The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF virtual intervention. 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, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> We all live in a digital world. We all need it to be open and safe. We all want to trust --
>> And to be trusted.
>> We all despise control.
>> And desire freedom.
>> We are all united.
>> ANJA: Hello, everyone. This is Anja from the IGF Secretariat in my capacity as the Focal Point for the National Regional and Youth IGFs, and it's a pleasure to be here and so wonderful to see so many of you in person. This session is not moderated by me but by someone much, much better than me Ms. Jane Coffin, and I'm sure her name does not need introduction so let me please hand it over to Jane to explain. And just a very brief note before Jane takes the floor that this session has been prepared in a bottom-up way by a number of national, regional, and youth IGFs and many of them are present here in person and a bigger number is present online. With that, Jane, please take it from here, and thank you.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you very much. You've done a wonderful job in organizing the session, it's great to see people there in Katowice. Might have apologies for not being there but wonderful to see the hybrid format working so well. The NRIs are important to global connectivity, to global inclusion, expanding digital inclusion, and a core part of the IGF. We have the pleasure of several speakers that will speak about a minute each about the importance they're doing at the NRI level. I'd like to take a second though to reflect on the fact that there have been so many global changes in the ecosystem over the last couple of years, and this will filter down into all of the work that people are doing at the NRI level, and of course I would be a bit remiss if I didn't mention that COVID has, of course, shown us the importance of connectivity. It has shown us the importance of digital inclusion and what that means to every different locality. It has shown us that governments have to work together across ministries, it has shown us the power of the private sector, the Civil Society, the technical communities, and how much we can do when we work together.
Again, when we listen to people at the local level, because it's the local communities that know how to bring more connectivity, how to create better digital inclusion and equity in their local areas. We must figure out ways to work together. It is about partnership and no partner should be a single point of failure. At the global level when we see rolling out and cable systems being deployed, communities and countries changing and embracing community networks, hurray and building out connection we see the opportunities in front of us for change. It's the importance of working together at local levels. I'm going to turn it over, we're going to have a series of speakers here, and then after that we're going to have a reflection on what the open floor has said.
So first, it's we have a speaker from Tanzania Ms. Katarine, a Coordinator from NRIs and talking about basic Internet foundation. She's on a site there in Katowice. So, Katarine, it's over to you to speak, and I believe you have a minute for reflections.
>> KATARINE: Hello, everyone. My name is Katarine from Tanzania and represent a foundation called Basic Internet Foundation, and available in Norway so we work in 13 different countries in Africa and Tanzania being one of them. We work on programs on school connectivity mostly, and we have is contract with telecom operators to connect schools. Thank you, but I would really agree with what you're saying that indeed it's COVID that is the one that showed the importance of digital inclusion in this common era because after the COVID pandemic, that's when the government really saw the importance of connecting schools, and that's when we got our first contract to -- the first contract signed by the government to deploy school connectivity project. But before that, we first had a lot of challenges in terms of policy, getting the partners in place, and having people understand the need for connectivity.
So, I agree with what you're saying and I believe it's very important to have initiatives at a local level and partnerships are really important, and so what we do in basically the foundation is really advocacy for partnership in the local level and international level. We are working with content creators, work with people on digital skills, working with the government, and among that network operators. So, we are on a multistakeholder engagement trying to see how everyone can come on board in making sure that we are leaving no one behind. Thank you.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you very much. The next speaker is from Ghana IGF and we have the honorable Samuel Natey, Member of the National Parliament, from the Republic of Ghana on site.
>> SAMUEL NATEY GEORGE: Hi. Unfortunately, I'm not on site and I'm unable to travel and we're having issues with budget with Ghana so I haven't been able to join. I'll share a few impacts with COVID and what it's done to us as a country and connecting schools and what it has helped us to be. COVID has been a big eye opener, just as the previous speaker said in Tanzania. We had a program where we already started a connectivity of schools and what COVID did for us is to draw the attention and make this a front-bearing issue. It was no longer seen as a luxury. It was seen as a necessity, where we had to use Internet connectivity to connect schools, but even in our case, we realized that there were areas in the country where there wasn't just about Internet connectivity but need to now develop TV-wide spaces when you do the digital migration to be able to use the TV-wide spaces to be able to reach hard-to-reach areas where Internet connectivity and penetration doesn't exist because we have islands and communities in Ghana cut off from the national grid. This brought all of these cases, aerial fiber, electricity grid lines and how to create and integrate a network that would allow us to leave nobody behind. It's also helped us accelerate our last-mile connectivity project where we have in Ghana, we have the major national fiber backbones that run the western corridor and eastern corridor fiber networks, but they have never really been connected to the small communities along the road, it's always the main district capital, so what this has done is actually brought to the front the need for us to look at last-mile connectivity to ensure that no one is left behind, and I think that's a major thing we need to begin to look at.
