IGF 2016: Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

The Internet is a global force for growth. After few years of necessary adaptation, the creative industries are benefiting from the technological revolution and are becoming an essential asset for sustainable growth. 
According to PWC, the global revenues of online services delivering filmed content will grow by 19% in the years 2015 to 2018. In Mexico, the host country for IGF 2016, digital home video growth has been buoyant and is set to overtake the market for physical videos (DVD and Bluray) by 2017. Broadband over-the-top and streaming services will lead this evolution, with a 105.5% growth predicted in the 4 years to 2018.
This session will give voice to key players in film and TV content production and distribution, who will discuss the challenges of ensuring that the development of Internet video services benefits sustainable growth and local content production. Participants will discuss what legislative, regulatory and economic frameworks will be needed in order to ensure that the online digital evolution can be harnessed to help make local content industries sustainable and support their contribution to national and regional GDPs, job creation, innovation and cultural diversity. In particular, the session will look at the enabling role of communications regulation, rules to ensure a competitive level playing field and the role of copyright as an incentive for local film and video producers, creators and performers.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Gallego, Cristina

Guerra Zamarro, Manuel

Nicole Artemifio

Muñoz de Cote, Gerardo

Bobby Bedi 

With more than half of the world’s population already living in urban areas, it is clear that the path to inclusive and sustainable development must pass through cities. But exactly how cities should organize themselves to advance green growth for all and improve the day-to-day lives of residents remains open to debate. Sustainable urban development is recognized as a key challenge at a global level. The ‘Smart City’ model provides opportunities and challenges for achieving inclusive growth and sustainability. 
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is a key enabler for making cities ‘smarter’ and sustainable. With great capacity of gathering, processing, analyzing and disseminating considerable amount of data, ICTs can provide valuable solutions in different sectors of modern cities to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services, such as enhancing efficient utility resource management, improve public transport systems, provide better education and health services, and etc.
Ideas and experience of leveraging ICTs for smart sustainable cities from developed countries, developing countries, and less developing countries will be shared and discussed in the workshop. With case studies, speakers from multi-stakeholders will address the issues on:
1. How to take advantage of the mobile communication big data for improving urban planning and management. 
2. The best practice of ICT in Smart City model in Europe, sharing the successful experience of making a city smart. 
3. How less developing countries benefits from ICTs taking education as case study.
4. How to build a smart sustainable city with smart mobility.
5. How to practice data policies for smart sustainable cities.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Haenen , Jaap
Hfaiedh, Ines
Tao, Xiaofeng
Wang, Xin

Many issues and challenges associated with ICT and Internet implementation in education are known by policymakers. However, data on the nature and complexity of these issues remains limited because of the lack of good monitoring and evaluation tools and processes. Another problem in this area is the lack of a common set of indicators for ICT and Internet in developing countries. 
If ICTs and Internet are to become effective and integral tools in education, and if accountability is to be demonstrated to stakeholders, monitoring and evaluation must be a priority area of focus. It is also clear that there are equity and gender issues related to the use of ICT and Internet. There is a real danger that uses of ICT and Internet can further marginalize groups already excluded or on the edge of educational practices and innovations. With supportive policies and careful planning and monitoring, ICTs and internet hold out the promise of facilitating greater inclusion of such groups and reaching the SDG’s
ICTs and Internet governance is an important driver for educational reforms, help in anti-corruption efforts, aid in decentralizing education. There are still many policy questions around the adoptions and use of ICT and Internet in education that need attention by all stakeholders. Some of the key policy questions revolve around access, equity, gender, funds, best practices, security etc. This workshop sessions seek to discuss some core issues confronting the adoption, implementation and development of ICTs and Internet in education in the developing countries.

Speakers confirmed:

1. Mr. Tijani Ben Jemaa (Workshop Chair), Civil Society, ICANN.
2.  Ms. Ines Hfaiedh (Workshop Organizer), Government, Tunisian Ministry of National Education.
2. Professor Xiang ZHOU, Intergovernmental, China Association of Science and Technology (Co-organizer).
3. Mr. Bonface Witaba, Civil Society,Centre for Youth Empowerment and Leadership (CYEL)
4. Mr. Benjamin Akinmoyeje: Government, Mangament Sciences for Health (MSH)
6. Hiba Abbas, Intergovernmental, Sudan Network Operators Group “SdNOG” & ZAIN Operator

REMOTE MODERATOR: MICHAEL OGHIA

Online firms, such as Uber, Safaricom and Alibaba ,are providing new opportunities for businesses, workers and consumers while, at the same time, creating the risk of bringing up new divides, such as between large and small firms, offline and online workers, etc. 

