WS #90 Digital Safety: Tackling Disinformation in Future Internet

Summary

This session focused on the United Nations’ efforts in digital development and the implementation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) action lines. Representatives from various UN agencies shared their achievements and ongoing work in promoting digital technologies for sustainable development.

Key themes included bridging the digital divide, enhancing digital skills, promoting e-commerce, and addressing emerging challenges like artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Agencies such as ITU, UNCTAD, UNDP, and UNESCO highlighted their collaborative efforts in areas like connecting schools to the internet, supporting e-government initiatives, and developing digital economy strategies.

The discussion emphasized the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships and the need to align digital development efforts with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Global Digital Compact (GDC). Participants stressed the growing significance of data governance, environmental sustainability in digitalization, and gender equality in the digital sphere.

Several agencies reported on their expanded focus on digital issues, with increased resources and larger-scale projects compared to earlier years. The World Bank, for instance, noted a significant growth in its digital development portfolio and partnerships.

Looking ahead, speakers highlighted the upcoming WSIS+20 review process and the need to address new challenges such as AI governance and data poverty. The importance of coordinating efforts across UN agencies and avoiding duplication was emphasized.

The session concluded with a call for continued collaboration and the integration of digital strategies into broader development frameworks, recognizing the cross-cutting nature of digital technologies in achieving sustainable development goals.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– Achievements and progress in implementing the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) action lines over the past 20 years

– Ongoing challenges and new priorities like artificial intelligence, data governance, and environmental sustainability

– Collaboration between UN agencies and other stakeholders on digital development initiatives

– Implementation of the Global Digital Compact and alignment with WSIS processes

– Gender equality and bridging the digital divide

The overall purpose of the discussion was for representatives from various UN agencies and organizations to highlight their work on digital development, share achievements related to WSIS implementation, and discuss priorities for future collaboration.

The tone of the discussion was positive and collaborative, with speakers emphasizing partnerships and joint efforts. There was a sense of pride in accomplishments but also recognition of ongoing challenges. The tone remained consistent throughout, with participants building on each other’s points and expressing enthusiasm for continued cooperation.

Speakers

– Cedric Wachholz: UNESCO, Chair of UNGIS

РTorbj̦rn Fredriksson: UNCTAD, Head of e-commerce and digital economy branch

– Gitanjali Sah: ITU, Strategy and policy coordinator

– Samia Melhem: World Bank, Lead digital development specialist

– Mactar Sect: UNECA, Chief of technology and innovation section

– Ryszard Frelek: WIPO, Counselor, external relations division

– Yu Ping Cheng: UNDP, Chief Digital Office

– Helene Molinier: UN Women, Advisor on digital cooperation and thematic lead for GF Action Coalition on Innovation and Technology

– Deniz Susar: UNDESA

Additional speakers:

– Cyntia Lesufi: South Africa, Chair of Council Working Group on WSIS and SDG, G20 presidency

– Robert Opp: UNDP, Chief Digital Officer (mentioned but did not speak)

– Delfina: UNEGO (mentioned but did not speak)

Revised Summary of UN Digital Development Discussion at IGF Riyadh

This session at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Riyadh brought together representatives from various United Nations agencies to discuss progress, challenges, and future priorities in digital development, with a particular focus on implementing the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) action lines and the Global Digital Compact (GDC).

Key Achievements and Progress

Over the past two decades, UN agencies have made significant strides in digital development across various sectors:

1. Education: The ITU reported success in connecting schools to the internet and promoting digital education initiatives (Gitanjali Sah).

2. Economic Development: UNCTAD highlighted its work in facilitating e-commerce and digital economy initiatives, particularly in developing countries (Torbjörn Fredriksson).

3. Governance: UNDESA shared achievements in conducting e-government surveys and coordinating the Internet Governance Forum (Deniz Susar).

4. Regional Support: UNECA emphasised its role in supporting African countries with digital transformation strategies, including the development of the African Union Digital Transformation Strategy and the African Union Data Governance Framework (Mactar Seck).

5. Accessibility: WIPO reported on providing Technology and Innovation Support Centers (TISCs) and the Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) services (Ryszard Frelek).

6. Scaling Efforts: The World Bank noted a significant growth in its digital development portfolio and partnerships (Samia Melhem).

7. Education and Media Literacy: UNESCO highlighted its work on AI in education, media and information literacy, and guidelines for regulating online platforms.

These achievements demonstrate the UN system’s commitment to leveraging digital technologies for sustainable development and implementing the WSIS action lines.

Emerging Challenges and Future Focus Areas

While progress has been made, speakers identified several emerging challenges and priorities for future work:

1. Environmental Sustainability: UNCTAD highlighted concerns about the environmental footprint of digitalization (Torbjörn Fredriksson).

2. Gender Equality: UN Women stressed the need to bridge digital gender divides and mainstream gender considerations across all digital development efforts (Helene Molinier).

3. Digital Divides: UNCTAD pointed out widening digital and data divides between countries, as well as growing market concentration in the digital economy (Torbjörn Fredriksson).

4. Global Digital Compact Implementation: UNDESA emphasised the importance of implementing the GDC and aligning it with existing WSIS processes (Deniz Susar).

5. Regional Priorities: The G20 presidency (South Africa) highlighted focus areas such as digital public infrastructure, AI capacity building, data protection, and open-source technologies (Cyntia Lesufi).

Collaboration and Coordination

A key theme throughout the discussion was the importance of collaboration and coordination among UN agencies to effectively address digital development challenges:

1. UN Group on Information Society (UNGIS): UNCTAD emphasised leveraging UNGIS for collective efforts (Torbjörn Fredriksson).

2. WSIS+20 Review: UNDESA highlighted the upcoming WSIS+20 review process as an opportunity to assess progress and align future efforts (Deniz Susar).

3. Gender Equality Initiatives: UN Women called for aligning efforts on gender equality in digital development across agencies, including the recent focus on the intersection of digital and gender issues, and the inclusion of the digital gender gap as a cross-cutting topic in the Beijing+30 review (Helene Molinier).

4. Support for Global Initiatives: Multiple agencies expressed commitment to supporting G20 presidency priorities on digital issues (Cyntia Lesufi).

World Bank’s Digital Academy Program

Samia Melhem highlighted the World Bank’s digital academy program, which aims to build digital skills and literacy across various sectors and populations. This initiative represents a significant effort to address the growing demand for digital competencies in the workforce and society at large.

