The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF virtual 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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>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Good morning. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us at the main session, Digital cooperation in practice: IGF Dynamic Coalitions. In this session we'll showcase the DC as an example of the multistakeholder mechanisms.
We'll split our session in two halves: First we'll hear from the DCs themselves about how this work relates to the IGF issue areas, and also how the work contributes to advancing the debate on specific topics included within these areas.
In our second part, we'll have a strategic discussion on how the Cs could contribute to a broader digital cooperation effort and also to strengthen IGF. We also will be hearing from distinguished guests from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, also from the Office of The Secretary‑General's Envoy on Technology, and, of course, the chair of the multistakeholder Advisory Group. A total of 17DCs have been or will be presenting their work here at the IGF. When you hear from the Dynamic Coalitions, please do know they'll talk more in depth about the very important work they do in the specific issue areas they're concentrated on.
We're going to actually talk in about 40 minutes in our section 1. It is really important to know that the Dynamic Coalitions, their work is very important in the broader context, both in the IGF and also in the challenges of Internet Governance and the broader challenges our world faces. There are things that really concern us, the global health crisis is still going on, climate change is definitely a hot topic, both at the IGF here and elsewhere in other fora.
We're talking about security and safety and Human Rights. There's many dynamic transformations that our society is going through right now and the need for multisectoral digital cooperation is greater than ever right now. How do these DCs contribute to addressing these global digital challenges?
We're going to start with one of the familiar issues, global health crisis and social inequalities. We're joined with our co‑moderator, Tatiana Tropina online in our Zoom room. We're actually going to fully utilize our hybrid format. Many of the Dynamic Coalitions who will be presenting and talking about their work will also be joining us in the Zoom room as well.
Tatiana, I hand the mic over to you for our first issue area.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much, Jenny and welcome everybody who is online or on site. Unfortunately I can't see you in the room but I'm pretty sure we'll all enjoy this session. Just to talk about a moderating issue here, to all Dynamic Coalitions that will present, whether presenting online or on site, I really would like you in the spirit of time to keep your interventions short. I would say 3 minutes, please do not go more than 4 minutes. As Jennifer said, we're going to start with the big issue area where most of them are working and bear in mind they're working on crosscutting issues and cooperating and collaborating many times.
To the Dynamic Coalitions, we read all of the papers and we know that you do fascinating work.
I'm first going to start with a question to Dynamic Coalition on Gender, and we have the first speaker representing the Dynamic Coalitions. I want to ask you, how can we address the links between digital inequality and social and economic inequality in the times of global health crisis in the context of COVID pandemic and in the context of gender to make really gender equal, gender responsive, gender sensitive digital policy, gender sensitive and responsive Internet Governance and the floor is yours. For some reason, I do not see ‑‑ is there anyone from the Dynamic Coalition on Gender that wants to take this question.
If not we'll shift that to a later time, Dynamic Coalition on Gender, if you come online at some point, please let me know, and then I'm going to move to Dynamic Coalition on Public Access in Libraries.
From your submission, we saw that your Dynamic Coalition works in the context of the global health crisis by working on what you call meaningful access. From your perspective how your Dynamic Coalition works to solve these inequality, to bridging this gap in meaningful access.
Again, I cannot see the room unfortunately. All I can see is only the Zoom room. Is there anybody from Dynamic Coalition on Public Access in Libraries?
>> VALENSIYA DRESVYANNIKOVA: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the introduction. Great to be here, also very pleased to open the discussion.
Indeed a key area, meaningful universal connectivity and our area of expertise, as you guessed from the name, Internet Access in shared and public community facilities like libraries.
The last few months, we have observed, the flexibility, the innovation in being able to access provisions we have been seeing. So libraries and similar venues doing everything from access to computer, connected to the Internet by appointment, wi‑fi outside of the building, access points in outdoor public spaces, hot spots, other measures that target the issue of people unfortunately left behind when personal access is not available for one reason or another.
Speaking to the concept of meaningful inclusion, it is the way public access computers and Internet have been leveraged to meet community needs and support digital skills training, for example, to power access to eLearning and upskilling for job seekers and so on, so on.
Seeing this versatility of this tool at everyone's disposal basically, what we have been focused on recently is gathering evidence, recommendations, good practices for maximizing this impact of public access. We have recently released consolidated report on the role that public access plays in broadband policies, so both what policy mechanisms are available to enable this and examples and lessons learned from rolling out these policy measures in practice on the ground essentially.
A few days ago, actually released a working draft on the impact of public access looking at studies and reports from sort of different regional country contexts and the way that public access basically makes a difference and what evaluation measures are there to support further data gathering. It has been very interesting for us, of course, to also take stock of this recent evidence. For example, to see what user groups tend to rely on public access, why public access ‑‑ why use public access when alternatives are there. For example, in some areas, there's been interesting evidence suggesting that there is substantial demand for on the spot support from the staff with digital query, anything from how to find a specific website to how to use a particular eGovernment service and so on, so on.
I'll stop there to try to keep this short. We're, of course, delighted to be here and to have a chance to connect and take stock and to look ahead.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much. Thank you for keeping that short. I must say that in all these years, I'm keeping up with the work of the Dynamic Coalition and moderating this session is great to see how the Dynamic Coalition of Public Access in Libraries is advancing its work.
We are moving to the next issue, to Network Neutrality. I saw that Chris is already in the room. Very much willing to speak, and Chris, I have a question to you. You mentioned in your Dynamic Coalition paper, you wrote on the report of the value of Internet openness in times of crisis. From the perspective of your Dynamic Coalition, what can you do, what can we all do to secure this value of the open Internet in times of crisis.
The floor is yours.
>> CHRIS MARSDEN: My ‑‑ good day! I do exist! You can see me! It would be rude to just have the voice and not the speech!.
I have include in the chat a mini report back.
Thank you.
I apologize, I'm actually teaching at 5 past the hour. I asked to be called early and I won't be able to join for the second half of the session. With 16 other Dynamic Coalitions, I'm sure you will have plenty to talk about for the session.
We focus on interoperability in the Dynamic Coalition, this is a report back, the DC was yesterday afternoon, we were the last session yesterday afternoon mainly online. Everybody appeared to be able to contribute despite the net neutrality issues in certain places.
There are three points to make really from the Dynamic Coalition. Neutrality, it is very much an issue that involves interoperability as a requirement because of the ‑‑ not just for the Internet, but the platforms that interoperate. This is a great problem not just because telcos don't always make it easy to interoperate between different systems, particularly what they insist on calling over the top service, which is their insulting way of saying we can regulate what happens happening in Skype although they're not quite us because they compete with us, which, of course, is an original net neutrality problem, but also because of the difficulties in terms of being able to communicate between those messaging services. As you can imagine, things like Facebook are not ecstatic about the idea that they may be faced to interoperate with other companies such as Telegram or Signal which may be more ‑‑ in one case, more privacy preserving and in the other case, more privacy invasive.
Interoperability is extremely important. There is a great amount of work that stakeholders need to do. We had conversations with regulators and several other stakeholders that's very useful and talked to science experts as well. We produced a statement, the statement that is being published today, but we agreed the statement yesterday in the session. That will be available, and there should be a clean version ‑‑ you can see actually on my notes I have included is there a clean version to share. We'll see if that's the case.
