The following are the outputs of the real-time captioning taken during the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Berlin, Germany, from 25 to 29 November 2019. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the event, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the round table, that's not so round. You're going to have to, like we do in the small island states, adjust accordingly based on our resources, thank you. We're good at that, so we'll just adjust.
So, what's going to happen is that we are, since we don't have mics at our desk, we're going to have to share mics. So, I'm going to pass, use these mics and pass them around.
Yeah. So what whenever you want to talk. Right, so, let me have a seat.
So, thanks all. I know it's normally a small group of us. I believe we have is Maureen on? Yeah. So, we should have at least one remote participate from islands and I believe there are at least a few others coming from the other islands.
So, let's hope they're joining us. We have some help. Is anybody online, remote, as yet? Maureen is on. Maureen Hilyard. Hi, Maureen. Hello. Anyone else? All right. Great. Thanks. So, we expect a few more to join.
So, this was your working meeting, right? So, we're not presenting anything as such. But, there will be he interventions coming in from Maureen, shortly, I'll call up on her and myself with the Caribbean update and what we're going to try to do today is get our action plan sorted out and a way forward, figure out what we're going to do next.
So, based on having thrown up the agenda on screen. Get the agenda back up. The first item reports on from local IGF projects. Going to ask if Maureen was ready. From the Pacific perspective.
Remote audio.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Hi, everyone. It's Maureen Hilyard from the Pacific. I unmuted my Zoom. I'm just wondering if you can hear me.
>> Yes, we can hear you.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: From the Pacific, I'm not quite sure if everyone was able to get a copy of the Pacific report.
>> No.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Okay. I hope you can distribute it, actually. Or I can send it to people who, if they would like to. Or. Or, if you're members of the Internet Society, they've actually sort of put it on to their latest ISOC newsletter. Apparently, they quite like, I mean, it is very much related to the work that we're doing within the Pacific islands chapter of the Internet Society. Plus the work that the Pacific is actually involved in ICANN.
But, there are sort of like several activities that really what we're trying to do is just get involved in as many different activities as possible related to internet governance and it's something that's actually sort of like certainly developing.
But, as we go through the action plan, for example, some of the things we're working on in relation with enhancing the work that we're doing across the Pacific is actually sort of like becoming a little bit more progressive, I guess, in relation with the relationships we're building with regional organizations.
And I know that for example, one of our sort of like key issues is establishing a, reestablishing our PaciNet which is our one sort of opportunity to gather together as a Pacific community.
But, when you've got sort of like 22 countries sort of like spread across the Pacific ocean, it isn't an easy task to try and coordinate things together and he with do, so, we have to rely very much on regional organizations to sort of like support what we're doing and how we can make it more possible.
And I think I'm very grateful for the support that we get for activities that we run in the Pacific from ICANN and the Internet Society and especially from APNIC have been very supportive of us and dot Asia. Sort of like we're getting aca Pacific o supports into our work and now sort of branching into New Zealand.
So, I think this is where the work that we do isn't just sort of like focused on a particular country or, we have to look at what we can gather together from across the region itself.
And one of the things I've just actually sort of like swapped over from the school of Internet Governance session, is it next door or wherever, but, I was very pleased to sort of like hear about the system that has been established in Trinidad & Tobago. I'd be very interested to see how we might incorporate that into our regional conference that we're trying to organize.
And I do note that in the audience, Gunela from our region is in the group and I'm really pleased to see her. Our latest MAG member. And so, congratulations to you, Gunela, nice to see you. And I'll stop there, Tracy, if there are any questions.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: All right, thanks, Maureen. Yes, so, I wanted to get Maureen early. It's kind of late for you, in case you need to drop off. So, before I allow you to drop off, you need to, does anyone have any questions for Maureen on the Pacific updates on last year's work? Any questions for Maureen? Otherwise, I'm going to move into the actual introductions. Any questions or comments on Maureen?
So, with a little bit of a back to France, I'm going to ask everyone since we have these as with our DC, to sort of introduce themselves and obviously we're going to have a little challenge with the mics, so, let's see how resourceful where he can be.
So, I'm going to ask my colleague from the Maldives who I met yesterday to maybe introduce themselves. And as you're there, you can give an update since I haven't seen the Maldives recently.
>> Thank you. So, my name is Sharif. I'm the permanent Secretariat of the science and technology Ministry. Our Ministry is just recently established. In fact, we're just celebrating our first day so for us, everything is very new.
This is our first IGF, and our first working session in IGF.
So, we are looking forward to engaging the Civil Society in Maldives as well now.
In the past, the Internet Governance has been, I guess, domain of the government and the domain of the IS space and civil society's voice in governance of the internet has been negligible in Maldives.
These couple of days here has inspired me so I'm looking forward to establishing the Maldives IGF in the coming year and connecting with all of you.
And I'm hoping to actually, from the few faces here, except from my brother, here, everybody else is new to me. So, I'm hoping to become part of this family. Thank you.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you. And you can pass the mic. But, before you move on, how many islands are in the Maldives.
>> Let me briefly describe Maldives for you. Maldives is known as a small island developing state. But, for us, we describe Maldives slightly differently. We describe Maldives as a large ocean developing state. Of because in fact, if you look at a map, you will not find Maldives. Not because it's not there.
Because the land marks of Maldives is less than 1 percent of Maldives and on a map, you only draw the land. Everything else is blue. So, for us, the country is big. It's comparable to the United Kingdom. But, you cannot draw it because the land mass is small. We're talking about 1,200 eye Rands on which about 200 islands inhabited by Maldivians and then another 200 dedicated resort islands.
So, for us, the biggest challenge we have is the changing climate. Particularly, everybody talks about the sea level rise. When it rains, it floods. And this didn't happen, and when is it, when it's hot, islands don't have drinking water. Just going from island to island supplying water. And in the end, what happens is transport is fueled by diesel.
