IGF 2016: Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

Moderator:

Renata Baltar - UNIFOR - Stakeholder group: Civil Society - Country: Brasil

Speakers:

Paiva, Gustavo (Remote)  - UFRN - Stakeholder group: Civil Society - Country: Brasil
Kimberly Anastácio - Ibidem -  Stakeholder group: Civil Society - Country: Brasil
Ephraim Percy Kenyanito - Accessnow - Stakeholder group: Civil Society - Subsaharan Africa

Rapporteur:
Hafedh Gharbi Yahmadi - Stakeholder group: Business - Country: Tunisia

Remote moderator:
Olevie Kouami -  Stakeholder group: Civil Society - Country: Togo

An inspirational group of activists, researchers and practitioners on Internet Governance have come together after IGF2015 and other IG events in Latin America to engage in different organizations in the area. This reveals the impact that debate arenas such as the IGF have and further presents the importance of regional engagement and effective strategies to achieve it.

The dialogues and actions of this group were revisited in events like Internet Freedom Festival, Rightscon, ICAN55, WSIS Forum and other arenas. These activists continue the debate in online groups, both mobile and on computers. Their work continues identifying leaders in Internet Governance and other groups which can be articulated so that regional engagement increases and future actions can be planned so as to fully integrate unrepresented regions in the Internet Governance future.

Our online activism communities on IG in the Global South are dispersed and do not easily communicate with each other. Through this Flash Session, we wish to expose a few of them and to bring them together, in order to strategize and create global ties independent from organizations and companies.

By showcasing these efforts, it's expected that new communication bridges can be built. As well, common goals and concerns, such zero rating,increase in connectivity, cybersecurity and other can be addressed primarily.

To ensure a sustainable discussion for Internet Governance, it is important to include remote participants who are unable to attend physically to these discussions. IGF and regional IGFs only happen once a year, so most of the work is actually done remotely. While face to face meetings are best, it often comes with a high price tag of traveling and accommodation costs, which is often unaffordable by participants in developing countries. In particular, we would want to explore how to make it sustainable for youth since they are the new blood and least economically supported. By discussing how to make remote participation a sustainable way to attract new attendees, and how to make it easy for them to voice out, despite language and timezone barriers. This topic is crucial to enable inclusive and sustainable growth. 

To identify the most important problems to address for remote participation, we will start with a survey to be sent out to broader IGF community. After collecting their feedback, organizer will recap the result at the beginning of the session, and conduct a breakout group discussion for solutions that we can adopt in the next IGF. The report will be submitted to the Secretariat for reference.

10 questions survey was created to get to know your remote participation experience on IG discussions
Please feel free to share your thought here:
http://igf.asia/2fT3iFs

Rundown: 
5 min: Workshop Introduction
5 min: Sharing of survey results on key areas to improve
30 min: Breakout group discussion (According to the guiding questions)
20 min: Wrap up on conclusion, and next steps to bring remote participation viable

The guiding questions for the breakout groups will be determined by the results of the survey, whilst the main topics are listed as below: 
1. How to attract new remote participants? What is the reasons for them to attend remotely?
2. How would remote participants feel more inclusive? 
3. If you couldn't attend IGF next year, how would you have done that? 
4. How can we attract more people to host remote hub? How to provide better mechanisms for workshop organizers to identify the hubs that can join their workshop? 
5. How can we help youth in particular to get started? 
6. How to remove barrier for remote participants to join?

Faciliator of the breakout group discussion:
Bianca HO
David NG
Yannis LI
Renata Aquino Ribeiro
Ginger Paque (Remote)
Hailey Yang (Remote)

The Internet is today a community of over 3 billion users, and concerted efforts are on to bring in the Next Billion users to this community. Asia-Pacific, which is home to almost two-thirds of humanity, will likely provide a majority of the next billion Internet users, mostly from regions such as East Asia and South Asia, but also from very small communities, such as those in the Pacific islands. 