Upcoming Events and Initiatives

Several important events and initiatives were mentioned during the discussion:

1. A conference on AI and digital transformation in the public sector on 4-5 June in Paris as part of the WSIS+20 process.

2. The upcoming UNCTAD ministerial conference in Vietnam.

3. The next Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Norway in June 2025.

4. South Africa’s G20 presidency priorities related to digital issues, including digital public infrastructure, AI capacity building, data protection, and open-source technologies.

In conclusion, the session demonstrated a strong commitment from UN agencies to advancing digital development and implementing the WSIS action lines. The discussion highlighted significant progress made over the past two decades while also emphasising the need to address emerging challenges and enhance collaboration across the UN system. As the digital landscape continues to evolve rapidly, the UN’s coordinated efforts will be crucial in ensuring that digital technologies contribute positively to sustainable development and leave no one behind.

Cedric Wachholz: you you you you you you you you Is it working? Yes, I see Tobian online. So we’re ready to start. Nice to see you, Tobian. A warm welcome to all of you here present in the room. For this, you need to put on your so how it works, you will need to put on your earphones for us to hear each other. And I can hear myself. So you need to go on channel one, you need to and then channel one. Good. So we have a specific technical setup here, Tobias, as you can see. So a warm welcome to all of you here in the room and all those following online to this session on the UN Digital for Development UN in action. And this will be a really exciting session, and I’m happy and thankful to my co-chair, Gitanjali, who has done a lot of the preparatory work and invited all of you to join. And of course, also to UNDP and UNCTAD and all the other participants and co-chairs of UNDES. So I will briefly make introductions of the panel, just say, you can see Tobian Frederiksen who heads the e-commerce and digital economy branch and UNDES, UNCTAD, sorry, as remote participants, but we see you well. We have we have Gitanjali to my left, who is a strategy and policy coordinator from ITU. And most of you will know from WSIS. To my right, we have Samia Malham, who is the lead digital development specialist of the World Bank. Thanks for joining too. On my left, Wipo, oh no, first, Magda Seck, chief of the technology and innovation section from UNECA, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Thanks for joining too. And also, Mr. Richard Freleck, counselor, external relations division, World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO. And last but not least, UNDP. Yu-Ping Cheng. Thank you for joining, and perhaps, I don’t know if Robert will come too, but we are very delighted to have you with us. Then, I don’t know if Hélène Moulinier, she’s important for our session, she will be joining online, but she’s also part of this panel. She’s the advisor on digital cooperation and the thematic lead for the GF Action Coalition on Innovation and Technology from UN Women. She’s particularly important for this session. So, we will showcase UN in action today. And as we move closer to the 20 years review of WSIS, we have, of course, the crucial task of driving forward the creation and the continued creation of a more equitable, inclusive, and knowledge-driven world, where technology really serves as a catalyst for human and social and societal development, and, of course, sustainable development. The initial WSIS vision of a people-centered and development-oriented and inclusive information and knowledge society stays very strong and continues to resonate, I think, with all of us and our work. And we have seen over time how this WSIS vision from 2003 and 2005, the Geneva and Tunis Summit, has actually evolved, has been addressing new challenges throughout the time. You know how in the text we didn’t find a notion of mobile phones or any technologies, and I think that made it so lasting. And today, we saw then also in 2015 how we could address with WSIS Action Lines and the work the SDGs and how to link our WSIS work with the SDGs. And so, today, we will hear more about Action Line implementation and what we have achieved concretely over the last 20 years, but also about future action. And I’m delighted to see Hélène now online, too, because this is important for our way forward, too, on our gender equality work across the United Nations. So, an explicit welcome to you again, Hélène. So, I think I will just hand over first for some sharing of highlights of achievements over the last 20 years, and perhaps I will ask Gitanjali to start us off with some of ITU’s work in this domain.

Gitanjali Sah: Thank you so much, Cedric, and to UNESCO for so ably chairing the UNGIS since you took over as the chair. And welcome to all physical and remote participants. Thank you for being here with us. Also, to add to what Cedric said, the UNGIS is exactly UN in action, and we have been contributing the digital aspects to various UN processes. We’ve been having side events, and we have been contributing joint statements to processes like the ECOSOC Partnership Forum, the SIDS, the LLDCs, IGF. We’ve been organizing side events every year. So, it’s a very active group of UN agencies that are members of the CEB and an extended – of course, we have observers as well. And we’ve been very successful in driving the digital agenda within the UN agencies. So, looking at ITU, of course – ITU is the UN’s specialized agency on digital and ICTs. So we have our mandates from our governing bodies, like the plenipotentiary, the council, the council working groups, where we have several resolutions that mandate us by our membership. So not only governments, but sector members. We have academia. We have the technical community and others who give us instructions on what we should be doing to implement the WSIS process. We are the lead facilitator for action line on ICT infrastructure on capacity building C4, cybersecurity C5, and enabling policy environments action line on C6. So to enable all of this, we’ve had various partnerships with UN agencies and others, since WSIS is a multi-stakeholder process. The GIGA initiative with ITU and UNICEF, where our goal is to connect every school worldwide to the internet, addressing the digital divide in education. The e-pools global partnership program that we are doing with UN Women, GSMA, ITC, et cetera, to promote gender equality. I’m pretty sure Helen will talk about it a bit more. The Connect to Recover that we did during COVID, post-COVID disruptions to enhance ICT infrastructure resilience post-COVID. And digital skilling, which is a very important aspect of ITU’s work. We have several programs with UNDP on digital skilling. And DPI, we’ve started a lot of good work around that. I’m pretty sure Yu-Ping will also mention it. The broadband foundation that we co-chair at UNESCO. We’ve been advocating universal broadband access to support economic and social growth through that. Child online protection, another aspect of cybersecurity, Action Line C5, with ITU, with the governments, and the whole private sector, where we are developing tools, guidelines, and strategies. Also, again, training women, girls, children on the dark side of the internet, knowing what could be harmful for them as well. Again, very important point, which probably Denny should also speak about, is the partnership on measuring ICT for development. A very important, but kind of hidden aspect of our work, where statisticians in our organizations are kind of measuring the achievements that we’ve had in these various action lines, and the goals that WSIS had set. Some of the key successes that we feel as the UN system, two main ones have been the WSIS forum that we jointly organized with ITU, UNESCO, UNDP, UNCTAD, and more than 40 UN agencies. All of you are involved. It’s a platform for all UN agencies and stakeholders to get together to advance our Digital for Development agenda. The next one is from the 7th to 11th of July in Geneva. So please mark it on your calendars. And we’re going to do it again in alignment with AI for Good. So the WSIS forum participants will also have access to AI for Good. And the IGF. IGF has been one of the successes of the WSIS process. Many of you have been contributing to the WSIS stocktaking database, the repository. We have more than 13,000 plus initiatives in the stocktaking database. So please do have a look, because they are aligned with the WSIS action lines and SDGs. So if you’re looking for case studies, projects on the ground, you’re more than welcome to please have a look at those. Of course, other examples of collaboration, Be Healthy, Be Mobile, that we do with WHO, the Smart Village, Smart Islands that we are doing with local governments and the private sector. Again, Digital Skills for Jobs campaign with ILO. So Cedric, 20 years is a lot to kind of summarize. But these are some of the real main things, partner to connect, which many of you are involved in, and the regional level. So the regional implementation has been crucial for ITU, working with the regional commissions, the ITU regional offices, UNDP, and various other partners. So we can continue our contributions, but this is kind of what I could summarize.

