WSIS issues

Mactar SeckNew Technologies and Innovation Section (NTIS)

Special Initiatives Division, UNECA

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The African Internet Governance Forum - AfIGF The African Internet Governance Forum - AfIGF 20152015

06 – 08 September 2015 African Union Commission, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

• The WSIS Action Lines and Targets

• The WSIS+10 Review in Africa

• Challenges for Africa

• New Trends

• Priorities for Africa : New Action lines• Conclusion

Outline

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Indicator Targets to be achieved by 2015

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The eleven action lines

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WSIS+10 Vision for the WSIS Beyond 2015

• Key documents that provide the foundation for the post-2015 process internationally:– “Realising the Future We Want for All” document (UN 2012)

and its update “A Renewed Global Partnership for Development” (UN 2013) by the UN System Task Team – the core of the post-2015 process;

– “A New Global Partnership”* (HLP 2013) produced in mid-2013 by a High-Level Panel set up by UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon

– The Open Working Group, and High-Level Political Forum, and Expert Committee associated with Rio+20 and the Sustainable Development Goals form a second track of Post-2015 Development Agenda activities**

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WSIS+10 Review in Africa : Potentially well-addressed action lines

• C1: National e-strategies• C6: Creating the enabling environment• C7: E-Applications

• E-government• E-agriculture• E-science • E-learning

• C9: Media • C10: Ethics• C11: Regional Cooperation

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Gaps

• Access to infrastructure and services – continued digital divide within the continent and with the rest of the world

• Capacity building - ICTs skills and e-literacy to build an inclusive information society

• Security – cyber security • E-applications in health, agriculture,

environment, etc. of significance to Africa’s socio-economic development

• Local content and linguistic diversity in the cyberspace 7

New Trends• Bid data – the data revolution• Open data and open government data

• Appropriate statistics for tracking the global progress in the use of ICTs

• Environment – ICTs and Climate Change• Peace and security• Smart cities – urban development-Infratructures• Development finance – crowd funding• Regional Integration• Etc..

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Proposed new Action Lines: C12-C15 for WSIS beyond 2015

• Action Line C12 : Technology and innovation

• Action Line C13: Financing and resource mobilization

• Action Line C14: Statistics and measuring of ICT4D

• Action Line C15: Peace and security

Action Line C12  Technology and innovation

• the domain name system (DNS) industry is still remains in the hands of countries of the North.

• cost of new gTLD applications remain very high• Key priorities

– Promoting the transfer of Information Society technology to developing countries through, for example, the creation of an Information Society Technology Bank for developing countries;

– Building technology capacity in research and development at national, regional and continental level;

– Intellectual property rights; – Promoting indigenous technological knowledge as an integral

component of Information Society knowledge; and– Promoting and encouraging innovation through youth people as

the most reliable vehicle for the transfer of Information Society technology to poor countries.

Action Line C13 Financing and resource mobilization

• Inadequate financial resources should not be a barrier to poor countries' access to new Information Society technologies;

• Key priorities– mobilize additional resources to finance their

ICT infrastructure projects; and– Development finance institutions

New Action Line C14 : Statistics and measuring of ICT4D

• Lack of Appropriate indicators and benchmarking, including community connectivity indicators to clarify the magnitude of the digital divide

• Key priorities– Promote and implement the data revolution in ICT/Information Society

and enhance the capacity of States to collect Information Society at all levels namely, national, regional, continental and global;

– Promote Big Data and Open government data and the availability of relevant associated technologies to African countries;

– Build capacity in data analytics, to analyze and use ICT data for the timely measurement of ICT for development;

– Build data storage capacity of countries in view of the jurisdictional and property rights issues associated with cloud storage; and

– Promote the establishment of ICT Observatory at regional level.

Action Line C15 Peace and security

• the Internet and the World Wide Web have been used for activities that threaten national peace and security in a number of African countries

• Key priorities• the sovereign right of governments to take necessary

measures within the law and consistent with their international obligations, including temporary restrictions on access to Information Society infrastructure to protect their national security and ensure peace; and

• Explore the creation of infrastructure security funds to protect inter-country terrestrial fiber optic cables

WAY FORWARD

• UN AG 15-16 Dec 2015

• WSIS & IGF

• African position

Thank you!!!

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