So, while we give people water, we destroy the environment. So, this is what we are looking to kind of work with.
So, I imagine technologies is what we are looking forward to. Thank you.
>> Good morning, everyone. I'm from republic of ‑‑ and it's one of the island nations in the southwest region. As Maureen, speaking forward, I want to really focus on. Doing
(audio echoing)
So, we're essentially talking with UNESCO to deploy their system, in our country. And I think this is what we believe could be ‑‑ Internet Governance. Basically, the rise of sea level. We are on the forefront of that, but equally important as we know, is the issues of internet. Especially on cybersecurity.
So, we will receive our submarine cable in two years. The first submarine cable. And we anticipate that there will be a lot of challenge and we recognize that these moments are the critical moments to get ourselves ready so for next year, like I said, we will work with UNESCO to give us assessment. It's sort of cap analysis, where should we improve ourselves in terms of policies and regulations and things around the Internet Governance.
And so, the other thing that I also like to add on to what Maureen said before, maybe she forgot to touch on this. In Vanuatu, they just established an Internet Governance office so this is another great achievement in the Pacific. So, Vanuatu has taken a great leap in this and it's something that we look up to try to imitate that as a good achievement.
And yeah, basically, that's, what's again at this time.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Yeah, thank you, and just to let you know, my colleague is from Youth IGF 2016 in Guadalajara and now here he is. Government. So, well done.
>> Thank you
(applause)
Pass it on to a current youth ambassador, ISOC. Who are you?
>> My name is Vivian. A UN youth ambassador from ISOC and here doing a report.
>> Where are you from? Small island?
>> No, I'm from Brazil, big country. So, it's a very important discussion we are having here since small island space, framing problems and issues that in Brazil, we never imagine. Scared to be what's happening around the world.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you, pass behind you.
>> Hi, everyone. I am Fe from Jamaica. I work for the Telecoms regulator in Jamaica. I recently noticed we, they launched the ISOC chapter in Jamaica but I guess it's so recent that nobody is here.
But, nonetheless, in Jamaica, we have competitive telecoms market similar to Trinidad but the competition has reduced a basis bit since the mergers between Telecoms companies.
So, now, we're in a state where we have to figure out how to encourage the Telecoms operators to be investing more in the new technology because mobile penetration is very high but in the rural areas, we still don't have access. They're still uneducated about the potential of the internet so we also have to look at trying to increase the literacy. Digital literacy in Jamaica right now. So, that's it. Thank you for having me.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you. I just wanted to also, see Dalsi from Vanuatu is here. Who are you?
>> Is it afternoon? Good afternoon, everyone. I have no idea what time it is. But it's lovely to see you. Merry Christmas, everybody, in advance. I'm known to most of you as Sala. Lovely to see all of you. I'm originally from Fiji but I now live in the United Kingdom so we just launched a start‑up called TK global which is out of the UK. Given a UK charity. But, one of the things that we're doing, of course, is p partnering with the land mark developing countries and small island developing states to better bridge the issues and as we know with faced challenges on the ground, even in the Pacific. Particularly in terms of traction so hopefully, binging the, but, ‑‑ coming, who represented us in the day zero event, the digital inclusion. The thing that was done in the day a. Digital inclusion, one of the things we're finding is even when you have ‑‑ June Parris is not here. She said she's going to come. But one of the things that she mentioned was that even with 100 percent elect riff case rate, we still have electrification. We still have challenges. Even if Fiji, I've seen reported within the past several years, electrical outages which are crashed the complaints coming from all the engineers, obviously, on the techno list and also on the Facebook page.
So, one of the things, really, we would like to do is to learn from Trinidad, learn from Barbados, learn from Jamaica, learn from everybody, really. Gunela is in the room. She's on the MAG. She'll be fighting our issues. Woohoo. Yeah, she'll be fighting our issues and hopefully one of the things we need to do, like, you know, that day zero event was magnified for three years to get that session recognized and it wasn't even recognized in a formal workshop so we're hoping that we can have champions in various strategic places in the MAG and also in other key areas to better bring our issues to small island developing states issues to the fore, because even though decisions are not made, but, they're certainly influenced in terms of traction funding, prioritization and that sort of thing.
So, for now, that's all I'll just say.
>> My name is Toshi from Japan association. Also, the Japanese islands but probably, you don't know that we have modern more than 1,000 islands. To still, we have so many problems in Japan, so we are struggling fighting with that. Then, probably, we can share the practices or the experiences.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you for sharing that.
>> Hi, everyone. I'm Abigail. I'm from the Philippines. And as you know, in the Philippines, we have over 7,641 islands. So, that's really a lot. And there are still some far-flung areas until the Philippines that are not connected to the internet.
And what I wanted as I go back is to maybe have a sense of inform them what is really Internet Governance and to engage the youth more to tackle issues on digital inclusion, digital literacy, and such.
Because in the Philippines, there is I think little engagement, but I think we could choose together to bring the youth more in the IGF and yeah, that's it. Thank you so much.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: And she's also a youth ambassador.
>> Yes, I'm from ISOC youth ambassador.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you, Abigail.
>> Good morning. I can see it's still morning. My name is Unitah and I'm from Kenya. Now, I'm here because anything touching on developing states is of interest to me because my country is still developing.
So, I'm attending this forum, basically as sort of a benchmark platform because in my country, we are in the space where we are developing cybersecurity laws, data protection laws, and I believe that the challenges we are facing are common.
I believe the comparison because we are gaining so many, I find the platform for sharing for lending new ideas and development it's my first time at IGF.
>> Hello, everyone. I'm a south African based in for the gal. In my consulting capacity, I've been lucky enough to be in the Pacific around developing ICT infrastructure, developing points and satellite connecting the Telecom sector. With small islands, I find are probably going to be the last to be fully connected, with low population, it's extremely difficult for commercial operators to justify the investment to bring these people online.