Second point: Heroic regulators. We had two heroes in the room with us yesterday from France and Norway, and they're doing a lot of work to enforce net neutrality. I think everybody in this room knows about five years ago, six years ago, seven years ago every country passed a law, yes, it is about the open Internet ‑‑ and as I can tell from Tatiana Tropina's face, open could mean absolutely anything!
Has it been enforced? The short answer is no. In very few countries is there any enforcement at all. I had the great joy over the years of visiting lots of countries, whether it is a complete refusal to enforce net neutrality from Mexico to Brazil, to my own country, the United Kingdom which was in Europe but is now in the middle of the Atlantic. Yeah. Major problems with that. Even transparency is an issue.
The third, final point I'll make: That we have in the past we saw problems about content providers able to access users on request. By this, Netflix, YouTube, so on. Of course last night there was a major problem caused by Amazon web services going down overnight, if any of you was in a hotel in Poland trying to Netflix and chill and discovering you couldn't, that wasn't a net neutrality violation last night. Almost certainly it wasn't.
We have an issue. We had an expert from Korea who was fantastically helpful talking about the battles there overpaid peer, a way of shaking down Netflix companies to get more money out of them, which is the emerging battle coming in net neutrality. Seven, eight years ago, this was the ninth meeting on net neutrality, we started in 2013, back in Bali for those that remember our time there together. In this, our ninth meeting we're no longer talking about Skype, WhatsApp, those problems that emerged in 2013 but about the problems of essentially the shaking down of the paid content providers. That going forward is going to be the issue.
In 2013 the blocking of Skype, WhatsApp, it is called net neutrality light, which is basically things that telcos don't do anything obviously evil, like blocking Skype or WhatsApp or Zoom, hopefully they're not doing that so people can contribute today. Today it is now much more about the shaking down of the content providers and essentially it is open season on the platforms, everybody knows they're under regulated and that the telcos want to take their piece of that pie which we may think is more appropriately dealt with through taxation or competition policy, the telcos think they can shake them down. That's a huge issue going forward.
That completes the voting of the Rio de Janeiro jury and me representing Luca hopefully usefully. Thank you.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much, Chris.
Thank you. Good luck with teaching later.
What really struck me, when I was reading the papers, because I did read them in ‑‑ with digital cooperation in mind, and I saw there are two Dynamic Coalitions who actually cooperated. I don't know if we have the Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity in the Zoom room, because I do not see Jane in the Zoom room, but perhaps on site? I have a question to Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity because I saw that this Dynamic Coalition joined forthwith Dynamic Coalition on Net neutrality to work on the report about the value of Internet openness in times of crisis which we have mentioned before. I wanted to ask what can be done for the open Internet in time of crisis from the perspective of Community Connectivity.
Jane, if you are in the room, the floor is yours.
>> CHRIS MARSDEN: If not, this is a Luca production.
There is a close relationship between the Platform Responsibility Dynamic Coalition, the Net Neutrality, and the Community Connectivity Dynamic Coalition as well. Those three things work together very well. I will say that I know a little, but only enough to be dangerous. I won't answer that question. Maybe Jane will chip in a little bit later.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much, Chris.
I would like to hand it over to Jennifer.
Jennifer, if there is no Jane in the room because I do not see her online in the Zoom. Maybe perhaps we can move now to the second issue area and come back to a few questions later if we will have more speakers joining.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Absolutely. Thank you, Tatiana. I do not believe I see Jane in the room. I'm sure there will be more time later for other Dynamic Coalitions or representatives of other Dynamic Coalitions to add to the very good points we have been hearing so far.
So now, without further ado, we're moving to issue area 2, environmental sustainability and climate change. Now, this is one of the topics that have been extremely discussed in both the previous digital edition of the IGF last year as well as this year there has been many sessions and also main sessions dedicated to this topic. I would like to turn to Internet Rights and Principles Coalition. IRPC. If ‑‑ do we have Santosh in the Zoom room? Just so we know. I see a nod already. This is great.
When we were looking at the issue papers that were submitted, we know that your Dynamic Coalition is dealing with a whole Spectrum of problems related to Human Rights in the digital context and one of the areas of your work is related to environmental sustainability. We saw that in your submission that the DC devoted efforts to this year to the issue of Greening Internet Governance. This is a term that I'm not particularly familiar with and I would like to hear a lot more.
How does your Dynamic Coalition contribute to these efforts?
The floor is yours.
Do we have ‑‑
>> TATIANA TROPINA: We actually do. I wonder if Santosh could speak, if not, we have Minda in the room, maybe you could take over if there is connectivity problems.
>> MINDA MOREIRA: Hello. Yeah. It will be short.
I would like to, yeah, talk a little bit about what we have been doing on environmental sustainability. We have the charter as our main guide, so our work has been drawing on this charter, the Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet that we published ten years ago. One of the articles, Article 4, the right to development, it has a clause that's environmental sustainability. A few years ago looking at several issues we also realized that this was one issue that was very timely and was not on the main agenda of the IGF. We started bringing it slowly to the IGF.
In 2018 we had our first meeting on sustainability, environmental sustainability and technology, later we came back on this issue in a flash session, the European Internet Governance. In 2019, we went back to the room with a big breakout session on climate change and the Internet, internet futures and climate change.
Since then, we have been working with other partners with EuroDIG for instance with we put together two sessions in 2021 and this year on environmental sustainability. Last year we tried to connect the issue of environmental sustainability, Internet technologies and Human Rights and we come back to the table this year again, tomorrow ‑‑ this afternoon ‑‑ with another session on artificial intelligence, environment and Human Rights. We think it is really important to highlight this issue, it is an issue that younger generations mostly are very passionate about and we worked together with this youth on this as well. We're really happy that at the moment the IGF has been highlighting this and is now in the main agenda.
We have a lot happening, not only at the IGF but throughout and a lot of work that came from within the IGF community and now is happening elsewhere. For instance, UNEP, many other example.
Greening Internet Governance, just to finish this is intersessional work we have been developing with EuroDIG. After all of the two sessions that we had last year and this year, we had decided to start intersessional group that's called Greening Internet Governance and obviously has all to do with bringing this issue to the agenda and seeing how you can within the Internet Governance community make sure that we have technologies that are not only rights based but also environmental sustainable.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you.
This is very enlightening for many of us. It is encouraging that you have been doing good cooperative work with EuroDIG, one of the regional IGFs, collaboration between the Dynamic Coalitions and the regional, national initiative, very important intersessional work of the IGF.
And also very important here at the IGF, environments and sustainability, it is part of the areas that the policy network on environment will talk about and look into. I believe they have their sessions later today and also tomorrow.
Is there anybody else in the Zoom room who would like to take the floor, Tatiana, on this particular issue area?
>> TATIANA TROPINA: I don't see any hands raised just yet. Please if you're in the Zoom room, you would like to add something to what's been said, please raise your hand and I will call your name.
Please, go ahead.
>> AMIR MOKABBERI: Thank you very much for giving me the floor.
