared their insights and what they consider are the issues that need urgent action and the challenges and opportunities that need to be addressed. So they found that cyber security is a critical issue. The rise in cyber attacks and online threats highlights the need for stronger measures to ensure digital safety, and the youths are disproportionately affected by cyber crime, online harassment and privacy violations as well. So they see the need for enhanced education to build awareness and skills, particularly, of course, among underserved communities. Cyber security frameworks have to, they said, must align with international standards, but also reflecting local realities and focus on gender diversity in cyber security careers is also essential to foster inclusivity. Artificial intelligence they saw, it represents a double-edged sword. Specifically, this group for Africa mentioned that it offers vast opportunities, but also, sorry, vast opportunities such as healthcare, improving healthcare diagnostics, optimizing agriculture, accelerating economic development, but it also introduces challenges, challenges that include ethical concerns and the risk of biased algorithms. So these consultations really highlighted the need for AI systems that are inclusive, ethical, and reflective of the unique context and values of specific regions. And in this case, they talked about the Africa continent. And this requires significant investments in local AI research and development to really ensure that African perspectives shape the technology. Also, to fully harness the potential of AI, they saw that there is a need to develop data science capacity across the continent. And this involves improving infrastructure for data collection and management and fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making. And you were talking about, you know, the example of good practices. And I think that we believe that from the IT, as I mentioned, I just briefly mentioned the ITU Generation Connect initiative. And we have some practices that we believe have demonstrated, you know, how we can meaningfully engage youth participation to really drive impactful change. And some of these examples are youth engagement in policy discussions. For example, through this initiative, we really make efforts to integrate youth perspectives in global policy dialogues by giving these young leaders a seat at the table in high-level discussions. At ITU, what we try to do is ensure that their voices contribute directly to shaping policies that are more inclusive. on the data economy, and obviously this for us includes active participation in forums and consultations, I was just mentioning the consultations that were run in the past two months, where young people can really provide input on their pressing issues, and the pressing issues for their communities, for their regions, such as data privacy, equitable access, ethical AI, and for example these young leaders have shared their views during the different ITU consultations, conversations, and intergenerational dialogues with ITU member states, resulting really in useless, co-created policy recommendations that really we hope is going to influence global agendas. So thank you very much, Mariana.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: I love this answer, Jenny, thank you, very, very comprehensive. Now I’d like to turn over to João, please.

João Moreno Falcão: Thank you, Mariana. Well, I would like to bring two issues, actually, to start. The first one is also in our policy paper we wrote to the T20, but they measured that one child from his birth to his 13th birthday will gather 72 million pieces of personal data. So before you grow, you will already have a huge digital footprint, and we need to bring awareness about this, because they aren’t able to agree on it, and the implications of this amount of data will be seen. well, will be available for their whole life, and the other thing that I really wanted to stress on my talk is regarding the, sorry, I closed the thing, so it’s regarding the digital literacy, so when we have young adults and we usually take for granted their capabilities with technology since we’re already born with like a cell phone laying around, maybe a computer, and the truth is that it’s very different to use it as a tool to communicate and to use it in a meaningful way to be part of the digital economy, so this really needs to be worked on, especially when we think that more than 50% of the global population is less than 25, 24 years old, so well, to me, I would like to give these two provocations about the issues that we face.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Fantastic, João, I think this is going to be very relevant, and I agree, this whole assumption of digital native, or like youth being digital natives is one of the big challenges, so Liane, would you like to share your insights regarding challenges?

Celiane Pochon: Yes, thank you so much, and I think what João said about half of the world being youth is a very big number, and actually, according to research, it’s been the largest generation of youth in history, and I think it will only keep on growing, and youth is very present everywhere, whether we’re just scrolling through social media or studying on digital platforms, we generate massive amounts of data. but there’s a big problem and we have little say on how our data is used or who profits from it, and I think this brings me to the point I want to make and one of the issues I see and we see here in Switzerland is trust. Trust in data governance arrangements and empowering young people and individuals in the digital space is key for the data society we want to have. Without the control over our data we lose trust in institutions and companies and technologies themselves which hinders digital inclusion, innovation and all the other topics that Jenny and Joelle already mentioned. So here in Switzerland we attach great value to inclusive global data governance arrangements and they’re based on the notion of digital self-determination of individuals and stakeholders which means that citizens, businesses, young people, everyone should be given the opportunity to decide for themselves how their data is being used and we want to underline the importance of trust and adaptability from all sectors including public-private partnerships to help address these critical issues. And maybe an example I can give you is that in Switzerland we have set up a national network on digital self-determination and it consists of public administrations so the government, me for example, universities where we find a lot of young people not surprisingly, but also industry and civil society and in this network all these people work together to develop shared approaches on how to give maximum control on data to citizens and the individual organizations and we’re very happy to share that we have many young people, many young students involved in this network who can give their very own perspective

Mariana Rozo-Paz: on this. Thank you. This is very very valuable, thank you Celiane, and in a way the fact that, yeah, what you were mentioning, trust is kind of like the foundation of the challenges that we’re seeing. And it’s kind of like something that’s not only present when it comes to digital technologies, but also in terms of how we’re addressing various sustainable development challenges. This is something that we’re hearing from climate and nature activists on how they want to trust the people that are making the decisions. But for that to happen, they want to be involved in that conversation and they want to see how are they really bridging the gaps that they’re experiencing in their communities and really addressing the challenges that they are facing or that they see other people are facing. So I think that you’re highlighting a very, very important point. And I think that given that point, I think we can actually think about potentially the good practices to engage youth effectively, to be really able to advocate for their perspectives on the data economy. I think that the majority of you have already touched on the solutions that in your context are being developed to be able to include youth much more effectively. But coming back to this issue of trust, I think it would be very interesting if you could maybe highlight again or highlight an example of good practices that you’re seeing out there in your context or maybe that you’re aware of that are really engaging youth so that they can effectively advocate for their perspectives on the data economy and that are contributing to fostering trust. So, yeah, Jenny, why don’t we start with you again for this one?

