The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF 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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>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Okay. Welcome, everyone, to the annual DC-SIDS -- all right -- that's okay. So welcome, everyone, to the annual Dynamic Coalition on Small Island Developing States session.
As you know, for those who are looking, it is mostly an online session but I'm happy to report that there are actually folks in the room who actually have joined us today. My name is Tracy Hackshaw. I am one of the Co-Chairs of the DC-SIDS, as we call ourselves. To my left, we actually have Maureen in person and onsite after a very long online version of Maureen. So Maureen is here. Welcome, Maureen.
In the room today, we have some colleagues from I think mostly the Caribbeans. So I'm seeing SG Taylor from the CTU, Caribbean Telecommunications Union. I'm seeing Bevil Wooding from ARIN, I believe that's what you are representing today. I'm seeing Niel Harper who is Caribbean by -- not sure citizen but man of the world now. I'm seeing Nia Nanan from the CTU. So welcome, Caribbean folks.
I'm seeing a lot of guests coming in and I'm seeing some Rapporteurs from the Youth Ambassadors that I've seen who tried to meet me and I only met one of them. Welcome, Daniele and I'm assuming Temilade and Paola. And then we're missing Nanbaan who wanted to see me. I'm not sure where she went, but I'm sure she'll join us shortly.
So welcome, everyone. Welcome, Nigel, the Deputy SG from the CTU has joined us in the room as well. And any others, please feel free to join us in the discussion as we begin.
So, without further ado, as I have been talking for some time as people join, let's toss to Rodney Taylor from the Caribbean Telecoms Union to give us a brief update as to what's been going on in the space, the Internet Governance, the IC space, the government space in the Caribbean region. I hope our colleagues at home are awake. If not, they will watch it on the recording. Welcome.
>> RODNEY TAYLOR: Good afternoon, morning, night. Pleased to be a part of this discussion today, and I think it is a very important one. And I am -- as pointed out -- Rodney Taylor, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union. For those who don't know, we are an intergovernmental organization based in the Caribbean dealing with the ICT policy development, Internet Governance and so on.
We have -- since I have been SG for just about two and a half, approaching three years, and I think one of the things I have sought to do is to try to strengthen the relationship in the region and also raise the level of participation in the IGF spaces generally. I think just to give an overview, even though we talk about Small Island Developing States, as you would know, it's not necessarily one homogeneous group; there is a diverse group of countries in there with diversity of language, diversity of cultures, and diversity of economies. We have some of the Member States are based on oil and gas. Most are based on tourism, of course.
And so there is a diverse, when we talk about SIDS even though we try to build our coalition, there is significant diversity. Of course, there is significant strength as well. I think the UN recognises about 38. And that, within any international process, represents a very strong number. In particular, if there is coordination on foreign policy issues or Internet Governance issues or ICT policy issues globally within spaces here like the ITU. And, in fact, last year what we sought to do in the ITU plenipotentiary conference is to, first of all, take a strong Caribbean delegation and to collaborate with our brothers and sisters in the Pacific islands and so on to support the leadership positions and upcoming positions on the proposals that went forward through the ITU process.
We have been seeking to do the same thing within other spaces like ICANN, for example. And, in fact, we have been instrumental in getting ICANN into the corroboration to assign names and numbers; to actually initiate a study on the involvement and participation of Small Island Developing States within ICANN because we believe there is room for improvement, let me just put it that way, in terms of how we engage.
And, in fact, the sheer volume of meetings within ICANN and other international organizations, even the ITU, makes it difficult to track all of these processes from the Small Island Developing States' perspective because you only have so many people actually. So what has worked, of course last year we held our first Small Island Developing States Internet Governance Forum. We had some very high level representation including the UN Tech envoy, Amandeep Singh Gill. And we were very pleased that we were able to execute that. I believe it is being recognized as an NRI even though SIDS is not a geographic region, but we were pleased with that recognition. And, of course, even hosting that, had its own challenges in terms of the differences in time zone. We tried to hold it not as two separate events, Pacific and Caribbean, but as really one homogeneous, one event. And therefore the challenges with either getting up early or staying up late just so we can have one conversation together, of course, was challenging.
We are pretty much involved in the GDC process. We have made contributions in that process. And some of the deep dives you may be familiar with. We made statements and in particular emphasized the needs for SIDS to be given special consideration as we go towards the summit of the future that, you know, we do have a unique perspective. We are limited in size and resources; and, therefore, we may not be able to actively participate as some of the bigger economies, but we do have a voice. And we are looking towards the SIDS 4 which takes place as a UN Summit on Small Island Developing States which actually takes place in one of our Member States, Antigua and Barbuda, next year. And we have been advocating for greater emphasis on digital governance and digital policies. And, in fact, ideally we would love to have an IGF within that SIDS 4 space.
