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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>> UMUT PAJARO VELASQUEZ: Hello. Audible? You can hear me? Just to know. Okay. Perfect.
(No audio)
>> The ITU digital innovation strategy (muffled audio) and create an environment of collaboration (muffled audio) whereby different backgrounds will be coming together, industry leaders, civil society organizations, academia, to assist this two critical frameworks and also to see how the IGF can contribute to it.
In this workshop we have two speakers, one on site and one online. So, I'm going to give the floor to my panelists to introduce themselves before we go deep into the matter.
>> Good morning. (Audio difficulty) (no audio).
>> I'm from the DRC, and I will be your moderator for this session.
Umut, are you able to speak now?
>> UMUT PAJARO VELASQUEZ: Yes. Hello, everyone. My name is Umut Pajaro Velasquez, for being the moderator today, and I wasn't able to hear you at the beginning. I wasn't able to speak. But now I can do it.
So, yeah, my name is Umut Pajaro Velasquez. I'm from the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance, also one of the coordinators of the (?) and as I work as AI researcher on governance. So, yeah, today I am going to speak a little bit how digital cooperation in the extended case of ITU and the Internet Governance. It's a pleasure to be here.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Umut. Very interesting.
Now we can get deep into the matter. I promise this session will also be interactive. At some point I'm going to be coming back to the audience for any comments and any questions.
So, straight into the matter. Umut, I have a question for you. How can effective multistakeholder governance models be designed to ensure that the Internet-enabled innovation align with the SDG principles, promote inclusivity, mitigate potential risks and unintended consequences?
>> UMUT PAJARO VELASQUEZ: Before we answer that, we actually have to remember there are some core elements on sustainable development in the case of any (?) that we want to propose. And those core elements aims to maintenance of the press without compromising the ability or to have a future for (?). This is crucial to harmonize three core elements that are economic growth, social conclusion, and environment protection. These are interconnected and crucial while being civil societies and Internet Governance can contribute to these three elements in different ways.
And the multistakeholder model actually is one of the ways that we can contribute to it.
Effective multistakeholder governance models in this case are essential to ensure that Internet-enabled innovation align with these Sustainable Development Goals principles. This model in this case, in order to comply, we have designed actually (?) and can be responsible, has to, first of all, promote inclusivity. That means that all the stakeholders, including governments, private sector, civil society, technical experts, academia, should have a voice in Internet Governance.
This inclusivity ensures different perspectives and consider that -- and that the needs of all stakeholders are addressed of the development of these goals.
A rights-based approach to Internet Governance is crucial for ensuring inclusivity and mitigating risks. And this approach promote inclusivity emphasize not only human rights, but also fundamental freedoms and suggesting that development and governance of the Internet in general. So the Internet actually can be a tool for the three elements that I said before.
The other element that should be take into consideration in this different multistakeholder models is ensure transparency and accountability. The decision-making processes on these different models should be transferable and accountable to all stakeholders, not just to one part, but to all the stakeholders.
So, the decision that are taken in place are actually based in having all the information that we need for -- for to get to these different goals that we have in the SDG and to actually have an innovation that really benefits all. Because transparency actually builds trust and legitimacy in the Internet Governance.
The other -- the other principle is for collaboration, multistakeholder governance model should include collaboration among stakeholders to address complex challenges and develop innovative solutions. Remember, we trying to align the innovative part of the ETU, the ETU with the multistakeholder model or the Internet Governance Forum. If we want to actually be able to get to the point of having this goal in this different SDGs to be reached by the time that we want it to be reached, we have to have this collaboration between different stakeholders. So, when we have more voices, actually it's more easy to get more innovative ways to address complex issues and challenges as are these goals.
And the last one is mitigate risks governance models as this one we have proposed in the multistakeholder, should defy and mitigate potential risks and unintended consequence of Internet innovations. Such as cybersecurity threats, privacy evaluation, spread of misinformation and another step that we actually discussed in general in forums like this one that we are having right now, the Internet Governance Forum. The different problems that we are discussing as we are a multistakeholder with different approaches from different perspectives, is actually one of the things that help us to mitigate risks and create -- and actually create a pathway for innovation, the innovation that actually benefits all. That would be my answer to this first question. Thank you.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Umut and thank you especially for emphasizing on inclusivity and how we can mitigate risks. It's very important that stakeholders are transparent and accountable in decisions they take, very insightful comments, actually.