I would like to mention an issue here, I would like to phrase it like this: I think if we're going ‑‑ before discussing about digital cooperation we should first define the nature and characteristics of good Internet. What is good Internet? What is good digital space? What kind of Internet and cyberspace are we going to shape together? A good Internet, we want to shape a good Internet and a development‑only oriented environment or we want to shape and militarize or have a stable Internet and we want to shape an Internet as new battlefield for cyber warfare at vulnerable level.
I would like to suggest that the issue the nature and characteristic of Internet should be at the agenda of global digital cooperation before digital cooperation is defined collectively the definition of Internet. How could we want to put digital economy and trade and relations and communications between nations on such an unstable, weaponized environment? Those who think the global declaration by our Member States, recognizing Internet as a civilian space only for peaceful purposes and global public goods could help achieving this goal. What would be the role of United Nations body in this regard? What is the contribution of the IGF Plus community in this regard?
I hope this comment and my statement will be reflected in IGF and I would like to request to approach this important issue, the definition of the nature and characteristics of Internet should be added to the agenda.
Thank you very much.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much.
Indeed, this is food for thought for the work of the Dynamic Coalition and perhaps something to reflect in the second part of this session.
Now I would like to hand it back over to you, Jennifer, to continue with the questions to Dynamic Coalitions. I do believe for the next one Yasmin would represent the DC Platform Responsibility.
Over to you, Jennifer.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you, Tatiana.
We're fully utilizing the hybrid format here.
Now we'll jump to the issue area 3, it is emerging regulation, market structure, content, data and consumer rights and protection. Huge issue area here! And we have many DCs working specifically on these topic areas. I'll turn first to the Dynamic Coalition on Platform Responsibility. I heard from Tatiana that Yasmin is in the Zoom room. I look forward to hearing from you.
The issue of content moderation has been at the center of the regulatory debate during the COVID pandemic. How does the work of this DC contribute to ensuring that approaches to content moderation are compliant with the Human Rights frameworks, are transparent and accountable and enable a safe, united, inclusive Internet.
Yasmin, the floor is yours.
>> YASMIN CURZI de MENDONCA: It is a pleasure to be here.
Our work, we have many works focusing on exploring various aspects of Platform Responsibilities and regulation, including by trying to bridge the gap between policymakers, academia and private sector via deliberation of the stakeholder.
>> DOREEN BOGDAN-MARTIN: As the recommendation on terms of service and of Human Rights and Best Practices on effective remedies. This year, we're also launching at the IGF at our session tomorrow the glossary of platforms of ‑‑ policy terms for platforms. We're concentrating our efforts to globalize such documents. The study of content moderation and Best Practices can be considered as compatibility ‑‑ compatible, sorry ‑‑ with Human Rights, it is a key concern of our past work also, including research, how it comes such as the 2019 special issue on platform values and the 2017 annual report on platform regulations and remains an essential topic of discussion for us.
I'm sorry if I'm speaking a bit slow and confusing. It's 6:00 in the morning here in Brazil. I think that's all of my contributions for this question.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you, Yasmin.
Not at all! That's actually the point! We want to showcase the very good work that all the Dynamic Coalitions are doing. Thank you for joining so early in the morning from Brazil. Also people who are very interested in Platform Responsibility, do go to their session tomorrow. You will be enlightened by the glossary that's being presented. It is very important.
Now I would like to turn to the Dynamic Coalition on Children's Rights in the Digital Environment. Now, I'll admit, I had the pleasure of personally attending their session yesterday at the IGF which they discussed the very good work that they do in the issue areas of children's rights. I see that you're online with us in the Zoom room as well.
So, how does the work of this Dynamic Coalition contribute to addressing the challenge of content regulation from the perspective of ensuring children's rights.
The floor is yours.
>> JUTTA CROLL: Thank you for giving me the floor. It is not so early in the morning here in Berlin.
First of all, I would like to mention that the Dynamic Coalition this year just changed their name from previously being the Dynamic Coalition on Child Online Safety now to the Dynamic Coalition on Children's Rights in the Digital Investment. Why did we do so? The work of the Dynamic Coalition is focused on balancing Human Rights, to privacy, freedom of speech, Freedom of Information with the Rights to protection. It was over 30 years ago that the United Nations acknowledged that children need special protection of their rights. Their rights need to be emphasized. They are Human Rights. They are in line with the Human Rights of all people in the world. They need to be emphasized. This was now over 30 years later. These rights have been adapted to the digital environment with the General Comment 25 on children's rights in the digital environment where several members of the Dynamic Coalition have been part of the working group together with the UN Committee on The Rights of the child have developed this General Comments. Now we have a global standard, how to understand children's rights to protect and the participation of the digital environment and how to guarantee that the best interest of the child is a primary consideration in policy and in Internet Governance. When I say we need to balance these rights, we know that it has always been under debate, whether the right of freedom of speech can override the right of children to be protected. Also the right to privacy of all users of the Internet seems to be somehow in contradiction to the right of protection. When a member of our Dynamic Coalition did a research recently in more than eight countries around the world over 70% of the respondents to that survey said that they would prioritize child protection over their individual privacy, and that would be necessary. We don't think that there is a conflict. There is an option to balance these rights.
The session that we held yesterday that Jennifer already referred to dealt with the question whether it's possible to have a harmonized legal framework with the best interest of the child being a primary consideration. That is what article 3 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the child, as well as Article 24 of the E.U. Charter of Human Rights is asking for, taking the best interest of the child as a primary consideration in any decision that's taken. That's what the Dynamic Coalition is working for and that's also what we are looking for to achieve with the Dynamic Coalition in the framework of Internet Governance.
That would be my contribution to the session. I'm looking pretty much forward to hearing from all of the other Dynamic Coalitions and especially where the lines are that we can cooperate the Platform Responsibility, that's, of course, related to the work of the Dynamic Coalition as well as Internet Rights and Principles that we are in close cooperation with.
Thank you so much.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you, Jutta.
Thank you for giving us the highlights of the really good work that the DC on Children's Rights in the Digital Environment has been doing. It sounds like it is not only cooperation within the DCs themselves as well but for this Dynamic Coalition, there's a lot of work that they worked with multisectoral and different stakeholders that all come together to ensure that children are protected online.
Now I would like to hand the mic back to my co‑moderator Tatiana to talk about issue area 4, advancing digital cooperation.
The floor is yours.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much, Jennifer.
Before we move to digital cooperation, I want to highlight two things.
First of all, the Dynamic Coalition on Gender fixed the connectivity issue so we can reask the question before we move to digital cooperation and then Jennifer, after the digital cooperation, in between the two sessions, if we have free time we have Bangladesh Hub having a question.
With this, I would like to invite you to speak, I will just repeat the question that we had for you.
The question was: How can we address the links between digital inequality and social and economic inequality in the context of this global health crisis and ensure that we make digital policies gender equal, gender responsive? What is your Dynamic Coalition doing in this regard.
The floor is yours.
>> DEBARATI DAS: Thank you.
