The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> Good afternoon, if you please put your ear pieces, please. Good afternoon.
We will start momentarily. We are just waiting for the panelists to come to the podium.
Good afternoon. My name is Adil Sulieman. With the African Union Commission. Gives me great please and privilege to be here with you. The African IGF ‑‑ the IGF 2024, with the main theme of digital leverage and digital for peace development and stability. Very happy and pleased to be with you here.
This is our annual gathering as Africans. We are... it is like a family gathering. It is a family gathering. And we are really feel like this is a talk between brothers and sisters. And I think the objective, Open Forum, the annual Open Forum is to share what the African institution are doing in terms of new initiatives. And to share some good news with you. On the new initiative and projects that are in Africa.
And also, there will be some representatives from African institution in this gathering that will we're also going to be sharing with us what they are doing. And we're also want to have a dialogue. I think also we want to listen from you, your challenges and what you are doing. In terms of some progress on your side. Either on individual basis or on institutional basis.
So basically, I think we're stand hearing with mixed emotions. I'll start with the good news. One of our colleagues who was predominate in this discussion. I'm glad to announce that now she's minister in Kenya. So I think let's... we are very proud and happy to have one of the family members to take this high position in their country.
I think you have to look yourself also as future leaders in Africa. It is not far from you. You can achieve everything you want.
Sad news, of course we lost Makaan Fay. If you can stand up. We'll just observe a minute of silence.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much.
So let me just walk through the programme for today. We will have Fisher on the African IGF. So it is going to be presented by our colleagues. And two other track during African IGF. And the youth track and the parliamentarian track. We're going to get report okay those.
After that we'll hear from the chair. And couple African constitution. The African Union Commission and U.N. economic commission for Africa are going to also share their new initiative in '25 and moving forward. Let's give the floor to Sareen to give report on African IGF. The floor is yours.
>> Thank you. And good afternoon everyone. I just want to give brief background and we have everybody's, okay, all the focal points for different aspect of the African IGF and will provide detailed background information.
So for the African IGF that had just concluded from the 20‑22th in November, we had over 430 delegates. And we had over 43 member state was represented. And more or less we had stakeholders, a diverse one. Including research and institute member states representing and also private sector were present. Just to give you the demographic and gender balance. We had from the delegate that are present, we had 154 female and 276 male delegates were present during the forearm forum. We started the African IGF first from the African school of internet governance, which is led by the APC, the focal point was (?) peace. They had one week long. Delegate that they covered in the (?) close to 55 participant, including the resource personnel.
After the ‑‑ and also including parliamentarians for intergenerational dialogue.
So we had unlikely any other days during the African IGF this year we started quite late. So with the support of the MAG and MAG chair provide detailed information on our process. We started quite late but with the support of the host country, which is the (?) government. We try to buy in some of the time. We the 14th to the 19th of November T topic was around data governance and close data flow. Which is on the implementation of the African union data policy framework. And also we had parliamentarian session. They had one full day parliamentarian track. Which had like three, four subtopic. And also they had parliamentarian session. Included intergenerational dialogue with the youth.
On day 0 also we had a youth track or forum which was a full day. The young lady Aminata in the (?) Vivian were the focal point. They will be talking about what (?) area was the message in the call for action. We had also partners session. (?) they organise more or less three session. They hold the regional forum. JFC forum. On day 0 they had also session on coordination committee across the partners and also implementation of the to‑go cybersecurity session.
Martin will be good foreign provide more detail.
On the main session of the African IGF, as I said, it was a three days. Including day zero. We had across nine area. Artificial intelligence, emerging technology, cybersecurity, cyber crime, local content and multilingualism was there, technical and infrastructure. And many other sessions. Including also technical infrastructure which have led by ICANN and ISOC sessions.
I think we had also a plenary session, where we tried to gather all the parallel workshop, which were complete. Like 44 workshops we held. Plenary sessions. One high‑level session on the multi stakeholder, building our multi stakeholder digital future for Africa. That is the main thematic area for the African IGF this year. And we had a main session.
One is on misinformation, disinformation and internet shutdown. Second is around cyber crime and cybersecurity. The third one was advancing cybersecurity in digital AI economy.
Last one was around E‑government. These were the plenary session. And during the high‑level session we tried to revisit the Global Digital Compacts and the WSIS annual review in the upcoming WSIS plus 20 review process that we'll be holding.
At the end we concluded our session on open mic which, we heard from the community what went right, what went wrong. And how we can improve the African IGF process to make it an inclusive and more representative of the stakeholders.
And we have ‑‑ we had also closing ceremony, which we announced the next year host for the African IGF. This time will be Tanzania has accepted.
Global IGF in June. Host government thinking hold just before the global IGF. But once the date is agreed with them, we'll be communicating it. And the last session that I don't want to forget is hosted by the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership.
These a breakfast session to make sure that how the women initiative or initiative to bridge the digital gap to get their funding from existing funding agencies. So I think I will give back the mic to the moderate.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much. I think let's give round of applause.
When key message is that the African IGF is going to be (mic is off).
Most likely is going to be early in the year because the global IGF is going to be in June.
So just to be ready for that so that we will attend.
