High Level WAIGF: Building a Resilient, Inclusive, and Safe Digital Future for West Africa

Summary

This panel discussion focused on building a resilient, inclusive, and safe digital future for West Africa. The panelists, representing various sectors and countries, explored key challenges and opportunities in the region’s digital landscape.

Trust emerged as a fundamental issue, with Gbenga Sesan emphasizing the need for awareness, robust policies, and multi-stakeholder collaboration to build trust in digital spaces. The ECOWAS representative highlighted the importance of harmonizing digital policies across the region and implementing existing frameworks to bridge the digital divide between countries.

Inclusivity was a major theme, with panelists discussing strategies to engage women, rural populations, and those with limited digital literacy. Ellen Attoh-Wreh shared experiences from Liberia on using technology to educate and connect with constituents, particularly in rural areas.

Cybersecurity and data protection were identified as critical concerns. The ICANN representative stressed the importance of implementing security measures like DNSSEC and encouraged West African participation in ICANN’s policymaking processes.

Panelists agreed on the need for stronger collaboration between governments, civil society, and the private sector to drive digital development. They emphasized the importance of localizing digital education, harmonizing regional policies, and ensuring the independence of regulatory institutions.

The discussion concluded with recommendations for accelerating digital progress in West Africa, including better utilization of Universal Service Funds, increased regional cooperation, and more active participation in global internet governance forums.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– Building trust in digital spaces through awareness, policies, and multi-stakeholder collaboration

– Bridging the digital divide, especially for women and rural populations

– Addressing cybersecurity and cybercrime challenges in West Africa

– Harmonizing and implementing digital policies and regulations across the region

– Developing digital infrastructure and skills to support an inclusive digital economy

The overall purpose of the discussion was to explore how to build a resilient, inclusive and safe digital future for West Africa. The panelists aimed to identify key challenges and opportunities, and provide recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders.

The tone of the discussion was largely constructive and solution-oriented. Panelists spoke passionately about the importance of digital inclusion and development, while also frankly acknowledging current gaps and obstacles. There was a sense of cautious optimism about the region’s digital future, balanced with calls for more concrete action and implementation of existing policies.

Speakers

– Gbenga Sesan: Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative, member of the Secretary General’s high-level leadership panel for the IGF

– Ellen A Attoh-Wreh: Member of the House of the Liberian Legislature, representing District Number Three, Magibe County

– Hajia Sani: Moderator/organizer

– Yaovi Atohoun: Works for ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)

– Adedeji Stanley Olajide: House of Rep member in the National Assembly representing Oyo state, Chairman of the House Committee on ICT and Cybersecurity

– CEDEAO representative: Marie Awanchede, Programme Officer for e-applications and e-government at ECOWAS Commission

Additional speakers:

– Folake Olagunju: Represented by Madam Maricen (role not specified)

– Muriel Alapini: Online moderator (mentioned but did not speak)

– Robinson Sibe: From the private sector (mentioned but did not speak)

Building a Resilient, Inclusive, and Safe Digital Future for West Africa

This panel discussion, part of the West African Internet Governance Forum, brought together key stakeholders from government, civil society, and international organisations to explore the challenges and opportunities in building a resilient, inclusive, and safe digital future for West Africa. The conversation covered a wide range of topics, including trust in digital spaces, bridging the digital divide, cybersecurity, and regional collaboration.

Trust and Digital Literacy

A central theme that emerged was the importance of trust in the digital environment. Gbenga Sesan, Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative, emphasised that trust is fundamental to a thriving digital economy but challenging to build online. He argued that awareness, robust policies, and multi-stakeholder collaboration are essential for fostering trust in digital spaces.

Ellen A Attoh-Wreh, a member of the Liberian Legislature, shared practical experiences from Liberia on using technology to educate and connect with constituents, particularly in rural areas. She highlighted the importance of awareness campaigns and training programmes to help bring rural women online and increase digital literacy. Attoh-Wreh also mentioned Liberia’s efforts to implement Universal Access Funds for expanding connectivity.

Marie Awanchede, the ECOWAS Commission representative, echoed these sentiments, stressing the importance of digital skills training programmes as part of a comprehensive approach to digital development in the region.

Bridging the Digital Divide

The discussion revealed a strong consensus on the need to bridge the digital divide, especially for women and rural populations. Gbenga Sesan argued that Universal Access Funds should be used to expand connectivity in underserved areas. An audience member from Senegal noted challenges in accessing these funds for providing connectivity.

Marie Awanchede highlighted the importance of harmonising digital policies across the region to address infrastructure gaps and implement existing frameworks. She introduced the ECOWAS digital observatory, which measures digital progress in the region. Awanchede also mentioned the ECOWAS digital strategy for 2024-2029, which focuses on addressing digital culture and skills gaps.

Cybersecurity and Data Protection

Cybersecurity and data protection were identified as critical concerns for the region. Adedeji Stanley Olajide, a Nigerian House of Representatives member, stressed the need for proactive cybersecurity measures, not just cybercrime laws. He emphasised the importance of distinguishing between cybersecurity and cybercrime in policy-making.

Yaovi Atohoun, representing ICANN, discussed the organisation’s work on domain name security at the top level. He encouraged the implementation of security measures like DNSSEC to enhance trust and security in online environments. Atohoun also stressed the importance of increased West African participation in ICANN’s policymaking processes to ensure regional interests are represented in global internet governance.

Gbenga Sesan added that the independence of institutions is critical for effective cybersecurity, highlighting the need for robust and impartial regulatory frameworks. He also discussed recent court cases in Nigeria related to data protection, emphasizing the importance of legal precedents in this area.

Regional Collaboration and Policy Harmonisation

A key focus of the discussion was the need for stronger collaboration between governments, civil society, and the private sector to drive digital development. Marie Awanchede outlined efforts to harmonise digital policies across West Africa through ECOWAS frameworks. This approach aims to create a unified digital market with connected, interoperable, and resilient infrastructures.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide emphasised the importance of countries implementing these regional frameworks at the national level. An audience member raised concerns about the challenges of implementing community laws at the national level, questioning whether the issue was a lack of political will or competence.

The African Parliamentarian Network on Illicit Financial Flow (APNEF) caucus was mentioned as an example of successful regional collaboration. The Amilcal-Cabral submarine fiber optic cable project was also highlighted as an instance of regional infrastructure development.

Promoting Digital Inclusion

Several speakers highlighted strategies to promote digital inclusion. Adedeji Stanley Olajide advocated for the development of local language content to increase inclusion. Ellen A Attoh-Wreh suggested that parliamentarians should form caucuses to drive digital inclusion initiatives.

Yaovi Atohoun introduced ICANN’s Applicant Support Program, which offers significant discounts for domain name applications. He also mentioned the upcoming opportunity for new top-level domain applications in 2026, encouraging increased West African participation in the global domain name system.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The discussion concluded with several key recommendations for accelerating digital progress in West Africa:

1. Better utilisation of Universal Service Funds to expand connectivity in underserved areas

2. Implementation of technical measures like DNSSEC to enhance online trust and security

3. Formation of parliamentary caucuses focused on digital inclusion and development

4. Increased West African participation in global internet governance forums, including ICANN meetings and policy-making processes

5. Harmonisation of digital policies across West African countries through ECOWAS frameworks

6. Development of content in local languages to increase digital inclusion

7. Leveraging the ECOWAS digital observatory to measure and drive digital progress

While the overall tone of the discussion was constructive and solution-oriented, it also highlighted significant challenges, including the complexities of implementing community laws at the national level, the need to raise digital development levels in lagging countries, and the importance of balancing open data policies with privacy concerns.