It's easy to talk about Internet penetration in developing countries and say we connected our major cities and major district capitals, but then there are people in the rural areas, and we cannot afford to leave them behind, and I think that's one thing we need to look at. Thank you.
>> JANE COFFIN: Such an important point about not leaving behind the rural areas, I'm in a rural area right now and I hear you. The next up is Cote d'Ivoire, Gertrude Kone Kouassi, Executive Director of National Union of Telecommunication Companies. Over to you, Ms. Gertrude. We're interested in hearing your points and perspectives.
>> GERTRUDE KONE KOUASSI: (no English translation).
>> JANE COFFIN: Excellent words. Thank you very much about the importance of inclusion, the fiscal issues, equipment, and basically how we can get more connectivity through some collaboration.
The next speaker up is Ms. Lydienne Ntogue from Ministry of Post and Telecommunication in Cameroon. Over to you for one minute.
>> LYDIENNE NTOGUE: Hello, everyone. I'm very happy to be part of this panel and to share some points that we in Cameroon, we've been doing in order to bridge the gap of it in your country since the pandemic. Actually, as it was said before, we had so many of our governments, most of our African governments have found it difficult to -- to act accordingly to the needs of the population before we were having this pandemic. After the pandemic, we have noticed in some area points the government started working and seeing the need to react and to do more than what they were doing already in terms of infrastructure, in terms of access, in order to be able to connect the unconnected, and actually we noticed that at the level of education where we saw many of the children from rural areas not going to school, have been able to be connected with others.
The health care system was not available for the rural areas, and the product supplies, agricultural industry was facing difficulties, it wasn't possible to have food in towns because the transport was not available, the transportation was not available. So, because of that, our government, for example, they put in place actions and are working with international organizations to look for solutions, and I think that is a good point that COVID brought to our African nations, where it is difficult to discuss and to put on the table issues that are really important. So, and because of it, we noticed that the policies had to be reframed because the policies that are in place in our countries, are very obsolete and they don't consider the changes on the Internet, the new world that we are running into. So, it became an urgent matter to try to pass reform and change that in our countries.
I think actually from what has been done already and what our governments are putting in place as policies, it is therefore not all, it is enough and we think can do better because most of the time we at the government level we act or on the translation of populations of those that are using this -- those that are using these services, we take decisions without putting them on and considering their views. That is what we are working on in Cameroon, for example, for the people coming into centers and existing already, and we're now trying to bring up -- to bring up a platform of discussion with other various stakeholders in order to bring solutions and provide real solutions for the needs of the population in terms of Internet, in terms of access, and what type of access is needed in which area, and what are the needs of the population because this is important to consider the needs of the population before proposing policies that will impact or influence their lifestyles.
So that's thank is what I wanted to share a bit because we are in Cameroon, for example, we were not having IGF for the past how many years, we've been fighting and looking for ways to bring on the table of discussions, the Civil Society worked for it, they tried everything and it was not working. But since the COVID-19, I think our governments are seeing the necessity of bringing together every stakeholder in order to discuss and to find out solutions in order to bridge the gap of -- of this digital inclusion -- or exclusion of some parts of the population like the rural area, women, people with disabilities, and so on and so forth. So that is what I have to say about all of this. Thank you 6789.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you very much. Just as a reminder, we're going through a list of speakers, we have about a minute for each speaker and then we'll have a bit of a discussion and then we'll open it up to the floor. The next speaker is from the Haiti IGF, and Stephanie Joseph the Chair of the Internet Society Haiti. Over to you, Stephanie.
>> STEPHANIE JOSEPH: (no English translation).
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you. The next speaker we have is from Moldova. I had the pleasure of living there for two years. Mrs. Galina Climov, organizations of people with disabilities of people of Moldova. Over to you.