So, I'm going to go to Jasmine. So, Jasmine, from a technical community perspective what infrastructure or regulatory caps enter the alignment of the ITU's innovation agenda and the sustainable digital -- Sustainable Development Goals?
>> JASMINE KO: Thank you very much for the questions. So, actually, ITU's innovation agenda have been putting efforts, you know, they have their own digital innovation ecosystem portfolios which they empower the members to unlock the digital potential, but you also have you noticed that ITU is small like multilateral, you know, structure itself.
So, the gap that there is from technical community member, that's our community that see it starts -- you know, the level of stakeholder engagement, it's a little bit -- it's a little bit behind or there's a gap between the reality and our expectation. The way we are seeing that, it's because we find that there is some adequate improvement of key stakeholders including us, the technical community and also the civil society in some places when it comes to design of implementation of the ITU innovation initiative.
So, in a way, this could lead to the solution that may not fully just the diverse needs and priorities outlined in the SDGs. And in a wider, beyond ITU, if you notice, if some of you follow the GDC, the Global Digital Compact and also the WSIS+20 pulses, there was, you know, like during the long period of time when, you know, the GDC keep -- there's different version, keep changing and, like, discussing consultation, a lot of things happening, and there was a moment that the technical community, it's not being well recognized. So, there's actually some point disappearing of technical community in a paper in something.
So, actually you could refer to block that is published by, a statement, by APNIC and also ICANN to adjust the issue and the gap. And therefore, seeing the potential risk and gaps in here, in terms of secular engagement lacking enough participation from technical community, there has been TCC inform, which is technical community coalition for multistakeholder, and there was a launch yesterday in the IGF village, and as part of the coalition, we talk about what we have observed as potential risks, and, therefore, what kind of process have we been involved in the WSIS paternity and also GDC input when there's a consultation open in a way that we want to be collective voice of our members of technical community who were not able or lack the bandwidth to reflect on how this kind of global agenda and process is affecting them.
So, feel free to go into the TCCM website or, you know, like, to learn more why the establishment of these coalitions and different thing.
And second, it's about the interoperability challenges. Because between different technologies and system, there are some issues relevant that have been created in a way that it's difficult to integrate the innovation solution and it might hinder some exchange of data and information critical to achieve the SDG targets.
There was also a session earlier about AI interoperability. You see the perspective from both China and UK, how, you know, like, the other -- like how the diverse perspectives have been presented from academia and also from government, civil society view on about the potential infrastructure or regulation gaps between the ITU and SDG agenda. So, it's something that I am trying to explore. And also example that I trying to give that I think is relevant when we talk about the gaps.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Very insightful, Jasmine, very important. You just mentioned the low participation or low involvement of different stakeholders in processes that are chaired by multilateral organizations, such as the ITU. And you also highlighted the GDC in the different reviews we have consultation, but at some point it was closed door. So, it's very important and very crucial, actually, to engage stakeholders.
And one of the other things that was very interesting, you said there is a way the technical community can come together, collaborate and actually advance the agenda. Very, very important.
So, I wanted to follow up on this. As you are talking about stakeholders engagement in various agendas and various development projects, I was wondering, what is the place of the youth? How can young leaders actually and youth stakeholders be considered to contribute to achieving this SDG agenda essentially it for the youth because they are presenting the future, the present the future leaders, they are presenting the ones actually to benefit -- to benefit mainly from these perspectives. So how can you include them and consider them in these processes? Back to you, Jasmine.
>> JASMINE KO: Okay. Actually, before jumping into this question related to youth, let me elaborate a little bit on the role of technical community. Because not just because I'm from there. But I just want to share, you know, my and also the other stakeholder perspective on technical community. What have technical community contribute to the agenda and also in a way that we could help youth as well.
So, part of the ITU agenda on innovation is about information for development. So in a way that we have initiate a research and he have advocacy project on something called eco Internet index, EII, so we want to emphasize on do more and waste less. So that means we do more and when this off-peak traffic so we can -- we have to acknowledge that there is carbon footprint for whatever Internet activity and the devices that we are using here. And also how, you know, the way we behave, actually, have a consequence and impacts in different way. Just at least start with the awareness. And you could always have thoughts and reflection and also to adjust your own behavior.
