[Parliamentary Session 4] Fostering Inclusive Digital Innovation and Transformation

Summary

This panel discussion at the Internet Governance Forum in Saudi Arabia focused on fostering inclusive digital innovation and transformation. The panelists, representing organizations like UNDP, Italy’s Digital Agency, and the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, explored challenges and strategies for ensuring digital inclusion globally.

Key themes included building digital capacity, developing digital public infrastructure, and addressing inequalities in access to digital technologies. Robert Opp from UNDP highlighted their work in over 125 countries on digital strategies, emphasizing the need for capacity building among policymakers and civil servants. Mario Nobile shared Italy’s progress in digital public services, stressing the importance of digital literacy programs. Gong Ke discussed the crucial role of engineering capacity, particularly in AI, and the need for tailored platforms in different regions.

The discussion touched on specific initiatives like UNDP’s collaboration with Kenya on AI skills for civil servants and the World Federation of Engineering Organizations’ program to train 100,000 African engineers in AI. Panelists emphasized the importance of human oversight in AI implementation and the need for ethical considerations in technological advancement.

Audience questions raised issues such as the potential for a UN declaration on AI ethics, the role of parliamentarians in digital transformation, and strategies for connecting underserved communities. The panel concluded by highlighting recent UN initiatives like the Global Digital Compact and ongoing discussions on international AI governance, emphasizing the need for collaborative efforts to ensure inclusive digital development worldwide.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– Challenges and strategies for inclusive digital transformation, including capacity building, infrastructure development, and policy frameworks

– The role of digital public infrastructure (DPI) and digital literacy in fostering inclusion

– Addressing inequalities and reaching marginalized populations through digital initiatives

– The need for international cooperation and governance frameworks around AI and digital technologies

– Balancing innovation with ethical considerations and human rights protections in the digital space

The overall purpose of the discussion was to explore ways to promote inclusive digital innovation and transformation globally, with a focus on addressing inequalities and building capacity across different regions and sectors.

The tone of the discussion was largely constructive and solution-oriented. Panelists shared insights and examples from their respective areas of expertise, while audience members asked thoughtful questions that expanded the conversation. There was a sense of urgency around the rapid pace of technological change, balanced with optimism about the potential benefits of digital transformation if implemented inclusively. The tone became more specific and action-oriented towards the end as panelists responded to audience questions about concrete initiatives and next steps.

Speakers

– Tsvetelina Penkova: Member of the European Parliament, Vice Chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy

– Robert Opp: Chief Digital Officer of UNDP

– Mario Nobile: Director of the Agency for Digital Italy

– Gong Ke: President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations

– Audience: Various audience members who asked questions

Additional speakers:

– Abdullah al-Zawahir: Minister of Communication and Information of Saudi Arabia (mentioned but not present)

Expanded Summary of Panel Discussion on Inclusive Digital Innovation and Transformation

Introduction:

This panel discussion, held at the Internet Governance Forum, brought together experts from various international organisations to explore strategies for fostering inclusive digital innovation and transformation globally. The panellists, representing entities such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Italy’s Digital Agency, and the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, delved into the challenges and opportunities presented by digital technologies in promoting equitable development.

Key Themes and Discussion Points:

1. Digital Inclusion and Capacity Building:

The panellists unanimously agreed on the critical importance of digital literacy and capacity building across all sectors of society. Robert Opp from UNDP emphasised the need for broad-based digital literacy programmes, highlighting UNDP’s digital programs in over 125 countries. Mario Nobile, representing Italy’s Digital Agency, stressed the role of digital literacy as a cornerstone for the adoption of digital services. Gong Ke, from the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, focused on the importance of engineering capacity building, particularly in developing regions.

The discussion revealed different approaches to digital literacy and capacity building. While Opp advocated for a wide-ranging approach across sectors, Nobile emphasised literacy for digital service adoption, and Gong stressed engineering capacity building in developing regions. This diversity of approaches underscores the multifaceted nature of digital inclusion challenges.

An audience member suggested that the UN create common platforms to unify efforts in digital literacy, inclusion, and engineering capacity building. This proposal sparked a discussion on existing UN initiatives and the challenges of coordinating global efforts in digital development.

2. Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and Governance:

The concept of digital public infrastructure emerged as a crucial element in fostering digital transformation. Robert Opp introduced DPI as the “digital roads and bridges” necessary for digital development, typically initiated by governments but often implemented and operated by the private sector. He also mentioned the Universal Digital Public Infrastructure Safeguards Framework launched by the UN.

Mario Nobile shared insights from Italy’s experience in developing digital public infrastructure building blocks, highlighting the complexity of implementing digital transformation across a large, diverse governmental system comprising 23,000 public administrations. He provided specific numbers on Italy’s digital initiatives, including 36 million digital identity users, 2 billion e-invoices processed annually, and a budget allocation of 6.7 billion euros for digital transformation.

The rapid pace of AI development raised concerns about governance frameworks. Mario Nobile suggested the need for adaptive governance approaches, while Gong Ke emphasised the importance of tailoring digital platforms to local contexts and languages. Gong also mentioned the UNESCO recommendation on AI ethics and the upcoming UN AI office.

3. Challenges of Digital Transformation and AI Implementation:

The discussion highlighted several challenges in achieving inclusive digital transformation. Tsvetelina Penkova, Member of the European Parliament and Vice Chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, raised concerns about the risk of deepening inequalities through the digital divide. Audience members pointed out infrastructure and funding challenges for digitalisation in developing countries, particularly in low-income and conflict-affected regions.

Gong Ke emphasised the need to tailor digital platforms to local contexts and languages, recognising the diversity of user needs across different regions. He also discussed challenges in AI implementation, including the need for human oversight and the potential for misuse.

4. Public-Private Partnerships for Digital Development:

The importance of collaboration between public and private sectors emerged as a recurring theme. Robert Opp highlighted UNDP’s partnerships with the private sector for digital skills training, including a center of competence on AI and digital skills for civil servants in Kenya. Mario Nobile shared Italy’s public-private model for digital service delivery, while Gong Ke stressed the need for collaboration across sectors to support digital adaptation.

