Open Forum #50 Digital Innovation and Transformation in the UN System
Open Forum #50 Digital Innovation and Transformation in the UN System
Session at a Glance
Summary
This session focused on digital innovation in the United Nations system, featuring presentations from representatives of UNHCR, UNICEF, the UN Pension Fund, and UNICC. The speakers discussed various digital transformation initiatives aimed at improving services and operations within their respective organizations.
UNHCR’s presentation highlighted their digital strategy, which includes efforts to empower refugees through digital skills and access, as well as initiatives to improve internal operations. Key focus areas included digital inclusion, protection, and innovation, with examples such as a refugee services mobile app and efforts to combat misinformation.
UNICEF shared their approach to digital resilience for children, emphasizing the importance of protecting children’s data rights and digital security. They outlined a framework encompassing data protection, information security, and responsible data use for children.
The UN Pension Fund presented their innovative digital identity solution for proof of life verification, utilizing blockchain, biometrics, and AI technologies. This system aims to streamline the process of confirming beneficiaries’ status while ensuring security and privacy.
UNICC, as the UN’s shared IT services provider, showcased various digital projects supporting multiple UN agencies. These included AI-powered chatbots, the UN digital ID platform, and cybersecurity initiatives, demonstrating UNICC’s role in facilitating digital transformation across the UN system.
The discussion highlighted common themes of collaboration, efficiency, and the responsible use of technology to support UN mandates. Speakers also addressed questions about accessibility, education for refugees, and the potential for sharing UN-developed solutions with external entities.
Keypoints
Major discussion points:
– Digital innovation and transformation efforts across UN agencies (UNHCR, UNICEF, UN Pension Fund)
– Use of emerging technologies like blockchain, biometrics, and AI to improve services and operations
– Importance of data protection, privacy, and ethical use of technology
– Collaboration and shared solutions across the UN system
– Accessibility and inclusion considerations in digital initiatives
The overall purpose of the discussion was to showcase how different UN agencies are leveraging digital innovation and emerging technologies to improve their operations and better serve their constituents, whether refugees, children, or retirees. The speakers aimed to highlight both agency-specific initiatives as well as collaborative efforts across the UN system.
The tone of the discussion was largely informative and positive, with speakers enthusiastically sharing their agencies’ digital transformation journeys and achievements. There was an underlying tone of collaboration, with multiple speakers emphasizing the importance of working together and sharing solutions across UN agencies. The Q&A portion at the end introduced a slightly more critical tone, with audience members raising questions about monitoring fund recipients and ensuring accessibility for all users.
Speakers
– Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio – Chief Information Officer of the United Nations Pension Fund
– Michael Walton – Head of Digital Services at UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency)
– Fui Meng Liew – Chief of Digital Center of Excellence at UNICEF
– Sameer Chauhan – Director of the United Nations International Computing Center (UNICC)
– Sary Qasim – Representative of the Government Blockchain Association in the Middle East
Additional speakers:
– Nancy Marango – Chairman of an organization in Kenya
– Audience member – From University of Ghana and Internet Society Ghana chapter
Full session report
Digital Innovation in the United Nations System: A Collaborative Approach
This session, held in the context of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), showcased digital innovation initiatives across various United Nations organizations. Representatives from UNHCR, UNICEF, the UN Pension Fund, and UNICC presented their agencies’ efforts in leveraging technology to enhance services and operations.
Key Themes and Initiatives
1. UNHCR’s Digital Strategy
Michael Walton, Head of Digital Services at UNHCR, outlined the agency’s digital strategy focusing on:
a) Digital Inclusion: Ensuring refugees have access to digital tools and skills
b) Digital Protection: Safeguarding refugees’ digital rights and privacy
c) Digital Innovation: Leveraging technology to improve service delivery
Walton highlighted initiatives such as a refugee services mobile app and efforts to combat misinformation, emphasizing the importance of digital inclusion across age and gender divides.
2. UNICEF’s Digital Resilience and Public Goods
Fui Meng Liew, Chief of Digital Center of Excellence at UNICEF, presented the organization’s approach to digital resilience for children and its digital public goods initiatives. Key aspects included:
a) Digital public infrastructure development
b) A database of digital interventions for children
c) Efforts to protect children’s data rights and digital security
Liew emphasized UNICEF’s work on creating digital public goods and identifying digital solutions for children with disabilities.
3. UN Pension Fund’s Digital Identity Solution
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio, Chief Information Officer of the UN Pension Fund, introduced an innovative digital identity solution for proof of life verification, utilizing blockchain, biometrics, and AI. The system’s four-proof framework includes:
a) Proof of identity at enrollment
b) Proof of authentication for subsequent interactions
c) Proof of liveness to prevent fraud
d) Proof of life to confirm beneficiary status
Dell’Accio highlighted the use of permissioned blockchain to balance security with organizational control.
4. UNICC’s Shared Digital Solutions
Sameer Chauhan, Director of UNICC, showcased various digital projects supporting multiple UN agencies, including:
a) AI-powered chatbots for enhanced user interactions
b) Cybersecurity initiatives coordinating threat intelligence across the UN system
c) Support for the UN digital ID platform
Chauhan emphasized UNICC’s role in facilitating digital transformation and collaboration across UN agencies.
5. UN Digital ID Project
Multiple speakers highlighted the UN Digital ID project as a significant cross-agency initiative, demonstrating the collaborative nature of digital innovation within the UN system.
Common Themes
Throughout the presentations and subsequent Q&A session, several common themes emerged:
1. Collaboration and knowledge sharing across UN agencies
2. Emphasis on data protection, privacy, and responsible use of technology
3. Focus on digital inclusion and accessibility, particularly for vulnerable populations
4. Adoption of emerging technologies like blockchain, AI, and biometrics
5. Development of scalable and cost-effective solutions
Audience Engagement
The session included a Q&A period where audience members raised questions about accessibility efforts for people with disabilities and the potential for sharing UN-developed systems with external entities. Speakers addressed these questions, highlighting ongoing initiatives and challenges in these areas.
Conclusion
The session provided a comprehensive overview of digital innovation efforts across the UN system, demonstrating a unified approach to leveraging technology for improved service delivery and operational efficiency. While each organization has its unique focus areas, the discussion revealed a strong foundation for collaboration and knowledge sharing in digital transformation efforts. As UN agencies continue to navigate the complexities of digital innovation, their collective efforts promise to enhance the impact and reach of their vital work worldwide, while addressing shared challenges such as digital inclusion, data protection, and the ethical use of emerging technologies.
Session Transcript
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Welcome to Session 50 on Digital Innovation in the United Nations System. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on where you are located. Welcome to our audience here in Riyadh and welcome to our audience online. My name is Dino Di Lattro. I’m the Chief Information Officer of the United Nations Pension Fund. And here today with my colleagues and friends from UNHCR, UNICEF, and UNICC, we are going to present the digital innovation in our respective organizations. Here in Riyadh, I’m with Mike Walton, the Head of Digital Services in UNHCR. And online, we are joined by Fuyi Meng, the Chief of Digital Center of Excellence of UNICEF, and Samir Shahwan, Director of the United Nations International Computing Center. The sequence of presentation will be as follows. Mike will present the experience and the strategy in UNHCR. We’ll then go online with Fuyi Meng. She will be presenting the UNICEF experience. And then I will make a presentation on the experience of the UN Pension Fund. And last but not least, we are going to have Samir, as Director of UNICC, is going to present how UNICC is actually supporting us and the entire UN system in our efforts to implement digital innovation and transformation in the UN system. So without further ado, I’ll give the floor to Mike. And I will be monitoring also the chat for any questions or comments that you may have. Thank you. Mike?