So, to really process communications on what we call bottom up connectivity where remote communities build their own low cost infrastructure. They're getting fed up waiting for the operators to come and connect them so they've taken the initiative into their own hands and started to build their own backbone infrastructure ranging from digging fiber cables to setting up wireless networks to seen setting up GSM mobile phone networks in remote areas where the regulations allow. We did a study last year, we did about 12 countries. I think this would be a very viable strategy for small island states. Thank you.
>> Hi, everyone. My name is Ravindra. That's easy to pronounce. I'm one of the directors and we have a few here in this room from the Trinidad and Tobego multistakeholder advisory group and I'll say that I feel so insecure because we only have two eye lands, not 602,000 and whatnot. Nevertheless, it's interesting that the topic of small island development states is being explicitly addressed within internet to help small island developing states and it's in a small island developing states, there are all different issues that need to be addressed. Because in particular, small islands has a very significant role to play. Whatever it's about, it doesn't matter. It ends up governments having that role to play and issue is how do we influence them in matures related to the internet.
Not all governments understand the internet, understand how it can benefit a country.
And our multistakeholder advisory group, we are preorganized the internet governance from an annual basis, we come up with concrete recommendations but very little of it is actually adopted by governments.
The issue is, how do we get to a position where we could influence our governments more positively, influence them to do what is right for their country but using internet more effectively. Thank you.
>> Hello. It's exactly morning, good afternoon. I'm a grots of environmental do governance from the University of Friedberg and I'm from Egypt. I'm interested in small islands, A, because as Unitah has mentioned earlier, it's developing like for developing country and I also am very interested in similar topics. I also am wondering how the internet economy helps small islands and whether the Caribbean is affected. And how can it help them A, to bolster their economy and B, to mitigate client change and find ways where they can promote their agenda. So.
>> Hello. I'm from Nicaragua. Now I am the public policies analyst in Nicaragua. Nicaragua is a country in the middle of Central America, not an island. For example, Nicaragua, we have small projects about their internet investment. We have been doing some projects how to get about the digital rise, also used in new technologies for the develop the economy of the rural areas of the country.
So, I would like to learn about other countries, what they are doing, how they are doing the process.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you and another youth IGF graduate from 2017.
>> Hello, everyone. I come from India. India is a vast country comprising of around 1,200 islands which include entities island and the most prominent one is at the junk tour of Bay of Bengal and the sea. I'm very enthusiastic about this Dynamic Coalition on Small Island developing states because we read that although they've been working as astutely compared to their neighbor states like the land locked ones but there have been infrastructure issues in spreading the internet services like 4G. So, in January 2019, the Indian government along with private, public, private or public partnership program launched a 4G services specific program in Port Blair Island to upgrade citizens and make awareness about what internet is and they are giving free upgradation to 4G services.
So, I look forward here to discussions here and deliberations. Next year, I would be also hosting the Youth IGF summit in India so it would be great if we could have this perspective of island states and how it's going to shape the economy of internet in the future. Thank you.
>> Thank you, and you are from ‑‑
>> I am an ISOC youth ambassador from India as well and I'm note taking for this session, too.
>> Thank you.
>> Hello. And my name is Gunela Astbrink from Australia, which is a ridiculously large island. But, I'm really here as a very strong friend of the Pacific Island countries. I have been involved with Pacific Island work over the past ten years or so, giving workshops with PAC islands, which is the Pacific internet conferences and also PAC IGF, probably around six different countries.
I've given workshops about people with disabilities and looking at cultural societal barriers and what a difference the internet can make for people with disabilities to increase accessibility to education and employment.
And I've done some work in Vanuatu specifically in government websites and also developed a project collecting data on mobile phone usage by people with disability in Vanuatu and assisted with data collection in a number of other Pacific countries.
So, yes, I am an incoming MAG member which is very exciting so thank you very much for your congratulations, maybe commiserations, we'll see. I look forward to studying digital issues but generally to make sure that digital inclusion continues to be part of the IGF agenda. Thank you.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you. So nice to have a MAG member with us. Thank you, Gunela.
>> Hi, everybody. I'm Anita Sohan from the Trinidad & Tobago MAG along with Danny and Tracy and George.
So, I represent government on the MAG but really Minister of health. So, I'll add to what ‑‑ was saying before. I think the challenge is really implementation. I see that as a challenge for a lot of small island states as well but they're clear because we have a resource challenge and we have other issues that people might think are more important than internet government or ICTs.
So, there's really a lack of understanding, especially at the political level in terms of driving these things forward. So, I think key for us is to get a political sensitization. So, while multistakeholder collaboration is necessary as Danny was saying, sometimes it falls back on government to get things implemented.
So, that's one of the few things on what I'm really looking forward to at this session as well as to see how we can really build capacity and to try to push internet governance forward in each of our countries.
>> Thank you.
>> Hi, again, everybody. Nicole Patterson from Caribbean Girls PAC and leaders in Barbados. Focused on digital skills training.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: You're from Barbados?
>> Yes, I is from Barbados.
(laughter)
I am from Jamaica. We are Caribbean here and very excited to welcome our colleague from GSMA, Tom, who is here. Also a member, I am a member of the equal skills coalation, ITU skills coalition with Tamara and other colleagues. And we're focused on gender, on training girls in digital skills as I indicated to bridge the gender divide.
We have had over the past three years of doing the hack‑a‑thon a 600 percent increase in terms of participants and weird very happy to continue to be engaging with the six coalitions so that we can benefit from the larger islands like Australia and also the smaller islands in terms of seeing where we can have best practices that we can replicate with focus being on young women and girls. Thank you.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Like to welcome our colleagues to the round table that's not so round. But, we come across ‑‑ shortly. So, stand by.
