Business Perspectives on Furthering the Outcomes of the WSIS+20 Review

Helen Harris outlined Amazon's concrete contributions across multiple WSIS action lines, demonstrating that private sector engagement translates into tangible outcomes. These contributions span connectivity infrastructure, skills training, and humanitarian logistics, each aligned with specific WSIS action lines.

Amazon's Project Kuiper low Earth orbit satellite constellation of 3,236 planned satellites is being deployed to bring affordable high-speed connectivity to unserved and underserved communities globally . Free cloud and AI skills training has been provided to over 31 million people across more than 200 countries and territories, surpassing the original target of 29 million people by 2025 a full year ahead of schedule . Amazon's disaster relief hubs have delivered more than 26 million relief items across 200-plus disasters worldwide since 2017, including a recent response to earthquakes in Venezuela .

Helen Harris argued that the business community played a critical role in the WSIS Plus 20 review by working alongside like-minded governments to maintain the open, interconnected nature of the internet. This multi-stakeholder approach underpins all other digital development efforts.

During the WSIS Plus 20 review, Amazon worked alongside the broader business community and like-minded governments to help preserve the consensus-based approach that has kept the internet open, interconnected, and globally connected . Helen Harris noted that none of the concrete contributions happen without the multi-stakeholder table, framing governance (Action Line C1) as the foundation for all other action lines .

Helen Harris argued that UNGIS is uniquely positioned to serve as a centralised coordination point for business engagement with the UN, rather than requiring companies to approach each agency individually. This would make collaboration more efficient and ensure business input feeds directly into the work of action line facilitators.

Helen Harris described UNGIS as the UN's own interagency mechanism for coordinating WSIS and Information Society work, and suggested it could be the single door business knocks on instead of a dozen separate ones . She further noted that UNGIS can encourage and strengthen collaboration with industry so that business input feeds more directly into the work the action line facilitators are already doing .

Rachel Silley highlighted Meta's multi-pronged approach to advancing WSIS goals, encompassing physical infrastructure, workforce development, and accessible AI tools. These investments are framed as concrete examples of blended public-private cooperation called for in the WSIS Plus 20 outcome document.

Meta joined the ITU's Partners to Connect Coalition with a commitment to bridging the digital divide through the build-out of robust subsea cable infrastructure . Meta's Workforce Academy was recently launched in the United States as a fast-track programme for skilled trades careers, powered by a multi-million first-year investment . Meta's open, accessible AI tools, including the LLAMA model, are being applied across education, agriculture, and government efficiency, with examples including use by the Mayo Clinic for radiation therapy decision-making and crop yield identification for growers .

Rachel Silley argued that private sector investment in critical connectivity infrastructure fills a gap that public financing alone cannot address at scale. This blended financing model is directly aligned with the WSIS Plus 20 outcome document's calls for public-private cooperation.

Meta's commitment to building out robust subsea cable infrastructure through the ITU's Partners to Connect Coalition was cited as an example of private capital deployment that public financing alone cannot match at scale . Rachel Silley explicitly noted this as a concrete example of the blended public-private cooperation that the WSIS Plus 20 outcome document calls for .

Rachel Silley contended that the technology sector's expertise in innovation, infrastructure development, and technical standards is indispensable in financing discussions. Inclusive decision-making that incorporates the private sector leads to more robust, practical, and globally accepted solutions.

Rachel Silley stated that the technology sector brings unique real-time expertise in innovation, infrastructure development, deployment, and technical standards . She argued that engagement with governments, civil society, the technical community, and academia is not a courtesy but because inclusive decision-making leads to robust, practical, and globally accepted solutions .

Rachel Silley suggested that open-source AI models offer an alternative pathway for developers in the Global South to access and adapt AI capabilities without requiring massive compute resources. This approach enables localisation and relevance to domestic contexts.

Rachel Silley pointed to open-source models as a means for developers to take existing models and tailor them to their specific needs, making them localised and relevant to their domestic context, as opposed to relying on existing larger models .

Gitanjali Sah explained that UNGIS was originally created as an interagency coordination mechanism within the UN system, but member states have now directed it to broaden its engagement to include non-governmental stakeholders. This shift reflects the growing recognition of multi-stakeholderism in digital governance.

Gitanjali Sah described UNGIS as having a smooth, friendly, and productive collaboration among 50 UN agencies on digital cooperation . She noted that member states have said that UNGIS should be engaging with stakeholders, a result she attributed in part to the participation of the private sector and others in the WSIS Plus 20 process . The commitment to this was demonstrated at the Secretary General-hosted UNGIS high-level lunch, attended by 10 heads of UN agencies, at least 15 deputies, and around 50 UN agencies .

Gitanjali Sah announced the creation of a Multi-Stakeholder Consultation Group under UNGIS, which received an unexpectedly large number of nominations from across the stakeholder community. The group is intended to be consultative rather than interfering in day-to-day business, and may operate at international, regional, and national levels.