Jenny Arana: Thank you. Thank you so much, Mariana. Absolutely. Yeah. And as I was mentioning before, you know, bringing really young people to the table and having those policies. This discussion is very, very important and as we mentioned before, we must first of all recognize that young people are not just beneficiaries of policy but essential contributors and practices that provide a model for other organizations and stakeholders to ensure that young voices shape the future of the data economy are very important. I’d like to highlight a program that we are leading at ITU that’s called the Generation Connect Leadership Program. This is a very exciting program, I believe, that aims to engage, empower, and inspire young digital leaders and change makers and leaders in their own communities. So through this program, we are supporting young visionaries from around the world that have really come up with proposals for creative, far-reaching, innovative, and feasible community-driven projects that are aimed at creating a more inclusive and empowered digital future for their people, for their communities. So in partnership with other organizations such as Huawei, we are providing guidance, training, financial support to 30 young fellows that, per year, we help them to practically implement these digital development projects in their diverse communities across the world. And of course, through the program, besides taking their own projects to the next level, we’ve found an opportunity to bring them to the core of policy and digital development discussions that happen at ITU year by year and the connections that they can make with all sorts of stakeholders that attend our meetings. So I think that it’s very, very, very important, as we mentioned and as others have mentioned before, to really find these intergenerational opportunities. for dialogue exchange and for proposal of solutions to digital development issues. So, thank you, Mariana.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: So important and thank you for highlighting that, Jenny. João, is there anything you’d like to point us to?

João Moreno Falcão: Yeah, definitely. I would like to talk about an example of a project that helped to empower the young voices. It’s the YouthLock IGF. The YouthLock IGF is a project co-organized by the Youth Standing Group. Our last event happened in November. We had three days, 117 people from all over Latin America together in Santiago to discuss and think of the internet future and how we can fit our imagination, our plans inside of the digital economy. It was really enriching. It was the biggest one that we made so far and we had 15 on-site countries represented there and 43 if we count online too. So, this kind of events really can foster further discussion into how we can better participate and also share the perspectives from different regions.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: This is fantastic. Thank you for highlighting that. As a fellow Latin American, I pretty much appreciate those efforts. So thank you for pointing that. And so Leanne, what about you? Is there anything you’d like to share with us?

Celiane Pochon: Yes, I think one very topical example is what we’re doing here today, actually engaging in different for us. For example, here, the Internet Governance Forum at the global level, but also as Joao mentioned, at regional and national level. So in Switzerland for our last Swiss IGF, which was last summer, we had more young voices around the table and young people are interested and want to be part of the conversation. So I think opening up the space to them is key and including them in these multi-stakeholder forums, technology summits, and in all policymaking consultations, we can allow them to not only be consumers of the technologies, but also contributors to them to have a fairer and more equitable data economy and governance landscape in a whole. So I think that’s a first thing we could do. And Switzerland very much believes in the multi-stakeholder fashion. So we also want to include all these voices. And then again, maybe to link with what Joao said previously on data literacy and digital skills, enhancing programs in schools and universities. For example, in Switzerland, we have two universities, the EPFL in Lausanne and the ETH in Zurich, where there are programs that focus on building data literacy and critical thinking amongst young people. And we want to prepare them, or the professors want to prepare them to engage meaningfully in the conversations about the data economy, about AI and digital transformation as a whole. So we can see that all these different initiatives that happen at different levels, which is also very important, they combine capacity building, they combine education, and they give young people, youth a platform to participate. And it’s about giving young people the tools to participate, but also ensure that their voices are included in the policy dialogues and in the decision-making processes. Thank you.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: I love this, Liliane. Thank you so much for pointing it out. And I feel that I’m going to kind of take the freedom, because I’m moderating, to also answer my own question. I just wanted to highlight something that’s actually very important or that we’re seeing much more often. Because we’re seeing big organizations like the ITU being able to establish these programs, right? And that is very valuable. But then we’re also seeing that there are many different youth local experiences and projects and initiatives that are pretty much being born all across the world to tackle very specific challenges that youth are facing with technology. And one of the challenges that we’ve been identifying at the Diaspora Initiative is the funding gap that exists to really be able to translate all of these small initiatives into bigger impact projects, so that people can really have the sustainability to have their projects and to impact the communities that they want to impact or somehow touch upon. So I wanted to point out to one funding effort. I just pasted the link on the chat, which is the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund, which was put out by the Amedia Network, but also a coalition of funders that are interested in funding young people to really drive a much more inclusive and equitable technology ecosystem. So it’s a very interesting philanthropic initiative that is aiming to support youth and intergenerationally led organizations that are seeking to shape a much more responsible technology movement. And that can be either at the design of technologies. but also at the policy level. So this is just something that I wanted to highlight because in a way, I feel that these policy spaces are also key spaces for us to be discussing what else do we need? And in order for all of these good examples that our great speakers have highlighted, how could we really bring in the resources that are needed to make sure that not only the, as Salim was pointing out, the global or the regional efforts are funded and supported, but also how could we translate all of these multi-stakeholder collaboration and efforts into funding and support for all of these youth initiatives that are in the end responding to a very specific context and bringing value to very specific communities that are in many cases, not including in this global governance conversations and are equally important to be able to learn from them and really shape the conversation at the global, regional and national levels. And so with that, I would like actually to, and I think as Sophie mentioned at the beginning, we want this to be an interactive conversation. We’re a close, small, nice community in this session today. So I’m seeing that Francola is also pointing to a youth corner on the chat. I don’t know if maybe Francola could be granted Coho’s rights so she could maybe speak about this. And I know that we also have Gregory in the room who was sharing some insights earlier. So I don’t know if any of you or anybody else joining us in person or online would like to chip in in terms of any initiatives that you are aware of or challenges that we have definitely not mentioned because I think that, yeah, we have not been fully exhaustive. So yeah, Francola, I don’t know if you can unmute. yourself. I think I’ll ask you to unmute.