To enable inclusive and sustainable growth in the digital economy, policymakers need to develop new forms of regulations that address the following issues: 

(i) Create a level the playing field between incumbents and new entrants
(ii) Remove regulatory uncertainty in sectors where both online and offline firms deliver the same services; and 
(iii) Prevent the rise of digital monopolies. 

A group of world-renowned experts—from public policy, the technology sector, academia and the development community—will debate the future of competition policy in the digital age. Panelists will share their views on how the race between technology and regulation is likely to play out in the future. The panel will discuss how policymakers can meet these challenges and sketch the main traits of new regulation models in the digital economy.

Speakers confirmed:

Vincenzo Spiezia, OECD
Eli Noam, Columbia Business School
Megan Richards, DG Connect
Sonia Jorge, Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI)
Joseph Alhadeff, Oracle

The purpose of this workshop is to highlight how the Internet of things (IoT) is playing a key role in supporting local and global initiatives aimed at catalyzing inclusive and sustainable growth and offer a list of policy options on how the global community can harness IoT to realize the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

This workshop will be directly related to the overarching IGF theme Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth as it will evaluate the technical and policy conditions needed to generate innovation and expand access and use of IoT technology for sustainable development. The workshop will answer the question: How can we harness IoT to realize the SDGs?

Through an interactive, multistakeholder dialogue, discussion will be guided by the following questions: 
1.)How is emerging technology such as IoT driving sustainable growth and what impact could this technology have of the UN 2030 development agenda? 
2.) How can we support the back end analytics and systems of IoT including big data and cloud computing and why is this important?
3.) What policy approaches are needed to address the challenges and opportunities IoT will bring to reaching the SDG targets? 

Perspectives from developing countries, governments, technical community, private sector and civil society will be shared and participants will collectively contribute their ideas and present examples from their own stakeholder group/country perspectives. Specific questions which the moderator can pose to speakers will be prepared in advance to aid discussion and debate only if necessary as all participants will be encourage to contribute.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Casasbuenas, Julian
Chung, Jennifer 
Francesca De Guzman, Noelle
Pedraza-Barrios , Ricardo
Rowney, Paul 
Ruff, Jackie

Ageing population, globalization 2.0 and digital revolution are completely reshaping the world of work. In particular, growing computer power, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and collaborative platforms are profoundly changing the characteristics of work: what is needed, by whom, where and how it should be carried out. Following the success of the workshop at IGF 2015 “Digital economy, jobs and multistakeholder practices” there is a need to continue to deepen the analysis of the future of work in the digital economy.

The purpose of this workshop is to bring together representatives from diverse stakeholder groups to explore the future of work in the digital economy. This topic matches the overarching theme of IGF “‘Enabling Inclusive and Sustainable Growth” as it will address how the digital economy is driving shaping and challenging workforces and types of jobs which are key to inclusive growth. The workshop will answer the following question: “How can we reap the benefits and address challenges of the digital economy for the future of work?”

The workshop will discuss some very important challenges including: the financial and regulatory risks in starting up new businesses or creating new infrastructures; appropriate and available skills development practices and infrastructures necessary for creating, consuming, and maintaining new services; existence of network externalities and barriers to trade; institutional linkages to higher education, research and business. Through an interactive discussion participants will consider how multistakeholder efforts can identify and address skill deficiencies to better prepare work forces for the changes produced by the digital economy. 