And hopefully, maybe we have some representative here will volunteer for the 2026.
So I want to the presenter to be brief. Because I think one of the ‑‑ is sense of this session is to have dialogue. So we want to, if you could also take your indulgence that you part the question to after we finish all the presentations. So I will give the floor now to the youth representative to just give us a briefing on what inspire in Addis Ababa when they met the youth track. Amina, please go ahead.
>> Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Amina am ‑‑... (?). Forum held November 20 on day 0 of the Africa IGF. The theme of the 2024 Africa youth IGF was digital governance and emergent tech, amplifying youth voices and multi stakeholder dialogue.
During the Africa youth IGF we had over 100 participant on site. And about 100 participants online from all over the world. We had four panel sessions. And we had two workshops. The panel session covered the main theme of the Africa youth IGF. We also spoke to the Global Digital Compact. Understanding it. The opportunities and perspectives of youth.
We had a multi stakeholder dialogue with policymakers. We had opportunities for engagement by our sponsors, by our stakeholders that on our panel, such as ICANN, UNECA. The Tony Blair institute. GIZ.
We also had closing session by representatives from the U.N. IGF Secretariat.
Some resolution precise the 2024 Africa youth IGF include stakeholders committing to taking constructive criticism from the forum. Agreements were also made to increase youth participation and representation in the ecosystem.
Government through policymakers agree to prioritise, integrate digital literacy into academic curriculum.
There was also a strong agreement by all participants for the need to develop Africa‑specific solutions to Africa‑specific problems. Such as in dealing with digital governance, agriculture, health, education. That includes integrating our local languages into AI and digital tools.
Some of the key outcomes from the Africa youth IGF include improving digital literacy among youth. Advocating for representation of youth in the ecosystem. Launching initiatives that will strengthen cross‑border collaboration on digital rights.
Stakeholders such as ICANN, UNECA, also spoke to expanding the capacity‑building initiatives. Prioritising infrastructure development. There was also discussions on promoting life‑long learning and mentorship opportunities to foster youth leadership in Africa's digital academy. And there was also the consensus to strike a balance between digital innovation and human rights.
Thank you.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much Amina. I think you did a wonderful job to summarise what inspired in Addis on the youth track. I think the following presenters will also try to keep it short and precise.
Let me take this opportunity to welcome honourable Suzanne from Malawi to give us a briefing on what is aspire during the parliamentarian symposium. Honourable, please the floor is yours.
>> Thank you. Briefly, at the Africa IGF in November, we had a parliamentary track where we're giving out the issues that we have done so far in our countries. Various countries.
We had members of parliament from different countries. As well as members who represent Africa parliamentary network on internet governance. So we discussed issues, whereby we spoke of issues of legislation. How can members of parliament work together with other stakeholders to make sure that we work together? We shouldn't leave anyone behind.
We have to be working together as Africa. We have to whatever issues we have, we need to put them together and so that we can face the challenges that we are facing as one continent.
So it was a very good session. And through that session we were able to come up with strategies, plans that can enable us, parliament, to work on our duties. As you are aware, as members of parliament, we have a key role to play in our different countries.
Coming up with legislation is not that easy. So we want every stakeholder to work with us, to be with us. And legislators should not be left behind. But we have to work together. So that we make sure that Africa is connected. Africa is one Africa.
We are doing the right things together. So as parliamentarians we assured everyone that we are ready to work and we are ready to come one legislation. Maybe on the issues of AI as well. On the AI framework. And anything that will come up. Even if there will be issues of maybe some amendments to the laws we already have in our countries. We are ready to do that.
In brief, I think that is what I can talk about.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you. And wonderful. Suzanne.
I think we are stronger because we in African IGF family, we are the parliamentarians. And we look forward to have other stakeholders like diplomats also. So that the family can be also, can grow and become more stronger.
I think the parliamentarians, since they joined in 2022, I think they had impact on underground. And we're really happy to have them along in this journey with us. Thank you very much.
Let me now give the floor to the mac Chair, Lillian. Just to give us a preview on the Mack activities and what they have done during last year.
Thank you.
And also part of this year.
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>> ‑‑ fellow mac members and past members. Perhaps I would like to recognise the current...
(Chequing mic status).
‑‑ plus a number of our colleagues who are not in the room today were very helpful in the shaping of the programme last year and this year.
So part of our task force when we joined the MAG in towards the end of 2002 was to revise the current chapter. And I would like to inform the community that we have a new chapter that guides the organising and the convening of the Africa IGF.
This chapter started with a journey that was led by Dr. Mactar Seck in Choto last year. Was a task force of 12 members. Some of them in the room. Tijan. I don't see the rest. Mama Mary. Nariat. It was led by (?). Haj. Yes from the Gambia. And they did quite a wonderful job in advising and guiding and revising. So that the chapter could fit within the current setting. The chapter came live this year during the IGF in Ethiopia last month.
So it is still very fresh. And currently, we'll be opening up call to have new MAG members. And this should come out towards the end of next month. I'm looking at Serena and Dr. Mactar to be sure that this is going to happen.