UNGIS launched a nomination process for the multi-stakeholder consultation group and received around 200 nominations, far exceeding expectations, from a diverse range of individuals including both long-standing WSIS participants and new faces . One model being considered is a core group at the international level with representations at regional and national levels . The group is explicitly intended to be consultative and not interfering in day-to-day business .

Gitanjali Sah described a new digital financial task force being established under UNGIS, drawing on expertise from a wide range of international organisations. The task force will examine gaps in digital finance in developing countries and will consult with the private sector and multilateral banks as part of its mandate.

The digital financial task force has already seen nominations of experts from organisations including OECD, World Bank, UNCTAD, ITU, UNESCO, and UNDP . Its mandate is to explore gaps in digital finance in developing countries, and the private sector, multilateral banks, and regional banks will all be consulted as part of its terms of reference .

Yu Ping Chan argued that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a global realisation that digital technologies and AI are indispensable for achieving development outcomes, elevating the importance of enabling policy environments. This recognition gives new significance to the WSIS framework's emphasis on policy environments.

Yu Ping Chan noted that the acceleration in interest around digital and AI came only after COVID, where there is now a realisation that digital technologies and AI are needed to achieve development-type outcomes . She observed that when WSIS was first conceptualised 20 years ago, notions around enabling policy environments were considered more nascent and fringe, but now digital technologies and AI are ubiquitous in almost every part of society, including increasingly in developing countries .

Yu Ping Chan highlighted UNDP's extensive on-the-ground presence and its work supporting governments in harnessing digital and AI for sustainable development. This scale of engagement underscores the critical need for robust enabling environments, especially in developing countries making foundational choices about digital ecosystems.

UNDP is present in 170 countries around the world and supports over 130 governments on using digital and AI to achieve the SDGs . Yu Ping Chan noted that for many developing countries, they are making critical choices around the use of digital and AI for the first time, building digital ecosystems across entire societies and communities .

Yu Ping Chan expressed concern that despite years of multi-stakeholder conversations under WSIS and the Global Digital Compact, these have not yet translated into concrete guidance or accountability mechanisms. She called for a move from words on paper to actionable outcomes that change behaviour on the ground.

Yu Ping Chan questioned whether the conversations around the global digital compact and WSIS have landed in anything more meaningful than just conversations where the importance of multi-stakeholderism is recognised, without reaching the point of landing in action that guides what businesses and governments do . She described struggling with how to translate words on paper and conversations into concrete guidance for both private sector and national governments, with civil society as part of a continuous feedback loop and accountability mechanism .

Yu Ping Chan identified the gap between high-level commitments and on-the-ground implementation as a persistent and unresolved challenge. She called for concrete outcomes and guidance that can be given to national governments and multinational corporations to actually change conditions on the ground.

Yu Ping Chan asked what the next step is after the WSIS Plus 20 outcome and global digital compact, and how to get more concrete in terms of the things that are done . She emphasised UNDP's focus on in-country implementation and the need to draw concrete things out of these processes to give to national governments and global tech operating in developing countries such that it actually changes behaviour and conditions on the ground .

Yu Ping Chan provided a concrete example of how UNDP has facilitated access to AI compute resources for African startups through public-private partnerships, involving both government and private sector actors. This model is presented as a replicable approach to addressing the compute divide.

Through the AI Help for Sustainable Development initiative with the Italian government as part of the G7 presidency, UNDP brokered a deal where Seneca, the Italian supercomputer, provided around 1.5 million GPU hours for 130 African startups, while Microsoft and AWS provided approximately three million dollars' worth of cloud credits . These resources are already being deployed across 50 startups in sectors like health, agriculture, energy, and multilingual AI languages, focusing on 14 African countries outlined by Italy's Mattei Plan .

The audience speaker, representing the technical community at ICANN, placed on record the gratitude of the technical community to the business community for their engagement in the WSIS Plus 20 review process. He argued that business participation was instrumental in shaping the outcomes of this intergovernmental conversation.

Jan Skarklin, Head of Government Engagement at ICANN, stated that he wanted to place on record the gratitude of the technical community to the business community for their engagement in the WSIS Plus 20 review process and participation in placing the voice of the business community in the intergovernmental conversation . He noted that without the participation of the business community, the results might have been very different . He also encouraged the business community to participate in the preparations for and at IGF in Nairobi with full strength .

Sebastian Mhatre outlined three specific areas where the private sector can make meaningful contributions to digital development financing. These areas focus on transparency, interoperability, and enabling developing countries to participate more fully in the digital economy.

Sebastian Mhatre identified three areas: first, being more transparent about what constitutes local value capture; second, working with the multi-stakeholder community around interoperability; and third, supporting local businesses within developing countries for digital exports .

Sebastian Mhatre argued that many developing countries are currently limited to exporting raw materials or adding small amounts of value, and digital technology offers an opportunity to move up the value chain. Private sector partnerships with local businesses could be a key mechanism for enabling this shift.

