IGF 2025 WS #53 Leveraging the Internet in Environment and Health Resilience

IGF 2025 - Summary Report
WS #53 – Leveraging the Internet in Environment and Health Resilience

Session Title: WS #53 – Leveraging the Internet in Environment and Health Resilience
Date: 25 June 2025 | 12:45 - 14:00 CET
Location: NOVA Spektrum, Lillestrøm – Workshop Room 2 (Hybrid)
Organised by: Dynamic Coalition on Data Driven Health Technologies (DC-DDHT)
Number of Speakers: 12 (4 in-person, 8 online)
Approximate Attendance: 50+ participants (on-site and remote)

 

Session Overview

This workshop, held in a hybrid format, explored how the Internet and digital technologies can support more resilient health and environmental systems, particularly in the context of increasing climate risks and public health emergencies. The session gathered experts from different regions, professional backgrounds, and stakeholder groups - ranging from public health and civil society to technology and governance. All twelve invited speakers contributed to the discussion, being 4 present in-person and 8 online. 3 of the 12 interventions were supported by slide decks.

The workshop featured a brief introduction followed by keynote speeches, an expert “lightning round” and an open discussion with audience input. Two live questions - one on the quality of data for epidemiological modelling, and the other on the importance of empathy in technology-supported care - sparked relevant exchanges during the interactive portion of the session.

Discussion Highlights and Stakeholder Perspectives

Diverse Regional Contributions: Participants shared experiences from West Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific. Emphasis was placed on how both formal institutions and grassroots actors are leveraging digital tools for crisis response and resilience-building. Community-based digital strategies were presented alongside national systems.

Digital Tools in Use: Speakers referenced ongoing digital deployments such as REACH (Bangladesh), SORMAS (West Africa), and BreezoMeter (Global), showing how digital technologies are already embedded in public health-environment workflows. However, concerns were raised about scalability and equity in deployment. 

Data Quality and Interoperability: A recurring concern, especially among Global South participants, was the lack of reliable and complete data for health-environment integration. The audience question on epidemiological data quality reinforced this, with speakers noting that poor data coverage can lead to misaligned interventions or delays in risk detection. Education and literacy was highlighted as an answer to this concern. Participants also stressed the importance of interoperability between systems, especially in cross-border or low-infrastructure contexts.

Equity and Access: Several speakers raised concerns about the digital divide, not only in terms of internet access but also in digital literacy, representation in system design, and inclusion in governance processes. It was noted that many of the communities most vulnerable to climate and health impacts are excluded from the design and implementation of digital solutions intended to support them.

Governance, Empathy, and Algorithmic Design: Building on the second audience question, the discussion explored the role of empathy, ethics, and human-centered values in the design of digital tools. Multiple speakers noted that value-driven algorithms, rather than engagement-driven models, are needed to support public interest outcomes. The role of governance frameworks in ensuring accountability and transparency in digital health and environmental data systems was also emphasised.

Remote Participation and Feedback

Remote speakers and audience members engaged actively, with interventions successfully integrated throughout the session. Remote participants contributed to both structured remarks and the open discussion, particularly around data standardisation and ethical design. No significant technical barriers were reported. After the session, informal feedback from participants (both in the room and online) expressed appreciation for the balanced regional representation, and the opportunity for audience interaction, though is is a point that could be further emphasised in future sessions as there was a delay of 10minutes during the interventions that cut short the time for open discussion.

Conclusion

The session demonstrated a clear consensus on the potential of internet-based technologies to support health and environmental resilience, while also underlining persistent barriers to equity, data quality, and participatory governance. Speakers agreed that meaningful progress in this space will require inclusive capacity building, governance innovation, and sustained support for community-led solutions. Therefore:

• Resilience is co-produced: digital systems must embed community perspectives and ethical frameworks at their core.

• Digital health tools must not reinforce existing inequities: rather, they should be designed to bridge them.

• The Internet must be governed as a public good, with global cooperation guiding innovation toward sustainable and just outcomes.

This discussion is expected to inform ongoing work by the Dynamic Coalition on Data Driven Health Technologies and may feed into follow-up collaborations, particularly around AI governance in public health contexts.