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Session I: The Role of Private Sector in Mobilizing ICTs for SDGs
Moderator
Ms.
Marion Barthelemy, Director, Division for Public Administration and
Development Management (DPADM) United Nations Department of Economic and
Social Affairs (UNDESA)
Speakers/Panellists
- Ms. Reine Essobmadje, Co-founder, Digital Coalition, Cameron
- Mr. Stephen Ibaraki, Managing Partner, REDDS, Canada
- Ms. Dominique Lazanski, Public Policy Director, GSM Association, United Kingdom
- Ms. Carolyn Nguyen, Director, Technology Policy, Microsoft
- Mr. Md Shahid Uddin Akbar, Chief Executive Officer, Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development
Key Discussions
Avenues,
where the private sector can contribute in mobilising ICTs for SDGs
were suggested as smart governance, energy solutions, vaccinations, etc.
It was also suggested that there is need of Artificial Intelligence
(AI) based solutions and that the AI should intend to decrease human
efforts and not reduce jobs. It was also suggested that the
organisations should be responsible for their quality of goods and
services, in terms of safety, effectiveness, etc.
The panel
affirmed on the essentiality of educating all stakeholders on the
aspects of utilising ICT for achievement of SDGs. There were also
discussions around innovation. It was highlighted that, over the years,
many innovations have been funded but none of them have reached the
implementation phase. The primary reason behind this is the lack of
inclusivity in the design of these innovations. Thus, there is a need to
analyse the ecosystem and create a buy-in among stakeholders before
deployment of technology.
The restrictions in the use of unused
spectrum for community networks were also flagged. It was said that
since the prices for spectrum are too high for the rural communities to
afford, the concept of community networks is not gathering strength. It
was advised that the Government should listen to the problem and
participate with the private players in developing solution. It was also
emphasised that academia and research institutes should also play an
essential part in such discussions.
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Session II: Africa and the Digital Economy: Benefits, Losses and Strategies
Panellists
- M. Emery Okundji Ndjovu, Ministre des Potes, Télécommunications et NTIC, RDC
- Mrs. Marion Jansen Chief Economist International Trade Centre - ITC
- M. Mactar Seck, UNECA
- M. Verengai Mabikai Senior Policy Advisor for Africa, ISOC
- M. Ahmed Eisa (Remote participation)
- M. Aboulkarim Soumaila, Secretary-General UAT-ATU
- M. James Zhan, Director, Investment Division, UNCTAD
Key Discussions
Operators,
Consumers and States interests should be protected in digital economy
development, through more robust legal framework on ICT and e-commerce,
which is the case of Congo RDC actually working on reforming their laws
on the subject. Inoder to favour a sustainable digital economy, Africa
needs a predictable legal and investment framework. It should be
accompanied by sensitization programmes and capacity-building. Education
is the key if Africa wants to leverage the opportunity to provide
quality jobs to its youth.
The
e-commerce process chain is divided into 4 levels: (i) establishing
online business (ii) international e-payments (iii) cross-border
delivery and (iv) after-sales. While analyzing the 4 levels, it appears
clearly that the 1st level is where the key problem is for Africa
e-commerce development. In ITC surveys, the challenge of lack of
knowledge and information on how to establish such commerce is often
pointed out. Concerning the 2nd level, in Africa the system of cash upon
delivery is largely used, which is a main difference/gap with
industrialized countries. But challenges on the 4 levels are faced by
all countries in the world. Every country is a beginner to some extent,
there is thus an opportunity to become a front-runner.
Other
challenges mentioned in the discussions were infrastructure challenges,
including lack of electricity/energy supply that is insufficient to
develop and use efficiently the ICT in Africa. There is a huge
connectivity divide between large and small enterprises, between rural
and urban areas, particularly in the case of sub-Saharan Africa. There
is also digital divide of 23% in the use of the ICT between women and
men.
Africa should implement cross-sectors' strategies on ICT, to
develop digital economy as well as achieving some of the SDGs. Africa
needs political leadership to allow e-commerce development, there are
good examples in the region such as Rwanda and Ethiopia that push for
ICT development and already see positive results. Public and private
dialogue is the key as well when dealing with digital economy
development, to understand the needs, the ecosystem, the potential
benefits for all sectors, etc. Finally, technology transfer and
collaboration can be leveraged in a win-win situation for all parties.
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Session III: Innovation in ICT Technologies, Broadband, Smart Cities and Manufacturing for Sustainable Development Goals
Moderator
Prof. NK Goyal, President, CMAI Association of India
Panellists
- Honourable Minister of Communications for Nigeria, Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shitt
- Mr. JS Deepak, India's WTO Ambassador
- Mr. Sanjay Kumar Rakesh, Joint Secretary, MiETY, India
- Mr. Malcolm Johnson, DSG, ITU
- Dr. Eun-Ju Kim , Chief of Innovation and Partnership Department, ITU
- Mr. A.K Gupta, CMD, TCIL
- Mr. Suneet Singh Tulli, CEO, Datawind
- Mr. Bharat P Dave, Alphion
Key Discussions
The session had individual presentations by the speakers. The presentations discussed on the aspect of low Average revenue per user (ARPU)
for Indian consumers which are impacting the outreach. The need for
innovation focussed for poor and marginalised was also emphasised upon.