>> GALINA CLIMOV: Hello everybody. It's an important opportunity for us as representative of Civil Society organization from Moldova to participate at the IGF 2021 and to present the problems concerning connectivity and digitalization at the national level. Our network, our national network that includes the 53 Civil Society organization promote and advance CRPD implementation for rights of persons with disabilities in Republic of Moldova. And accessibility is one of our strategic goals of our alliance.
In Moldova, lives about 177,000 of persons with disabilities that which represent 6.7% of entire population of the country. And people with disabilities are the most vulnerable category in the country, and most of them live in rural areas. The employment opportunities are extremely low, social infrastructures are undeveloped, and which negative live influences the quality of life of these people.
The pandemic period limited the possibility for limiting access by medical, social, education, and other public services. The problem of access to support services is also currently outside of the pandemic because the physical environment, public transportation, and the informational environment is not adapted, and people with disabilities have no -- have no resources to purchase devices and Internet services. Our pandemic experience has also highlighted solutions to ensure continued support for people with disabilities. I will present several experiences of our Civil Society organizations that supported the social services awarded to digital services. The uses of telemedicine also.
If we're talking about policies and strategies, I will propose several solutions for continued support in any part of the country of persons from the all vulnerable groups. It can be included in national and in local policies, the measure is digitalization of services. Presentation of web information in easy-to-understand, and easy-to-read format. Ensures the person from the vulnerable groups with connection to Internet services and communication equipment because these devices and services operate pretty expensive for them. Thank you very much.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you, Galena. We thank you very much. Next up is from the Columbian IGF a well-known person to many of us. Julian, over to you.
>> JULIAN CASABUENAS: Thank you Jane. During the discussions on access and inclusion, we believe that there has been taking place in multiple spaces, and including this session of NRIs and we -- that shows us that it's relevant to continue working from the IGF to find alternatives to connect the unconnected by seeking inclusive, affordable, and accessible solutions.
In all of these events, multiple models are presented to reduce the digital divide by connecting the unconnected especially in rural and underserved areas. During our Internet governance forum in Colombia this year, we had the opportunity to have a panel on access and inclusion with the participation of the inter-American telecommunication commission, CTEL, the communication regulation commission in Colombia, the National Spectrum Agency, the Members of the Community, and also representative from the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, and with all of these discussions, we reflect that we must then move from formulating proposals to implementing them in the shortest time possible to help bridge the digital divide and connect the unconnected.
It has been a long time in Colombia, more than 25 years since Internet arrived to our country, and still we have a broad community, especially in rural areas that are not connected. So, this discussion was also taken be into account the document produced by CTEL of best practices for breaking the digital divide by connecting the unconnected in underserved, rural areas where they recognized that the digital transformation requires a focus on people and not only in the deployment of network, and also long-term resources, policies and regulations, must be guaranteed by projects that include technical operation for citizens. We have also comments from the other stakeholders that I hope I will be able to share with you in the discussion. Thank you.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you, Julian. Our next speaker is from France, the France IGF. It's Ms. Claire. Over to you, Claire.
>> CLAIRE: Board member of IGF France especially on education and active ministry of justice, but to the today I speak on my behalf. Remote areas are not only islands, remote territories, but there are territories can constraints, for example, liberty, sickness, handicaps and those territories can be hospitals or jails and today I speak about jails.
In France, penitentiary system is a public system and 2009 law regarding persons in penitentiary system provide framework for two missions, one in security of course and one in session through formation work and education. And just (?) strengthens the possibility to work in jails. Among those structures, there are two categories of people, convicted people, and people waiting to be judged or not definitively convicted. So why are those areas not really connected? First of all, jails are places where security needs to be up, there are indeed security reasons, and the Internet unlawful communications that should not be allow, access to people or things that should not be accessed, but why nonetheless is it important to connect inmates to give them access to the Internet? First of all, a few facts about inmates to understand the context and the issues. The majority of them have no diploma, and moreover, a large number of them encounter a form of (?). But they are citizens and we cannot deny their rights and inmates are citizens and they will go out and we have to work with them regarding their reintegration. So, when you bring together those realities, what you obtain is that the Internet is part of the problem and it's part of the solution.
I will explain. How do you clearly want to understand and use the Internet when you are illiterate, yet the Internet is crucial and you know that, so know how do we connect inmates, and how do we produce them access to the Internet. The issue is to not stay on technical but make Internet be understood and news and interest of the people. To educate people is at the same time to fight hate speech, fake news, allow people not to be a victim of a scam, or whatever is on the Internet.