Cedric Wachholz: Yes, I know and understand it’s very difficult to really summarize in a few minutes only all the work your organization has been doing. Magda, as Gitanjali has just mentioned UNEKA, perhaps you want to take on and continue to highlight a few of your achievements.

Mactar Sect: Thank you very much, Cedric. And UNEKA is pleased to participate at this event. As you know, we start with this since more than almost 20 years, and we have seen a lot of progress in the African continent. In 2005, our access to internet penetration was 2.6%. And today we are at 38%. When you go to the mobile penetration, it was almost 8% in 2005. And today we have almost 60% at the continental level. This is a good progressive of the WSIS implementation at the continental level. And ECA work with all the country to support them in the implementation of the WSIS Action Line. In collaboration with several partners here, ITU, UNCTAD, and other partners. We can highlight some key achievements during the 20 years. First, it is we work together with African Union to have this African AU Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-2030. It will be the blueprint for Africa on digital economy. We already work with AUC to develop this African Union Data Governance Framework. It is a one key achievement on the continental level. Also, we can talk about this Artificial Intelligence AI Strategy we adopted last year, key achievement in the continent. And also we supported more than 40 countries to develop their national strategy at the continental level during these 20 years in line with the WSIS implementation. On digital ID, very important for the continent because we are a continent, we were more than almost 500 million without any legal form of identity. And we work closely with several partners to develop the digital ID at the continental level, World Bank and others. And as you see now, a lot of digital ID have developed at the continental level. Also, on policy cybersecurity, it is a big issue of the continent. Despite this 10% loss in the GDP for cybersecurity, we already work with African Union to develop this Malabo Convention on Cybersecurity. And recently to complete the framework on cybersecurity in the continent, ECA has developed a guideline framework for cybersecurity. It is some key strategic element we have developed at the continental level. Of course, in the C5, C3, all we need to build the capacity of our member state. And ECA has established an African Center of Excellence on Artificial Intelligence in Congo Brazzaville, as well as we are establishing now a STEAM Center in Rwanda and a Center of Cybersecurity in Togo. It is to support the digital skills in the continent. We work also closely with ITU and UNICEF in the GIGA project. And also, we didn’t forget the digital skills for young generation. While we have initiated in collaboration with ITU and UN Women, this initiative called African Girl Recruiting Camp. And now we have developed, we have trained almost more than 40,000 girls across the continent. We have 284 projects developing. Also, we guide a gathering, a lot of initiative at the regional level to take into consideration the import as a priority of Africa in the global GDC. We organize several roundtable across the member state to explain better the GDC to the member state and also to get their view and print and priority for the GDC adopted two months ago. And now we are supporting African country to implement the GDC in line with the WSIS Action Line. As you know, what in 2005, almost the key issue was integrated in the WSIS. And we have seen during this 20 years, two key challenge for the continent. One, it is for all the world, the AI issue as well as the data issue. And that is something we needed to contextualize in the WSIS Plus 20. And we are going to have our WSIS Plus 20 event next year in May in Benin. And also we are going to have African IGF in Tanzania in May. And we think all this outcome will be reported during the WSIS Plus 20 and the global IGF year. You’re welcome. Also, we are a member of all this partnership for Muslim of ICT. There are a lot we can say. We have a lot of progress. We have the support. We work with UNDESA on the e-government survey. I think there are a lot of accomplishments in the continent, in the implementation of the WSIS Action Line. And we thank you all partners supporting ECA on this task. Thank you. Thank you, Makto. This is really most impressive,

Cedric Wachholz: and I know this is just the surface, you know, of all the great work you have been doing. And I wanted to keep it a little bit interactive like that and do a natural link. But I will now go back to the formally correct thing to first our Angus co-chairs. So I will give the floor to UNDP, followed then by ANGSTAT, and then UNDESA, World Bank, WIFO, and I don’t know if there’s enough of you who want to say something. So Yuping, over to you as our co-vice chair.