In our work with DC gender we really center the idea of gender equality and inclusion within the digital and Internet rights and governance spaces. We think it is important in terms of policy and implementation especially because of the digital landscape has undergone significant changes during COVID and in our work we see that women and marginalized genders are increasingly sort of experiencing the need to be able to be equal with skills, to navigate the space freely and safely and we know that 54% of women actually in low end, middle income countries are using mobile Internet, which means that the gender gap is narrowing. Despite this, there is still gender gap in terms of access to devices, even access to the Internet which women, trans, nonbinary persons are facing a lot. That directly connects to access to food, healthcare, essential services, education, information and crucial help line, even the freedom from violence. This is not just an affordability issue, but because of social culture and norms as well, access is very, very restricted.
We think it really becomes important to address this interconnectedness of the digital gender divide and social and economic inequalities when having these conversations and thinking about how we can have gender equal rights forming policies in this space and really centering the lived experiences of gender with an intersectional lens of disability, et cetera, which also shapes the experiences very much.
We think not only addressing the access issue, you know, these sort of very rights‑driven issue, also discussing the surrounding issues around privacy, surveillance, et cetera. Which disproportionately affects women and girls and trans persons as well.
Thank you.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much. Thank you.
Now I can move to the last subject matter which is advancing digital cooperation. I would like to invite the Dynamic Coalition on Youth to speak, I know Eileen who was supposed to speak online has a connectivity issue. She told me that another who is actually on site will answer the question about this Dynamic Coalition. My question is, we saw from your submission that in this year, 2021 your Dynamic Coalition carried out a lot of activities on inclusive Internet Governance and digital cooperation.
If you think about the recommendation from youth, what would be your main point about advancing digital cooperation from the youth perspective.
I hope that you are in the room and the floor is yours.
I see you!.
>> EILEEN CEJAS: For now, connectivity is good.
Hello, I'm Eileen Cejas for the record. I'll speak to the youth of the Internet Governance and I Thank you for giving me the floor, we have contributed to advancing the digital policy debates by facilitating two webinar, one on environmental sustainability and climate change where we concluded at the outcome that we need to have more literacy on the environments and encourage companies, so implementing Corporate Social Responsibility and policy, et cetera, and another webinar on inclusive Internet Governance ecosystem and digital cooperation in collaboration with core Internet values, and some conclusions raised by the attendees were about the importance of keeping the core of decentralized Internet inclusive for all to foster the whole development of digital rights that are needed incentive to stimulate greater environments at the crossroads of youth, digital rights of governance and finally the youth is the most active stakeholder in digital engagement and youth should advocate making sure that policies guarantee Human Rights.
On the other hand, we partnered with the Youth IGF Poland for the organization of the Youth Summit, including the coordination of the working groups on intervention topics where we have a list of ten points of action for each working group with recommendations for stakeholders on the next accurate steps. This conclusion addresses issues, to mention quickly, the working group on inclusive Internet Governance, ecosystem, digital cooperation expressing there is a necessity to increase the linkage between the global IGF and the youth should be considered and recognized as a stakeholder. Some of the actors that could help us with our accommodations including the Dynamic Coalitions, the IGF secretariate and the intergovernmental organizations. The final report will be shared in a couple of weeks and we invite everyone to follow‑up on these recommendations at the Youth IGF Poland website and share this with stakeholders.
Thank you very much.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much.
I would encourage everybody to read the report.
You did mention the Dynamic Coalition on the Core Internet Values and we have Olivier here online. I hope we have you! And as the last speaker as usual, we have ran out of time in the first half of the session! You will have a bit of a challenge here! I'm going to ask you a question about digital sovereignty. In your submission you indicated this mismatch between the concepts of digital sovereignty anchor Internet values in the context of digital cooperation and it may be a huge challenge to answer my question in 3 minutes. What is the main effort of your Dynamic Coalition to bridge this gap to solve this mismatch and to contributing to solving this tension and preserving the core Internet values?
The floor is yours.
>> OLIVIER REPIN‑LEBLOND: Thank you for giving me the hardest question of all.
The Dynamic Coalition of core values as others have mentioned, it deals with the Internet's ‑‑ what some call the Internet's invariance, what basis the Internet was built on, mostly technical specifications. Some of the technical specifications are extremely important. When dealing with a network of network with no centralized control as such that is distributed in architecture, that is controlled I guess by the end users and with the network in itself being ran independently, each part of the network by its own operators then you have a real problem when it comes down to digital sovereignty. Why? Because digital sovereignty looks ‑‑ this is ‑‑ I'm not looking at the extreme case of digital sovereignty as in we need to connect ‑‑ gain control of the network. Most countries, in fact countries already have control of their own networks, anything physically in their country is something that they have control over. Unfortunately, one mixes the other layers you have with the actual control of the network itself and control of the information on the network. Unfortunately digital sovereignty is used in that pretext. The way we see in the Dynamic Coalition on Core Internet value, we see digital sovereignty, if you continue applying the core Internet values then you can have digital sovereignty over perhaps the content of things but you don't have digital sovereignty ‑‑ you don't have digital sovereignty over anything that's outside your own networks.
It's a complicated field. I think many that use the term digital sovereignty don't understand the way they're using it. It is kind of a buzzword in some way. When we recommend, the core Internet value, if you assess any law, any legislation, any regulation that you put in place locally and you assess it looking at the core Internet values you'll able to bring the balance that's required so as not to effectively kill the work of your network and to end up with a fragmentation of the Internet where you have different networks that don't really work with each other anymore and an enormous amount of filtering and all sorts of systems that stop you and I and everyone else from being able to use the Internet effectively and in a way that is also responsible of the environment and making use of the new technology that's out there.
I hope that kind of answers it.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much.
Indeed, thank you very much for bringing the word fragmentation. Now we're going to move to the second part of the session where we're going to discuss how to unfragment what's been fragmented, how to join our efforts on digital cooperation, what's the role of Dynamic Coalitions in cooperation so the efforts are not fragmented. I will hand it back to Jennifer for now.
I want to know, Jennifer ‑‑ I will leave this decision up to you ‑‑ if you want the Bangladesh Hub to ask the remote question now or in the middle of the second part.
Over to you.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you, Tatiana. I think it is a very good idea actually to take the question from the Bangladesh Hub right now if we can if that's possible.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Bangladesh Hub, can you speak?
>> DHAKA BANGLADESH: (Poor audio quality).
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Your sound is a bit muffled. Can you repeat what you said? Come closer to the microphone.
>> DHAKA BANGLADESH: Is that better?
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Sort of. Jennifer, can you hear on site?
>> (Poor audio quality).
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: I believe the audio may be a little muffled. Maybe that the point we can come back to the Bangladesh Hub when we open the floor to all of the DCs and the audience members.
Without further ado, let's go to section 2 of this main session. Now we're going to talk about how the DCs work with the future of digital cooperation and also at the IGF. We really want to thank you, Dynamic Coalitions, for present, showcasing all your work.
We want to look at how the Dynamic Coalition work strengthened the IGF and contributes to digital cooperation what, are the challenges to this, and what is already being done so we can pave the way to the future.