I will stop there for now. I think those are just to give you an overview of where we are and what we are thinking and what we have done. I would say we would really celebrate, I would say, the collaboration last year for the SIDS IGF for the work we have been doing within ITU and within ICANN, but we think certainly there is room for improvement. Thank you.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you very much, SG Rodney. Before we move on to the Pacific, I want to acknowledge my Caribbean colleagues in the room, if they want to add anything to what Rodney has said. So perhaps, Bevil, you may want to say anything? Do you have anything to add? Not at this time? Anyone else would like to add anything before we move on to the Caribbean side of life? No? Okay,.
Without further ado, Maureen, who is my Co-Chair, she's from the Cook Islands in the Pacific. And let's get the Pacific updates. Thanks.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Thank you. Thanks, Tracy. And thank you so much, Rodney, for that introduction.
And what I would like to do at this particular point in time is, first of all, I thank you all for coming to this session. But it is really pleasing for me, as Tracy mentioned, I was here for the 2018 -- I was at the IGF for the 2018 launch of DC-SIDS and then decided to go remote for the rest of the time. And so this is my first time back, and I'm really pleased to be here.
But I would like to introduce, there have been some interesting things happening within the Pacific region. And I'm very pleased to be able to say that I have some people on the Zoom call who are going to sort of like report on some of the things that have been happening with regards to the Pacific IGF, which is something that, you know, we had tried to sort of like coordinate something with the Caribbean in this respect. But there was something happening within our region so we continued with that.
And I have got Andrew Molivurae, who is actually the President of the Pacific Islands chapter of the Internet Society, who -- of the PacIGF side of things, anyway. And he's going to report. I also have Cherie Lagakali has been involved in cybersecurity issues in the Pacific. And I did have -- have got another member of our community, Pua Hunter, who is the Director of ICT in the Cook Islands. And she has actually stated that she would rather just follow the discussion, and she will join in when she can.
But, first of all, let me introduce you to Andrew and he will give a very brief intro into what happened at the PacIGF. Andrew.
>> ANDREW MOLIVURAE: Thank you, Maureen. Checking the audio. Am I audible to everyone? Okay, thank you.
Thank you to Maureen and Tracy for organising this session so we can chip in from the Pacific. So my name is Andrew, and I currently Chair the Pacific IGF which is being hosted by the Pacific Island Chapter of the Internet Society. And Pacific IGF is not new. We have had -- I think this year we have the fifth Pacific IGF that we are having firstly.
The last one that we had was the one before the one this year was in -- was held in sort of a hybrid mode where we had online sessions but we still did have the islands have their own hubs so it was a different way of doing it, but it was a good session back in 2021 where we had probably seven hubs.
Then with the, you know, online community. It was held in parallel with TLD, the first -- when we got that support. And this year, it was the first time again after COVID that we were able to host this face-to-face in Brisbane in back-to-back to APRHF and the Australian IGF. It was a great session. We had two days sessions where we discussed emerging issues like emerging technologies and AI and GPChat and all that, crypto currency. And went on to discuss the meaningful connectivity within different Island States and how this -- the States -- whether or not each State has a policy, access policy that we were seeing. So we are seeing a lot of differences there from different islands.
And then we added some discussions on the digital skills. And that leads to the legal frameworks and there we can see a lot of improvements in the last few years. A few of the countries have already enacted laws on cybersecurity which is a -- what was really a good sign that we have seen.
And then we had sort of the sessions, and we ended the meeting with a look at the opportunities that we have in the Pacific. How we can sort of come together, progress us together to make sure that we lift the sort of the whole Pacific, you know, level of security, cybersecurity and legislations and, you know, that level just sort of uniform level whereas we can be seen as a region that has some strides in especially to do with their own, you know, Internet-related legal frameworks.
So that was basically what we had this year. And it was supported by dot EU or EU dot and Internet -- ICANN and APTLD. And we also had IGF, yes. We had some support from IGF as well. So it was a good session. Those who were there, and Maureen was there and a few others, it was a good session. But also it was a stepping stone for the next IGF that we are going to have. Hopefully to have another IGF, but this one has put us sort of in another level with recognition from, you know, IGF.
So the link is there. Unfortunately, we have not had the chairs nationally in our islands. We have one from (?) it is still there, starting to get on its feet. But for other islands, we do not have that. So when this regional sort of IGF plays a key role for Pacific islands. So Maureen, I think I will have to stop there for now. Thank you.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Thanks, thank you very much. Andrew. One of the things that he mentioned was, of course, was cybersecurity. And Cherie Lagakali is actually talking a very interesting discussion on sort of disaster management, and I would like her to just sort of like explain very briefly what her session was about. And over to you.
>> CHERIE LAGAKALI: Thanks, Maureen. Hi, everyone. Can you hear me clearly?
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Yes.
>> CHERIE LAGAKALI: Awesome. I probably -- I wanted to -- well, I wanted to sit back like Pua and listen in, but there was some important updates that I thought were worth mentioning from the region.