Because we realise that IGF has to ‑‑ we have a very short time frame. And again, the current MAG, I think is used to working under tight deadlines. Because we had a very short time frame this year to organise the Africa IGF. And it was a good success.
So we believe that if we start as early as next year, in constituting a new MAG, then the community should be able to be given time to organise around workshop, submitting workshops and give the MAG ample time to select the workshops. And also have an agenda announced before probably we hear from Tranzania on the most. So those are updates from the MAG.
So members just look out for that call inviting you to announcing the call for nominations for the MAG members. And then we'll take it from there.
Thank you.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much Lillian. So you have the news. There's a charter. And there is also MAG elections. So if you interested especially the youth. Please just be on the alert. Something is going to come up. And then maybe you can put your name for this ‑‑ this position. Even though they are voluntary. But, you know, just to serve Africa.
And we are really looking for the youth and their spirit and their, you know, hard work. So that they can make a difference.
Thank you very much to the panel.
Thank you, please give them round of applause.
Let me ask Mr. Waleed Hamdi and Dr. Mactar Seck to come to the high table. So that they can also give presentation on some of the initiatives that from the African Union Commission. And also the United Nations economic commission for Africa.
I think this is maybe very interesting. You are going to hear some good news about some development of new policies and also some new project that are going to be launched in Africa. So let me give the floor to Mr. Waleed Hamdi. Mr. Waleed Hamdi is new head of addition for information society division within the African union commission. Waleed, please go ahead.
I think there was a mic here.
>> WALEED ALI HAMDI: Hello. Very good evening brothers and sisters. Very good evening everyone.
All protocol observed. I'm really proud to see this African representations in the room. Show how we are very keen for African voices to reach to this global platforms and to be very effective in shaping global policies.
Talking about 2024 both very intense as globally directive, strategic directions was about how to move from strategies to actions. So African Union Commission particularly Information Society Division, we were thinking about how to move from strategies to actions. And then we kind of like wanted also to promote African efforts.
And like I mentioned, we were very keen that African voices to be heard in this global platforms. So we started with global (?) compact. We had very long session of thinking about how to submit an African common mission at the global leader compact. So that our voices united. And also our goals, objectives, so that we can easily accomplish this tasks. All as African altogether.
So in the preparation of the summit of the future, in the African Union Commission stewardship, we produce common position towards open, free and secure digital future for all.
These position have been articulated in African digital compact which was submitted during the summit of the future, as I mentioned as a common position. For Africa in the global leader compact.
That was during the second half of the year. And I'm very proud also just to say that we manage to develop the continental AI strategy at the same time.
We have been working very hard utilising resources, to provide African leader compact, as well as the AI continental strategy. Because as we all know, AI is a very hot topic. And we don't want to be late. And also, the emergent technologies, specifically AI, is now in every conversation around achieving sustainable development goals, achieving, you know, addressing the African challenges.
And we have a lot of unique challenges in Africa, as you may know.
The continental AI strategy was endorsed by the AU council back in July. July 2024. With the support from UNESCO. Also African leader compact was supported by our colleagues. We provided these two frameworks. And those two frameworks developed a multi stakeholder ‑‑ developed by multi stakeholder groups. Representing African actors. In the digital sphere.
They developed oriented specific commitment that measurables, time‑bound and with honourship of objectives clearly assigned. I'm pleased announce most frameworks of course now are adopted by the new summit by the new council and now they are available.
And both of them are accompanied by implementation plans so that member states can follow this implementation plans for the ease of start implementing those frameworks.
I'm very pleased to share today with you all that the second phase of PREDA. Phase two. Formally launched early 2025. We're speaking about second half of January. And internet governance will a focus area under the new initiative.
And I would also like to announce that AU commission will launch with the support of luxe deaf, a continental search initiative following the phase which is currently under way.
The AU developed a common position on the application of international law, cyberspace this year. This common position was adopted by AU earlier the year and assisting member states to develop their own national position. As mentioned we are moving from strategies and policies to actions. So that this one is kind of like applying international law into the cyber space and also to assist member states to do so.
Next also pleased that to report that continental cybersecurity strategy is under development. Once the draft is finalised, the AU commission will carry out validation workshops with different stakeholders. African stakeholders, involving various groups in continent. And ideally, the final draft should be presented to the AU organs for consideration and possible adoption within the second half of 2025.
We started 2024 very excited but continue also 2025 to have this big milestones where we will have the African cybersecurity strategy.
This AU, cybersecurity, flagship project. So the AU will be launching cybersecurity initiatives in close collaboration with the world bank and the German foreign affairs ministry. So this collaboration, the key areas will be domestication of the (?) convention for cybersecurity. Also the cyber strategy. And we can of course we can't talk about this without mentioning, the child online safety and digital I.D.
With this I'll stop here. And thank you so much.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much, Waleed, for your presentation. Now give the mic to my good friend Dr. Mactar Seck to also to give us insights on the activities that what carried or planned to be carried by ECA in '24 and '25. Dr. Seck, please.
>> MACTAR SECK: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for this. For we are going to lets go faster because we have other meeting running soon. For U.N. ECA. We have lot of accomplishment during this '24 year. But '25 will be more busy.