And we emphasize about the replacement of carbon heavy trade by digital economy and also on energy that could empower the network, because we are the registry, right. So we are part of the Internet infrastructures ecosystem. Therefore, we think that sustainability and meaningful connection is critical in a way that also digital inclusion should come hand in hand, especially when (?) those (?) who doesn't have connectivity.
And second thing about the role, and it's also relevant to youth, because it's capacity building and knowledge sharing. Technical community come together to facilitate capacity-building programmes to empower individuals and organizations with the skills that need to leverage technology for sustainable development. Example, APIGA, the Asia Pacific Internet Governance Academy. So, it's led by ICANN, which we have been part of the academy running the programme, being a mentor and being the trainer, like for several years, and also netMission.Asia, it's the very first Youth Network, I would say, from the Internet Governance space focusing on the region of Asia Pacific. So, it's our own initiative. I'm actually alumni (?) of DotAsia as well, so this is how I get into learning what's happening in the Internet Governance work, because it was not part of the -- it was not a major agenda of any, I think, any university course agenda. So, that's actually could be a gap that haven't been plucked into university teaching curriculum and this is how I got into learning this.
And moving on now to youth, what youth can do, right? As a youth and actually not just youth, actually to all of you, it is more about when we think about how we could contribute effectively, right, effectiveness is actually equal to being part of being smart, and smart in a way that what is your goal in smart -- like with the smart principle? How is it specific personalized achievable in your own capacity, in your own interest of area. It have to be very, for me, I feel like it has to be very tailor made for yourself, starting from knowing yourself well. I talk about the -- your interest area, your capacity, your network, think about you have many resources actually. You just have to map your resources out, identify the area of influence of your own, and set party.
In my case, I leave it out with my case, all of nature, I am curious to learn more about innovations and the Internet work, therefore, I care about if become to SDG, it's 3917, about the industry innovation and about climate action. How do these two things intersect together? It's coming to my research and efficacy on equal Internet.
And in my daily life I also recycle my own e-waste and other waste as a person. I'm trying to bring it down to a very personal level so you will not think about it's a very -- oh, it's a very off-ground, high-level goals, but, actually, when you put it -- trying to put it down to the ground, you have things to do as a youth and post-youth, you know.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Jasmine, for mentioning this. You just mentioned something very important for us to include the left behind stakeholders, such as the youth, its capacity building and knowledge sharing. And some of these technologies, you find out, they are developed in spaces that are too technical and the decisionmakers don't have enough technical understanding to actually take the good decision for the future of these technologies. So, it's very important that we should build capacity of different stakeholders.
Before I move back to you, my panelists, I'm going to give the floor to the audience. If at this point you have any question or comments to give on this perspective. Any question, the audience or just a comment?
>> PARTICIPANT: Good morning I'm Peter Joziasse, founder of the Digital Child Rights Foundation. It's about innovation and the agenda of the SDGs. I'm an NGO, and I was wondering how could an NGO, all the NGOs in the world stimulate the innovation, especially the involvement of youth.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Thank you. I have a comment on this one but I'm going to start by you, Umut. Umut, do you have a comment on this, how can NGOs view that you -- I mean, you are working the civil space with NGOs and civil organization? Any comment on this.
>> UMUT PAJARO VELASQUEZ: Actually, well, I had to explain my case because my case, in the case of Latin America we actually focus in including youth in order to be innovative, especially in, like, invest more in creating capacity-building digital skills training for the youth in general, because we most of the NGO here in Latin America really believe that not only it's important to bring access, sorry, to technologies to the young people in different places of especially in some marginal areas but also it's really important to give them the proper training to use those technologies in order to change their life and have a really good impact on not only with them, but also with the community and try to innovate and create solutions for the communities.
So, for us, it's important in Latin America, especially the NGOs, to create capacity, promote -- to create capacity and digital skills so we had a really investment on that. Also we promote a lot digital literacy and we try to get it along the private sector in order to incentivize employers to have people -- to have young people involved in their -- in some part in the digital training skills and also part of the workforce. It's pretty much that we do here in Latin America because that's a specific case on my region, that the region I do more and I really want more for NGOs from this region.
So, yeah, that's what I can say.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Umut --
>> Can I ask something?
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Yes.