Michael Walton: Thank you, Dino. And good morning, everybody. I was told that I spoke a little bit too fast when I did another session. So please wave at me if I’m speaking too fast and I’ll slow down. So I’m Mike, I head up the digital service at the UN Refugee Agency, and good to see you all today. Really glad that we can share the experiences. We’ve been through a bit of a journey since lockdown where we started defining our digital strategy. So we were working on our digital strategy all through the pandemic. And when we decided to do it, one of the things the high commissioner said to us was this has to be designed from the ground up, has to be designed by the regions, and it has to be a framework. It can’t be a very restrictive strategy because every region is different. So we had a fantastic response from all of the regions. They ran workshops locally, and we really feel that at the end of it, we got something that was very locally relevant to people. So. I won’t play the video. But just just to remind people about really the last 10 years in terms of the number of forcibly displaced, just to kind of state UNHCR’s mandate here, since I started in 2011, we’ve seen lots of many different conflicts around the world. And this is everywhere from from America’s over to the Asia region. And you can see there the number of forcibly displaced is just grown really hugely. And I know we’re all aware of that because it touches on on all of our countries and all of our lives. So there’s a huge need out there, a huge need to meet the needs of these people and to work with them to help them rebuild their lives. This is Jessie, she’s from DRC. I met her in Kakuma Refugee Camp. This was about five or six years ago. She’s now moved on, but she was she was she was running a coding center in Kakuma with very little resources. She had a generator. She had a team. She had some. laptops, and they were developing Android coding apps for the local community in Kakuma Refugee Camp. And it was really amazing just to see what they’ve been able to do with such little resource. It’s actually grown much bigger now, and now there are big coding centers. And there is an initiative called I Am Code, which focuses on female coding skills. And it’s growing from strength to strength. But this is in its minority. So we need to see many more examples of local skills and investment. So don’t worry about reading this slide. It’s our digital strategy on a page. But I’ll talk you through it, just to say. But what we tried to do was a cross-cutting digital strategy for every part of the organization. And really, again, although we talk to regions, we also talk to all of the divisions at HQ to make sure that their needs were met. So I’ll walk you through this just very briefly. The first part of the strategy is around refugee empowerment and making sure that refugees have the digital skills and the agency and tools to engage in the digital world. Many of us take the digital access for granted, and we can do many things. But for many, the gap still exists. So how can we address that gap? Really, to rebuild lives. And rebuilding lives is something that’s so important. Refugees spend many of their years, many of their youthful years, in refugee camps. And things like education are so important to help them build the skills further. We also had two pillars of the strategy which were looking internally, which are how do we work better and how can we be more effective as an organization? And I’ll go into those two pillars. But it was important for us to match what we were saying externally with what we were doing internally, too. At the end, maybe we have some discussion time about the commonality, because there’s so much common need across all of the conversations I’ve heard. I’ll focus on a couple in a minute. But just to say, I’ve heard so much about capacity building over the last few weeks. How do we work together, multi-stakeholder, to deliver the best possible outcomes? And how do we work together to make sure that we’re deliver a capacity-building approach across all of our users? How can we be efficient in our digital tools that we produce? How can we be more effective and make sure that we reuse, we share and we don’t waste valuable resources? And how can we make sure that we don’t, with one hand, provide good, but with the other hand, inadvertently cause harm, perhaps by using climate-heavy, carbon-heavy approaches? So how can we really be good at making sure that we do no harm? And ethics is going to be a really important part of our focus next year. And if anyone here is interested in being involved in that with us, we’re really looking at how we can have an ethical approach to the use of tech in the humanitarian sector, working with other stakeholders. With accessibility, we’ve worked a bit with Microsoft and Google, and we’ve met with a group of refugees in London at Google headquarters. So thanks to them for helping facilitate that meeting. But as well as Google and Microsoft, there are so many other applications being developed. How can we make sure that the disabled users, whether it’s those with visual impairment, those with hearing impairments or other forms of disability can be properly catered for in the digital world? So we’re really focusing on that. And we’ve done a big piece of work on accessibility. It’s a common need. It’s come up again and again. How can we share? How can we have a joint approach and a joint center of excellence to something like digital accessibility so we can be more effective and not reinvent the wheel? My team’s mantra is engage, engage, engage, engage with the communities, make sure that we’re delivering something that is relevant to them. Two of my team members have just been to Iraq and to Rwanda and have sat with our new refugee gateway to make sure that actually the prototype is meeting their needs and meeting their expectations. So really important that we design for user feedback. Digital inclusion is a critical first pillar of the strategy. I won’t go on too much about digital inclusion because it’s been such a key focus of this week. You know, I’ve heard almost every session about digital inclusion. It starts with connectivity and we have a big refugee connectivity for refugees initiative. But it also goes on to when you get that connectivity, what can you do with it? How can you learn? How can you train? How can you get work? How can you be financially included? So for us, that inclusion is very all encompassing. Connectivity is always talked about. But what about all of the other things that come? I’ve heard one or two, one conversation actually on age. And I sat with my 94 year old father in law before I came here trying to get him to use his mobile phone so he could access. some of the services and call for safety if something happened to him, he wouldn’t have been able to do that without support. So I think when we’re talking about inclusion, we’re also talking about inclusion of elderly people who may not have the skills, or people who don’t have the access, and also make sure that that’s completely equal across the gender divide as well. So the second piece is digital services. So what we said was, okay, so when people get connectivity, the ability for us to provide services to individuals is going to be much more effective and much more efficient. So we’re now building a digital gateway, which is a one-stop shop for refugees to register, access appointments, find work, and find essential services. So that’s very much in its first stage of development. However, and we’ve heard a lot about risks, I think, in this week, with connectivity comes the risks and the threats of being online. So we have a huge program of work on digital protection, and I’ll talk a little bit more about that, but that really covers everything from hateful content. Imagine if you’re a refugee coming to a new community, whether that’s in the UK or anywhere else, and you’re met online with hateful comments or with misinformation, and it’s a real issue for us. So we want to make sure that we find a way of addressing that. Communicating, how we communicate with each other, how we communicate with our partners is another pillar. I won’t go into too much detail on that today, but that’s very much about how do we use all of the new communication tools to be more effective, and how do we work digitally? This may not look like a digital picture, but we were using Internet of Things monitoring for our water deliveries to make sure that we knew what the water levels were, we knew when deliveries needed to be made, and we’re using Internet of Things technology to help us inform and send data back for that. So really, really useful, interesting examples. Dino, please tell me if I need to speed up. know we talked about innovation, what we have is we have a fantastic innovation team in UNHCR. They have a digital innovation fund and actually there’s a refugee-led fund as well which goes into it and a data fund too but let’s talk about the digital fund. We have a certain amount of money allocated to the innovation fund and refugee-led organizations can apply too and it’s really about if you have a good idea and you want to test it, how can they get funding for it and how can they do a pilot and a prototype. It’s a really good mechanism and we find that we have maybe 50 or so, 100 or so different applications across the funds every year and some of them will fail, that’s the nature of innovation and some of them will succeed and that can help us move forward. This is a just a picture of our refugee services mobile app that I mentioned that’s being tested in Rwanda and Iraq. So you can see it’s online services, you’ll be able to arrange appointments, refugees will be able to access documents, they’ll be able to register. Imagine the huge queues that happens when there is a sudden onset of an emergency and the sudden need to be registered as a refugee. With a mobile app we can help relieve that. We’re not trying to take away face-to-face contact, that will always be our number one priority but we are looking at how can we actually speed up registration so people can access essential services and information as quickly as possible. This is our help website. When I arrived we didn’t have a help website, now we have 14 million forcibly displaced visiting our help website for critical information every year and it’s really important, it’s a lifeline for people. They can find out how to access, how to go through the asylum process, how to access essential services that in the country they’re in and it’s becoming, we now have pretty much all country operations covered by this and when things suddenly change, for example in the Syria situation or in Ukraine situation, it’s really important to be able to provide information quickly to people, quickly to refugees and as well as this we have a WhatsApp service which is about engaging refugees who are using WhatsApp but when Ukraine happened, we realized that WhatsApp wasn’t really the primary tool of communication in Ukraine, it was it was Viber and we hadn’t really explored Viber before so we really needed to kind of look at what are all of the different messaging platforms that we should be working on and how can we be more effective. We work really closely with partners, some of whom have been here this week so with Meta, with Google, with the EU, how can we really work with them and also how can we work to adapt business practice as well. so that actually business practice changes for some of these companies so that they also do no harm when they’re operating. Just a little thing around hate speech really, you know, it’s we’ve done a two-year project that’s been funded by the European Union and it’s about now we’re really talking about information integrity and trusted information. How can we be sure that trusted information is is accessible at all times and how can we make sure that that access to information is not restricted? So we’ve been working a lot with UNESCO, with ICRC and with the Norwegian government, with the Swiss government on really looking at ways that we can make sure that there is a safe and trusted information world out there. I don’t think I can play this video but if it’s circulated, is it possible to play that video on the You don’t necessarily need the sound, that’s fine. But just as an example, this is a AI-generated video. Don’t worry about the sound. An AI-generated video that was playing out in the Rohingya crisis and it was, if you can tell, it was by AI because actually AI is quite bad at creating the letters and the acronyms of UNHCR, so it’s quite wrong. But it’s basically showing UNHCR, bearing arms and holding content, which actually is never the case. We only act in peace and it’s completely fabricated content. So how do we really work against AI to make sure, work with AI and restrict AI to make sure that we don’t get false content out there? This was also, you know, a quite heavy issue for us in terms of impact on our operations and impact on refugee safety in Indonesia. So we had to be really careful at the time, too. Okay, so and then survey results, we actually looked at some of, we asked a survey of some of the questions that we wanted to ask refugees. And actually, you know, the many many, Many refugees have faced hate speech, have seen it on their own channels and have been disturbed and affected by that. So how can we really make sure that we’re really addressing that hate speech and it really isn’t causing harm? And you can see there, psychological harm, social harm, financial harm. We all reported this when we went out and we did a survey. Coming to a close now, but just some of the things that we’re seeing is borders are increasingly becoming digitized. And if you’re a refugee seeking safety, how do we make sure that actually safety is really there and that the technology that can be used for good at borders is also not used in the wrong way at borders? So we’re really looking and keeping an eye on the technology. Looking at what might happen here, biometric travel documents, apps and websites that are being used. So bots. It’s only being tested. Data is really essential. I went to a great presentation on data and movements and how can we really ensure that we can do good predictive analysis there. Again, I won’t play this video, but again, if you have the deck afterwards, you can see that. And finally, just to say, as I said at the beginning, how can we work in the spirit of the digital compact on common areas? Ethics, a common approach to ethical, ethical approaches. Gender, how can we really make sure that we are including both gender, but also age, as I mentioned at the beginning. Accessibility, let’s not reinvent the wheel and create many different training courses. On accessibility, there only needs to be one that we can share or maybe several that we can share. These things can be adapted. And then policy, again, lots of discussion on policy today and standards. So that’s it for me, Dino, over to you.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Thank you very much, Mike, for the very insightful, comprehensive presentation. Very impressive, the amount of technologies and the scope of your purview. Fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing. So, we are now going to pass the floor to our colleagues, Kim Yang, Chief of the Digital Center of Excellence at UNICEF. She’s based in New York. Kim Yang, if you can please turn on the video, as you already did. Thank you so much. And also share your screen for the presentation. Kim Yang is going to make a presentation on digital resilience for impact for children. The floor is yours, Kim Yang. Thank you.
