The following are the outputs of the real-time captioning taken during the virtual Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), from 2 to 17 November 2020. 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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>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Hi, everyone. Allow me to express my gratitude to the different national regional IGF representatives as well as the organizers of this version of the IGF to moderate this session on the IGF 2020 NRI's Collaborative Session: Future of Jobs/Work in the Digital Age.
Among the distinguished members of this panel, the parents are already named here. We will just share some brief words to introduce the panel.
This is a topic of special importance in a moment when the pandemic has caused sanitary emergency decisions by governments such as lockdown periods, social distancing, and other related measures affecting national productivity, schooling, our daily and social life in general.
The crisis has accelerated the need for business, government, and people to continue their productivity adopting digital strategies. Not only on the offers of services and products by organization via web or eCommerce but also implementing digital platforms to enable remote work, demanding from employees, employers, and people in general the use of digital tools which require new digital skills.
A recent survey from McKenzie and company reveals findings about the rise in the demand of digital channels from clients from 36% by December 2019 to 80% in July.
Another finding related to our discussion is how please have adopted digital platforms 25 times faster than they ever thought by December 2019, producing migration to this platform 40 times faster before the pandemic.
In the experience of Dominican Republic, for instance, a study from Pew Research center analysis of 2019 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that only 7% of workers in the United States had access to telecommuting. Those who were participating in those platforms were managers and highly paid salaries.
A report from Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research says that today 30% of the U.S. labor force is working from home.
In the Dominican Republic, for instance, a local story from the ICT committee of the Dominican Republic chapter of American Chamber showed a rise from 7 to 33% from small‑medium enterprise. Also, a reduction of physical work from 20 to 60% by last August. Findings show that 85% reported being satisfied by increase in productivity by 47%.
I would like to introduce now some of the policy questions that are based on our discussion panel, on our collaborative session.
First, I would like to introduce the question about how do environmental issues such as natural disasters, pandemics, affect the job market?
I would like to introduce from South Sudan IGF, Ms. Kennedy Bullen; from Panama IGF, Mr. Abdias Zambrano, to discuss on specific cases that have affected environmental issues in their countries.
Please join me to the discussion.
>> ANJA GENGO: He is about to connect. He's having some issues. Maybe you can move to Mattias ‑‑
>> ABDIAS ZAMBRANO: Can you hear me?
Responding to your question, it just affects in many ways. I will speak about the pandemic because I think it's the main subject of every single ‑‑ of every single session here in the IGF this year. In Panama, during the pandemic, some 150,000 to 250,000 jobs were suspended according to media estimates. However, it's believed it could reach up to half a million workers. That is a huge amount here in Panama because we only have two or 3 million people in the workforce.
Because of this and massive job terminations, the demand for employment has increased but not the offer of employment opportunities, costing the workforce to dedicate itself to employment. The worst part of this situation, I think, being a young man, is by recent college graduates that don't have experience that many companies are looking for. This causes many people to offer their workforce for less income than legally established, creating unfair competition.
Now, it is important to note at the time of suffering from the pandemic, Panama had approved a teleworking or remote working law. However, but it had not published the regulations to apply that in March.
So in the beginning of the pandemic, working from home was unclear because we don't have the clear rules of the game to say so, and there were no clear rules. And even though with the regulation of this law, the application has not shifted in each company. It's led to higher Internet and electricity costs for families because not all companies have applied the law well that obligates companies to pay the Internet a little bit amount every single month and the electricity bill ‑‑
(Audio interference)
>> ABDIAS ZAMBRANO: ‑‑ although, they are not situations caused by humans that are environmental situations ‑‑ sorry for the noise. Of the impact affects the short, medium, and long‑term.
Thank you.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you, Abdias, for sharing your thoughts about the situation.
I see, obviously, there are common issues here with the telecommuting or remote work that has affected everybody, especially the remote workers need to adopt the energy, the bill of the Internet, and the laws do not regulate that. It's important to mention that in the past, some digital platforms has arised, so these laws ‑‑ the need from regulator to improve the law is important because we have been accustomed to platforms such as Uber where people do have a job, but they are usually known as an (?) From their services or companies so it not always applies to the regulations on the local countries, but, in this subject, many of the companies that work traditionally providing services physically in their installations are now have adopted new platforms to do these digital remote work from people.
So they are not so accustomed. They only implement in the technology but not the policies related to that.