The session that I had at the APR-IGF together with the GFCE, we worked with APNIC to speak about stories from the Pacific in terms of the human side when there is an incident in the region. And then in the case of Tonga's most recent incident, what happened, who in the communities were affected, who weren't expecting to be affected, and how did they handle it. And really came down to whether there were standard operating procedures that were in place on how they should be able to handle it and where did they get the kind of assistance from.
And then this session, we did it in collaboration with the guys that are doing the Best Practice forum on cybersecurity for the IGF. Right now there is a project working group working on ransomware stories from around the world. And we have been feeding in the stories from the Pacific where at that APR-IGF session we had the story about the ransomware attack when it happened and also a little bit on when that happened in Fiji in the middle of COVID-19.
Then right after that, last week the Global Forum on cyber expertise Pacific hub launched in Nandi. It was called a Pacific cyber building and coordination conference.
This was hosted by the GSC Pacific hub, the cyber security centre, and partners of the Blue Pacific where we realized that there is in fact an oversaturation of capacity building efforts in the region and it might be time to sit down and work out how can we coordinate better to avoid duplication. And also, you know, to -- in the context of the region, how can capacity building efforts be delivered. A lot of times they are template based solutions. A lot of times just because it worked in the US or the UK doesn't mean that it's going to work exactly the same way in the Pacific. And taking into consideration the Pacific culture.
At this capacity-building conference last week, we had about 22 different countries represented. 15 of those were Pacific Island countries. It was nice for us for the first time to have countries like Niue, Palau, as well as Marshall Islands represented. And we are looking at a coordinated approach with a regional agenda which we are putting together to feed into the global cyber capacity building conference which will be held in Ghana later in October. And then with the support of working together with the Pacific Island Forum because the Pacific Island Forum head of leaders meeting is also coming up in November.
How can we -- you know, everyone is doing around the same things, facing the same issues, how can we learn to work together.
On another note, I have recently joined LACNIC New Zealand. And this is part of a project in the Pacific which will be delivering capacity cyber safety materials to seven Pacific island countries. And so there is a conference in October where we have fellows coming from the Pacific Island countries to come and sit down and discuss how exactly this content can be delivered based on the needs of the Pacific Island countries.
With that, I will stop for now, Maureen. If there is any questions, I will probably leave it for later. Thanks.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Thanks a lot, Cherie. And yes, the others can contribute to the discussion like later on in the thing. But if I can just carry on.
You know, I -- first of all, I -- you know, we have got Rodney up here. And, you know, I would just like to add my thanks to Rodney and Nigel and the CTU team for the continued support and involvement in the activities of our coalition. And more, especially for embracing and nurturing the interests of Pacific and other SIDS within the support that they already give to the Caribbean. And we are really, really grateful for that.
But looking at our topic today, one of the things, you know, we are pretty much aware like one of our topic is, of course, sort of like how can we as a coalition sort of like be more effective in the way we can communicate with each other and support each other. And we are actually sort of like looking at sort of like developing some kind of platform which would be useful for us. And we are already aware there are a number of platforms that are provided for community groups such as like the UNDP SIDS community which focuses on climate change. There's the Commonwealth of Learning which looks at sort of courses to support SIDS and their education and development of their development goals.
But DC-SIDS looks at things a lot more broadly in a wider context in the Internet economy. And meeting the more global needs of our coalition which will actually encourage us to maintain personal connections with each other and build that global community that we are actually trying to build within -- with SIDS across the -- across the world.
And just to start off with -- start off things, from a personal perspective, I had two key takeaways from my experiences during this year that I thought it would help to start some conversations between you and us about what we might do. And firstly, I'm not quite sure if many of you attended any of the virtual Island Summit sessions that were organized recently by Island Innovation.
And they were -- I mean there were participants from SIDS all over. Unfortunately, the timing is never right for the Pacific. And so I was only able just to like capture one session which really interested me. And it was a session on preparing young people for work in an island context.
And what interested me and pleased me, of course, was the fact that there were Caribbean participants and there was Keith from Trinidad and Tobago, and Orlando Hewitt from Barbados. And they were sharing their educational programmes with, you know, other SIDS from around the world. And this is an example of what we, too, could be sharing more regularly in our own DC communities. I think that this is something that we could be building on.
But my second takeaway was from the beginning of the year when I took part in an e-learning course on digital identity for trade and development which was specifically created for SIDS by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. By the way, they also have a new course coming up on legislation for anyone who is interested.
But for this particular course, and while only half of the enrolled participants actually completed the course, 70% of the graduates were from the Pacific and the Caribbean regions. 60% were women. And I have to mention the big successes which came from Trinidad and Tobago where 33 out of the 39 people who were actually enrolled actually completed the course. And Grenada where 14 out of 17 participants actually completed the course. An amazing and understandable result when you sort of know what sort of like support they get within the region.
