UNECA Role in the Internet Ecosystem in Africa | IGF 2023 Open Forum #110

Dr Mactar Seck

The African Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was initiated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Nairobi over a decade ago. Since then, it has played a significant role in increasing internet access in Africa. In 2006, internet access in Africa was a mere 2.6 percent, compared to Europe’s 39 percent. However, by 2022, Africa’s internet access has significantly improved, reaching 40 percent. This progress is a testament to the importance of the African IGF and its efforts in bridging the digital divide.

Dr. Seck stresses the importance of ECA’s role in initiating the African IGF and the need to increase African representation in global internet governance. Currently, African participation in the Global IGF is relatively low. To address this issue, Dr. Seck believes there’s a need for better organization of the African Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) and the secretariat to involve more participants in the global IGF process. The ECA has set up a task force to propose ways to improve African participation in the African and global IGF.

Capacity-building programs are also advocated by Dr. Seck to improve the knowledge and skills of parliamentarians, government members, and the technical community in internet governance. The ECA is developing capacity-building programs for parliamentarians and planning programs for the technical community to discuss technical issues related to the IGF.

While the importance of the IGF is recognized, there is a need to improve governments’ understanding of its purpose and function. The IGF is not a decision-making platform, but rather a forum for exchange and discussion. Therefore, there is a need to provide more information to governments about the IGF to enhance their understanding and engagement.

The impact of digital technology on GDP is another area of concern. A study is being prepared to measure the impact of digital technology on GDP. However, there is a lack of appropriate tools to measure the impacts of digital services like FinTech, e-commerce platforms, and e-government services. Ministers of finance need a better understanding of the impact of digital technology on GDP.

Government participation in the IGF is also a challenge. Most of the participants in the IGF come from civil society, the private sector, and academia, with limited representation from the government side. Efforts should be made to address this imbalance and encourage greater government participation in the IGF.

The establishment of a unified network, known as “One Network,” is another topic of discussion. However, there are challenges around various laws and regulations between countries, as well as between Anglophone and Francophone countries. The African free trade area and the African digital single market could facilitate the establishment of one network, taking into account regional laws and regulations.

Lastly, regulation and political commitment have an impact on the cost of digital inclusion. While the necessary infrastructure is available, the cost of digital inclusion can be affected by regulation and political commitment. Operators define the costs, and therefore it is important to address regulation and ensure political commitment for affordable digital inclusion.

In conclusion, the African Internet Governance Forum has made significant strides in improving internet access in Africa. However, efforts must continue to enhance African representation and participation in global internet governance. Capacity-building programs, improved understanding among governments, measurement of the impact of digital technology on GDP, increased government participation, and addressing regional laws and regulations are all crucial steps in achieving these goals. Affordable and inclusive digital access can only be achieved through a comprehensive and collaborative approach.

Hurry Ali Madi

Africa’s young population and its rapid urbanization present a tremendous opportunity for digital transformation. Being the youngest and most rapidly urbanizing continent, there is significant potential for leveraging digital technologies to drive economic growth and development in Africa. This includes improving education, creating job opportunities, and addressing social and economic challenges through technology.

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a recognised platform for discussing the potential and challenges of the internet. It provides an avenue for stakeholders to come together and discuss various aspects of internet governance, including digital opportunities and challenges. Through inclusive discussions, the IGF facilitates knowledge exchange, allowing for the development of effective policies and strategies.

Leaders play a crucial role in driving digital transformation. They must demonstrate commitment, willingness to change, and a willingness to experiment. By leading by example, leaders can inspire others to embrace digital technologies and drive innovation. This transformative mindset is vital to adapt to the rapidly changing digital landscape and ensure that organisations and societies can thrive in the digital era.

Improving digital skills is essential for achieving digital transformation. By equipping individuals with the necessary knowledge and skills, they can fully participate in the digital economy and leverage technology to address social and economic challenges. Quality education plays a significant role in enhancing digital skills, and it should be prioritised to prepare individuals for the digital age.

Collaboration and coordination are crucial for progress in digital transformation. Stakeholders from various sectors need to work together, sharing resources, knowledge, and expertise to drive innovation and overcome challenges. By promoting partnerships, collaborations, and knowledge sharing, the collective impact of digital transformation efforts can be maximised.

Creating common digital infrastructure and developing local content and language are essential for ensuring affordability and accessibility of digital devices for diverse communities. By producing digital devices locally, affordability can be improved, making them more accessible to a wider range of people. Additionally, developing local content in indigenous languages makes digital content more understandable and relatable to local communities, further enhancing accessibility.

In conclusion, Africa’s young and rapidly urbanizing population presents a unique opportunity for digital transformation. Through initiatives like the Internet Governance Forum, leaders demonstrating commitment, improving digital skills, fostering collaboration, and creating common digital infrastructure and local content, Africa can harness the potential of technology to drive economic growth and development, address social and economic challenges, and create a more inclusive and sustainable future.

Onika Mwakatumbula

The analysis highlights several challenges and potential solutions for internet connectivity in Africa. It argues that Africa needs to go beyond basic internet connection and aim for meaningful connectivity because COVID-19 has exposed deep inequalities and gaps in basic connection standards. The vision for digital transformation in Africa requires more than just basic connectivity.

Government and private sector investments are deemed necessary for infrastructure development to improve internet connectivity. The Moonshot Report estimates that Africa needs $109 billion in infrastructure investment. It also points out that there are still many areas in Africa that lack any coverage, and infrastructure investment can address this issue.

The high cost and lack of affordability of smart devices are major barriers to internet connectivity. People in the low-income quintiles in Africa are spending 40% to 60% of their average household income to purchase one smart device. Additionally, high digital taxation is seen as a burden on the sector, further impacting affordability.

The current definition of a connected person is considered inadequate and needs revision. Currently, a connected person is defined as someone who accesses the internet once every three months. However, the analysis argues that daily access and unlimited data should be the goal.

The need for public access solutions to supplement individual internet access is highlighted. Affordability is a major issue affecting internet access, and public access can help bridge the gap for individuals who cannot afford their own connection.

The cost of internet connectivity is a significant challenge in the region, making it unaffordable for many. The analysis states that 1 gig of data at no more than 2% of the average monthly income is still unaffordable for many Africans. South Africa meets this standard only for the top 20% income earners, highlighting the economic inequality.

To make internet connectivity more affordable, market competition needs to be promoted. Currently, many African economies operate as duopolies, which hinders affordability. Increasing competition in the market can lead to lower prices and better availability of internet services.

Community networks and public access options are seen as potential solutions to close the economic digital divide. Existing community networks in Africa have a high meaningful activity score, indicating their effectiveness. Different digital technologies and financial models have been tested and proven successful in these networks.

The analysis identifies the need for proper implementation of policies promoting infrastructure sharing. Currently, infrastructure sharing across utilities, especially with roads and electricity, is not well-implemented. Examples of countries struggling with implementation include Mozambique, Ghana, and Nigeria.

Gender equality and the inclusion of women in the digital economy and revolution are highlighted. Women who were connected during COVID-19 were able to weather the loss of income and pivot to online opportunities. Excluding women from the digital economy has a significant economic impact, with government losses estimated at about a trillion dollars.

The analysis criticizes poor practices of adopting digital taxation from other jurisdictions, which negatively impact affordability. Digital taxation has mostly been consumer-facing, affecting the cost of internet use. For example, Nigeria has 27 unique taxes that contribute to the high cost of internet services.

Evidence-based research is deemed essential for effective policy-making. It is believed that evidence-based policy-making will lead to better results and effectiveness in improving internet connectivity.

Notably, Uganda’s use of Universal Service Funds to supply smart tablets to female-led households is seen as a positive step towards promoting gender equality and digital inclusion. Additionally, the country’s development of a curriculum to train policy-makers on centering gender in ICT policies is also viewed positively.

In conclusion, the analysis underscores the need for Africa to go beyond basic internet connectivity and aim for meaningful connectivity. Government and private sector investments, affordable smart devices, revised definitions of a connected person, public access solutions, market competition, infrastructure sharing, gender equality, evidence-based research, and intentional inclusion of women in the digital revolution are crucial for improving internet connectivity in Africa.

Audience

The discussion on internet governance in Africa covered a wide range of topics and highlighted several key points. One crucial aspect was the need for youth empowerment and representation in national and regional Internet Governance Forums (IGFs). Emmanuel Vitus, the convener of the Togo IGF and the coordinator of the West African School of Internet Governance, played a significant role in this regard.

The importance of linguistic diversity and inclusive learning was also emphasized. It was argued that language should not be a barrier to the inclusion of African youth in internet governance discussions. Africa consists of 29 French-speaking countries and about six Portuguese-speaking countries. Efforts should be made to ensure that all African youth have equal access to these forums.

Another area of interest was measuring the impact of young fellows after their term at the national and regional level. The discussion revolved around evaluating the effectiveness of youth fellowship programs and finding better ways to assess their impact.

The role of youth advocacy and global communication in internet governance was also discussed. It emphasized the need to amplify the voices of young people on the global platform and convey their messages effectively.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) was recognized for its efforts to expand inclusion through languages. However, it was highlighted that 58% of internet content is in English, indicating the need for more diversity and inclusion in internet governance discussions.

The increase in electrification in rural areas, specifically in Tanzania, was seen as a positive development. It was noted that over a span of 6-7 years, electrification reached 3000 villages in Tanzania. However, political will is needed to further increase electrification in rural areas.