>> Good morning, everyone. My name is Rhea Yorching. I am from Trinidad & Tobago but as head of an ICT development nonprofit called Novela Foundation. I get a really nice opportunity to participate in many of the development initiatives across the Caribbean. I also support the organization, at least in Caribbean states, in more specific development initiatives in the eastern Caribbean and in those activities and initiatives, I support a lot of work in the area of infrastructure, which, over the past years, of course, has been under tremendous pressure, particularly in the area of disaster recovery and resilience.
And so, we do have a lot of initiatives focusing on trying to get last mile access to some of the rural communities as well as emergency access, which continuously seems to be a challenge.
And then focusing on all of the other initiatives and streams that overlay that the infrastructure, so, ensuring that we can have proper digitalized platforms and services for government, reaching people, financial services. I'm glad to see Kenya here because that's one of the areas we look at to see how that can influence many of the adoption and digital financial services in the region for financial inclusion.
Then, of course, entrepreneurship skills and so on. So, it's always good to be here to see what everyone else is doing and be able to collaborate.
>> Good morning, everyone. My name is George Guben and I'm from Trinidad. I think the folks from the Trinidad group have said enough about what we do. Danny said we are two islands but we happen to have almost four, five representatives here for this session today.
I wear two hats in that I'm a director of the Trinidad & Tobago multistakeholder advisory group but I'm also a part of the CCTLV that manages the dot TT domain.
And I think that's a good strategy if you in your islands can get your CCTLD to invest in the TT MAG, most likely, your MAG is coming from a zero bank account or nothing to invest in it to have your IGF sessions. I think it's a good best practice as you develop that relationship. We have been designing the TT MAG for three years now, 2017, 2018, 2019. But, investment comes to us when we look from the governments and investing because of the importance of Internet Governance.
So, is there anything we can share with you as a group, as an individual country island, please feel free to reach out to us, and let's share some best practices.
>> We have some new comments.
>> Hello. Hello. I'm June Parris. I'm from Barbados. I'm a member of the MAG at the United Nations. I'm also a member of the Internet Society Barbados chapter. It's nice to see so many here from the Caribbean. This is the first time I'm seeing all under one roof. I thought they were absent, actually. I thought I was the only one. Anyway, I've been involved with several organizations. Caribbean girls. Happy to see Nicole here. Some other, we're trying to get the girls in Barbados to be more computer, not even computer, IT literate and to give them, I feel, actually, it's more like a confidence thing. Because the men are so like, on top of everything, it's nice that the girls are being encouraged to do the same thing that the men are doing. My problem is that I can't seem to get them to come to the IGF because of the expense and lack of funding, other issues, that is my goal for next year to trio get as many people as possible and to try to get some funding to get these girls, these really brilliant girls to come and see what it is and hopefully before I leave the MAG, I've got one more year, I would have passed on a lot of what I know to these girls. That's basically it. Thank you.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you, ma'am. We have two MAG members in the room. Which is quite a high ‑‑ three. That's right. Of Dalsi is a MAG member. That's a high proportion. Fantastic.
>> Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Amelia. I'm from Pacifica Nexus based in France. I’m here because we had a panel on the first day on electricity and internet penetration trying to point out that one infrastructure needs the other to be able to be sustainable and also in the Pacific with a high rate of all the climate change being an issue so we're trying to look at the renewable, sustainable renewable source of energy to coexist with the internet for good penetration and reliable as well. Thank you.
>> Okay. Not sure. Good afternoon or good morning. Both? Okay. Maybe a good day. So, my name is Dalsi Beniela. I'm from Vanuatu. I am one of the MAG members. My role last year is I'm the former regulator for Vanuatu and I have been involved a lot in the internet governance activities in the Pacific. We actually, the one host that the Asia‑Pacific government last year and actually the outcome of that forum, we created the national Vanuatu internet governance and I am very happy to have the Secretariat here attend the sessions and we have learned a lot and at the same time contributing with our experiences to support each other and to see how we can help each other in the small economies. Thank you.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you, Dalsi. Good to see you again. I think we've done the introductions. As I said, this is a working session but first maybe I can try and replicate what Maureen did by trying to give a Caribbean update as well. If I could find the document. I'm Tracy Hackshaw, sorry, from Trinidad & Tobago and one of the co‑conveners or co‑coordinators along with Maureen Hilyard.
So, just a quick update from the Caribbean. I'd like to start with Guyana. Sent an update saying they recently completed a skills training for local developers to help develop applications for persons with disabilities. Part of the overall support was provided by the minister of finance, focused with disabilities, smartphones or devices.
The Ministry also ‑‑ agency the national data management authority, is in the process of providing internet access, in ‑‑ areas. In some Georgetown.
Now, Guyana which is considered a small developing state is actually on the continent of South America and is not a small island but is defined by the United Nations so some of these points are very interesting from the standpoints of very rural urban divide. So 250 miles away from the capital city George town. The Ministry is also conducting train the train err sessions to begin the process of ICT training at the community level.
At the council trade and economic development Ministry meeting in November, their agree to propose to the government that have combined the regional telecommunication firms to ‑‑ charges throughout the entire Caribbean region. I think that's an interesting point so if I'm in the EU with the roaming charges throughout the EU regions, so the Caribbean is trying to do something similar. They indicated they also had a round table discussion that will begin in December E. and a draft nationalize these strategies.
And these discussions are tend intended to reflect the views of the private sector academia sales society so that's right into record.
Sends an update. To convene their second IGF on April 12, 2019, under the theme, the pressing need for security of the Internet of Things. It was held at school of intervention. IoT devices, IoT in policing, securing devices. One we held for IGF. We hope our next IGF on January 30th, 2020. The innovative, it turned out this year was using the same time as the IGF from last year, was called the internet of trust and we featured three parent sessions. One on Caribbean data protection regulations, or CDPR. Cultural factors in the Caribbean affecting privacy for digital security and using technology to increase trust in public institutions.