Sebastian Mhatre noted that most developing countries are currently unable to compete in the digital economy space, often only exporting raw materials or adding small amounts of value to those raw materials . He suggested that if private sector actors partner with local businesses to support them in exporting, this creates an opportunity for driving digital exports for developing countries in a new area where they previously had not had that opportunity .

Sebastian Mhatre acknowledged the scale of the compute divide as a fundamental challenge, noting that even advanced economies struggle to invest sufficiently in digital infrastructure. He argued that this makes it very difficult to see how the gap can be bridged through conventional investment approaches alone.

Sebastian Mhatre stated that when talking about the divide in terms of compute, one is talking about a massive divide in terms of investment, and that every country in the world is struggling with the ability to invest in their digital infrastructure, making it very difficult to see how the gap is bridged .

Sebastian Mhatre proposed that rather than solely pursuing parity with advanced economies in compute resources, the Global South could explore alternative technological approaches that are less compute-intensive. These include edge computing, small language models, and frugal AI tailored to specific local use cases.

Sebastian Mhatre suggested looking at low compute options, edge compute options, and locally run small language models as alternative approaches that can create opportunities for a different type of innovation ecosystem in the Global South . He noted that while compute will still be needed, these approaches mean developing countries are not quite as dependent on the same scale of compute as most advanced economies, and described this as a really exciting area that needs more work but could have a lot of value .

The AWS/Amazon representative highlighted Amazon's investments in the Global South, including data centre deployment and capacity building, as well as collaboration with governments on AI and e-government initiatives. This was offered as a response to concerns about the compute divide facing developing countries.

The AWS/Amazon representative noted significant investment in capacity building within the Global South as well as in the deployment of data centres, particularly in countries such as India and Brazil, and also working locally with governments on e-government initiatives to get governments up to speed on AI initiatives .

Audience member Ahmed Khaled Gamal, as relayed through the moderator, raised the concern that the environmental costs of AI are being overlooked in discussions focused on innovation and investment. He called for businesses to balance innovation and profitability with the responsibility to build energy-efficient and climate-conscious AI systems.

The comment, shared via the chat and relayed by the moderator, noted that the real challenge is not only mobilising funding and investment for AI and digital transformation, but also addressing the environmental costs of these technologies, as AI requires enormous computing power and energy and its growing carbon footprint cannot be ignored . The question posed was how businesses can balance innovation and profitability with their responsibility to build AI systems that are energy efficient, climate conscious, and aligned with global sustainability goals .

Meni Anastasiadou framed the purpose of the session as highlighting how business can support the delivery of WSIS action lines and contribute to digital cooperation efforts following the adoption of the WSIS Plus 20 outcome document in December. The session is intended to demonstrate the concrete and proactive role of the private sector in translating WSIS commitments into scalable initiatives.

The goal of the conversation was described as presenting the role of business in contributing to the follow-up process since the WSIS Plus 20 outcome document was adopted in December, and how business is supporting the delivery of relevant action lines and advancing broader digital cooperation efforts, including those related to the Global Digital Compact . The session also aimed to highlight opportunities for the private sector to actively and proactively engage with the UNGIS group and UN partners to translate WSIS commitments into concrete, scalable initiatives through sustained collaboration .

Meni Anastasiadou highlighted that the WSIS Plus 20 Outcome Document specifically mandated the creation of a task force to examine financial mechanisms for digital development. She framed this as an opportunity to explore what role the private sector could play, inviting both business and government perspectives on the matter.

Anastasiadou noted that the WSIS Plus 20 Outcome Document called for the ITU to create a task force that would look into financial mechanisms for digital development, and that this leads to a discussion of what role the private sector could eventually play and what it means for the private sector . She invited both business and government perspectives on this topic .

Anastasiadou relayed a concern raised in the chat by audience member Ahmed Khaled Gamal, noting that the real challenge is not only mobilising funding and investment for AI and digital transformation, but also addressing the environmental costs of these technologies. She highlighted the question of how businesses can balance innovation and profitability with the responsibility to build energy-efficient and climate-conscious AI systems aligned with global sustainability goals.

Anastasiadou shared that a colleague in the chat noted the real challenge is not only mobilising funding and investment for AI and digital transformation, but also the need to address the environmental costs of these technologies, as AI requires enormous computing power and energy and its growing carbon footprint cannot be ignored . The question posed was how businesses can balance innovation and profitability with their responsibility to build AI systems that are energy efficient, climate conscious, and aligned with global sustainability goals .

Audience member Jimson Olufouye raised the concern that the Global South risks being left behind in the AI production ecosystem, not merely in terms of access to the internet or general technologies, but specifically in terms of access to the compute resources required to participate in AI development. He questioned whether initiatives exist to enable developers in developing countries to access the vast computational infrastructure available in global networks.

Jimson Olufouye expressed concern about how developing countries can be inclusive in the AI production ecosystem, noting the gap in compute resources and infrastructure . He asked whether Meta was planning or coming up with an initiative that would enable developing countries and their developers to enjoy the vast infrastructural computing resources available in global networks .