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Cerf, Vint
Galpaya , Helani
Nalwoga, Lillian
Spiezia, Vincenzo

With the socio-economic development, the environmentalpressures are increased, especially in developing countries. The environmental data in either global scale, reginal or local scales become the important infrastructure to supporting the common understanding and decision making on environment, as well as to achieving the SDGs. 
Most progress of ICT applications in environment during the last decade is the big data. The big data on environmentmeans not only in volumes, but stakeholder and data platforms.. More and more data creators have developed their own data platforms. There is an urgent need to dealing with the challengesin the worldwide how to coordinate and interoperate the distributed data among the multiple platforms.
Another critical issue in big data era is the digital divide. The UN General Assembly 2015 decided that the UN will keep pay more attention to help developing countries in ICT applications. CODATA (Committee on Data for Sciences and Technology, International Council for Sciences) made it in its strategic plan and assigned the CODATA Task Group in Developing Countries, to implement such strategic plan since 2002, 
The proposed discussion will focus on the big data and the environment: a pathway to achieving the SDGs with two break-out group discussions, one is governance of inter-operational platforms of big environmental data; and another one is big data in/for/with developing countries. All of the two groups will draw attention to the principles, openness and IP protections, the role of each stakeholders, capacity buildings, joint actions and practical cases. Three environmental data platforms will be presented for the discussions, they are: UNEP-LIVE, CAS’GCdata, and Ghana-ODIP.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Jiang, Yang
Liu, Chuang
Neves, Ana
Pelayo, Ricardo Israel Robles
Spiezia, Vincenzo
Toffa, Florence
Zhou, Xiang

This Workshop aims to identify business models that could leverage the sustainable development of cities, fields, industries and communities.
The implementation of IoT solutions should be seen as a funding not as a cost. Its implementation is expected to bring efficiency in the provision of services by public and private entities. Solutions should be used when they have savings and only then there will be sustainability in the applications and a gain in relation to the whole society.
IoT is at the top of expectations. It ranks as a possible promoter of efficiency processes. Solutions around world are arising to promise to revolutionize our lives and the way we relate to the environment we live in. Dumpsters, sidewalks, streetlights, traffic lights, all receive the smart adjective. Some cities promote a show of diverse technologies. On the other hand, these solutions are pilots or concepts that have not yet proven their sustainability.
Implementation challenges are given:
· How to move from concept to reality?
· How to make these solutions viable economically?
· Do they bring sensitive returns to the citizen?
· Do they improve processes so as to generate savings to the public manager or the private sector?
· How to ensure security and privacy without impact on the financial viability of the solution?
Considering sustainability as the quality of a system to remain viable in activity over its lifetime, we cannot leave the show of new technologies, but it's time to embrace what is economically feasible and the solutions that could be sensitive to citizens.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Abou-Zahra, Shadi
Diniz, Vagner
Magas , Michaela
Maló, Pedro
Marçal, Thales
Mvongo , Serge
Ogawa Matsubayashi, Marcia
Paltridge, Sam

The UN (SDGs) initiative describes itself as an “action plan for people, planet and prosperity.” The SDG agenda includes aspirations across a wide range of issues, spanning poverty, hunger, education, justice, economic growth and infrastructure, to name a few. In all, the SDG outlines 17 goals and 169 specific targets.

Given the role of critical enabler that the Internet has taken on for both developed and developing economies, the likelihood of actually achieving any of these goals will be greatly increased if information infrastructure (ICTs and the Internet) is available and made use of in relevant ways. Strong Civil Society and Private Sector partnership and bridge building with Government Officials and others will enhance the enabling role of the Internet, demonstrated with the following examples: 

SDGs 1. & 8. “No Poverty and “Decent Work and Economic Growth” 
Information Infrastructure is proving to be powerful driver of economic growth, which in many countries, has begun to lift citizens out of the clutches of poverty through job creation.

SDGs 9. & 12. “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure” leads to “Responsible Consumption and Production”

ICTs and the Internet contribute to innovation, expansion of industry and critically important infrastructure all of which contributes to the production of goods and services to be responsibly consumed.