Yu Ping Cheng: I have to say, Cedric, we were actually okay with interactive, but I also appreciate the ability to speak. I’ll try and keep it short because I think it’s there’s so much amazing work that all of us UN agencies are doing together. So it’d be really great to hear from everyone and then have a chance to also hear from others participating in the room who might want to ask some questions to the UN agencies. I just want to pick up a little bit where Martha’s left off, that we’re really looking towards GDT implementation and how WSIS needs to play a critical role in this. Because over the last 20 years, indeed, we’ve been doing so much amazing work as agencies together collaboratively, really looking at what it means to be implementing this both at the regional level and the country level as well. So going forward, it really has to be that the WSIS action lines and the way we push forward in a multi-stakeholder fashion through the WSIS process is the cornerstone of how we implement the GDT. Indeed, yesterday UNDP was proud to host an open forum with our colleagues from ITU and UNDESA, Southern Voice and Internet Society, on how global digital cooperation really must be implemented at the country level. And so today’s theme of today’s meeting, digital for development, really cuts the heart of what UNDP is doing. We are the UN’s development arm. We are in over 170 countries and territories around the world. We are now currently supporting 120 plus countries in harnessing digital to achieve the SDGs. So really, this is a cornerstone of how we approach development, that digital is indeed an enabler and accelerant of the achievement of the SDGs. And in order for us to realize our mandates across the system and to deliver on all these very important things that our partner countries have entrusted us to do, we need to harness the potential digital technologies. So for instance, the Chief Digital Office, from where I sit, has already been with over 50 to 60 countries conducting digital readiness assessments, working on digital public infrastructure, really fulfilling the ambition that was laid out in the WSIS Action Lines, where UNDP sits as the co-facilitator for C4 on capacity building and C6 on the enabling environment. I think Gitanjali also touched on a lot of the work that we’re doing with the ITU. We’re doing, for instance, the High Impact Digital Public Infrastructure Initiative that was a key outcome of last year’s SDG Summit. We also have the SDG Digital, which actually is a hallmark of the entire system coming together, where we present a lot of the work that various UN agencies are doing in collaborative fashion to really think about how SDGs can be, as I’ve said before, enabled and accelerated by the use of digital technologies, together with the ITU on skills and capacity building through an open source ecosystem enabler that is supported by the European Commission that’s looking at countries such as Trinidad and Tobago and thinking about how we can harness open source through the development of an open source program office in these developing countries, such that we together can actually co-create a more interoperable open source system that achieves digital transformation. I could list a lot more of the collaborations that we’re doing with the other UN agencies. It would take a lot of time. I just want to specifically call out the important area of artificial intelligence, where I think other colleagues will also raise this as something that we really need to look forward to in the update of the WSIS plus 20 reveal and the action line. I think this area of artificial intelligence will be something that is cornerstone to the way the United Nations develops and uses digital technologies. Indeed, it’s something that we’ve all been working on together. With UNESCO, for instance, the UNDC is doing artificial intelligence assessments, with the ITU working on AI skills capacity building. These areas will be critical. The other area that I want to very quickly mention is environmental sustainability, where, again, I think this is something where there is that potential to make sure that the references in the GDC are also reflected in how WSIS pairs this. Particularly important, for instance, from the UNDP is the fact that we co-chair the Coalition on Digital Environmental Sustainability with the ITU and UNEP, as well as the International Science Council, the German Environment Ministry, and other NGOs. This really is a multi-stakeholder coalition that looks at the issue of digital environmental sustainability and thinks about how we collectively can really push forward this global effort towards ensuring that this is part of how we deliver on making sure digital is an empowering force for people, as well as climate as well. I just want to end there. I know I’ve gone over quite a lot. There’s also a lot more that I’ve not gone over, and I look forward to questions from other colleagues.

Cedric Wachholz: Thank you so much, Yueping. This is really impressive, and for highlighting so many areas where we really work well together across the UN on the key topics. I hand over now to

Torbjörn Fredriksson: Torbjörn, who is unmuted, I see, and ready to go. Thank you very much, Cedric. I hope you can hear me. Good morning to all of you from Geneva. I wish I could also be present with you in Riyadh. This time it was not possible, I’m afraid. Let me start by thanking UNESCO as UNGIS Chair and ITU also for having organized this session during the IGF. I think the world is really digitalizing faster than ever before, affecting more and more aspects of life. While this is creating many new opportunities, it’s also clear that it’s raising many new challenges. This is clear, not least in the context of e-commerce and the digital economy, which is the part of digital for development that UNCTAD is particularly concerned with. From the perspective of achieving the sustainable development goals, all of us need to explore every possibility for making use of digital technologies to contribute towards improving progress, because unfortunately we are currently not on track to achieve the SDGs. In the area of digital economy and digital trade, which are at the heart of e-business, we are observing widening digital and data divides, growing market concentration, and an expanding environmental footprint from digitalization. The super fast evolution of the digital economy, where AI and other data-driven applications are increasingly important, is making it ever harder for countries at low levels of digital readiness to keep up, and harder still to catch up. This increases now the risks of wider inequalities, and if we truly endeavor to achieve an inclusive and sustainable digital economy, we need to do better, and this can only be achieved through more effective collaboration, both domestically and internationally, across stakeholders, across policy areas, and across borders. We very much welcome that member states came together to agree on the Global Digital Compact last September, which provides additional impetus for us as UN entities to support collective efforts towards achieving the SDGs. In this journey, the UN Group on the Information Society represents a very valuable mechanism for ensuring that we make full use of the entire UN’s networks and expertise. UNCTAD looks forward to another year of great importance for the perspective of Digital4Development. For example, under the auspices of the GDC, UNCTAD will play its part especially in fostering a more inclusive digital economy, Objective 2, and fostering better data governance under Objective 4. We will continue to build on the E-Trade4All initiative that now has 35 member organizations, including many UN organizations. We also look forward to taking over the baton from UNESCO in 2025 as chair of ANGIS. It’s not going to be easy, you’re doing a great job. And in partnership with the International Trade Center and the Universal Postal Union, we will also keep facilitating the e-business action line in the context of the World Summit on the Information Society, the first 20 years of which will be assessed next year. Last but not least, next year UNCTAD will hold its next ministerial conference. We only have one every four years, and this time it will take place in Vietnam. And that will offer another opportunity to bring the digital dimension of development to the fore at the ministerial level. So with that, thanks a lot for your attention and good luck with the rest of the events in IGF.

Cedric Wachholz: Thank you. Thank you so much, Torbjörn. Can you tell us the dates for the ministerial conference in Vietnam? I will tell you as soon as I can. Okay, thank you. Just curious. Thank you so much. And of course, the digital economy aspect that you’re working with on in UNCTAD has become increasingly important from the beginnings of WSIS till today and the work you’re doing in this field too. Over to you, Ambassador.