The panel emphasised that building a resilient, inclusive, and safe digital future for West Africa requires concerted effort across multiple fronts, including policy development, infrastructure investment, digital literacy programmes, and active participation in global internet governance processes.

Hajia Sani: Thank you organizers for a great lunch. I hope it doesn’t send us to sleep so that we don’t go to sleep before the day runs past us. May we commence proceedings of the next session. In this regard, let me announce very quickly here that our next session is a very interesting session and is a very powerful session. It is actually the main theme of this year’s Internet Governance Forum West Africa, which is building a resilient, inclusive and safe digital future for West Africa. To anchor this very important session, permit me with all protocols observed to invite to the podium, Honorable Adedeji Stanley Olajide. Give him a round of applause. Applause, you’ve all had lunch. Thank you. So, speakers, please. I think you could sit on the side, or you could sit in the middle so that it’s easy for you to turn to both sides of the aisle. Thank you. To do justice to this topic, building a resilient, inclusive and safe digital future for West Africa. Please join me to welcome the speakers on this very important topic, Mr. Gbenga Sesan. He’s joined also by Mr. Yaovi Attohoun. Mr. Yaovi. The stage is waiting for you. Thank you. Mr. Fol… I don’t know if this is a female or a male Folake Olagunju. It has been represented by Madam Maricen. Madam Maricen. Okay. Madam Maricen, kindly join this panel. Madam Maricen. Oh, she has joined. Thank you. Additionally, we have Honorable Ellen A Attoh-Wreh. Thank you. And then you have Robinson Sibe. He’s on his way. Okay. He will join us on the high table when he gets in. Do we still have a seat? Yes, we still have a seat for Muriel Alapini. Muriel Alapini. Okay, she will be online. I am told she’ll be online. Can we confirm technical if she’s there? She’s online. Okay. She’s moderating for us virtually. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, without much ado, let me quickly hand over the rings and moderation. Pardon me? Meta. I have not seen her. Yeah, okay. She said she may not be joining us. She’s watching. Robinson is from the private sector. He’s on the center. Sibe. Ladies and gentlemen, my delight and privilege to formally hand the mic over. to chair of this session. Thank you, sir.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you very much for that presentation. I first of all want to thank you all for being here. My name is Honorable Adedeji Stanley Olajide. I’m a House of Rep member in the National Assembly representing my state from Oyo and I’m also the Chairman of the House Committee on ICT and Cybersecurity. But I would like for the panelists to do self-introduction because sometimes it’s very difficult to grab people’s name. So I would like for them to do the introduction themselves so that that way we can proceed with the business of the day. So I’ll start from the far right. Honorable.

Ellen A Attoh-Wreh: Good afternoon, everyone. I’m Honorable Ellen Amaka Attoh-Wreh and I represent District Number Three, Magibe County and I’m a member of the House of the Liberian Legislature.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you, Ellen.

CEDEAO representative: Bonjour à tous. Je m’appelle Marie, Madame Awanchede. Je suis de la commission de la CEDEAO. Je suis programme officer e-application et e-gouvernement. Donc je coordonne l’initiative du programme de la transformation numérique de la CEDEAO. Merci.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you. So did everybody understand what she just said? Did you listen to the translation? Anybody miss the translation? Everybody got it? If you didn’t get the translation, please… Please raise your hand. Technical difficulty, please you need to wear the headset. There are headsets around because it’s important for you to have those headsets because we have panelists that will be speaking in French and very important. If you’re ready, just express by show of hands, you’re ready, so we know we’re ready. Are you all ready? Can I go again? You’re ready? Okay. Go ahead.

CEDEAO representative: Voilà. Donc je disais que je suis Mme Awanchede Marie, je suis de la commission de la CEDEAO, je suis programme officier e-application et e-gouvernement et donc dans ce cadre, je coordonne la transformation numérique à l’échelle régionale. Je vous remercie.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you, Marie. So to my left.

Gbenga Sesan: My name is Gbenga Sesan. I work with Paradigm Initiative, I serve as the executive director and for the purposes of the IGF, I also serve on the Secretary General’s high-level leadership panel for the IGF.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you, Sesan.

Yaovi Atohoun: My name is Yaobi Atoun, I’m working for ICANN, ICANN is the ICANN, ICANN is the ICANN, ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. So the role of ICANN is to ensure that we have internet all the time. So ICANN is the organization playing this role is more a technical, primarily a technical role, but there are a lot of policy involved in what ICANN is doing. So we’ll know more about it maybe during the panel. Thank you so much.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you very much, Yaovi. Well, let me first of all set the stage here by telling you what the background and the objective of this panel is. This high-level panel is part of the global West African Governance Forum initiative to pretty much talk about how we are going to achieve resilience, inclusivity, and safety around internet governance. And we will do justice over the next 50 minutes, the panelists seated to my left and to my right, we will look at how we can collaborate and to be able to achieve these objectives. Because at the end of the day, there will be GDC documents that basically we are going to produce to kind of show that we are engaging to formulate a process to get to the destination. So, Sherson, you know, there is, before we get started, I think I would like for you to talk a bit about trust. Because if we don’t set the issue of trust straight, it’s almost going to be very difficult for us to build on it. You cannot build or nothing. There must be a trust in all of these collaborations to build resilience, to build inclusivity, and also safety around internet governance. And I don’t want you to be too structured about it. You know, from your civil society, you have in-depth knowledge of all of these. Can you share how we can address the issue of trust, Sesan? Thank you so much.