So we can highlight in 2024. Adoption of the Global Digital Compact by the U.N. general assembly in New York in September. And also as launch of AI working group. And also data governance working group as a U.N. level.
We work closely with AUC and we see (?). And now we're going to align our work in 2025 under five objectives of the Global Digital Compact.
Let me give you a summary of what we plan to do in 2025. Regarding the first objective for the Global Digital Compact, digital divide and achieving sustainable.
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‑‑ state to develop their national strategy. On digital technology. We ‑‑ this year we focus on 10 countries. 10 countries will be beneficial from the support. Continue to work on efforts for (?). Also to develop guideline on DPI. Focus more on climate change. Impact of the climate in our continent.
Also continue to support African (?) to expand broadband infrastructure by bringing some investment companies.
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‑‑ 2025. Also in term of connectivity we're going to continue our work to promote connectivity across the school and as a joint programme you have UNICEF ITU and ECA. To connect lot of school across the continent this year.
Also capacity building. We're going to build capacity of young students. We target 100,000 this year for across 15 countries.
Now understanding objective for regarding this digital inclusion. And to make this digital technology benefit for all. We have digital I.D. programme. We'll continue the digital I.D. programme. We folks in 2025 on seven countries. We'll add four more countries on '25. Now we have a great result. In the database we have now at end of last week, 1 million registered. Digital I.D.
And next year we plan to go to 24 million and add also. Already develop finalised strategy for Malawi. And we're going start this implementation in Gambia, and Malala by and other African countries.
Also we're going to launch the (?) centre in Rwanda in June.
And also meeting we're going to organise WSIS plus 20 we discuss in May. To discuss how we can align WSIS plus 20 and the Global Digital Compact for African countries. (?) and before general assembly in (?) coordination of IGF and WSIS plus 20 in line with Global Digital Compact.
Regarding cybersecurity. Makes our cyber space secure. We are going to coordinate our work on cybersecurity. We'll focus more on capacity building this year. Last year we start, we have lot of policy and develop national ‑‑ (?) revise (?). To implement new revision of the convention. And capacity building programme targeting (?). Parliamentarian and private sector. As well as (?)
Cybersecurity also. We're going to launch this year the African centre of cybersecurity in Togo. We're working closely with (?) and world bank. And we think before end of this year we're going the launch this cybersecurity centre.
Also regarding data governance and data sharing. In implementation of African union data framework, we're going to support six state to build capacity and develop national strategy. Country already identified and work will start as of 2nd January in next year.
Also an data governance we're going to develop data governance guideline for African American. Will put in place. We're going to set in place working group on data governance for the continent.
As a world level, we already put a data governance working group. And just data governance working group, only four member state per continent. Africa will be represent by four member state. And (?) going to put a large data governance group. And this data governance group T outcome will be discuss inside the global data governance to make sure that all priority of Africa taken into consideration in this data governance.
The last one, it is AI. Very important. AI governance. And we'll continue our work to artificial intelligence, policy. Supporting mamba state. And to develop the national policy. Already we see (?) African AI strategy on AI.
Now we are implementing as a member state. We'll organise next year's African American summit on AI in the Mozambique. Before June 2025. That agreed now with the government.
We are going also to put lot of capacity building on AI. Because the issue is we need to build the capacity of the policymaker and the juvenile generation on AI. And we are going to use artificial intelligence centre. We have created in Congo, to build more capacity for member state and for African youth in AI.
Also, we are going to organise STI forum in April in Uganda. And we're going to show lot of innovation on AI as a continental level. We already develop the website, showing (?) innovation several areas. Agricultural health. Business sector, industry. And we're going to launch this platform during the SDI African American, SDI forum. We organise and with the government of Uganda.
AI also, there is a issue of ethics. AI as a regulation. We'll work with UNESCO to have a one ethic guideline for the continent. As well as how to regulate this emerging technology.Al.
We have approached (?) for Africa. Will provide the result as soon as possible. I'm going stop there because we are lot of activity in 2025. Going to policy development. Capacity building. Projects. (?) sharing. As well as platform ‑‑ (?) African IGF. Ands a think tank for African to discuss how they fit their priority in the global agenda. Because we have a big issue in African American.
The you look at the statistic last year 2023, the connectivity, it was 37%. And the last statistic we get two weeks ago by ITU, it is 38%. We have only one percent increase in this connectivity in one year.
It is a big issue. Because we need to make progress.
Also, when we look at this digital agenda gap, in 2023 was.
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‑‑ now it is 13.13 point. And there is a increase. And we need to find solution make everybody access digital space. And also we have to curve the digital I.D. negative impact. Because we still have a 500 million not connected without any form of legal I.D. We have some challenge like that. And also as you know by 2050, 40% African youth population will represent (?).
We need to build that capacity. And create 625 million job in Africa focussed on digital skills. And we have to find, to bridge the gap and to create more, more, more people connected. And more, more people skilled in the digital era to make sure we leave no one offline. Thank you.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much, Dr. Seck, for the presentation.
As you can see from the two presentations, there is a lot to be done.
If you are representing an institution or maybe individual, we are seek your help with all this. Because we cannot do it alone. We need, you know, the support of everybody. In their own capacity. So that we can accomplish all these aspirations.