And although like the Pacific and African SIDS, you know, also had their successes, I just couldn't help but think that there could have been ways in which we as a community of SIDS could have actually sort of like supported each other a little bit more and probably had a little bit more success from other SIDS groups. Especially as this was a free and very valuable course, but also especially for those of us who are actually involved in digital transformation in our regions.
But for this reason, we definitely need a model of platform that is owned and operated by us, the people who will use it. And I envisage a -- and I saw this term platform cooperativism, which is a business model but with a focus on human rights and creating a more democratic digital economy. But this is the reason that we are actually here today. And that's to hear your ideas about how we can best progress this coalition goal.
So, Tracy, I'm going to pass it back to you because you can work with the audience and with these guys online. Thanks.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thanks, Maureen. That was an excellent segue, Maureen, to the actual topic of what we are doing today which is the addressing the challenges that we face as SIDS trying to get a digital platform up and running.
And that platform could be either a solution of some sort, but more likely a sustainable moving very organic environment that we could really work with. To kick it all off, I'm going to call upon my colleague from UNESCO. If I can pronounce your name correctly, Tatevik Grigoryan. Did I do okay? All right.
So UNESCO has been working on Internet Universality Indicators. And this year, UNESCO has been working with some Pacific SIDS folks in doing some of this work. Maybe you could help us along the lines of trying to figure out what we can do, if UNESCO has anything available, or what they have been doing in the SIDS. So you can give us a quick report about that. Maybe some suggestions as to what we can do on the digital platform.
Feel free to join us here if it is easier, or you can go to the mic, whichever you think is -- all right. Grab -- grab this one.
>> TATEVIC GRIGORYAN: Thank you very much, everyone. I'm actually very happy to hear more about this Dynamic Coalition and to find out more about what you are doing. Many things are new to me.
We have been working on SIDS for a very long time, but this particular initiative of Internet Universality Indicators have been kicked off in the past few years.
So basically -- yes? Sorry. Sorry. Is this good? Yeah?
So the idea of Internet Universality. So this is the Internet Universality is the position of UNESCO on the Internet, the official position which is Internet should be based on the principles of human rights; it should be open to all. Accessible to all. And nurtured by multistakeholder participation and address cross-cutting issues such as gender equality, safety and security online, environment and Sustainable Development Goals. So we call it Roam X. And Simon here is the technical advisor to UNESCO who is also coordinating the project in South Pacific SIDS.
So basically this is a holistic tool which helps States or stakeholders who want to do a voluntary assessment of the Internet development at the national level. And I highlight voluntarily because it is owned by the national stakeholders and UNESCO is there to provide guidance and support.
So they use this framework which consists of 303 indicators, which sounds a lot. But the idea is to make sure we have 109 core indicators which frame the -- form the basis of this work. And then these additional indicators to make sure that the national context is taken into consideration and the national stakeholders take it and use it according to their context.
So then the assessments of Internet development is done based on these indicators and principles. And then this helps the country really form an idea. Map, first of all, the policies out there. The opportunities, challenges and area of improvement. And formulate actionable policy recommendations for all stakeholders concerned on how to move forward and how to improve.
So I should highlight also the process. The process is based on multistakeholder participation. So at the outset, States who carry out these assessments, they form a Multistakeholder Advisory Group consisting of the ministries, relevant ministries, Civil Society organizations, international organizations, academia, private sector and all possible relevant stakeholders who guide the process and who participate in the process. So it is a really participatory process.
And in the end, they come together to sort of validate what we call a validation workshop, the results of the report to really make sure that and confirm that everybody's voice is heard and the areas concerned to their area of expertise are truly reflected in the report.
And then, of course, we hope that these multistakeholder continues to cascade this work to implement the policy recommendations which are formulated in these reports. So we had very excellent results. So the project is ongoing in 34 countries with six countries having already published it. And what is unique about this process is that it is not only relevant for developing countries, SIDS, it is relevant for all countries. We have countries like Germany who did it and published it. And it was presented in their national parliament and reflected in the national policies. We have it in Africa, 15 countries in Africa including actually Cape Verde. We have Latin America and Caribbean, one in Dominican Republic, and 12 in South Asia and the Pacific.
So they really help inform the policy. And we had, for example, results reflected in digital strategies of a country or helping inform the laws and regulations. Now, specifically on SIDS, as I mentioned, we have it -- we launched it in February in Dominican Republic. And Cape actually Verde has already finalized the report, it is in the process of publication. And we launched it in the South Pacific in five countries -- Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Fiji. So the process is ongoing.
And if Simon would like to later on add, so the idea is that what is really great also about this project in the South Pacific now that it is a project that covers diverse areas and it's implemented by seven UN agencies. And the idea is to support the economic diversification in these islands. Especially working in the areas which were hardest hit after the COVID. And the idea would be actually also to address different components including you mentioned that there was training for youth to prepare them for work. So actually, this project has a target audience or beneficiaries of youth, women, and marginalized groups. And part of this project will be actually supporting and creating job markets and also providing training for various stakeholders.