The underrepresentation of Africa’s private sector was also discussed. The Global North was described as more advanced in this regard, while the Global South, particularly Africa, requires more organization and participation. Efforts from UNECA, specifically Dr. Mata’s sake and the late Makan Faye, were acknowledged, with a call for increased engagement and support from the private sector.

The potential of the internet to increase per capita GDP was explored through UNECA’s study. It concluded that the full deployment of the internet could significantly boost per capita GDP in Africa, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing internet infrastructure development.

The role of government engagement in understanding and valuing the importance of the internet for economic well-being was highlighted. Some governments were noted to have shut down the internet due to disagreements with social media posts, indicating the need for better government understanding and support.

The use of TV white spaces and solar panels for powering data centers was regarded as a way to enhance technological reach and sustainability. TV white spaces, which are dispersed areas that established telecom might not reach, could play a significant role in ensuring connectivity in remote areas. The use of solar panels to power data centers was seen as an environmentally friendly and sustainable energy solution.

The implementation of a unified network across Africa was desired, aiming to enhance connectivity and facilitate communication between countries in the region.

The importance of government involvement in internet governance forums was emphasized. It was noted that government representatives are fewer in these forums and often inclined towards the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The need for better government understanding and engagement in multi-stakeholder internet governance was highlighted.

It was suggested that the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union need to collaborate to ensure the participation of ministers in policy creation and understanding of internet governance. Ministers were regarded as the principal policymakers, and their involvement was seen as crucial for effective governance.

The need to strengthen internet governance globally was acknowledged. The perceived weakness of the global Secretariat was noted, suggesting that efforts should be made to strengthen internet governance worldwide.

Promoting greater youth involvement in internet governance activities was seen as critical, highlighting their role as the future generation for Africa. Their active participation should be encouraged and supported.

The issue of infrastructure sharing, particularly for new entrants facing affordability constraints, was discussed. New entrants were found to struggle with paying the rates enacted by existing infrastructure owners, highlighting the need for a solution to ensure affordable and accessible internet services for all.

Market saturation and the entry of newcomers, especially in areas with smaller populations like Namibia, were also discussed. Existing participants were reportedly struggling to survive, showcasing the need to manage market saturation and create opportunities for new entrants.

Gender inequality in internet usage was recognized as a significant challenge. Women in rural areas were found to lack access to the necessary resources to purchase new technologies, and the affordability of data was a major concern. The need for women leaders and parliamentarians to actively address this issue was emphasized, highlighting the importance of policies and actions to promote gender equality in internet usage.

African digital initiatives were found to receive more external financial support than support from within Africa itself. The need to increase financial support from within Africa for African initiatives was stressed, highlighting the importance of self-reliance and sustainability.

In conclusion, the discussions on internet governance in Africa covered a wide range of topics and brought forth several key insights and recommendations. The need for youth empowerment, linguistic diversity, government engagement, and infrastructure development were the main themes discussed. Promoting inclusivity, supporting gender equality in internet usage, and strengthening internet governance globally were also highlighted as important steps towards ensuring a more equitable and accessible internet for all in Africa.

Abraham

The speakers’ discussions revealed several significant points. Abraham, a technical support for the Global IGF, highlighted the need for more mentorship within the field of internet governance. He personally mentors 50 individuals in this field, recognizing the lack of mentorship opportunities. Abraham’s argument is supported by the fact that he actively mentors these individuals, providing them with guidance and support.

Abraham also advocates for increased participation in local IGFs and the youth IGF, not viewing them solely as opportunities to travel but also as chances to bring about beneficial changes on a local level. This highlights the importance of active involvement and contribution within internet governance processes, aligning with SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure and SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. Abraham’s advocacy showcases his commitment to making a positive impact in internet governance.

Furthermore, addressing language barriers in internet governance is crucial to enhancing the accessibility of knowledge and training. Abraham’s training program provides instructions in five different languages, including English, French, Portuguese, Swahili, and Arabic. This demonstrates a proactive approach towards making internet governance knowledge more widely available, contributing to SDG 4: Quality Education and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.

Abraham’s mentoring efforts also extend to training over 50 individuals in Africa, empowering them and providing opportunities to contribute to the internet ecosystem. This aligns with SDG 4: Quality Education and SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure. Moreover, many of Abraham’s mentorees have joined various digital programs initiated by the Internet Society and African digital programs, signifying the effectiveness of the mentorship provided.

In an effort to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, Abraham aims to involve more women in the programs they are associated with. This aligns with SDG 5: Gender Equality and showcases the commitment to ensuring inclusivity and diversity within the field of internet governance.

Finally, Abraham urges leaders to expand support and funding for individuals who have the potential to positively contribute to the internet ecosystem. This highlights the importance of recognizing and investing in talented individuals who can make a difference in internet governance. This aligns with SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure and emphasizes the need for continued support and resources to drive progress in this field.

In conclusion, Abraham’s passionate commitment to mentorship in internet governance, the need for local engagement and language inclusivity, the training and empowerment of individuals in Africa, involvement in digital programs, promotion of gender equality, and the importance of expanding support and funding contribute to various SDGs and inspire positive changes within the internet ecosystem.

Hala Jumbo

The role of parliamentarians in driving policy within an inclusive Internet ecosystem is vital. They collaborate with the executive to ensure the functionality and effectiveness of policies. Parliamentarians are actively involved in legislation, budgeting, and addressing issues related to the digital divide.

In Africa, parliamentarians are advocating for countries to sign conventions on cybersecurity and personal data protection. This strong support for African Union conventions aims to safeguard digital security and protect personal data. Countries like Gambia are already taking steps to develop cybersecurity bills and implement personal data protection systems in line with these conventions.

Africa urgently needs to protect and own its data. Data plays a critical role in the digital landscape and holds immense value. However, Africa currently lags behind in terms of protecting and controlling its data. Efforts must be made to address this issue and establish robust data protection mechanisms.

Identification and addressing issues present significant challenges in Africa. More than 400 million people on the continent do not have proper identification systems, which hampers their access to various services and opportunities. It is crucial to tackle these issues effectively to ensure inclusive and equitable access for all.

The cost of data is directly linked to the operational costs of GSM companies. These companies bear the burden of funding their own infrastructure, such as electricity and equipment, which significantly increases their expenses. It is important for policies to encourage collaboration among GSM companies to reduce costs. For example, in Gambia, the government has built a national broadband network to assist companies in reducing their operational costs.

Policy changes should support new entrants to the market. Currently, the market is often dominated by a few major players, making it difficult for new companies to enter and compete. Creating tax havens and implementing supportive policies can lower costs for new entrants, fostering competition and innovation.

Addressing the electricity problem is vital in reducing the cost of data and ending internet poverty. The lack of electricity is a major contributing factor to the high cost of data in many African countries. Initiatives, such as the government of Gambia supplying solar-powered electricity to schools and hospitals, can help alleviate this issue and ultimately reduce the cost of data.

Promoting community networks can also contribute to reducing the cost of data. Community networks are cost-effective and quick to deploy, and they do not require significant infrastructure investments. Emphasizing the development of such networks can make data more accessible and affordable for communities.

There is growing concern about the high taxation regimes imposed on the telecom sector in many countries. This can hinder growth and innovation within the sector. Efforts should be made to establish fair taxation policies that encourage growth and maintain a favorable business environment.

Involving the private sector is crucial in implementing digital transformation strategies. The private sector possesses the resources, expertise, and innovation necessary for effective implementation. Collaborating with the private sector can accelerate the adoption of technology and drive economic growth.

Digital literacy is essential in various sectors, including education, public service, judiciary, and parliament. It is important to equip individuals with the necessary skills and knowledge to navigate the digital world effectively and access opportunities for growth and development.

E-commerce has a positive impact on GDP. It provides opportunities for economic growth, job creation, and increased productivity. Embracing e-commerce can contribute to achieving sustainable economic development.

Effective digital implementation requires collaboration between government ministries. Different ministries must work together to ensure the successful implementation of digital policies and initiatives. This collaborative approach enables efficient use of resources and maximizes the impact of digital transformation.

In conclusion, parliamentarians play a vital role in driving policy within an inclusive Internet ecosystem. Efforts are being made to strengthen cybersecurity and data protection in Africa. It is imperative to protect and own data to promote digital sovereignty. Identification and addressing issues need to be effectively tackled to ensure inclusivity. Collaboration is needed to reduce the cost of data and encourage competition. Addressing the electricity problem, promoting community networks, and involving the private sector are key strategies for reducing the cost of data and driving digital transformation. Fair taxation policies, digital literacy, and e-commerce contribute to economic growth. Effective digital implementation requires collaboration among government ministries. By addressing these key areas, Africa can pave the way for a thriving and inclusive digital future.

Poncelet Ileleji

The expanded summary provides a detailed overview of the main points and arguments presented in the given information.

One of the arguments presented is the importance of the African Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which was highlighted by mentioning a project developed between the European Union and the African Union Commission. The project aimed to promote collaboration and effective governance of the internet in Africa. This highlights the recognition of the need for African countries to have a platform for discussing internet-related issues and ensuring that policies and strategies are aligned with the African context.