>> JASMINE KO: Thank you, Peter, for your question. When it comes to NGO perspective, actually you are in the right place because now we have many stakeholders. You may find your host from NGO maybe from your region or not from the (?) region but I think from here you could start to see if any common agenda or prioritized area that you could potentially collaborate on.
Second thing could be, this is the global one, right, so I'm not sure where you are based in, but perhaps there's a regional or national IGF you could join, because usually in national and regional level, it's more, I would say more region specific. And it's a different kind of -- it might be a different kind of engagement level that you can there.
In our occasion, in Asia Pacific regional IGF, as part of the Secretariat team, we opened up transfer, you know, for everyone including the NGOs that they could submit their session proposal so that it's very community-driven agenda of the regional IGF that you could have your own session -- proposal in the IGF and then have potential collaboration with it.
And as echo to what Umut say, it also could be collaboration with other stakeholder groups. So, I encourage you to continue your work. And thank you very much for engaging with us.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Thank you. Before I give you back the floor, I was having just one comment from an African perspective. What has happened in African is the NGO and civil society organization tend not to work directly with the government, not to engage directly. And as you can imagine, the ITU, the UN and all its multilateral processes, it's our governments that actually represent our voices or have the last word to say.
So, what can be the approach here, I have seen it in some countries, is that you don't -- we don't always have to be, even if we have different point of view, different ways of seeing things from the NGO and the government, but it's important to advance our local agenda to work together and engage actually the government.
Some of the human perspective, the NGO have since they are on ground, they are working closer to the community. They used to have very an expertise that the government doesn't have. By then, because sometimes ideas are not matching, the engagement is not sufficient.
So, I believe what I can encourage from -- to the NGOs, actually, is to work with the government. Yeah, you can have diverging perspective today, but tomorrow for agreed common, work together and advance this agenda so that whenever they go to this ITU and other multilateral processes, they can carry your perspective or in some point I have seen in my country at some point, the government representation at the UN, but it's no -- the government delegation is not only full of government or ministry experts, but in the delegation they have a stakeholder from the technical community, one from the civil society, and they are -- it will be insightful and very interesting.
>> PETER: thank you for your answers. I live in the Netherlands, in the Europe and we are a member of the IoT partner to (?) coalition and member of the advisory group civil society and academia for (?) in Europe, the global gateway and yes it's about digital skills. But what I mean is that here we are talking and in the end a country must accelerate and there is a gap, I believe, between the NGOs and also the private sector who wants to help concrete, and there's a gap, I believe. How can we close the gap? Yeah, it's not only the country, but children, young people in school wanted to be supported. And we want to help. But it must be done by the local community, but how do we connect to each other? It's not only in the way by having talks with the governments. We need NGOs also on the grounds. And I think that's going too slow.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Yeah. Thank you so much. Very good comment. Actually, definitely we need NGO on the ground. And maybe recalling from what Jasmine was saying, everybody should play its role in ensuring, okay, I'm on a good track. I'm contributing to fastening this position that's going very slow.
So I believe, yeah, from your personal perspective or your organization perspective, yeah, please try to push exactly and work on your personal capacity to advance this agenda. But very good comments. Thank you so much.
We have a question --
>> JASMINE KO: One sentence from me.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: One comment from Jasmine.
>> JASMINE KO: Of course there are gaps and as for your case, it must be specific enough that maybe other country and other region could not give you the example, because you are the right person to know about your community.
So, when you ask about how, so I challenge you back, how would you try to understand the problems and the gaps, and if there is no scenario that NGOs and other potential partners can come together, maybe consider create one, a scenario occasion that people could brainstorm and get their buy-in to try to collect and really destroy the symmetry. I also see the lady in the back have maybe a comment or question. Please.
>> PARTICIPANT: Hello, everyone, I appreciate all speakers. I just have two comments. The first one is an advice for your great work, to connect the intellectual property rights to innovation because any innovator, he needs to protect his rights because an expert of intellectual property, I said this advice for all innovators. By the way, I didn't -- you didn't know me. I'm Dr. (?), Secretary General of creators union of Arab, it's an NGO, it's a member in the United Nations Economic and Social Council and we are working in the NGO since 23 years, and I agree with my colleague about the not supporting the NGO. I have attended a lot of conferences in all the community all over the world, even it's governmental or nongovernmental organizations. They support and encourage NGO to be collaborate in their works but actual in the real ground it's not effective.
