Session
Library Aid Africa
Damilare Oyedele, Co-Founder & Chief Executive, Library Aid Africa
Kendrick Kawanga, Library Advocacy, Policy & Research, Library Aid Africa
Msabila Karsan, Advisor, Internet Governance & Digital Inclusion
Damilare Oyedele, Co-Founder & Chief Executive, Library Aid Africa
Msabila Karsan, Advisor, Internet Governance & Digital Inclusion
Kendrick Kawanga, Library Advocacy, Policy & Research, Library Aid Africa
Damilare Oyedele Library Aid Africa
Isaiah Adeyanju, Associate Programs Manager, Library Aid Africa
Blessing Edem, Programs Assistant, Library Aid Africa
4. Quality Education
8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
10. Reduced Inequalities
11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
17. Partnerships for the Goals
Targets: Our proposal links to multiple SDGs as it posits libraries' role as an essential actor in advancing digital inclusion, access to information and socio-economic development thereby building the digital future.
Quality Education: Libraries play an essential role in providing equitable access to information and knowledge which is a prerequisite for achieving quality education service delivery. Empowering librarians to participate in internet governance and propelling digital inclusion strategies, our proposal will seek to contribute to enhancing and improving access to educational resources.
Decent Work and Economic Growth: capacity development of librarians plays an instrumental role in enhancing libraries’ role as agents of digital inclusion which poses a great contribution to economic growth of the community they serve through the provision of digital resources and fostering innovation.
Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: through our proposal, we will be working with libraries to position themselves to embrace digital technologies and transform into innovation hubs leveraging the development of digital infrastructure.
Partnerships for the Goals: multi stakeholder partnership plays an essential role in achieving our proposal, to this, our proposal will leverage collaboration between libraries , government, organizations and communities to harness the potential of libraries towards the digital future.
Roundtable
The session will be a presentation and expert consultation session with the audience. The speaker will present the African Library Internet Governance Ambassadors Program to participants. After the presentation, the speaker will respond to questions and provide clarifications needed to the participants. This will be followed by expert consultation with the participants to share key insights on areas to improve the Library Internet Governance Ambassadors Program and its integration into various IGF NRI.
Since the early days of the public internet, libraries have been at the forefront of applying digital technologies to enhance service delivery. The ongoing rapid growth of emerging technologies, tools and applications has underlined libraries’ potential as a hub for advancing access to information and knowledge for all, and also as a co-creation hub for the socio-economic development of the communities they serve. However, the realization of this potential everywhere cannot be taken for granted. There needs to be a holistic approach, drawing on multistakeholder partnerships and data-backed decision making to identify and develop capacity of librarians, build their ability to act as agents of digital inclusion, and foster development and adoption of policies that will facilitate resource allocation and sustainability of libraries’ contribution to digital Future. In achieving this mutual goal of digital future there by Harnessing innovation and balancing risks in the digital space, this session will share core practical applications of empowering librarians in African countries through the African Library Internet Governance Ambassadors Program: empowering librarians to participate in the discourse and actions of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Through the session, we will share how librarians in Africa are shaping internet governance policies and advancing digital inclusion strategies for libraries through targeted engagements, capacity development and advocacy activities to empower library leaders to become ambassadors for internet governance within their communities. Through the session, we will engage with IGF participants and ecosystem partners to share feedbacks on key areas of improvement and scaling the African Library Internet Governance Ambassadors Program, how they can be actively engaged in various IGF NRIs, and other potential collaborations that will further position libraries as core stakeholders in the internet governance ecosystem and discourse.
Active participation both online and in-person is a priority for us to engage audience for the session. Prior to the session, we will conduct online awareness and publicity for the session to our library networks to register and sign up to attend the session, sharing key expectations.