Deniz Susar: Thank you so much, Cedric. This is Deniz Susar from UNDESA. UNDESA is very important for us as well to coordinate our internal work. UNDESA is the business action line facilitator for C1 promotion of ICT for development, C7 e-government, and C11 international regional cooperation. Sorry. Related to C1, we’ve been doing a lot of work in country, capacity building workshop. We just recently partnered with ECA in southern Africa, and we have many other capacity building workshops on digital transformation on e-government is happening. Related to C7 e-government, we recently launched the United Nations e-government survey 2024 in September during the G8. The survey is looking at 193 UN member states e-government development, and also together with UNEGO, who is sitting next to me with Delfina’s team. We are expanding the survey’s coverage into the cities, so we are bringing it at the local level, how we can measure e-government development at the local level. And we are also partnering with entities, either non-government or government, to apply our methodology in several countries. And related to C11, IGF, as you know, it’s happening now. We are the institutional home for the IGF, and the next one will be taking place in 23-27 June in Norway. And finally, I just want to talk about WSIS Plus 20 overall review by the UNGA. We are expecting to be the secretariat for the WSIS Plus 20 overall review. We will need all the ANGES agencies, especially the core agencies’ support in this process. We will not be able to undertake this important process without your support. We will make sure that all your input contributions, all your WSIS Plus 20 reviews will be fully reflected. We are expecting that General Assembly will appoint co-facilitators latest by mid-January. Right now, they are just waiting for the ICT4D resolution to be adopted by the GA. It’s already adopted by the second committee. Once we do the modalities resolution, we are expecting to see a roadmap and make sure that the process is multi-stakeholder, and we take all stakeholders’ input transparently and fully in the process. Again, we rely on ANGES’ support on this, and I look at all the agencies here. The view from here is what we have right now, not to create any new structures, use existing WSIS mechanisms to implement the GDC, and we very much appreciate the GDC-SDG matrix that’s put together by ANGES, which we contributed. I think this is an excellent way of mapping how we can implement the GDC implementation. All our existing WSIS processes, IGF is not perfect, but we should continue to work to improving it. For example, IGF had recently had a leadership panel appointed by the SG. We see it as an improvement to the IGF, and we expect to continue to leadership panel. If, as UN agencies, if there is anything jointly we should do to improve to WSIS process, we should be open to that. But again, we should be sensitive to resource constraints within the UN and shy away from creating new mechanisms. And this is the message that we will also reflect in the Riyadh IGF messages, which will go out on Thursday, which our team is compiling right now. Over to you.

Cedric Wachholz: Thank you so much, Denise, for this update. And I really appreciate also that everybody is trying to be short. For those online, we have here a room full of people, and we would like to interact with them, too. It’s a unique opportunity for us as ANGES, and I really am happy about all the interest we have generated here. So we will do a rapid round and then also hand over to the participants who might have any questions for us, and we look forward to that, too. Yeah, yeah, I know. I didn’t want to stop there. And also, Hélène, we haven’t done our round, but I just wanted to highlight, it’s good to be short. We can’t speak about all the achievements of our organizations. Impossible. But the update is very much appreciated now from the World Bank and Samir.

Samia Melhem: Thanks a lot, Cedric. And thanks a lot to all the organizers and partners and host country. I’ll be very brief. Three minutes, okay? Okay. I could spend three days? Three minutes. All right. We’ll go for it. So when that whole process started some almost 20 years ago, we were talking about the next $6 billion. We are talking now about the next $2.6 billion. So kudos on all that have really taken that agenda, taken it forward, and taken it very seriously. I think this is one of the most solid stakeholder processes I have ever witnessed in my career. However, the road is full of new challenges, whereas we talked a couple years ago, a couple, two decades ago, about mobile phones and telecom regulators. These were the new kids on the block we were training. We now have climate change. We have AI. We have data poverty everywhere. And we have a huge digital divide in data caused by all the challenges we know and a huge divide in languages that are so needed for AI, for developing these large language models that we talk about. For us at the World Bank, it’s been a story of growth. I would say if I want to leave you with one message, it’s the World Bank is very serious about digital. Our president has been a big champion of it. When I started, we were a unit of 20 people with a bigger unit with water, with financial service, with transport. We have our own VPU now. Our project size used to be around 10 to 20 million. Our average project size, I give you Rwanda where I work, 10 million to start. It’s now we have projects of 100 million. So the message is really scaling up, both in people capabilities and in partnerships. We partner with all of you around the room. Is it enough? No, it’s not. Sometimes we reinvent things. Sometimes we’re not completely aligned from the very beginning. So that’s something that we can definitely improve, reuse one another’s research, facilities, et cetera. The way that we are looking at it very strategically now for the next couple of years with our new vice presidency is not only are we investing a lot more in digital public infrastructure, but we want to also invest in the human capital and that of policy makers, that of people, youth specifically, and have a lot more participatory approach in digital development, in digital transformation as we call it now. So really this is an ideal table to discuss all this. And I want to leave you with one point on the capabilities. When the World Bank launched its academy program, we will have a digital academy with different chapters around the world. We just piloted a Tokyo chapter a couple weeks ago. We’re looking at the Middle East regional chapter. We’re looking at partnerings with new governments such as Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan, other governments that were not typically our traditional partners because of their interest and leadership in the agenda. And we really look forward to collaborating with all of you in the most impactful way. Thank you.

Cedric Wachholz: This is incredible. In three minutes only, three minutes, 15 seconds, you did an incredible job because the World Bank has, of course, numerous projects across, huge projects across the world. Now I hand over to Waipo.

Ryszard Frelek: Good morning, everyone, again. And good afternoon, of course, for those who might be joining online. Thanks very much for the invitation. It’s always great to be here together with our friends and family from the UN system and beyond, connected also through the UNGIS. For those who might not know, the World Intellectual Property Organization, in short, WIPO, is the UN agency that serves the world’s innovators and creators. We are also the forum for addressing cutting-edge IP issues and our IP data and information guide decision makers. And we, of course, have impact-driven projects and technical assistance to ensure IP benefits everyone everywhere. And digitization is also key to our development work, firstly because, of course, essentially all development work has to take into account ICTs. Digital is cross-cutting and it’s an enabler. But secondly, of course, we also have a range of initiatives that specifically focus on digitization and development which contribute to VCs, GDC, and to the implementation of the SDGs. my work here is quite easily cut out for today because we just recently also submitted our report for VCs plus 20 review where we cover all the wide range of activities on digitalization and development because time and we also of course contributed to the matrix which was which was mentioned as well. Because time is always short let me just give you three examples of our action-oriented initiatives. First example are technology and innovation support centers in short TISCs. These are typically located in patent offices, universities, research centers, and science and tech parks and these TISCs enable researchers and inventors to get support in accessing and using technological information for more than 150 million published patent documents and scores and scores of scientific and technical publications. In recent years also TISCs have been picking up new additional activities such as patent analytics, technology transfer, or commercialization and currently 93 countries have established national TISC networks. Second example the accessible book consortium ADC in short. Following the adoption of the Marrakech Treaty which makes the production and international transfer of specially adopted books for people with blindness or visually impaired visual impairments easier, we launched a multi-stakeholder alliance comprised of organizations that represent people with print disabilities and the goal here is to increase the number of books in accessible formats and to distribute these to people who need them around the world. What did we achieve? 138 participating authorities, most in developing and LDCs countries, more than 1 million titles in 80 languages are available for cross-border exchange, three of clearance formalities under the Marrakech Treaty. Third example is supporting ICT applications in IP institutions so we help national and regional IP offices to enhance their efficiency of their IP registrations and adopt their own digital transformation strategies. This includes among others improving their online services, integration into regional and international IP systems and to enable that exchange of data and documents and 91 IP institutions across the world are actively using one or more of our modules included in our digital WIPO IP office suite and we have many many more including of course with all our partners here gathered at the table but just mentioned the usual market WIPO Green, our WIPO Academy where training programs for women in STEM or tools and IP checklists for game and app developers and tomorrow you can actually those interested you can join at 15.45 there’s a we are hosting an event on women in games and apps where we will also be showcasing some of our activities in that area. Being here of course I have to mention that we also have a lot of work on AI through our WIPO conversation on frontier tech we facilitate this open and inclusive discussion and knowledge building among all stakeholders to support well-informed policy choices on IP including also on AI. Over the last five years 9,000 people have participated 100 from 172 countries. Last session took place in November and in focus on IP and AI outputs. We also provide tools also on IP and AI I won’t go into that right now but you can find all that on our websites and in the reports and I know the time is running out so just finishing at WIPO we always look forward to we’re supporting all countries and stakeholders and working together with all our partners from the UN system and beyond that to help to make to ensure that each and every innovator and creator can thrive and looking forward to working through also the UNGIS and hopefully also thanks again for the invitation.