Gbenga Sesan: So, one of the challenges with trust in a digital environment is that, and I’m sure we all know this, is that trust is not built the way that digital platforms work. I will explain. As human beings, we connect to build trust. In a community, when you hear things like, it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a lot for a child to leave one house, go to the other house, and the parent trusts that the child will be fine. That happens offline. But then we now have digital spaces that have made all of us friends. Many of us in this room are on Facebook, and we have 5,000 friends, but they are not our friends. We’re always talking to people. We’re always sending emails to them, but we really don’t know them, and they don’t know if we trust them. So, naturally, there is a temptation for you to, in a bid to keep yourself safe, you may be suspicious of someone you have never met. So, many of us know about, you know, catfishes, right? You meet someone online who claims to be something, and they end up not being that thing. So, these are some of the challenges that come with the digital environment that have eroded trust. But, the entire digital economy is built on trust. You cannot get into an Uber if you don’t trust that this person is not going to run away with you and kidnap you. You cannot pay for something online if you don’t trust that this person would deliver the service. You cannot pick the phone and call someone and say hello Onore Badedeji, I’m sending you three million dollars and actually I should say the other way, you know, and trust that the person has initiated the transaction. I don’t know how many of us in this room as if you’ve ever made a transaction and someone says show me the proof that you’ve made a payment and you show them and they say to you I haven’t received it. Now those are the challenges. There is a bridge between the physical and the digital and that bridge happens to be us. It means that the way that we’re wired as human beings means that we need touch and feel to maintain trust but the reality is we live in an environment where you will never meet everyone and you will never get to know everyone so we must build trust. So what can help us build trust in digital spaces? Number one is and I know we’ve done a lot of work as part of initiative around this is to make sure that when you go online you are going online with an understanding of the space that you are going to. So for example if you’re getting online for the first time and you can navigate your way around the tools it is possible that you see an advert and you click on it and you get angry that the what you have been served is not what you want online but it’s an advert that you clicked on. So first of all is an understanding and that is why it’s important for us to create capacity building opportunities. The second is that trust in digital spaces is helped when we have policies and regulations that ensure that if something goes wrong, and this is important, that if something goes wrong, if someone misuses your data, if someone takes your information and pretends to be you. I know a story of someone who won a radio show. So the radio program said, if you can answer this question, you are the winner. And this person answered the question and went to the radio station and met somebody beside him. And the radio operator came out and said, who is Kunle, the one who won the radio program? And both of them stood up. The person who is Kunle and the person who was pretending to be Kunle. But after that person asked a few more questions, they found out who was the right person. So there’s importance for awareness. There’s importance for us to have a policy environment where if someone does something wrong, then they can be reprimanded. And the third, which is very critical and important, is that we live in an environment where we must value the principle, and I know this word has been misused many times, but it paints the picture, multi-stakeholderism. In fact, maybe in different languages, you have different expressions for it. I’m Yoruba, so I will say this. Yoruba people say, it translates to mean, if you don’t put your hands together, you can’t lift anything. One finger can’t lift anything. One broomstick can’t sweep the floor. It is the same concept of Ubuntu. And because of that, we must all play our part. ICANN technical community must play their part in ensuring that the technical infrastructure works. And that way, we trust that when we type www.ncdc, that’s all. Nigerians will understand that joke. When you type www.ncdc.gov, it goes to the NCDC website and not somewhere else. The same way civil society must play its own role in the sense that awareness and holding power accountable must be done. The same way government, including legislators, will play their part. Onore Badedeji’s desk is full of documents so that he can combine everything and create a legislative document that will go through a thorough process to become law. One of such laws that I’m sure we all appreciate now is the data protection law. In the last six months, Paradigm Initiative has gone to court multiple times asking judges to punish people who have done the wrong things. Two examples and I’ll close with this. And this is how we build trust, that when someone does something wrong, they are corrected and also when you go online, you’re aware of what you’re doing. The first example of this data protection violation was somebody who went online in a digital environment, bought food from a platform. And then the platform that they bought food from gave that person’s data to somebody else. In data protection, there’s something called purpose limitation. It means that when I give you my information, you must use it for the exact purpose for which I gave you. This secondary person then misused the data by calling them all the time. How many of you have received text messages, phone calls, emails from people you did not ask for anything? That is what happened. So we went to court and said, Mr. George, Mrs. George, please, this person has done something wrong. Tell them. Thankfully, they were fined. Three million naira, not a lot of money, but quite something, about $2,000. And that money is to be paid to the person whose data was misused. The second example is a bank. Somebody opened an account in Naira and then the bank decided we don’t like collecting Naira charges on your account. They opened a dollar account for this person and the person said no, I don’t want a dollar account. If you use a Nigerian bank you know that there are four different transactions that happen when you do one transaction. There’s a percentage of the first one, a percentage of the percentage, and various levels, and then a card maintenance fee. And like someone said how do you maintain my card? Do you clean it? So this person said don’t create a dumb account for me and the bank did and forced it on them and began to charge them. So they came to us and we went to court again and thankfully the judge declared 7.5 million Naira in damages for this person and 500,000 Naira extra for the administrative process. This is how we build trust. Many of us in this room have received messages from loan, digital loan companies that you don’t even know the person who borrowed money from them is and then they send you a message to say this person borrowed money from us. Call them now. If you don’t pay us back tomorrow they will die. They create weird messages and share with you. If we must build trust we all have different parts to play. Judiciary, legislature, executive, security agencies, making sure that what we do rights are respected even when we’re trying to ensure that security is confirmed and ascertain. Technical community, civil society, academia, private sector. This is how we build trust by everybody coming together, playing their part and making sure that we do the right thing. If anyone does the wrong thing including violating the rights of someone on the platform there is an opportunity for them to… Seek redress otherwise it ends up being a process where there’s impunity, no one is checked, we don’t trust each other and then the internet is at risk. We need to be certain that when I send an email to somebody and I say I want to do this thing, that email gets to the person and the person who receives it is the person who told me that is their address, no one intercepts, no one manipulates and no one does anything wrong without paying for it. Trust is at the center of a digital economy but it is something we have to consciously build and nurture.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Wow, thank you very much Sesan. You know that’s why we, different perspective actually shapes the country or the continent. Look at how much justice it just did to the subject of trust. But when we are creating laws, if we don’t get your views, we will make the laws. But how good are the laws going to be is the question. So look at the example he just cited, they even had to go to the extent of going to court. Could they have convicted anybody without the law? There must be a good robust law in place. So for us who are legislators, who are trying to come up with the law, so when you see advertisements in the dailies of any of our countries, we want the civil society to participate. I’m happy that the defense is represented here. We have ECOWAS, we have the media, we have students, we want all of your views. So when we are calling for public hearing on some of these things. is to get your views and creativity so that we can come up with laws, even in cross-borders. Some of us, I mean, they’re from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Niger, they have to come up with laws in our respective countries to be able to develop trust. So, and thank you Sesan, we have taken that to mind and well noted. Now, Mary, let me come to you, you in the ECOWAS community, you have cross-border responsibility. There’s lots of women, children, children that basically have, they are far from being digital literates. How? Can you share your view on how we can bridge this gap? Because it’s a gap that is so wide that in order for us as a continent and as West Africa to get to our destination, we have to bridge the gap in order for us to have a resilient internet environment, please.