On the stage with me we have our distinguished guests from UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Wai Min Kwok and also from the office of the Secretary‑General's Envoy on Technology, Jason Munyan. I believe we'll also be hearing from ‑‑ yes! I see you in the Zoom room as well. We'll also have a speaker from the point of view from the MAG working group on the strategy and the future of the IGF as well.
First I would like to highlight that the Dynamic Coalitions, as they do every year, they do a paper on taking stock of the work that they have done. I would like to give the floor to Markus, somebody who needs no further introduction in this space.
Markus, please, you have the floor.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: I have the privilege to serve together with Jutta and others also in the Zoom room.
Over the year, we have produced a paper, and this is actually a first looking at the Dynamic Coalitions, the congressional achievements and we also looked at the modus operandi of the Dynamic Coalitions and maybe more importantly, we looked forward, how Dynamic Coalitions could contribute to IGF Plus digital cooperation and the Secretary‑General's proposed Common Agenda and Digital Compact.
Clearly Dynamic Coalitions are keen to make an effort to contribute to a more relevant IGF that's outcome oriented. They don't have all the answers, but the paper documents issue areas that need further exploration and that is subject of our discussion in the coming year, to see how we can work together better, also which has already been mentioned, with national, regional IGFs and also with the Best Practice Forums and integrate better in the global IGF network. There's a lot of food for thought in the paper and I would highly recommend to participants who have not yet seen it to look at it, read it, there is a short version and a long version. The long version may be daunting, it is 50 Pages plus, shorter version, it focuses on the issue areas that need further exploration.
Without ‑‑ I'll leave it at that. I'll hand it back over to you, Jennifer and Tatiana. Thank you very much for giving me the floor.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you, Markus.
I believe Markus, Tatiana, you can drop the link to this very interesting paper in the Zoom room and I encourage everybody in the room here as well to go on and to read through the full paper if you would, or the two‑page summary giving you a good idea of the work that the Dynamic Coalitions have done actually I believe since 2006 and Markus was very instrumental in all of the efforts as well as other efforts with the national, regional initiatives and the international IGF.
I would like to look at a first question for our guests, maybe I will turn to you first, Wai Min Kwok, in a few words, in your perspective, how can the Dynamic Coalitions strengthen digital cooperation and what do you think their role can be here?
>> WAI MIN KWOK: Thank you, Jennifer.
Greetings to everyone here, especially to Tatiana and also Markus. I'm honored to be here and to listen and be inspired by all of the good work done by the various Dynamic Coalitions.
I'm learning a lot myself, even though I know about the work of the Dynamic Coalitions but I'm very much surprised by how much advancement that you have made with the various tracks.
To answer to the question, in brief, I would like to borrow the UN Secretary‑General report on our Common Agenda, the specific paragraph calling on the IGF to adapt, innovate and reform. I remember that by the act nick AIR. In terms of adapting, which I heard ‑‑ I think you have done that a lot, but could be further to see how they can be adapted to the current issues. I like the approach to this in the program, how is the various work of the IGF Plus Dynamic Coalitions grouped around the three issue areas. I believe right now I heard that a lot of the Dynamic Coalitions in terms of addressing the current crisis, especially the health crisis, not to lose sight that they are at a global crisis that we're all facing, maybe it is the food crisis, water crisis, security crisis. It may sound negative, on the positive side, also not to lose track of all of the SDGs, and we're gaining good momentum, there is good things, at the same time we're aware that we will not be on track to achieve many of the SDG targets. It is really to think of how to ‑‑ again, you're doing that, a number of the Dynamic Coalitions, but from the UN perspective, coming from UNDESA, we very much see the alignment of how to look at the work of the Dynamic Coalitions that can align to the SDG.
In terms of innovate, I would just say very quickly, it is to better connect the dots to other work.
Again, I heard about how you are collaborating among the different Dynamic Coalition, be it the NEI, but also perhaps with other intergovernmental bodies. I see my colleagues from UNESCO, others here.
On the part of UNDESA, I would very much say that we would have to do our part in terms of connecting to the ‑‑ not just to the UN agencies. Other UN bodies, like in UNDESA, we support the commission on social development, population commission, and there are a lot of relevant work, overlapping work that I do believe that your work would be very much valued by them.
Last but not least, in terms of the reform. The reform I believe ‑‑ I appreciate what Markus mentioned about looking always, to take stock what can be done. I still believe that there is more work that could be done to increase the visibility of your work, putting it together. I know you collect new data, you have new findings, but maybe together with IGF secretary UNDESA, we could think of a better way to have a more visible platform to showcase your work.
Back to you, Jennifer.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you.
I would like to turn over to my right here, to Jason. I know there is a different kind of a bird's eye view and also a lot of I guess consultation with the community in different sectors as well as stakeholders that the Office of The Secretary‑General's Envoy on Technology does. What is your perspective on this? How do you think that the Dynamic Coalitions can add to this and strengthen this?
>> JASON MUNYAN: Thank you. Thank you for the organizer, the Host Country and host city. For me personally it is great to be here. Migrate grandmother came from this region from Silesia to the United States years ago and it is personal to come here. Thank you to all of you joined, whether it is early in the morning in Brazil, elsewhere, thank you to those of you that attended online and we see you just so you know in the room, we do see the Zoom, it is great to be able to see you. Thank you, obviously to those of you that have come in person. Especially, thanks to all of you that contributed to the Dynamic Coalitions, it a lot of work, effort, thoughts that's gone into that. I know you all do that on a voluntary basis on top of everything else that you do. So just want to make sure that you heard the sincere appreciation for all of your efforts and what you're doing in the work in the Dynamic Coalitions. It really is appreciated.
To Jennifer's question, we are seeing that digital issues have really risen in the agendas of Member States and importance. We saw, as you know last year, it was the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and in the commemoration we had global consultation. We had a number of dialogues and we had consultations arranged by Mission Publica, citizen dialogues and it was clear that there is an interest in the national community for cooperation on digital matters. Indeed, in the global declaration on the commemoration of the anniversary, there is a paragraph on digital cooperation. We also saw in the General Assembly and high‑level week and in the opening of the General Assembly a number of Member States, over 30 Member States by our count, discussed various digital matters such as trust and security online, disinformation, you know, these different issues protecting Human Rights online. These all relate to the work that you're doing in the Dynamic Coalitions.
There's a lot of hard work that you have done, a lot of expertise that you have, and the question is how can we make sure that it reaches the right people, that it reaches those that will be developing policy, that it will reach Member States that are grappling with the issues, that it will reach start‑ups looking at how to apply technologies and how can they do that in a responsible manner.
We need to find a way to make the work of the Dynamic Coalitions accessible and in a way for us to be able to bring it up in these discussions and for people to be able to quickly get up to speed on the rich discussions you have been having in these coalitions.
So one way, that I see, it is by having a mechanism of having regular updates to our office. We're a very small team as you know. We do have a number of recommendation groups related to the work of the Dynamic Coalitions. Perhaps regular communication to keep us up to speed on what's been going on in your coalitions so we can be aware and we can bring them up with different UN agencies within the UN system and also with external parties, with different stakeholders in the community.