Cedric Wachholz: I hand directly over to Hélène.

Helene Molinier: Thank you Cédric. I hope you can hear me. I’ll also try to be brief. Good morning and good afternoon everyone. On UN Women’s side to flag that I think what we want to report on is that probably the last five years there has been the years where we’ve seen the most conversation at the intersection of digital and gender happening. It was mentioned that the coalition and equals were really incubators for knowledge for ideas and that all this conversation have turned during that period into really concrete and concrete outcomes and commitments. The first of which was last year the CSW, the Commission on the Status of Women and the agreed conclusion on technology and innovation. The first one on this topic that provided us really an important innovative framework to build on and this framework was really helpful last year when we are doing all and this year the advocacy for better integrating gender in the GDC. Thanks to all this work we really can see that the digital divide is now front and centre in many of the discussions and that there’s a I think common agreement that the best way to bridge it is to really have an intersectional approach and reach the hardest to reach which are very often the women living in rural areas, in marginalized groups, in developed countries and regions. The challenge now ahead of us is to make sure that we don’t work in silos on this topic and I really believe that OASIS and UNGIS are a space for collaboration on that. We did an event yesterday specifically on this topic and many voices called indeed for an action on gender as part of the OASIS review process. They also called for a digital track on the Beijing plus 30 review which is also happening this year and actually UN Women has identified digital gender gap as one of the important six cross-cutting topics and areas of acceleration for the work to come this year on Beijing. We also have, and it was mentioned here, the I think colossal task of implementing the GDC and the stakes are high to make sure that gender is not diluted in this implementation or in their invisible but instead to really be mainstream and prioritized across all the chapters. And so for that with ITU and hopefully with many members of the group as well we want to make sure that we bring the conversation in all this work stream together and that we have one cohesive action agenda that is amplified at CSW in March, at OASIS in July and every other important moment that are going to come in 2025 and the years beyond. And again what was said by many participants is that if we want to be impactful on this topic we have to implement it together to be forceful and to have one line of action and so I really hope that these are the collaborations we can create this year on the topic.

Cedric Wachholz: Thank you. Thank you so much Hélène. And for those who don’t know here we have chosen to take gender equality as one of the cross-cutting themes this year together with the environment and some capacity development for civil servants on AI and digital transformation. But this is certainly a topic which all of us are committed to and I am personally also very keen to coordinate and work jointly there. Perhaps we can have another UNGA session online with all the members dedicated to that theme only to really see. We have already to plan for 26 till 29 our outputs indicators and so on and so we are quite concrete planning ahead and I would like to have a session perhaps to also see how we can coordinate our work in this specific topic. But thank you so much for trying to keep a short view on that. Now over perhaps I don’t know Daphne would you like to say something or yes? I know the time is

Audience: too short but I will also be short. Just to say thank you very much for the invitation to be here. We started to join UNGA since March this year and it is really a pleasure and to see the value of this group. It is extremely important that we understand what is happening and who has been contributing to this issue of digital inside the system so that we can align efforts and get achieve all the value that we want. Very quickly basically we have been so this digital is our main business so we just do that. We just look to the digital part and now governments are using digital to transform themselves and to achieve what they want considering all the multiple aspects that have been already mentioned here. We have three main focus we are very focused on policies and regulations at digital level also at the innovation and emerging technologies particularly AI and also people. People at the center of all this digital transformation and here we include many of the things that you have been also working that is related with human rights and all the aspects participation etc. So we have been working with most of you and let me share with you that we work a lot a lot a lot with countries with government agencies spread all over the world and we have been working also with many of you in our activities. With UNEC, for instance, we have initiated, we signed an MOU and we have initiated some collaborations. We are very proud of them. Namely, and it’s very connected, what we have been talking about, collaboration and multi-stakeholders that we launched for different regions, also regions in Africa, that gather representatives from this area of digital governance in multiple countries. We have been also cooperating with UNDES for some time now, since 2018, in what regard is WALSEY, with ITU, also UN-Habitat, so with many of you, particularly also with UNDP. We have some joint projects in all these countries that we have been working. So, regarding the main topics, yes, I need to close. Everything that you mentioned, AI, indeed an important topic that we are also working on, data, but also more traditional aspects that are related with measurement, assessment and monitoring. These are key aspects for countries to be able to achieve what they want. So, thank you very much.

