Session
OECD
Ms. Verena Weber, OECD, Intergovernmental Organization
Mr. Maximilian Reisch, OECD, Intergovernmental Organization
Mr. Hokuto Nakagawa, OECD, Intergovernmental Organization
Ms. Maki Takahashi, Principal Deputy Director, Telecommunications Policy Division, Telecommunications Business Department, Telecommunications Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) Japan [Government, Asia Pacific]
Ms. Agnė Vaiciukevičiūtė, Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania [Government, Europe]
Ms. Adriana Labardini, Association for Progressive Communications Policy & Regulation Coordinator in LAC for Rhizomatica-APC [Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean (GRULAC)]
Mr. Kojo Boakye, Vice President of Public Policy for Africa, Middle East and Turkey, Meta [Technical Community]
Mr. Alejandro Solano Diaz, CFO, ONNET Fibra Colombia [Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean (GRULAC)]
Ms. Verena Weber, Head of the Communications Infrastructures and Services Policy Unit, OECD.
Maximilian Reisch, OECD
Hokuto Nakagawa, OECD
3. Good Health and Well-Being
4. Quality Education
5. Gender Equality
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
10. Reduced Inequalities
13. Climate Action
16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
17. Partnerships for the Goals
Targets: • SDG Goal 9 (Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation): o Target 9c of the SDGs called to “significantly increase access to ICT and strive to provide universal and affordable access to Internet in LDCs by 2020”. This workshop directly addresses how we can ensure long-term investments in high-quality networks. It will further leverage the OECD Recommendation onf Broadband Connectivity which provides direct input to several other SDGs as mentioned below. • SDG Goal 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages): o The OECD Recommendation on Broadband Connectivity promotes the elimination of digital divides and access to connectivity for all, including all locations, genders, abilities, and socio-economic circumstances. The Recommendation explicitly mentions the promotion of programmes for low-income and other non-adopting households. o In addition, the OECD Recommendation on Children in the Digital Environment also refers to the digital environment as a fundamental part of children’s lives in a number of contexts, including in formal and informal health services. It also calls upon Actors (i.e. all public and private organisations who play an active role in setting policies and practices or providing services for children in the digital environment) to make children, as well as their parents, guardians, and carers, aware of legal, psychosocial, or therapeutic services available. • SDG Goal 4 (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all): o Access to high-quality connectivity becomes increasingly indispensable to ensure equal access to education. The OECD Recommendation on Broadband connectivity promotes the elimination of digital divides. It promotes access for all and fostering the adoption and effective use of advanced broadband services at affordable prices, accessible for everyone, including all locations, genders, abilities, and socio-economic circumstances. o The OECD Recommendation on Children in the Digital Environment also highlights the importance of education for children, specifically calls for the support of teachers, and promotes digital literacy as an essential tool for meeting the needs of children in the digital environment. • SDG Goal 5 (achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls): o The OECD Recommendation on Broadband Connectivity explicitly promotes access to connectivity and effective use of advanced broadband services at affordable prices, accessible for everyone, including all genders. o The OECD Recommendation on Children in the Digital Environment has specific parts which recognise that there are specific groups of children who may require specific attention because of their age, maturity and circumstances – including gender. The needs of girls, or other children who might suffer increased exposure to risk, or who may suffer bias and discrimination purely because of who they are is also captured in the Recommendation. • SDG Goal 10 (Reduce inequality within and among countries): o The Recommendation on Broadband Connectivity recognises the importance of connectivity for the promotion of equal opportunities for all and the need for policies supporting access to ubiquitous deployment and use of broadband infrastructure and services. It furthermore contains several provisions to eliminate digital divides and promotes access for all, including all locations, genders, abilities, and socio-economic circumstances. o The Recommendation on Children in the Digital Environment seeks to ensure that no child is more vulnerable to risk because of their particular social or economic circumstances and that no child is at risk of being excluded or discriminated against, or likely to suffer a future bias, because of: (i) a lack of digital access or digital literacy; (ii) inappropriate digital access or digital literacy; or (iii) the way in which services are designed • SDG Goal 13 (Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts): o The Recommendation on Broadband Connectivity recognises the positive and negative impact of communication networks and services on the environment. It furthermore promotes the minimisation of negative environmental impacts of communication networks. • SDG Goal 16 (Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels): o Access to high-quality connectivity increasingly becomes a prerequisite for an inclusive society. The OECD