Sophie Tomlinson: Yeah, sorry, Mary. I’ve been told by the people who are the technical teams that are in the room at the moment that they can’t unmute anyone who wasn’t listed as a speaker, unfortunately, because they’ve had some security kind of just challenges throughout the IGF that they need to stick to this policy. So it looks like unfortunately, we can’t hand the mic to Frankola, because it would be great to actually hear you and you’re sharing all these very I managed to, to, to give her

Frankola Chan: I forgot. Okay, so I can’t speak now. Are you all hearing me? Oh,

Mariana Rozo-Paz: amazing. Great. There you go. Try again, Frankola. I think you’re mute again.

Frankola Chan: Okay, can you hear me now? Yes. Okay, good. So I am Frankola Chan from the Caribbean Telecommunications Union. And the CTU is a CARICOM organization with 20 member states in the Caribbean. So we do fall under the Latin American and Caribbean bracket, but we’re focused mainly on the Caribbean and we work very closely with the ITU and CTEL. So even this year, I was highlighting that we had the Secretary General of the ITU in the Caribbean attending our ICT week. And I am the focal point for the CTU’s network of for the ITU network of women, and we just recently established our own Caribbean CTU network of women. And that focuses also there’s an overlap with the youth. So we also have a youth envoy in the person of Ms. Nia Nannan.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. That’s amazing. In a way, as a gender activist myself, I’m always very happy to hear about all of these women’s initiatives. So thank you for sharing that. I don’t know, Gregory, if you want to maybe speak out loud about your comment that you posted in the chat, because I think that participants in person cannot read that. Maybe we can try to do something similar as we did with Fran Cola, asking you to potentially unmute. If not, yeah. Can everyone hear me? Yes. Great. Yeah, that’s good. Thank you for the opportunity. Yeah, once again,

Gregory Duke Day: my name is Gregory Duke Day. I’m a member of the Internet Society. And I also work with a group called Be Tech Connected. Ideally, most of the points that I’ve put together is in the chats, but I was looking specifically at policymaking. And I gather from a previous session on how quick or how fast these policies go in terms of its approval, looking through it, trying to understand the various parts of this policy and how that works to our effect. Ideally, I believe that as the future or as people with great sensibilities, we have knowledge, we have skills of all of these important technologies, it is important that we are also included in policymaking across various levels. That way, we are able to relate with the kind of activities that go on, the kind of challenges that have been shared across many, many times, and that we’re able to contribute meaningfully to all of these policies. Ideally, we would grow to a point where we would also have to share all this knowledge to those who are coming behind us, and it would be important for us to understand and start to educate people around all these policies. So once we are giving, or within the process that we have been given, chances to contribute meaningfully to these policies, we’re also able to carry them into the future, and we’re able to give back to those who are coming with us. And finally, speaking to the inclusion aspect, well, some of these are governmental, but for the most part, it has to do with rural areas and infrastructure that is bridging the digital divide or the digital gap between those areas. Also, the accessibility of these technologies to persons with disabilities, that way we’re not leaving them out, we’re also including them, because they also have some skills, some knowledge to share on all these phenomenons that are happening, really. And then finally, around creating something that is relatable to countries. So ideally, creating or bringing about certain technologies or elements within those technologies that can help in creating some context-specific. So for example, languages, in terms of the technologies that we create, once we’re able to try and fashion or create these technologies within certain languages for certain countries, we are able to have a unified force, I would say, for the future of technology. Right. Thank you.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Thank you, Gregory. That was very valuable. This is really great. And I think that you’re raising a very important point regarding also the digital divide and what real digital inclusion means and how, of course, that means something very different in different communities, in different regions, depending on the specific context of the community that we’re thinking about. I’ll actually share on the chat the link to one blog that we drafted lately based on some of the conversations that we have been having with young people, particularly in Africa and Latin America. And one of the things that they highlight, I mean, actually two things that they highlight. First is the importance of contextualizing data and how sometimes even if we do have data about young people, we need to make sure that we’re really contextualizing and having context-specific data solutions that reflect the challenges and needs of the diverse youth communities. And then the other thing that they have highlighted extensively is how rural communities are facing barriers to digital inclusion and data access and how, in the end, including rural communities is not only a matter of building the connectivity infrastructure, but also designing tools so that in terms of literacy and education, people have the skills. And as I think Solian was pointing earlier, even the critical thinking skills and kind of the soft skills so that they can navigate technology with much more awareness. So I wanted to highlight that and thank you everyone for participating in that first section. Now I want to dive deeper into the challenges that we’re facing in terms of international and global policy to really bring young people together. We’re seeing in many cases…

Sophie Tomlinson: Sorry, Gerard was just trying to speak, I think.

João Moreno Falcão: Sorry, Mariana, for cutting you, but we have a non-site participant that wants to speak too.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: This is fantastic. Yeah. Great.