But since we have a member in the United Nations, it gave us an opportunity to share with all collections in the United Nations, and we are encouraged all -- all entities if they want to contact with us and make a cooperation about anythings, we are concerning on innovation and intellectual property and training and so on. Thank you very much.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Thank you so much for the comment. And definitely, what is good about a discussion is that collaboration can move forward during these discussions. Thank you so much.
We have also a question online. If you can unmute yourself for the comment, for the question online. And then after, we have Umut speaking. The question online.
>> Yes. Hello, can you hear me?
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Yes, we can, please.
>> MATILDA MASHAURI: Okay. Good morning. My name is Matilda Mashauri. I am a Pan African youth ambassador in Internet Governance and a broad advocate in inclusion and shaping for the digital future of African.
I have two questions. One is how can we, how can a 80th-led initiate and the young innovators be meaningfully included in the multistakeholder processes that are discussed in this workshop in order to ensure that the Internet based and technology are effectively contributed as Sustainable Development Goals and also particularly in addressing peace, economic environment and the environmental stability.
And also, how can we at the youth leaders play a pivotal role in driving the innovative solutions for a better and more inclusive future? Because we are trying so much as the youth also to engage, but then we do not know some of the ways that is why I'm trying to know how we are the youth leaders, because we do play a pivotal role of driving the innovation that we need for an inclusive future and how can we do that? How can we also lead to the development goals particularly when they are to the peace and involvement to the environmental sustainability. Thank you very much.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Any other questions online so we take both together?
Okay. If there is no question -- I see there is. Okay. There is no question for this -- at this time.
So, Umut, can you comment on this question?
>> UMUT PAJARO VELASQUEZ: Okay. Well, actually, that is a question that I was thinking really a lot this year, especially with the GDC processes and how youth can be included in all these processes, because we -- actually, with that process, I start to realize how we can actually be influential somehow and can be -- how reach in all this conversation and in all these processes and how we can collaborate to this and how -- what is the role in all of this.
And one of the things that I conclude at the end of that, it was that actually at the beginning, we go feel we are lost, that framework that as seen in the question, or that's where your question is coming, is we are at the beginning, we are feeling lost about what we should do.
But actually the fear of not knowing at the beginning what we are going to do is actually the drive for the answer that we want to in the way that we actually, after that, we start to identify all the gaps that in the different processes that we having, and how -- it's how we as young people actually can provide the solution to those gaps.
So, when we find those -- that thing, we actually start to know exactly what is our place in all of this, and how actually we going to be innovative in all these processes.
Because if we don't start to identify exactly what is -- what is the inconsistency, for example, or the (?) we don't like, or suddenly the special aspect that is particularly to a region or particular to our different populations or related to a specific SDG, actually we don't going to make innovator ideas or solution for the different processes.
So, that's the way as I see it. So, I don't know if on the floor want to comment on something.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Thank you, Umut. I think, yeah, the youth is a very crucial stakeholder. Thank you so much for actually responding and giving this perspective.
We are going to proceed. I have a couple of questions for you, too, before we conclude.
So, we have seen a lot of discussion in the Summit of the Future last September in (?) about the place of the youth in this process. And at this particular time it was special because in the declaration for the future, they included a specific annex just for the youth. But then we were seeing it's all about discussions and provisions.
But my question is to you, what are the policies and investment strategies that are essential, actually, to address the skills gap and build necessary human capacity to create, deploy and manage Internet technologies for a sustainable digital -- Sustainable Development Goal, especially when it comes to the youth as the future of -- the role the youth has the future leaders. So, what are the strategies and investment, what are the policy and investment strategies we need to put in place for this to be effective, not only just prepares a decision but on the ground, we want to see the change and how this can help.
So, I'm going to start by Umut, then Jasmine.
>> UMUT PAJARO VELASQUEZ: Well, the question is related to exactly policies and how to address the issue with the -- the part -- the Summit of the Future and everything.
When I read about the summit part of the future, I have to say that one of the things that caught my attention is youth is actually mentioned as a part of the future solutions and we are actually doing more than that.
One of the things that I consider that should be addressed for in that aspect, in general is a couple of things that were already mentioned here, like not only promote digital skills, promote the accountable or clarify that the ownership, promote digital literacy, divide the participation not only the governments in alliance with the private sector and NGOs, and also another thing that should be addressed in all this case is include during the decision-making processes and having, like, promote communities or Internet hosts, for example, that can provide access to different technology and data skills for training.