Fui Meng Liew: Thank you, Dino. First of all, can you hear me loud and clear?
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Yes, we can hear you very well. But if you can please share your screen for the presentation. It’s not shown on the main screen.
Fui Meng Liew: Let me do that now, because I have to replace Mike’s sharing right now. And please let me know if you can see it.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Not yet.
Fui Meng Liew: What about now? Okay. Let me see. Yeah. Okay, perfect. It’s clear now. Yeah, it’s clear?
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Yes, it is. Thank you.
Fui Meng Liew: Thank you, Dino. Dino, because we are hearing online from the room a bit choppy, the voice, so please feel free to stop me if in the room you don’t hear me very clearly. First of all, I want to thank Mike for doing such a good presentation about digital transformation and innovation in the impact for refugees. And today, or now, I’m going to take us to another turn in terms of how do we see digital innovation and transformation for refugees. the impact for children. As an introduction, my name is Hui-Ming Liu. I am the Chief of Digital Center of Excellence of UNICEF, and I’m based in Nairobi. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening to everyone today. So as some of you might have known, UNICEF is a child rights organization. From our perspective, we look at the holistic view of how UNICEF as a UN agency can actually propel and deliver impact for children around the world. And today, in this conversations that I’m having with you all, we’re going to focus on the digital resilience framework that UNICEF put together to really look at in the digital age, how do we make sure that the rights for children in terms of assessing data and their digital rights are being protected along the way. So it is go without saying that digital is intertwined in UNICEF’s DNA. In UNICEF, we are actually guided every four years by our strategic plan. Digital transformation is in our current strategic plan of four years from 2022 to 2025. What does that really mean? That really means that the entire organization look at digital as a very important change strategy for us to change our way of delivering services and impact for children. And it’s not only that. In the UN organization, most recently in September, we also see that the approval and launch on the pack of the future that actually trigger a lot of conversations. Most importantly, the global digital compact actually also bind us with the member states of our ambition on digital. So this is not digital is not only really happening in. UNICEF and it is really happening around the world and we are living in a digital world. What we are also seeing most importantly is that our stakeholders, over 190 governments and territories, countries and territories that UNICEF work very closely with, we’re seeing a sea change of them coming out and telling us the fact that they need us to be also stepping up on how to do digital delivery for services and any of the results that we deliver for children. Just a little bit of data. Over the last two years, UNICEF around the world, we actually successfully got a sneak peek about what are the digital interventions that we are hearing from our country offices. As I mentioned, we have a global footprint. We have country offices in over 160 countries and we’re in seven regions. What we’re seeing is that through our knowledge management platform, we’re looking at over 1,600 digital interventions and this can be digital innovations, digital ideas and this can also be digital interventions that scale massively in the country with the government. This is not a small number in all ways and means and this really strengthens our belief that digital is intertwined in UNICEF. How do we see digital is important for child rights, being a child rights organization? The way that we look at it is that it’s the whole journey of a child. In UNICEF, our mandate is covering from health, education, sanitation and so forth. Really, that reflects into a journey of a child from birth to a child getting registered with a legal ID. a child being vaccinated, they receive social protection, and they receive the right education, and they receive the protection all the way from zero age, all the way to when they become a young adult. And there are some disturbing numbers that we’re seeing so far is that, let’s say, let’s take the example from legal identity perspective. A child is born, and we know that from our interventions and data collection from all the government agencies is that in sub-Saharan Africa, just for an example, over 90 million children are actually not registered. If a child is not registered legally, that means that will truncate the potential of the child because he or she will not be able to successfully get vaccinated, may not, most likely not get the proper education, and it might get into a lot of social protection gray zone that we cannot protect the child. So the fact that the child is being registered and the child getting the right services to us is really, really important. And what does it mean with digital? With the notion of governments as getting more and more digital, and we’re seeing a proliferation of digital solutions or digital public goods in the market, we do see that there is a strong need for UNICEF to come out working with the lights of this digital solutions providers, such as DHIS2, the Digital Health Information System 2, that, sorry, the District Health Information System 2 that is managed by University of Oslo, OpenSPP, that’s about social protection that is championed by some of the big member states such as the Germany, Primero, which is a case management system, Learning Passport, Giga. Giga is actually a very interesting one because the way that we see digital is. It’s also the importance of having connectivity in every school, in every primary healthcare center that we provide the services directly or indirectly to children and family. Giga is a flagship partnership with ITU, of UNICEF with ITU to really connect every school. So that’s a very, very ambitious goal, but it just goes to show that digital is important for child rights. And we do see that for us, we have to come out and really support this cause. I just want to spend a little bit of time about not only digital is important for child rights, how UNICEF walked the talk about enabling the digital public goods in the digital ecosystem to deliver results for children. A little bit of background of digital public goods. There is an alliance called Digital Public Goods Alliance, which UNICEF is a co-founder of the alliance that established three years ago. And we have been very strong in really working with different key partners from the Norwegian to UNDP and so forth to really realize the key principles of DPG from making sure that the solutions give countries greater control on how they build and enhance the digital public infrastructure, being able to give them the control of being able to optimize and offer cheaper and faster implementation. I hope the room can hear me because I see. Okay, so I continue. So also offer cheaper and faster implementation than the proprietary solution so that governments do not get into vendor lock-in situations. Last but not least, catalyze the local tech. ecosystem. So, you know, locally, there can be a vibrant ecosystem to sustain the work on digital public goods. And on the right hand side, you’ll see some of the UNICEF, how we walk the talk on investing in not only the key principles, but investing in some of this digital public goods, ranging from RapidPro, a real-time messaging platform that used by more than 100 countries. And last year, we sent more than 1.2 billion messages yearly to globally, all the way from Primero, Oki, Bebo and Yoma, they covered different sectoral needs of UNICEF in delivery impact for children. So switching gear a little bit, we live in a digital world and by design, we are vulnerable. So from the way that we see it, not only cyber attacks is everywhere, cyber attacks impact UN agencies as much as it impacts private sector or government agencies. So we take it very seriously that it is our accountability and responsibility to make sure that we have a way to ensure children’s data and the rights are fully respected. And in that notion, we started the framework of digital resilience, which the core objective of it is to be able to protect the data rights and keep personal data secure and be able to use it ethically. And in this realm, we’re talking about data of children as well, which in most of the time, they could be the most vulnerable group. They could be the most vulnerable group because they are not the attempt to make decision. I’m still hearing some sound from IGF7 here. So I just want to make sure everyone can hear me. So how does data resilience work? It actually has three key pillars or three key elements. One is about data protection. Second is about information security. Third is about responsible data for children. In data protection, we care about how to ensure the rights to know why personal data is being collected and to give consent for its use. I know in a lot of the countries, there’s clear data protection laws and so forth. From UNICEF perspective, we want to also keep the standard to make sure that we walk the talk on making sure data protection is clearly and adhered by in UNICEF and with the work that we do on the ground. Information security is to really make sure that we introduce a technical controls on who can access the data and when and really protect the data that is in our custody. The third pillar about responsible data for children is really about ensuring the adoption of the highest ethical standards. And we’re talking about data for children and of children. And this can be really sensitive data if we’re not actually do this right. So- The IGF-7, it’s unmuted, it creates a background noise. The fact that- It needs to be unmuted. The fact that we need to reduce the misuse of data and make sure there’s no misuse of data and use the data to its maximum potential is in the pillar of the responsible data for children. And how do we put the framework at use? There are multiple channels that we’re putting it at use. First is that we are integrating the resilience into the technology playbook. Technology playbook is a UNICEF way of providing a comprehensive guide for- our program and our technology for development colleagues on the ground to implement digital programming solutions. We make a very, very strong effort in integrating the digital resilience framework as an assessment into the playbook, so that we make sure that it is actually being fully utilized at all initiatives at the country level. So that’s one part of how we put it in use. The second part of how we put it in use is to also really amplify the need of it by strengthening the digital resilience framework through global partnership. And we have been concertedly working with different partners outside of UNICEF, and we will open for more feedback from this group as well. We really seek the collaboration with governments and donor agencies for implementing the capacity building for the information security, data protection, and also responsible use of data of the digital resilience framework as well. With that, I’m gonna pause, and thank you all for letting me have the stage to share with you what UNICEF is doing in digital transformation, digital innovation, more importantly, our digital resilience work. And I wanna hand it over back to the room. Dino, over back to you. Dino, I cannot hear you. I’m not sure. I think workshop seven is muted.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Can you hear me now?