Melody Musoni: Thank you so much. My name is Melody Msoni. I work as a digital policy officer for a think tank called the European Centre for Development Policy Management, or ECDPM. So mine, it’s more of observations. Maybe let me start with one question, define youth, because I’m coming from a country where people who are in their 70s, they still qualify as youth. And then living in Europe, normally it’s between 8 to 18 years to 35. So that’s the first question I have. And then when it comes to my observations, we are here at the IGF. I was expecting this room to be full. There is two of us here on site. But if you go outside, there are so many young people who are sitting in the lobby right now. So I was wondering, like, why is that there are not a lot of young people in the room? And why is it more people are participating? Young people I see is that 42 participants online instead of being here. So it’s just an observation. I hope you’ll be able to look into that to see what are the reasons. And just thinking about that, I also thought perhaps for future platforms and engagements like this, it helps if your session is to be prioritized, maybe the first or the second day of IGF, because the last day, it’s very difficult to rope people in. And then having these discussions, I think it also helps if we have more senior policymakers who are also part of the conversation. Because they also have that pool to bring people in into the conversations. So I think those were my two observations. And I also wanted to say that perhaps that could be an additional question that can also help you in future engagements to say what is exactly different about the youth. Because all the issues that you are raising, they apply to women, they apply to everyone. So why exactly is it important for us to talk specifically about youth and issues on inclusion and data? So I think being very clear in articulating why it’s important for us to focus on youth, it actually helps in pushing the agenda and pushing the, I guess, achieving the objectives that you have to, that you intend to achieve. And then there was a comment again that I also agree with, issues on rural communities and engagements. I think just from listening from all the conversations here at IGF, people tend to be very superficial when it comes to marginalized communities. I’m originally from a very marginalized community, even up to now. It takes me so long for me to get hold of my family because they still don’t have access to the internet. And some of the people in my village, they still don’t have phones, so they have to use someone else’s phone. So when we are saying that we need to engage rural communities, what exactly do we mean by that? So at least if we start thinking about what role can secondary schools in these communities play? Because a lot of people in rural areas, they go to school very late. So you find someone is in their 20s, but they are still in high school. And that’s youth. And you should be engaging with them, not just engaging with people who are already in college or who are already in universities. So I think that there is more that can be unpacked and trying to pull in the senior policy makers to be in the room and actually demanding that your sessions must be prioritized because if we have it on the last hours of IGF, there will be less interest in people participating in your… in your session, thank you. We have another question.

João Moreno Falcão: Hello, so do you think we have enough time for another intervention from one of our colleagues here?

Mariana Rozo-Paz: I think we do, that’s all right. Maybe we should address these first three questions and then we can answer the others because I see someone online has a comment too. So actually, thank you for that. I absolutely loved your comments. Regarding youth kind of age and range, I agree that it’s a pretty diverse group and I’ll hand it over to our speakers so that they can also share with us how they see this. And I think that in a way, every organization or community or forum even is defining youth in a very different way. So, and in a way, I think there are some like policy interests behind that, either because you want to expand the pool and be able to include much more people or even if you’re thinking about engaging them in the conversation, if you have people under age that involves additional challenges of getting parents approval. So I think that it kind of depends, at least in the Data Sphere Initiative, we have been involving youth or considering that youth are those people from around 13 or 15 years old up to 25 or even 29. So it can be a pretty broad range. Thank you for your comment regarding the time and day of the event. And as Sophie was pointing on the chat, this is a challenge that we have been witnessing that’s not only true for the IGF, but actually for many other forums on internet and data governance. For the UN World Data Forum. actually, our youth workshop was barely the last session on the last day, last time. And that is a challenge that I think we can all advocate together for, to make sure that we really can have a much more meaningful participation, not only of policymakers, but also of the youth, so that they are aware of what are the sessions they can also participate in, and will actually be hopefully harnessing their voices. But I want to stop here, because I know that we have an amazing pool of speakers. So I don’t know if anybody has any comment regarding the conversation around digital inclusion, or how we’re defining youth, or rural communities, and also why are youth particularly important, which I feel is kind of the key question that we don’t only want to answer today, but the policymakers are trying to answer worldwide, in terms of which communities to involve in the conversation and why. So yeah, this is kind of free. So I don’t know if Joao, Silviane or Jenny have any comments in that regard.

João Moreno Falcão: Okay, so I can go. About why we need to include youth specifically, not only like specific marginalized communities, is that they have a very, when we talk about like the most stakeholder approach, we are a group with specific characteristics, like, how can you define someone that is it’s just started in the internet governance space without a proper stakeholder group, like, we will call them researchers because they were in college, we will call them private sectors, because they just got into a job. So this really showcases that this group isn’t already included in the multi stakeholder approach. And about the aspirations are different too, because the things that I suffer are completely different than the issues that a woman suffers because she is a woman. So it’s good to have this difference, because we cannot put everything in one place and say that we will address it. And yeah, I believe this is it.

Jenny Arana: If I may, can I? Yes, of course. Yeah, thank you, Mariana. No, I mean, I think, of course, you know, when looking at every group, you know, the work that somebody mentioned, women’s empowerment, gender, etc., there’s intersectionality everywhere. And it’s important to take that into consideration. But here, why are you so important? Well, there’s a very important reason. There’s a demographic power, 1.2 billion people across the world, you know, that’s power. There’s a lot of people that, you know, are a significant demographic group. And in some regions, particularly in developing countries, they actually form the grand majority of the population. Young people are also, you know, and in the topic that we’re discussing today, they’re catalysts for innovation, you know, bringing fresh perspectives, creativity, technological fluency, and are found to be key drivers of innovation. But also, as we have seen across, you know, generations and historically, young people have also been at the forefront of social movements and advocating for the rights of everyone, not only their own rights, but the rights of a lot of, you know, older people, women, etc. And I think that that’s a very important, you know, thing to keep in mind when we are discussing these issues. And yes, of course, we can always look at intersectionality. I think when I introduced myself, I said that I work on digital inclusion and we actually look at this from the perspective of different target groups, but there are intersectionalities. For example, we work on the topic of ICT accessibility, but we’re not only looking at persons with disabilities, we’re looking at all sorts of people, looking at older persons that perhaps can no longer hear well and there are many, many different technologies that can put, can help them better integrate and better take advantage of what’s today, what the benefits are of today. For example, let’s talk about e-health, let’s talk about different areas of life and, you know, education, having access to digital skills, et cetera. So I think that, yes, we have to look at intersectionality, but also there has to be space for specific groups and for us to look at their specific needs. Yes, there will always, you know, many of the issues in the world are important to be looked at through the perspective of different groups, but why not give each of these groups a specific focus so that we can actually look at the possibilities that we have to tackle them. So thank you, Mariana.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: I absolutely love your answer, Jenny. I really have nothing else to add. I love this notion of intersectionality and I feel that that’s literally it when it comes to thinking about digital inclusion. So thank you. Now, I know that we have another question from somebody in person, so maybe we can get that draw and then we can, the organizers have asked me to tell people online that if anyone wants. to talk, you need to put your camera on and write your full name and that’s the only way in which they will allow you to speak. But for now we can have the participant in person to ask the question. Thank you.