Another argument focuses on the need for meaningful connectivity in Africa for internet access. It is pointed out that during the COVID-19 pandemic, many African children faced challenges in accessing education due to a lack of internet connectivity. This highlights the importance of ensuring that all individuals, especially young students, have reliable and affordable internet access to bridge the digital divide and promote inclusive education.

The growth of the internet ecosystem and the creative potential of young people are also discussed. With appropriate connectivity, young people can leverage their digital native status to be more creative and innovative. This emphasizes the potential of the internet to accelerate economic growth and create job opportunities, particularly considering that over 60% of the African population consists of young people.

The cost of internet is identified as a major barrier to its proliferation across the continent. It is mentioned that the average cost for one gigabyte of data in Gambia is about $5, while other countries like Ghana and Tunisia have lower costs. This high cost of internet restricts access for many individuals and contributes to the digital divide present in Africa.

Investments in submarine cables by bilateral and international organizations were also highlighted, indicating efforts to expand internet infrastructure across the continent. However, it is noted that more actions and investments are needed to tackle the issue of internet proliferation in Africa. This suggests that while progress is being made, further initiatives and resources are required to improve internet access for all African countries.

In conclusion, the given information emphasizes the importance of the African Internet Governance Forum in promoting effective internet governance. It highlights the need for meaningful connectivity to bridge the digital divide and promote inclusive education and economic growth. The cost of the internet is identified as a significant barrier, and investments in infrastructure are acknowledged. Overall, more efforts and resources are needed to address the challenge of internet proliferation in Africa.

Sorene Assefa

The participation of African youth in Internet Governance Forum (IGF) processes is vital, considering their significant population. The Global IGF 2022 took steps to enhance their involvement by sponsoring 80 African youth to attend the conference. These participants also underwent an Internet Governance Training program, aiming to improve their skills in this field. The goal was to equip them to support national or regional IGF processes beyond the conference.

Ethiopia took action after participating in the Global IGF by establishing a youth IGF within the country. This initiative involved the active participation of youth volunteers in organizing the IGF process, highlighting the commitment to involve young individuals longitudinally in the Internet Governance Forum, rather than just during the final conference.

Inclusion and equal distribution of opportunities among African youth in youth-led initiatives for Internet governance are crucial. While African participation in these initiatives is positive, there is a need to ensure that opportunities reach all regions of the continent. A thousand applications were received for the initiative, emphasizing the interest and potential among African youth. Balancing the involvement of experienced internet governance ambassadors and newcomers in the field is also necessary to provide a diverse and inclusive platform.

Language has been identified as a critical factor in meaningful engagement for Internet governance. The introduction of Swahili, the most popular African language, during the Global IGF is evidence of the emphasis placed on understanding concepts in native languages for better comprehension. This approach aims to bridge the language barrier and ensure that internet governance concepts are accessible to all participants, regardless of their linguistic background.

The impact of youth initiatives in internet governance is being measured to observe progress and sustain networking opportunities. Youth participants are carrying forward their learnings and network benefits by taking up roles as facilitators or volunteers in other organizations such as ISOC and ICANN. The success of these initiatives can also be seen in the establishment of youth forums in countries like Ethiopia, where the impact of the Global IGF is evident.

Moreover, the focus on culturally resonant modes of understanding, such as using mother tongue languages, is crucial in developing strategies for internet governance. Building concepts in mother tongue languages can bring them closer to communities and ensure inclusivity. The introduction of Swahili as the first African language during the Global IGF is a step towards fostering cultural relevance in internet governance discussions.

In summary, the involvement of African youth in Internet Governance Forum processes has been recognized as crucial. The Global IGF 2022 took steps to enhance youth participation and provided training opportunities. Ethiopia’s establishment of a youth IGF and the involvement of youth volunteers reflect the long-term commitment to youth involvement. Inclusion, language, impact measurement, and cultural relevance are key considerations in fostering youth-led initiatives for internet governance.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this morning session on open forum on the role of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in the internet ecosystem in Africa. I’m Ponsley Tlilogyi from the Gambia NRI, Joko Labs, and I’ll be moderating this session. And before we get started, I will just want all my speakers to introduce themselves and we’ll get started. I’ll start with my Honourable MP from the Gambia, Hala Jumbo.

Hala Jumbo:
Thank you very much, Pons. My name is Honourable Hala Jumbo, Member of Parliament from the Gambia and also the Co-Founder and Vice-Chair of African Parliamentary Network on Internet Governance.

Sorene Assefa:
My name is Sorina Safar and I’m Internet Governance and Cyber Security Expert for UNECA.

Dr Mactar Seck:
Good morning. My name is Dr. Maktar Seck. I’m the Chief of Technology and Innovation at UNECA. I’m also the Coordinator of the Centre of Excellence on Digital ID, Digital Threat and Digital Economy.

Onika Mwakatumbula:
Good morning. My name is Stephanie Kamakwakwa, Executive Director of the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you very much. As you can see, all my panellists are very African-centric and I will start with our parliamentarian. Thank you very much. So, I would like to start by saying thank you to all of you for being here, and I would like to thank all of you for participating with in starting this discussion, I mean, since the African NRIs developed from around 2009, we then had the UN ECA coming up, working with the African Union to set up the African Internet Governance Forum. So, this is a project that was done between the European Union and the African Union Commission. The parliamentarian network in Africa has been growing since Addis Ababa, and it will be great to hear what Halaji has to say about within the Internet ecosystem, what parliamentarians can do. And this is very important, because we still have less than 20 countries that have signed up to the Malabo Convention, Gambia being the first country to sign up to the Malabo Convention, and the other countries that have signed up to the Malabo Convention, there’s about 2% that was done at the sidelines of the global IGF in Addis Ababa.

Hala Jumbo:
So, Halaji, let’s hear your perspective on the role of parliamentarians, how you people can drive policy within a very inclusive Internet ecosystem in the continent using the platform of the IGF. Thank you. So, I’m very happy to be here, and I would like to thank the IGF, and the IGF has been supporting a lot of member states to ensure that they bridge the digital gap that we have in terms of helping in the formulating of the digital transformation, and also capacity building, et cetera. Now, the members of parliament, actually, have started also to be engaged in the IGF since Addis, and right now, in fact, is starting to be a shared Inc Cos In. It really doesn’t matter where where you are, but we look at really where parliamentarians come in. in terms of helping in some of the policies, because parliamentarians normally don’t actually do the policies, but they work with the executive to ensure those policies work in terms of legislation, in terms of budgeting, et cetera, et cetera. So now we are working very closely. Now in terms of also looking at the African Union, various conventions relating to the Internet, particularly on cybersecurity and personal data protection, we are also pushing our own countries to ensure that they signed, because a lot of countries still now have some laws that are really very vague and really not very clear, and some actually, they’re handling most of these things using the Communication Act of their countries, like in Gambia we have the Information and Communication Act of 2009, which is not really very conducive to also fight cybercrimes. So members of parliament actually are pushing to ensure their countries actually sign those protocols of the African Union, and right now I think in the Gambia was among the last countries actually to sign, and we’re going to get the ratification most likely this year in parliament. So what we are trying to do actually is to actually align some of those protocols to the international standards, and already various parliaments actually have done that, like the Gambia for example right now, they’ve already developed the cybersecurity bill, they’ve also developed the personal data protection, which is actually crucial. If you look at the Malabar Protocol that we call the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection, it has given certain criteria that countries must abide by in terms of setting up those institutions that’s going to handle cyber issues and also to protect data, because data actually is everything on the Internet right now. And again, if you look at the African continent, we are a little bit behind in terms of protecting our own data and also owning our own data, which is very, very important, because data is actually money. So members of parliament, we are working together with our executives to ensure that we support their transformation agenda. That is actually bridging the gap in terms of the digital divide. in terms of capacity building, also in terms of legislation, the laws, and also one of the most important thing also in identification, because again the ecosystem we must be able to identify people, we must also be able to identify their addresses, which is actually one of the biggest issues we have in the continent here. I think over 400 million people in on the continent now you can cannot be you know cannot have proper ID system, so members of Parliament we are working very closely with the assistance from the ECA and our governments to ensure that we get this you know on track and from there we move on to you know to other areas. Thank you.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you very much for that very useful information. Meaningful connectivity has been crucial for driving internet access and developing the internet ecosystem in Africa. We saw what a lot of African countries went through during the COVID. A lot of our children were basically at home for a long time. I think in Uganda had the record over one year, Ugandan children couldn’t go to school. In talking about meaningful connectivity, we are very lucky here we have Onika, whose organization the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership really focuses on meaningful connectivity and especially in the Global South and if we have to move from the point we are now whereby we still have not up to 50% of the continent online, even though we have 80% that are on voice mobile, connectivity is very important. So Onika, it would be very good to hear your perspective how you see meaningful connectivity can accelerate the growth of our ecosystem within the internet and especially driving our young people to be more creative because they are the digital natives of our continent. and they make up over 60% of the population.

