IGF 2020 WS #303 How 5G, AI and IoT can encourage inclusion?

Information

Session

Thematic Track:

Topic(s):

Digital Transformation
Economic Development
Environmental Impact

Organizer 1: Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Organizer 2: Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Organizer 3: Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Organizer 4: Technical Community, Eastern European Group

Speaker 1: Radosław Kędzia, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Speaker 2: Alicja Tatarczuk, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Speaker 3: Solnica Szymon, Technical Community, Eastern European Group

Format:

Round Table - U-shape - 90 Min

Description:

Digital technologies are reshaping the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, technology plays a crucial role to fight with the turbulences. In post-pandemic world people will rely on technology even more. The promotion of digital inclusion and ensuring that every person, home, and organization will benefit from digital technologies should be a common goal for all of us. This goal is to extend the benefits of digital technology to leave no one behind in the digital world. Development of ICT solutions based on 5G and AI which become easier to use, more convenient, and more affordable, will greatly reduce global inequality, bridge the digital divide, and drive the rapid attainment of SDGs. The aim of the session is to discuss strategies and tools to address the digital inclusion through presenting and exchanging examples of good practice on using the technology to support excluded communities or groups around the world. During the session panellists will share the stories about how the technology supports the fight with inequalities in four areas: 1. Healthcare 2. Education 3. Development 4. Environment Speakers: Piotr Mieczkowski, Managing Director of Digital Poland Foundation (Poland), Radosław Kędzia, VP CEE&Nordic Region (Poland), Alexandra Przegalińska, Associate Professor at Kozminski University, AI expert (USA/Poland), Justyna Jasiewicz, Head of Information Society Department, Ministry of Digital Affairs, Majka Lipiak, CEO of Leżę i Pracuję Foundation (Poland). Moderator and Rapporteur: Paweł Bednarz, WPROST weekly newsmagazine (Poland) and Aigerim Fazylova, MSL Group (Poland), respectively.

Issues:

1. Healthcare: Using digital technology to give more people easy access to better healthcare resources. 2. Education: Using technology to enrich education resources and give equal educational opportunities, especially supporting remote education in distant regions of the world as well as disabled people 3. Development: Eliminating development gaps for various sectors, businesses, regions, and groups, ensuring equal access to digital resources and enabling technology to benefit everyone. 4. Environment: Using innovative technologies to help more efficiently protect and conserve ecosystems.

Policy Question(s):

1. What factors should be considered when seeking to understand and tackle affordability issues, and how might improvements be made? 2. How can we better utilize primary and secondary schools and tertiary educational facilities to promote and to deliver on digital literacy to their communities and should digital literacy be the fourth pillar of education, alongside reading, writing and math? 3. What strategies could be developed to promote (better) Internet access for women and girls, older people, people living with disabilities, children living in distant regions, refugees and other disadvantaged groups? 4. How do we best equip the workforce of the 21st century with the necessary skills to take advantage of the new employment opportunities that will result from digital transformation? How do we ensure that these skills and employment opportunities are available to all and that the global south is equipped to participate on an equal footing? 5. How do we manage the social inclusion within the community affected with technology, as the ICT could bring the change in their social relation? 6. How do we manage ICT implementation ensuring social inclusion and preventing disruptions in the life of communities that may harm their social convenience, or increase previously existent inequality gaps?

Expected Outcomes:

The session is intended to produce policy recommendations with best practices in four areas (Helthcare, Education, Development, Environment) based on challenges from different continents and perspectives.

Relevance to Internet Governance: The theme of the session will encourage the active participation of all stakeholders (governments, the private sector and civil society) in the political process for the development of integrated internet governance. This includes paying attention to all aspects counteracting exclusion in the digital world. Barrier mapping and searching for solutions using 5G and AI technologies based on the Internet is an activity that must be performed constantly. Aspects of gender, age or material status must be fully taken into account in all work related to the development of the digital economy, access to modern solutions in education and health care. This must translate into the development of policies and regulatory frameworks, projects as well as research and data collection. The session will serve as a platform for stakeholders to identify needs and priorities in four main areas by analyzing ways to promote equal access, use and benefit.

Relevance to Theme: The session will contribute to the narratives of the tracks by engaging the IGF community on the issues, challenges, and solutions for the achievement of an equitable and inclusive Internet. The aim of the session is to discuss strategies and tools to address the digital inclusion through presenting and exchanging examples of good practice on using the technology to support excluded communities or groups around the world. Inclusion is also about the activities related to the achievement of an inclusive information society, about engaging all stakeholders and ensuring everyone’s voice is heard and treated equally in the decision-making processes and ensuring that everyone has the right access, skills, and motivations to reap the social benefits of going online and participate in the digital economy. Given the cross-cutting nature of the topic and the problem, we would like to emphasize that the session falls under four Thematic Tracks, such as (1) Data; (2) Environment; (3) Inclusion; (4) Trust.

Discussion Facilitation:

The session will serve as a platform for dialogue and encourage the interaction between and participation of representatives from different stakeholder groups. It will also encourage online participation and active engagement of online community through sharing the session, its key takeaways and conclusions via internet (social media and website).

Online Participation:

Usage of IGF Official Tool.

SDGs:

GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-Being
GOAL 4: Quality Education
GOAL 5: Gender Equality
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequalities
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
GOAL 13: Climate Action
GOAL 17: Partnerships for the Goals