I think we have an experience from South Sudan, but ‑‑ Kennedy, please join us and share with us your experience in South Sudan about the environmental issues such as natural disaster, pandemics, affecting the jobs in your country.
Please?
>> ANJA GENGO: Kennedy, I see you're unmuted, but we cannot hear you.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Kennedy, are you available?
I'm sorry for this issue with Kennedy. It will be nice to hear from her, but let's move on with the next subject in order to value the moment we are on. Maybe she can join us in a moment ago.
Because we cannot hear you, Ms. Kennedy. I don't know if you're experiencing ‑‑
(Overlapping speakers)
>> KENNEDY BULLEN: I was having some issues there.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Please, Mr. Kennedy.
>> KENNEDY BULLEN: This is Kennedy Bullen representing South Sudan.
From the day when we're preparing because of the pandemic.
I have a point that I have prepared, per se, like in our conversation with ‑‑
(Audio interference)
>> KENNEDY BULLEN: ‑‑ if I talk in terms of (?) And also how do environmental issues such as much (?) Affected the job market. A unique contribution from this presentation is to shed light on the differential effect across the countries and regions around the world and more especially in Africa and particularly in Africa. It's not different, but what we know is we have a couple of challenges that actually affect our environment.
Like right now, we're on a digital age that completely depends on the technology that ‑‑
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Sorry, Mr. Kennedy. I lost you.
Okay. There is some instability on your communication ‑‑ on your audio.
>> KENNEDY BULLEN: Okay. Am I clear now?
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Yes.
>> KENNEDY BULLEN: On the wide range of international expert, contributors to (?) And examine a range of challenges arising from the transformation of work in the digital age. You know n South Sudan, when we look at the digital age, it's a little bit complex. As, for instance, you know, as the pandemic came in by March, you know, everything was shut down.
We tried to encourage the digital ways of communication, but most of the country were not accessible. There was not access to communication simply because of lack of knowledge of the ways we can hear them and (?) However, as we're discussing the effect of labor destruction (?) Pandemic, raises level of wealth inequality, low social mobility and increase of (?) We need strongly to consider how to unlock the vast potential and the implications of policies of innovation at the different levels (?).
So as today, our contribution here and share across the range of industrial countries and share our output with developmental ‑‑
(Audio interference)
(Poor audio quality)
>> KENNEDY BULLEN: So as some of you might notice about the history of South Sudan, it's independent, and, later on, technology is something that newly introduces the (?) And many people don't know the value of technology, but, of course, you look at it at this perspective that we need to unlock and train and teach them the value of technology.
Our contribution, as I can say here ‑‑
(Audio interference)
>> KENNEDY BULLEN: They're developing because of the technology. It's also upon the commission of ‑‑ the ongoing policies about the future of work in the modern economy and, also, its regard the opportunity and (?) Economic and social challenges in our time.
So what I'm trying to put here is, South Sudan is completely down in terms of (?) And if we need to put up like a South Sudan IGF to enhance this digital (?) For people in the community to understand and see how beneficial that they can get and make it a viable tool to develop. We need to cascade our work policy (?) So we can enjoy this technology that they're talking about in the digital age. Like a natural disaster, around the world, you hear (?) Like in our countries where people have been displaced, what do we do as we discuss the technology? What is the solution?
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Sorry, Kennedy. We will have a special timing for you to share a recommendation.
Please let me continue the issues. Thanks for sharing your initial thoughts about the situation in South Sudan, and we have ‑‑ I have to remind you all that we have three minutes to speak about the different issues so we can have the timing for complete all the prospective questions.
>> KENNEDY BULLEN: Okay. You're most welcome.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: The next subject is about to try to answer about employers and employees. Do they have the conditions and skills to adjust to this new circumstances caused by emergency? What are the existing good practices?
We would like to ask the representative from Colombia IGF and Italy and Cameroon to share with us these experiences and how do they see the good practices.
Please, three minutes each, share with us your thoughts. Let's begin with Julio Cesar Gaitan Bohorquez with Colombia IGF.
We can't hear you, please.
>> JULIUS CESAR GAITAN BOHORQUEZ: Sorry. Thank you, Osvaldo.
I'm pleased to represent the (?) Forum at IGF. (?) Right to this connection is an issue that became (?) In Colombia within the framework of the policy of the quarantine. During this preventative isolation, we saw the growth (?) ‑‑ the law of disconnection from the work was introduced to change the norms that regulate the telework in Colombia.