Onika Mwakatumbula:
Great, thank you. Thanks, Pontelet. So, given the vision that Africa has set for itself in terms of the digital transformation strategy for Africa, it’s really important that we look beyond basic connection, basic access, and really take this as an opportunity for us to, others have said we are going to leapfrog or moonshot ourselves to the meaningful stage. But I think one of the things that has happened is that COVID-19 actually exposed our very deep inequalities, that we have imagined gaps, including amongst those who are already connected, thus making a basic connection no longer a good standard for us to follow. So what actually needs to happen? The first thing we need to address is the issue of infrastructure. I know that the mobile operator sector is telling us a lot about a usage gap that is developing and growing in the region, meaning that there’s more people who are living within a broadband connection, but are not necessarily using it. But we still have a lot of areas that don’t have any coverage at all. And so, addressing the infrastructure investment, creating an environment for private sector investment, but also understanding that it’s going to take more than just private sector. The Moonshot Report estimated that we need $109 billion in infrastructure investment for Africa. Government has to also come to invest and provide some resources into this, as well as our development partners and other private-public partnerships that we need to look at. So continue to invest in infrastructure. Really important to make sure we are connecting everyone. But as we do so, let us use the meaningful connectivity. I think one of the things that has been disappointing is that we continuously talk about meaningful connectivity, but we have divorced it from what is that standard of meaningful connectivity. We’re talking about having an adequate speed for people to do the things that are envisioned in this digital transformation strategy where we are going to have a digital economy, e-learning that is continuous. It requires a speed of at least four gig speed, right? So looking at making sure that we are investing in that. It requires people having smartphones or at least a minimum device that is a smart device. At the moment in Africa, our biggest challenge with smart devices is the cost. Affordability is really an issue. We are spending, at least people in the low-income quantiles are spending 40% to 60% of average household income to purchase one smart device in a household. So we need to address devices, and there’s various areas where we need to strengthen. One of those is digital taxation. Removing or reducing some of the taxation that burdens the sector, especially taxes that are consumer-facing, with the understanding that we will increase uptake of digital technologies that then will benefit the economy, and, you know, that loss in taxes for now will actually be a gain in the digital financial activity in the future. We need to make sure that people have daily access. At the moment, we are still defining a connected person. In most of the research and in our global standards, we are defining a connected person as someone who accesses the Internet once every three months. That is unacceptable. We need to work towards daily access and unlimited data. Affordability is a big issue, and so, you know, we need to also be open to public access. in order to supplement the access that people are having to purchase on their own. But hopefully we’ll have a chance to talk a little bit more about what has worked in driving affordability in the region. A few countries have actually reached the 1 for 2 affordability standard, while many, many, many more still have not. Thank you.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you very much. As you rightly said, we’re going to do a deep dive into it. Youth has been very important in our work within our national IGF processes. Surin has been doing a lot of work in empowering African youth. It will be good to hear from you how you see our youth, what they play, the role they play in driving the national IGF processes, and what more can be done with them. Right now, presently in this particular 18th Global IGF, most of the young people that came from the African continent came through support from GIZ. We still need to get more of our youth here. Most of them are really involved within our Internet societies and our national processes. As you focus on youth within the IGF process, how do you think we can improve on it and get their voices more heard?

Sorene Assefa:
Thank you, Ponce, for the question. I think the youth issue in Africa, we can look at it from a bigger angle. If I need to speak on the youth, I want to refer back to the Global IGF that we did in 2022. I was the coordinator of the youth during that forum under the ECA, the leadership of MACTA. What we tried to do during that time is, the first issue was African representation in this kind of either global or even continental. discussions. So we say that if we want to grow the African participation the starting point would have been the youth. So you mentioned now we have around maybe 10 or to 20 youth represented here, but Africa majority of the population is youth and how do we expand the youth participations instead of having the same youth being represented all over the place. So what we decided to do is having a distributed representation of youth from the five regions. Africa has five regions, the north, the south, the east, the west in Central Africa. So under ECA we sponsored 80 youth during the global IGF. We didn’t just sponsor them for them to be in the global IGF discussion but for them to be embedded on the IGF process. In order for us to do that they had to go through Internet Governance Training Program which we collaborated with the African Union and in pre the initiative they had one week Internet Governance Training Program on the founding principle, economic, legal, policy or even activism in Internet Governance because what we wanted to do is the conversation to continue. Internet Governance Forum is not just a forum, it’s just a process. So it’s not something ends as soon as the forum concludes. So how do we in I think broaden the African Internet Governance ecosystem without giving them the necessary tool. That’s why the training program was part of the youth initiative not just sponsoring them to the global IGF. After the training the youth was divided based on the skills they had. Some of them they were volunteering in a rapporteur service, some of them in webcasting, some of them on technical infrastructure which we had to collaborate with the global IGF secretariat and they went through the training program and I think some of them also being involved in the IGF process and how to organize it. So we had a lot of questions in the conferencing services, how to organize, because what we wanted to do is as soon as the volunteer went through this process, can they go back, support at the national or regional IGF processes, wherever they are? So that’s what the whole aim was. ECA didn’t do it alone. We asked on the IGF diplomatic capacity, as just one of these countries, because there is a number of countries which have been involved in the IGF process, and the IGF is a global initiative, and it really reflects our continent. So, all in all, if I go back, what we have achieved, the 80 volunteers, 30 of them were from Ethiopia. Ethiopia never held a national IGF, but now, if you go back and check, Ethiopia even set up a youth IGF, which even the person who participated in the youth IGF, and the youth IGF is a global initiative. So, we have a lot of young people, and even the members used to be the ECA volunteers. That was the success item that we can identify. It’s not just being part of the conference services, but how do we really carry them along the way? We have also new initiative in the continent, for example, the youth IGF, which is a global initiative that ECA has done. So, what we are saying is, how do you see the vision? The vision is, try to integrate the youth. So I would like to say that we are working with the youth along the way of the Internet governance process, not just the final conference, either at the continental or regional level. We’ve started it, but our goal is to expand this initiative as we go along. Thank you.

Poncelet Ileleji:
» Thank you very much, Sorin, for that detailed explanation of what the youth did and especially the importance of the Internet Governance Forum. I would like to say that we had a meeting in Addis Ababa last year. This round of questions, I will end with Dr. Mataaksek, ECA initiated the first African Internet Governance Forum over a decade ago, if I remember very well, in Nairobi. It was a very small number, less than 20% of the countries were there. So we had a very, very small number of countries represented in the African Internet Governance Forum. We still had less than 30 countries represented. If you look at the whole dynamics, we need to get our 54 member states to be having national processes, and ECA is very important in this role as you initiated it. So how do you see the ECA re-governizing the IGF? So how do you see the ECA re-governing the IGF? How do you see the ECA getting more countries to be involved in the continent? Not only about it, but also using the African IGF to drive our policy process. I just want to welcome our Minister of States from Ethiopia for Digital Economy, Honorable Uri Ali, thank you for coming to attend