Cedric Wachholz: Thank you for trying to keep it short. When you’re doing interviews, as an interviewer, you’re never supposed to give away the mic, you know, so you can have different control, but here it’s a different setup. And now, is there any UN institution I have overlooked? No. So, yeah, Rob, thank you for joining us, but we had an excellent intervention by Yuping, if it is okay. So, thanks for joining us today, too. Rob is the Chief Digital Officer of UNDP. He could spend three days speaking about UNDP, but we’ll keep it short. So, for UNESCO, we have six action lines and we have eight minutes left. So, I will just say we are covering education, sciences, ethics, access to information, culture and media. And of course, we’re trying to address the key challenges which the world is seeing today. And they are sometimes even going across action lines. So, in education, of course, we have the integration of technologies into education systems, across education systems with pre- and in-service teacher trainings and lately, guidelines and trainings on how to use AI and how to deal with AI as a teacher, you know, which is sometimes a challenging thing. But if we’re speaking, for example, about disinformation, hate speech and so on, another part in education is about media and information literacy, dealing with the information overflow and learning to be able to look at information critically, but also to think before you click and send on, you know, possibly disinformation is an important aspect of this work. And related to that, I just highlight one second thing and then mention a third. It is our guidelines on the regulation of online platforms, which is related to the media work. And it has been done by our section on freedom of expression, to be very clear. So, it is not about censorship online at all. It is the freedom of expression people who dealt with it. And it was a process where over one and a half years, with different versions and 10,000, a little bit more than 10,000 inputs and a big conference of 4,000 people, we developed these guidelines and are implementing them now with regulators and, of course, with private sector companies and so on, as an example of our media and WSIS-related work. Next, as a last thing, on 4th and 5th June, we will have a conference in Paris on AI and digital transformation in the public sector, which will be part of our WSIS plus 20 process. And I could speak longer about that. But we have here a unique opportunity again of having participants. So, I wanted to just give a few minutes to those who want to take the floor and ask any of us any question. And now is the moment.

Audience: Yes. Yes. Also, we acknowledge the presence of our chair from South Africa of the Council Working Group on WSIS and SDG. And she’s also – they also have the presidency of G20. So, Cynthia, we hope that you will also like to take the floor. Cynthia?

Cyntia Lesufi: Thank you very much. And I really have enjoyed the talk in this session. And we appreciate to be here at South Africa. And really, for us at South Africa, taking over the G20 presidency, we are looking forward for the continuation of the great work that is done by the UN agencies in implementing the WSIS. But more than that, we are also looking forward for the WSIS, the IGF to continue in the implementation of the GDC. And there are a number of activities that South Africa as the G20 presidency, they have actually identified as key priorities, not only for South Africa, but for the African continent issues such as the digital public infrastructure, the issue of looking at capacity building around AI, but also the issue of the data protection and the privacy of data, and also the issue of the open source. So, these are the key issues that South Africa is looking at. And we’re looking forward to the support that we’ve received, not only as South Africa, but as Africa, as a continent and other developing countries to ensure that the implementation of the GDC, it is sufficiently done, and it’s done by yourself. And we still rely on you in terms of doing all these key issues in relation to digital transformation.

Cedric Wachholz: Thank you. Thank you, Cynthia. Thank you, Cynthia. And if I would have seen you in the audience, I would have highlighted our AI work. Because that is, I understand also, and you will have, of course, UNESCO, and I’m sure also the other agencies for support on the work streams you’re there advancing on data governance, on AI, and where we have a lot to offer and to share with you, too. Is there anybody else who would like to make a point or raise a question? Well, fantastic. Just to say then, too, on data governance, we are working with the co-chair ITU, co-chair UNDP, co-chair African Union on a data governance toolkit, which we’re also developing with many private sector companies and also governments and building on their experience. So that will be very useful for all of us. Should we take a photo before we – I have several time – the minutes left, and we just take the last minute, perhaps, to go – please stay online, and perhaps all the participants, too, come in front of the screen, and we take a photo, if that’s fine with you, with all of you. Is that good? Thank you. So while everybody goes to the screen, I continue just speaking a little bit, thanking all of the participants, thanking all the panelists, and we look forward to our continued cooperation. And we will have special sessions on environment. We will have special session on the gender equality aspect very soon in the next. So thanks to all of you who joined online and those in the room for your keen interest and for your active participation. Thank you. Thank you.

Agreement Points

Importance of digital development for achieving SDGs

speakers

Gitanjali Sah

Mactar Sect

Torbjörn Fredriksson

Deniz Susar

Samia Melhem

Yu Ping Cheng

arguments

Connecting schools and promoting digital education

Supporting African countries in digital transformation strategies

Facilitating e-commerce and digital economy initiatives

Conducting e-government surveys and coordinating Internet Governance Forum

Scaling up digital development projects and partnerships

Addressing AI, data governance, and environmental sustainability

summary

Multiple speakers emphasized the critical role of digital development in achieving Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting various initiatives and projects in different sectors.

Need for collaboration among UN agencies

speakers

Torbjörn Fredriksson

Deniz Susar

Helene Molinier

arguments

Leveraging UN Group on Information Society for collective efforts

Coordinating WSIS+20 review process

Aligning efforts on gender equality in digital development

summary

Speakers stressed the importance of collaboration and coordination among UN agencies to effectively address digital development challenges and implement initiatives.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the importance of implementing the Global Digital Compact and aligning efforts with global digital development priorities.

speakers

Deniz Susar

Cyntia Lesufi

arguments

Implementing the Global Digital Compact

Supporting G20 presidency priorities on digital issues

Both speakers highlighted the need to address emerging challenges in digital development, particularly focusing on cross-cutting issues like AI, data governance, and gender equality.

speakers

Yu Ping Cheng

Helene Molinier

arguments

Addressing AI, data governance, and environmental sustainability

Bridging digital gender divides and mainstreaming gender in digital initiatives

Unexpected Consensus

Environmental sustainability in digital development

speakers

Yu Ping Cheng

Samia Melhem

arguments

Addressing AI, data governance, and environmental sustainability

Scaling up digital development projects and partnerships

explanation

While environmental sustainability is not traditionally a primary focus in digital development discussions, both speakers highlighted its importance, suggesting a growing consensus on the need to consider environmental impacts in digital initiatives.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The speakers demonstrated strong agreement on the importance of digital development for achieving SDGs, the need for collaboration among UN agencies, and the importance of addressing emerging challenges such as AI, data governance, and gender equality in digital initiatives.

Consensus level

High level of consensus among speakers, indicating a unified approach to digital development within the UN system. This consensus suggests potential for more coordinated and effective implementation of digital development initiatives across various UN agencies and programs.

Different Viewpoints

Unexpected Differences

Overall Assessment

summary

There were no significant disagreements among the speakers. The discussion primarily focused on highlighting achievements and future plans of various UN agencies in digital development.

difference_level

The level of disagreement was minimal. Speakers generally presented complementary views and initiatives, emphasizing collaboration and coordination among UN agencies. This alignment suggests a unified approach to addressing digital development challenges, which is likely to facilitate more effective implementation of shared goals.