We had approximately 85 attendees and the website IGF.tt hosts the relevant documents and archive stream.
And in addition to that, we had this Caribbean telecommunications union acknowledge seven technology pioneers for the contribution, the Caribbean Internet Governance. Melfort Nicholas, administrator of state for information in Antigua, Barbuda and president of the CTU presented with special recognition for distinguished award and recognition of the Caribbean innovative which had its 50th anniversary. Awards were received by Nigel out of Trinidad & Tobago, Lance from Guyana Jacqueline Morris. And Bevel Wooding, Trinidad & Tobago/Caribbean also received., the Internet Governance. So, with that, there's also an update from the Caribbean girls hack and what I would like to do is maybe ask Nicole to sort of sway. And then, go into the wood plant. So, Nicole, you can give an update on the Caribbean girls hack and then I know you had a little announcement you wanted to make regarding what could happen next for us.
So, maybe, Nicole, go ahead.
>> Thank you, everybody. Well, let me start with the announcement first. The announcement is, we need all of our small island partners working even closer with us. Please, because I know that we had spoken last year, Maureen, there is a lot of lessons learned. We can benefit. Sorry, across the different countries, across even the different regions.
So, this year, we had the Caribbean girls hack in five countries. We got a lot of support from June really connecting us excellently because the thing is there is an administrative organization infrastructure. As Rhea and I are discussing the importance of being connected not only with the IGF but also with the ISOC chapters that are in various countries as much as we can do and we would really like to get a lot more involvement of the youth IGF and youth ISOC chapters as well because you have so much that have been doing across all of your different portfolios.
With Caribbean girls hack this year, we were in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and Grenada and from that over the last three years, we've experienced 600 and something percent increase in terms of engagement and participation but we still have much further to go.
The work for the hack‑a‑non, so the idea is to upscale the girls in terms of getting them to focus on sustainable goals. This year, was on climate based and gender-based violence. With the training they've received yet has not gotten to coding but that's what we're hoping next year is to have a more multiyear focus.
They created solutions themselves that they then pitched in a hack‑a‑non. But, our reality in the Caribbean is for when we have school holidays, it doesn't necessarily have to be on the day.
But, as Doreen says from ITU, every day is girls in ICT day.
One of the things we're excited to announce for next year I've been working on also is a partnership that we will be doing as a member of the equal skills coalition where we want to roll out doing a curriculum that will have type with some sort of certification so the idea of that is for the various levels, the engagement that the girls will be doing. It's a lot of self‑instruction. Of they will be able to be getting different levels of certification. To tie that in so that it can allow them to benefit and step forward in terms of work opportunities. So, we're very excited about that. We're going to share with the coalition group more information from that as it developed but I just wanted to reinforce, also, to exactly what June was saying vis a vis the confidence factor that, for instance, in Barbados which was the very last hack‑a‑thon that was held at the end of the summer that the team that came forward came forward with a gaming solution on climate change and as I said, a gaming solution. It's not a school, or, it is a school that once I said to everybody, this was a winning school, everybody said, really, it wasn't the more popular well‑known schools? And that, I think, is just a reinforcement that it's not that you have to look at the academically superior or whatever it is kind of institution in terms of the future world of work.
And one of the things that we've been doing through the hack‑a‑thon is that through ISOC Barbados and IGF day, which was a smart week, they actually presented to a whole audience of people who are in development and that kind of stuff speaking and actually, you know, delivering it and so that has in terms of their feedback to us translated to significant competence in terms of them speaking, you know, and being visible. That June was mentioning.
I'm very happy to see a lot more of the colleagues from Trinidad here who I hope to see at our next hack‑a‑thon and work even closer with you. This year, we worked with the administration so we hope to work even closer with you to close the gap on that. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you, Nicole. So, all right, so, we're going to begin our working session before that. Anything remote? Colleague from remote moderator? Hello? Anything from the remote side? Comments? Inputs from Maureen? Okay.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Yes, I'd just like to add just to sort of say it's absolutely fantastic to be here and be able to share what's happening across our communities and of course I want to acknowledge Delsi who are actually doing amazing work in the areas that they're working in.
But, I did want to mention, and I really support the sort of like the raising awareness of what women in ICT are doing within the region and I know it's something that Anjou and Sheri on the board have been working very hard at sort of making sure that there is more awareness of what women are doing in ICT. It's very strong, when you've got sort of people like Dalsi, like, she's the former regulator, and did some amazing work in regards with setting up the regulatory system in Vanuatu and very strong sort of like support for the development of the internet in Vanuatu which is one of the reasons why it's leading Pacific nations and I think it's, you know, like these sort of things need to be promoted.
And of course, we do need to get more support from the younger generation who are actually sort of like looking, who are, you know, busy, the work that we want to do and the region is going to be very reliant on their involvement and we need to get their involvement sort of like in, get them involved as much as possible. It's just like when you're spread so far apart, it's so difficult to make those sort of connections and give them, it's always funding that actually sort of prevents us from getting some of these amazing youngsters to work together and look at how we can move internet forward. But, thank you very much, I, for the sharing so I'll let Tracy get on with the rest of it.
>> All right, thanks so this is a working session. I'm now going to ask colleagues and tech team to bring up the agenda. So, right now, that's a all right and sharing. Yes, can we get a mic?
>> Testing. With your permission ‑‑ thank you. Sala for the transcripts, sore Sala for short. I would just like to, this is just a petition, I suppose, to the coordinators of the Dynamic Coalition and I'm only making this intervention because there are three MAG here now.
And as someone who used to serve on the global MAG and who is left, this is in terms of strategic movement going forward for the Dynamic Coalition.
You know how at the country or territory level, for example, in the Pacific, we have 27 territories with CCDLDs. Not all of them are in the nation states in the UN. Some are territories under New Zealand and that sort of thing. It doesn't make them any less as far as we're concerned.
