Session
Organizer 1: Poncelet Ileleji, Jokkolabs Banjul
Organizer 2: Zanyiwe Asare, South African Internet Governance Forum
Organizer 3: Adama Jallow, Give1 Project Gambia
Speaker 1: Poncelet Ileleji, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 2: Zanyiwe Asare, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Peace Oliver Amuge, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 4: Hon Alhagie Mbow, Government, African Group
Poncelet Ileleji, Civil Society, African Group
Zanyiwe Asare, Civil Society, African Group
Adama Jallow, Civil Society, African Group
Break-out Group Discussions - Round Tables - 90 Min
How does the Global South achieve Universal Connectivity by 2030? What policies and actions needs to be taken in line with the UN Secretary General Digital Cooperation Road Map for the global south to get fully connected? How do governments implement policies in the global south that Telecom operators will be obliged to reach the unconnected in terms of Connectivity in the Global South? What best formula can the Global South adopt from countries like South Korea in achieving digital rights for their citizens through grounded policies at rural level?
Connection with previous Messages: The theme of this year’s IGF "Resilient Internet for a Shared Sustainable and Common Future" heavily relies on the world been connected online together and we do have disparities in terms of connectivity. As long as disparities exist in terms of connectivity, we can't have a shared sustainable and common future when 2.9 billion are not online and majority of those offline live the global South. A push based on attaining Universal Connectivity by 2030 should be adopted as a common stand by all 196 members of the United Nations, we need to make this happen to make the world better and just as been connected online brings overall socioeconomic development to people embedded with digital rights which make citizens make informed decisions and manage their affairs meaningful .
Targets: The Internet as tool was able to get information out during the height of COVID 19 pandemic where various governments and global UN bodies like WHO, UNICEF, WFP and FAO addressed food crisis through been able to be online and support governments to address areas of the SDG 1; NO To Poverty 1.1 to 1.3 namely: : 1.1: Eradicate extreme poverty 1.2: Reduce poverty by at least 50% 1.3: Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems The Internet made food deliverable reach people by just a whatsapp call, it made children not to miss out on immunization and there is no doubt it made the world more human as the globe grappled with COVID 19 been online related to surviving as a country for all countries in the globe. Hence this session is relevant yes decisions were communicated at Countries capitals on food security but they affected millions not connected in mainly the global south. If they were connected imagine how services of food security could have been managed better through technology.
Description:
The global has seen an over reliance of Internet Technologies as a tool for communication even though we now in an era in 2022 of Post COVID 19 recovery phases. The necessity of the Internet as a tool wherever you live be it as an academic, youth or development worker or business entity has become the new normal. However few countries have made Digital Rights a priority especially in the global south millions are left unconnected and these has made connectivity and digital rights to be a priority moving forward. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) states 2.9 billion are still offline whereas evidence shows that majority of the globe live close to a Mobile telecom tower. Hence with what can be deduced at the height of the COVID 19 pandemic in March 2020 to the first two quarters of 2021 shows that countries that where more connected online had strong digital rights embedded in their governance structures, hence they did well to keep citizens informed and manage all aspects of socio economic live better from schooling that went mainly online to government services from municipalities to federal government to day-to-day services that went online. We cannot talk of Connectivity without Digital Rights. We need meaningful connectivity to be able to possibly use digital devices and able to express ourselves freely online with privacy as a bedrock of our Digital Rights. This session focuses on connectivity and Digital Rights a view from the global south. It focuses on what is very needed to achieve true and meaningful connectivity that will lead to digital rights. Taken into account the UN secretary General Roadmap on Digital Cooperation Call to Action 1; Achieving Universal Connectivity by 2030. How can the global South achieve this? what mechanism need to be in place for it really to happen? These are aspects from the view of the Global South that will be looked at in this session.
A concrete outcome will be how we Align Connectivity with Digital Rights in respect of the UN Secretary General Road Map on Digital Cooperation Action Plan on Achieving Universal Connectivity by 2030 with a clear perspective from the Global South
Hybrid Format: Facilitation will be based on a very interactive session between online and onsite participation equal footing from start to finish for all participants. The session will be designed based on Inclusiveness all participants online first will be given to introduce them selves same too with participants onsite to get a good context of who is in the session in terms of representation. Participants will have equal time to ask questions or respond online or onsite. We shall set up an RisePad https://pad.riseup.net for online collaboration during the session so participants can share their views and contribute a document we shall use to prepare our report.
Usage of IGF Official Tool.