Ahmed Karim: Thank you so much, everyone. My name is Ahmed Karim. I’m from UN Women, regional office for Asia and the Pacific, and I lead on innovation and the US portfolio in the office. Just adding into the conversation of intersectionality, and I think it’s one of the challenges when we talk about youth issues, that we talk about youth as a homogenous group. And with that intersection between youth and gender, bring in the angle of young women, which is half of the population of youth, that is kind of, you know, discredited and kind of seen as part of that bright future of digitalization and youth. And I think when we look at that bright future of young people are the most avid and take saving and like leading on the innovation, it’s like, it’s also like shades light and that young women are also part of that, which is not true. I think there are a lot of amazing women leading in the digital spheres, they’re fighting really hard to find the space, but the sector is not really giving them that full space or an equal space. I’m just going to mention three, like, you know, either new studies that were saying first one from the World Economic Forum, women are going to be the most affected by job loss due to digital transformation. The second one is that women are less likely to use AI and emerging technology in the workspace because of all of, you know, access, work environment, male dominated sectors and all of those kind of thing. And the third one is that women are also the most affected by the misuse of technology and AI for technology-facilitated violence. This is just like a glimpse of the reality of what young women are dealing with in this sector and I think they are not well represented in the conversation where it’s really bright and futuristic and shows that technology is working for young people. It’s not for everyone and that intersectional angle that you can go even deeper and you’re going to uncover an ugly reality of digital transformation, the more you go to more intersectional layers. A young woman with disability, a young woman with disability in a rural area, a young woman with disability from a minority. So it’s really hard just to see a lot of this conversation within IGF and within international communities and talking about the potential without having to put that angle into perspective. I look into specific programming, resources, funding, policy changes that is more specific, more gender-specific, more targeting young women and I wonder if you have some reflection on what could be done to accelerate that progress. We missed an opportunity when the internet came out. We missed an opportunity when social media revolution came out and we left a lot of women behind with a wider gap that is getting even wider with the AI revolution. So how can we catch up, making sure that women, other genders, other marginalized groups like young women are catching up with that technology and benefiting from that sector, not just as a user, but also shaping the infrastructure of this new revolution. Thank you.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Absolutely fantastic question. Thank you so much for that. I am going to hand it over to Nosipo. I think you can unmute yourself now so that you can ask your question and then we can take questions.

Online Audience: Thank you very much. I’m Advocate Zainouba from South Africa. I’m running a practice that focuses on intellectual property, cyber law, ICT law, that is now small-scale mining, and international trade law. Of course, AI is included there. And I’ve done a lot of research. In fact, I’m a cyber lawyer by education and by profession. I also have been part of lecturing at UNISA, the Faculty of Law, the oldest university in South Africa, and I’m responsible for the same. But the reason I felt I need to participate here is because I’m part of the South Africa IGF. Probably, in line with what my colleague was talking about, you might have to look at how we are dealing with IGF in South Africa. We open the curtain with youth. What that does, it gives the traction across the whole program, and it makes them to participate right through the program. So the focus, and it’s informed by our understanding of the sacrosanctcy and the role youth play in everything that we do, because the youth are the ones that must be made through social cohesion to understand that emerging technologies for Africa must emerge from Africans for Africa. And that is part of the indoctrination that we need to do as part of data sovereignty and as part of AI sovereignty. Yesterday, we were in a session where we were talking about all the capabilities that are coming from other jurisdictions being coming to the South. And it is important for the youth to be able to understand what that means. in terms of territorial integrity. I happen to be in the military, so for me territorial integrity is a non-negotiable. And for as long as our youth have not got into what that means in terms of technologies, in terms of systems, in terms of infrastructure, because we do have youth that has brains, youth that understands technology, and in the deep rural you have youth that is having so much creativity. We have youth that is able to generate energy from back of trees, as we speak. But if we don’t harness that by making sure that they are in the forefront and they are made to understand that the future is in them, we will miss the game. But my question then is, how do we ensure that our youth are able to to utilize the skill sets that they have, right, to improve the home ground? Because for me the challenge we have at this point is our youth that acquires the skills and then they go and use it somewhere. Europe is full of youth from South Africa. How do we enable the youth to be able now to, yes, act globally, but ensure that they embrace where they come from, so that we are able then to improve even the LLMs that we’re talking about, because those LLMs must talk to our cultural heritage, and the cultural heritage is embedded in those engineers that are currently in Brazil, in Asia, in Europe, in Australia, but they are from South Africa. How do we deal with that? Thank you.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Thank you very much for that question. I want to turn it back to our speakers to see if any of you would like to answer one or the two questions. If you have any insights or anything you’d like to share, any thoughts regarding those very thoughtful questions.

Celiane Pochon: I think maybe if I may, just without answering the question, but just thanking everyone for all of these statements, questions, interrogation, provocative thoughts. And I think, at least for me, these are things I will take back and try and reflect on. And I can’t answer them in a, you know, thought out manner right now. But they’re definitely things I will take back with me and think about and try to act on in, you know, our everyday work. Thank you for that. Jenny, Joao, anything you’d like to share? Sophie, would you like to share that out loud, potentially?

