I had the opportunity, through my work at the Internet Society as Senior Policy Advisor, to be High Level Track Facilitator for The World Summit on the Information Society, in the High-Level Policy Session 7 : Digital Economy and Trade/ Financing for Development and role of ICT. The agenda and recording of the session here
At the end of the Forum, I also had the opportunity to write a short summary of the session, following WSIS guidelines. Here is what I wrote:
Executive Summary by High-LevelTrack Facilitator
Introduction: The Panel, as the High-Level topic itself of Digital Economy and Trade, was broad and with a great deal of diversity and high expertise from all stakeholders. Also, as expected, COVID19 was at the forefront of the discussion.
The conversation started with the evolution of digital economy, experiences and policy developments in different countries cross regions (Algeria, Zimbabwe, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Indonesia, Senegal), including the effect of COVID 19. The exchange expanded also towards inclusivity, infrastructure expansion, regulatory challenges and the need of trust and collaboration, provided by stakeholder of the private sector, civil society and academia.
Vision: It is vital an inclusive, sustainable and trustworthy digital economy, fostered by national and international collaboration between all sectors and stakeholders
Fresh priorities: COVID19 has certainly shed a light onto fresh priorities across all stakeholders participating in the Digital economy. The plans towards a robust digital economy, need to consider sustainable holistic approaches. These include considerations of ICT infrastructure at all levels –from connecting the unconnected, to personal data protection and cybersecurity to protect the digital services-, innovativefinancial mechanism to support all sectors participating in the digital economy and how to collaborate among stakeholders to overcome the global effects of the pandemic.
Emerging trends: Societies shifted towards a virtual world. Digital economies are now not only a matter of business evolution and economic opportunities, but about the livelihood of our societies. Connectivity became a lifeline and will continue to be a lifeline. E-commerce is growing in all sectors of economy, particularly for SMEs, which are rapidly shifting to adopt digital solutions. This is an opportunity, as well as a challenge, that has to be supported with innovative funding mechanism. At the same time, work, learning -including traditional settings such as schools and Universities-, health and most of the traditional face to face services are now almost fully dependant of the digital economy. Digital literacy has become a must. At the same time with the shift towards the “new normal” of social distancing and heavy reliance of online communications, issues related to data protection and cybersecurity are now unavoidable.
Opportunities: While the global situation and challenges are at the forefront, we are in a time of opportunities for the Digital economy and Trade. International partnership and collaboration are happening more and more. Several panellists highlighted the evolution of the digital markets and economies in their countries and regions, and how developing countries are eager to achieve the levels that developed countries have. At the same time, challenging times are pushing the boundaries for new research opportunities and the development of innovative business models to grow the digital economies. Also, evolving through capacity building and streamline effort to achieve high levels of digital literacy.
Key challenges& Road ahead: The road towards a healthy digital economy it’s directly affected on how we will address the digital divide and how we utilize the tools available to bridge it. Countries with more mature digital economies were allowed to keep moving forward during the global pandemic, but COVID 19 shed the light that if we want to have an inclusive, sustainable and trustworthy digital economy, national and international collaboration between all sectors and stakeholders is key. It is vital to understand that decisions we make to evolve the digital economy during these uncertain times, will shape the digital society as a whole for many years. In many cases the lack of trust between governments, but also between decision makers and other stakeholders in society, stifled the rapid development of the digital economies.
Almost half of the world population cannot access the benefits and opportunities of the digital economies. We need to understand the impact of the policies we implement, thinking about innovative ways to fund new solutions and technologies, massively increment digital literacy, measure the progress we make at each step of the way and leave no one be
More about the World Summit on Information Society: WSIS Forum 2020: High-Level Track Outcomes and Executive Brief
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