Specific Initiatives and Examples:

The discussion touched on several concrete initiatives, including:

– UNDP’s collaboration with Kenya on AI skills for civil servants

– The World Federation of Engineering Organizations’ programme to train 100,000 African engineers in AI over 10 years

– Italy’s digital transformation initiatives, including e-invoicing and digital identity systems

Audience Engagement and Questions:

Audience members raised several thought-provoking questions and suggestions, including:

– The potential for a UN declaration on AI ethics, similar to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

– The role of parliamentarians in digital transformation

– Strategies for connecting underserved communities

– The need for ongoing, rather than one-off, digital literacy programmes

– Approaches to taxing AI tools and systems, as suggested by Mario Nobile

– Questions about Egypt’s involvement in digital initiatives

These questions led to discussions on existing UN initiatives like the Global Digital Compact, which is part of the UN’s Pact for the Future, and ongoing deliberations on international AI governance.

Conclusion:

The panel discussion highlighted the complex and multifaceted nature of inclusive digital transformation. While there was broad agreement on the importance of digital literacy, capacity building, and public-private partnerships, differences emerged in the specific approaches and emphases of the speakers. The discussion underscored the need for tailored solutions that consider local contexts, while also working towards global standards and governance frameworks.

Unresolved issues included how to effectively address the digital divide in low-income and conflict-affected regions, whether new declarations or amendments to existing human rights frameworks are needed to address AI impacts, and how to ensure digital literacy programmes are ongoing rather than one-off projects.

The overall tone of the discussion was constructive and solution-oriented, with a sense of urgency around the rapid pace of technological change balanced by optimism about the potential benefits of inclusive digital transformation. The panel concluded by emphasising the need for collaborative efforts to ensure inclusive digital development worldwide, setting the stage for continued dialogue and action in this critical area of global development.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Perfect. Good morning, everyone. Good morning to the distinguished guests, panelists and participants in a very important debate we’re going to have this morning on fostering inclusive digital innovation and transformation. We’ve touched upon some of those topics in the previous session and now we’re going to continue this debate in that. So it’s a privilege to welcome you and to begin this event today here at the Internet Governance Forum in Saudi Arabia. So it is a good reminder, those discussions, that the Internet is not just a tool for us, but it’s a space where societies can come together, can foster innovation, promote equality and actually make sure that inclusion is part of our priorities. Of course, digital transformation is a powerful tool to reshape our world, brings unprecedented opportunities to innovation, growth and connectivity. However, this progress does present significant challenges, most notably the risk of deepening inequalities. So on one hand, digital technologies are reshaping industry and unlocking economic growth, driving global connectivity and ensuring competitiveness of our economies. But on the other hand, we can see how they can drive a lot of inequalities among societies. So entire communities, even now, as we speak today, they do lack access to Internet, the digital literacy is at a low level, or the necessary resources to participate actively and meaningfully in this transformation. transformation are not existing. So if we don’t address these gaps, we risk to create a world that’s even more divided. And I’m just going to refer to this key message that was also posed by the Minister of Communication and Information of Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Abdullah al-Zawahir, at his opening remarks at the ceremony yesterday, where he put a strong emphasis on the division when we speak about the digital economy as we see it now. So one of our key goals going forward should be to start working towards diminishing those gaps. If we can, of course, completely remove them, that’s going to be a great success. It’s a great pleasure to introduce the distinguished speakers we have here for this panel today, starting from my left with Mr. Robert Opp, the Chief Digital Officer of UNPD. So he’s going to provide us some insights on the global development priorities and digital innovations. On the other side of the table, we have Mario Nobile, the Director of the Agency for Digital Italy. I’m sure he’s going to bring a lot of expertise on how the public administration, digitalization in Italy is working and what are the challenges we face there. And next to me, we have Mr. Ke Gong, the President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations. So he’s going to offer the perspective and the intersection of the engineering and artificial intelligence for global benefit. In the previous panel, we’ve also heard how insightful it is to have the experts’ views when we’re discussing some of the policies on the digital matters. So without further ado, I would start with my first question, which also… gives you the opportunity to have some opening remarks, but let’s make it a bit more dynamic. My first question is going to be to Robert. So in UNDP, you strongly promote inclusive digital development, which is, of course, the topic of our debate. You’re speaking about that that inclusion at both local and more global level. So could you actually give us an example of how you are actually trying to assist countries in their specific needs when we’re speaking about digital transformation, digital inclusions, and what support can be provided by the Members of Parliament in the various parts of the world, and what do we expect from us? It’s too many questions in one, but I’m sure you have a lot of insights to share with us.