This draft law states that the employer does not (?) The limits that should exist between the working day and the periods, licenses permits or holidays nor those of the personal the family privacy of the work of a family servant.
The rights of related rights such as privacy, work‑personal life balance and work itself.
In the Colombia context, characterized by a low rate of union membership and environment of labor instability, structure and the freedom of (?) Is as important as we must acknowledge that it is very difficult for workers to exercise the right to oppose like linked to the contract.
Secondly, another challenge derives from the working space and times in the distant work models. In Colombia, the public agency in charge of the public service provided a concept on the obligation of public servants to belong to the groups of the WhatsApp as a part of their workers' responsibilities while the lockdown is taking place.
The concept maintains that the workers cannot oppose to be included in the WhatsApp group if this is the channel chosen to be connected to the office within working hours. However, this concept is against the previous judicial decisions that in the grounds of privacy protection, consider it the message sent via WhatsApp groups is a semiprivate nature and is therefore established that the worker must agree to be part of the WhatsApp group in the work environment.
Without this, it is (?) To impose to the workers their inclusion in the WhatsApp group in which their personal information will circulate to third parties.
The discussion is still open.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you, Doctor, for sharing with us your Colombia experience about these opportunities with the regulations that may create a good environment for the people that are working or remote working.
Let's invite Mr. Mattia Fantinati, member of the Italian Parliament to share with us their experiences there in Italy.
Please.
>> MATTIA FANTINATI: Hi, everybody.
Ciao, Osvaldo.
Thank you, everybody.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Ciao.
>> MATTIA FANTINATI: In Italy, it's one of the first countries were the virus, COVID, was spread. It changed our way of work maybe forever. Without Internet, the country could not survive.
We built a platform to meet the offer among the young people and business initiative. So in activating this digital platforms, we share the (?) This is sort of a partnership between private and public institution. It was presented during IGF Italy 2009 organized by one of the companies. (?) Is here. I would like to thank her for that job.
During the 2019, during the pandemic, we have a significant lack of company for respirators. So the company created using the 3‑D printer using an Open Source method with logic, of course, and it creates a universal production of longer respirators for breathe. This was very important and saved a lot of lives.
Let me focus on one concept very, very quickly, just to conclude because remember, I'm in Parliament. I'm a politician. Many people demand of me the future of jobs. What will happen after the COVID crisis? We don't know. We don't know yet about the future.
In the U.S., one primary school out of three will do a job that we don't know yet. It needs to be admitted that most of our job will be replaced by the robots. Of course, it's true, but it's also true that in some kind of countries like South Korea, the number of robots is increasing as well as the number of new employed people is increasing. So don't be afraid about disruptive revolution of technology.
What are the priorities of Italy, and I'm going to conclude.
Prepare as a whole means helping all the citizens to develop basic digital skill as well as the skills that are complimentary, management skills, critical thinking that cannot be replaced by any robots.
Second, we need to focus on the effort to have the workers in jobs which are likely to be most transformative. We don't have to protect the jobs. We have to protect people. So it means we have to create a sort of protection, new legislation, new laws.
Third, and finally, we have to train more and more specialists in a new technology, in a new ICT, in artificial intelligence, in machine learning. So we have to attract as many talents as we can.
That's it. Thank you very much.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you, Mr. Mattias for sharing with us your experience in Italy. It looks very innovative using open source 3‑D printing.
Now let's invite Mr. Eric Stephane to share with us from Cameroon IGF his experiences with the issues related to the best practices affecting his country.
Please, Mr. Stephane.
>> ERIC STEPHANE: Thank you for the opportunity to share Cameroon practice. I want Cameroon IGF.
What I can say about the pandemic and the global pandemic affecting the world, especially in Cameroon, what I will say is it's a blessing in disguise. It's a blessing in disguise because we're developing countries, and we are lagging behind, but this is an opportunity for us to embrace the digital revolution. It's a means to improve the lives of the country and to improve the economy.
What we have been doing in Cameroon, first of all, I need to say that the young people, the public, in general, in Cameroon, the job environment is mostly informal. People were already using digital means (?). They were using social networks to do their daily activates.