Youth deliver on this area. So, yeah, there is a lot of ways that we can be included in this.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Umut. I'm going to give back to Jasmine.
What are the investment and policy strategies we need to put in place to achieve this innovation technology for the Sustainable Development Goals?
>> JASMINE KO: Before I go directly to the answer, I just want to clarify, when you talk about investment and policy, is there a certain target group you are talking about who will action and implement on these or by youth or by government or by who?
>> UMUT PAJARO VELASQUEZ: Actually, that is what I was expecting from you, who is there to invest and to put investment in place so that we can actually have the innovation we want to see in order to align the technologies with the SDGs. The youth for the future, present the future, and they be the beneficiaries actually of this investment and these policies that are harmonized, but then who to invest and act, at which level they should invest and in which way?
>> JASMINE KO: Wow, then it is actually a very high-level question. Actually, wow, it's not an easy question to answer, because when it comes to, if you highlight that youth is the beneficiary, they cannot just be beneficiary themselves. They have to be the one who also put effort, right?
Because I believe, you know, in that mission, it's always about nothing for youth is not by youth. I mean everything for youth has to be by youth, have to be with youth. So, that means that when it comes to strategy-setting and also agenda-setting, the way that youth can put into actually a lot of effort. Because the thing is, youth definitely, if you need to compare the live experience and also network, it's not as much as people who have been working in the field for many decades, many years. So, like myself.
So, the things that we need to put a lot of effort is to really understand what is our prioritized area and agenda and to be smart enough to know what kind of, you know, stakeholder, in the stakeholder map that we have, what kind of collaboration and people and scope that we want to focus on. Because we have limited time, we have limited resources. But then what can we do in a reasonable scope and then achievable outcome in a certain time frame.
It's always a problem about goal setting and this is why it is called strategic, because it involves prioritization, it involves a collective process of youth, perhaps, and, perhaps, we could also have other -- like, it's good to have other stakeholder groups together. What I like to do, the design thinking and also systems thinking approach that we map out within the ecosystem, we map out each problem like a spider map and then we map out the flow, how to say, what is the impact and what is the reason, and then we make the arrow. And when we see what is the relationship between different issues and then we try to be -- we try to use different tools to understand how we could move on.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Jasmine. Very important. You mentioned it's prioritization in strategy development is very important.
I have a comment on this, but I'm going to first give the floor to the audience. Do you have, anyone has an idea on what are the strategies, policy and investment strategies we need to put in place in order to achieve actually innovation and technology for the Sustainable Development Goals? Any comments in the room?
Okay. Great. Huh. I see. When it comes to investment, when it comes to all these actions, many people tend to get back. We have seen the same thing in the Global Digital Compact recently, when it comes to investing or putting resources into place, you see the different stakeholders are pushing for voluntary actions, voluntary investment in. Yeah, how will it be sustainable when it's voluntary. That's a big question for all of us.
Yes, there are solutions we have seen. The ITU has initiative, a certain initiative to co-part to connect, a very important coalition whereby different stakeholders pledge a certain amount of money or certain resource to actually contribute to their efforts to partner together to connect the unconnected, to connect the next billion. And this is some of the effective solutions to this.
In the Partner2Connect coalition, last year there were -- they got up to $30 billion of pledge from different stakeholders, some from the private sector, some from the government, some from some nongovernmental organization. And these efforts are actually -- we are seeing the impact on the crowd. The ITU and UNESCO have initiated an initiative called the DiGA Project that aim to connect every single school on the Internet. Some of you from the global may not understand why it's important to connect every single school but in some part of the world like where we are from, some schools don't have access to Internet. Emerging into these, how can you learn without the Internet? You don't have access to all the resources that are available on the Internet.
So kind of investment and partnership strategies are very important. And we have seen on the ground very big impact on the schools that are connected to the Internet because people are actually able to lever the different resources, do their --
(audio fading in and out)
Like this. I'm going to give the floor to my panelists for the parting remarks because we have less than 10 minutes now.
Okay. We have a comment here. Then, yeah, we get back to you.