Robert Opp: Thank you very much, and it’s a pleasure to be here. And yeah, that’s a lot of questions, but there are a lot of complex issues out there that as parliamentarians you all face right now. And in fact, I would just say in globally speaking, and the United Nations Development Program, who I represent here, is actively working in 170 countries worldwide. We have digital programs, digitalization programs in over 125 of those countries, and we are also working with one in three parliaments in the world. So what we see globally is a very strong pattern emerging around digitalization, and the pattern includes things in terms of where we hear expressions of or requests for support from countries are in a few different areas. One of those areas is how do we put in place the policies and the strategies for digitalization? And in 53 countries around the world, we’ve worked on national digital ecosystems evaluation and action planning. So looking ahead at where countries want to go, what are the steps to get there, what are the policies and strategies you need to guide that digitalization movement. The second area is in the space of technology. What are the layers of technology I need to put in place? And we sometimes talk about digital public infrastructure, which I know some of the other panelists are going to mention, but digital public infrastructure is that sort of digital roads and bridges that need to be put in place, usually put in place at the instigation of government, but often implemented itself by private sector and operated by private sector. And what we see is that that can have a very strong impact in terms of accelerating digital public services and accelerating digital economies as well. And then the third area that we hear from countries is around capacity. What are the capacities, digital capacities or capacities to work on digitalization that are necessary to really allow us to take advantage of the powers of technology and mitigate the risks of technology? So we work across all of these areas in many different countries. And I would say that what we hear also from the parliamentarian side is that there are similar challenges. So we hear from government, there’s capacity challenges, uncertainty around policies and strategies, etc. But from parliaments, we also know that there is a challenge in parliamentary capacity because parliamentarians need to also understand the shifts of digitalization, stay ahead of those shifts. We have begun to work in areas like promoting information integrity around, whether it be in general or around electoral processes, preventing online violence, which is a big challenge in many countries. And also looking at the capacity to legislate and oversee the digitalization changes that are happening. So we’ve been very pleased, we have been working with the Inter-Parliamentary Union for a number of years on many different initiatives, but we’ve also recently created an experts group that will look specifically at these capacity challenges for parliamentarians and start to work to build capacity of parliaments around the world to really be able to support the acceleration of digitalization, which we feel has tremendous potential for building human development over time.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Thank you. Thank you, Robert. You’re actually going one step back in the analysis, which is very key because we cannot be promoting or regulating matters if there is a lack of capacity in terms of the regulators. I’m going to have a few follow-up questions to you, but let me first go back to Mario so he can give us a bit more perspective from the agency side. How do you see all those matters? I’m not going to repeat the problems, the question is very clear. How does it work within the agency? What are the challenges you’re facing? And what’s the speed we can actually expect for a proper digital inclusion and transformation in Italy, especially taking into account that you have some quite outermost regions in Italy as well. How are you dealing with that challenge to reach everyone?

Mario Nobile: We have 23,000 public administrations in Italy, local central health services, so it’s very difficult. Thank you. As Director General of the agency, our mission is to drive digital transformation across the nation, and this mission is executed through various strategic tools and initiatives. One of them is the three-year plan. Now, talking about three years, it’s a long time. Now we are talking of months, artificial intelligence, new services, but we have this kind of strategic plan and in 2023, with this plan, the ICT spending in Italy was worth 7 billion euros. 3.3 for central public administration, revenue agency, national welfare institute and so on, 1.6 for local administration, so regions, municipalities and so on, and 1.6 for digital health services, remaining 0.5, last but not least, for education services. This is about 0.64% of the Italian GDP. Our ICT spending is worth it. And the agency, I go to the answer to your question, the agency oversees and ensures the quality of various building blocks of the Italian digital public infrastructures. Laid down by the government to accelerate development and used by different service providers, we have the private sector, but also the single citizen. Some numbers, in Italy we have 59 million citizens, but we have 40 million users of digital identity services. We have 18 million users of certified email, an email to send and receive with legal validity. We have 45 million qualified certified certificates of signature, the digital signatures. On the payment layer, we have PagoPiA for payments towards the public administration and in November 2024, PagoPiA had 34 million transactions with a total value of €7 billion. We have a platform for interoperability from municipality to region to central administration and at November 2024, we have 7,500 public organizations on board. Last but not least, we have an e-invoicing platform, our Italian Revenue Agency smiles because every invoice, business to business, business to government, business to citizen is in electronic format. These building blocks are the enablers for every digital services, artificial intelligence and other services. So these services are mainly delivered through a public-private partnership model where the agency role is to monitor and guarantee the quality of services provided by service provider and we issue guidelines to administrations and companies to steer the development of innovative and inclusive services. Notable examples include the guidelines on accessibility for public administrations and companies. And in conclusion, I would like to highlight the citizen inclusion. It is a best practice demonstrating the Agency’s commitment to digital inclusion and technological literacy. This project provides various tools to public administrations and private entities to improve the quality and accessibility of digital products, services and content. It aims to enhance the accessibility of public digital services in line with European directives. This project is part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan with a budget of 80 million euros. Thank you.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Thank you, Mario, I forgot to say a few words about myself before we started the session. I’m a member of the European Parliament and the Vice Chair of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, but I’m also coming from Bulgaria. Listening to Mario, he did remind me about something. We also have a digital administration which is trying to work. Unfortunately, a lot of people are discovering that it works well only when it comes to collecting taxes or fees, not when it comes about providing services. So I will come back to you after with a follow-up question, probably on the digital literacy and how you are ensuring that. All the numbers that you have told us, they seem quite reassuring. It’s just we want to make sure that really it reaches for everyone and it’s for the benefit of our citizens, not only for the governments and administrations. And now, so I want to have… have all the points, all the viewpoints to our debate. So we’ve heard from the UNDP, we’ve heard from the agency and an example from a country like Italy, which is very big. And now let’s go to one of the very key aspects. And how does it work with the industry? Like how do you ensure that what we have in terms of technological development, innovation, is ensuring to address some of the global challenges like poverty, inequality, economic growth? And I’m turning to you, Mr. Gong, because I know that you are an expert in the field and you can give us some real example if that works. And where can probably we a bit more of support from our side, from the public sector as well?