Dr Mactar Seck:
our conference at Camp Wangatro. Uri. Thank you chair, and welcome to the minister. to this important session, but let’s go back maybe 20 years ago. In 2006, it is a year where IGF, Internet Governance Forum was created. Why it was created? At this time, African country or middle or low-income country doesn’t have the same equal voice to discuss the issue of Internet or digital technology across the world. All discussion were led by Western or North country to decide what we need, what African country needs, and the solution proposals are not adequate with African need. And why the WSIS, one key outcome of the WSIS 2005 was the creation of Internet Governance Forum where everybody can have equal exchange to discuss on their concern, make a proposal, is why IGF, it is a new stakeholder forum. And the first IGF was held in Athens in 2006 and today we are at the 18th Global IGF Forum and the IGF will be end by 2025, maybe the General Assembly will renew for 2030. And for this, ECA play an important role to set up an African IGF because we can discuss at the global level, but we need to start the discussion at the continental level because when you remember in 2000 In 2006, the access Internet in the continent was very, very low. It was 2.6 percent. At this time, in Europe, it was 39 percent. And we need to have an inclusive information society to bring the idea of all stakeholders, government, private sector, civil society, academia, to discuss the way we can build African information society more inclusive in order to take benefits of this digital sector. And YECA in 2011, you reminded, initiated the African Internet Governance Forum in Kenya. And since, I think, we have seen this African Internet Governance growing, following the discussion of several stakeholders, now our Internet access is increased. We go from 2.6 in 2005 to 40 percent in 2022. We have a lot of progress that we even have to do better. And YECA also continue to support this African Internet Governance Forum. We set up a secretariat. And to make all stakeholders in the continent and the organization, we shared the secretariat with African Union Commission. And since we work together to organize this African Internet Governance Forum, and we organize open requests in member’s country each year. And we have seen a lot of progress since 2011. And the last one you highlight very well, it was one organized in Abuja in September, I think. and where we have very good attendance, more 3,500 people, and around 20 sessions discuss all the issue of Internet Governance Forum. We’ll continue also this momentum to support this initiative, because we discuss a lot with all stakeholders to see how we can make better this African Internet Governance Forum, but we have seen there are some gaps we have to sort it out. When you look at the African participation in the Global Internet Governance Forum, it’s very low, compared to last year in Ethiopia, and I would like to thank the government of Ethiopia also for the well-organization of the Internet Governance Forum last year, because it was a big challenge for Africa. It’s a fight not with the UN organization to get this 17 IGF in Africa, and it was the third time we organized the Global IGF in the continent, and I think it was well-organized, and the attendance was very well and also very relevant in terms of content and discussion, and we had a lot of participation from African countries. The issue is we have to maintain this, but unfortunately we are few here in Japan, and at the ministerial level also, I think we have two ministers from the continent here, and we need to change this paradigm. How we change it to better organize our MAG and also our secretariat in order to involve more participants in the global IGF process. We are going to have a meeting next year and we are going to have a meeting in the African IGF and we have set up a task force yesterday to discuss and to propose a way to improve African participation in the African IGF, also in the global IGF. We need also, we are going also to support African stakeholder, not just to attend IGF as a stakeholder, but also as a stakeholder in the IGF. We need to have more African participation, drive by African participants. Also, we need to have more African in the several sessions to discuss about issues regarding Africa. We can’t talk about digital public infrastructure. You have several sessions, they talk about digital infrastructure. We need to have African country, African representative in this session. We need to have African representative in the session. We need to have African representative in the session. We need to have African country representative in the session. When you talk about emerging technologies, it is African, it is a future for the world. We have 70% of youth in 2015. And we need to have our voice to say what our perspective. When you talk about the global digital compact, it’s a future we want. We need African voice. We need to have African voice in the global digital compact, we need to have African voice in the global digital compact. We need to propose a program to support African country. When you talk about cyber security also, it is important to talk about the issue of the concern of Africa because we are losing 10% of our GDP. It’s not only 10% of our GDP, because we have a lot of security problems around the continent. So, we need to have African voice in this area where we need to improve our participation. and also to be involved in all this session to be organised in the next two Internet Governance Forum 2024 in Saudi Arabia and I think 2025 the country is not yet decided. Third point, we need also, we have also a capacity building programme. We acknowledge the participation of our parliamentarians in the IGF process with the creation of African Parliament Network for Internet Governance, APNIC, and we are going to propose a capacity building programme for the parliamentarians to improve their knowledge and skill on the issue of Internet Governance or in the digital technology also. Even this capacity building programme will be open to all political making decision, all the government member, and I think after that the government will be more aware, African government will be more aware on the interest of the Internet Governance Forum and I’m sure next year we’ll get more ministers to attend the African Internet Governance Forum as well as the Global Governance Forum in Saudi Arabia. Also, we don’t forget the community, the technical community. We have also a capacity building programme for the technical community to support them to discuss on the technical issue related to Internet Governance Forum, the issue of DNS, of CCLT, the Internet fragmentation, we have all this programme to be open as 2020. to all African community. Also the youth participation is very important. Last year we did well. We bring around 80 youth, I think Sorin already highlighted the youth participation last year, but this year we didn’t do well and we make sure next year we’ll bring more youth in the global IGF. And also if there is any idea, any proposal, are welcome at ECA, we can discuss at ECA and AUC to see how we are going to improve our participation. The chair of the task force is Honorable Elijah Mbow to improve the African participation on IGF. If you have any idea, please share with him and AUC and ECA will sit together to see how the best way to handle this African IGF process. Before I conclude, I would like to thank all, we have a lot of people here who work hard since the beginning of IGF. I would like to thank Mary, she’s there since long time supporting this process. We have also the second generation, Jimson, you, the first generation is Mary, supporting. And we have also the young generation, Dr. Kosi, all these people coming now, and Michelle, you are here to support the process since long time, voluntary. And we’ll thank you again for all the support you provide, not to ECA, but to the African community, and I think we have to say thank you for that. Thank you very much.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you very much, Macta, for that great intervention about the role of ECA and how we can galvanize our community. So, thank you very much for coming. I know we have a lot of questions coming in from the community, especially getting our Ministers very involved. That’s why, personally, I know our Honorable Minister of State for Digital Economy in Ethiopia has a busy schedule, but she took time to come for this session, so, Honorable Hurriya Ali, we appreciate you coming. And I’ll move to the second question now, and I will start with the topic of internet predestination, what are the steps has been taken to understand, what should we do to help conversation. And if I could start with you, Mr. Khalil, internationally, it’s important that we must consider how to act in the context of internet predestination. We are talking about 1% internet predestination in the continent. Cost has been a factor in that. I can give an example, the average, in Gambia, the average cost for one gigabyte of data is about $5. The best average around the continent is about $2. And Ghana, Tunisia, having one of the lowest cost of internet. So, the cost of internet predestination in Ghana is about $3. And the cost of internet predestination in other countries now are now true bilateral and international organizations are now investing more in submarine cables, but is that enough?

Onika Mwakatumbula:
» Yes, absolutely. So, cost has been a huge challenge in the region. And I’m sure you all agree with me that the cost of internet predestination in Africa is still the same, 1. 2, meaning one gig of data at no more than 2% average monthly income. But I’m sure you all agree with me that even that is still, in fact, many countries in Africa still do not meet that standard. that average standard. Not only is the average standard that we have right now also inadequate, it’s just not meeting a lot of our people. And that’s largely because of two things. One is that one gig of data per month is not sufficient for us to do the kinds of things that we are talking about when we talk about meaningful connectivity. But two, the 2% average monthly income is actually, even for those countries that do meet this, I’ll give South Africa as a good example, they are only meeting it for the top 20% income earners because of the inequalities that exist within the country. Those who are at the bottom 40%, and that’s true for Ghana as well, the bottom 40% are still paying more than 2% of average monthly income. So there’s several things that we’ve done working with different countries on affordability, especially on the policy and regulatory framework side. One is promoting market competition, which is one of the things in the digital transformation strategy for Africa. Really working on market competition, a lot of our economies tend to be duopolies right now. So we need to really work on bringing more actors into the space and enabling regulation to actually allow them to be able to enter. At some point we have to recognize that there are people who might never even afford the 2%. And this is where public access options come in, but also where community networks come in. We’ve reached a point in Africa where we’ve tested many community networks and the model is working. It’s testing at different digital technologies as well as a different financial model. Communities that actually are operating community networks also have a much higher meaningful connection. activity score which includes digital skills used for things that help people improve their lives. So perhaps it is time for us on the regulatory side to talk about how do we promote regulations that actually enable community networks to close the gaps in a way that is affordable in those other communities. The other policy that is also in the strategy is infrastructure sharing. So one of the great things about this continent is that we are very enthusiastic about adopting policies that are going to lead to the kind of change that we want. Where the challenge has been has been on implementation. So for the longest time we’ve talked about infrastructure sharing within the sector and across utilities. We’ve actually worked with Mozambique as a good example where we’ve actually developed a policy and they’ve had regulations adopted. But four years later they are still in the process of harmonizing the policies in order for them to implement. Same with Ghana. Policy exists, implementation not quite. Nigeria policy exists, implementation needs a little bit of review. I think we have to differentiate between co-locating and true infrastructure sharing. What we are not seeing is real infrastructure sharing across utilities especially with roads, with electricity, especially electricity. Because we all know where there’s no electricity, connectivity is a non-starter. I mean we can’t even get connectivity. And lastly we have to use our universal service funds in a way that enables us to close the gaps. One example, I like to challenge us but also to show examples of where we are making a little bit of progress. One example is West Africa. ECOWAS actually went through the process of reviewing universal service policies, regulations and legislation and actually adopted a sub-regional legislation for the Universal Service Act at the end of 2019 which was unanimously adopted by the member states. of ECOWAS. Unfortunately, because of COVID happening immediately the next year, it delayed the process for the member states to actually begin to now review their own policies and laws to make sure that they are compliant. But universal service funds are an opportunity for us in Africa to close the digital divides, not only on rural and urban, but also begin to address the gender divide. I really like that Dr. Mokhtar keeps reminding us about what we are losing in the economy. We did a study on the cost of exclusion, looking at what is costing governments to exclude women from digital development. And we looked at lower and middle income countries. And we came up with an economic model that actually estimates that governments have lost about a trillion dollars from excluding women in the digital economy. We then did a deep dive in West Africa and looked at several countries in West Africa to look at the economic impact of this exclusion by being able to tell a story of what women are able to accomplish when they are enabled to be online. You know, they are able to run their businesses during lockdown. In particular, we took a look at COVID-19 to look at women who were connected during that time and how they were affected in terms of loss of income. And research is evident. It tells us that those women who had access to connectivity were able to weather the loss of income and be able to move and pivot to be able to produce online, to take a course online, to apply for a job online, things that they are not able to do. So I think I will conclude by saying for us now what we really need to also marry is the fact that we need evidence-based, we need to do research so that our policymaking is based on research and evidence learnings that we have. And I say this because we also have seen some poor practices of adopting digital taxation from other jurisdictions by only simply looking at this country introduced this new tax and they gained so much money during this period but what we don’t actually look at is what effect did that digital taxation do on affordability and our goal to actually meet affordability. Digital taxation for the most part has been predominantly consumer facing and we need to really review it. We looked at Nigeria and actually we developed an infographic on Nigeria and at the time there were 27 unique taxes in you know from SIM registration, electronic transaction, there’s now a pending communication service tax of 9%. All of those things actually forestall our growth in terms of achieving this goal of affordability. Thank you.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you very much Onika and I like the way you dived into the policy aspects whereby some are there, some are not there, they either have been fully baked but still not implemented. So I’ll go back to Halajumbo, especially in relating to policy and we look at our energy solutions. During the first inaugural African climate summit in early September, President William Ruto of Kenya who said that the continent has abundant sun, we have wind and we have green minerals so we can be a solution for providing energy to the world. That’s what he said and we are heading into the COP 28 in the United Arab Emirates in December and we have to look at first before we start providing energy to the world we have to provide energy to ourselves with these abundant resources we have. So I would like to hear from you looking at the policy aspects. Members of Parliament, you pass all these bills of what do you think as parliamentarians you can do better. in terms of, because you address energy issues, you automatically address, in a way, cost of connectivity, because some years back you will see countries were having 8,000 generators, just mobile companies, just to power their cell towers. So imagine if you don’t have any generators and all those were powered by solar energy, what that can do to bring down costs. So Halaji, over to you on this policy aspect.