Fui Meng Liew: Yes, I was able to hear you, but hand it over back to you.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Thank you very much, Fu-Ming. I really like your presentation, and actually, I really. like the fact that you gave some concrete example the digital public goods because there is a lot of talk about DPI but it’s not always clear for for many in the audience how this is translated into concrete application so thank you very much for sharing the example of UNICEF. So with that said we are now switching to my organization the UN Pension Fund where I would be walking you through the innovation that we implemented in the digital identity for proof of life or proof of existence. So I’m going to share my screen and make the presentation. So in the case of the UN Pension Fund we are focused on a particular demographics basically what we refer to as the aging population. The UN Pension Fund has 86,000 retirees and beneficiaries. They lived across the globe in more than 192 countries and one of the problem historically the UN Pension Fund had to address was how to confirm and determine that this individual that received periodic benefits from the UN Pension Fund are indeed still alive. So I will share with you how we address this problem using emerging technologies. So very briefly some data some indicators about the UN Pension Fund. We are striving to meet all the benchmark that have been defined for our operation and making sure that we pay 100% of the benefit. The market value of our asset as of today is actually around $100 billion. This in 2023 was evaluated at 84.4. It’s basically one of the biggest financial asset of the United Nations globally, an asset of $100 billion. And we are fully funded. So we are one of the few pension fund in the world, which is a defined benefit fund, pension fund, and we are completely funded. Actually in 2023, we are 117% funded. We serve 25 member organization. The 83,000 priority benefit a year you see in this slide actually increased to 86,000 and the 143,000 participant now increased to 150,000. These are some of the emblems and logos that you probably you’ll be able to recognize vis-a-vis the member organization that we are serving. One of our most important partner is actually going to present shortly after me is the United Nations International Computing Center, which actually develop technologically speaking, all our innovative, most innovative application and solution, which I’m going to speak about today vis-a-vis my organization. But then Samir, the director of the United Nations International Computing Center will be able to articulate a much wider presentation vis-a-vis what UNICC does, not only for the UN Pension Fund, but also for UNHCR, UNICEF, the entire ecosystem of the UN system. So here is the problem that I was alluding to before. For more than 70 year, the UN Pension Fund had this issue of serving… this 86,000 individual 190-feet country and determine whether and confirm whether they were alive. And how this was done was done by mailing through 195 postal services a form, a paper-based form, asking them to sign it and return it back through the same 195 postal services. So as you can appreciate, this process was highly prone to at least delays. And indeed, we had to perform this process twice a year, but in some cases also to loss of paper, which unfortunately, in extreme cases, because of the rules of the regulation of the pension fund, we were forced to suspend payments. And that, of course, as you can appreciate, have very serious and negative impact on the household. So how did we address this problem? We transformed, we digitalized, hence digital innovation slash transformation, a paper-based and mail-based process into a solution that uses emerging technology with a mobile application, blockchain, but also biometrics, artificial intelligence, and global positioning system. And this is indeed the real screenshot of our internet posting in 2021 when we went live with the application and we announced to all our stakeholders and clients the deployment of the solution itself. So on the right side, you see the screenshot of the web application, sorry, of the mobile application that each one of our client and user. can download on their device. And on the left side, you see the screenshot of our internet posting. So when I was given, when we were given this problem, we had to articulate and basically translate the problem into its main logical components. And the way we did this is that we identify the need to provide four proofs. One is the proof of identity at the very beginning of the process when we enroll our user, our client into the solution. And then proof of authentication every after, every time the application is utilized. As I alluded to before, this is not just a digital identity solution, but it’s a digital identity solution for proof of life, proof of existence, demonstrating and confirming that indeed the intended recipient is still alive. And therefore we had to provide a proof of existence. And then a proof of transaction in order to make sure that we were going to create an independently auditable and traceable record that could be verified and validated by external parties. And ultimately a proof of location because in some cases, our beneficiary receive or can receive, if they want, payment in local currency, hence the need to determine that indeed they reside in the country for which they elected to receive the benefit. So of course they were implicit, but also explicit benefit expectations such as security, reliability, transparency, accountability, and ultimately of course, attribution for the transaction. So in doing so, we were inspired by the 2018 UN Secretary General Strategy on New Technologies, as well as to the… Sustainable Development Goals, and most recently, by the UN 2.0 initiative of the UN Secretary General. So how did we address, as I alluded to before, we use and adopt and adopted emerging technology, blockchain, biometrics, specifically facial recognition, artificial intelligence, and geolocation. So blockchain served us as the technology that allowed us to create an immutable and independentable, auditable, traceable, triple entry general ledger, where each of the transaction that occurs is recorded in an immutable manner. Why blockchain? I added this slide because oftentimes, especially at the beginning 2021, when we were live, I was asked, why did you use blockchain? Is it because it’s now a trendy things to do? Well, no, indeed, as a first and foremost chief information officer, I wanted to make sure that we were going to use a technology that would also prevent any potential form of collusion, primarily with my own stuff, because of course, technologically speaking, the solution can also be implemented using distributed encrypted databases. By a database, by definition, hazard requires a database administrator that by default has a super user access to potentially manipulate the database. And therefore, I wanted to make sure that in order to protect my staff and myself, and of course, the organization, I was going to adopt a technology that will prevent and detect any potential cases of collusion. Therefore, by adopting blockchain, I adopted technology that did not have any type of central control. That however, in our case. utilizing a permission-based blockchain, we could determine who could participate. In our case, the scope of the application is very defined and limited to the 86,000 beneficiary of the UN Pension Fund. And of course, support privacy with the use of specific technology, such as zero-knowledge proof, and create, maintain, and audit an immutable ledger. There are documents also issued by the World Economic Forum, for example, that help organizations to determine when and if indeed blockchain is the suitable technology. Having used a technology based on biometrics and facial recognition, very soon, we realized that we were going to be exposed to new vulnerabilities, such as the vulnerability presented and the threats presented by artificial intelligence with deep fakes. And therefore, we decided to fight AI with AI by embedding into the solution an AI module that verifies and tests whether indeed the person on the other side of the phone, of the camera, is a real person and not a synthetic or artificially generated image. Therefore, facial recognition, which is stored only on the device of the user, so we do not transmit, we do not store at any given time the biometric profile, the biometric data of the user, which should remain on their phone in order to authenticate them, and in order to provide an input at a specific event, such as authentication has occurred and is recorded on the blockchain. And finally, the GPS capture the location when and if needed. So I’ve been working for the Indonesia for 25 years, and most of my career was spent in IT auditing. So one of the immediate second questions. that I wanted to address after designing and implementing this application with the subjective expertise of our colleagues in the UNICC was, how can I go now in front of my governing bodies and confirm that indeed a solution that makes use of emerging technology is secure, it’s credible, it’s trustworthy, it’s sustainable. And I started my quest to try to free criteria standards, best practices, especially international best practices most effectively the application was credible and reliable. So one of the first thing that I did in absence of specific standards of blockchain was to adopt the ISO for those who are familiar with cybersecurity standard, the ISO 27001, which is a set of best practices and international best practices on information security management system. And of course, the scope of the certification was focused on the application itself. And we got certified since then since 2021, we were subject to surveillance audit on a yearly basis. The second thing, dealing with biometrics and dealing with potential bias of technology, I also subjected a solution without direct assessment to confirm and demonstrate that there was no bias in the authentication identification. I also follow, of course, technical specification issue by my colleagues in the ITU, International Telecommunication Union, as well as additional documents standard best practices issued by the ISO organization. And finally, I also submitted the application to the specific cybersecurity assessment. As in data privacy. So the UN is not subject. for example the GDPR, but the United Nations adopted the same principle and issued its own data privacy principle that has a specific align for example the GDPR and similar regulation and therefore we conduct an assessment of the data privacy. Right now I’m in the process to have the application also be tested to a very recent ISO criteria for presentation attack protection. Talking about the things ISO organization came up with this 30107 standard that it’s a set of tests that can be conducted and confirm whether an application that uses biometrics is indeed resistant potential attack created generated using artificial intelligence that is in progress I hope to have it completed by the first quarter of 2025. Our solution the UN as a whole at the highest level by a body called the chief executive board decided to adopt the same solution to create now a digital identity for all staff members of the United Nations and indeed this is the document which is publicly available where the CEB the chief executive board of the United Nations launched the UN digital ID project defined the terms of reference of the product and appointed again UNICC the United Nations International Computing Centre has the technical support a subject matter expert for the implementation of this solution not only with the UN pension fund as in my case but now with the entire. UN system. And these are some screenshots of the application itself that our colleagues and myself included will be able now to download on our phone and use specific services related to us as staff members. Some mention about acknowledgement and recognition. In 2021, when we went live, we received an award from the UN Secretary General on innovation and sustainability. Shortly after, the Governing Blockchain Association, which is present here in Riyadh under the banner of the IGF Dynamic Coalition on Blockchain Assurance and Standardization, gave us an award on social impact. We also became a case study by Gartner. Gartner is a world leader in IT advisory services and market research. So they actually documented and issued a case study on our solution. And there was also a trade journal specific on investment and pension that recognized our efforts. And here we are, as I alluded to, we are here in Riyadh in the Village booth. I created a specific dynamic coalition and I brought to the attention of all our stakeholders the importance of assurance of blockchain, but more broadly of the emerging technologies. Thank you very much for your attention. I will now pass the floor to Samir Shawan, the Director of UNICC, which led the technical implementation of this sophisticated solution and can speak more broadly about his support to all the UN system. Thank you very much. Samir, the floor is yours.