CEDEAO representative: Thank you, Mr. Moderator. First of all, I would like to remind you that one of the reasons for being in the CEDEAO is economic integration and regional integration. And so, for that, one of our objectives is to have a unified digital market in the region. We can’t talk about a unified digital market without talking about connected, interoperable, but also resilient infrastructures. We can’t talk about a unified digital market without digital services for the well-being of populations, for economic development, and also for social inclusion. We can’t talk about a unified digital market without legal and regulatory frameworks and strong institutions to carry out initiatives. We can’t talk about a unified digital market without culture and digital skills. Does that answer your question? So, when we talk about culture and digital skills, it’s a little vast because there is the cultural aspect, but there is also the safety aspect online and the skills as such. Because digital culture is perhaps the ability to understand and access digital platforms, but if we draw a little bit on the definition to get to the skills, we can say that it is also beyond understanding, but having a good knowledge of what we are doing. So, in terms of digital culture. We have to say that the gap is huge. The gap is huge because the gap we have on infrastructures is also huge. In terms of access, even access to digital terminals, in terms of costs of digital services. And so access also in rural areas. To address this issue as a regional institution, the CEDEAO, after an evaluation of the strategies that we are implementing, we have seen that most of our gains are on the infrastructure part and perhaps the implementation of a favorable legal and regulatory framework. But on the part related to content and the digital culture and development of skills, there is still a lot to do. And it is for this reason that the new strategy 2024-2029, which we have developed, highlights the need to address this issue of digital culture and skills. And so it is one of the axes of this strategy. In addition to this, we are also working on an electronic government strategy. a regional strategy, and it is still in progress, but I am convinced that we cannot set up digital services without trying to level up the digital culture. This is also something that we address in the digital government policy of the CEDEAO. But what we do to really have the status of the region, is that we have a digital observatory. In fact, in the last three days, we have been working with Member States to measure the progress of the region in the field of digital technology. And this observatory, it is true, until now, covered the infrastructure, telecoms, the postal sector, cybersecurity, but in our new strategy, we plan to extend it to digital skills. So we will have an observatory on digital skills. It goes beyond the digital culture. Now, still in the digital culture, there is also the question of security. Because if we are not well sensitized, we will not even have the understanding, the knowledge that is needed. to safely navigate the digital platforms. This brings us to the subject of the protection of personal data. Today, the development of the digital economy and digitization in general, the direct impact is the availability of data that can include personal data. So, in this context, for our region, there is tangible progress. It’s true that most of our countries have, let’s say, a personal data protection authority. We also have laws, but the approaches are very different. Some have open approaches to promote the development of the digital economy, but some have, let’s say, restrictive approaches. Because data has no borders, it has no nationality. Because it’s something that circulates on the Internet. That’s why it’s important to address this issue of data protection. The CEDEAO had an additional act on data protection dating back to 2010. This additional act was revised last year. It’s just to give more guidance, let’s say, on the new subject of trans-border data, but also on the sharing of data. So, the approach we want to take is a balanced approach. Because we also have to facilitate, today we talk about digital trade, etc. We have the new protocol of the Free Continental Trade Zone on digital trade, which gives even more guidance. Well, it’s true that it also makes it more complex, but we have to have a balanced approach that promotes this new emerging digital economy. So, today we have the regulatory instruments, but where we really struggle is at the level of implementation, at the national level. Because at the regional level, we put in place the policies, because the legal framework is regulatory, but it’s at the level of implementation. So, the subject, it’s true, it’s vast, of digital culture. It brought me back to the subject of data governance as well, but at the regional level, in addition to data protection, we also work on a regulatory act for open data, so that we can promote innovation and the development of e-applications and digital content. Because, as I said at the beginning of my speech, Where the bottom hurts, where we still have significant efforts to make, it is on digital skills, but also on content development. So we have put in place regional instruments and we are trying, together with the States, to give ourselves the means to implement these instruments. And what I will say, to conclude, is that the context of this year’s Internet Governance Forum is special. Because we are celebrating our 50th anniversary, the CEDEAO. Our founding fathers did what they had to do. They put in place an institution that will allow us to have this economic and regional integration. But we are responsible for our future. This year’s YGF is also special, because last year there was the new digital compact, and now we have the digital trade protocol. So really, the instruments are there. It is on implementation that we really need to support. Thank you.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: to developing protocols to actually making sure that there are infrastructure that we can embed all we’re doing on. Thank you very much for that wonderful insight. A round of applause for her again. However, coming to you, Helen, we have a lot of women. We have a lot of women that basically are still far away from connecting to the digitalization or to the awareness or literacy that we’re looking for. Across borders, because from ECOWAS perspective, yes, there will be a framework in place. Can you share what is going on in your country and how and what can we collaborate on in order for us to bridge the gap for women, particularly youthful women? Please go ahead. You have the floor.

Ellen A Attoh-Wreh: Thank you. I will start briefly, but I want to be more specific to my own district because my district is part of it is urban and part of it is rural. So it is not an easy task dealing with people who are not educated, not to talk about having the idea when it comes to technology. We all are aware that it is not an easy task to strive in a male-dominated society where we believe in the patriarchy system. So, being a young legislator, I try to tap on every information that I have access to. I remember in 2019, I attended a forum in Canada, and I heard about the Universal Access Fund. I ran with that back to Liberia, and I started asking questions. We have our Liberia Telecommunication Authority. So, under that institution, there comes the Universal Access Fund. At that time, the theme for the year was Leave No One Behind. So, I felt it was an opportunity to advocate for my constituents. And I also shared the information with some of my colleagues who also hail from the rural areas that has no or limited access to communication. So, we decided to create an awareness to educate the people on the importance of being connected. When I say it’s not an easy thing to have to strive in a male-dominated area, years before information, by the way, I’m serving my second term. My first term was six years, and I was able to retain my seat to my constituents. So, it wasn’t easy when we travel, especially the women. The House of Legislature, we are a total of 103. Out of the 103, we are only 11 women. So, we travel to conferences like this, and they will start to run propaganda. Are you sure where your constituent, your lawmaker has gone to? Is she going to work or what? It is in their interest, but through that process and the education, the training that was given to them, I can say to you proudly now that even the old lady in my district now, I share on my page my political officer, my office, they are informing them to bring them on board. So we created an awareness, we did the training in the different parts of the district, making them to know the importance of being connected. And I like what the previous speaker said, it starts with trust. It wasn’t easy at first to convince them that the time that I would take two hours, three hours to drive to come to you when there’s an issue is easy when you have access to technology to place a phone call to see what is going on in this part of the district. So they were finding it difficult because they felt it was something beyond their comprehension. A woman, a youth who has no idea the importance of education, not to talk about technology, they felt it wasn’t their place at all. So I would say thanks to the Universal Access Fund, and we look forward to that because my district and all the districts in the rural area in Liberia benefited from that a lot, and today we have access to connections. And for the youth, most especially the women, we have come to terms to train them that you can use the internet to do something productive. For example, those that have limited access to attending schools on a daily basis based on the transportation costs, we’ll make it our duty to provide an internet service and show them the basic things that they need to learn before reaching to the acquired ages or to be able to stand on their own to commute when it comes to the distances. So when it comes to this topic, the importance of also the data protection law is something that we are also trying to be more robust about. because we have the laws on the book, but the implementation, our system is the biochemical system. We have the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive. So we, the lawmakers, we make the laws, but we have the executive who are there to implement the laws. So how can we hold them accountable, the check and balance? That’s what we have thought it was to work collectively and to put in measures that they will be able to implement. I’ll give you an example. We are public figures, we are politicians. So it is easy for your data to be used for the wrong thing most of the times. And people walk away with impunity under another law that we have saying the freedom of speech. So this freedom of speech, you come online, you use the platform, and you spill things that are not even right about your lawmaker only because you disagree. So we have also decided to work in that line to see how we can put measures into place and to educate them that the internet is a safe space for you to utilize in a positive way and not in a negative way. And we have in the rural women that will want the inclusion. We talk about inclusion in this topic. Before you will find a rural woman because of lack of trust, she tells you that I have no understanding what banking is. Why should I take my money and put it in the bank? Liberia had war before, and I lost my money. Do you think I would do the same thing, go and put my money in the bank? No, no, no, I’m not going to do that. So again, we had to educate them, let them know that your money can be deposited, you can transact through the digital means without having to carry the physical cash. And now that that message is resonating with the rural women who are the most difficult people to deal with due to the lack of understanding or no educational. at all, we are making progress. Now you found the real women going to buy the markets cashless, where they can walk and use their mobile money to transact and forge ahead. Before, those things were something we couldn’t get to them easily. I wouldn’t sit here and say we are where we want to be, but I can say to you that we are seeing significant progress and we are going to continue to strive on that trajectory and how we can make more impact. And when it also comes to the health sector, I will tell you that the digital world has played a pivotal role. And because of the visibility, they are all coming on board to understand. I will also give you a case study. My district to be precise, it takes approximately maybe like 45 minutes walk to have a pregnant woman to the nearest clinic. So a woman who is in labor or having complications without access to internet, without access to communication, how do you think it’s possible for someone to walk more than or about 45 minutes just to make a call to the hospital for the need of an ambulance to help save the life of that lady? So when we put those measures into place, we started with the bare minimum. Understanding the importance of communication where mobile phones were provided to the low income earners in their communities that just in case if there’s an issue, you can make a call. Of course, it also started with the universal access phone that we’re able to build towers in those areas to buttress the effort of the GSM companies that we have in Liberia. So true that they were able to communicate and we noticed that the maternal mortality rate that was so high started to decrease because of the effective. Thank you very much.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you very much, Ellen. I’m feeling a lot of energy from my right side here. Is it because there are two women? There’s lots of energy? Thank you. Thank you. I hear you very, very clearly. The power of using the Internet to educate our women. You’ve been able to use the Internet to educate the women, for you to even bridge the gap between you and them as the person representing them, and also for them to understand that they can actually hug the digital economy using the Internet as a tool. Thank you very much. Yaovi, now let me come to you. In the area of cybersecurity, cybercrime is on the rise across the entire continent. How do we continue to drive this resilience, inclusivity, and safety while still maintaining very low, because to say we’re going to get rid of cybercrime 100% is a tall order, to keep it to an all-time low? From your perspective, can you share your view on how we can go about this as a continent? Over to you.