Hala Jumbo:
Thank you very much, Ponce. I think generally there is a direct correlation between the cost of data and the cost of operation by these GSM companies, because they are there to make money, so all the infrastructure they need in terms of electricity, in terms of the equipment they need, the cost of that actually also has a direct correlation with the cost of the data. Now when you look at, like I quite agree with Onika, when you say that things need to be done, for example, to help reduce co-location, and also sharing infrastructure, which are two fundamental things actually to help. Because when you look at it in general, and this also has to go with policy change. Now, for example, right now in Gambia what we are doing, we are working with the regulator actually to try to work with the companies to see how best they can help to reduce the cost. Now as members of parliament, because I also happen to be the chair of the committee responsible for education and ICT, in the next few days we’ll be calling, we’ll be visiting the GSM companies, all of them in the country, together with the ministry and also as well as the regulator to see exactly what we can do together. Now what is clear actually is that the lack of electricity actually across the continent, also in Gambia, is also impacting on the provision of the services, because of, again like you said, they would have to use solar to be able to, or generators to be able to power their infrastructure, and that makes it actually more expensive, because you have the total generated almost 12 hours in a day, because during the day you can use this one to power some of your equipment. Now there are additional things that we need to look at as far as policy is concerned. What can we do in terms of using policies to encourage or to ask them to work together? You know, in Gambia for example, I give another example, like what the government did is they built the national broadband network, that’s actually owned by the government. Then they would allow the private sector to be able to connect on that network instead of them building their own. Because if they build their own, which means totally their operational cost also is going to go up. So now the government make it a deliberate strategy to build the national broadband network, then this private sector can come and connect. But it’s not fully operational because we’re still dealing with the last mile to be able to connect. Now the other area also that as far as policy is concerned, is we got to make it easy for the new entrants in the market. Because if you go to across the continent also, most of the continent when you go, there’s a dominance about two or three companies that dominate the entire market. Now what can government do to ensure that we make it easy for the new entrants? Now to do that I think there should be a deliberate strategy to create some kind of tax haven for them to be able to come in. Because they cannot just come immediately and then start to compete. Because these are people that are established almost 5, 10 or 20 years ago. So you cannot come now and then you want to compete with them. So their policies must be geared towards making it easy for them to enter the market in terms of tax breaks, and also in terms of making it easy in terms of providing electricity also. Now the other one, the last one is also about the electricity, I’ll come back to that one again. That is, we need to be, if you want to end internet poverty, we also need to look at our electricity supply across the continent. Because that’s also a very big factor. Now in the Gambia example, I always give example, also the government came out with also another project that would connect electricity, solar, to all schools. to all hospitals across the country and you know when that actually happens we means now the GSM company will be able to also operate in those areas. So lastly like Onika actually said, it’s about the need to also promote you know community networks. They are very cheap to deploy and they are also very quick also to deploy. It doesn’t really need huge infrastructure investment, it doesn’t need that. So our policies as members of Parliament we need to actually help the executive in those policies where we can actually help them to make the policies where it’s going to make it easy for new entrants to come into the market and also to ensure we have enough electricity supply across the country and also to ensure that the tax breaks actually are given to the new entrants so they can compete with the bigger boys in the market. Thank you.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you very much Elijah. Before I round up this session with Surin and Makta, I will open it up now to the floor for questions and if we have someone online please our technical folks if there’s someone online please let us know for him to ask questions. So please the floor is opened and after all the questions before I round up I will allow our Honorable Minister present to just say a brief comment before Surin and Makta close it. So please the mic is there and we’ll take some questions now. Okay. Please introduce yourself and the constituency you represent. Okay. Good

Audience:
morning everyone. My name is Emmanuel Vitus. I’m the convener of the Togo IGF and the coordinator of the West African School of Internet Governance. So first of all congratulations to the EUC and the ECA for the commendable work. I think since at this we have observed the involvement of the youth in the community. So my question is directed to Sorin. My first question is how the national IGFs are involved in the recruitment of those young individuals and what mechanism has put in place to measure their impact after the fellowship at the national and regional level. The second question is could you elaborate on the collaboration between the national and regional school in the recruitment engagement of those young people? And my last question is what is the message that is being conveyed to this global stage by those young people? Because we have observed that other countries that actually sponsored their youth to participate in this meeting, they make sure that they attend all the meetings or have a representative in all those meetings with one message. So they always convey the message of their country or their region to all those sessions. So is there any mechanism like that for the African youth to make sure that they participate in all the sessions here and bring our message to the global stage so that this meeting is not just a meeting between them? So my last question is about inclusion. We noticed that we have 29 French-speaking countries and about six Portuguese-speaking countries and among those youth, do you take that into consideration to make sure that language is not a barrier in the participation of the French-speaking and the Portuguese or Arabic-speaking young

Poncelet Ileleji:
participants? Thank you. You really bundled up a lot of questions, but I’ll go over to the next question. So after the three questions on this side, I’ll allow the audience, my panelists, to respond and then we’ll take the questions on this side. So okay, I will take all. Okay, next please. Okay. Thank you

Audience:
very much. Thank you very much. I would like to thank you, UNECA, for what you are doing. I know you have been doing the ‑‑ Please introduce yourself. Okay. Sorry. My name is Nicholas Kirama. I currently serve as the president of Internet Society of Tanzania chapter and also the national IGF coordinator. I’m also a member of the UNECA. I would like to thank you, UNECA, for the support you have given on the language front. I know Soreen has been very instrumental in terms of making sure we expand the inclusion in terms of languages. As you know, 58% of the content on the internet is English. So, I would like to thank you for that. Number two, I really want to give an example of what is happening in Tanzania. I know United Nations economic commission for Africa, we are talking about the economy. And now we are talking about a modern economy that is driven by a digital economy. And without electricity, without electricity, we would not be able to do what we are doing. So, I would like to share an example of what is happening in Tanzania. If we are talking about a digital city in the rural areas, if we are talking about the digital Africa, I think somehow it will be a mission impossible. So, I want to share an example that has been done in Tanzania for the last seven or six years. In the last seven or six years, it was very easy for a gentleman to brand himself as energy bachelor. But in the last seven or eight years he is more aware of an energy install, put up electricity in 3,000 villages. So what does this say? This means that if we really have a political will and we decide it can be done, that means even other countries can be able to do that, to ensure that we have electricity in the rural areas so we can secure the future of digital Africa. So that is what I wanted to share, to say that it is possible and it can be done if everybody plays his or her part. Thank you.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you. Yeah. Please, try to make your comments brief. We have a few minutes more so we can get everybody to speak.

Audience:
Okay. My name is Jimson Olufoye, Africa, private sector, Africa. Also to join others to say thank you to UNECA for what they’ve been doing, especially through Dr. Mata’s sake. The private sector in the global south, especially Africa, is really underrepresented compared to the global north. Global north is matured, okay? Of course we know, we understand that. So in the south, we try to organize ourselves, but it’s really challenging so we want to call for more engagement, more participation, more support from UNECA. We recognize the critical role of UNECA, especially through the effort of our late brother, Makan Faye, blessed memory, and of course with Mata’s sake, as I mentioned, and the team. UNECA has a strong instrument now in terms of a study that shows clearly that when we deploy internet fully, we can really have per capita GDP increase very clearly. So, my appeal is that we should engage our government more, let them see that this add value to the economy well-being of their people, because I still see some government they don’t get it. I was discussing with a colleague, and I was surprised that some government would deliberately shut down the Internet just because they didn’t agree with some social media posts. And then, I need to mention that the use of TV white spaces is very important, because in Africa we have dispersed areas, so the established telco might not be able to reach those places, because of obvious reasons, but with a spectrum for TV white spaces freely given, that will really help a lot. Solar panel is being used to power data centers around, we have demonstrated it, so let’s go solar. And lastly, one network, how can we achieve that? We want to encourage UNECA to really help push this, so that we can have one network across Africa. Thank you.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you. Please, I appeal to you to raise your question. Mama Mary, please, over to you.