Then, as we ‑‑ as the Secretary‑General looks to us for inputs or as we have meetings, then we can be able to bring up the work and the inputs of the Dynamic Coalitions in these settings. I think having this channel, the regular updates to our office would be very helpful. As you may know, within our office, we have leads on various issues of the work steams related to the roadmap for digital cooperation, for example I lead our work on digital Human Rights, other colleagues focus on connectivity and inclusion. These updates can help us be aware and to plug them in to this work.
I think another like Wai Min Kwok mentioned, the visibility of the work that you're doing, especially if there is anything ‑‑ you know, there is a lot of activities, there may be different meeting reports, there is a way to kind of present it in a thematic manner that's easily digestible, in one page, two pages we can very quickly see what's been discussed. We understand there is a lot of nuance, a lot of disagreements, and it is great for us to see that.
There is some kind of a way for it ‑‑ for to us quickly be able to share this with people as these issues come up.
Obviously, as was also mentioned, we're looking to the Global Digital Compact. You know, there is the Global Summit in the future, then leading to the Global Digital Compact.
We're approaching the digital compact from a blank slate. We expect as you see in the Common Agenda, to cover a number of areas related to the Dynamic Coalitions, connecting all people, first and foremost, avoiding Internet fragmentation, protecting data, applying Human Rights online, so on.
So we would look to Dynamic Coalitions to be able to provide inputs for the Global Digital Compact, especially the efforts of the youth and the Dynamic Coalition on Youth that you can be able to share voices from the youth.
We're really going to look to make this a multistakeholder, global consultation so that we can have the best possible understanding of these issues and reflect them in this compact.
These are some areas I see. Obviously I'm interested in any other further suggestions and inputs you may have.
Thank you.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you, Jason.
I think we're all astounded.
We have so much work that the Office of The tech envoy does. We're not actually aware that it is a very small team. You all seem to be everywhere. I think that's the beauty of it. I hope, you know, you are mentioning that the Global Digital Compact is a blank slate right now, but there is so much good work being done and so much rich work being done with the Dynamic Coalitions that I'm sure they'll be more than happy to give you the insight and the snapshots that would enlighten the rest of the community as well as beyond the Internet community that of course is very important of all of the issues and the policies that's discussed.
Now I would like to turn to Titi with us on Zoom and she's instrumental at the MAG working group on strategy. This is really important to hear from her too.
Would you like to give us your thoughts on how the Dynamic Coalitions can also help strengthen digital cooperation?
>> CONCETTINA CASSA: Thank you for giving me the floor inviting me. It is a great honor to be here.
It is important, the Dynamic Coalition contributes to the digital cooperation. This is a subject that's been discussed very much inside of the MAG working group on IGF strategy, especially we have several documents on this. We actual considered the recommendations very important, giving great value to the digital cooperation. They are a network, a big network, and also because they are focusing and discussing with continuity ongoing issues, so between IGF and another one, so in the discussion, one of the most important results, it was that we could consider Dynamic Coalitions, just referring to the IGF Plus model, this should be considered.
One element to be improved, considered, the feasibility. The Dynamic Coalitions sort of try to share more the results, increasing the reciprocity, trying to share and link the results with as much to the international community as possible. Also using NRI's network to share the results because they're excellent. A point I think also could be considered, it is maybe some reflection to be made inside of the commission to have an impactful output, guideline, a report is excellent, but maybe some reflections would be also starting on how to have more impact, maybe one could be to try to lead the results to the regional agenda and also to the working group as accredited as the UN activity on the roadmap and to reactivate also on our Common Agenda report.
Just to conclude, I think there is a potential, important potential as they are embracing also a lot of subjects. They could really a great value to the digital cooperation.
Thank you, Jennifer.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you for highlighting such important work that really needs to be, you know, the spotlight needs to be shown on it.
I see a lot of our Dynamic Coalition colleagues in the room. I know you have been listening very carefully and also we would like to invite you to contribute to our next question as well and I would like to pass this over back to my co‑moderator, Tatiana.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much, Jennifer.
Indeed, with this question, I would like to invite speakers to contribute, but I also want the Dynamic Coalitions to chime in here.
My question, and I think I could already spot some of the answers to this question from the speakers' interventions especially from you, Jason, my question was, if you want to think about one challenge for DC and their roles for the future of the IGF, for the future of digital cooperation but one, the most important, for you, what would this be? I believe I will probably start with Jason. I did hear him talk about something that looked like a challenge to me and then we can go forth and back between the speakers and the Dynamic Coalitions. Anybody in the room from the Dynamic Coalitions, if you want to talk, please raise your hand. Main challenge. Mark, I see your hand. First, Jason, over to you.
>> JASON MUNYAN: Sure. I would say the main challenge I see right now, just helping us access in a concise manner the inputs that you have. You know, for example, within the UN system I coordinate an interagency working group on Freedom of Expression, social media, we have developed key messages, going from a number of pages. When the spokesperson for the United Nations is asked in the daily press briefing a question on Freedom of Expression, social media, we can't go in the discussions taking place and the efforts and the activities, we have to have in a few lines talking points. It would be helpful as a way to in a concise manner summarize the main thinking or the issues that are being addressed by Dynamic Coalitions so we can very quickly reference it.
I liked the reference in one of the presentations by the Dynamic Coalitions on how there is a glossary that's going to be announced. I'm very interested in seeing that. I can quickly be able to access where the key topics are and as we prepare talking points, respond, we know what they are. It is long winded. But I would say the challenge, to very quickly distill and understand and digestible manner, what are the key issues. I think one example, it is, you know, when a senior official in Member States, you know, they often have preparations of concise briefings on security matters. I think it would be helpful if the Dynamic Coalitions have very brief consolidated summaries that could quickly be referenced to get up to speed on what's going on.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much, Jason.
Mark, before I pass over to you, I want to acknowledge that we received the Bangladesh remote hub question in writing on the chat. I will read it at some point. I believe this question is more toward the end of the session because it is broad and overarching question.
Now, mark, over to you, Mark.
>> MARK CARVELL: Thank you very much.
Greetings to everybody, whatever time zone you're in.
It is great to join you today. By way of introduction, I'm senior policy advisor for a relatively new Dynamic Coalition, the Dynamic Coalition on Internet Standards, Security and Safety.
We started about a year ago, we launched at the last IGF. I put some information in the chat as has my colleague, the coordinator and very much the leading expert for the coalition.
Just to focus on the challenge, I mean, we have got going in our coalition and we are very output oriented and actually my initial thought on the challenge was partially addressed by Jason because it is important for us to get our outputs out. As I mentioned in the text I put in the chat, we are aiming to produce policy recommendations that should grab the ear of governments and also decision takers in the private sector. We need channels of communication out from the IGF and it is great to know that the office for the Envoy on Technology, Jason's department in the Secretary‑General's office are going to champion the outcomes from Dynamic Coalitions.
Because we are a year round activity, the IGF is an annual event. I know the Secretary‑General is looking for the IGF Plus to move towards a more year round activity. That's what we are. We need channels of communication.