Yaovi Atohoun: Thank you very much. Again, when I see the theme of this West Africa Internet Governance Forum, we can see inclusivity, resilience, safety, and then when you see what ICANN is doing, ICANN is Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. And today, any time we talk about digital, I think we cannot talk about digital without Internet. So, ICANN is really, really there, and I think ICANN can contribute to this safety inclusivity for West Africa. So, I want to touch on two points, and one is first what we talk about awareness. So, when we mention cyber security, and as this has been said before, awareness is very important because if you are aware, you can know better how to act if you are not aware. So, awareness is very important. I am asking myself if we still have a lot of ways of doing this awareness in our various countries in West Africa. I know we have a lot of programs, but I know many people today, they still need information, as you mentioned before. You share many things, and I’m sure many people, they still don’t know because bad things are happening every day because people are just, they are not aware, and you give the example. Me, I have a technical background. I don’t, I cannot click. It can happen, I can click sometime. Even technical people, you do that, you click sometime to install the software. Normally, you have to read everything, but if… and Bambo Solon. Thank you for joining us on this Wednesday. We will be having a Q&A session. So, we will be having a Q&A session on Wednesday, April 25th, and on the Wednesday, March 25th, we will be having a Q&A session on Wednesday, April 25th. And, we will be having a Q&A session on Wednesday, April 25th on the Wednesday, April 25th, and the Q&A session on Thursday, April 25th. So, if you have questions, please feel free to ask them. If people give you like one hour to finish your work. So, maybe you cannot read everything and you just click. But, we know today that like everyone using mobile phones today, we don’t have to click just to click. So, you click, without reading you click. So, I think awareness is very important. So, we should not continue clicking to see what will happen. So, awareness is key. I want to do that. I want to mention that one. And then, especially for ICANN, when we talk about internet in the domain name space, we know for cyber security, for security, we need many things for security. It’s not just one action or one way when we talk about security. So, it is a combination of many, many actions from many people. Like from the technical part, for example, or technical organization, there is something we have that can also contribute. And then, at ICANN, we are helping people. And we are recommending that all the countries, especially in West Africa, we move to what we call there is a protocol. We don’t need to be a technical person. You can check DNSSEC. You can check on that. It’s something we are recommending for countries to implement. But I can tell you, we still have countries in West Africa where DNSSEC is not implemented. What is DNSSEC, briefly? If you send me a letter, for example, if you send me a letter, sometimes I’m more confident if you sign the letter. If you sign the letter, sometimes I’m more confident. I see your signature in the letter. So, the same thing, generally, where you type something, www.banka.africa is an example. You type something like that, generally it takes you to the website, for example, for a bank. He mentioned cyber security, you have bad people, they are up all the time, 24 hours, 7 days, they are up. So you type this and you can think that you are going to the website of the bank. But there is information on the internet, technical environment, what is taking people when they type something to a machine somewhere, what brings them to that place, there is some information on the internet. So when I was talking about DNSSEC, just technically, there is information assigned, there is information assigned. So now when DNSSEC is implemented, so now it is a way to improve, so that the information is saying that, the bank is saying that if you want to go to my bank, that is the way, so we can have this information assigned. Then when you type the address, you can go to the real website of the bank. So the role ICANN is playing is at the top level, because ICANN is managing the domain namespace, so we call something the root, so ICANN has done this work. So I think in West Africa, what we need to do is we need to contribute to that, like people managing resources at the country level. We still have some countries in West Africa, where we should implement that. So like 20 years ago, we don’t have capacity, today we have technical people in all the countries in West Africa, I can tell you, I can show you, we have people, technical people in all the countries. So sometimes it is just a question of decision. So I think when we have this forum, for example the governance forum, especially at the country level, we should have also everyone in this forum at the country level, we should have the government people. and the last 10 years when I go to the West Africa Internet Governance Forum some years I can see some government people but today when you talk about Internet Governance Forum for some people it’s like I don’t know people it’s nothing for people but it’s quite important because it’s where you come where you have especially the West Africa one where you have many countries coming so the good news is that now we have people from the parliament who are coming to the West Africa idea which is very good because when we say ICANN is a technical body technical between the community ICANN also work with policies a lot of policies I can tell you when you come to ICANN meetings we have free public meetings every year when we call today’s meeting maybe two third of people they are not technical people you see lawyers you see end users you see many people coming to ICANN meetings because when there is a technical issue sometime you end up at the court sometime so it’s not the engineer or technical people who are the last people to talk so sometimes at the court so one point is that we need to raise this point which are important when I am talking about the role of people like people managing like the some internet resources at a country level I think we need to from time to time we need we as a community we need to check what these people are doing we need to ask them some questions we need to check with them are we safe we sometimes people are not taking like a domain name from the country it’s a question of confidence so people are thinking oh if I have my email hosted in my country is the government not going to read my emails If I have my website hosted in the country, are people not going to change the content of… So, the confidence is also something very important. Confidence. So, this is why this kind of forum we are having in West Africa is something important we should have at the national level. So, I think that is very, very important that when we have this event at the national level, we try to have everyone. That is not the case yet. So, when we are talking about the future, when we go back, anytime we have to check, when we see people saying we have the Internet Governance Forum in the country, are we invited? We should ask them. I think it’s very important. So, that is for safety, and then for inclusivity also. There is something happening that will give the opportunity for West Africa inclusivity. Most of, I think, the participants in that room, when I ask you what is the end of your email address, many people will say maybe the same thing. They end up, how many people have the email address nginby.ng in that room? Oh, that’s good. We have some people. But I know if I ask the majority, they will give me a name now. Now, these names at the end of the email address, we have the opportunity to decide, like in West Africa. So, we have a program at ICALC we call the Next Round of New Generic Top-Level Domain Name. Next Round of New Generic Top-Level Domain Name. The Top-Level Domain Name is what we have at the end of our email address. One knows that the email address, what we have in the email address is the symbol that we have in the email. So, the last label is what we call the Top-Level Domain Name. So, for inclusivity, ICANN is opening what we call the Next Round in 2026. So, if you want your email address, to have a specific label at the end of an email address, or your website, you want a domain, it is an opportunity. So we have to think about this, because we are talking about the future. The future is starting today. So I want also to share this information with you, that there is something happening in 2026, but you have to start preparing yourself from now. To apply for a top-level domain name, the cost for the application is $227,000. $227,000. But what is good is that we have programs we call the Applicant Support Program, where you can get a discount of between 75% and 85% of discounts. So it is important that we also, as West Africa, or as individuals from West Africa, as companies from West Africa, it is important that we also pay attention to this program, so that we benefit. And then in the future, we can have more top-level domain names from the region, even in our local languages and local characters. I want to stop there. We have our website, ICANN.org, so ICANN is not just for technical people. We have three public meetings every year. The next one is happening in June. If you cannot travel to Prague, you can follow that meeting remotely. So I am inviting you to join ICANN, because anyone has a say in ICANN. You can contribute. You don’t have to be on-site, online. You can contribute to what ICANN is doing. We have a lot of policies, and you are the people contributing to that policy. We staff, we just implement what the boss is approving. So I want to stop there for now. Thank you very much.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you. Thank you very much, Yaovi. And I think, in summary, what I heard you say was that, you know, securing our IP space, public key, infrastructure you did not use that word but in all of your you know discussion I I picked that up and also our email services you know protecting that space as well in order for us to reduce cybercrime but I also must say to you that as a continent we need to start maturing cybercrime and cybersecurity are two separate subjects cybercrime the crime has already been committed cybersecurity is more proactive what are the measures that we need to put in place to prevent this crime from happening so you addressed very clearly you know some of the things we can do to actually do to protect ourselves you know from the cybersecurity perspective and it’s also important for you for me to say this that in Nigeria today we are coming up with two laws one is the cybersecurity law and one is the cybercrime law and cybercrime law will serve as a punitive measure if you commit this crime these are the kind of punitive damages to expect and these are the measures that we are going to put in place to protect and also Nigeria we have actually identified national critical infrastructure which is also going to help us to develop the good laws that we need as a country so as a continent we need to continue to collaborate on how we can put these laws in place to drive down cybersecurity I mean cybercrime and also show up cyber security so that the continent would be able to advance digitally. So, that said, and I think from your perspective, Sesan did a good job in terms of building trust and Mary also helped us in terms of ECOWAS and building the culture around the internet and the laws that we need to put in place to continue to drive that. And then Ellen also talked about using the internet to drive education. One other thing that I would also like to take away is the barrier of language. A lot of our children would find it a lot easier to be included in this old revolution if they can learn in their local languages. A lot of our women, if we can educate them in local languages, teaching them technology awareness in local languages, I think with this we can continue to drive the kind of resilience, the kind of inclusivity and safety. So, to come to the final round before we close, I would like for each of the participants to take a minute each to say, if you want West Africa to get there by 2026, what are some of your advice? What will be your recommendation in terms of by 2026, if we’re able to get to this point, what will be your advice? Thank you for your advice for us to capture in this panel so that way we can come up with some kind of recommendation to put forth. So I will start from my far right, Ellen, to start with that and take a minute to give your recommendation. Then I will go to the audience for some questions and answers before we bring this to a closure.