With that we finish our presentation and come to the real work of receiving comments from the floor.
And please keep it to one question or one intervention. Comments. Of because there are so many people in the room. And we want to give opportunity to everybody who wishes to speak. So that we can learn from you. And also make you can ask question not only to these two gentlemen but also the people who were here before. African, IGF, the MAG and all that.
I see one here. Let's take maybe four at a time.
One, two, three... where is number 4?
Okay. Four.
Start with the lady.
By the way, I am very proud that we have a very good gender balance in the room. And also on the panel. I think this is good. And I think this is a testimony of the African spirit. I think this is great.
Let's go ahead.
>> Good afternoon. My name is Timbo Huang, research institute in Macao. I'm very enthusiastic about the plans for African continent because we have a lot to offer. And UNU is a organisation and think tank. Teacher training and capacity building specifically if education. Our institute the institute that I'm heading in Macao is specialize in digital tech and SCG. Research and capacity building. 13 institute in 12 countries.
And I hear from both of the distinguished speakers and also the previous panel the needs of strategies, development, for example related to digital tech. Capacity building for youth, for policymakers. That is a exactly what we can do in UNU, Macao.
So I would be happy to connect offline to let you know. For example we have a training catalogue. And related to demystifying AI. We have also done the UNESCO AI ethics readiness assessment in some other countries. So we have a lot to offer. And in our institute, we are consists of former university professors from different parts of the world and with different backgrounds. Related to digital tech.
So just to provide you that we have this implementation power. And also to support your visions in doing so.
So second point is that we hold UNU AI conference and this year we had first one and actually invited some African ministers of ICTs to our conference. And in collaboration with the U.N. DESA. We put together a data conference, digital transformation workshop. So many of the ministers have already participated in it. So this year, 2025, we would like to invite our guests here to join our AI conference, October 24, U.N. day, 2025, is going to mark the UNU anniversary and also the U.N.'s 80th. It will be a big year. I hope you will come to join us. Third, U.N. for youth during this conference. Also have a AI social innovation awards competition for young people to present AI social innovation solutions for local problems.
So I also invite the youth.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. My name is (?) executive director for Africa (?) research foundation. My concern goes to Waleed. You talk about strategies to help Africa. But my worry is that we still not talking about how we are going to get the rural communities out of the state in which they are now.
So I want to understand from you what concrete strategies do you have in order for us to be able to bridge that digital divide gap within rural communities. Within our part of the continent, that is where most of our food basket comes from. That is where most of the, I should say, employment comes from. Within the agriculture sector and trade.
So I would like to know.
And also to Dr. Mactar. Now we are talking about digital governance and working group and all to of that. AI also coming up. Other programmes also coming up.
We still have the rural communities to connect. And I don't know, it looks like we are overloading ourself. I just want to understand how we can move towards this rural communities and then help them. Because everybody in the room here seems to come from the urban cities. And all of that.
The rural communities are still in the dark. When talk about electricity, they are still in the dark. Talk about connectivity, still in the dark. And then other companies. If you take the educational sectors where you mention UNESCO. Now, I didn't hear about local content. I was expected to hear about local content and what we can do to bridge that gap.
Because if you look at our educational institutions, the urban cities, the programmes that we learn, the rural communities, same thing they also learn.
But urban cities have that privilege of having everything digitally. The rural communities don't have. But yet this is the case that the rural communities sit in the same room as the urban cities. We have same. So wee what we have to do to bridge that gap? Because that is where I think those problems are coming from. If able to bridge those gap, then (?)
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you.
>> Good afternoon. I'm from Zambia. I lead the chapter and also the youth IGF. I think two comments in one. My concern, question goes to Dr. Mactar. You mentioned I think a number of projects supporting limited number of countries in Africa. I would like to find out which country ‑‑ if which projects Zambia would fall in. I'd like to write on that. Since I'm from Zambia.
And early I think part of the opening there was concern about the Africa IGF 2026. If there is room to place a voluntary role for 2027, I would like to pledge my country. We can number of things show can be hosted in Zambia. And those are my questions and contributions.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Okay.
Thank you so much. It is from Chad. I'm the advisor of national cybersecurity agency in Chad. Also member of counsel of African union. Thank Waleed and Mactar for their. Lot of things to do and next year and few days. So AI strategy in Africa and how to do the revision of convention.
My question about capacity building. I think capacity building very key. So we need train the young people, women, official, parliamentary. So how we can contact you? Because sometimes you send official communication through foreign affairs. (?) so is that any opportunity to send request to you? And we can work together on that? Thank you so much.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: So let's give the presenter to answer the four questions. And then maybe we can move to the second round.
>> Am I audible? Okay. You can hear me. Sorry for that.
I would a like the start by thanking director UNU Macao. Definitely at African union we value this collaboration. We value this cooperation. And we value these partnerships. Because we cannot do it all by ourselves. And Africa is part of world and we need to position ourself in this as a partners to other organisations. As well as also to kind of like exchange. Our African experience, our African knowledge. In terms also to know what others are doing. And we have already some collaboration with UNU. And we are happy of course to receive your invitation. And also to participate in the UNU Macao event. So thank you so much for your comments. We appreciate it. And we can also always discuss future collaboration.