Sophie Tomlinson: Yeah, sure. No, thank you so much, everyone, for these invites and Nospio for what you were saying. I’m just sharing a study in the chat that came out this week that looked at the types of data. What is the data that’s building AI right now? I think some of the findings are things that we know, but it’s nice to have concrete evidence emerging to show this. That it’s pretty shocking how 90 percent of the data sets for AI are coming from Europe and North America and less than 4 percent coming from Africa right now. So I think these points of. the need for inclusive approaches, and also the point of intersectionality to how is AI going to actually fit the needs and resonate with young women in Africa, for example, or as the speaker from UN Women was saying, how is, to his point, what even about young disabled women from a rural part of Africa, if we can’t even get the data that’s built into AI right now, just reflect the whole world, we’re in deep trouble. So I think this is something to further discuss.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: I agree. And I absolutely love that, Sophie. Yes. And in a way, that is the big challenge that we have right now, in terms of coming back to Sulian’s point at the beginning, how can we build technologies in a way that we’re fostering trust. But in order to foster trust, we need to think about all of these intersectionalities, all of these communities, and how they relate in the end. And if we have this very big percentage of the population worldwide nowadays being youth, knowing that it is a very diverse pool of people, and it is not just young people with the same level of privileges and opportunities and challenges, but that the youth community is actually a very diverse community, not even worldwide, but like just even thinking about one country, we cannot even categorize youth as just like, oh, the, I don’t know, Swiss youth, but it’s actually very different and diverse communities within one country. And this is something for us to keep on thinking about. So thank you for bringing it up. I wanted to ask one last question to the speakers before we wrap up. And I think this connects to everything that we have been discussing regarding incentives and the need to actually raise awareness among this adult community, and this adult community can be policymakers, governments, private companies, international organizations, and the importance of youth voices and to enhance their participation in policies and the design of data-driven technologies. So I’d like to ask our speakers what incentives are needed to raise awareness among this community about the importance of involving youth. And if you have any examples of efforts that could be implemented by different types of stakeholders to make sure that in the end we can really build technologies in this base foundation of trust, because I know that this is pretty much one of the challenges that we’ve been discussing, and how can we really raise awareness and have the right incentives. So, João, why don’t we start with you with that question?

João Moreno Falcão: I’m sorry, I had to help with something. I need one second to think.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: No worries, no worries. Maybe, Jenny, would you like to take that question first regarding incentives to the adult community?

Jenny Arana: Yes. Are you hearing me well, Mariana?

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Yes, we can.

Jenny Arana: Okay, I lost you for a little bit, but thank you so much. So, all the incentives, right? So, I think that to really foster meaningful recognition of youth contributions to the data economy, it is truly essential to provide targeted incentives that bridge generational gaps in the understanding and engagement of youth. First, policymakers, governments, and private sector really have to acknowledge the unique expertise and innovative perspectives that youth bring and the unique views. And by highlighting the creativity, the insight, and the perspectives, stakeholders can really recognize young people as valuable contributors in the digital transformation. One way is to institutionalize youth participation. That’s a crucial step. This can be achieved by integrating young voices into governance structures, and there are policy working groups, committees, advisory boards, but of course we have to avoid that these mechanisms become something where youth participation and use are tokenized, but that actually become a core part of decision-making processes, and it’s important, I think, when we can think about funding and resources, and specifically for youth-led initiatives, to really provide a tangible incentive for the active involvement of these youth networks. I think that showcasing success stories of youth-led initiatives, and I think we all have shared from the different organizations that we represent and the different work that we do, these success stories can really serve as a powerful evidence of the positive impact of youth involvement, and really highlighting these achievements should inspire confidence among what we’re calling the adult community, and encourage broader support for integrating youth perspectives into the economy, and so various stakeholders can take concrete actions to empower youth and ensure the inclusion of these demographics in shaping the data economy. And from the side, I think, of international organizations, we can make efforts to foster this intergenerational collaboration and equipping young people with the knowledge and the experience that is required, ultimately, to influence global digital policies and the conversation on digital development as a whole. So thank you so much, Mariana.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: That was great. Thank you so much, Jenny. So Leanne, I’ll turn it over to you.

Celiane Pochon: Yes, thank you. And I’ll build this on what Jenny just said, because it really inspires me. I think we also need to highlight the intergenerational impact of the digital decisions and provide clear examples how youth participation enhances innovation, enhances equity, enhances confidence, enhances positive outcomes, not to only focus on the challenges and maybe the more negative side, which is also very important, but also to see how we can highlight innovation. And everything I just mentioned, I think this could talk to the adult community and help them decide in what way they want to shape the policies and different designs for the technologies. And I think one thing also the youth community, we have, which is very important, is that we’re aware of topical issues in the world and the problems the world faces. We have a very raised awareness of social justice, equality, inequality, and we can also help to have this be at the forefront of new policies, to have this aspect be taken into account. And I think we have very important values that young people, we advocate for, and I think we can really put them in the forefront. And I think just ensuring youth voices are heard and are heard. in the discussions and the development is only ensuring the future generation has access to the knowledge and to the tools to continue innovating while preserving core values such as human rights. And I think this approach of including youth now for the future can only lead to a fairer and more innovative and equitable data economy that can benefit everyone now but also in the future. Thank you.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Thank you. Thank you, Zilian. That’s very, very valuable. João, over to you.