Sameer Chauhan: Thank you, Dino. I will turn my camera on. Hopefully, you can see me. Yes, we can see you. Great. And I will try and share this presentation. Please let me know if you can see it. Yes, if you can put it in slideshow mode. Perfect. Thank you. Great. So, thank you and honor to come after all the other colleagues from UNHCR, UNICEF and yourself Dino, and thank you for having me join this IGF forum. As I mentioned earlier in your presentation, we are designed to support all of you, our partners in your digital transformation journey. So I’ll walk us through a few slides to tell you about what we do, and there are some really good connections to what you shared Dino earlier so I think it’ll be useful to present that from our point of view of what we did. Just a bit of background, we are designed through a general assembly resolution to provide technology support to the rest of the UN system. And at this point we are the largest technology partner strategic partner for anything digital as well as cyber for the UN system. We have over 100 clients and partner organizations so essentially the entire UN system works with us in some way, shape or form for cyber and digital efforts that they have underway. And we have been around for 54 years now. I think it was 54 years as of yesterday. So we celebrated our 54th birthday, and a whole diversity of different digital services and solutions and we operate out of five locations currently. I think Dino you shared a version of this map also. So we support everybody across the UN in their digital journeys, and the work we do we try to look at it from a perspective of which SDGs do we support. And since we work with the entire UN system what we realized when we started doing a mapping is that our work and our projects support all 17 SDGs. One more point to mention here is our board which the entire UN system, just approved recently, a few months ago, a new corporate strategy for UNICC. It essentially is a strategic framework that allows us to build digital foundations that all the UN partners can then use for their journeys, for their digital transformation journeys, for developing their digital solutions in order to achieve their organizational outcomes. So, there are five pillars of the strategy, everything from where the solutions are built, i.e. the infrastructure, where it’s running, to the actual digital tools and solutions that we can help our partners with, to securing those solutions, to using data and AI services to derive insights from all of the solutions that have been built by the partners, and finally, providing expertise and insights. So, provide experts who can provide support and guidance to our partners as they go on their digital transformation journeys. And I’ll just spend a few minutes sharing some examples of the kinds of work we do. It spans a very wide spectrum. On average, we do about 150 to 200 new digital projects a year for our partners, and we manage more than nine petabytes of data in our data centers, as well as support partners in the cloud, on the public cloud. So, it’s a very vast portfolio of technology services, but these are just some snapshots, some examples to give you an idea of the kind of work we do. So, the big buzzword today is Gen AI. So, lots of UN partners are implementing Gen AI solutions for their specific business needs, for their mandates, for the work that they do, out in the field, out on the ground, whether it’s for refugees, for children, for women, for health, and so on and so forth. What we are doing is behind the scenes building common solutions that multiple partner organizations can use, and this is a great example of that. UNHCR built a solution which was to centralize HR policies. and to provide a Gen AI chatbot. For example, you can ask, can you explain to me how much uncertified sick leave do I have, or how do I get parental leave? Can I request to work 90% of the time? So those kinds of policies and guidelines, what we’ve done is we took the solution that UNHCR had built, and we expanded it to make it work for 13 different organizations. So we sift through all of the HR policies from these organizations, train the AI on it, and make sure that we can make this chatbot available to all of the employees of these organizations. And this is being scaled up, so more and more partner organizations are continuing to join this platform. Another one which Dino spoke about earlier is we built the core technology that was used by the pension fund to build a certificate of entitlement that Dino shared. What we did then is, since this was championed by the CEB, the Chief Executive Boards of the UN system, they asked us to build on top of that pension fund solution, a platform or a solution that will be the UN digital ID. So today it’s six organizations, UN Secretariat, UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF, the pension fund, and WFP, who have launched this. The first phase of the system is live. And the goal is multiple capabilities and features will be built onto this platform using that same blockchain biometric solution that Dino spoke about earlier. And this will allow all UN organizations eventually to use this one common platform to facilitate all of the data exchange, interoperabilities about staff data. And the data will be controlled by the staff members themselves. They will get to choose which information they share with which stakeholder when, and be able to revoke that access once they’ve shared that information. So this is just another example of a shared common collective solution that we have built. And when it comes to digital innovation, the solutions could be big or small, could be very, very complex, it could be fairly simple, but as we work with each one of our partners, our goal is to make sure that it is serving their needs and it is actually impactful. So this is a great example of what we built for PAHO, which is a Pan-American health organization. It’s the WHO regional office in the Americas. They asked us to build RPA solutions, which they call MAX and MIA. To start to handle all of their manual processes, which handle procurement. So MAX and MIA are now live. They are bots that are running at PAHO that automate all of the purchase orders for health supplies. So during COVID, it was a huge blessing for them because they were handling massive volumes of vaccine and supplies that were being shipped all over the Americas. And then MAX uses AI and machine learning. So it’s a much more advanced bot, if you will, than MIA. To automatically create advanced shipping notifications. So there’s much more complexity there. It’s typically something that human would do, but with the constant training, it is able to then generate this shipping notification and saves thousands of hours of human time every week. Another example I’d like to share is work we’ve done with UNDP through a partnership UNDP has with the EU to monitor elections assistance. And they created a joint task force, the EU and the UNDP, and asked us to build an early warning and early response system, which has now been called the iReports platform. So what this iReport platform does is gathers real-time information on the ground and provides all the relevant national authorities and independent monitoring authorities. Risk reports flags any incidents around electoral violence or gender violence, and it allows for coordinated nationwide responses. to these elections. And this platform, again, the value UNICC brings is it’s being built and enhanced election after election. So there’s more and more functionality and more and more capability that is being built to make sure that this platform is meaningful and can ensure that elections are handled seamlessly without any violence, without any interruptions. We have a large cybersecurity practice. And what we do here, what I’m demonstrating here is again, that collective collaboration across the UN system where we have brought the entire UN system together to make sure we look at and analyze all the threat intelligence so that we can all make collective decisions of how best to defend ourselves from cyber risks or cyber attacks. So what we do is we gather information from all of our partner agencies, the entire UN system, as well as we enrich it with additional information from commercial security firms, service providers, different member state government agencies, law enforcement, and other trusted sources. And those insights are then refined. And up-to-date timely information is presented to the entire UN community to say, how do you identify potential anomalies which could be risks or attacks? How do you respond to those? What kind of mitigating actions do you take? So that’s an example of, again, a shared collective responsibility in action. And this might be the last example I think I have, but what I wanted to highlight here is, we also take solutions that have been built by other partners. So in this instance, this was a solution that was jointly built by UNICEF, UNHCR, and the World Food Programme. And they asked us to take this on board. The idea was to have one common platform through which all the civil society organizations, these are third-party organizations out at the country level that these three organizations used to work with, to build one common interface. a partner portal through which they can all come in and interact with these UN organizations. So that platform was handed over to us by UNICEF and others, and we took it and we’ve scaled it, enhanced it, built more capabilities into it. And in the meantime, more and more organizations have joined. So at this point, I believe there are 12 or 13 UN organizations that use it. And this becomes one common way through which I think it’s 40,000 civil society organizations now can interact, partner, and do work with the entire UN system. As you can see, there’s massive functionality that’s in there, including some chatbots and some PSCA modules to make sure that any civil society organization the UN system works with has gone through some level of screening and background checks, if you will. So these are examples of the kinds of work we do at UNICC. Each one of these projects is designed for scale. It’s designed for use by multiple organizations. And as always, we have to be cost effective and respect all the principles of the UN family, which is to make sure we’re neutral and we are unbiased in the work we do. With that, I’ll stop, Dino, and hand the floor back to you. And thank you again from my side for giving us a chance to speak about what we do. Thank you.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Thank you very much, Samir, for joining us and for sharing this very meaningful application that you have built for the benefit of the UN. I actually really like that quote that you use, built by the UN for the UN. So I think that is very indicative of the spirit that we all follow collaboratively in sharing our problem and finding common solutions. So thank you very much. I think it was very insightful, very meaningful. So with that said, I think we are perfectly on time. with our schedule. We now have approximately 10-15 minutes for any question or answer that you may have. So I see three hands raised and if I can ask to pass the mic. So first and it’s over here, please.