For example, online by Internet Society France regarding the elderly and uses of Internet has shown the necessity to reinforce capacity on. The true goal here is to educate people and to use the Internet like a valuable way in order to create a future for the inmates, a proper future, I mean especially with a valuable job. Two facts, again. Professional skills regarding Internet, for example, program, knowing algorithm is valuable skill outside of the jail to find a job. And there is a real need in France for these skills. And statistics that are very important is when a person follows -- when an inmate follows a professional way in jail, work, the risk of recidivism is no more than 50% but decreases at 33%, and this is really significant.
So, the Internet is a present but still future and true opportunity for inmates. What is done today, and I will be short? There is first an ongoing effort to connect technically also penitentiary structure through a program numeric in French are, digital in jails, and with the help of an agency that aims to develop solutions through work information and which is depending on Ministry of Justice, and from different -- there is different structures and initiatives regarding the Internet in jail, and for example, Web Force 3 is a school teaching programming for adults and one who has difficulty in the work field, and even adults with disabilities.
Internet Society France has followed its implementation in jails to learn about communication about the difficulties and opportunity to teach digital skills in this context. Finally, a video on the Internet Society France website. And also, for an example, (?) is an NGO and under structure which forms and offers work in the field of program, for example, the website of the (?), was made by inmates.
Next step is to generalize the connectivity and to make the public understand that because Internet is part of everyday life, you can't cut off citizens from this area and knowledge. Finally, the different project I had mentioned, additionally the importance of collaborative approach as well as involving the different stakeholders to tackle the key issue of insertion, particularly for the people in remote areas and in jails. Thank you.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you very much, Claire. That was a very interesting aspect of this with respect to jails and connectivity. Thank you very much. It helps with digital inclusion for sure.
I'm going to change things up a little bit. We have about five minutes to have a discussion for any observations from any of our speakers, so with respect to what drives access in the rural and remote areas and what is smart to do and how. So, we've got five minutes for that, and then we'll have ten minutes for an open floor between speakers and participants on the issues presented, and then I'm going to do a speed round on voluntary commitments and recommendations from others. So, the first issue up now for five minutes is, do any of our speakers want to reflect on what was said during the open floor? And let us know more about what you think about driving access in rural and remote areas, and what is smart to do and how? If you can keep your comments very short, we don't have translation in the room, and what we'll be doing is going back to the transcript and we'll be using that to create the record. But if we could take two or three or four speakers, what would you do to drive access in rural and remote areas, and what is smart or intelligent to do and how would you do it? Just some short thoughts? Who would like to start? I see Julian has his hand up, so I will go to Julian. Yeah 6789.
>> JULIAN CASABUENAS: From the discussions I mention in the Columbian IGF I highlight to protonate the use of universal service funds for connectivity projects in rural areas and encourage discussion on the analysis of fiscal measures that favor connectivity, connectivity in rural areas because it's usually more than 100 in excess of in urban areas, so it's very expensive. The technology that was mentioned also, it's very important as well to the promotion of connectivity in these areas, and also to encourage the participation of small community network operations, as well as having flexible and simple spectrum access frameworks and encourage the implementation of community networks as an alternative with sustainable models and quality connectivity with access to universal communications for funds for initial deployment and connectivity subsidies.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you, Julian. I also see Samuel has a hand up, and then so if you can a quick minute of observation.
>> SAMUEL NATEY GEORGE: Thank you very much. From an African perspective, one thing that is very key for us is the fact that even as we drive connectivity in rural areas, we need to look at the spending part, the economic power of the persons who live in the rural areas because, yes, you may drive connectivity and you may complete last-mile connectivity, but if people do not have the economic means to pay for the data to connect because of the economic circumstances and because of the extremely high cost of data on the African continent, it's becomes an inhibitive factor, so you realize you have connectivity, you have achieved connectivity, however usage is still very low. So, one thing we will need to look at is how Europe and the rest of the world can support cheaper, affordable data on to the African continent, and that way when you drive connectivity, up can as well drive usage because connectivity without usage is actually meaningless.