Gong Ke: Thank you. Thank you so much. I think this year’s IGF is one of the important international events after the United Nations adopted the Pact for the Future and the Global Digital Compact. So it’s my great honour to be part of this very important event and to address a very important theme that’s promoting inclusiveness in the digital transition. So based on our observation, our, I mean, the Chinese Institute of Artificial Intelligence Development Strategy, based on our observation to the development of digitalization in China, we find that the two strategies are very, very crucial. First, from the supply side, it is a key measure to providing open, accessible platforms. to ease the adaptation of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence. And this platform in the form of public cloud services, in the form of open source communities. So this platform linking developers, users, investors, and managers to support collaboration across government, private sector, academia, and civil society, and individual users by providing pre-trained fundamental models, providing standard datasets, providing computer powers, and technical training in an open and scalable way. And very crucially, that platforms should be tailored to local context. Even in China, this is such a big country, we have a different part with different economic development level. So we should tailor to this, to different parts, the local needs, and we have different languages. Also in China, we have official Chinese, but also different dialects. So to cope with different languages, cultural norms, and digital capacities. So that is very important to the ease of adaptation. The second, from the demand side, we need to build capacity with emphasis on developing regions. So when we talk about inclusiveness, that requires proactive investment to human resources. particularly in the global south and in those less developed regions. So, because they do have a lot of barriers, so digital literacy, the lack of investment, lack of financial tools, and so on and so forth. So, I think that is the way the United Nations’ Pact for the Future focuses on equitable development and digital inclusion. And I think the United Nations Resolution adopted in July, titled Enhancing the International Collaboration for Building Capacity of Artificial Intelligence, offers a guideline for these capacity-building activities. So, I think the engineering capacity is a very important content in the capacity-building, because it is engineers to use the technical method, scientific theory, in the specific social, environmental, financial conditions to solve the problem. So, we have to increase the engineering capacity, especially for the less developed regions, to enhance the capability of problem-solving. So, because of the limitation of time, I just stop here. Thank you.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Thank you, thank you, Mr. Gong. Very insightful comments, in terms of all the topics we’ve discussed so far. And now we’re going to come in with more details in the second round on the engineering capacity, because I’m sure the audience would be interested. A few more short questions. from my side, and then now we’re going to ask for questions from the people listening to us today. So Robert, everyone is shifting. So you started the topic on capacity challenge in the parliamentarians. It seems that we acknowledge that, and we’re going to work on that to try to resolve it a bit. I’m having a question again on the literacy, on the inclusion. How are you assessing the challenge of addressing and reaching with your digital initiative, particularly to the people in the low income or some of the conflicted regions? Do you have some specific examples? And what is the response? Because it’s a very particular situation sometimes when we’re speaking about that.

Robert Opp: Absolutely. And the capacity question is probably the number one request that we get from our country partners. And it’s not just a single thing. So as we just heard, one issue is around engineering capacity and software engineers or developers, programmers. But of course, there’s capacity needs across the board from private sector to civil servants, to looking at higher education policy, to the parliamentarians, to et cetera, et cetera, general digital literacy among people. So addressing capacity has to be, it’s a very complex situation, so it needs a number of different kinds of interventions. One of the things that I briefly mentioned before is when we work with countries on digitalization, we often start with an assessment of the local digital ecosystem. And so in 53 of the countries we’ve worked with, that means sitting down with government, private sector, civil society, to understand the state of where we are with business ecosystem, regulatory ecosystem, government capacity, and general digital literacy. And based on that, we can design a kind of an action plan on where to… actually go to support different kinds of capacities that are needed. In terms of specific examples, just one example is, together with the government of Kenya, we have recently launched a center of competence on AI and digital skills for civil servants that is done in partnership with Microsoft and Huawei. And so it’s UNDP, Microsoft, Huawei, government of Kenya, looking at how we can bring civil servants into better capacities. And so there are a number of different kinds of angles that we can use, often involving the private sector, because private sector is also where cutting edge skill sets are. But more on the policy side, we also need to look at how do we actually ensure that people understand not just the technology itself, but as I mentioned before, how to govern those technologies. And so that’s where, in some cases, we’ve started engaging with parliamentarians on specific programs that we run in-country for parliamentarians, often with partners like IPU, to look at how we can actually build capacities of people to understand the shift. Because it is a different set of skills you need to understand how to govern technologies than actually build them.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Continuing with the specific examples, actually, it’s going to be interesting to follow up how those are developing, especially the example with Kenya, but I’m going to go back to Mr. Gong now. As the president of the World Federation of Engineering and Organization, you must have a very, very good overview of how things are developing. And you’ve pointed out on the first priority was the open and accessible platforms to assess the human resources in each part of the world and to make sure that we are promoting also the engineering capacity. Can you, do you have any specific example from your experience as well of like specific engineering solutions that actually helped? or did it impact significantly marginalized populations or solve inequality problems?

Gong Ke: That’s a very important question, but it’s hard to answer. Now, as the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, WFU, we are carrying out a big initiative. We called it the Engineering Capacity Building for Africa program. This spans 10 years long in the framework of the United Nations International Decade of Science for Sustainable Development. So in this initiative, we focus on the artificial intelligence because that is a revolutionary general purpose technology that penetrates all engineering professions. However, the risk of AI coming from two aspects. First is from the technical incompleteness. So there’s technically the contents generated by AI model is based on the probability. We call it so-called the joint probability because on the one side is the prompt and the generated content has the highest joint probability with your prompt. So we have to know that and to increase the capability of AI users to make factual check, logical check, ethical check to the contents. So that’s one side. Another side is that misuse of those models. To use this model to make this and this information, that’s very bad. Another kind of misuse is that perhaps 99% of the answers are correct, so people may simply rely on the model and give the rights to the model to believe all the models said to him or her. That’s not good. We have to keep the human oversight to know the mistakes is possible produced by those models. So that is also very important. Now we carry out trainings to engineers to help them to understand the fundamental mechanism how AI models work and why they can produce mistakes, and how to make so-called ethical, factual, logical, and scientific check to those generated contents. And we do hope that we can join hands with all of you to carry out the initiative. I mean the Engineering Capacity Building for Africa, that is a very ambitious, we hope in the following 10 years we can train more than 100,000 engineers in the workplace to grasp the AI tools, digital tools, to increase the quality of their life and their work.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Very important, very important topic actually, that we should be using the technologies as a tool and to help us to be more efficient, but not to substitute human capacity. This is a key topic everywhere we’re discussing those matters. And now where we are at the stage of implementing the AI technology, this is going to be reoccurring, so I would encourage you to keep on repeating that. that message because there is a fear among many societies that some of the technologies are here to take our jobs, which is absolutely not the case, but we have to provide the regulatory framework and the incentives and the campaigns to teach people how to use them to our best benefit. And this brings me back to Mario before I’m gonna turn to the audience for questions. So like circulating around, you’re going back to the digital literacy, to the knowledge of people if they can access and use the services you’re providing. The numbers you’ve given us in the introductions were very, very impressive. Like I didn’t remember them all, but you just said like 40 million user of digital ID, which is quite impressive already if people are trusting the digital platforms to use it for their identity. This is something as a key message from your opening remarks, but how do you ensure that people are actually aware of the systems that they’re using? And do you think that everyone has access to those services or just a specific group of people who are like young and a bit more open to those platforms? Like just a bit provocative question, I know, but it’s important to hear some answers.