Sary Qasim: Hello, hi, good morning everyone and it’s really an incredible efforts that the UN is doing in digital transformation and the application that you have applied with the system. My question is, such application, is it unapplicable to offer it for cities and governments over the world for them to use it as something from the UN with a very good like, you know, public-private partnership because, you know, such systems is very important for the community but it’s expensive as well. Such governments just avoiding implementing these systems because of its cost, you know. Is that something you may think about in the future? Thank you.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Can you please just mention your name and which organization you represent?
Sary Qasim: My name is Sari Qasim. I’m from the Government Blockchain Association and I represent the GBA in the Middle East.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Thank you. Maybe this is a question for Samir that can elaborate a little bit more about the mandate and the mission of UNICC vis-a-vis potential interaction beyond the UN and with other entities.
Sameer Chauhan: Thank you, Dino. So thank you for your question and two things to mention here. One is, yes, we ourselves UNICC was designed to work with the UN system and beyond. So we can work with other non-profit organizations worldwide. And since our whole premise of creating UNICC was efficiencies of scale and reuse, anything we’ve built for our partners, like we did for DINO or for UNHCR or UNICEF or others, we can, under certain guidelines, make available to others, member states. So we have initiatives that we’re working with, for example, with CITES, where we are working with our partners like ITU. So it’s typically with a UN partner, but we do collaborate with CITES and any knowledge we have, any expertise we have, we want to make sure we make it available to the broader community besides outside of the UN. And the second part I’ll make is our partners themselves. As you saw in examples from Mike, from UNICEF, from DINO, what we try and do across the entire UN ecosystem is make sure what we’re building is relevant and applicable in the greater world outside. So many, many solutions, digital solutions that are being built by our partners with ICC or without are designed for use at a country level. So the examples you heard about DPIs, DPGs, those are designed by UNICEF, UNHCR and others so that they can be made available to countries. So I hope that answers your question.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Thank you very much, Sameer. Thank you for the question from the audience. Please, if you can say also your name and your organization.
Audience: Thank you very much for this interesting presentation and the good things we are doing in the form of exciting innovation. My name is Youssef Amadou from University of Ghana. I’m also part of Internet Society Ghana chapter. I want to know, this question goes to you, about your fund. The first question is who qualifies for the fund? That’s my first question. The second question is how do you do due diligence to find out if the grantees are the right people who are applying for the fund? And finally, how do you monitor the grantees? I have an experience. I’m part of a World Bank project. We give funds to organizations, individuals for capacity building and job creation. We went for observation just last week and we found that one grantee has closed down his organization. He has changed his number and we cannot find him. Although we have fund management system, which is on an application, we have monitors who go to see what they are doing. But still, this person has vanished. Yours is a remote one. How do you monitor to find out that the grantees are real people and they exist and they are locations that you can easily find them, apart from using the technology? And the last one goes to the police organization. I’m a structural designer. online content for my university. I want to know your, what does that mean? What do you support? The refugees here. Refugee. I really care about formal education that you provide them. You have a common platform where the refugees can take course formal courses for other basic level, high school level, or university level, as well as professional courses for every refugee across the globe. We have something like that. We have intention to do that. Thank you very much.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Thank you for your question. I’ll try to be very brief because there are many details in the process. However, so first and foremost, answer to the first question, who qualifies? As I alluded to, the UN Pension Fund serves 25 organizations. The majority of them are UN entities. So all the UN entities in the system, plus an additional international organization that, although are not part of the UN system, do have certain, do meet certain requirements and parameters. And therefore, they submit a request to be accepted into the UN Pension Fund. We have a board that meets regularly every year, and they go through this process and then ultimately decide whether or not they can be included. Second question, how do we vouch? How do we validate? How do we monitor? So someone, in order to become a retiree, had to be a former staff member, which means we have a history that the member organization has to provide to us through data interfaces. So we have two main data interfaces. One is called the financial data interface. The other one is called the human resources data interfaces, through which we collect the entire history on a regular basis of each staff member so that before they reach the normal retirement age, we get in touch with them, and we ask them certain documentation that proves and validates who they are and where they are going to live. The process of the digital identification for proof of life and proof of existence starts with an onboarding process, where I made that distinction before, identification versus authentication. So the first step is to identify can be admitted into the digital identity solution of the UN Pension Fund. In the onboarding process, we verify. Originally, we wanted to do in person, but that happened exactly through the pandemic. So we had to convert a process to a digital process with a video onboarding process that’s conducted by our call center, where we require the person decide to be onboarded with their national ID. We match their national ID with a document on file, on record, and we confirm, again, we are using the AI also in that instance, that indeed the person on the other side of the camera matches what we have on file. And once we have done that, then we authenticate the person. There is an additional question that usually you did not ask, but it’s commonly asked. How do we take into account the aging process? Because unfortunately, we get older. So how do we make sure that the biomarker provides? So every time, at least once a year, every time the user utilizes the application, their biometric profile is updated. So we take into account the aging process. I hope I addressed your question. If not, we can take it offline. Thank you. Mike?
Michael Walton: Great. Thank you. And on education, we have quite a vast connected education program with lots of partners. So we don’t develop courses ourselves, but we do have lots of partnerships with different universities across the world and online courses like Coursera and LinkedIn, et cetera. So we’re about to go into the process now of creating a new application, a new site called Opportunities. And we work really closely with, again, universities where we’re funding scholarships via the German government and other partners as well. So we don’t do the development courses ourselves, but we do try and gather together in every country and every opportunity the places they can go to both do tertiary education, but also other educational opportunities for training. So I’m happy to speak to you more about that, but yeah, it’s really a core part of our program, this connected education piece, and how you can provide remote learning. Thanks.
Nancy Marango: And the last question. Thank you very much for the floor. My name is Nancy Marango. I serve as chairman for an organization in Kenya. My question and concern is about accessibility. We have like a standardized system integrating the middle age and the elderly in terms of information access and opportunity access within the system. Thank you.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Is that question directed to pension fund, UNHCR, UNICEF, all of us?
Nancy Marango: I love you because disability does not choose and everyone is a candidate.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Thank you. Thank you. Very briefly, maybe I’ll respond for the pension fund. Our demographics, by definition, is a very peculiar type of demographic, as I alluded to in my title. We are dealing with the aging population, so definitely issues with accessibility are taken into account both on our website, in the instruction, and also in allowing those who have limitations to be assisted by legal guardians. So we are allowed also for that. Thank you.
Michael Walton: I’ve done a lot of work on disability over the last years, really looking at all of our applications, because what we want to ensure is that when somebody wants to work for you in HCR, they have the trust and the belief that they can come to a workplace where those applications can be used. From a refugee perspective, 100%, we are working with refugees, with disabilities to make sure. But I think your question is wider, which is how can we make sure this happens across the UN? And I think that there is a real potential here for a joint centre of excellence approach on accessibility so that everybody can take the benefit of that. I 100% agree with that priority. Thank you.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Thank you, Mike. I don’t know whether Sui Meng, would you like to also provide a perspective on UNICEF?
Fui Meng Liew: Yeah, sounds great. So internal to UNICEF, we take accessibility very, very seriously. Just most recently, all our websites is actually proven to be accessible. And accessibility is not only just by age. There’s also disabilities and things like that. For people that have colourblind, can they actually access the information on our internal system? So that’s one angle. The other angle is about children. A lot of children that are having disability and needed better digital accessibility functions in… the tools that we provide, a lot of them are not identified. So we are also working on how to make sure that we identify that age group, like children, very more intentionally so that we can provide interventions digitally to give them, to let them, to help them actually learn, to help them being able to get through the journey better. So two different angles that we’re looking at accessibility and they’re both very, very important for our work as well. Thank you for the question.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Thank you, Fui Meng. And Samir, would you like to also provide a little bit of analysis in?