There was a brief presentation on the working of organisations such as
Alphion and TCIL, and how are they facilitating the digital platforms,
to reach to the last mile.
The ambitions of India to be the next
manufacturing hub were also highlighted by showcasing of the
achievements of Make in India initiative. Considering the importance of
India on the global level, it was emphasised that in order for the world
to achieve SDGs, India has to mandatorily achieve the SDGs. India
achieving SDGs will define whether the world may achieve SDGs or not.
Finally, how Nigeria has transformed itself into one of the attractive
investment destinations was described by the Hon’ble Minister. He
requested Indian organisations to invest in Nigeria, for which he
ensured that such investments would reap them high gains.
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Sessions IV: Towards Africa Digital Revolution
Panellists
- Dr Salma Abbasi | Chairperson and CEO, THE e WORLDWIDE GROUP, UK and Nigeria
- Robert Pepper | Head of Global Connectivity Policy and Planning for Internet.org | Facebook
- M. Victor Muo, ACCA, ACA | President IE Africa Club | Spain
- Ms Reine Essobmadje | Founder of Evolving Consulting and Co-Founder of Digital Coalition | France & Cameroon
Key Discussions
The
2017 Inclusive Internet Index is an interesting and useful tool (based
in 75 countries and 46 indicators) looking at available, affordability,
relevance and readiness of the Internet. Based on the results, it is
clear that countries are making the transition to digital societies but
majority of the connected world remains under-connected (infrastructural
barriers, technical issues, policy irrelevancy, lack of understanding,
etc.). Based on the Index, each country can identify its strengths and
its areas of improvement (for example in terms of policy, competitive
environment, electricity, usage...) and take decisions accordingly.
In
Africa, there are now 527 million mobile phone subscribers, 300 million
Internet subscribers and 3.8 millions of jobs were created in mobile
sector. 194.000 Kenyans were lifted out of extreme poverty through
mobile money. 45% of Kenya GDP flows through M-Pesa, which has favoured
financial inclusion in the country and of the country.
But,
opposite to these advancements and opportunities only 185$ million were
raised by African tech start-ups, which is very little comparing the 27$
billion that were raised globally. The region needs to find ways to
leverage more funds. Challenges of lack of education, lack of
infrastructure, lack of funding, lack of policy framework, etc, are now
well understood and thus, we should now discuss what we need to do. It
is critical to learn from front-runner countries such as Kenya. There is
no need to reinvent the wheel. Many funds are available, but enabling
environment and relevant business models need to be implemented.
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Session V: Digital Financial Inclusion
Moderator
Vijay Mauree, Programme Coordinator, Study Groups Dept, TSB, ITU
Panellists
- Kennedy Komba, Alliance for Financial Inclusion (remote)
- David Avsec, Universal Postal Union (remote)
- Olutunmbi Idowu, Ericsson
- Rory Macmillan, Macmillan and Keck Partners
Key Discussions
The
discussions suggested the key elements of financial inclusion, namely
Digital Financial System (DFS) Ecosystem, Consumer Protection,
Interoperability and Technology, Innovation and Competition. For this it
is essential to understand the dynamics of competition and availability
of a level playing ground for entities, demand side and supply side. It
was suggested that there should be no lock-in requirement for the
consumers.
It was also suggested that the Central bank and DFS
providers should collaborate to develop a commercially viable
interoperability. There is a need to enhance the acceptance of
e-payments by the small merchants as well. In terms of the supply side,
there is a need to ensure the reliability of services while also
ensuring compliance with the regulations. It was suggested the MNO led
payment solution may pave way to creation of monopolies leading to
vicious circle and limiting interoperability.
It was expressed
that currently the practice is to legislate from distance and the real
scenario is not considered. The panel suggested that something that
works in different geographies may not necessarily work in others and
highlighted the need of glocalisation. Finally, it was suggested that
multiple regulatory or governmental bodies should work in tandem to
achieve common goals. It was also suggested that the interoperability
should be led by a government policy.
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Session VI: Cybersecurity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
- Ms. Moira de Roche Holmes, Deputy chair, IFIP IP3
- Ms. Brenda Aynsley, Chair, IFIP IP3
- Mr. Stephen Ibaraki, Vice-chair, IFIP IP3
Key Discussions
It
was highlighted that the data consumption and generation in 2020 will
grow by 50 percent as compared to 2010. Given the future as Internet of
Things, connected device, etc. the 4th Industrial Revolution
is dependent on AI and the future will be a phase of extreme automation.
Thus, the biggest question is to understand the implication of AI on
society.
Giving
the examples of AI, in the fields of tracking poverty, diagnosing
health requirement, education, micro-finance, etc., there is a need to
have global partnership, for the efficient use of AI such as for
reducing greenhouse emissions to developing smart cities.
ITU has
partnered with IBM Watson A1 Xprize to understand the concepts of AI,
which may be taken forward by the British Internal standard, IEEE and
Stanford University. It was suggested that nowadays, people make use of
AI everywhere, citing the examples of email filters, personalisation by
ecommerce organisations, fraud detection in financial services, speech
recognition, etc.
Finally, the aspect of trust was discussed. It
was pointed out that majority of the websites; do not give you an option
of declining acceptance of cookies and still being able to access the
website. This should not be the case as the consumer should be able to
control their data. The consumers should also be demanding security of
data from the legislators.
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