Despite its size, Asia-Pacific faces special challenges in enabling digital inclusion. These challenges include social, demographic, geographic, economic, and technological factors. Specifically, these include:

- Poor Internet infrastructure
- Difficult terrain (mountains to deserts to Small Island Developing States)
- Diversity of languages/scripts
- Large rural populations
- Social and Educational backwardness
- Gender-based access issues
- Extreme diversity
- Existence of marginalized communities (eg., indigenous peoples, people with disabilities)
- Lack of policy coherence

At the same time, there are some mitigating factors that may ease the process of digital inclusion:

- Increasing mobile phone use across barriers
- Falling costs for Internet access
- Better education
- More openness towards technology, particularly from the youth

The proposed BoG session will take stock of the situation in a cross-section of countries in Asia-Pacific, including Pacific Islands, China, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Armenia and China, and propose a set of strategies to address the issue of Digital Inclusion in the region, with the intention of strengthening community action towards equitable inclusion. The session will follow up on action items evolved at the APrIGF as well as national IGFs in different countries in the region.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Abdul Rahim, Rinalia
Ang, Peng Hwa
Astbrink, Gunela
Chharia, Rajesh
Galstyan, Lianna
Jayakumar, Arjun
Kovacs, Anja
Park, KS
Rayamajhi, Shreedeep (Remote)

Moderator: Satish Babu

Tentative Program
1. Intro and introduction to themes: 15 min
- Welcome and format of Session: 5 min (Satish)
- Introduction to the four themes: 10 min (Rinalia)

2. Breakout discussions: 30 min
3. Presentation of summary of Breakout Sessions (4 min x 4 group chairs): 16 min
4. Open discussions: 25 min
- Presentation of Group reports
- Specific speakers (see below)
5. Closing: 4 min (Satish)

Themes for Breakout Discussions (with Chairs):
a. Infrastructural and Economics Issues (Peng Hwa Ang)
b. Social Issues (Anja Kovacs)
c. Technology issues (KS Park)
d. Policy Issues (Noelle)

Specific Speakers during Open Discussions (3 min per person):
- Country situations (Rajesh, Shreedeep, Arjun)
- Disability and Access (Gunela)

According to recent estimates, one in three internet users are children below the age of 18, with an increasing proportion living in the Global South. As laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), legal minors are undergoing crucial processes of human development, they have specific rights– to play, to parenting, to develop to their full potential, and so forth. Within this context, the reigning model of e-commerce, and the increasing value of children as a target market for advertisers, raises fundamental concerns. The technical affordances of the internet have made it possible for digital platforms to collect and monetise large amounts of personal information from children. While young social media users will typically consider their data to be ‘mine’, providers may look at user data to be ‘mined’; whether ‘mine’ or ‘mined’, data consumerism is often putting children’s rights on the line. In this IGF panel session, we will start from an analysis of existing regulatory data protection frameworks and tensions, in order to more comprehensively address the need to involve multiple stakeholders when promoting and ensuring digital rights of young people in a more global context, as a precondition for a more inclusive and sustainable online environment.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Carr, John
Chester, Jeffrey
Hancock, Marsali 
Hurel, Louise Marie
Neves, Ana
Pals, Auke
Tavares, Thiago

Children are integral part and the key stakeholders for the society. The need to ensure their access and inclusion on any development initiatives is important, not only for the increased use of the platform (Internet) but also global development and growth. As we are aware, Internet usage by kids has expanded dramatically over the last two decades, and the ways children, youth, and adults use these tools are in rapid flux, as new technologies are developed. However, if development of the internet is not accompanied by structured, continuous and measurable e-literacy education programs, then a wide range of problems are created and children are left vulnerable. The exposure to the kids is particularly significant due to their limitation in understanding the complexities posed. This is further compounded by their constraint in taking thoughtful action to prevent the threats. 