Sameer Chauhan: Yes, please. Thank you. So absolutely. I think as you heard from the other speakers, this is front and center in the work we all do. Overall across the UN ecosystem, there is a whole group called the DTN, which is the chief technology officers of the entire UN system. They meet on a regular basis and accessibility guidelines and standardization is a key topic that they discuss at that level. So we want to make sure that everybody is using the same approach. And I can speak for UNICC, all the systems we build, we make sure that we adhere to those UN system-wide guidelines for accessibility. But there are additional guidelines that come into play. For example, human rights guidelines that have been issued by the secretary general. So we want to make sure that in all of the digital work we do, those human rights guidelines are also taken into consideration as well as any other gender considerations, et cetera. And as Dino alluded to in the solution that has been built by the pension fund, which we worked with the pension fund on, we also had to make sure that there is no bias from a regional perspective or a geographical perspective in the solutions we’ve built. So there are many, many factors to take into consideration here, but absolutely it’s something we’re all very conscious of and working on addressing every day. Thank you.
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio: Thank you very much, Samir. So we are perfect on time. Thank you very much. for your participation. I don’t see any question on the chat, so I think that we can thank the active participation of the audience, both in person as well as online, and thanks all my colleagues and friends, speakers, Mike Walton, Xiuying Meng, and Samir Shawan for participating. Thank you. The recording will be available on the website along with the presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much. Have a good day. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
Michael Walton
Speech speed
175 words per minute
Speech length
3034 words
Speech time
1038 seconds
Digital strategy focused on refugee empowerment and internal effectiveness
Explanation
UNHCR developed a digital strategy aimed at empowering refugees and improving internal organizational effectiveness. The strategy includes pillars for refugee empowerment, digital services, and internal efficiency.
Evidence
Development of a digital gateway for refugees to access services, and implementation of Internet of Things technology for water delivery monitoring.
Major Discussion Point
Digital Innovation in UN Organizations
Differed with
Fui Meng Liew
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Differed on
Approach to digital innovation
Need to address digital inclusion and accessibility
Explanation
UNHCR recognizes the importance of digital inclusion and accessibility for refugees. This includes providing connectivity and ensuring digital services are accessible to all, including those with disabilities.
Evidence
Refugee connectivity initiative and work on digital accessibility with partners like Microsoft and Google.
Major Discussion Point
Challenges and Considerations in Digital Transformation
Agreed with
Fui Meng Liew
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Sameer Chauhan
Agreed on
Importance of digital inclusion and accessibility
Multi-stakeholder partnerships for capacity building
Explanation
UNHCR emphasizes the importance of partnerships for capacity building in digital innovation. They collaborate with various stakeholders to deliver the best possible outcomes and share resources efficiently.
Evidence
Partnerships with Meta, Google, and the EU for digital initiatives.
Major Discussion Point
Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
Agreed with
Fui Meng Liew
Sameer Chauhan
Agreed on
Collaboration and shared digital solutions across UN agencies
Digital services improving refugee assistance
Explanation
UNHCR has implemented digital services to improve assistance to refugees. These services aim to make registration, access to information, and service delivery more efficient and effective.
Evidence
Development of a help website with 14 million annual visitors and a WhatsApp service for information dissemination.
Major Discussion Point
Impact and Future Directions
Fui Meng Liew
Speech speed
141 words per minute
Speech length
2193 words
Speech time
928 seconds
Digital resilience framework to protect children’s data rights
Explanation
UNICEF developed a digital resilience framework to protect children’s data rights and ensure secure and ethical use of personal data. The framework includes pillars for data protection, information security, and responsible data use for children.
Evidence
Implementation of the framework in UNICEF’s technology playbook and strengthening through global partnerships.
Major Discussion Point
Digital Innovation in UN Organizations
Differed with
Michael Walton
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Differed on
Approach to digital innovation
Importance of data protection and responsible use of children’s data
Explanation
UNICEF emphasizes the critical nature of protecting children’s data and using it responsibly. This includes ensuring the highest ethical standards in data collection and use.
Evidence
Development of a responsible data for children pillar in the digital resilience framework.
Major Discussion Point
Challenges and Considerations in Digital Transformation
Shared digital public goods across UN agencies
Explanation
UNICEF promotes the development and use of digital public goods across UN agencies. This approach aims to provide countries with greater control over their digital infrastructure and catalyze local tech ecosystems.
Evidence
Investment in digital public goods like RapidPro, Primero, and Giga.
Major Discussion Point
Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
Agreed with
Michael Walton
Sameer Chauhan
Agreed on
Collaboration and shared digital solutions across UN agencies
Digital solutions supporting child rights and protection
Explanation
UNICEF develops digital solutions to support child rights and protection. These solutions aim to address various aspects of a child’s journey, from birth registration to education and social protection.
Evidence
Development of digital solutions for birth registration, vaccination tracking, and education access.
Major Discussion Point
Impact and Future Directions
Agreed with
Michael Walton
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Sameer Chauhan
Agreed on
Importance of digital inclusion and accessibility
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Speech speed
128 words per minute
Speech length
3492 words
Speech time
1626 seconds
Blockchain-based digital identity solution for UN pensioners
Explanation
The UN Pension Fund developed a blockchain-based digital identity solution for proof of life verification. This solution aims to replace the traditional paper-based process with a more efficient and secure digital method.
Evidence
Implementation of blockchain, biometrics, and AI technologies in the digital identity solution.
Major Discussion Point
Digital Innovation in UN Organizations
Differed with
Michael Walton
Fui Meng Liew
Differed on
Approach to digital innovation
Security and privacy concerns in digital identity systems
Explanation
The UN Pension Fund addresses security and privacy concerns in their digital identity system. This includes measures to protect personal data and ensure the system’s integrity.
Evidence
Adoption of ISO 27001 certification and compliance with UN data privacy principles.
Major Discussion Point
Challenges and Considerations in Digital Transformation
Agreed with
Michael Walton
Fui Meng Liew
Sameer Chauhan
Agreed on
Importance of digital inclusion and accessibility
Adoption of international standards and best practices
Explanation
The UN Pension Fund adopts international standards and best practices in their digital innovation efforts. This ensures the credibility, reliability, and sustainability of their digital solutions.
Evidence
Certification with ISO 27001 and adherence to ITU technical specifications.
Major Discussion Point
Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
Innovation in pension management and verification
Explanation
The UN Pension Fund has innovated in pension management and verification through digital solutions. This includes the development of a digital identity system for proof of life verification.
Evidence
Implementation of a mobile application for pensioner verification using blockchain and biometrics.
Major Discussion Point
Impact and Future Directions
Sameer Chauhan
Speech speed
168 words per minute
Speech length
2358 words
Speech time
839 seconds
Shared digital solutions and platforms for UN agencies
Explanation
UNICC develops shared digital solutions and platforms for UN agencies. This approach aims to increase efficiency and collaboration across the UN system.
Evidence
Development of a Gen AI chatbot for HR policies used by 13 organizations and a UN digital ID platform for six organizations.
Major Discussion Point
Digital Innovation in UN Organizations
Agreed with
Michael Walton
Fui Meng Liew
Agreed on
Collaboration and shared digital solutions across UN agencies
Ensuring solutions are scalable and cost-effective
Explanation
UNICC focuses on developing scalable and cost-effective digital solutions for UN agencies. This approach aims to maximize the impact of digital innovations across the UN system.
Evidence
Development of shared platforms like the iReports election monitoring system and the UN Partner Portal.
Major Discussion Point
Challenges and Considerations in Digital Transformation
Agreed with
Michael Walton
Fui Meng Liew
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Agreed on
Importance of digital inclusion and accessibility
Common digital foundations for UN partners
Explanation
UNICC builds common digital foundations that UN partners can use for their digital transformation journeys. This includes infrastructure, digital tools, security measures, and data services.
Evidence
Implementation of a new corporate strategy with five pillars covering various aspects of digital foundations.
Major Discussion Point
Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
Expanding shared UN digital solutions to other organizations
Explanation
UNICC aims to expand shared UN digital solutions to other organizations beyond the UN system. This includes making solutions available to non-profit organizations and member states.
Evidence
Initiatives to collaborate with CITES and make expertise available to the broader community.
Major Discussion Point
Impact and Future Directions
Agreements
Agreement Points
Importance of digital inclusion and accessibility
Michael Walton
Fui Meng Liew
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Sameer Chauhan
Need to address digital inclusion and accessibility
Digital solutions supporting child rights and protection
Security and privacy concerns in digital identity systems
Ensuring solutions are scalable and cost-effective
All speakers emphasized the importance of making digital solutions accessible and inclusive for various user groups, including refugees, children, the elderly, and those with disabilities.