So, you know how governments in their own country or the countries themselves have sovereignty and are in charge of their development and they rely on global development agencies like the World Bank, for example, right now in the Pacific has just signed on with the World Banks where they have a, first submarine cable. In terms of international development agenda level. One of the things I'd like to put on the Dynamic Coalition, and again, this is all of us. If we can work together in the future to put together publication, like before the next IGF in Poland like the case studies from all the countries. For example, we have the women in STEM, the girl hack that's happening in Barbados and I just wanted to say, you know, development, the Google search engine literally came out of a developing country, Barbados, right? The guy who first designed the search engine came from a small island developing state.
And I'd just like to point out something that the former Vice President said on Monday on the panel. He said, look, you don't have to look to developed countries for how to build because you have the capacity within yourselves so our strength is in our synergy as my friend from girl hack Barbados was saying.
So, this is one of the things I want to put to the DC coalition apart from the publication, having a global public repository where we can actually store this who's doing what, for example.
So, for example, Vanuatu has been sending girls teams to the robotic competitions in dub eye every year and better leap frog. One of the things we would like to put to the Dynamic Coalition, available in creating this repository to sort of, you know, also assist with compiling the case studies in collaboration with whoever wants to volunteer.
And the other thing I wanted to say from a very practical level, I am tired of seeing our countries beg for funding to build infrastructure like global submarine cables satellites, like in the Pacific where we have the biggest ocean in the world, Pacific is two thirds of the world's ocean. And so even with a satellite, we've got KCU bend apart from, this satellite networks apart from the cable, you know, the submarine cables.
But, I'm tired of seeing us beg for the funds and we've had how many IGFs where we've heard of community networks and solutions and it came out in the day zero session, people like Glen who are rolling out cheap models of community network and even ISOC who do amazing stuff in Africa and that sort of thing so I think the level of collaboration that needs to occur can actually be catalyzed from the Dynamic Coalition. Does it make sense? So here we have and I'm sorry I'm taking long but I think it's important, I say, with the three MAGs and everybody else in the room. You have the Secretary‑General conducting with the MAG to comply with the agenda, right? And within the UN, you have the second committee that deals with infrastructure funding. So, in other words, African development bank, Asian development bank, the regions of finances of infrastructure. They come to the UN second committee to listen to what's going to be prioritized and a colleague from Trinidad and Vanuatu sort of said that look, as far as foreign policy and state craft is concerned and we all know this, we've been advocating in this space for a long time, ICT just doesn't make it for small island states to Geneva and in bros he wills and in New York.
Why? Because the resources are so constrained the technical capacity needed is not there so even the technical capacity on the ground but it's missing from where it needs to happen, the advocacy in Geneva, the advocacy in New York.
So, this is what I propose, guys. That we host us. Dynamic Coalition guys. Woohoo. Rock on. Just kidding. That was just to bring the, not to make it too serious.
I say we host a symposium in Geneva and in New York. We build up case studies and we tell them where we want things going.
So, in other words this is what I'm saying. We just don't want to talk about what needs electronic done but we can have the capacity to influence and direct funding where it needs to go. Does it make sense? And also share the, to pivot off the lessons from people like Glen McMite or local communities that are already being rolled out. That somebody from Christmas island. You've seen Christian talking about how he wants stuff in Christmas island but they can't afford it.
Yeah, so, just that. With that, I'll rest. Thank you.
>> Thank you. It's actually a very good segue into the working session. So, we have 21 minutes and 41 seconds left. So, what I'd like to do is, there are just a couple items we're going to be doing now. There is an action plan that was created last year, I've got to work. There you go. There you've got the screen up and people can see this. All right, can I get it any larger. How does this work?
>> Can I make a comment while you're finding that particular?
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Sure, go ahead. Comment.
>> Yes, it's going to, certainly, Sala's comments about building infrastructure, hand in hand, goes digital literacy, cybersafety. And we really need to combine those.
So, it's not just saying, okay, the infrastructure is vital. Just as vital is making sure that people that haven't been exposed to the internet application and so on and so forth go in and use it effectively and in an effective manner.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you. So, hold on, let's get this going. The idea has to get it inserted so everything that's coming on so far sounds like actions in the plan. Let's move the plan through. Insert it as you go along.
I guess I'll be the one typing. But, I'm going to rely on my ‑‑ we've lost one, but rely on my Rapporteurs to give me some documentation of what's happening now.
So, as you can see in this plan, we had a few items to get going. We have the ones that are crossed off already. So, I'll share this with the list again.
But now, we have effective more things in our ten‑point list. Item one is development of our website. So, one of the things that we need to do as a DC, this is a practical stuff to get going is to develop a website. Otherwise, we'll be just talking at these meetings so we need to get some platform built. Whether it be we utilizing an existing platform and use that as a website or we're going to build our own web silent. The action as you can see it on the left side, volunteer. Volunteering o to do things. So, let's see if that's going to be one volunteer that's added to the mix. Anybody else want to volunteer? Nicole? Patterson volunteer personally to build the website. Great. So, I'm going to start having my scribes, Rapporteurs take that note. Good. So the current timeframe is a start from today. 2019. Get it done by 2020. So, can we get a commitment on that? Had January 2020 to have something up. Website, or is that two ambitious? That's right. Interestity also think that I did hear that the Secretariat is hosting, temporarily hosting stuff in the meantime so we could probably use that to start with, but, we'll see.
>> Yeah, even if we got independent hosting or user Secretariat hosting but if we can get one of our CCTLDs or if we don't want the CCTLDs, we could get like a dot org, somebody, the CCTLDs can actually sponsor, sorry, CCTLD operators. I'm just asking if they could kindly sponsor the hosting for dot org. Let's use dot org, I'm suggesting, not dictating. Yes, for us to host the website. And really, what we need is a site map and it can really be built, I shouldn't talk about the builder but if we all collaborate and design the content, it shouldn't take long. So.