João Moreno Falcão: Thank you. So, yeah, we definitely I will speak complimenting again what has already the other panelists has already said but we need to bring awareness about the advantages of having youth on board in the decision making, in the policy making about the digital economy because, yeah, we can bring novelty, we can bring other points of view that are very, very important to develop a specific direct policy. So, in this sense having a more diverse participation and, well, when we are thinking of developing projects to youth they are the group that better understands what they are dealing with. So, it’s definitely a group that needs to be included in this process.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: You’re right. Thank you, João. Well, I want to thank everybody for joining us. Thank particularly our speakers who have been amazing in sharing their work and insights. Thank you for agreeing to joining us. And thank you everybody for participating. Just to wrap up I’d like to ask one final mini question to our speakers, but it’s more of like, could you please maybe share with us one final takeaway in maybe 30 seconds, one minute each of a final message or highlight that you’d like to share with people. And with that, we can wrap up. I don’t know if anybody would like to start actually.

Celiane Pochon: Maybe I can jump in. I think for me it was something that was very valuable is that we also need perhaps to go back to the core questions. Why are youth voices important? And maybe we’re already two steps ahead in tackling these very important questions as well. But maybe for next sessions or something else, start back from the basics to really state why youth voices are important. And maybe also I think intersectionality has really been brought up a lot in this discussion, also to see how that can be brought into the conversation. So I think we’re already two steps ahead. So maybe to include more people to have these starting basic questions, but I for sure have gained a lot of insights. And this has been a very, very good discussion. And I want to thank everybody for that.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Thank you, Celiane. Thanks to you for your wonderful contributions. Jenny, do you want to go next?

Jenny Arana: Yes, thank you, Mariana. Yeah, I just think that, you know, the issues we’ve touched on today, AI, education, you know, skills, etc., are just not challenges. They are also opportunities for innovation. And youth not only bring these fresh perspectives that we were talking about, but also a sense of urgency to these issues, the needs that we have right now. But we also need to ensure that the voices of youth are not only heard, but integrated into governance structures, into policy discussions, and the design of data-driven technologies. And to raise awareness, again, among this adult community, it is essential to recognize that, you know, these values and these perspectives and contributions of youth invest in their initiatives and create platforms where they can lead. It’s important to highlight the importance of youth-driven solutions to bridge the gap between policy and implementation, and we must stress the need for multi-stakeholder collaborations involving governments, private sectors, civil society, and these youth organizations. We want them at the center of this discussion, so I think this is my takeaway, and I hope that we can continue more of these fruitful discussions in the future. Thank you, and thank you all.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Thanks to you, Jenny, this is amazing, and João, over to you, you have the big responsibility of wrapping it up.

João Moreno Falcão: Okay, so, to me, the main takeaway here is that how we need to broaden our reach, so we are discussing here about including the young people in the digital economy and how to do this, and, yeah, so I think for our next discussion, our next step is to get the people involved that we are talking about. So we have a lot of interesting and very important initiatives here that could also be part of this, like we can include the people that we work together, I believe this.

Mariana Rozo-Paz: Thank you, João, that’s very good. So thank you everyone again for joining us, thank you to the organizers, to the IGF for helping us host this, and, yeah, I think as one of our contributors mentioned today, let’s keep pushing to make sure that these sessions are scheduled earlier in the program, and let’s also advocate to have, hopefully, much more funding to keep leading these initiatives with very diverse youth communities. Thank you again so much for joining us. Have a nice rest of your days, both in the IGF or wherever you are in the world. Wishing you a very good rest of the IGF and happy holidays to everybody who’s taking some time off because I know that it’s pretty much Christmas now. So thank you everyone. Thank you. Thank you so much for the organization and happy holidays to everyone. Bye everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you so much everyone, bye.

Agreement Points

Importance of youth participation in digital governance

Mariana Rozo-Paz

Jenny Arana

João Moreno Falcão

Celiane Pochon

Youth are early adopters and innovators of digital technologies

Youth have fresh perspectives and creativity to contribute

Youth are catalysts for innovation and social movements

Youth have unique expertise and innovative perspectives

Youth are aware of topical issues and advocate for important values

All speakers emphasized the crucial role of youth in shaping digital policies and technologies due to their unique perspectives, innovative thinking, and awareness of current issues.

Need for inclusive and diverse youth engagement

Mariana Rozo-Paz

Jenny Arana

João Moreno Falcão

Celiane Pochon

Create pathways for youth from all regions to participate

Institutionalize youth participation in governance structures

Broaden reach to include more diverse youth voices

Include youth in multi-stakeholder forums and consultations

Speakers agreed on the importance of creating inclusive mechanisms to ensure diverse youth participation in digital governance across different regions and forums.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the importance of empowering youth through education and highlighting successful youth initiatives to encourage their participation in digital governance.

Jenny Arana

Celiane Pochon

Showcase success stories of youth-led initiatives

Enhance data literacy programs in schools and universities

Unexpected Consensus

Addressing trust issues in data governance

Celiane Pochon

Mariana Rozo-Paz

Lack of trust in data governance arrangements

Youth face unique vulnerabilities in the digital age

While most speakers focused on youth participation, Pochon and Rozo-Paz unexpectedly highlighted the importance of addressing trust issues and vulnerabilities in data governance, which is crucial for meaningful youth engagement.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The speakers largely agreed on the importance of youth participation in digital governance, the need for inclusive engagement strategies, and the value of youth perspectives in shaping digital policies. There was also consensus on the need to address challenges such as digital literacy and trust in data governance.

Consensus level

High level of consensus among speakers, with strong agreement on core issues. This suggests a unified approach to youth engagement in digital governance, which could lead to more effective policies and initiatives for involving youth in shaping the digital future.

Different Viewpoints

Definition and scope of youth

Melody Musoni

Jenny Arana

Define youth, because I’m coming from a country where people who are in their 70s, they still qualify as youth.

Youth have fresh perspectives and creativity to contribute

There was a disagreement on how to define ‘youth’, with Melody Musoni pointing out that the definition varies greatly between countries, while Jenny Arana focused on youth as a group with fresh perspectives, implying a younger demographic.