So my brother, that is a great question regarding the strategies to bridge the digital divide. Especially focusing on rurals, areas on communities. Yes we might not hear it today but yes we all know it is a real challenge. I talked about that we have real unique challenge in Africa.
But the reason that we mentioned AI and other frameworks. It is not to neglect this gap. Rather than also to look for innovative ways to kind of like bridge the gap of the connectivity.
So it is being in our agenda in our priorities. The strategies we put in place for this is that we are working very closely with ATU, African telecommunication union. We're exploring new technologies that can help. Because connectivity issue. We had so many conversation with ITU, for example.
We look at ITU fact sheets. And we are also monitoring. This gap bridging. So we are working very closely with African telecommunication union. And trying also to look at innovative and not so traditional way of bridging the gap by using, you know, internet satellite. Maybe using low‑orbit connectivity. So all these things are things that we are thinking about.
We work together. We push for bridging the gap with the rural. And we thank you for being the voice in the room for this communities. Like you mention, might not be able to come all the way here. We thank you for your interests and for being the voice for these communities. And we work tirelessly to kind of see improvement in this challenge.
You mentioned electricity. This earlier this month we have our STC for energy. And we tabled Africa energy efficiency strategy. And we have been very clearly given directions also to use AI technology in this things and to use AI in also kind of like when we use renewable energy, to reserve the African resources. And to best utilise the resources.
So we are working on that. Strategies work together to take in multistakeholderism and collaborative approach. With our colleagues. In ATU.
The capacity building of the (?) convention. As I say earlier we have implementation plans both for African leader compact and for AI strategy. And in those framework, those strategies, there is a pillar for the capacity building. There is a pillar about advocating and promoting the AI application development. All this needs capacity building. All of this needs training. And maybe also as a director of UNU, Macao mentioned. This is a good example in the room that we are doing this either by our own resources or by collaborating with other national organisations.
How to approach us? Everyone knows in the AU, my door is always open. You can have my card. You can have my e‑mail. There is e‑mail at you can send us. We keep monitoring. And we don't ignore any e‑mail. Any idea, any suggestion. Any kind of like communication. You can approach me directly.
If not all my team are there. And also through the official channels, of course. Through the AU official channels. We are approachable. And we are happy to work peer‑to‑peer and also to work together with anyone who is interested.
For the gentlemen, I will give Dr. Mactar. Because the question was addressed to him.
>> MACTAR SECK: Thank you. I think you have a very interesting question. First, UNU, we work together. We have a MOU. And we develop some ‑‑. Took your idea and see how we can involve your idea on activity and capacity building and AI. And work climate change also. To mitigate this climate impact in the continent.
Digital gap. Africa in the (?) 25% connectivity as digital area. And our objective is to bridge this digital gap. When you look at the first objective of now United Nations on the Global Digital Compact is bridge digital divide.
In U.N. ECA our strategy is involve private sector in the development of the infrastructure in the rural area. We start with some countries. Start with Ethiopia. How to develop (?). And we did something like in Guinea to develop the broadband infrastructure. And also we have strategy, universal strategy we're going the launch next year. I think it is something we can help to bridge this digital divide. And in the rural area. Also programme on digital I.D. and we provide digital I.D. to all people across country.
Now, Zambia, we work upon request. If there is advisory... we have to receive letter from the government. Government want to develop national strategy, or the develop policy or need support to develop one project digital I.D. programme or cybersecurity. Or e‑commerce. Or AI policy. Now we have to receive the letter from the government.
It is a process. I think all the government Africa know how to work with ECA. And if we have activity on capacity building now we send directly. We target people in the parliamentarian in the policymaker, among youth and we target people to be part on this policy.
Capacity building.
Zambia, it will be digital I.D. Will support Zambia in digital I.D. But our strategy is to ‑‑ we don't have possibility to support all African country. For one project, we build the capacity for one or two country. And these country will serve as model for other countries. And other countries can go there to learn and to develop their policy.
What we did, I'll give you an example. We build the capacity of Rwanda. I spend seven years in Rwanda just working on the digital. Now Rwanda is a model. Continue countries can go there and learn about what they have done on the digital policy, what they have done on digital finance. And can use the system. And lot of country now go to Rwanda for this kind of collaboration.
How we can use AI in the agriculture sector?
How we can transform rural area? By creating more activity. For example in Botswana and people can go there. Developed innovative technology from 700 kilometre from the capital. There is no network. There is nothing. But now we have everything. Happy because they gent lot of new revenue utilising digital technology for their farm.
And I think...
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much for this good questions. And I think if I may complement also the panel. I think the request has to be sent to the formal channel. Also you can contact the individuals who are here. I think that will make sure that.
And then to the point of the connectivity. Rural connectivity. I maybe we need to change the mind set not to talked about connectivity anymore. Report to provide solutions. And part of the solution will be the connectivity. But this is different discussion so e can.
So we hope the floor for the next round of questions. I have one here. Two. Three. And four.
Yeah. You are. First question. Yeah.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: We can hear you.