>> So, this is not.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Literally ask us to adopt the action plan so I'm assuming we are adopting by January 2020, we have a website. Yes? Any objections? Any burning desires to not have that date locked? All right. Hearing no objections, I should move on. All right. So, item seven is in a start‑up platform to support. So, this is exactly what Sala, there's a burning statement we need. Go ahead.
>> Tracy, establishing the website but we also have to deal with content for the website.
>> Yes, thanks, then. So, I don't want to break everything else out but that's the item. So, to the locals, we have a whole set of things to get going under that rubric. So, you still think it is reasonable to do that.
>> Yes. Sala for the record, volunteering to help with the content and also the site map. Not volunteering to build it but volunteering to get the content from archived things in IGF Secretariat and working with Tracy Hackshaw, of course.
>> Thanks for volunteering me, Sala. All right, the most substantial item is the platform to support IGFs. So, this is sort of tough what you started talking about. Not exactly. So, this original action item was to ensure that we get more IGFs going in the regions.
So, in the Caribbean Pacific regions and having that platform, meaning that for those who already have them established, for example, Vanuatu, the Pacific IGF, the Caribbean IGF, et cetera, to work with the other countries and territories to get their IGFs going as well.
So, as you would have heard with the UN's report, and it seems as if it's going in this direction, the IGF Plus seems the direction with the global list of IGF grows to such an extent that that becomes the sort of intersessional that's being done around the world.
And if that, in fact, is what triggers in 2025 and beyond. Then we want to ensure every single territory within the has an IGF going.
So, this platform, across Pacific Caribbean, Indian ocean. I don't know, again, I'm not sure, is that Indian ocean or African side? Maldives? Indian ocean territories of course closer to Africa, we have to get those involved as well to get their IGFs moving, funding, content, toolkits, best practices, et cetera.
Looking now, not sure whether it's volunteers, consensus to what's left and this is not going to be easy. Try and find the way, I was going to suggest a subcommittee of sorts to b kind of work on this to get it going. Yes.
>> If I could just make a comment on the number 8, several things you said there. One was to support the national regional IGFs. So, when you were saying that, did you mean in terms of technical capacity? Where we share human resources? Because that's certainly one. And we've already been doing it. We've gotten the Caribbean into the Pacific and that sort of thing and I was thinking we need to break that down. When we say provider platform, so, it could be exchange of human resources one. The other thing you said was supporting the NRIs to allow the national initiatives. So, at the moment, when the local NR I is there, Delsi can elaborate. When countries want to do their IGFs, we have to rely on local sponsors, obviously. The Telcos and ISPs or CCLTD operators but also to reach out to ICANN or ISOC or IGF SA which is run by Markus Kummer but I would just want to say those funds are running out. They're not sustainable which is why I really liked your TT MAG chair, the comments he made. Looking for ways but if we were to do a global fund pool for that, that's certainly something, Tracy, that the committee to look into.
But, also, in terms of the sharing, yeah, I think I'll stop there for now.
>> All right so can we agree that we're going to establish some sort of. I won't ask the entire DC set to do this because I'm not sure that would be reasonable but a coalition of learning within the coalition. So, I'm hearing already, Sala, volunteering.
>> Can I just say, sorry, we have the head of the Japan ISP association here. Most people don't know he's head of the Japan ISP association. I only know that because I'm from the region.
>> I hope he didn't regret coming here.
>> No, we love you. You know. Yes. And you know, when we look at ourselves, we don't see ourselves as grasshoppers, right? Like, it's not what's in our pocket because if we look at what's in our pocket as a DC, it's probably in deficit, right, Tracy? But we don't look at our pocket. We look at the collaborative pool. The collaborative bucket and we have Singapore, Japan, and even if we don't have the financial capital, we certainly have the hubcap tall, you know what I mean. So, I was thinking if we match what we have on that and pivot, oh, my goodness. Watch put Poland IGF. The nations are rising. Does that make sense? What I'm trying to say is, yeah, we really got to get our act together and start begging and start dictating how things should be run. And I know that the three new IGF mag members, this is going to be awesome.
>> All right. Any further thoughts on this?
>>
>> On behalf of myself, probably we can separate things. Other things, technical issues or something
>> I want to endorse what Sala is saying but I want to take on it slightly differently. I actually think we should be doing a SIDS IGF on our own and with a SIDS IGF, if you will, we will actually be able to ventilate many of our issues in a more specific way, much like what the global IGF is doing.
But, very much related, explicitly to our own
And in doing that, if we create certain round tables to then we begin to find single lines of collaborative opportunities and if we bring all SIDS, wealthy or not into the room then we find our own SIDS financing opportunities where they already have site to some of the issues related to its poorer SIDS operations and then that becomes not just a fertilization point for financial resources but also a fertilization and incubation point for human capacity cross‑fertilization so just want to throw that in. That, I would volunteer to.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Right. So we have a volunteer. Yes. As George says. I vote that nominations seise. Yes. So, volunteering. You're going to be lead that initiative. She can't do it by herself, obviously. But certainly, she would lead, and Nicole is volunteering to help. Fantastic. Excellent. Sand Sala. All right. So, let's. So, all Rapporteur, are we grabbing these names? Sala. Ria. Dalsi. Nicole. All to help with the SIDS IGF and the platform. All right. And Japan ICT. Yes, please.
All right.
>> And if I can add one thing. Let me add one thing. I think we should look here to this in a strategic way so that we do have our donor collaboration partners at the table as well if not in a physical vicinity. You need to get the mic because ‑‑ yeah.
>> I was just saying you can add me as a volunteer in some small capacity because we've got all these big experts here.
>> Accepted.
(laughter) Nicole?