>> PARTICIPANT: I just want to emphasize on, before any implementing of any innovation solution or anything, you should make awareness, a very good awareness about any project to be successful. And my advice, my personal advice from Corona COVID-19, when I teach for the students in the level on university, they often the online and they didn't hear me. So, we should make a very good awareness for any initiative before we can implement it to get the successful of this initiative. Thank you.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Very important, actually, to, you know, get to test the technologies.
(Off microphone)
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: So, I was saying it's very important actually to document and to test the technologies before we can implement them. And some of these tests are done by projects that are pilot projects that tend to start from a certain level, certain country to get input. And now implement the project wider. But it's very important. The COVID actually surprised us and we have seen many challenges, but also a very fast innovation environment, many technologies developed very fast during COVID, as also challenges were they. So, I think we should always seek balance.
I wanted to ask if there is a comment or question online. If you have a question online or a comment, please have the floor. We just have two minutes for this, so you can be fast.
>> MATILDA MASHAURI: I am back. Okay. One last question. So, we have talked about the Internet basic technology. Given the critical role of this Internet-based technologies in achieving the SDGs, now what specific mechanism can be put in place to ensure equitable access and capacity-building for -- equitable access and capacity-building for the youth and particularly in the underserved regions so they can actively participate in and benefit from the digital innovation from -- for the sustainable development?
Since I'm engaged through working with the youth in this marginalized community in the rural areas, so I have seen their challenges, I have seen their -- I also faced the same challenges when I went there. We go to give this capacity-building.
So, what mechanism exactly that we can put into place for the equitable access for this capacity-building, especially for the youth specific underserved regions and especially in brackets females so they can actively participate in and benefit from these digital innovations for the sustainable development for now and for the coming future, things like that. So, thank you very much.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Yeah, thank you, Matilda. Good question. How can, actually, the strategies be put in place to include the women and marginalized -- in marginalized communities or rural areas to benefit from the -- or to leverage from all the benefits digital technology gives us.
I'm going to give the floor to Umut and Jasmine to comment on this. Umut, you have the floor.
>> UMUT PAJARO VELASQUEZ: Well, actually, this question has to do a lot with my final (?). Part of the solution is actually believe in the multistakeholder approach, the effective multistakeholder governance and digital skills and responsible for (?) from the Internet access. So these spaces, like the IGF or the ITU are crucial to foster this kind of alignment, ensuring that Internet contribute to more equitable future for everyone, because we not only having conversation here for different people, between different stakeholders, we also have people that are working on the ground most of us from different aspects. Someone in technical community, some are in rural areas, others are, for example, myself I work with gender, gender diverse people and people in my country.
Yeah, we are working with the community and we are trying to find solutions, not only bringing our expertise into these spaces as articulating our experience with this. So, is not only believe that the multistakeholder process, the multistakeholder is just conversation, but also is actions and solutions. Yeah.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Thank you. Thank you (muffled audio) and, yeah, Jasmine, any comment or your parting remark?
>> JASMINE KO: Actually not much. I want to be brief because it's riding on Umut's input about the multistakeholder models/mechanisms, and one way that we have been actually a good example that already been doing and can be strengthened, it's the youth IGF, that there's national and also regional one that we have been into running for.
So, actually, the thing is how we could ensure, like, improve the equitable access of youth is to -- I think it's about the outreach, about to understand what can be the people and marginalized communities that haven't been part of this yet and put -- really put effort on such, as in Asia Pacific we try to put more effort to link up with the Pacific Islands. So, this is a very concrete example.
So, think about in your region and place, what -- who are the marginalized communities and then try to get them on board. That's it. Thank you very much.
>> ONSITE MODERATOR: Thank you so much. Very wonderful discussion. And as we are concluding this session, I wanted to thank my panelists for their very insightful comment and also the audience for their great participation.
And all I can say is, last comment, it's very important if you want to align the multilateral initiatives that is the ITU's digital development programme with the spirit of the multistakeholder forums or multistakeholder initiatives at the IGF, it's important to, yeah, build capacity and involve different parties.
I believe the multistakeholder engagement forums and discussion must actually document the decisions that we be taking in multilateral goals basis.
With that, I say thank you so much, and have a wonderful -- yeah, have a wonderful evening or the day. We are going to have a group photo. Sorry, technicians. Can you please put Umut on the screen? Maybe we have -- yeah, you pin also Matilda, if she is there.