Ellen A Attoh-Wreh: Okay, so for my own recommendation for which I started already, when I came and we started with the conversation, I hurriedly wrote the chair on a committee on post and telecommunications. So I know that we cannot achieve it all by ourselves when it comes to the women considering our numbers. So I’m intending to go back and bring more of my male counterparts on board and let’s establish the forum, the caucus within the legislature that will make it very easy when it comes to preferring a bill and passing on it to ensure that what we want to achieve in the region is doable. I believe it’s something that we can work on so that collectively we know that all of the caucuses within the region have maybe the same objective, the same goal, and together we can achieve. A couple of years ago, we went to Senegal and we launched the APNEF caucus. It has to do with the illicit financial flow. So it’s the African Parliamentarian Network on Illicit Financial Flow. And I can tell you that we are making progress. We’re able to tighten screws on some of the concessionaires when it comes to the incentives that we give them and we’re diverting it. So if we do it collectively as a caucus in every parliament, I believe Globally in the region in the West African region will be able to achieve. So that would be my recommendation to this body

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you very much over to you Mary

CEDEAO representative: Moi me recommendation of the resume undo me see Harmonization a implementation Basket comes a lady Because you saw a lichelle regional or a lichelle continental les instruments So la nous avons des politiques qui sont déjà Elaborate nous avons des stratégies nous avons des actes communautaire Mais quand il s’agit de mettre en oeuvre c’est là où le bas bless c’est vrai au niveau de la cda Nous avons une instance annuelle nous avons la réunion annuelle des ministres en charge de numérique de l’économie numérique Durant cette réunion là Toutes les politiques que nous avons élaboré les les actes normatifs qui ont été validés d’abord par les experts sont présentés et adopter pendant cette réunion Mais la plupart du temps Il ya d’autres priorités qui sont là et arriver au niveau national Les acquis en matière d’implémentation Ne sont pas là et c’est très lent aussi L’autre mot c’est l’harmonisation The analysis that we have done on our region has shown that we have two clusters. We have a group of countries that is ahead of another group. We have identified them well. So the challenge is that we can move forward together as a region. We will try to bring those who are at a lower level to a higher level, and for those who are at a higher level, that we can also allow them to move forward. So let’s harmonize our approaches and implement the tools that have already been developed. Thank you.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you very much. So, Sesan, in a minute, I want your recommendations.

Gbenga Sesan: All right, let’s time it, and let’s see if I can do it, even though I just spent five seconds. Two things. First would be a recommendation to government in terms of independence of institutions. And I think this is critical because we’re having all these conversations about various institutions doing various things, and I think that we need independence of institutions that should be independent. And that ties to the second point I want to make about access. I am tired of saying over and over again that many of our countries have no business chasing external support to implement access. We should, but before we do, there is what we call the Universal Services Provision Fund, or Universal Access Fund that many of us have. Stop politicizing those funds and use them to give access to the people.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you very much, Sesan. So, Yaovi, your take on this?

Yaovi Atohoun: Thank you very much. to say that when we hear about ICANN it is not for engineer technicians, ICANN is for all of us and it is really open and then we have a lot of policies we have to contribute as the region, as West Africa. So I invite you to be more interested in what ICANN is doing. Please join the next ICANN meeting in June online and then you will be here. Tell me how you want to say, people will hear you and also the next round of the new generic top level program, I hope that West Africa also will be more interested so that we can have applications and name from the region. So thank you very much.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you very much Yaovi. So can we, do we have five minutes to take some questions? No we don’t. Okay. I think at some point everybody, can we take two? Okay, can I have a woman and a man and this, okay, honorable and okay, all right, three. Okay, honorable. Oh, there are questions online, okay. So we are going to take two online as well. Okay, so one minute, honorable. Microphone please. It is.