The workshop will explore the current initiatives that various stakeholders are undertaking in ensuring the Children security online. There has been an increased efforts from various stakeholders such as Legal/ Law Enforcement, Content Providers, Technical Association/ Private Sector, NGO’s and Civil Society to achieve the various objectives for a common goal in making Internet a better platform for children to communicate and collaborate. The representatives from the mentioned stakeholder group shall share the details of the use cases/initiatives commenced by their respective organizations/affiliations. We further target to focus on devising collaborative efforts between various stakeholders that can be replicated nationally and regionally.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Allen, Ernie
Croll, Jutta
Jackson, Natasha
NG Ki Chun, David
NG, Ki Chun, David
Richardson, Janice
Saidalavi, Mohamed Mustafa
Spiezia, Vincenzo

2015 IGF Brazil was the first time the youth program, Youth@IGF, was introduced to the IGF conference. Young people from LAC region were invited to attend the program, empowering the next generation of leaders and increasing the participation of young leaders in the region in the Internet Governance debates.

The ecosystem of youth empowerment work in Internet Governance is developing. In the Asia Pacific region, there are various next generation engagement initiatives organized in the past years, such as NetMission.Asia, YouthIGF, APIGA, APILP, APSIG and APNG Group. Other regions have established youth groups /networks such as NERDY (Network of EuRopean Digital Youth) in Eurpoe, and Youth Observatory in Latin America.

Therefore, it is an important discussion to have now on how we can better achieve the goal of youth inclusion to the Internet Governance discourse. Given the fact that youth is one of the main stakeholders of Internet, they should be able to participate in the Internet Governance discussions on equal footing. Meanwhile, capacity building work should also be provided for constructive and meaningful participation to the discussion. Whether the approach of capacity building or direct engagement in policy discussion is a better way is the discussion focus. Creating a youth track, adding the category of youth in the resource person list or introducing index of youth participation rate in sessions are also the possible implementation plans in the upcoming IGF – this is worth considering for the sustainable growth and development of Internet Governance. Effectiveness and feasibility of the plans will also be reviewed in the session.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Adela Goberna, Youth Observatory, LAC
Martin Fischer, Network of European digital youth, Europe
Joachim Kind, German Safer Internet Centre, Europe
Jianne Soriano, NetMission.Asia, Asia
Haoran Huang, Asia Pacific Internet Governance Academy, Asia
Jonathan Ssembajwe, Rights of young foundation, Africa
Olga Cavalli, ICANN - Governmental Advisor Committee, South School on Internet Governance, LAC
Rodrigo De La Parra, ICANN, LAC

This purpose of this workshop is to explore collaborative programs that will focus on women and technology and its implications for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth among players in Central and South Asia (CASA). 

Majority of the women in Central and South Asia do not have access to education, technologies, sustainable livelihoods and live below poverty line. Access to internet is considered a luxury, with women and poor comprising the underserved. Issues include: digital literacy, local technologies, local content, poor infrastructure, cost of bandwidth, quality of service and inadequate policies. 

The Internet and information, communication, and knowledge technologies have provided innovative ways to address the challenges faced by women in these countries but most of these innovations are not shared widely. This workshop will bring entrepreneurs, women executives, and technology thought leaders from across Central and South Asia to discuss: (1) What is going on with policy and practice regarding women and technology in central and south Asia; (2) Share research reports on gender, technologies, technical knowledge and what the workshop participants have done for women and technology in the region; (3) Foster collaboration among target countries by creating a network of women in technology; (4) Explore capacity building ideas, including online learning that could be done on a collaborative basis in the region; (5) Explore what technologies could facilitate collaboration among women, for example a platform for networking, an online repository of resources.

AGENDA

The workshop agenda/ format will include: 

1) Overview of the Session (6 minutes): The moderator will introduce the session objectives, topics, agenda, and the speakers. (Moderator: Maria Beebe)

Session Objective: To explore collaborative programs that will focus on women and technology and its implications for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth among players in Central and South Asia (CASA).

