Session
Organizer 1: Thaís Helena Carneiro Barros Aguiar, Data Privacy Brasil Research Association
Organizer 2: Rafael Zanatta, Data Privacy Brasil Research Association
Organizer 3: Marina Meira, Data Privacy Brasil Research Association
Organizer 4: Mikael Servilha, Data Privacy Brasil Research Association
Speaker 1: Marcio Gonçalves, Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 2: Miguel Muñoz, Intergovernmental Organization, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Carolina Rossini, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 4: Atnafu Brhane, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 5: Suzanne Woodward, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
Thaís Helena Carneiro Barros Aguiar, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Rafael Zanatta, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Mikael Servilha, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Round Table - Circle - 90 Min
1. How can we design relevant and sustainable ICT-based initiatives to benefit the most from the opportunities of the digital transformation, while at the same time addressing issues of data-intensive policies in order to build a resilient Internet for a shared, sustainable and common future? This question covers stakeholder involvement - that is, assessing to what extent stakeholders such as civil society, developers, industry, governments, DPAs are involved in the design and roll-out of applications implying the processing of personal data - and ensuring data governance in the digital transformation and the realization of the United Nations’ SDGs.
2. What is the impact of data-driven technologies and public policies on the exercise of rights, especially of the most vulnerable groups and what concerns have to be considered for effective solutions in this regard? How to develop and implement adequate data policies, assuring they are inclusive and human centered? This question aims at covering concerns around digital identity topics and platform States: digital ID, consent, identity management, autonomy, personal data control, self-determination, privacy, decentralized identities, certified identities.
3. What are the best practices, boundaries and considerations to be taken into account by stakeholders in the collaboration through responsible data-sharing for policy development, in a way that posed no threats to democracies in the Global South? How can such digital transformation and datafication of public services guarantee the protection of the right to privacy and to personal data, as well as other digital rights, even in situations of crisis, with the necessary safeguards and procedures in place?
Connection with previous Messages: This workshop is directly linked to the IGF 2021 Messages of Economic and Social Inclusion and Human Rights and Universal Access and Meaningful Connectivity. All the angles explored by the third message - that is, adequate enabling environments, joint responsibility of stakeholders and digital IDs and financial inclusion solutions - will be explored by this workshop, which aims at analyzing opportunities and challenges of the digital transformation. The workshop has as its ultimate goal to debate on solutions and best practices that consider the actions of all stakeholders for a sustainable and inclusive development in datafication processes and policy making. Besides covering the topics explored by the third message of IGF 2021, it will also build on top of them by addressing specific concerns regarding vulnerable populations in the Global South and focusing on both individual and collective impacts of the digital transformation, providing more inputs on the safeguard of human rights and democracies in the information society.
On the other hand, the workshop is also connected to the message of Universal Access and Meaningful Connectivity, since analyzing challenges and opportunities of digital transformation and data-driven public policies and how they can be implemented in a sustainable and human-centric manner are also a matter of infrastructure investment and development. In this regard, the workshop is linked to several elements of this message, notably fostering connectivity and inclusion, stakeholder collaboration and fight against illiteracy, especially in the Global South. Moreover, since this IGF message shows a need for better understanding about why policy solutions already known and proven to be effective are not being more widely implemented, the workshop can provide even more elements to tackle this IGF message aspect, gathering valuable inputs from a detailed research by the organizers and from a diverse panel of stakeholders about the complex and fast evolving topic of digital transformation.
8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
8.2
8.3
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
9.1
9.a
16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
16.10
16.6
16.8
17. Partnerships for the Goals
17.6
17.7
Targets: Our session relates to technological upgrading and innovation through human-centered data policies. The proposal approaches economic development and technology from a perspective that appoints technological infrastructure as a powerful tool for social development, social inclusion and promotion of human rights through responsible policy making with intense use of data. In addressing the complexity that surrounds digital transformation, it is intended to cover industry best practices from a multistakeholder view, international cooperation and strong institutions to achieve higher levels of technological productivity and promote both development-oriented policies and quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure.