So with the current pandemic, the Cameroon government, in order to promote social distancing, they instructed more people, almost everyone, to use remote conferences for meetings and electronic machines as much as possible. So that's why I'm saying it has been a blessing in disguise because, before the%, we were spending money to travel to go from one city to another just for a meeting of one hour or two hours. Everybody can be done using Zoom or using Microsoft Teams.
The other thing is we have some governmental agencies like (?) Which developed their own remote conference tool for the government and all the other administrations to use.
The other thing is, as I said before, the young people in Cameroon are very innovative. They know about the technology. They know the knowledge. Thanks to the Internet, the knowledge is very accessible to everyone. So we have young people here developing innovative solutions, promoting local content, and it's very good for the country because we have a very robust backbone structure. We're connected to four international submarine cables. So we have the data capacity in Cameroon.
Also, we have a very vibrant youth developing innovative services.
But the first setback is financing. Those young people, those young entrepreneurs, it's very difficult to get access to funding. So here in Cameroon, we need to look on ways to better help those young entrepreneurs because they're the ones creating the jobs.
We cannot just rely on the government to create jobs. We have to promote entrepreneurship improve our financing practices.
The other thing is we have an Internet Society in Cameroon. I think in two weeks or so, they have a meeting to promote the Internet usage to the public, to tell people ‑‑ all people, business owners, everyday people, how to use social services, how to use Zoom, how to use Microsoft Teams, but what I can say is everybody is already using technology such as WhatsApp. WhatsApp is very, very popular in Cameroon, even in rule regions.
What I can say at the end is the global pandemic, of course, it's a catastrophe on the human side. It's an opportunity for our government, or our leaders. We need to look at this digital revolution because that's the only thing that can push us forward.
Thank you.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you, Mr. Stephane, for sharing with us the experience in Cameroon. It seems they have innovation in their blood, and they have found ways to thrive in this moment when so much needs to be done for continued production.
Now I would like to open a discussion with a new subject. It's about the vulnerable groups and how to not leave them behind. This is a moment where we talk about the divides on gender. We talk about different barriers for groups to access and to work and use these tools.
Please join me to answer these questions, from Nigeria IGF, Ms. Onwuamaegbu‑Ugwu Edufun. She will share her thoughts about this issue.
Please?
>> ONWUAMAEGBU‑UGWU EDUFUN: Hello. Can everyone hear me?
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Hello. Yes, we can hear you.
>> ONWUAMAEGBU‑UGWU EDUFUN: Okay. Good evening from Nigeria. My name is Onwuamaegbu‑Ugwu Edufun. It's good to meet you all. I am very pleased to represent the Nigerian Internet Society.
Thank you to the panelists that we've heard from so far.
I work on the privileged committee and I'm from the private sector, and I collaborate with the public sector to do my work, so I have a little bit of experience with both private sector and public sector.
During the pandemic, we were very, very, very affected, the vulnerable communities, because nothing was happening, absolutely. Everybody was confused as to what to do because ‑‑ I'm being asked to share my video, so I'm going to ask to upload this because I just had a baby two days ago, and I am still in the hospital, but I have to do this program. Please bear with me. I cannot share my video because I'm not in a very good environment.
Thank you for understanding.
So when the pandemic struck us, we were confused of what to do because the people in the rural environment had no idea of what to do. Either they don't have Internet or they don't have the material. They don't have a phone. They don't have laptops or computers to use.
And when I also worked with the open communities, they moved very quickly, and the parents were able to provide Internet. The youth were able to move on and pivot to other things.
Then I started advocating for the rural communities. What do we do to get those people on board, even after the pandemic? Because it seems that they will still be maybe 50 days behind. So what can happen?
We got Internet and laptops and other gadgets to rural communities for work, and we find out that there are a lot of things to be done. I mean, there are people that are totally out of work that cannot be able to reach to where we expect to be in the future. When you talk about the future of work, there are, they may not see the future of work.
Can you hear me?
So the vulnerable communities ‑‑
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: It's unstable.
>> ONWUAMAEGBU‑UGWU EDUFUN: Is it better now?
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Yes. Yes.
>> ONWUAMAEGBU‑UGWU EDUFUN: Okay. So the vulnerable communities, the rural communities, we are left out, and they know, the governments know, but they started working on ‑‑ when we started advocating, they said that, you know, becoming faster with the work of laying Internet fibers, trying to get some access to these places, but there's a lot of work to be done.