So this is, for example, part which ALO will do. And from our side we will support the islands by mapping these digital policies and putting forward policy recommendations. And, for example, the other UNESCO section, for example, would help to digitalize music industry which based on our assessment was one of the hardest hit which digitalisation of these interests, industry would help to address various needs and support the economic diversification process.
This is in a nutshell. And we would be very happy to corroborate if you see any areas. Assessments are ongoing in the Dominican Republic and five States. Cape Verde is now finalized, but it is a process that will continue. And we will be happy to welcome any contributions and we would be very happy to cascade it in more States. Thank you very much.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you very much. Well, I think we will accept that offer from UNESCO of cooperation and building this collaboration environment. I think it is a good starting point and I think we can reach out to you afterwards and see how best we can collaborate because, as you know, we have a good metric of the sense and those people that are doing the work in the region, especially on the ground. So I think that is a very good starting point. So let's definitely -- I'm glad you came today, appreciate it. And let's work together and see what we can do to make this happen.
So on this overall topic of collaboration and working on this platform, as you -- as we mentioned before, as Maureen hinted at earlier as well, SIDS' idea is supposed to be sort of an ongoing thing. So it is not an event. It is a collaboration environment such as what the IGF is supposed to be. You know, in between events, things are supposed to be happening. You can use digital platforms to make it work.
So, as I said, we were thinking instead of limiting ourselves with just events, we need to find a way to not have us circling around a date of two days a year. And if it doesn't happen, then what happens. So we want to ensure we keep that moving. So I know that my colleague to my right, SG Rodney Taylor, has a lot of ideas on this. So I'm going to put it back to him for some thinking on this. I believe he is going to speak about what has been going on with the Caribbean IGF and how that has been evolving. And I also think he may have some ideas what may happen in the region next year as there is a conference coming up, a UN Conference on SIDS and maybe an opportunity to do some work leading up to that.
So let me pass to you, SG Taylor, and see what can work for your ideas. Thanks.
>> RODNEY TAYLOR: Thanks again. It would be remiss of me, I'm sure I couldn't go back home if I didn't say that well, this year we had the 19th IGF, and it is the longest running IGF in the world. And next year we celebrate 20. So Nigel has been, you know, one of the stalwarts, one of the chief resource persons behind the CIGF.
And, of course, it is an event, yes. And a lot of things happen around events. Of course, there is an opportunity to raise the profile of the discussions. You get a lot of media attention. You know, you kind of work towards it. The good thing about ours, though, is that we have been able to develop a policy framework. So coming out of the process, rather than just talking about topics, we continue -- we use the CIGF as a platform for continued engagement with the community but also to update that policy framework which gives guidance to our Member States on things like establishment of IXPs, on cybersecurity policies, adoption of IPv6 addressing and so on. I think -- what is the version, Nigel?
>> AUDIENCE: 4.0 is coming out this year.
>> RODNEY TAYLOR: We will be updating that to 4.0 this quarter.
A number of new topics were introduced this year. We had high level representation again from the UN Tech Envoy. We had traditional support that we always get from ARIN, our good colleague here, the American Registry for Internet Numbers. We have Inor here as well from that same organization. We had support as always from the ICANN, Mr Albert Daniels who is the senior stakeholder engagement manager.
Shernon Osepa, who has since moved on from ISOC but Shernon has been and ISOC has also been a stalwart supporter. And, of course, Kevon Swift, who is the head of Public Affairs for LATNIC also spoke. And they give -- as we do always, we don't take for granted that our stakeholders -- we try to encourage new stakeholders, in fact, to come. So we go back to what is Internet Governance and why is it important to the Caribbean?
In fact, this year we used, as we did last year, we used a social media influencer again because we wanted to broaden the appeal. We don't want to be speaking to the same audience year after year, but we want young people involved, new people involved to bring wider perspectives to it.
We did have a specific capacity-building session on the ICT Indicators to measure connectivity and support policy developments. So right in line with what was presented, we have been trying to push a regional framework for capturing this ICT data so that we can better inform a better informed policy. And, of course, the ITU itself is doing some work in this area and will be releasing its new framework this year, I believe.
We had another capacity building session around cybersecurity. And we had -- we looked at what was going on globally. Within even the UN, for example, we had a presentation from the Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions and Head of Cyber Crime and Digital Forensics Unit in Jamaica, Ms Andrea Martin Swaby. And Jamaica has been doing a lot within the UN on the issue of cybersecurity and cyber crime in and trying to give the perspective from the Caribbean on UN resolutions that are seeking to -- a UN resolution in particular that is seeking to have global agreements on cybersecurity, so the UN Resolution on Cybersecurity.
We had presentations from the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism, CICTE, as well as Ambassador Claudio Peguero, who is recognised even within the UN as a former expert on cybersecurity and cyber crime.