Audience: Congratulations to all the panelists. So since I only have one minute, I will go very, very quickly. My name is Rose Geindau, I come from Senegal, I am the General Secretary of the Development Fund of the Universal Telecommunications Service. Today, the FDSU is in charge of bringing connectivity in the non-covered areas. because it is very backward and not profitable for the operators. But digital access in this 21st century is a right. In Senegal, to ensure this universal telecommunications service, a tax is applied to operators to allow the FDSU to bring the telephone, voice and internet in these countries. There must be a real inclusion with the support of good digital literacy. But I really liked your contribution when you said that funds are available for access. Well, what I can tell you is that these funds are not available. In any case, they are not made available to the structures that can provide access. So I think that there should be forums, not forums, sorry, communities, to find out where these funds are and how to get them, because they are not made available.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you very much to the panellists.

Audience: We said high-level panels. All the panellists were high-level. I am Gérard Benochy. I am a deputy at the National Assembly of Béden, President of the Finance Commission. I listened to the recommendation of Mrs. Marie Ndesene Awantshede, about harmonisation and implementation. I said to myself, yes, harmonisation is what the CEDAO Commission takes as a community law. Now, at the level… of the implementation, states must take the initiative to internalize them. They are told that this is where the bottom hurts. I am a deputy and I know that it is we who need the laws to internalize them, but according to them, is it a lack of political will of the states? Secondly, she said that they categorized the countries at the level of their observatories. There are two categories. There are some countries that are at a high level, some that are at a low level. For those who are at a low level, what is the cause? Is it always a lack of political will or a lack of competence? And what does the CEDEAO do to be able to raise them? So these are my concerns.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you very much. Let’s take one online and then we’ll come back to the room. Thank you.

Audience: Good afternoon. My name is Muriel and I’m working as a secretary and I’m the online moderator. To the honorable speaker Stanley, what are the challenges to building an inclusive digital future? The question is for you.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Okay. So, yeah, we’ll answer all of those questions. And so go back to the room. I think there’s a hand up right there, the gentleman with the cap.

Audience: Good morning. My question is for the ICANN representative. I said, for a safe digital space, how is IRECAN improving on featuring domain name assignment for sites that seek to duplicate resites for frontline activities?

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Okay, thank you. So let’s attempt to answer those questions because we have run out of time. So go ahead, Mary.

CEDEAO representative: Merci à ma soeur de FD Sud. Je pense que c’était plutôt un commentaire et je salue l’occasion. Je vois ce qui s’est passé récemment au Sénégal avec le FD Sud et le ministre qui sont en train de mettre en place, je pense, une centaine, si je ne me trompe, de points de connexion dans les zones rurales. Alors, pour mon beau frère du Bénin, vous avez raison. L’harmonisation, c’est au niveau régional et c’est ce que nous tentons de faire avec nos politiques, stratégies et cadres réglementaires. L’implémentation, c’est au niveau national et c’est là, comme je le redis encore, où le bas blesse. Je ne pourrais pas dire que c’est un manque de volonté politique. Je pense que la volonté, elle est là. Parce que rien que le fait d’avoir un ministère de l’économie numérique ou bien du numérique, c’est quelque part une forme de volonté. Je pense que le vrai problème, souvent, c’est une problématique de priorisation. C’est une problématique de priorisation et c’est pour ça que je pense que c’est bien qu’on puisse encourager certains projets qui sont à caractère régional. Notamment, I can give the example of the submarine fiber optic cable project, the Amilcal-Cabral project, which is pushed by the CEDEAO, because it brings together several states. It is the states that have a single submarine fiber optic cable that serves them, and so there is no redundancy. But the fact that the CEDEAO is taking this initiative and is looking with partners for means to provide answers where certain governments, for reasons of national priority, cannot put the funds, I think that this is also a perspective as a regional entity. That we can, let’s say, with our partners in development, help the states to move forward in implementation. So the last point, you asked about the cause of this clustering. There is no other reason, it is the infrastructures. In the study, what we encountered was infrastructures and services. And you will see that the cause is the development of infrastructures. And it is normal, it is the basis of all the development of digital ecosystems.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Thank you. We have to continue to invest in the infrastructure required to move digital economy to the right level. We have to continue to develop all of the right laws and processes. defining our processes and also blocking all the loopholes in terms of in technology space it’s a lot of room for corruption to continue to block the room of corruption and once you block all of these leakages I think as a country and we have all the right laws in place we’ll continue to mature and get to the digital economy of our dream so there’s also a question for ICANN.

Yaovi Atohoun: I didn’t get the question well but it about domain name what I want to respond is ICANN is acting at the at the top level so we have we are concerned about domain name abuse so we are working with law enforcement agencies in capacity development ICANN is not in charge of content at all but what I can want to ensure that internet is working so we have action we are taking we are working with many entities we have some programs so we want the domain name space to be safe so especially when you go to our website check domain name abuse and then we are doing a lot of there are a lot of resources we are doing capacity development and then we have also specific program that are helping so this is what I can say briefly we can talk maybe offline later thank you.

Adedeji Stanley Olajide: Well thank you very much for the last hour and 15 minutes thanks for listening as this panel is drawing the curtain now we are going to summarize all of the things that we have gathered all the information gathered in this session so that that way we can present it as an official report on when we did this these are some of the views that we shared again thank you very much for listening we appreciate it and enjoy the rest of your stay in Nigeria thank you.

Agreement points

Importance of digital literacy and awareness

Speakers

– Gbenga Sesan
– Ellen A Attoh-Wreh
– CEDEAO representative

Arguments

Building trust in the digital environment

Awareness and education are key to building trust

Digital skills training programs are important

Summary

The speakers agree that digital literacy and awareness programs are crucial for building trust in digital technologies and promoting their adoption, especially in rural areas and among women.

Need for regional policy harmonization and national implementation

Speakers

– CEDEAO representative
– Adedeji Stanley Olajide

Arguments

Regional policies and harmonization needed to address gaps

Countries need to implement regional frameworks nationally

Summary

There is agreement on the need for harmonized regional policies and the importance of their implementation at the national level to address digital development gaps across West Africa.

Similar viewpoints

Both speakers emphasize the importance of building trust in the digital environment, with Sesan focusing on the social aspects and Atohoun highlighting technical measures to enhance trust.

Speakers

– Gbenga Sesan
– Yaovi Atohoun

Arguments

Building trust in the digital environment

Technical measures like DNSSEC can enhance trust

Both speakers advocate for measures to increase digital inclusion, particularly for rural women, through targeted training programs and local language content.

Speakers

– Ellen A Attoh-Wreh
– Adedeji Stanley Olajide

Arguments

Training and awareness programs help bring rural women online

Local language content can increase inclusion

Unexpected consensus

Role of parliamentarians in digital policy

Speakers

– Ellen A Attoh-Wreh
– Adedeji Stanley Olajide

Arguments

Parliamentarians should form caucuses to drive digital inclusion

Countries need to implement regional frameworks nationally

Explanation

There is an unexpected consensus on the active role parliamentarians should play in driving digital policy implementation, both through forming caucuses and ensuring national implementation of regional frameworks.