Moreover, since the panel focuses on how digital transformation and datafication processes have to be human-centric instead of data centric, it covers the goal of broadening and strengthening the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance, addressing the importance of closing the digital divide and putting people’s rights and democratic values at the center of digital transformation policies and infrastructure development, protection their fundamental freedoms. To this end, it also calls attention to ways of developing effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels.
Finally, it is clear for the workshop organizers that digital transformation is a matter of global importance for inclusion and sustainable development in the information society. Therefore, attentive to specific challenges and needs for the adequate ICT policy making in this regard, it also focuses on international cooperation to foster the access to science, technology and innovation, which also demands enhancing North-South and South-South relations to promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms. The workshop took these SDGs into consideration in several aspects of its constructions, including in the diversity and experience of the panelists.
Description:
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have proven to be so vital for the exercise of several aspects of life in society to a point where the wide range of benefits of the digital transformation can be understood almost intuitively.
To envision the sustainable future we want, however, we need to address the challenges that are part of our reality today - and especially of vulnerable groups. On the one hand, if events such as the pandemic led to an acceleration in the development of broadband and data-driven public policies in several regions, on the other hand, such acceleration does not escape from concerns regarding adequate regulation of technologies and the safeguard to human rights: we still face a digital divide reality in the Global South and still need more clarity on the impacts of datafication and State platformization to avoid risks to democracy and civil rights such as mass surveillance.
In this sense, the digital transformation of a country should not be summarized only in the digitization of public services, but there must be an understanding that the whole of society is part of this process. In order for the population to actually enjoy this digital transformation, digitization of public services must be accompanied by investments in infrastructure, connectivity, digital literacy of citizens and, above all, an understanding that policies around data should not be data-centered, but people-centered.
Aware of both the remarkable importance of digital transformation for sustainable development and the challenges it brings to society, this panel aims at exploring both aspects of this important movement to the world and notably in the Global South. Among other concerns, it will cover topics such as digital ID ecosystems and regulatory frameworks, noting how the intense use of data and adequate regulation of technologies can be done in a responsible manner to both achieve the goal of public policies and preserve democracies and the exercise of digital rights.
Digital transformation and ICT policy development must be inclusive, centered on the citizen and attentive to the development trends of the ICT sector in the coming years. Therefore, the workshop explores the dimension of the challenges to be addressed in the digital transformation and, even more, of the necessary commitments of stakeholders to overcome such threats and promote the development, well-being, and rights of all peoples through the inclusive and sustainable development of technologies and data-driven public policies.
The session will gather the concerns and proposals that arise from the debate and will contribute to a research project currently being conducted by the organizers, so it can be incorporated into future products. The documentation of the discussions held in the workshop will address the current challenges to an effective and inclusive digital transformation, exploring both its opportunities and threats. On the one hand, it will address why datafication of public policies and services is increasingly relevant in the information society - especially in a post pandemic era - for a number of facts, ranging from digital inclusion to economic development and international cooperation. On the other hand, it will also note the concerns surrounding such datafication processes and State platformization, including possible threats for digital citizens - notably, possible influence on the protection and exercise of their digital rights, power asymmetries and threats to democracy in the Global South. The report will also gather inputs on how the digital transformation can be conducted to promote sustainable development and individual and collective digital rights, also exploring the role of each stakeholder in the process for better practices, actions and regulation to be adopted by all in the digital transformation.
Hybrid Format: The workshop will be conducted in the following format: all panelists will have 5 minutes for opening remarks, in which they will introduce themselves and their experience and views on digital transformation. Next, the moderator will ask each one of them a specific question related to the stakeholder group they represent, in order to address the policy questions that lead the session. Panelists will also have 5 minutes each to answer that question.
The last 30 minutes of the workshop will be dedicated to answering questions and debating with the online and onsite audience. The online and onsite moderators, from the start of the workshop, will encourage participants to send questions and notes on their views and local livingness on the issue discussed. They may incorporate the online participation in their moderation and policy questions from the start of the workshop. Also, the questions to be asked in the last 30 minutes of the session will be alternated: one will be from the onsite and the next one will be from the online audience, to be selected by the online moderator.
Usage of IGF Official Tool.