In addition, we had I should mention also the second Youth IGF. We kind of broke it up. So we had the first day of the CIGF and then we moved into the Youth IGF, second Youth IGF. Again, planned by Caribbean young people and executed by them. And we looked at how we could leverage ICTs for Caribbean youth development ahead of the Global Digital Compact.
And actually, you have spoken on that, Tracy, representing TTMIC. We had Phillip Pierre Rosey who is an associate expert in the UN SG Tech Envoy Office. So I won't go into all of the topics. But AI, of course, featured prominently, of course, with the young people. And that is something that is very topical. Addressing policy and regulatory challenges, guidelines for AI development much like what the discussion that took place this morning in the open forum.
We then resumed the day two with high level presentations from the stakeholders I mentioned. We had a special presentation as well from Chengetai Masango, who is no stranger to us. And also Mr. Amandeep Singh Gill. Nigel, my deputy, gave an update on the CIGF vision and goals as we approach 20 next year, like I said. And the intention is go back to our hometown where we launched the IGF in 2010, 20 -- 2005, sorry, in Ghana. So we are working with Ghana to make that happen.
Then we spent the afternoon working through the updates on the policy frameworks. So that again we can make sure we added the topics such as AI and so on that had previously not been addressed. We looked at some hot topics. AI opportunities and risks and challenges. We looked at fake news and deep fakes and these kinds of things. We have DIPLO Foundation involved there and a company called Star Apple based in Jamaica actually, who was able to demonstrate deep fakes and so on and how these things can be misleading, especially how they impact elections and so on.
Bridging the Digital Divide, accessibility and inclusion. We had presentations from ISOC and from the Telecoms Authority. And from Amazon we had a presentation on the Project Kiper and how they are reusing satellites to bridge those connectivity gaps.
Another thing that was of a hot topic was the fair share contribution, what persons are calling OTT, over the top services, and their impact on the ability of operators to build out their regional networks. So how these over the top services are impacting the regional development. So those are some of the topics.
We are actually working, we haven't quite finalized the report coming out of that, but this quarter we will be able to provide. But I think we had about 31 countries represented in 130-someting. Of course, we had the updates from the National IGF in Trinidad, Tobago, saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti and UN IGF, of course.
So we -- you mentioned the -- well, I mentioned initially the summit in Antigua that takes place next year. We have tabled a suggestion. We have been saying that while it is event driven, yes, it would be a good opportunity perhaps to have another SIDS. We work towards that. And I believe a platform, a digital platform would help us because the hosting of the event itself draws attention to it. Gives us a target to work towards.
But what we really want is the intersessional engagement. How do we continue to engage, not just within the UN IGF, but I mentioned ITU, right. And very often it is the same stakeholders who are representing the region in these organizations. So a unified platform that gives us the opportunity to consolidate these issues so that even within ICANN, for example, we know the community there, we advance the issues together; we try to influence policy because no one will speak for us, we have to speak for ourselves.
So how do we maintain that communication and leverage the same group across all of these various IGF processes globally or ICT policy development. Like I said, ITU, ICANN, ARIN even and so on. And the other processes as well that I mentioned.
So I think working towards using this huge opportunity, right. SIDS 4 in Antigua and Barbuda, I think we should advocate for some engagement there, given the profile of it. But work towards that. And, of course, next year, too, is the Summit of the Future where the GDC, the Global Digital Compact will be tabled. And I think this is a huge opportunity for us. And we really ought to see how we can set that as sort of the time parameter deadline, but see how we can develop digital platforms maybe with the support of UNESCO and others to keep the engagement more active.
Time zones considered and so on. But a platform that allows us any time day or night to be able to go and engage and bounce ideas off and so on and update each other on developments that are taking place. I will stop there for now. Thanks.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thanks, SG Taylor. I think we have been talking about there for some time trying to get the volunteers going. Obviously, volunteerism in this is difficult. Relying on volunteers to get something like this moving is not going to move us forward.
So is there an opportunity somewhere -- and again, we see UNESCO in the room -- there is others, Maureen mentioned UNCTAD and their work in the SIDS space. We have ARIN in the room. Is there anywhere that you think we can leverage either existing work that's been done or work together to get something new done so that we can build this platform where we can put information, knowledge, that is -- has been going on. Because we have been doing this, I know it is not a roundtable today, but we have been doing this roundtable for about I think going on 10 years now.
And where can we put this information? There's a lot of information about disaster preparedness. Information about trying to push SIDS issues, climate issues moving forward. There are 50 plus of us. And I believe it is difficult for us to get our voices heard if we don't have something more tangible. For all sorts of reasons we need to be more visible in the IGF space, and this platform will get us ready.
And I think we need to understand that is what we need to do, and let's get it done. But we do need some help. If we leave it alone, it will just continue swirling around the drain, as we say. So I'm going to open up the floor now for the ideas. This is a roundtable in a room that is not a roundtable, but pretend it is for the time being. And everybody has an equal voice, equal space. You are all discussants. So let's get the ideas flowing. And hopefully by the end of the session we can actually get something tangible out of it. And let's act on it. As SG Taylor says, there is an event.