Mario Nobile: I have half an hour, 20 minutes, no, one minute. So I’m joking. It’s, I think that the colleague, the literacy program is one of the cornerstones of digital services. We in the triennial plan, we have three cornerstones. The first is data quality. The second one is literacy for engineers, for deployers, for users. If you use an artificial intelligence, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot. and you are a citizen, you want to start a company, you want to interact with the national public registry of companies. You must know limits, opportunities of that kind of instrument. So the second cornerstone of literacy is very important. And we try on digital identity, on digital signatures, on e-invoicing, to make several kinds of literacy for engineers, for ICT engineers, for domain experts, the revenue officer, for citizens. And it’s tricky to find a way to tell people you are an engineer, you are a user, you are a citizen. The third one, last but not least, is the dataset control, which is your dataset control in the European Parliament, in the engineering organization. Data are in, are out, the patterns are in, are out. So, you know, technology evolves faster than most of the public administrations and companies can innovate. And I was talking before, three years are a long time. Now we are trying to build a strategic planning in a way, in a process, to leverage the predictive part of these emerging technologies in a faster way. This is a mandate for us. A short-term program, a short-term strategy, which involves literacy, data quality, and connection with citizens and companies. It’s a short time

Tsvetelina Penkova: Unfortunately, we’re limited on time with very very key messages So it’s good to acknowledge some of those problems and to start finding solutions together So in in in the sign of being together, I’m turning to you now For some questions or comments. I see the first one here. Then there are two more here. Let’s start Moving this way

Audience: I will speak in Arabic In Arabic or a field that needs digital initiatives 2. familiarizing people with the ideas and names of innovation initiatives an incentive to carry forward those initiatives 3. specialized education and training And especially for the skills of using these digital and smart initiatives for all specializations and levels, from the smallest employee to the highest level in public security. Of course, as a result of this, we can say that 30% of the successful initiatives that we implemented were innovative initiatives from public security employees. Of course, we feel proud and proud because we achieved a very advanced ranking according to the 2024 electronic parliamentary report, almost the first ranking in the Arab world and the 13th ranking in the world. Thank you.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Thank you. Can you pass the mic to the front row and then we’re going to move back here. Thank you.

Audience: Thank you very much. Also, I come from Bahrain. I really want to ask the UNDP representative, do you think that there is a need to issue a UN declaration to protect communities, values and ethics in the community based on the use of AI? Something like a declaration of human rights or maybe to amend the human rights declaration to protect the community of the misuse of AI? Something on the basis of the same basis of the EU Act that they have been issued recently? Because really, I think the changes happening in the AI world are so quick and require really global collaboration and cooperation to protect our community, especially those who don’t have full access or don’t have the knowledge or the technology or the understanding of the use of AI. Thank you.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Thank you. And now I’m moving to… the central sector, and then we’ll give you the floor.

Audience: Thank you very much. My name is Mahamdan Nasser from the Egyptian Parliament and I’m an engineer. So the first question for Mr. Kikong, we already have around 1 million engineers in Egypt. So can we work in this capacity building for engineers with Egypt? That would be wonderful. Another quick question for both Robert and Mario. Do you have any running or planned programs with Egypt for any of the projects you’ve been talking to or not? Thank you.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Very specific questions. Okay, let’s move there and then back and then one last question from this sector I’ll take after you.

Audience: Hello. My question is for Robert. I’m Kundan from India. I work with a non-profit called CG Netswara. I’m concerned around the DPI, digital public infrastructure. We know that, you know, it’s a hot thing. We talk a lot about these things and we also know that it’s a key thing to go ahead in terms of the growth of communities. But when you work with different countries, how do you kind of map out different DPIs within a framework, within a simple framework, which also upholds human rights, equality, and, you know, the values we are trying to uphold as a community, you know, who are trying to build for a multi-stakeholder future. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Just interesting talks. Only one point, please. I like all what you said, isn’t it a good idea for the UN to have common platforms to unify efforts to build such literacy programs, training for literacy or digital inclusion, increase engineering capacity and so on, instead of like every country is working like China, U.S., Europe, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, you know, all countries. Isn’t it better for the UN to have like unified or to work on such important parts so all the countries, they can have one place and other people from Africa, from Asia, from everywhere, they can benefit from it. It’s great work. Thank you.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Thank you. And we’re going to have one last question there and then I’m going to go back to our speakers. A lot of very specific questions were posed.

Audience: Good morning, Aileen Febles from the Cuban Parliament and President of a social organization that brings together all the professionals in the sector of technologies in Cuba. We are not members of the World Organization, but we will be, we will propose it and thank the PNUD because it has supported a lot since the creation of the organization in several projects that we have been developing, so I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. It seemed very important to me everything that has been said about the development of capacities, but sometimes in the projects that we do, they start and they end, and in the development of capacities, in technological issues, it is very important that it is permanent, iterative and incremental, because technological development advances a lot, and sometimes we start projects, we close them, and then that remains in the nothingness. So, trying to think of platforms like the one that the colleague mentioned earlier, and also in which these centers of training sign projects and present them to the UNEP Capacity Building Center for the Cuban engineers and the civil servants in Cuba and for those parliamentaries in my country so that we can really benefit from this.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Thank you. Very good example on inclusion, actually. And now I’m turning back to the panel here. A lot of questions, quite a lot of specific ones. Most of them to Robert. Can I speak? Oh, one. Okay, fine.