Again, another thing I think we should look at is how to integrate traditional services that people are used to build an appetite for digital inclusion, to things like using the old post office which people are very familiar with, all the generations are familiar with. The post offices have become redundant in mean local communities so we just can we convert the post offices into digital centers of excellence, where persons can now go there and access the Internet and have access to e-learning tools and those things that we need to look at and begin to integrate. Thank you.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you. Excellent point. We have three more people with hands up that were speakers before, so I would love for you to give us just a minute each. I'm going to turn to Gertrude, Lydienne, first to you, Gertrude, for a minute.
>> GERTRUDE KONE KOUASSI: (no English translation).
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you. A lot about physicality and energy and the connectivity costs and data. Thank you very much. So, Lydienne, over to you and then after Lydienne, Galina. Lydienne, one minute, please. Lydienne.
>> LYDIENNE NTOGUE: (feedback) (echo) (no English translation).
(echo).
>> JANE COFFIN: If we could ask audience members to mute, that would be great. Thank you very much, Lydienne, you were discussing the importance of energy connectivity and as well as cost. Okay. So, we'll go over to Galina for a minute and then open up the floor. I'll explain how that will work in a minute. Galina for you now, one minute, please.
>> GALINA CLIMOV: Thank you very much. I will say that we as a Civil Society organization with our partners that promote us to participate today at the IGF session, we would like together in partnership with the central authorities in order to do an assessment about all the web page of different types of services, social services, educational services, a page of different institutions that are used by persons with disabilities, but persons from the vulnerable groups, and in order to know what kind of -- what kind of resources we need to plan the budget, to address them for the -- to respond to the persons with disabilities needs. I hope that we will have an openness of our government and parliament to promote the changes in the e-government strategies in order to include these resources to adjust all the web pages of public services in order to be accessible for all populations. Thank you 6789.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you, Galina. That's a really important point you're making about an appeal to government to make their public websites and pages accessible. Accessibility is a really important issue with respect to digital inclusion and in the pandemic to bring people closer together in the rural and remote areas.
We have about 15 minutes left, and what we'd like to do is open the floor now between the speakers and the participants in the room on the issues that the speakers have presented. We can take about 8 minutes for this, and I'll try to keep track of time. But let's keep the comments really crisp if we can, 30 seconds to a minute with your questions, so I'll ask for some help from the remote friends. I see hands up, so I'll try to facilitate this the best that I can. This is going to be fun.
So, I see that there are some hands up from the remote hub in Bangladesh, so what question do you have for our panelists? We can hear you loud and clear. Wonderful.
>> This is a wonderful session and informative session by our genius speakers, so can you kindly enlighten me about the majors to promote policy network, meaningful access in remote areas, and moreover, how can we make this safer for kids and teenagers. Thank you so much.
>> JANE COFFIN: Okay. Thank you for keeping your question short. Who among our panelists here would like to address that question? How do you create a better policy network and how do you help with good safety for kids? So that's a very important question. Who would like to take a go at that? How about Julian or I know you're working closely with different authorities, so maybe even Samuel. Any thoughts on that?
>> JULIAN CASABUENAS: I can comment on the reflections and eliminate barriers to network employment and also sharing infrastructure to reduce rates in rural areas, and that regulatory barriers are not adjusted just to rural areas because sometimes when we want to implement community networks, for instance, we have to follow rules designed mainly for urban areas. And related to protecting the child in our case, we have governmental initiatives that create a series of materials that can be used to prevent abuse for children and have a good practice to prevent children to be abused or used or contacted by organizations of people that want to create, for instance, a child pornography. But there are a lot of initiatives from governments to prevent that, and also from private organizations 6789.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you very much, Julian. That's Doca. That's a good answer for you. I'm sure Julian can put his email in the chat and you can chat more. I do notice that Osvaldo in the room or virtual, do you have a question for the participants, Osvaldo.
>> OSVALDO LARANCUENT: Yes. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to collaborate. In Dominican Republic we have entity in charge of rural communities, which is managed by the government, and they do not only include the opportunities for people to connect, but also some contents about languages and about printing, and it is important to connect with them via public services, but also to enjoy what community can get with a content local to their needs. Is there any of the cases included in the collaboration from the government in multistakeholder way, as I think we are doing in the Dominican Republic? Just to know how it could be helpful for including the government in these policies? Thank you.
>> JANE COFFIN: Great question. Any of our speakers? A question about including government.