SDGs 2. & 3. & 4. “Zero Hunger”, “Good Health and Well-Being” need to be a given before “Quality Education” can begin.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

• Manu Bhardwaj, Senior Advisor on Technology and Internet Policy to the Under Secretary of the Department of State, Government, USA (confirmed)
• Sarah Wynn-Williams, Director of Public Policy, Facebook, Private Sector, USA (confirmed)
• Marilyn Cade, President, ICT Strategies, Private Sector, USA (confirmed) Moderator
• Dr. Ailyn Febles, President, Union of Informatics Professionals of Cuba, Civil Society, Cuba (confirmed)
• Tatiana Delgado, Vice President, Union of Informatics Professionals of Cuba, Civil Society, Cuba (confirmed)
• Ivan Barreto, Vice President, Association of Pedagogues of Cuba, Civil Society, Cuba (confirmed)
• Yarina Amoroso, President, Society of Right of Informatics in Cuba, Civil Society, Cuba (confirmed)
• Salam Al Waeli, Director of Programs-IJMA3 and Board member-WAVE, NGO, Iraq, (confirmed remote participation)
• Anders Halvorsen, Vice President, WITSA, NGO, USA. (confirmed remote rapporteur)
• Sam Paltridge, Directorate of Science, Technology and Industry, OECD, IGO, France (confirmed)
• Ellen Blackler, Vice President Global Public Policy, The Walt Disney Company, Private Sector, USA (confirmed)
• Jimson Olufuye, Chair, African ICT Alliance [AfiCTA], NGO, Nigeria (confirmed)
• Gonzalo Lopez-Barajas Huder, Manager Public Policy & Internet, Telefonica, Private Sector, Spain (confirmed)
• Ms. Iffat Gill, CEO, The Code to Change, Civil Society, Pakistan (confirmed remote participation)
• Wahab Sadaat, Deputy Minister, Minsitry of Communications and IT, Afghanistan, Government, (confirmed)
• Garland T. McCoy, President, Technology Education Institute, Civil Society, USA. (confirmed onsite rapporteur)  

 

The significance of Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be wholly realised without appreciating the benefits of recognising and defending freedom of assembly and association (FoAA) online. When people freely assemble and associate online, they are able to discuss and exchange ideas, resulting in free flow of information thus helping build stronger and more just societies. 

There are many examples of like-minded citizens rallying for a cause, whether in a geographical location or across borders, utilising growing access to the internet. The widespread use of ICTs during the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement has prompted global discussions. Discourse around FoAA is well developed, however, rhetoric surrounding its online application is in its nascence.

The Internet has enhanced human freedoms to come together around common interests to build associations and networks. Online spaces free of restrictions, would result in a vibrant and democratic enclave where information, ideas, expressions and discourse on social, political and economic issues adhere to recognizably democratic norms and procedures.

Thus, addressing the ability to freely associate and assemble are central to goals relating to the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, the provision of access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels. Particularly to, 
16.6 Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels
16.7 Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels
16.10 Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Olukotun, Deji
Srivastava, Ritu

The Internet and related information and communication technologies have the potential to play a pivotal role in helping achieving more inclusive innovation and development. The Internet economy can contribute towards inclusiveness in various ways: for example, it can help entrepreneurs and small businesses engage in innovations by facilitating access to information at lower cost, by providing a platform for new businesses opportunities, and by access to new markets.

This workshop looks at challenges faced by innovators and entrepreneurs in the developing countries. The challenges may be access to capital, capacity building, and scaling up projects. How can these challenges be bridged? The workshop will also seek to identify the opportunities available to the entrepreneurs.

The session will start by an overview from Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia Pacific, and Africa on what they have been doing to promote innovation and entrepreneurship within the regions. 

Innovation including in the area of the Internet economy and entrepreneurship plays a central role in development. The workshop will also seek to find ways to ensure that internet innovation is inclusive, giving equal opportunities to all regions in the global south. The aim is to find solutions to realise the UN Sustainable Development goals by bridging the inequality gap, reduce poverty, and improve the living standards in developing countries.

The deliverable of the workshop will seek to find solutions that link to the Sustainable development goals of ending poverty in all it’s form everywhere, and also promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work.

Speakers confirmed:

Kukubo, Paul: Board Member, Communications Authority of Kenya, and Chairman of Rafica Ltd an Agri-technology firm
Cadena, Sylvia: Head of Programs, APNIC Foundation.
Caeiro, Carolina: Coordinator of Development Projects, LACNIC
Dogniez, Joyce: Senior Director, Global Engagement, Internet Society

The past year has seen an explosion of VoIP software providers and users of their services. Telecommunications costs are prohibitive in many countries where inequality and poverty levels are high. Broadly speaking, any technology that facilitates inexpensive communication is crucial in these economies. VoIP services decrease the direct cost on the consumer, allowing for greater economic and social mobility. In many countries, business and politics are intertwined, for example government ownership of telecommunications providers, presenting conflicts of interest that stifle the emergence of innovative solutions and prioritize the interests of the corporation(s) at the expense of the people. 