Overview of Internet Governance (IG) Topics:

• Decision Making Processes and Fora  - the most important decision-making processes and flora whose outcomes affect the way in which the Internet works and develops in the country 
• Issues - the most important issues with which Internet Governance is concerned 
• Stakeholders - the most important stakeholders (men, women) who participate in the discussion of those issues and who are affected by the decisions

2) Country Presentations (30 minutes): The country presentations will summarize Status of IG in their country and Implications for Women: 

• Overview of Internet Governance (IG) by country: Framework 
• Decision Making Processes and Fora  - the most important decision-making processes and flora whose outcomes affect the way in which the Internet works and develops in the country Issues - the most important issues with which Internet Governance is concerned Stakeholders - the most important stakeholders (men, women) who participate in the discussion of those issues and who are affected by the decisions
• Overview of Gender, Policy and Practice: (1) What is going on with policy and practice regarding women and technology in their respective countries; Share research reports on gender, technologies, technical knowledge; and, (2) What is the workshop participant's organization doing for women and technology in the region. 
• Suggestions & Action Required: What is needed to build capacities of TechWomen, create enabling environment for TechWomen, and foster collaboration to share knowledge, experiences etc. 

The presenters will be as follows: 

• Afghanistan (Omar Ansari and Shabana Mansoory) - 6 min
• Tajikistan (Zuhra Halimova) - 6 min 
• Kyrgyzstan (Lira Samykbaeva and Tattu Mambetalieva) - 6 min 
• India (Subi Chaturvedi) - 6 min 
• Pakistan (Sahar Habib and Naumana Suleman) - 6 min

3) Breakout into Small Groups (15 mins)

The participants will break out into three discussion groups (DGs), including Remote Groups, to discuss challenges and responses to regional collaboration Among Women. Each group should have a moderator, rapporteur, and a representative to make a report back to the main group. 

Each small discussion group will take one of the following topic outlined in the description above: 

• DG# 1: Foster collaboration among target countries by creating a network of women in technology;
• DG# 2: Explore capacity building ideas, including online learning that could be done on a collaborative basis in the region;
• DG# 3: Explore what technologies could facilitate collaboration among women, for example a platform for networking, an online repository of resources.

4) Report Back: Suggestions for Next Steps and Action Plan (15 minutes)

The groups will report back to the main group in the following order:

• DG# 1: 5min
• DG# 2: 5min
• DG# 3: 5min

5) Action Planning (30 minutes)

After the main group hears the small group reports, following resource persons will speak about how they and their organizations can contribute to create an action plan and execute it in CASA:

• Marilyn Cade - IGFSA, Global Connect, DNS Women- 2min 
• Sylvia Cadena - APNIC- 2min
• Joseph Gattuso - Department of Commerce - 2min
• Sheen Handoo - Facebook India
• Karen McCabe - IEEE
• Carolyn Nguyen - Microsoft - 2min
• Lorrayne Porciuncula - OECD- 2min

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Abdurahmanova, Mavzuna - Open Society Initiative (Tajikistan)
Ansari, Omar Mansoor - Technation Afghanistan (Afghanistan)
Habib, Sahar - Islamabad Civic Innovation LabCode for Pakistan (Pakistan)
Halimova, Zuhra - Open Society Initiative (Tajikistan)
Mambetalieva, Tattu - Civic Internet Policy Initiative (Kyrgyzstan)
Mansoory, Shabana -Technation Afghanistan (Afghanistan)
Samykbaeva, Lira - Soros Fooundation (Kyrgyzstan)
Suleman, Naumana - Bytes for All (Pakistan) 

In this workshop, we aim to discuss the right to freedom of speech for LGBT and sexual rights activists, looking at case studies of violations from around the world. The discussants, together with the audience, will unpack why and how these violations take place, as well as discuss the strategies and policy recommendations to ensure that freedom of sexual expression is protected online.

Debates around dissenting voices and their right to freedom of expression - particularly on the internet - primarily revolve around political and religious dissent. This is despite the fact that, alongside politics and religion, sexual content is the most pervasively censored, regulated, and persecuted speech online. Therefore, this workshop build on the success of the 2015 session “LGBT Rights and the Internet” to further explore with multiple stakeholders the questions of which sexual content is tagged as “harmful,” who makes these decisions, and how the internet community can ensure the right to sexual expression and access to information, while maintaining a safe and secure internet for all users, particularly women, young people, and LGBTs.