>> SAMUEL NATEY GEORGE: In Ghana what we have currently going with the Ministry of Communication is a joint partnership with the MNOs, mobile network operates and in rural communities where it's not feasible, economically feasible for them to go in and build the mass and give connectivity, what we've done is decided to have a partnership using our universal access fund, which is called the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications and we use it as a basis to go in, and currently we're rolling out 216 sites across rural Ghana to ensure that the cost of the sites are actually borne by the universal access funds, and to be able to provide that connectivity at very low rates and low costs, both to the end users and to the MNOs who would not want to put in the initial capital expenditures to set up the sites.
Again, on the first question of child pornography or child protection in Ghana we ratified the booed pest convention and Mali convention and they impose a responsibility on the states to ensure that we have clean cyber hygiene to protect our kids and we've got a cybersecurity month in Ghana that we focus a lot dealing with the schools, we have clubs set up in schools actually working with the children and using them as ambassadors to be able to identify possible improvements on the Internet, and ultimately I think -- (audio fading).
>> JANE COFFIN: We lost you. You had a point you were making about groomers.
>> SAMUEL NATEY GEORGE: We have the cybersecurity authority set up in Ghana now actively working with focal persons in schools to look and identify and in kid chat rooms and all of that for possible groomers looking to groom the young kids and exploit them for whatever purposes, so it's a collaborative effort between teachers, between parents, between schools, and even the students themselves for them to be able to identify the potential of groomers online.
>> JANE COFFIN: Excellent. Thank you. We're taking questions from the floor and we have 10 minutes left, right, so I think --
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: Jane? I wanted to add a bit more on partnerships with the government because the way we do it in Tanzania, most people believe that partnership from the government could be formal funding but for us how we do it is in form of policy change and how the policy is working not against us but for us in terms of connectivity in rural areas, but also in partnership with the government, it's since they are the ones in control of the schools and most of the governance in rural areas, and so we have to get permits in working with communities in general, and so partnerships with the government are important because we cannot bypass the government and they're the ones with the strategies for digital advancements in the countries. So apart from partnerships with the government, also we're trying to see how we can have partnerships with different branches of the government, not the central but also local and regional governments; and also, we are trying to see how partnerships with Civil Societies, partnerships with academic institutions, because we don't believe in only working as isolated, but we believe in working as combination of everyone coming together into building what we call connectivity. And so for us access is not the end, we try to see how different partners can come and bring about content, skills, devices, because only providing access is not the end.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you. This is a really important point. What I'm going to do now.
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have one more here.
>> JANE COFFIN: I think I would like if you could put your points in the chat. That way we'll have them recorded.
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: I don't have access to the chat but okay.
>> JANE COFFIN: Okay. Could you go for 30 seconds because we do have to wrap up or we will disappear.
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: My name is Nama a member of parliament from Tanzania, and I wanted to quickly highlight that it's equally important when we're doing this policy advocacy and trying to get connectivity to also include the politicians at all levels, legislators in parliament, but also at local communities, and also you know in all of this, we need to focus on the digital literacy because if people are not well informed then they don't know how to use the services, it will be challenging to achieve any of the great things that have been said here today. So as much as we're doing all of there, let us also remember capacity building for the politicians, for the legislators and all of us. Thank you.
>> JANE COFFIN: Right on. I love that. Working with politicians at all levels is highly important. Thank you very much because we need that openness with our policymakers, which is highly critical for change.
Thank you all. We're going to do a bit of a speed round, and by speed round, I mean that 30 seconds for our speakers that started out, and Abdeldjali, could you put your question in the chat so that we can record it. So, 30 to 45 seconds for each of the speakers carting with Katarine to Claire with France, and each have 30 to 45 seconds to give us a recommendation, so this means it's a tweet almost, if you had 140 words, what would you say your action point would do with respect to commitments that can be made, recommendations, you have a parliamentarian in the room that is listening and can help you make change. What is it that you would recommend? So, this is going to go quickly, so it's like a live tweet 6789.
Katarine, what is your live tweet for recommendation. 30 seconds. Go.
>> KATARINE: I'm not so good at tweets but alternative for local limitations because I believe there are lot of limitations there in the local community so what alternative are we using in terms of connectivity, going for one-size-fits-all or customized solution for each community. The second is behavioral change because most people in rural areas do not trust the Internet, so how far do we make sure that we build trust, how do we make sure they're able to come online and feel safe and feel that it's a place that we belong and how are they seeing value in the Internet. So, I think behavioral change is important because at the end of the day, we could go and provide access and everything, but then change in behavior and change of mindset, if it's not there, then people won't choose the access that we're providing. Thank you 6789.