I know events are not the way to do this, but events mobilizes and gets us ready. It would be fantastic if we can do something leading up to SIDS 4, launch at SIDS 4 with a SIDS IGF type environment. The IGF not being an event, but more of a platform that we can talk about, release, launch, even feed into the agenda that is there. And I know that Rodney has been talking to the organisers and various political figures there.
Maybe we can get on the agenda itself and have it, you know, sort of concretized in SIDS 4. So those are the items that we are starting to play with. But I'm opening up the floor now online and in the room for any thoughts on this.
I will ask the online moderator, Maureen, any thoughts coming in? And maybe just over to you. Don't forget to use the mic. I will hand this over to you.
>> RODNEY TAYLOR: Sorry, Tracy. Can I just for two seconds just say that I think when you look at it, part of the thing is that we have engagements in silos. So we have the DCCS process within the UN-IGF. We have the -- the UN, of course, has its process with SIDS. We engage, continuously engaged the Caribbean. ARIN In the Caribbean, I think it is called, right. That is the American Registry Site. So there are silos. I mean not deliberately, but I mean the American Registry is the American Registry. ICANN, of course, tries to stay in its lane. So ICANN doesn't even really recognise SIDS. They only recognise underserved regions.
And so they don't necessarily want to hear about SIDS or aren't going to set aside resources for SIDS. They are going to look at underserved regions. And certainly there are topics they will not touch because they are outside of ICANN scope and mandate. And then of course we engage with LACNIC as well and the same thing happens. They stay within the space.
How can we rise above all of that and say, okay, well, we are working together across all of these different spaces and we want to maximize the few resources that we have and better coordinate our interventions. Thanks.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Thanks, Rodney. We actually have got two hands up here. I have got one from Genelle Lake and Cherie. We will have Genelle first. Thank you.
>> GENELLE LAKE: Thanks. Hi, everyone. It is actually 2:00 in the morning here. Actually, 3:10 in the Caribbean. But happy to be a part of this discussion.
It was just last year that I volunteered with Cherie with the development of this shared digital platform, and I think I tempered all of our enthusiasms when I asked about requirements then. And I still ask about requirements now because I come from a very practical place in IT. And you actually don't get very far with anything with any implementation if you don't have requirements to start off with. It is not fun coming up with requirements, but it does definitely help to establish where you want to go. It helps us to come to an agreed place in terms of what success looks like.
So I don't know if these things exist. I'm just too new to the process to know it. I would suggest we start off with some basic requirements that would help us to establish what it is we need and we will know where we are going and it will help us in terms of our -- with the potential alliances or assistance we could get from the likes of UNESCO, as was mentioned earlier. I think it is important to have the requirements. So if anyone could indicate if we have those, that would be great. Thanks.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Thank you, Genelle. Cherie.
>> CHERIE LAGAKALI: Thanks, Maureen. I knew and I remembered that we had this exact discussion last year and we tried to look for a platform.
And I think one of the questions that we have coming through one of our side discussions is when we are talking about a platform how easy or simple a platform we are looking at because, you know, if we want somewhere to be able to store something, then Google Workspaces is there. And I know that for previous speakers we had Jena who had access to these kind of workspaces. So is it as easy as, you know, GoogleDocs with a checklist of things that we want to get done by the end of the year.
Again, how simple, how easy of a platform we are looking at. And is it something that we could run with easily and go with it? Looking at there is an event next year. Maybe we should just have two or three people that are willing to look for something, look for something and come back and report to people what are some of the pros and cons and options around something like this.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Thank you, Cherie. One of the things that I actually sort of like was asking someone to -- if I would actually mention it -- is that within PICISOC for as long as I have been involved in PICISOC, that was since 2006 so it was happening before then, they had a mailing list. And this mailing list is like I mean there is always something happening within the Pacific.
And one of the members will actually raise this on the mailing list and it starts, initiates discussion, initiates sort of there are I mean there are topics that are raised that people sort of like make suggestions of or someone might have a problem on their island and they raise it.
Or it might be a technical one. Someone offers support and, you know, offline support. It is that kind of -- it is that sort of like kind of activity which is used by the members and they -- it is very much -- it is very much engaging because especially depending on what the topic is as to how people, you know, sort of like want to participate. But it has been very successful for us.
And as I said, it has been going for many years. And it is still a very -- it is still a very active sort of like activity.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thanks, Maureen. And thanks, Genelle and Cherie, for continuing to volunteer to volunteer to help us with this. We are appreciative of your efforts to get this moving. I think at the end of the day this is going to be the day we get it moving. So I'm very confident that I'm not going to come back here next year and have to discuss this again. That is what is going on, not to change the session to something else.
So more thoughts? And I -- Bevil Wooding from ARIN Corp caught my eye. And I think Bevil wants to say a few words. And Bevil has a lot of creative ideas from way back in too long to remember about getting stuff done and how to get it done. So I'm appreciative that he is going to come and save us. Save us, Bevil, help us.