>> Two things I just want to say. Sala, in terms of what you had mentioned vis a vis pulling together people in Geneva, that's part of where I'm saying that it would be happy to volunteer on this because one of the things I'm going to be doing when I'm back in Geneva which is where I'm based is pull together a Caribbean group as the missions and we had very strong engagement from the ambassador of Trinidad & Tobego here so I think we're, I'm saying, rather, that I think we have the opportunity, also, to bring an even bigger group that that group there was focused specifically on equal and gender issues but we had an opportunity to pull together the SIDS missions like we want to call them so I'd be very happy to pull that together on this side with ‑‑ and others.
>> I do apologize for the, I'm very resourceful.
>> Yes, just before Delsi speaks just to respond, you remember the Fiji missions, Fiji ambassador when we convened the other IGF in Geneva, we hosted the day zero event. That opened the panel way so we've already got the network to pull it through. I think we should just do it.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Okay. So we have a SIDS IGF plan. We have a platform to get IGFs going in all of the SIDS territories as well. Item 8, which is sort of an off shoot of that was to get specific IGFs and ICT events going. Because that was sort of the particular need that needed to be established. That seemed to disappear. But, that sounds as if we could pull up together with the previous action item and make that happen along the way.
Although, I believe they are not necessarily IGF's. They are a little different but the group can discuss that.
I know wants to speak before you finish so let me see if I can wrap the last two items up.
And this again, bleeds from what we just spoke about. Developing basically a platform for action going forward from here. So, have a five year plan developed documented and sort of present it perhaps at the IGF itself. I'm looking for either another community or someone to lead this to develop a research in economy, anybody is willing to take this forward. This is now not just the events or the funding and so on, this is actual documentation of action agenda. Research and action agenda. Anybody willing to take that lead. Let's, introduce yourself, get the mic from my colleague to Vanuatu.
>> Hi, I'm Jeff, I represent the ‑‑ and also the Vanuatu IGF. I saw the agenda and it does sound interesting. For the two ‑‑ as I'm pretty much interested in research and development. But I need a big team to work on that as research is a very, very big thing.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: All right. So we have Jeff volunteering.
>> Harvard school, being volunteered from Egypt. Yes.
>> It will help with the studies.
>> Dalsi is volunteering. Dalsi. Sala volunteers. So, let's give the name. Let's pass the mic, someone. Pass the mic. Pass the mic to the front. Before we adopt the action plan, I know Maureen would like to have a word so I'm going to ask Maureen to speak shortly, just to give your names for the Rapporteur. Just get your names
>> Amelia from Fiji.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Anyone else volunteering for the research agenda?
>> My name, Muhamed.
>> I'm Jeffery Garae from Vanuatu.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Maureen. I know you'd like to say something. Go ahead, Maureen. We can't hear. Volume up a little higher.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Go ahead, Maureen, we can hear you.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Can you hear me now? Is it better?
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Volume up for remote.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: That's it. That's the maximum volume.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Okay. All right. Thank you.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: We hear you now. Go ahead.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Okay. Thank you, thank you Tracy and thank you for the team that's gathered here today. Absolute brilliant. I love the brainstorming session and I certainly love the active volunteering that actually took place just now. It's really great to see. I really like the idea of, we did sort of like talk about it last year but we didn't get the website set up so if we could get some volunteers, I think we have established a volunteer for that but a website would be so valuable if we could set it up so that the content actually came from the communities you know, from a different regions and up. I think updating of what is actually subject if we've got our, if we've got our objectives, if it's out there, put it in the place of donors and sponsors who might want to support us.
I really support the idea of having a SIDS IGF so that we're actually talking about what's important to us and with regards to internet development. And I think this may set that as a DC goal but I also think it's important that in order to, we're all coming from developing countries and that we need to sort of like establish a segment. We need to sort of like build capacity within our, you know, within our sort of like region so that when we actually have an IGF, actually getting people who are informed to understand what the, you know, the shoes that concern them, they sort of like know, they know the kind of information that they need to bring from their various communities into such a thing is our IGF. And also, because you're actually like building capacity, would actually help us to establish youth groups, s women groups, sort of like strengthen those and also to look at how they can contribute towards the more successful trend location into the internet economy which is what we actually want.
I really have appreciated this session. I've kept it. We've only done two. But the fact that it's sort of like a real collaborative effort here and it's been a brilliant opportunity. Even though I'm sharing here in the islands, I have really appreciated sort of sharing, being able to share with you in this session and thank you, Tracy, forerunner it so well and for everyone for contributing. Thank you.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thanks for contributing, Maureen. Really appreciate it. Especially at that hour in the morning. Cook Islands. We've run out of time. Does anyone else want to say anything, by the way? Just make sure we get remote people? All right.
So, I was reminded by my colleague Ria that we may not know everyone in the room so I'm going to ask, beg, Abigail to help me by collecting e‑mail addresses and names from people. Do you happen to have anything that you could do it with quickly? Like, I guess your laptop or piece of paper or something. So if you can either scribble it for her or she'll grab it. I know many in the room but I don't think I know everyone so e‑mail addresses and names so we don't lose track of the what's happening here. I'm going to force add all of you to DC SIDS. Please accept the invite when it comes so bear that in mind.
>> Tracy, Amelia just suggested that you put up your e‑mail address and they will email it to you.
>> That's an option as well. Sure. Let's see if we can get it collected now. But my e‑mail address will be, please don't spam me.
(laughter)
Get the screen back up. It's going to write it up here. Send it to Tracy.
>> Can we please include everyone's role in their country as you write your name and information?
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: All right. It's upside down. So, Tracy, because I can't see seem to get the @ sign to work. Send out address. Easy enough.
But, let's try and collect them if we can today, as well. I appreciate that.
All right, and with that, I'm going to adjourn the session. Thank you so much for coming. I appreciate, I assume the action plan has been adopted so let's acclaim that and clap. Thank you so much.