>> JANE COFFIN: Excellent. That gets to the point also of digital literacy and inclusion. Bravo. Ghana, you're up. Samuel 30 to 45 seconds. Over to you.
>> SAMUEL NATEY GEORGE: (Speaking off mic).
>> JANE COFFIN: We can't hear you. Get closer to the microphone. Lovely.
>> SAMUEL NATEY GEORGE: Can you hear me please.
>> JANE COFFIN: We go. You got it.
>> SAMUEL NATEY GEORGE: For me I think the key issue here is how we can improve or utilize existing traditional infrastructure to deliver community needs, the old post offices, community centers, how to connect into digital access points for persons in rural communities. Again, in converting that and giving them an appetite for digital inclusion, how do we make it affordable, looking at the economic circumstances of the people, and then the last point will be how do we make it safe, and what kind of cyber etiquette can we introduce to them to make sure that even as we build the appetite, even as we give them the platforms, they are safe online.
>> JANE COFFIN: Brilliant. Love it. Conversion, affordability, safety. Cote d'Ivoire, Gertrude, you're up, 30 seconds.
>> GERTRUDE KONE KOUASSI: (no English translation).
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you. Partnerships for scale and capacity. Okay. Bravo. Cameroon, Lydienne, you have 30 to 40 seconds. Sorry for the shortness but over to you.
>> LYDIENNE NTOGUE: (no English translation).
>> LYDIENNE NTOGUE: I am not up but hearing somebody speaking.
>> JANE COFFIN: Over to you, Lydienne.
>> LYDIENNE NTOGUE: Yeah, for me there is no universal miracle solution to end this exclusion and provide access and I think the main thing is to continue the discussions the way we already are doing them with all stakeholders making sure that the governments are always not pointed as if they are only responsible of what is going wrong, but bringing them in to be able to accept our ideas, and it is the best way to bring the lasting solutions.
Also for me, it's to develop local contents. I think that we have this problem that we are using others, from other people, and we cannot in Africa, for example, if we continue using things that are coming from others and not trying to develop ours, helping them to improve the quality of content and produce for the population, they wouldn't be able to ingest anything, so adapt the contents to the needs.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you very much. Wonderful. Haiti, 30 seconds, Stephanie?
>> STEPHANIE JOSEPH: (no English translation).
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you. Moldova, we have about can you give us about 10 words of what you would do to make change.
>> GALINA CLIMOV: I will say we create and develop intersector and institutional partnerships between persons with disabilities with differing disabilities to promote the best solution for the accessible digital and Internet space.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you. Bravo. Colombia, 10 seconds.
>> Encourage implementation of community with support from universal communication funds for the initial deployment and connectivity subsidizes. Okay.
>> JANE COFFIN: That's a good tweet. France, over to you Claire to wrap us up, partnerships are important and if you can give us 30 seconds.
>> CLAIRE: Developing technical connectivity, yes, of course, developing educational connectivity and connectivity, I'm sorry, yes, about all in multistakeholder approach we have to involve all stakeholders in collaborative way to foster digital inclusion of inmates and everybody. Thank you.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you very much. To France and Claire from the government. You have heard an amazing session of speakers. I made them talk very quickly to try to get more in. I want to thank everyone in the room and everyone online. This was brilliant. You have some great words that you've given us here about partnerships, public/private partnerships, working with government, working with community networks, trying to wire jails, digital access and accessibility. Thank you very much, Anja, I'm sorry for going a little bit over but this was an excellent session and it's inspiring to see what you all are doing around. Anja over to you.
>> ANJA: A big thank you to an excellent moderator. We have to subscribe to having Jane every year moderating at least one NRI session if not all, thank you very much to all the co-organizers and speaker, it's been a pleasure to work with you throughout the year and we of course continue, and next year at the next year's IGF we're hosting another set of sessions. Thank you very much. And of course, before I forget very important, huge thank you to the reporters here physically, they don't have easy task because you shared so many complex issues, but we're looking forward to read your reports. Thank you very much.
>> JANE COFFIN: Thank you, everyone, have a good day.