Overall assessment

Summary

The main areas of agreement include the importance of digital literacy, the need for regional policy harmonization with national implementation, and the role of trust in the digital environment.

Consensus level

There is a moderate level of consensus among the speakers on key issues, particularly on the importance of digital inclusion and the need for coordinated regional efforts. This consensus suggests a shared vision for digital development in West Africa, but implementation challenges remain a concern.

Different viewpoints

Availability and use of Universal Access Funds

Speakers

– Gbenga Sesan
– Audience (Rose Geindau)

Arguments

Universal Services Provision Funds or Universal Access Funds that should be used to provide internet access to underserved areas. These funds are often politicized and not used effectively for their intended purpose.

Universal Telecommunications Service funds are not readily available for providing access

Summary

While Sesan argues that Universal Access Funds exist but are not used effectively due to politicization, the audience member from Senegal contends that these funds are not readily available for providing access.

Unexpected differences

Overall assessment

Summary

The main areas of disagreement revolve around the availability and use of Universal Access Funds, and the challenges in implementing regional policies at the national level.

Disagreement level

The level of disagreement appears to be moderate. While there are some differing perspectives, particularly between speakers and audience members, the overall discussion seems to be focused on identifying challenges and potential solutions rather than fundamental disagreements. This suggests that there is a general consensus on the importance of building a resilient, inclusive, and safe digital future for West Africa, with disagreements primarily centered on implementation strategies and resource allocation.

Partial agreements

Similar viewpoints

Both speakers emphasize the importance of building trust in the digital environment, with Sesan focusing on the social aspects and Atohoun highlighting technical measures to enhance trust.

Speakers

– Gbenga Sesan
– Yaovi Atohoun

Arguments

Building trust in the digital environment

Technical measures like DNSSEC can enhance trust

Both speakers advocate for measures to increase digital inclusion, particularly for rural women, through targeted training programs and local language content.

Speakers

– Ellen A Attoh-Wreh
– Adedeji Stanley Olajide

Arguments

Training and awareness programs help bring rural women online

Local language content can increase inclusion

Key takeaways

Building trust is essential for the digital economy but challenging in online environments

Bridging the digital divide requires both infrastructure investment and digital literacy programs

Proactive cybersecurity measures and independent institutions are needed to enhance online safety

Digital inclusion can be promoted through local language content and targeted training programs

Regional collaboration and policy harmonization are important for advancing digital development in West Africa

Resolutions and action items

Use Universal Access Funds to expand connectivity in underserved areas

Implement technical measures like DNSSEC to enhance online trust and security

Form parliamentary caucuses focused on digital inclusion and development

Increase West African participation in global internet governance forums like ICANN

Harmonize digital policies across West African countries through ECOWAS frameworks

Unresolved issues

How to effectively make Universal Access Funds available to entities that can provide connectivity

Specific steps to raise digital development levels of countries lagging behind in the region

How to balance open data policies with data protection and privacy concerns

Addressing the politicization of Universal Services Provision Funds

Suggested compromises

Balance restrictive and open approaches to data protection to facilitate digital economy growth while safeguarding privacy

Regional institutions like ECOWAS can help implement digital projects where national governments lack resources or prioritization

Trust is at the center of a digital economy but it is something we have to consciously build and nurture.

Speaker

Gbenga Sesan

Reason

This comment encapsulates a key challenge in digital development – the need to actively cultivate trust in online spaces and transactions.

Impact

It set the tone for the discussion by emphasizing the fundamental importance of trust in the digital economy. This led to further exploration of how to build trust through awareness, policies, and multi-stakeholder cooperation.

We can’t talk about a unified digital market without connected, interoperable, but also resilient infrastructures. We can’t talk about a unified digital market without digital services for the well-being of populations, for economic development, and also for social inclusion.

Speaker

CEDEAO representative

Reason

This comment provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the key components needed for digital development in West Africa.

Impact

It broadened the discussion from just infrastructure to include services, economic development, and social inclusion. This holistic perspective influenced subsequent comments on policy and implementation.

We created an awareness to educate the people on the importance of being connected. […] So we created an awareness, we did the training in the different parts of the district, making them to know the importance of being connected.

Speaker

Ellen A Attoh-Wreh

Reason

This comment highlights the importance of grassroots efforts in digital inclusion, especially for rural and underserved populations.

Impact

It shifted the conversation to focus on practical, on-the-ground efforts to promote digital literacy and inclusion, especially for women and rural communities.

We have programs we call the Applicant Support Program, where you can get a discount of between 75% and 85% of discounts. So it is important that we also, as West Africa, or as individuals from West Africa, as companies from West Africa, it is important that we also pay attention to this program, so that we benefit.

Speaker

Yaovi Atohoun

Reason

This comment introduces a specific opportunity for West African countries to increase their representation in the global domain name system.

Impact

It brought attention to a concrete action that could increase West African digital sovereignty and representation, shifting the discussion from general principles to specific opportunities.

Overall assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by moving it from abstract concepts to concrete actions and challenges in building a resilient, inclusive, and safe digital future for West Africa. They highlighted the multifaceted nature of digital development, emphasizing the need for trust-building, comprehensive infrastructure and service development, grassroots education efforts, and participation in global internet governance. The discussion evolved from identifying broad challenges to exploring specific strategies and opportunities for West African countries to advance their digital economies and inclusion.

How can we effectively implement existing policies and regulatory frameworks at the national level?

Speaker

CEDEAO representative (Marie)

Explanation

The speaker highlighted that while regional policies and frameworks exist, implementation at the national level remains a challenge. This is crucial for achieving digital integration and development across West Africa.

How can we ensure the proper utilization of Universal Services Provision Funds for improving digital access?

Speaker

Gbenga Sesan and Rose Geindau (audience member)

Explanation

Both speakers mentioned the importance of these funds for improving digital access, but noted that they are often not properly utilized or made available. Understanding how to effectively use these funds is critical for expanding digital infrastructure and access.

What specific measures can be taken to improve digital literacy and skills, especially for women and rural populations?

Speaker

Ellen A Attoh-Wreh

Explanation

The speaker emphasized the importance of digital education for women and rural populations. Further research in this area could help develop targeted strategies for improving digital inclusion.

How can we increase awareness and participation in ICANN’s activities and policy-making processes among West African stakeholders?

Speaker

Yaovi Atohoun

Explanation

The speaker stressed the importance of West African participation in ICANN’s processes. Further exploration of this topic could lead to more regional influence in global internet governance.

What strategies can be employed to harmonize digital development across West African countries, particularly to bring less developed countries up to speed?

Speaker

CEDEAO representative (Marie)

Explanation

The speaker mentioned the existence of two clusters of countries with different levels of digital development. Research into effective strategies for harmonization could help in achieving more balanced regional digital growth.

How can we develop and implement effective cybersecurity measures while distinguishing between cybersecurity and cybercrime?

Speaker

Adedeji Stanley Olajide

Explanation

The moderator highlighted the need to distinguish between cybersecurity and cybercrime in policy-making. Further research in this area could lead to more effective and targeted digital security measures.