My main challenge now, to articulate is support. We need to do research and we have been talking to a lot of people to help us out in providing us with some financial base to do the research. That's what we're coming up against as a real ‑‑ almost a barrier really ‑‑ to making gross. We do envisage needing to establish a research platform that's going to cost money. We need ‑‑ may need to pay consultants to help us out, so on. How do we get the kind of financial support that's going to help all the volunteer experts who are joining us to do the work and that we then expedite that work in a very effective, professional academically sound manner that's going to produce credible results that policymakers are mentioning and the decision taker, they're going to respect. That's our big challenge.
You know, we could talk more about this in our session tomorrow as also underlined in the chat, we do have our main session tomorrow afternoon and we also have a networking session on Friday when we really want to hear from stakeholders about how to engage and how to help us with these challenges. We know that there is a lot of sympathy with our mission to make the Internet more secure and safer for individual user, for corporate icer, for micro business, innovator, so on. This is really the heart of Sustainable Development Goal 9, about creating resilient infrastructure that's going to increase access to technologies and create an entrepreneurial approach that is key to Sustainable Development and the 2030 Agenda, and that links into, of course, the Roadmap of Digital Cooperation and the Digital Compact as Jason has clearly described.
Sorry for going on at length. It is a big challenge for us.
Thank you.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much, mark.
A few moderational things, I see your hand up, Olivier, I acknowledge it, not giving you the floor yes, I believe we have a few hands raised in the room. Before handing it over to Jennifer for the onsite questions I want to read and acknowledge the question from Bangladesh, they think that this sort of feeds into the discussion and in the general discussion, the question is not directed to anybody, but something like a food for thought for all of you. As all know, we're passing a critical area, how do we have affordable, safe, inclusive connectivity in this time of crisis? Have any plans or suggestions from this session? Is there a plan or any suggestions from this session. I think we're sort of getting these fragments of the answer to this question. Please do continue to bare this question in mind. Jennifer, over to you. Olivier, you're next after the on-site interventions.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you.
If we could have a mic over here, we have a colleague from the Dynamic Coalition on Universality Indicators.
>> Thank you, Jennifer, for giving me the floor.
Congratulations to all my colleagues of the Dynamic Coalitions. I believe we have more than 20 DC coalitions. This is my first time, not just on behalf of UNECSCO but on behalf of the Dynamic Coalition, the Universality Indicators. We have been working for a year, I thank the support from Anriette Asterhuysen and others, it was your idea to initiate the first DC initiative hosted by the intergovernmental organization like UNESCO, it is a living example of a modern stakeholder approach.
Basically we have been applying the Internet and the indicators in 33 countries. The national governments, ministers, ministries, researchers, private sector, technical communities, they're on board to our Dynamic Coalition, naturally a part of the coalition. They support this should be based on Human Rights, open, accessible, and also driven by the multistakeholder approach.
I see the power of the Dynamic Coalition as a very tangible outcome of Internet Governance Forum which is not limited to talk shop but really, really formulated actions. It is synergizing connecting us, really making organizations, individuals, different people to work together, to have the action to make changes, which is really I think the big challenge of all of us for UN. My colleagues from UNDESA, from tech envoy office colleague, you know, now we're moving ahead to the Digital Summit to looking at digital compact, Common Agenda, is we need to change, make action.
From my experience, a big change. One is financing, in my Dynamic Coalition, we have so many requests from the African countries, from other countries, they need to do an assessment of the financial report, the financial support and on the other hand, they also need the technology, capacity, the training and methodology of how to measure so complicated policy issues in national level. That's also another policy that the Dynamic Coalition ‑‑ to help with the overall support, ranging from finance to technology, to capacity building. So that's how I perceive the strategic importance of Dynamic Coalition.
Last point I'm very conscience of time, I want to respond to the question on the challenge of how to improve: I think ‑‑ look, we have 20 Dynamic Coalitions, each Dynamic Coalition is a different animal, they're tackling different things. We have so many crosscutting areas, we're having maybe shared members of the different coalitions. I would expect this next session could be very open, equal forum to have 20 plus Dynamic Coalitions to share their work and also to share lessons learned, sharing how they manage their Dynamic Coalition. That's a second challenge I see. We should also exchange not only on the things but the management of the Dynamic Coalition because we're like a sustainable model, how we manage it, it is the criteria, do we have any template, modality to follow? I want to hear from other Dynamic Coalition leaders of how they're making the coalitions really dynamic and impactful.
Last thing I would like to maybe hear more from as colleagues have really talked about what to do best to achieve the common digital agenda.
Thank you.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you. I guess the DC on universal indicators has worked closely with the NRIs as well, I remember you also presented at the Asia‑Pacific regional IGF the good work that's being done.
I think the next person we have is from the Dynamic Coalition on Sustainability of Journalism and News Media, Courtney.
>> Courtney Rausch: Thank you very much. There were excellent points that our Dynamic Coalition would similarly emphasize in terms of the issue around management and sustainability and resources needed. I think also one of the things about the DC model that's really interesting, it is it allows communities of practice to get together. One of the interesting things about our Dynamic Coalition is we have journalists from all over the world and the interest in the issue, they can't get involved in the Internet Governance Forum, they're doing the job of journalism, that's one of the things for us to think about as Dynamic Coalitions, and as the IGF. There is a very ‑‑ there is a need to ensure that anyone who wants to be part of Internet Governance can, but we cannot expect that everyone must be in order to be heard. I think that's where Dynamic Coalitions can play a really important role.
I think also for other Dynamic Coalitions to really think about and to be involved in Dynamic Coalitions that are working on similar issues or overlapping issues. For example, I'm involved in the Platform Responsibility coalition. I think this new trust and security coalition would be great if you come to our session tomorrow, that is about integrity and trust. Specifically around the new, but how can we embed that into the algorithms and into the indicators that have to do with content moderation online.? I want to encourage us to think how we build on the coalitions we have to sustain them. We have seen the evolution, for example, the Dynamic Coalition on Gender, how that has evolved from digital rights, focus on misinformation and gender disinformation this year.
I want to invite people to get more involved and for the IGF to think about how do you make these more sustainable models? We do need more support. We are ran by the global forum for media development, as everyone know, the news industry has been decimated and really impacted by technology and especially by COVID. You know, we feel it is so important, the future of Internet Governance has so much to do with the future of our information ecosystem. I want to hear more about what the secretariate and what the community plans to do to support Dynamic Coalitions.
Thank you.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: I see one more hand from the floor. I will have to apologize, we already gave some time over to mark on your DC, the gentleman over here, maybe let us know which DC you're from.
>> Hello. I'm from Nigeria. I'm the officer of the Nigerian Internet Governance Forum in the Ministry of Digital Economy.
My question is about Dynamic Coalition in Africa and Nigeria in particular.
I would like to know what Dynamic Coalition is doing in joining partnership with the national, regional initiative and NRIs, particularly in Nigeria, we have our own national IGF, we call it Nigerian Internet Governance Forum. How can we partner with Dynamic Coalitions so that they can help us out in terms of capacity building and enlightenment and so on.
Thank you very much.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you so much for your question. I think from all of the DCs we have heard that they have already been doing very good collaboration with NRIs. I'm sure they will be very happy to work even further with the NRI network, especially with the Nigerian IGF.