Unexpected Differences

Digital literacy assumptions

João Moreno Falcão

Jenny Arana

Digital literacy gap between using technology and meaningful participation

Youth are catalysts for innovation and social movements

While Jenny Arana emphasized youth as catalysts for innovation, João Moreno Falcão unexpectedly highlighted a significant digital literacy gap among youth, challenging the assumption that all young people are equally capable of meaningful participation in the digital economy.

Overall Assessment

summary

The main areas of disagreement centered around the definition of youth, approaches to youth inclusion in governance, and assumptions about youth digital literacy.

difference_level

The level of disagreement was moderate. While speakers generally agreed on the importance of youth participation, they had different perspectives on how to achieve it effectively. These differences highlight the complexity of engaging youth in data governance and the need for nuanced, context-specific approaches.

Partial Agreements

All speakers agreed on the need for youth inclusion in governance and policy-making, but had different approaches. Jenny Arana suggested institutionalizing youth participation, Celiane Pochon advocated for including youth in existing forums, while João Moreno Falcão emphasized broadening the reach to more diverse youth voices.

Jenny Arana

Celiane Pochon

João Moreno Falcão

Institutionalize youth participation in governance structures

Include youth in multi-stakeholder forums and consultations

Broaden reach to include more diverse youth voices

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the importance of empowering youth through education and highlighting successful youth initiatives to encourage their participation in digital governance.

Jenny Arana

Celiane Pochon

Showcase success stories of youth-led initiatives

Enhance data literacy programs in schools and universities

Key Takeaways

Resolutions and Action Items

Unresolved Issues

Suggested Compromises

Trust in data governance arrangements and empowering young people and individuals in the digital space is key for the data society we want to have. Without the control over our data we lose trust in institutions and companies and technologies themselves which hinders digital inclusion, innovation and all the other topics that Jenny and Joao already mentioned.

speaker

Celiane Pochon

reason

This comment highlights trust as a fundamental issue underlying many challenges with youth engagement in the digital economy. It connects individual empowerment to broader societal outcomes.

impact

This shifted the discussion to focus more on trust as a core issue, leading to later comments about building technologies in a way that fosters trust across diverse communities.

One child from his birth to his 13th birthday will gather 72 million pieces of personal data. So before you grow, you will already have a huge digital footprint, and we need to bring awareness about this, because they aren’t able to agree on it, and the implications of this amount of data will be seen.

speaker

João Moreno Falcão

reason

This statistic provides a striking illustration of how pervasive data collection is for youth, even before they can consent. It raises important ethical questions.

impact

This comment deepened the conversation around youth data rights and privacy, leading to further discussion about digital literacy and empowerment.

Define youth, because I’m coming from a country where people who are in their 70s, they still qualify as youth. And then living in Europe, normally it’s between 8 to 18 years to 35.

speaker

Melody Musoni

reason

This question challenges the fundamental assumptions of the discussion by pointing out how ‘youth’ is defined differently across cultures.

impact

This led to a more nuanced discussion about how youth is defined in different contexts and the need to be specific when discussing youth engagement.

Young women are also part of that, which is not true. I think there are a lot of amazing women leading in the digital spheres, they’re fighting really hard to find the space, but the sector is not really giving them that full space or an equal space.

speaker

Emad Karim

reason

This comment introduces an important intersectional perspective, highlighting the specific challenges faced by young women in the digital sphere.

impact

This shifted the conversation to consider more deeply the intersectionality of youth issues, particularly gender disparities in tech.

90 percent of the data sets for AI are coming from Europe and North America and less than 4 percent coming from Africa right now.

speaker

Sophie Tomlinson

reason

This statistic starkly illustrates the lack of global representation in AI training data, which has profound implications for AI’s applicability and fairness globally.

impact

This comment deepened the discussion on the need for inclusive approaches in AI development and highlighted the importance of diverse data representation.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by broadening its scope from general youth engagement to more specific issues of trust, data rights, cultural definitions of youth, intersectionality, and global representation in tech development. They moved the conversation from abstract concepts to concrete challenges and potential solutions, emphasizing the complexity and diversity of youth experiences in the digital economy. The discussion evolved to recognize the need for more nuanced, inclusive approaches that consider various cultural contexts and intersectional identities when addressing youth engagement in digital policy and technology development.

How to define youth in the context of digital inclusion and data governance?

speaker

Melody Musoni

explanation

Different regions and organizations define youth differently, ranging from 8-18 years to up to 35 or even 70 in some countries. A clear definition is important for targeted policies and initiatives.

Why is it important to focus specifically on youth in discussions about data and digital inclusion?

speaker

Melody Musoni

explanation

Understanding the unique aspects and importance of youth engagement can help in articulating and achieving objectives related to youth inclusion in the digital economy.

How can we engage rural communities more effectively in digital inclusion efforts?

speaker

Melody Musoni

explanation

Many discussions about marginalized communities are superficial. There’s a need to explore specific strategies for engaging rural youth, such as through secondary schools.

How can we accelerate progress in addressing the gender gap in digital transformation, particularly for young women?

speaker

Emad Karim

explanation

Young women face specific challenges in the digital sphere, including job loss due to digital transformation, lower likelihood of using AI in the workplace, and increased risk of technology-facilitated violence.

How can we ensure that youth utilize their skills to improve their home countries rather than migrating to use their talents elsewhere?

speaker

Advocate Zainouba

explanation

There’s a need to address the brain drain of skilled youth from countries like South Africa to ensure local development and preservation of cultural heritage in technological advancements.

How can we create AI and language models that reflect local cultural heritage?

speaker

Advocate Zainouba

explanation

Current AI systems often don’t reflect diverse cultural perspectives, particularly from regions like Africa. There’s a need to involve local talent in developing culturally relevant AI.