Collaboration and shared digital solutions across UN agencies
Michael Walton
Fui Meng Liew
Sameer Chauhan
Multi-stakeholder partnerships for capacity building
Shared digital public goods across UN agencies
Shared digital solutions and platforms for UN agencies
Speakers agreed on the importance of collaboration and sharing digital solutions across UN agencies to increase efficiency and maximize impact.
Similar Viewpoints
Both speakers emphasized the importance of data protection and security in digital systems, particularly for vulnerable groups like children and pensioners.
Fui Meng Liew
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Digital resilience framework to protect children’s data rights
Security and privacy concerns in digital identity systems
Both speakers highlighted how digital solutions can improve service delivery and support the rights of vulnerable populations like refugees and children.
Michael Walton
Fui Meng Liew
Digital services improving refugee assistance
Digital solutions supporting child rights and protection
Unexpected Consensus
Adoption of emerging technologies across different UN agencies
Michael Walton
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Sameer Chauhan
Digital strategy focused on refugee empowerment and internal effectiveness
Blockchain-based digital identity solution for UN pensioners
Shared digital solutions and platforms for UN agencies
Despite their different focus areas, all three speakers showed a strong commitment to adopting emerging technologies like blockchain, AI, and biometrics in their respective agencies, indicating a broader trend of technological innovation across the UN system.
Overall Assessment
Summary
The main areas of agreement among speakers included the importance of digital inclusion and accessibility, collaboration across UN agencies, data protection and security, and the adoption of emerging technologies to improve service delivery.
Consensus level
There was a high level of consensus among the speakers, suggesting a unified approach to digital innovation across different UN agencies. This consensus implies a strong foundation for future collaboration and knowledge sharing in digital transformation efforts within the UN system.
Differences
Different Viewpoints
Approach to digital innovation
Michael Walton
Fui Meng Liew
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Digital strategy focused on refugee empowerment and internal effectiveness
Digital resilience framework to protect children’s data rights
Blockchain-based digital identity solution for UN pensioners
While all speakers focused on digital innovation, they had different primary focuses based on their organizations’ mandates. UNHCR emphasized refugee empowerment, UNICEF prioritized children’s data rights, and the UN Pension Fund focused on digital identity for pensioners.
Unexpected Differences
Overall Assessment
summary
The main areas of disagreement were in the specific focus and approach to digital innovation, based on each organization’s mandate and target population.
difference_level
The level of disagreement was relatively low, with speakers mostly presenting complementary rather than conflicting approaches. This suggests a cohesive overall strategy for digital innovation across UN organizations, with each entity adapting to its specific needs and challenges.
Partial Agreements
Partial Agreements
All speakers agreed on the importance of collaboration and shared resources, but had different approaches. UNHCR focused on multi-stakeholder partnerships, UNICEF on digital public goods, UN Pension Fund on international standards, and UNICC on shared platforms across UN agencies.
Michael Walton
Fui Meng Liew
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Sameer Chauhan
Multi-stakeholder partnerships for capacity building
Shared digital public goods across UN agencies
Adoption of international standards and best practices
Shared digital solutions and platforms for UN agencies
Similar Viewpoints
Both speakers emphasized the importance of data protection and security in digital systems, particularly for vulnerable groups like children and pensioners.
Fui Meng Liew
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
Digital resilience framework to protect children’s data rights
Security and privacy concerns in digital identity systems
Both speakers highlighted how digital solutions can improve service delivery and support the rights of vulnerable populations like refugees and children.
Michael Walton
Fui Meng Liew
Digital services improving refugee assistance
Digital solutions supporting child rights and protection
Takeaways
Key Takeaways
UN organizations are implementing various digital innovation initiatives to improve their operations and services
Digital strategies focus on empowering beneficiaries (e.g. refugees, children) as well as improving internal effectiveness
Data protection, privacy, and responsible use of technology are key priorities across UN digital initiatives
There is a strong emphasis on collaboration and shared digital solutions across UN agencies
Digital inclusion and accessibility remain important challenges to address
Resolutions and Action Items
UNICC to continue developing shared digital platforms and solutions for use across UN agencies
UN organizations to adhere to common accessibility guidelines and standards in digital solutions
Explore creation of a joint center of excellence on digital accessibility across UN system
Unresolved Issues
How to make UN digital solutions more widely available to cities and governments
Addressing challenges of monitoring and verifying grantees/beneficiaries in remote settings
Fully integrating elderly and disabled populations into digital systems
Suggested Compromises
Balancing need for in-person verification with digital onboarding processes during pandemic
Using AI and regular biometric updates to account for aging in digital identity systems
Thought Provoking Comments
We had to articulate and basically translate the problem into its main logical components. And the way we did this is that we identify the need to provide four proofs. One is the proof of identity at the very beginning of the process when we enroll our user, our client into the solution. And then proof of authentication every after, every time the application is utilized.
speaker
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
reason
This comment provides a clear framework for approaching the complex problem of digital identity verification, breaking it down into distinct components. It demonstrates a systematic and logical approach to solving a technical challenge.
impact
This comment set the stage for a deeper discussion on the technical aspects of digital identity solutions. It led to further explanations about blockchain, biometrics, and AI, showing how these technologies address each ‘proof’ in the framework.
By adopting blockchain, I adopted technology that did not have any type of central control. That however, in our case utilizing a permission-based blockchain, we could determine who could participate.
speaker
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio
reason
This comment highlights a key benefit of blockchain technology in ensuring security and preventing collusion, while also explaining how it can be adapted for specific organizational needs. It shows a nuanced understanding of the technology’s capabilities.
impact
This insight sparked further discussion on the use of emerging technologies in UN systems, leading to explanations of how AI and biometrics are integrated into the solution.
We have a large cybersecurity practice. And what we do here, what I’m demonstrating here is again, that collective collaboration across the UN system where we have brought the entire UN system together to make sure we look at and analyze all the threat intelligence so that we can all make collective decisions of how best to defend ourselves from cyber risks or cyber attacks.
speaker
Sameer Chauhan
reason
This comment emphasizes the importance of collaboration and shared resources in cybersecurity, highlighting a unified approach across the UN system. It demonstrates how individual organizational efforts can be amplified through collective action.
impact
This comment shifted the discussion towards the broader implications of digital transformation across the UN system, emphasizing the importance of shared solutions and collaborative efforts.
I think when we’re talking about inclusion, we’re also talking about inclusion of elderly people who may not have the skills, or people who don’t have the access, and also make sure that that’s completely equal across the gender divide as well.
speaker
Michael Walton
reason
This comment broadens the discussion on digital inclusion beyond just connectivity, highlighting the importance of considering age, skills, and gender in digital access. It brings attention to often overlooked aspects of the digital divide.
impact
This comment led to a more comprehensive discussion on accessibility and inclusion, with other speakers addressing how their organizations consider these factors in their digital solutions.
Overall Assessment
These key comments shaped the discussion by moving it from a general overview of digital transformation in UN agencies to a more nuanced exploration of specific challenges and solutions. They highlighted the complexity of implementing digital solutions in a global context, emphasizing the need for security, accessibility, and collaboration. The discussion evolved from technical aspects of digital identity to broader considerations of inclusion and shared resources across the UN system, demonstrating the multifaceted nature of digital innovation in international organizations.
Follow-up Questions
How can we have an ethical approach to the use of tech in the humanitarian sector?
speaker
Michael Walton
explanation
This was mentioned as an important focus area for the coming year, with interest in involving other stakeholders.
How can we create a joint center of excellence for digital accessibility across the UN system?
speaker
Michael Walton
explanation
This was suggested as a way to share resources and avoid reinventing the wheel on accessibility issues across UN organizations.
How can we address the digital inclusion gap for elderly people and ensure equal access across the gender divide?
speaker
Michael Walton
explanation
This was highlighted as an important consideration in digital inclusion efforts beyond just connectivity.
How can UN digital solutions be made available to cities and governments worldwide through public-private partnerships?
speaker
Sary Qasim
explanation
This was raised as a potential way to make UN-developed systems more widely accessible and affordable for governments.
How can we create a common platform for refugees to access formal education courses at various levels across the globe?
speaker
Audience member (name not provided)
explanation
This was suggested as a way to provide more comprehensive educational opportunities for refugees.
How can we better identify and provide digital interventions for children with disabilities?
speaker
Fui Meng Liew
explanation
This was mentioned as an important area of focus for UNICEF to improve digital accessibility for children with disabilities.
Disclaimer: This is not an official session record. DiploAI generates these resources from audiovisual recordings, and they are presented as-is, including potential errors. Due to logistical challenges, such as discrepancies in audio/video or transcripts, names may be misspelled. We strive for accuracy to the best of our ability.
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