Partial Agreements

Both speakers agree on the importance of collaboration among UN agencies for digital development, but they differ in their approach. Deniz Susar emphasizes implementing the Global Digital Compact through existing WSIS mechanisms, while Torbjörn Fredriksson focuses on leveraging the UN Group on Information Society for collective efforts.

speakers

Deniz Susar

Torbjörn Fredriksson

arguments

Implementing the Global Digital Compact

Leveraging UN Group on Information Society for collective efforts

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the importance of implementing the Global Digital Compact and aligning efforts with global digital development priorities.

speakers

Deniz Susar

Cyntia Lesufi

arguments

Implementing the Global Digital Compact

Supporting G20 presidency priorities on digital issues

Both speakers highlighted the need to address emerging challenges in digital development, particularly focusing on cross-cutting issues like AI, data governance, and gender equality.

speakers

Yu Ping Cheng

Helene Molinier

arguments

Addressing AI, data governance, and environmental sustainability

Bridging digital gender divides and mainstreaming gender in digital initiatives

Key Takeaways

UN agencies have made significant progress in digital development initiatives across various sectors like education, e-commerce, and e-government

Emerging challenges include AI, data governance, environmental sustainability, and bridging digital gender divides

There is a strong emphasis on collaboration and coordination among UN agencies to implement the Global Digital Compact and address digital development challenges

The upcoming WSIS+20 review process is seen as an important opportunity to assess progress and align future efforts

Resolutions and Action Items

Conduct a special session on gender equality aspects of digital development

Organize a conference on AI and digital transformation in the public sector on June 4-5 in Paris as part of the WSIS+20 process

Develop a data governance toolkit in collaboration with ITU, UNDP, and African Union

Support implementation of G20 presidency priorities on digital issues, particularly for developing countries

Unresolved Issues

How to effectively mainstream gender across all aspects of digital development initiatives

Specific strategies for bridging widening digital and data divides between countries

Balancing innovation and regulation in emerging technologies like AI

Suggested Compromises

Use existing WSIS mechanisms to implement the Global Digital Compact rather than creating new structures

Adopt an intersectional approach to reach the hardest to reach populations in digital inclusion efforts

We are observing widening digital and data divides, growing market concentration, and an expanding environmental footprint from digitalization. The super fast evolution of the digital economy, where AI and other data-driven applications are increasingly important, is making it ever harder for countries at low levels of digital readiness to keep up, and harder still to catch up.

speaker

Torbjörn Fredriksson

reason

This comment highlights critical challenges in digital development that go beyond just access, pointing to systemic issues of inequality and environmental impact.

impact

It shifted the conversation to consider the negative consequences of digital transformation and the need for more inclusive approaches.

The challenge now ahead of us is to make sure that we don’t work in silos on this topic and I really believe that OASIS and UNGIS are a space for collaboration on that.

speaker

Helene Molinier

reason

This comment emphasizes the importance of collaboration across UN agencies and avoiding fragmented efforts.

impact

It prompted discussion on how to better coordinate efforts across agencies on digital gender issues.

We are expecting that General Assembly will appoint co-facilitators latest by mid-January. Right now, they are just waiting for the ICT4D resolution to be adopted by the GA. Once we do the modalities resolution, we are expecting to see a roadmap and make sure that the process is multi-stakeholder, and we take all stakeholders’ input transparently and fully in the process.

speaker

Deniz Susar

reason

This comment provides concrete next steps for the WSIS+20 review process and emphasizes multi-stakeholder engagement.

impact

It focused the discussion on upcoming milestones and the importance of inclusive processes.

There are a number of activities that South Africa as the G20 presidency, they have actually identified as key priorities, not only for South Africa, but for the African continent issues such as the digital public infrastructure, the issue of looking at capacity building around AI, but also the issue of the data protection and the privacy of data, and also the issue of the open source.

speaker

Cyntia Lesufi

reason

This comment brings in the perspective of a major developing country and highlights specific priority areas for digital development in Africa.

impact

It broadened the discussion to consider regional priorities and how UN agencies can support them.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by highlighting critical challenges in digital development, emphasizing the need for collaboration across agencies, providing concrete next steps for important processes, and bringing in regional perspectives. They moved the conversation beyond reporting on past achievements to grappling with current challenges and planning for future coordinated action. The discussion became more focused on addressing inequalities, environmental impacts, and regional needs in digital development efforts.

How can we improve coordination and alignment among UN agencies on digital development initiatives?

speaker

Samia Melhem (World Bank)

explanation

Samia mentioned that sometimes agencies reinvent things or are not completely aligned from the beginning, suggesting a need for better coordination to maximize impact and efficiency.

How can we ensure gender is mainstreamed and prioritized across all chapters of the Global Digital Compact implementation?

speaker

Helene Molinier (UN Women)

explanation

Helene emphasized the importance of not diluting gender considerations in the GDC implementation and called for a cohesive action agenda across various work streams.

How can we address the widening digital and data divides, growing market concentration, and expanding environmental footprint from digitalization?

speaker

Torbjörn Fredriksson (UNCTAD)

explanation

Torbjörn highlighted these as key challenges in achieving an inclusive and sustainable digital economy, suggesting a need for further research and action in these areas.

How can we improve the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) process?

speaker

Deniz Susar (UNDESA)

explanation

Deniz mentioned that the IGF is not perfect and suggested that UN agencies should be open to jointly improving the WSIS process, including the IGF.

How can we better integrate artificial intelligence considerations into the WSIS+20 review and action lines?

speaker

Yu Ping Cheng (UNDP)

explanation

Yu Ping highlighted AI as a cornerstone area for future UN digital technology development, suggesting it needs to be more prominently addressed in WSIS processes.

How can we ensure effective implementation of the Global Digital Compact at the country level?

speaker

Yu Ping Cheng (UNDP)

explanation

Yu Ping mentioned the importance of implementing global digital cooperation at the country level, suggesting a need for further research on effective implementation strategies.

How can we address the challenges of climate change, AI, data poverty, and language divides in the context of digital development?

speaker

Samia Melhem (World Bank)

explanation

Samia highlighted these as new challenges that have emerged since the inception of WSIS, suggesting a need for further research and action in these areas.