So in the world we are today, we have two worlds. We have the world of the known and the unknown, and the unknown are those in the rural communities who have no idea what we say about the future of work. We are just existing. And there is so much work to be done to reach out to those intelligent, smart children, the youth, out there.
And then the world of the known, the people that are privileged enough to know what is happening. We are also able to work with them from our organization. As little as seven or eight years, we have started teaching robotics. We have started teaching artificial intelligence. And we have made a way for students to let them know what the future of work is and to get prepared right now because preparing for the future of work is not in the future. It is now.
If you're not prepared now, you cannot be able to get to the future. So getting them prepared now is the priority because we don't want to be cut off in the next 10 to 20 years.
However, on the other flip side, we work with other organizations like the U.S. Embassy that promotes and sponsors some of our programs to the rural community where we give them access to laptops and Internet and introduce even basic computer skills, not only the digital skills, but basic skills. The youth, we help them with entrepreneurships and entrepreneurial skills. We help them think about the solutions to the common problems in their environment. They come with up ideas, and they come up with how to solve their problem.
So we're on track to see that the vulnerable communities are remembered, and we give them access to resources, STEM resources, that can help them for the future.
Then on the other side, in the other area, we're also helping to promote the skills for the future, and we hope that, you know, in the future they will be able to balance true networking, true advocacy so that people in the vulnerable communities are not really left out. Because from our work, we have discovered that there are so many talents buried, so many talents are buried in the rural community because they don't have access.
We have proven that by taking some (?) To Silicon Valley ‑‑ two years ago, they attended a competition, and they won a gold medal from there. So from the village to Silicon Valley. It's not only Nigeria. If the world would look at giving access to children in vulnerable communities, giving them access to resources, we will have a huge difference in the world. It's not just in Nigeria. It's all over the place. There are so many disenfranchised children and youth. Yes, we're looking for youth to take over the next thing happening in the world, and we are not giving the world we have access.
So we're looking for work to break those barriers more and more, and I am happy that I had the opportunity to let you know what is happening here in our environment and the vulnerable communities.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you ‑‑ could you repeat your name?
>> ONWUAMAEGBU‑UGWU EDUFUN: It's okay. You can use Onwuamaegbu‑Ugwu Edufun.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: We have to move on with Mr. Sindy Obed from Haiti who will share with us the experience in the country.
Mr. Sindy, could you join us?
>> SINDY OBED: Thank you. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Thank you for the question. I hope my English will be acceptable. I am a French‑speaking person.
I want to start by speaking about the situation. The person of Asian population, if they leave the poverty life, this gives an idea of the majority of the population is suffering and vulnerable. So unemployment is at 40%. We're still suffering the damage of the (?) 10 years ago, which caused damage estimated at more than seven (?). We have men, we have young people, we have people living in rural areas, and people we do seek mobility. So there are groups of people that are vulnerable to poverty, vulnerable to digital economy, vulnerable for (?) There are initiatives ‑‑
(Audio interference)
>> Sindy Obed: We need vulnerable people to be in all political decisions, and they must be included in all debates. We have tran Asian women (?) Popular norms that exclude women. There are mentorship programming with women's organization that align women and promote their inclusion, so it's to step up and say what position they want in society.
(?) Job opportunities can provide life to the young people who make up the bulk of the Asian population. So the majority ‑‑ the majority of Asian population is young.
Social networks are used to create (?) Income, and some there is an initiative named IT Goes Global. It's a project to equip people with technical skills to help them get out of poverty.
For people in rural areas, they need the availability of jobs and (?) That will not require them to move to urban areas. There are projects, but they are far from sufficient to include the population.
It is up to each group of people to claim their place in Asian society, and this must be the inclusion of all citizens, skills, materials, access to Internet. It is necessary for all, and it is good news to learn that the (?) $60 million grant project for connectivity to access (?). So we want to seek (?) For development of the country. So we want to see all the people to enter to the digit economy.
Thank you so much, Mr. Osvaldo.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you for sharing with us.
We are almost out of time, so we would like you to share with us in a minute your concluding remarks, your recommendations in your actual state, to the policymakers to connective and align new opportunities to create conditions and a good environment for these challenges that you have mentioned.
So let's begin Mr. Sindy Obed. Share with us, in a minute, his recommendations in order to align these issues we just discussed.
Please?