>> Thank you. Ahmed chair of (?) IGF. And I would like to share with you some activities that we have organised in 2024. And follow up with question for the panel. We have organised our annual meeting, 8th annual meeting in October. And we have almost more than 10 session, actually 11 session and we have discussed some important topics regarding the data governance, the broadband, and cybersecurity, and more than this EDC as well. And woman inclusion. And we will in the north African IGF. We are committed to organise session for the youth IGF initiative in the north African.
Before the forum we have organised the school internet governance. We served the programme for more than 34 students from the seven countries of the north African IGF.
As I you see and as I mention before we are focusing on the youth. Dedicating our efforts to help them and to offer them a programme that allow them to be the next leaders of the region. My question is, if there are any channel, okay, that can support the subregional in our continent, Africa, during the subregions IGFs that might help us in the building track that we are to promote and enhance the outcome of these tracks.
Thank you.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you.
>> Thank you very much for this opportunity. First let me take this opportunity to thank you AUC and of course UNECA for the cooperation we've had. My name again is Martin from the GFC Africa.
What I have is first of all I just want to give you four areas that came out of our original meeting, which requires some interventions from the floor. And probably you may want to respond to.
During the global ‑‑ during the regional meeting that we had in the margins of the Africa IGF, we had suggestion where we covered four areas. The first area looks at protocols, strategies that have been developed within the continent. Especially looking at Malawi convention, the Is, strategy and so forth.
The key question that came out within in that was how do we allow and how do we expand the inclusion of specific interest groups in expanding the understanding of the implementation.
For example we have different sectors. Health, transport, so forth. So those sectors need to be included. Question is how do we do that?
And then there was also an intervention within the area of diversity and I know we haven't covered quite a bit on that in terms of women and girls inclusivity. And the key issue is to strengthen the intervention when it comes to policy. Especially to make sure that policies are gender sensitive within either regional or naturally level. And also when we do capacity in these sectors, how do we ensure that we get people absorbing the people who are being trained? So that is another question that came out of that.
And the other one that we looked at was cyber diplomacy, gnomes and issues of confidence‑building measures, which is a new area. And I know we've heard a session today looking at cyber diplomacy. But the key there was issue around building capacity at regional level. So what is it that we can do in the (?) region. Doing a good job. But more look likely in (?) to build capacity. And finally when it came to issues of enhancing resilience. We seeing there is an agreement that regional dynamics in terms of resilience is important. We are seeing certs being looked at. And I'm glad AUC actually formally announced they are going to look at the formulation of the Africa cert, at a continental level and key question is understanding of the services and other areas that need to be absorbed. And then lastly, just quick one here is the issue around the Togo centre. Which Mactar Seck talked about.
There are two areas looked at. One is issue around the interest within the region. And investment from the private sector.
Thank you very much.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you.
>> Thank you. Just to know, I want to know if there are some MOU with different university in Africa for ‑‑ I want to know if there are some MOU. U.N. And African union and each university in Africa to let the knowledge you are providing to be available for everyone in Africa. Is there something like that?
>> My name is James (?) from Zimbabwe. Mine is on revision of the Malabo convention. I think this is long over due. But really welcome. Now that we hear that African union is going to look at that.
If you look at the fate of the Budapest. Now you have a new U.N. treaty on cybersecurity. And I think what is observed today is for Malab.
My hope is for African union to devise a strategy to push for more ratifications of. ‑‑ member state supposed to have in place a data protection legislation.
In southern Africa we have tried to go around this. By having model roles to assist member states to come up with their data protection legislations. So perhaps the African union can also consider something similar to help member states to come up with those data protection legislations. As a condition to fulfil the ratification of Malabo. And then we can have more ratifications.
It is very possible to have 100% ratification of Malabo. We have already seen it happening with the African continental free trade area protocol. Where you have a massive number of member states who have ratified the protocol.
So it is an appeal to African union to consider devising a strategy to increase the ratifications of Malabo.
Otherwise it is a document which won't be useful. Let it be useful. From strategy to action.
>> Thank you. I just have one follow up with. So Bram, from Malawi. I want to follow up with Waleed on the announcement of PREDA2.0 as you are calling it. I'm not sure whether it is too early to ask the scope of what is going to focus on.
And also I wanted to find out if we drew some lessons. Obviously from the 1.0 version. And what areas are we improving with the 2.0 programme?
Thank you.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you guys for the questions. I have to take Mactar Seck's place. He had to go for an emergency. But yes, we will begin to answer the questions. We'll start with Waleed. And if there is something I can complement.
>> WALEED ALI HAMDI: Thank you so much. First question from Ahmed. The chair of north Africa IGF regarding. We are always very keen about youth. Include in every conversation we have. We are aware that they are not the future leaders, we are aware they are leaders now. So that we are always empowering them.
So we can have this discussion I think further. And we can avail our AU network and regiment, progression and regiment. Well I don't want to say to more empower. Because now we're doing our West to empower the youth. But to continue to empowering to the full limits so they can assist us in our mission. And to each Africa. Very glad to continue this discussion, maybe offline and put all our resources, support regional youth initiatives.