I want to go quickly to Anriette Asterhuysen, we want to hear from our chair of the multistakeholder Advisory Group and then I'll give it back to my co‑moderator.
Anriette.
>> ANRIETTE ASTERHUYSEN: Thank you. I'm sorry I arrived late. Just a very quick contribution.
I think that ‑‑ I think Dynamic Coalitions producing incredible work.
I think one of my pleasures as a MAG chair is to be asked to write prefaces for the annual reports of Dynamic Coalitions which means I have to read them which means I'm very impressed. I think what needs to be done is for the IGF secretariate not to just be able to support the NRIs and support the Dynamic Coalitions, I think they're doing that increasingly well, I think there needs to be capacity to make links between institutions. The outputs of Dynamic Coalitions should be profiled, should be made more visible and should by staff within the IGF secretariate, they do not have this capacity at the moment, be able to then be connected and channeled to specifically identified and very targeted way institutions. I think that's a capacity that the IGF secretariate does not have yet. It does the work of supporting brilliantly with very little resources. This is a new layer. I think the strength of the multistakeholder process and the depth of the outputs really will only have impact if we can link them to specific decision making fully across the Spectrum from government to industry to multistakeholder to intergovernmental.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you. Thank you for shining the spotlight also on the IGF secretariate, I give praise over to the Office of the tech envoy, but the IGF secretariate clearly, a very small team that you cannot even imagine how much work and how much coordination that they do to put this whole thing together.
I would like to put the mic back to my co‑moderator Tatiana. I believe there are hands in the Zoom room.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Apology, we're running a bit over time. I think it is important to give the floor to two people that have been patiently waiting, Olivier and Ma. Rianne and then back to Jennifer and others for the closing, last remarks on challenges and then we'll be done.
The floor is yours.
>> OLIVIER CREPIN‑LEBLOND: It is hard to speak up following Anriette Asterhuysen. I quickly agree with the point she's making.
You know, the point repeated a number of times, the channel for the outputs to be publicized, that's important. Volunteers don't work for money, they work for a cause and they want to see what they have worked for has effect and is being used by others. The biggest result they get is recognition for the work that's been done. We really have to think about ways to improve this and to involve the other stakeholder, those that don't often or used to using different sources as well.
The point Anriette Asterhuysen made of using this in the UN is well received.
A last concern for me, really the volunteer effort and interest these days. As you have seen in many of the recent Internet Governance fora, national, regional ones as well, there has been a waning number of volunteers, because of COVID, we can't see each other face‑to‑face. We have to think of ways to sustain this and rekindle that interest from younger members of the community that will be able to come in and that's something that we all have to work on together.
Thank you.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you.
Speaking of the Internet coalition ‑‑ Dynamic Coalition for Internet rights and principle, the floor is yours.
>> MARIANNE FRANKLIN: Briefly, responses to the challenge from our honorable speaker earlier.
What can we do as Dynamic Coalitions within and together with the IGF, very briefly, there is an internal answer and external answer. Within the IGF I echo the requests and comments from Mark about the need for material support which has been improving, just having a DC coordination group is one sign of this.
We need more explicit, no, we need explicit recognition of every Dynamic Coalition output, no matter how provocative, controversial, in the official record of the IGF, not in a separate siloed tab called Dynamic Coalitions, without the Dynamic Coalitions there is no Internet Governance Forum constituency in many ways. That's internal.
External, the forum is a special part of the UN project, the UN domain. We need to have all eyes on the Global South and we need to make inclusivity a real concrete and material reality, and we have come far. We also need to communicate that this is a complex issue area. Like life, it is complex. This does not mean that you cannot take part.
Complexity is what we begin with, multilevel, multidimensional ways of working is what we begin with, but the Internet Governance Forum has a very, very low public profile. I think the UN itself can do a lot and UN Member States could do a lot to improve that. So we could also agree to disagree, that's when our real change happens. Thank you very much for a wonderful Dynamic Coalition and again to our secretariate and pioneering people that got the DCs, this space in the meeting. Without it, we would have no voice.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: I'm reprimanded by the technical team now.
I would like to wrap it up and to hand it over to you first.
Any last remarks.
>> CONCETTINA CASSA: Three things: First of all, it is the sustainability; second one, it is try to improve the links with the international organization and UN agencies; and the last one, it is working on outcomes, to have a more impact, all over the regional, the global level.
Impact, this means outputs, interlink, improving the links and also to have funds to make it work.
Thank you.
>> TATIANA TROPINA: Thank you very much.
Jennifer, over to you.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you, Tatiana.
I will give the last words first to Jason.
>> JASON MUNYAN: Thank you, Jennifer.
Just quickly, I appreciate the interventions. There was one comment on how Dynamic Coalitions need more financing. It would be helpful to know how much financing is needed and what the financing would be for because if we can make it a bit concrete then maybe we can look at proposals or look at how to mobilize that financing. I would be interested to hear more about that.
The other thing, it is if there ‑‑ there is so much rich expertise among the Dynamic Coalitions, I appreciate hearing about it, all of the journalists involved and in the other coalitions mentioned.
I think there is ‑‑ among this community, there is resources we can tap into. In addition to the IGF secretariate and all that they do, we can also look at companies, universities, journalist, others involved and see how they can also support the Dynamic Coalitions, for example, could we organize maybe capacity building or training among Dynamic Coalition, for example, how to package the outputs of the Dynamic Coalitions so that they're easily accessible to the public. I imagine some journalists would have some great ideas for how we can better make this information accessible to the broader public and so maybe look at the linkages. I know some companies we have worked with are also eager to share training, expertise. They may not contribute financing directly but they may be able to support some of the knowledge and the capacity building among our teams so we can explore that.
Thank you.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you, Jason.
Final words over to Wai Min Kwok.
>> WAI MIN KWOK: Thank you, Jennifer.
I just would like to possibly chip in to highlight the challenge and I stand to be corrected, I believe there's a need to better engage the industries, private sector companies, including the big tech companies in the work and in the conversation of the Dynamic Coalitions. I think this is one part missing. Jason mentioned about connecting the work of Dynamic Coalition with the senior officials of the United Nations and we have passionate stakeholders including from government, Civil Society, also academia, technical community. The missing piece is really the private sector which is a challenge for IGF itself I must say.
The last, I would like to just mention the work of the Dynamic Coalitions to the future in terms of supporting the Summit of the future that's also Jason's office, together with UNDEZ and other UN agencies are supporting, to see how I think already you are doing a lot of work in terms of norms, value, principles, and very soon we would like to put together the work of everybody, including Dynamic Coalitions to see how we can contribute to the Global Digital Compact.
Back to you, Jennifer.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you.
To all the Dynamic Coalitions who presented your work, showcased your work, thank you for your contribution to making your main session such a great enriching session for all of us here both in Katowice and also online on Zoom. Thank you for the indulgence of the tech team and the translators and everyone here who is giving us extra time. Please do remember there are Dynamic Coalitions who are still yet to present their work in detail. Do go to the IGF interactive schedule and take a look, a closer look at the good work that they're doing.
Thank you, everyone, for your time and your contributions.