In light of the IGF 2016 theme “Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth,” it is important to highlight strategies and measures to include activists and bloggers doing progressive sexual rights work online in the discussion of internet governance.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Datta, Bishakha

Countering gender based abuse online has been one of the key challenges that hinder optimal use of the Internet and other digital technologies. In the report of best practice forum on online abuse and gender based violence against women found that “abuse and gender-based violence against women, whether perpetrated online or offline, is difficult to address because of the attitudes, stereotypes and beliefs that underpin the issue. In an online context, such efforts are further complicated because responses need to be implemented within the global context of the Internet and with the cooperation of a multitude of stakeholders”. As the BFP’s report highlights the abuse against women remains disproportionate and technology at times becomes a tool, being used to commit, abet or aggravate different forms of violence against women.

As noted in BFP on Countering Abuse report, “online abuse and gender based violence can, among other things, limit women’s ability to take advantage of the opportunities that ICTs provide for the full realisation of women's human rights, act as a barrier to access that can exacerbate the gender digital gap, often violate women’s human rights, and reaffirm and reproduce gender stereotypes”. Thus, countering online abuse and gender-based violence is essential for both inclusivity and sustainability. Enabling women to participate equally online would help create an environment which allows for the optimal use of the Internet and also help women access equal opportunities for growth and development in today’s digital, networked society.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Abraham, Sunil
Baig, Asad
Hussain , Furhan
Lim, Serene 
Radsch, Courtney 

Moderator:

Renata Baltar

Speakers:  

Ana Paula Lourenço (Remote)
SALDANHA MAIA, CLERIA PATRICIA (Remote)
Flavia Lefevre Guimarães - Proteste 
Louise Marie Hurel - FGV
Kemly Camacho - Sula Batsu
Erika Smith - APC

Remote Moderator:
Jamila Venturini (PT-BR)
Bernice Kibet (EN)

Rapporteur:
Shita Lakshmi (Hivos/MAG)


Informing the audience about a problem on online violence against
women and genderfluid internet users all over the world. Presenting world statistics on cybercrimes. A discussion about the stats on suicides committed by young women who had their lives exposed in the internet. In this workshop we aim to teach best practices in defending against cyberattacks. We will also use the concepts of online protection and privacy on desktop and mobile apps. Techniques used as phishing, malware and how to guard against them will also be established. Having in mind also women and LGBTQ living in developing countries we will talk about what to do when doxxing (the practice of identity data exposure) is done to them and how can they react. This work stems from actual on-the-field experience in training in gender and technology issues done in a regional event in Ceara (Northeast Brazil), Python women programmers regional group, Campus Party festival national editions twice and Conference of Women in Free Software and International Free Software Forum. All knowledge acquired
in these opportunites will be shared and rebuilt with participants.

 

With the growing integration of the Internet in the lives of a substantial part of the world’s population, its governance is an emerging question that is of leading importance to all of society. However, knowledge about what the network is and what are the methods employed in its decision making process are questions that remain largely secluded within a community of experts. While access to the network grows, the diffusion of knowledge about themes such as the multistakeholder model and the participation in collaborative projects remains low to society as a whole.

As the youth who grew up with the Internet as an integral part of their lives start to penetrate academia and the work market, they are finding innovative ways of engaging their communities and peers with a hands-on approach, leading projects that offer new perspectives of reaching out to society. Faced with financial limitations, the youth that wish to be part of the process find ways to overcome language and cultural barriers, and become ever more present in the Internet Governance structure.

This panel seeks to discuss the state and possibility of growth of youth-driven initiatives based on projects that are already on course, taking as a basis the Governance Primer course, the Youth SIG in Latin America, The Peregrino project, Wikimedia Mexico, and other relevant experiences, all of which are largely or entirely run by youth, and attempt to bridge in different ways the global society and the Internet.

Participants are very encouraged to present their own projects!

Speakers confirmed:

Datysgeld, Mark
Callegari, Agustina
Martínez, Iván
Moura, Lucas
Okal, June
Fratti, Sara