Audience:
Thank you very much. My name is Mary Uduma. I coordinate the West Africa Internet Governance Forum. I’m part of the National Nigeria Internet Governance Forum, and I just handed over the chairpersonship of Africa Internet Governance Forum to Lillian. So I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Internet governance in Africa. I know when we started, very small, and now we have grown. Abuja was like a boom for us, so thank you for your support, ECA, and what you have been doing. What I want us to see is that our government, I’m not sure, I don’t know the government that is really, has really caught the… So, I would like to ask you, what is the strategy that you would like to see in the future, particularly in the future of Internet governance, understand what multi-stakeholder approach is. There are a few here in the program, I mean, the IGF today, I mean, 2023 IGF, I don’t know how many Ministers, apart from a Minister that is seated in the front, I don’t know how many Ministers. So, what is the strategy that you would like to see in the future? I would like to see the ECA deployed to make sure that, well, in coordination with the African Union, because the African Union has the privilege of getting the Ministers or getting the heads of states come to their meeting. What strategy will be put in place to make sure that the ECA is not only going to go to the African Union, but also to the African Union, because those are the people that do the policy. Those are the people that, they prefer to go to ITU. How would the, what role will ECA play to make sure that these Ministers get to understand what the Internet, Internet governance will portend for us in Africa. That’s one. Second one, sorry, if I’m getting it too long. The second strategy will be to strengthen the Internet governance. So, what would be our strategy in the global level. Can we define it from our own level? What it means to strengthen the Internet governance. At the global level, you might say the Secretariat is not strong, and, you know, there are people that are still excluded in Internet governance. So, what would be our own strategy to make sure that we strengthen the Internet governance in the global level? Thank you very much, and good morning to everybody. I would also try to be very short. My name is Modesto Samtse. from the Republic of Namibia and a member of APNIC as well as member of Parliament. Number one is youth involvement into activities like this one. I really want to appreciate the previous speakers who have highlighted the importance of youth participation into Internet governance activities, because these are the future generation for Africa, and I just think that as we go back and plan further, we should really try to get them on board as much as we can, so that we can drive the wagon together. I believe the aspect is also much higher, and if we can capacitate them to take over, I think for tomorrow, that would be a good journey. The other one is sharing of infrastructure. Sharing of infrastructure is really a problem which I don’t know how we should legislate, because you have an institution that owns this infrastructure, and they determine their rendering cost, if one is to render space on their towers, for instance, and for new entrants, it becomes an issue, because the new entrants are unable either to afford the price determined by the owner of the infrastructure that already exists, and now as a legislator, I don’t know how best we can approach this so that we can give a direction. So the last one is market saturation. With smaller populations like the one of Namibia, that’s also an issue. I don’t know how we can manage that one to allow new entrants in, because those who are already there are saying they are struggling to survive. So those were my short intervention. Thank you.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you. Next.

Audience:
Thank you so much for the opportunity. I’m Honorable Lydia Alamisi-Akanvalvan, a parliamentarian from Ghana and a member of APNIC. I just want to find out, in my sister’s presentation, she made mention of women who are at a disadvantage when it comes to the use of data and other internet services. It’s true. In Africa, it’s true. It’s an open secret that it has been difficult for women, especially in the rural areas, to have that ability to use the internet. One, the provision of technology. The reason being that people at the rural areas don’t have the needed resources to afford new technologies. Then, two, the affordability of data in the rural areas. No matter how little it is, but it is still expensive to the rural woman. We, as African parliamentarians and as women, women in leadership, what is or what are we doing as women to help our fellow women in the rural areas who are at a disadvantage? That is one of my questions. Then, two, I want to find out what we, as African parliamentarians or women in general, We need to make sure that our women are not taken as our take-home from this Internet Governance Forum, home, to make sure that our fellow women in our various countries also benefit. It is not a talk show that we come here and talk as women, we come here and talk and walk away. We need something to carry home, to tell our fellow women that this is what we have learned, and this is what we want them to be, or this is what we want them to hear from what we have taken home. So, we need to make sure that our women are not taken as our take-home from this Internet Governance Forum, home, to make sure that our fellow women are not taken as our take-home, to share with them. Thank you very much. Thank you. We have two more questions, then we’ll have our people speak. Okay. Thank you. My name is Atanas Baizire from the IGF-DRC. First, allow me to thank the UCA. I’m a member of the African women’s organization, and I’m also a member of the NRI, and that has been instrumental in my career and entering this ecosystem. I have come to realize that African initiatives, whether NRIs or digital initiatives, are easily getting financial support ex-Africa, like external Africa than within Africa. So, I want to know what are the measures that we want to take to ensure that we have more African women in our organization, and also in our African women’s organization, to be able to finance within Africa than out of Africa. Thank you. Okay, Dr. Kosi, and then we have one speaker online, one question online. Please, technical crew, be ready. Thank you, Chairman. I’m Kosi Amesinu from Benin, I’m from Ministry of Economy and Finance. I’m a member of the African women’s organization, and I’m also a member of the NRI. What is the plan to help them? Some countries have made it, but since two or three years, we don’t see anything again. What is your plan to help also those countries? That is my question. Thank you.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you. The speaker online, please.

Abraham:
All right, thank you very much, Ponson, Mekta, and all the panel members here. My name is Abraham Fifi Saobi. I’m a Ghanaian. I’m currently speaking from London, the United Kingdom. I have been volunteering for the Global IGF as a technical support and the IGF Secretariat since 2020. And I also last year got an opportunity to join the UNECE as a volunteer, where I helped so much in terms of mobilizing all the volunteers from different African countries. And it was a very good journey because looking at the concept behind it, bringing people from Africa to work together, not only that, but UNECE also created an environment for us to also work together with the staff at UNECE, which was the very best of exposure for all these youths in Africa. Not only the aspect of creating an environment for the internet governance, because there are some questions people have asked that I want to clarify based on that. People, we try to let people understand that most people didn’t even know about internet governance, but they were selected. We gave them opportunity. Then we started training them to get involved. They understood the system. Now we also got a chance to leverage internet governance processes to their various countries. So we have to pick people, especially creating the gender equality among them. We started picking people to train them. What we realized is that people lack mentorship within the internet governance space. So if people who are already versed in the internet governance space are not trained, they are not going to be able to get involved. internet governance space, we try to tell them that the internet governance forum process is not about getting a travel support to travel, but also trying to create something within the space which can be beneficial to your country, to everywhere that you stand. And me, through this all processes, I’ve been able to get an opportunity out there very much. I also led with other facilitators from the UNECE to benefit it, and we started training people on internet governance under the Pan-African Youth Ambassador for Internet Governance. We received over 2,000 applications from different countries, over 52 countries in Africa. We realized the language barrier, so we tried to work together to make sure that we have five languages, which is English, French, Portuguese, Swahili, and Arabic. How can we tailor this kind of languages in terms of internet governance to the local level for them to understand? And we’ve got to train about 1,100 people. Over the last three days, we’ve issued over 1,000 certificates to people who completed the task. We assess them, we also create an impact. Most of the youth that they were new to the system, we try to engage them to their various local IGFs and the youth IGF. I’m very happy that Atanasie talked about the concept that he was part. He’s been able to set up the youth IGF in this country, not only to travel, but also to create an impact. So within PAYAG, within the youth processes under the UNEC, we are trying to combine the people who don’t have experience. But what I also suggest, based on the leadership, people who are into internet governance, is that it’s not always about providing funding for people to travel. Let us pick the people that they are coming within the internet governance, because we cannot go down to do much of the work. We might bring all these people to join hands, mentor them. Currently, I have about 50 people that I am mentoring.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Please round up, please.

Abraham:
Yes, so I have over 50 people that I’m mentoring in Africa, whereby I’m training them, giving them an opportunity, how they can also contribute to the Internet ecosystem. And at Anase Spark, most of them have joined various Internet Society programs and African digital programs. And what we are trying to do is that, we also want to create more women into it. So this is what we have been doing as a PAIAC and as an African youth. We’ve been very, we’ve had a privilege to get much from the UNEC and we thank all the leadership that they should continue to expand support, travel support and fund people who can contribute positively to the Internet ecosystem. Thank you very much.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you. So, Sorene, you have some interventions, then Oneka, Halaji, then Maktar, then we allow our Minister to close this session for us. Thank you.

Sorene Assefa:
Okay, thank you, Ponce. I want to start the question from Emmanuel. He bundled down so many questions. Those questions are critical questions. When we wanted to embark on the youth initiative for Internet governance, we wanted to critically think. There are so many youth-led initiatives. As I think Ponce mentioned, most of the initiatives are supported by GIZ. But what we said is, yes, African participation is good, youth participation is good, but the participation cannot be the few handful 20 people who always get exposure over and over. So what we said is inclusion is important. That means we have to distribute. Whoever that we’re going to invite, it has to be the five corners of Africa. That means the north, the south, the east, the west, and central Africa. That means you have to consider the language. and the other thing is even the maturity level of Internet governance. If you look at the West Africa it is a very matured NRI compared to the SADC region, the southern regions, even the Portuguese-speaking countries. So we received an application, the advert was for two weeks, we received a thousand applications. So we had to come up with a strategy, how do we balance, meaning there are matured Internet governance ambassadors who have been in the system, but also we have to hold the hand of the people who came from Lesotho who have never heard of Internet governance. But if we are always focused on let’s go back to NRI coordinator and they should nominate, then we keep on opening opportunity to the same kind of people which is failing us. That’s why we are not even growing the NRI community in Africa. Atanasie was a volunteer from DRC for example, they hold the first Internet governance youth forum in DRC this year. Those are the success we want to see. It’s not about traveling, as you say traveling, but mentorship in holding each other in the network need to be east to west or north to south, how do they become together and create a network. So if anybody wanted to create a youth forum or even at a school level, IGF community, how are they going to build? Language is very, very critical. The Pan-African youth ambassador for example, Fifi was talking about it was born out of the youth volunteer of the AT. We said if we want to truly empower the youth, you have to go back to the language issue. Most of the concept is far from what the African used to understand, so language is the key. The first African language we introduced was Swahili. because that’s the most popular one. If we truly, we are serious about meaningful engagement, we need to go back to our mother tongue and start building our concept in our tongue that is close to our community. NRI participation on selection process, as I said, we had two selection criteria. The one is people are already active from NRI, so they had to create attestation from wherever they represent, but also we created a forum to say even if you are very new from the forum, like people from Lesotho, covered, who never even have IGF, it is their first time. Ethiopia, we had 50 representation. Ethiopia never had even national internet governance forum, so just to balance and for them to bring together. The result is now they have the youth forum in Ethiopia, so we had to create those kind of balance. How do you measure impact? The major impact is most of the fellows or the volunteer who have been in the ECA system, now either they are facilitators or they are volunteers and I see them, they are integrated to the ECA system, so I think it is very important for us to make sure that we are not only integrating them to the ECA system, but we are integrating them to ISOC ambassadorship, ICANN, because we still have the network keeping them together. What we wanted is not volunteer, you go your way, we keep on integrating them to the ongoing conversation. That’s why they are