>> Sindy Obed: Yes. We want to ‑‑ we must have more women in all sectors. We want to include ‑‑ we must include all voices in debates. If we need voice in public forms. We have, for example, some projects like smart ‑‑ we developed the training models on mobile money (?) In the town of Kabawi (phonetic) (?) To improve their living conditions. I think we can do something like that. We need skills. We need the infrastructure. We need the actions between all stakeholders.
That's all I can say for now.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you, Obed, for sharing with us.
Now, with Nigeria IGF, Ms. Edufun, please?
>> ONWUAMAEGBU‑UGWU EDUFUN: I think I should say (?). Edufun is a business name. We have been working with a lot of policymakers to improve the inaccuracies in the curriculum. It's working, actually.
For the private sectors, we've been able to encourage lots of schools to assess some programs in their schools, like the robotics and the AI we're teaching. Like we say, we don't know what the future is. We have a glimpse, but, yeah, we need to be ready and prepared. And this is what we are doing.
On the other hand, we pay very close attention to the (?) And not taking that very lightly. We take it seriously, so the girl (?) We take care of them and make sure the governments also look into that. The government is also complying by providing some access to so the (?) Gets the adequate STEM education that is needed for them to thrive.
So we hope to see the future where things get better and better for us, and we hope that (?) Continues over that time for us to share our ideas.
Thank you.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you for sharing with us your thoughts.
From Italy, I would like to invite Mattias to share with us his commitment required for surpassing ‑‑ or for creating the conditions and environment for the future of work.
>> MATTIA FANTINATI: I will give you numbers. Numbers are important. Nine out of 10 jobs will need digital skills. In Europe, at the moment, 44% of the population between 16 and 17, doesn't have them. There will be 1.6 million job vacancies in 2025. Digital skill. Everybody, the contract for the web, three important commitments. Rights and duties. Government. Government has rights and duties regarding privacy. Companies, rights and duties, because Internet is not for the government. You cannot just blame the government, because the Internet is everybody's thing.
Governments, companies, making the Internet accessible, respecting privacy, making technology that improves life for the companies and the citizens. Creators and collaborators, we have to fight for the Web. You can do this in a multistakeholder platform, like IGF.
Italy will be one of the first in the world that will have, in a few weeks, a multistakeholder platform with an open and (?) That will be our future. Thank you very much.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you, Mattias, for sharing with us your numbers and the commitment you oversee.
>> ERIC STEPHANE: It's important to improve the resources. The technical digital skills are needed in today's market and today's job environment. We also need to improve our educational system. The educational system needs to be disrupted. We need to add the new digital skills, artificial intelligence, blockchain. Blockchain is very good in this moment. IoT. We need to improve our technical system. Like I said, this is the digital age. We need to be ready.
The other thing is the increased use of ICT, we need to look at cybersecurity as well. We need to be better equipped for cybersecurity because threats are growing and causing damages more and more.
So we need to improve our cybersecurity tools, and we also need to ‑‑ like in Cameroon, we don't have a data protection policy. We need to work on putting in place a data protection policy.
The last thing, a part of our infrastructure we can improve or fix broadband penetration, because the most use here is mobile broadband. If we can improve our fixed broadband, it will be good for the whole country.
Like I said, lastly, we need to better help those young innovators provide financial aid or tax incentive for them to develop new applications and new services.
Thank you.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you, Eric, for sharing with us.
And now I will invite Julio to talk about his actions and recommendation in representation of Colombia IGF.
>> JULIUS CESAR GAITAN BOHORQUEZ: Thank you, Osvaldo. The result of (?) Most in our society were rapidly put into the future without any preparation. In this digital session, massive day‑to‑day challenges are proof of regulations and privacy concerns that only increase, but there are other topics that need to be discussed locally, such as the challenges of artificial intelligence, the new capacities that the people will need in more digital jobs, et cetera.
Thank you, Osvaldo.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you.
So let's go on with Panama, please.
>> ABDIAS ZAMBRANO: Yes. I will be fast due to the time.
Panama IGF and all its multistakeholder members wish to express their commitment is to promote that teleworking or remote working law in a human rights approach that ensures fair treatment with digital (?) For workers and employers.
(Audio interference)
>> ABDIAS ZAMBRANO: Many companies will continue to telework or using remote work after knowing the benefits that this modality has through the use of these digital devices.