Martin, question about performing areas, strategies, how do include different players. So the African Union Commission when we look at strategies, we serve all our member states. All of them. Equally. And to be able to kind of like zoom in to integrate specific stakeholders regarding in different fields (?). All our strategies comes around partnerships. How can we achieve the strategy goals of the strategy? And we are working also the same approach that cybersecurity strategy. We are taking same approach of trying to have strategy that inclusive and that we can reach our strategy objectives with integrating everyone.
However. It is challenging to be done completely at a continental level so there is some working to done as the country level. We always try to put it as direction in the strategies. But it is also kind of like a shared responsibility between us and member states.
Gender inclusivity and gender sensitivity. All our initiatives, all our meeting, all our groups are gender sensitive. Inclusive and we always try to take initiatives that encourage African women to join us in the cybersecurities sphere. And to participate more. And also kind of like to have opportunities where they can show their abilities and also where they can learn from others. And we started by ourself in the division where we always advocate for women in cybersecurity.
The cyber diplomacy T regional. We tend to take peer‑to‑peer regional approach. Meaning that we are advocating for regional experience sharing and peer‑to‑peer learning between our region. And Mactar is not here. So going to maybe you can take it off line with Dr. Seck.
Yes, James, regarding the Malabo convention. I am going to divert this question to Mr. (?) because he's one of the pioneers and work mostly with the team and spearheaded the Malabo connection work. So I think he's going to make justice answering your question more than me. I'm going to also just so share the floor. Not to feel that I'm under the spot by myself. Share some of the questions. So if you would like to address.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: Thank you very much. Let me go through all the questions to enrich the answers on the questions that were raised.
First question was about the regional initiative. I think PREDA2 is going to focus, that IG is going to be one of pillars of PREDA2. And IG is national, regional, continental. So they are going to be support for the regional initiatives. Martin I think we've been working with the UK government and on CBMs and training for the recs. We started with us and we did and next year ‑‑ (?) so we can go bottom up and then we have Africa (?) CBNs and norms.
Malabo convention. You are right. Also announced by Waleed in his initial remark that this is something that we're going to be working on. On the ratification and also model laws so that the country can also ratify and accelerate the (?). There is support from German government on that and world bank and we'll be working on that exclusively.
For the question on PREDA2 and lesson learned and scope. AI is going to be featured. IG. And DTS. The (?) strategies. That is going to be covered. And also data. Also feature.
Lesson learned ‑‑. Covid and then work around covid. And this is something that also we need to focus on. Gender was missing in (?). So lesson learned we have more focus on gender in two. But we are very excited about the initiative. So that this is also going to be ‑‑ is going to have reflection on also the IGF. Global IGF. We may have more African participating in the global IGF.
I was told that I think we have 5 minutes. Intervention ‑‑
(audio fading in and out)
‑‑ ask then I don't know if we'll be cover more than one question.
>> It is okay. Hi name my name is... from the association of freestyle journalists. My name is Winnie Kamoo from association ‑‑ you can hear me now? Thank you. I'm wondering what is the role of storytelling in telling the good work that is being done by the IGF sector. Especially in Africa. We're not telling our stories more. It is a first time I'm hearing about north Africa having ‑‑ I mean what they did. Would like to hear more stories from the north Africa team.
What they are doing there.
And also, in AU and everything.
So I don't know. What is role of the media and in your storytelling?
Thank you.
>> Initially ‑‑ can you hear me? This is Vice Chair of the north African IGF. I am from north Africa and want to complement what my colleague says, during the last north African IGF we launched new initiative, especially for women for capacity building for women in north Africa. Series of webinar we will conduct to address the needs of women in north Africa. Being said. My question to be short. And we can link after that to tell you more about north Africa.
My question is, to you Dr. Waleed or Dr. Adil, if your agenda, where was ‑‑ where is women? Do you intend or do you have specific objectives, specific inclusion measures for measure?
Or do you have specific projects targeting immediately women? So this is shortly what I wanted to know.
Thank you.
>> WALEED ALI HAMDI: Storytelling very powerful tool. We are always using storytelling. We are always engaging with media. We share with them media brief. We share with them what we are doing. What we are achieved. Our success.
But I think there is room for improvement. I think we need also to kind of like understand ‑‑ well we have a team of communication experts. Maybe if this were here they will tell more. But for us we need also to kind of like do more about storytelling. Do more about sharing our success. Do more about sharing our experiences. So I do agree with you storytelling is very powerful tool. To show and to learn also from these stories and inspire people. Also to come work was. Because again and again and again we will keep mentioning that. We cannot do it alone.
We need all Africans to come work with us in different capacities to achieve these goals for Africa. Thank you so much for the question.
>> ADIL SULIEMAN: I'll take the women question. I think PREDA two is going to. We did study in one and hopefully reflected in two. And as opening statement by Waleed. Women in cyber, this is something we're going to also is going to take off in 2025. So this is couple of things that we can talk. We can make reference to.
But I think we come to the end of this session. We thank you very much for being here and attending the session. And actively participating. And we look forward to having you next year in Sweden. I think in Sweden in ‑‑ in June. Norway. 2026. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you.