Onika Mwakatumbula:
not integrated to the ECA system. So, I think it is really important for us to look at mainstreaming gender in ICT policy, so there are several things we are doing with that. We have actually developed a curriculum where we have gone to different regions and different countries to train policy makers on how do you center gender and mainstream gender in ICT policies. initiatives that are happening in the continent right now that are interesting to watch. For example, Uganda actually used their universal service funds to provide smart tablets to female-led households in 26 villages. We’re in the process of doing an impact evaluation of how impactful that was and what, you know, how did it change the lives of those communities and is this something that could be sustainable in other areas as well. So we have to keep trying to do some of this. And lastly, I will say that we are actually in the process also of doing another course of exclusion study that looks at it from a meaningful connectivity angle and we will be doing a deep dive on Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa. So I would encourage you to look at those reports because those are the experiences that women share with us that can help inform how we improve our policies and how we become intentional about including women. Remember, they are offline because they are excluded from society in general. We are not going to win when more than 50% of our population, meaning women, because they are usually majority in most countries, we are not going to win in this digital revolution, leaving half of our population behind. Thank you.

Hala Jumbo:
Thank you very much. I think in general, there’s one question I would like to respond about the private sector. That is the new entrance coming into the market. You know, most of our countries actually, the taxation regime on the telecom sector is really very high. So maybe perhaps that’s one of the areas that we need to look at in terms of our policies, just to ensure that the taxation must not be a prohibition to start a business in our countries. Now the last part I just want to talk about with the members of parliament is just to ensure that let’s have a lot of interest in the digital transformation strategy of our countries. Because the digital transformation strategy actually is going to really We have to make sure that we have the digital literacy of our own countries so that they can give us the footprint on which our country actually can move to the next stage in terms of involve, and they must involve the private sector in the strategy. They cannot leave them behind. Another one is about the digital literacy from our schools, from the public service, members of Parliament, from the judiciary. They all must be captured in the digital literacy of our own countries and as well as also be able to identify our citizens and where they are in the digital literacy of our own countries. And the third one is about the digital literacy of our e-commerce. We have started to see a lot of development in our GDP in e-commerce. And lastly, also, we must also encourage our government also to work together. Because when you look at the ministries, some ministries will be handling finance, one will be handling information, one will be handling, so they must be able to work together. If they don’t work together, they will not be able to do anything.

Dr Mactar Seck:
Thank you very much. Dr. Seck? Thank you. Let me start by answering some questions. For the government participation, we need to do more to make sure the understanding of the government on this Internet Governance Forum. As you know, IGF is not a platform for decision. It is not a platform for exchange. It is not a platform for exchange, it is just a platform for exchange and at the end, you don’t have a communication, you just have a summary, not on the discussion. And why we have to work closely with our government to give them more information about Internet Governance Forum. Some know now the importance of this IGF, but we have to do more. We have to initiate the conference that UCI is going to do through Government Meteorology and we have the Conference of Ministers of Finance, we have also a briefing of Ambassador Trying to So we have the ICT, we have the ICT, we have the outcome, we have the conference of minister of environment, we have several platform where we can use to inform them. We can also work with AUC, because AUC is member of the secretariat, to use the STC, the ICT STC to inform better the minister on the importance of IGF. We work also with smart Africa, the ICT sector, to give them more information about the internet governance forum. And also, the issue also, our minister of finance doesn’t know exactly the contribution of the digital technology on the GDP. And there is a request last year, ECA, to prepare a study to measure the impact of digital technology on the GDP, because when you talk about digital technology, for them, it is a telecommunication sector. They can measure the telecommunication sector because the telecommunication has revenue. But for all this FinTech, this mobile e-commerce platform, this e-government service, they don’t have any tools to measure the impact or the contribution on the GDP. I think when we are working on the study, when the study will be done, I think they will get a better understanding of this contribution of ICT on the GDP, plus the study done under the leadership of a team led by Jimson on the cyber security and the contribution of cyber security and ICT on the GDP. The next participation, I think, they already answered the question. I think also was the chair of the task force. We can provide some effort. Private sector. Yes, for you, we find a way now to involve their participation. We have the term of reference. the criteria of selection. For private sector, we have to look at it under the task force. I leave the question to the task force for IGF to discuss how we can better evolve private sector in the African IGF. But we have some private sector, but the big issue is the government. Now, look at, when you look at the room, I think Kofi is only representative of the government. All other people are from civil society, private sector, academia. It is a problem, yeah. Yeah, we need, there is a lot of work, I think, drafting in your working group. National IGF. National IGF, frankly, we don’t have, we can’t support all the national IGF at ECA level. It’s not possible. You have the regional IGF. I think the regional IGF can work with the country to develop their national IGF, and we have also the five regional IGF. One network, we need to look at the regulation. We can have it, because you have one network in some region on the telecom sector. But the issue is, you know, there are several law and regulation between the country, also, and between Anglophone and Francophone country. We need to work together at the EU level with all these countries to come up with one network. It will be possible, because now, with the implementation of the African free trade area, we can do it. Now, we have one single market. We are going to adopt, in January, the African digital single market, and one of the key recommendations is to have one network. And we are going to step by step, maybe not next year. By 2030, maybe we can have one network. Coming also to the digital inclusion, the cost. The problem is not the infrastructure, the problem is the regulation and the political commitment. We have all the infrastructure, but when we talk about sharing infrastructure, when you go to the law and the regulation side, we have all rules how to regulate this sharing infrastructure, but people didn’t implement. We have committed our government to implement the regulation, it is a big problem now. If we come up with a good regulation and good implementation, all the costs will go down. Because when you look at it, there is no competition in the operator. You can have one country, you have five operators, but there is no competition. One has one cent more, one cent less, it is just a discussion between the operators, and the regulation doesn’t do the real work, how the operators should implement their network, what are the regular costs for the service of telecommunication. The cost is defined by the operator of service, not by the regulator, or the regulator should have the power and the competency to define the cost of the service. We have a lot of things to do on the regulation, and I think our regulation also, we can do the better to support them also, because for the infrastructure, you have the satellite constellation we can use in the continent. I’m going to stop there. I think we have another session, and I will leave the floor to the chair, and I think all your questions are relevant, and we’ll continue the bilateral discussion. Thank you.

Poncelet Ileleji:
So we’ll just close this session now with our Honorable Minister for State for Digital Economy of Ethiopia, and Honorable Hurriy Ali Madi, to just say a few words to close this session. Over to you, Honorable.

Hurry Ali Madi:
I would like to thank and appreciate all the panelists that I have talked about all about Africa. It was really interesting. Well, it’s my honor to be here also to hear about what we can do with Internet Governance Forum as an African country, what is really our role in implementing proper implementation is the most important thing. So here, as you all know, Internet Governance Forum is a very great platform to discuss about the opportunities of Internet, new opportunities and the challenges, how we can address and the new developments. As we all know, the world is very dynamic and very flexible, especially the digital is changing from time to time. So we need to get ready as a continent. That’s the most important thing. So how we can do it, how we can do it is a critical thing. So Africa is, as we know, youngest and most rapid urbanizing continent with its young and dynamic population. So we all talk about our young people, our future, our power, the future of Africa. So when we say this, we have to get ready to work and we should consider beyond the digital development. and it’s a digital development and digital transformation as a more advanced stage of the development. So we have to think of, we need to understand what do we mean digital transformation? What do we mean say? So there is a need of willingness to experiment and to change. So there is a need of commitment for the leadership. So we have to get ready to lead and to be committed the digital transformation. It’s not only an investment. We are talking about the improving of life of our community, our society. How we can improve, how we can improve their lives. That’s all what we can talking about. So we need to provide meaningful access for digital transformation services. We need to have a digital skills in training the most African countries. So we need to develop and deploy solutions to address our social and economic challenges as a continent. So we have to address through technology, through digital transformation. So we have to, it needs cooperation as a continent. As an African continent, we need to cooperate and coordinate. To do that, IGF is a very great platform. We can talk about national IGF, we can talk about African IGF. So how we can make it meaningful, meaningful for us to use in our policies, in our legal frameworks, how we can use it, especially in building the common infrastructure as a. We all say there is always a need of affordability. So if we are going to talk about affordability, we have to produce in our country. That’s the basic solution. And if we can produce, we can use it in our content, in our own language. So it is easy to understand for our society. And we can improve their lives because they can understand it. It’s in their own language. And they can afford it to access the devices and the other tools of technology. So this is one thing that we need to do at African countries to have a solution for the affordability. So that’s what we have.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Wonderful. Minister, please, I have to make you round up. It’s time. A session is coming.

Hurry Ali Madi:
Oh, okay. Is it next? Okay. Thank you so much.

Poncelet Ileleji:
Thank you, everybody, for coming. We’ll just take a brief picture and then we’re done. Thank you. Thank you. God bless you all.