Audience: In French. I speak in French. Thank you very much. I come from Senegal, which faces two challenges. First, as you said, the digitization of the administration, whose biggest challenge remains the infrastructure, the appropriation, as well as the provision of funds. And here we rely a lot on parliamentarians and we do a lot of lobbying to achieve these objectives. We don’t have a translation in English. Sorry. No translation? So all of this gives us a wide range of challenges, also with the buyers, with the state. And here too, the parliamentarians play a big role. Because those who are from these white areas, these grey areas, today are still very, very introduced to the internet in their area. And when we see how a connected community is welcomed, we see that it is not only the young people who are happy. It is especially the leader, often it is a religious leader, who is a bit like the village chief, who connects all these people who are in Europe, who are in America, who are in the cities, and through these programs, who manage to develop the locality. It gives pride and it makes you want to go much further. And so all these challenges, we will still expect a lot of cooperation to be able to connect these millions of people who are today left behind in the digital divide. Thank you.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Thank you, thank you so much. Unfortunately, we are pressed by the time, so this was the last question. A comment is welcoming from the audience. Sorry? Okay, so now you want to take the floor? Perfect, okay. So this is going to be now the last one. Okay, I’m happy that we have such an engaged audience. Thank you.

Audience: I would like to thank you first, I would like to thank you first for this initiative which brought us as parliamentarians together and to get expertise from you. Of course, you benefited noting that the Algerian state is towards the digitization of Algeria within the 2020-30 program. We wanted to give a feedback or viewpoint about the infrastructure provided by Algeria and the state infrastructure and the freedoms of the national assembly. We were working in parallel with the executive body the government has provided as an infrastructure believing that if we want to develop the digitalization in our country we have to provide two major issues and then comes such other to interact with many countries to develop ourselves. We have started with infrastructure where Algeria has provided all the funding required to access each village and city in the Algerian territory. We have provided to cover with our coverage. Now, the Algerian parliament is working to provide the conducive environment for digitization and technology in general. We have started with the bill, it is about the self-contractor. We have started at the beginning the And Geneva doesn’t have the mechanism to work with different institutions, meaning that they’re facing challenges in dealing with mechanisms. Now that they succeeded in Algeria, many youth became more creative and can provide their products to all institutions, and we have successful experiences in this respect. In addition to that, today, the lawmakers in Algeria pay attention to a big issue, which is the AI. The AI, considering that now the current legislature in Algeria does not handle the AI issues from the… Of course, with the benefit of yesterday’s sessions, they gave a good idea to us, and also today about the electronic crimes legislatures. We have a couple of that. And so we can say that Algeria has led the legislative infrastructure and digital infrastructure to move forward towards economic. And at the end, I’d like to convey the greetings of the parliamentarian speaker, Thank you so much. Thank you.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Thank you for touching upon the topic that’s going to be debated, and how to prevent online harms, actually. So I know that we are running out of time, but there were a lot of specific questions addressed to our panelists, so I’ll turn back to you in whichever order you prefer to take the floor. So we’re going to take another five to six minutes of your time, but the audience is very engaged. So thank you. Who wants? Robert, thank you.

Robert Opp: I want to say thank you for the questions, because the quality of questions and comments, I think, indicates the level of interest. but also just the importance of this topic, and it makes me really happy to hear these kinds of questions coming out of parliamentarians and others. There were a couple of questions on the role of the UN in a declaration around AI and the Common Capacity Platform, and I want to address those a bit jointly. Professor Gong mentioned that there was, at this past September, the UN approved the Pact for the Future, which had as one of the parts the Global Digital Compact, and if you have not seen the Global Digital Compact yet, I would really encourage you to look for it on the UN website, because it sets out the direction agreed by 193 member states on issues related to capacity building, to artificial intelligence, and so on. At the moment, in terms of a declaration on AI and AI governance and human rights, to my understanding, most of the discussion so far has been that there’s no need to open up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but rather we need to think through the implication of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the digital space, which is being done inside the UN by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and a number of other agencies, as well as with the engagement of Permanent Missions in New York as well. And so I think the Global Digital Compact has a number of statements around digital rights and human rights in the digital space that represents the commitment collectively of countries. In terms of the AI portion of that, there is a very active discussion right now on the potential for international or global governance of AI, but that depends on member states more than the UN. because member states will need to instruct the United Nations agencies on how to proceed. So there is an agreement in the Global Digital Compact on the creation of an international scientific panel for AI, the creation of a fund for AI, including around capacity, and an annual dialogue on artificial intelligence that would happen every year to look at these issues. So it does kind of, to get us to the point of saying, you know, could we do something like the EU AI Act, will require the member states to come around that. And in a similar way, the issue around capacity. In the Global Digital Compact, there are commitments around capacity, but the commitments will only become real if there’s resources put behind that, which again is an issue for member states to discuss. I mean, we already as agencies, we work together. So another example of capacity building is UNDP and the International Telecommunication Union, ITU, have a joint project that has received funds from the European Union to support the capacity building of policymakers around the world by developing 17 different courses in different aspects of digital governance and things. And that will be available to as many as 5,000 policymakers in the current budget that we have. And ideally, we would expand that. So there is a lot of discussion around how do we bring those efforts together and make them more available to more people. So I very much appreciate the signal. And then Egypt, we work extensively, UNDP works extensively with the Ministry of ICT and Minister Talat. We have, I think, something in the order of 170. million dollars of projects that are going on, including the Applied Innovation Center and many other things that are going on in the country. And that is also actually supported from the resources of the government of Egypt as well, so we bring the technical assistance and we’re very grateful. We were also grateful to host in Egypt this year, or the government hosted, the first global digital public infrastructure summit, and that was held in October and brought together people from around the world to focus on this issue. And speaking of DPI, the question on DPI, and I’m sorry, I’m trying to work my way through the questions, our view as the United Nations is we should not be implementing technology that does not have the corresponding policies and governance mechanisms around it. In digital public infrastructure, we have, in the last General Assembly this year, announced or launched, rather, the Universal Digital Public Infrastructure Safeguards Framework. That was done together with the UN Technology Envoy’s office, and it represents more or less exactly what you were saying. It is literally a framework. As countries introduce digital public infrastructure, the framework has the principles, policies, and best practices around the kinds of governance, laws, policies that should be in place, policies for data protection and privacy, policies when implementing digital identity platforms, policies around data exchange and data governance, and all of those kinds of things. We are now working to implement that, and for us, we will not work with a country when we don’t have the technology joined together with the governance. So that’s the way we approach it.