Recommendation on Broadband connectivity promotes the elimination of digital divides. It promotes access for all and fostering the adoption and effective use of advanced broadband services at affordable prices, accessible for everyone, including all locations, genders, abilities, and socio-economic circumstances. o The Recommendation on Children in the Digital Environment has a specific section on “Appropriateness and Inclusion”, which states that Actors should (i) account for the different needs of different children, taking into consideration their age and maturity and (ii) seek to ensure that no child is more vulnerable to risk because of their particular social or economic circumstances. The instrument also recommends that Adherents demonstrate leadership and commitment taking into account the best interests of the child by (i) adopting clear policy objectives at the highest level of government; (ii) articulating a whole-of-government approach, through a national strategy where appropriate, that is flexible, technology neutral, and coherent with other strategies for fostering a sustainable and inclusive digital economy; and (iii) consider establishing oversight bodies. • SDG Goal 17 (Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development): o The OECD Recommendation on Broadband connectivity promotes the elimination of digital divides. It promotes access for all and fostering the adoption and effective use of advanced broadband services at affordable prices, accessible for everyone, including all locations, genders, abilities, and socio-economic circumstances. In addition, it promotes the minimisation of negative environmental impacts of communication networks.
Panel
English
All stakeholders involved in Internet governance, be it civil society, governments, academia, the technical community and businesses agree that digital transformation is not possible without high-quality connectivity. Given this agreement, our joint important task is to answer the question of how to ensure a long-term and sustainable approach to financing our broadband networks and to ensure they reach everyone. The answer to this question determines how broadband networks will evolve and the coverage and quality they can provide. This topic is much debated in different parts of the World, be it in Europe where the European Commission launched an important consultation on this matter, in Asia or Latin America. This workshop will be a contribution to the active debate taking place across continents. While, for a large part of the 20th century, single entities had a monopoly in infrastructure, we now have different players with a range of different business models, corresponding to multiple ways to finance communication infrastructure. This workshop will explore the diversity of funding models and shed light on the financial landscape around connectivity infrastructure, ranging from submarine cables to fixed and mobile networks, and the different opportunities to leverage funds to connect people and things.
The panel will discuss the following key questions:
- How can we ensure that enough funding goes into broadband networks?
- How can the public and private sector join forces to ensure long-term investment in broadband networks?
- What should be the priority areas for policy makers to strengthen investments in the broadband market and foster inclusive access to connectivity?
- What innovative approaches can we craft as a multistakeholder community?
It will bring speakers together from the public sector, civil society and different entities involved in financing networks such as operators and financial asset providers, spanning different continents and ensuring geographical and gender diversity.
• We expect to invite our speakers to attend the meeting onsite. In case a speaker is unable to attend the meeting onsite, they will be expected to join the meeting online.
• We want to ensure the best experience for onsite and online participants equally. For the interactive Q&A sessions in both parts, the online moderator will make sure that online participants are as able to take part in the discussion as onsite participants. The online moderator will oversee the chat and ensure equal participation by equally splitting the question time for onsite and online participants.
• The OECD will be able to advertise the event in the community of the Committee on Digital Economy Policy, the Working Party on Communication Infrastructure and Services Policy in the Digital Economy Policy. In addition, the OECD may advertise the event through its network and informal groups of experts which are expected to reach audiences beyond OECD member-countries.
Report
Public policymakers explained their policies such as a National Connectivity Plan, subsidies, regulation on competition and spectrum, public-private collaboration, establishment of non-profit company for investment to rural area.
Tech company highlighted their investment to network infrastructure, such as submarine cables in Africa have a big impact on ecconomic effect. Operator mentioned their experience on investment to fibre network in Latin America.
As a wish list to policymakers, from civil society' perspective, the importantce of reducing digital divide by investment and capacity building for local area was mentioned. Oeprator and tech company highlighted importance of affordability and openness, such as access to backbone and spectrum at reasonable price, open access network model and access to open data.
Policy makers mentioned that they need to not only work on matters on supply side including supporting development and investment of network infrastrucutre, but also look at demand side, such as promoting use-case on high-capacity networks.