Our recommendation is that the telework or remote work law should have a gender focus. Women who remote work who practice remote work are the most effective in terms of stress levels and the time to rest. They can't to do housework, take care of children. We promise we have this commitment to focus our efforts, especially on this topic.
We already have public policies. Now we have to put it into practice.
Thank you, Osvaldo.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you, Abdias.
Mr. Kennedy, from South Sudan, please.
Can you hear us? Kennedy?
Are you there? I don't see Mr. Kennedy .
>> Can you unmute your mic?
>> KENNEDY BULLEN: Okay. Can you hear me now?
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Yes, please.
>> KENNEDY BULLEN: Thank you so much. Though I have not spoken about the employee.
Our recommendation for South Sudan is that we need to look into policy regarding the development of this technology. It's very important, especially during the pandemic breakout. Most of our people did not have access. Maybe it is difficult for them to communicate, to express their view.
In this case, I recommend that in a policy development, seeing how African countries have been (?) ‑‑
(Audio interference)
>> KENNEDY BULLEN: ‑‑ it has been a serious waves of not finding the voice from the community.
Secondly, the digital technology has not been (?). We are still behind (?) We see that it's very important to come together and see where that we can (?) Where they can be able to access the information.
However, I thank you for this time to express our (?) Now we are catching up. We are trying to give awareness to our people on the ground (?)
Thank you.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Thank you, Kennedy, for sharing with us.
We now are in the final moments. I would like to share some remarks with what I have taken from what you've shared.
First of all, we would like for people to create capacities in order to educate, adopt, digital skills, not from grown‑ups but from the beginning of their education. So it is important for all governments to adopt policies in order to develop those skills.
Another important issue is the way that people adopt these skills, they have opportunities to be creative, to be innovators, to be entrepreneurs, but the funding is usually oriented to people with finances and opportunities to reduce risk.
So they have to be some kind of celebration or companies that create opportunities for those people to employer their talents and have the opportunities to be productive with their proposals.
Another important issue is about the implication to adopt measures for gender inclusion. That's an important issue because all opportunities must be available for everyone. Nobody can stay behind.
In this way, we can make them part of this issue in order to make good opportunities because they are the mother of kids, and they are, obviously, multiplicators of this.
The common act assets in the Internet is good. We have seen experiences from Italy, for instance, or from Cameroon, that they can take from open‑source innovations and adapt them to their government situation. So these are digital skills that create these opportunities for everybody to share.
We have seen, also, three different axis or trends in this conversation. First of all, one related to the current, traditional organizations and their migration to digital platforms. This is important. We need regulation in order for people ‑‑ not for organizations to provide those platforms but for people to connect them with using their energy, using their Internet, using their resources in order to assess that. That is not a traditional way of working.
Usually enterprises provide all the means for their jobs, but this is an issue that is inherited from traditional digital platforms that allow the opportunity for people to join with their own resources, but the legislation must be worked out in order to create opportunities for everyone.
And the third part is the local platforms that allow people to find new jobs, but they need the skills in order to join these opportunities. These are different remarks I have taken notes from your different speeches, and I thank you for the opportunity to moderate this panel with these reaching points of view.
I now give the floor back to Federica Tortorella with her final notes related to the rapporteur process.
>> Federica Tortorella: Hello, everyone. I apologize for not using the camera, but I am still at the office. I really apologize in case you hear some sounds. There is a lot of people around me.
So I really thank you all for the valuable inputs you gave today.
Osvaldo, do you need a quick resume? I have 12 hours to post and share it. Perhaps it could be a good idea not to waste more time, in case you need to get more input, so I could send it to the email since I have a few notes, but I have to arrange it quite better. What do you think about it?
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: It's okay. Yes, we have time for you to share the final remarks in order to share the documents, and, also, Anja has shared with us a link where all of you can share your commitments related to these issues. No?
So please use that link in order to complete the information regarded to this panel.
I think we are done.
But, Anja, I don't know if you think we have a moment, one or two minutes for any find comment that may be provided for the panelists.
>> ANJA GENGO: Thank you. I really enjoyed listening to this session, and it's a good ending for the workday.
I would defer to the hosts. Maybe we could give two or three minutes to ask if colleagues or participants have any questions to ask. I think it's a pity not to allow for inputs. I'm sure that many were puzzled and it got the attention of many, the inputs that were shared by our colleagues.
So maybe two or three minutes, if the co‑hosts don't mind.