Tsvetelina Penkova: Thank you so much. Very specific and comprehensive. Most of the questions were to you anyway, so you had to take the time. Now for like some, I don’t think this is any need for me to answer. So Professor Gong, you’re not taking?

Mario Nobile: Only one minute if I may. Robert answered all the questions, but three points. The first one, Italy, we, our agency with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is carrying on the Piano Mattei. So our colleague of Egypt, Algeria, and Senegal, we will get in touch about this cooperation between Italy and African countries. And the second one, the Italian presidency of the G7 posed a point about the global governance of artificial intelligence. So we were talking about human rights, but also objectives like the UN sustainable imperative of no one must be left behind. So this is a point. The Italian point of the G7 presidency is we need a global governance about artificial intelligence. The third point, some of your questions. We, it took time to change our mind from horses to cars. Okay? Many years. Now, this relentless pace of artificial intelligence, we are facing months. In Italy, this is my two cents for discussion. In Italy, actually, now we are talking about tax imposition. to artificial intelligence tools. My colleague, the director of the National Institute for Welfare, in a public debate she said, persons must pay taxes. I’m happy to pay taxes to help others. If we are ready to use artificial intelligence tools, why cannot impose taxation? This is a question, not an answer.

Gong Ke: Let me just add a very short answer. So, from the questions, you raise a very important concept, that’s human rights. I think it’s an overarch goal for all of us. And let me remind that early this year, there’s a very important document released by the United Nations, edited by the high-level consultancy body for AI, that is the Governance AI for Humanity. So this is a very important document. And also I’d like to mention that two years ago, UNESCO has released a recommendation on the ethics of AI. That’s a very important standard-setting document. And then, I think it is also important, dealing with the interoperability of the DPI, the international norms. I think it is a very important role for the AI to play. And the good news is that the UN is going to set an AI office in the headquarters in the near future. So we do hope that we can see a more coordinated international operation on AI ethics and adaptations. So, I stop here.

Robert Opp: I think you’re better at representing the UN than I am. Thank you.

Tsvetelina Penkova: That’s the end of our panel. I just want to say thank you to the panelists and to the very engaged audience with the insightful and spot-on questions. A lot of topics were touched upon, a lot of them were very important, and I want to also thank the hosting country, Saudi Arabia, for having the opportunity to discuss all those key matters. As a concluding sentence, I would just say, let us commit to use the insights from today’s discussion to actually craft and create policies and incentives that are truly inclusive and leave no one behind. Thank you so much, and enjoy the rest of the program today.

Agreement Points

Importance of digital literacy and capacity building

speakers

Robert Opp

Gong Ke

Mario Nobile

arguments

Need for digital literacy and capacity building across sectors

Importance of engineering capacity building, especially in developing regions

Digital literacy programs as cornerstone of digital services adoption

summary

All speakers emphasized the critical need for digital literacy and capacity building across various sectors and regions, particularly in developing areas, to ensure effective adoption and use of digital technologies.

Tailoring digital solutions to local contexts

speakers

Robert Opp

Gong Ke

arguments

Implementing digital public infrastructure with corresponding policies and safeguards

Need to tailor digital platforms to local contexts and languages

summary

Both speakers stressed the importance of adapting digital solutions, including infrastructure and platforms, to local contexts, considering factors such as language, culture, and existing policies.

Similar Viewpoints

All three speakers highlighted the importance of collaboration between public and private sectors in developing digital infrastructure, skills, and services.

speakers

Robert Opp

Gong Ke

Mario Nobile

arguments

Partnerships with private sector for digital skills training

Collaboration across sectors to support digital adaptation

Italy’s development of digital public infrastructure building blocks

Unexpected Consensus

Need for global governance of AI and digital technologies

speakers

Mario Nobile

Audience

arguments

Rapid pace of AI development requiring adaptive governance

Need for global governance framework for AI and digital technologies

explanation

Both Mario Nobile and audience members unexpectedly agreed on the need for global governance frameworks for AI and digital technologies, despite coming from different perspectives (government official and general public).

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of agreement centered around the importance of digital literacy and capacity building, tailoring digital solutions to local contexts, and the need for collaboration between public and private sectors in digital development.

Consensus level

There was a high level of consensus among the speakers on these key issues, suggesting a shared understanding of the challenges and potential solutions in digital transformation. This consensus implies that future policies and initiatives in this area are likely to focus on these agreed-upon priorities, potentially leading to more coordinated and effective efforts in digital inclusion and development.

Different Viewpoints

Approach to digital literacy and capacity building

speakers

Robert Opp

Mario Nobile

Gong Ke

arguments

Need for digital literacy and capacity building across sectors

Digital literacy programs as cornerstone of digital services adoption

Importance of engineering capacity building, especially in developing regions

summary

While all speakers agree on the importance of digital literacy and capacity building, they emphasize different aspects and approaches. Robert Opp focuses on a broad range of sectors, Mario Nobile emphasizes literacy for digital service adoption, and Gong Ke stresses engineering capacity building in developing regions.

Unexpected Differences

Approach to AI governance

speakers

Mario Nobile

Gong Ke

arguments

Rapid pace of AI development requiring adaptive governance

Need to tailor digital platforms to local contexts and languages

explanation

While both speakers discuss AI governance, their approaches differ unexpectedly. Mario Nobile suggests adaptive governance and potential taxation of AI tools, while Gong Ke focuses on tailoring AI platforms to local contexts and languages, which was not directly addressed by other speakers.

Overall Assessment

summary

The main areas of disagreement revolve around the specific approaches to digital literacy, capacity building, and AI governance.

difference_level

The level of disagreement among the speakers is moderate. While they agree on the importance of digital inclusion and capacity building, they have different emphases and approaches. These differences reflect the complexity of digital transformation and the need for multifaceted strategies tailored to different contexts and needs.