We advocate for this important session under this year's subtheme of 'policies enabling access and the digital economy. Psiphon and ASL19's analysis of numerous VoIP blocking cases this year reveals several key insights which form the impetus of this workshop: (1) on the basis they cannot monitor and surveil these communication tools, governments leverage national security laws to justify reactive censorship measures; (2) national level policy or legislation is often incommensurate with internationally-upheld principles of Internet freedom, such as Article 19; (3) there is great confusion over which companies can operate VoIP calling services and where, due to operating license requirements and interpretations of net neutrality; (4) users will undermine blocking, responding to large-scale censorship of VoIP services by turning to trusted circumvention tools to restore access; and (5) this grey area in Internet governance must be discussed and resolved in multistakeholder setting between government, telecom, civil society, and the technical community.

Speakers:

Hanane Boujemi
Peter Micek
Pablo Viollier
Halefom Hailu

The concept of Smart Cities has attracted considerable attention in the development of urban policies in the Global South. In them, the role of the Internet of Things (IoT) is fundamental: it supports added-value services for the administration of the city and for the citizens.

Smart Cities are presented as the final technical answer that can organize the supposed chaos of cities, which is particularly attractive for large Global South cities, often considered chaotic clusters plagued of violence and ineffective systems. Even more, for some of their advocates in developing countries, Smart Cities and IoT efficiently drive sustainable economic growth, competitiveness and prosperity.

But critical visions assert that the adoption of Smart Cities has been made without an open and democratic discussion addressing relevant Global South’s problems on inclusive and sustainable growth, as: the persistent technological dependence from the North, the weak protection of personal data in the majority of countries, the lack of an affordable and inclusive internet, the evidence that States are trying to control their citizens within the public space, among many other issues.

The way IoT is conceived, adopted and regulated in the context of Smart Cities in the Global South, affects directly or indirectly the sustainable economic growth and the exercise of human rights. This workshop will be the opportunity to expose the nuances of adopting Smart Cities, with an special focus in the challenges on public policies that IoT implies in the context of developing countries with weak democracies.

Speakers confirmed:

Cavalli, Olga
Larios Rosillo, Victor Manuel
Sinha, Amber 
Rennó, Raquel
Van Hoogstraten, Catherine Garcia
Matus, Jessica 

Internet amplifies the capacity to understand, communicate and serve communities getting out of poverty. The session will focus on the Internet Community and organizations actively involved in IG roles to achieve SDGs agenda, and how networks and concrete solutions are key to achieve desired outcomes. 
To make the most of what Internet has to offer, an enabling environment where investment, deployment and services rollout are aligned with technical capacity for maintenance and growth is required. So is effective use relevant to local needs, cultural/language diversity and skills to exploit opportunities. Such environment requires effective cooperation as no stakeholder can deliver alone. The session will use the following framework:
▪ Understand: Internet solutions allow to collect, survey, map and analyze data at a scale not seen before. The challenge still remains to deploy computer power and robust networks in developing economies to access data and applications needed for better services in real time.
▪ Communicate: Internet solutions changed how communities engage in political processes, journalism and science. Challenges remain to reach productive dialogue, in-depth analysis and meaningful participation linked to outcomes.
▪ Serve: Internet based solutions allow service delivery, simplify processes and share responsibilities, by enabling the provision of online services, access to information and education, access to government, jobs, facilitating SMEs to reach global markets, among other benefits. However, many communities are not yet connected, or their connectivity is too expensive, precarious or unreliable, or lack the necessary technical and/or commercial skills are required for opportunities to be capitalised upon.

Speakers provisionally confirmed:

Cadena, Sylvia
Cerf, Vint
Chung, Jennifer 
Elder, Laurent
Kovacs, Anja
Kurbalija, Jovan