Partial Agreements

Both speakers agree on the importance of cross-sector collaboration for digital development, but they differ in their focus. Robert Opp emphasizes partnerships for skills training, while Gong Ke highlights collaboration for technology adaptation.

speakers

Robert Opp

Gong Ke

arguments

Partnerships with private sector for digital skills training

Collaboration across sectors to support digital adaptation

Similar Viewpoints

All three speakers highlighted the importance of collaboration between public and private sectors in developing digital infrastructure, skills, and services.

speakers

Robert Opp

Gong Ke

Mario Nobile

arguments

Partnerships with private sector for digital skills training

Collaboration across sectors to support digital adaptation

Italy’s development of digital public infrastructure building blocks

Key Takeaways

Digital inclusion and capacity building are critical priorities for inclusive digital transformation

Digital public infrastructure needs to be implemented alongside appropriate governance frameworks and safeguards

Public-private partnerships are important for driving digital skills development and service delivery

There are significant challenges in addressing the digital divide, especially in developing regions

AI governance and human rights considerations are becoming increasingly important as AI develops rapidly

Resolutions and Action Items

UNDP and ITU to provide capacity building courses on digital governance for up to 5,000 policymakers

Italy to engage with African countries on digital cooperation through the ‘Piano Mattei’ initiative

UN to establish an AI office at headquarters to coordinate international efforts on AI ethics and adaptation

Unresolved Issues

How to effectively address the digital divide in low-income and conflict-affected regions

Whether a UN declaration or amendment to human rights declaration is needed to address AI impacts

How to ensure digital literacy programs are ongoing rather than one-off projects

Approach to taxing AI tools and systems

Suggested Compromises

Using existing human rights frameworks and interpreting them for the digital space, rather than creating new declarations

Balancing rapid AI development with adaptive governance approaches

Tailoring digital platforms to local contexts while working towards global standards

We sometimes talk about digital public infrastructure, which I know some of the other panelists are going to mention, but digital public infrastructure is that sort of digital roads and bridges that need to be put in place, usually put in place at the instigation of government, but often implemented itself by private sector and operated by private sector.

speaker

Robert Opp

reason

This comment introduces the important concept of digital public infrastructure and highlights the collaborative role of government and private sector in implementing it.

impact

It set the stage for further discussion on public-private partnerships in digital transformation and the importance of foundational digital systems.

We have 23,000 public administrations in Italy, local central health services, so it’s very difficult.

speaker

Mario Nobile

reason

This brief statement succinctly captures the complexity of implementing digital transformation across a large, diverse governmental system.

impact

It prompted a more detailed discussion of Italy’s digital initiatives and the challenges of coordinating across many entities.

So based on our observation, our, I mean, the Chinese Institute of Artificial Intelligence Development Strategy, based on our observation to the development of digitalization in China, we find that the two strategies are very, very crucial. First, from the supply side, it is a key measure to providing open, accessible platforms.

speaker

Gong Ke

reason

This comment introduces a strategic framework for digital development based on China’s experience, emphasizing open platforms.

impact

It shifted the discussion towards more concrete strategies for digital inclusion and development, particularly in developing regions.

Do you think that there is a need to issue a UN declaration to protect communities, values and ethics in the community based on the use of AI? Something like a declaration of human rights or maybe to amend the human rights declaration to protect the community of the misuse of AI?

speaker

Audience member from Bahrain

reason

This question raises important considerations about global governance of AI and protection of human rights in the digital age.

impact

It prompted a discussion on existing UN initiatives and the potential need for new global frameworks for AI governance.

Isn’t it a good idea for the UN to have common platforms to unify efforts to build such literacy programs, training for literacy or digital inclusion, increase engineering capacity and so on, instead of like every country is working like China, U.S., Europe, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, you know, all countries.

speaker

Audience member

reason

This suggestion highlights the potential for greater international cooperation in digital capacity building.

impact

It led to a discussion of existing UN initiatives and the challenges of coordinating global efforts in digital development.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by broadening its scope from national digital initiatives to global considerations of digital infrastructure, inclusion, and governance. They highlighted the complexity of implementing digital transformation across diverse systems, the need for strategic approaches to digital development, and the importance of international cooperation and governance frameworks, particularly for AI. The discussion evolved from specific national examples to broader considerations of how to ensure equitable and ethical digital development on a global scale.

How to ensure digital literacy programs reach all segments of society, including older and less tech-savvy populations?

speaker

Tsvetelina Penkova

explanation

This is important to address the digital divide and ensure inclusive digital transformation.

How to implement AI governance frameworks that protect community values and ethics?

speaker

Audience member from Bahrain

explanation

This is crucial for mitigating risks associated with AI and ensuring its responsible use.

Can the World Federation of Engineering Organizations work on capacity building for engineers in Egypt?

speaker

Mahamdan Nasser from Egyptian Parliament

explanation

This could help enhance engineering skills and AI readiness in Egypt.

What specific digital public infrastructure (DPI) projects are UNDP and the Agency for Digital Italy running or planning with Egypt?

speaker

Mahamdan Nasser from Egyptian Parliament

explanation

This information could facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing between countries.

How to map out different DPIs within a framework that upholds human rights and equality?

speaker

Kundan from India

explanation

This is important for ensuring DPI implementations align with ethical and human rights standards.

Could the UN create common platforms to unify efforts in digital literacy, inclusion, and engineering capacity building?

speaker

Audience member

explanation

This could streamline global efforts and make resources more accessible to all countries.

How to ensure capacity building in technological issues is permanent, iterative, and incremental?

speaker

Aileen Febles from Cuban Parliament

explanation

This is crucial for keeping pace with rapid technological advancements and maintaining relevant skills.

How to address infrastructure challenges in digitizing administration, especially in developing countries?

speaker

Audience member from Senegal

explanation

This is key for enabling digital transformation in areas with limited resources.

How to implement taxation on AI tools?

speaker

Mario Nobile

explanation

This could be an important consideration for funding public services in the age of AI.