>> BEVIL WOODING: Yes. Thank you, Tracy. And so good to be back in person at the SIDS discussion.
There are several things that I wanted to raise around this issue of the platform, and a lot of it came out of the points that Rodney made concerning the overlap between the organizations and attempts at staying in their what are referred to as "their lane".
When we consider the level of synchronization in terms of priorities and issues between, for example, the Caribbean and the Pacific, you get a sense of the diversity of the issues that fall under this SIDS umbrella. And so when you consider or when I consider the platform, two questions come to mind. Platfform for whom? To share or to do what?
And it is two simple questions, but they are two very important questions in figuring out where we go and how we go forward. It may be that there are -- there is a need for several types of platforms. It may be that some of the underlying issues inside of mapping the SIDS landscape, particularly as it relates to research and as it relates to the creation of content may become more important than actually the nature of a single platform to do something. I was thinking about what would be the best place for us to start?
And I know Genelle said we need a requirements document, which I think would be very, very helpful looking to use or build a platform. There is a step before even that which is just understanding what is the nature of the kind of interaction we wish to have and with whom. There was interesting dynamics coming out of the work in the Caribbean over the course of last year particularly around engaging new audiences, for example. You had the CTU, Caribbean Network Operators Group and others attempting to find what we can call the intersectionality between issues. So not just the IT side of it, not just the Civil Society side of it, not just the political side, but how these things interconnect.
And in that context where new audiences are being engaged and where we are trying to tackle the issues in a pragmatic. Having access to information is important, but also having platforms for interaction particularly across the silos is just as important.
So to me, when I think about the issue of a platform for the Dynamic Coalition, it comes down to where the people get access to information, who is collecting that information, and who is collating it so that it can be interpreted or understood by audiences that may not have the technical background, that may not have the experiential background, or that may not simply be fully aware of how the things that they are doing connect with the things that others are doing.
So, Maureen, I heard the mailing list. And for some crowds mailing lists work very well. But for another crowd, they don't. They are confusing noisy places where it is very difficult to track what is happening and what is intended to come out of what is happening.
So again, a mailing list may be important for one group but it may not serve the needs of all of the groups. So is it in an arsenal? Is there a toolbox of tools that we are looking at? Is it UNESCO combined with existing common platforms like GoogleDrive and these things. I think we have to ventilate a lot of those issues some more before we figure out what is the composition or the constitution of a platform for what we are trying to do.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thanks, Bevil. All valuable points. And all of the points that you have raised, I think we have tried to get to the -- you know, the -- I don't know what is the word. Under the surface of it. So as a Google Doc. Just put stuff down. We have a mailing list already. So let's check that box. But that is only myself posting stuff about coming to this meeting.
So there is a -- there is a need to have -- we are a Dynamic Coalition. Dynamic Coalition. The dynamism needs to get moving. So how do we get people to really want to get involved and put what is going on and not wait 12 months to come and report what is happening? But let's get it moving, talk about it, talk amongst ourselves, share experiences, and want to share experiences.
So the requirement is, quote-unquote, or what we want is something that drives us to want to share information. That's the requirement. And whether it be, I don't know, a sandbox that you can sit down and play in literally. Or whether it be a Google, I don't know. I think that's the challenge we have.
So we are looking for help. What can we do to make it work and let's get it moving. I know we talked about a website in the past. Talked about doing a database of sorts. But nothing has kind of moved from there. So we talked about it, but let's get it moving. So seeing some eyes and hands starting to get moving. So just looking around. Yes?
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: I do have Michele on the Zoom. Michele?
>> MICHELE MARIUS: Hi, morning everyone. It is quite early here in Jamaica. I certainly agree with all that has been said, Tracy, Bevil, and Genelle. I was wondering whether or not there is an opportunity for us to focus our efforts on, for example, the GDC. And you have this major meeting that is happening next year.
And whether that could then be something to drive us. And what one can do, having reviewed the GDC is I think that it certainly is a global position that has been taken, but can we look at the various areas that it covers and see how SIDS might be affected? And since there are eight areas that it covers, could we consider whether or not having subgroups that deal with the various areas and to begin to identify what might be some of the challenges that SIDS might face towards those commitments that the Secretary-General of the UN is advocating for.
And even, therefore, what might be some solutions that we may be able to come up with for our own benefit. Because I think going into the future conversations on GDC, for example, we need to be clear about what the challenges are.
It is a place where I think one's voice can easily get lost if one is not clear and cogent about what the challenges are and probably to be able to offer some suggestions. It may be something that could help us to focus our efforts at this point and may not necessarily be the final constitution of whatever structures we want to put in place.
But I think we can perhaps use the material, for example, that is already in the -- proposed in the Global Digital Compact to focus us to give us a starting point. Because I think sometimes when we start from scratch, we end up just discussing or going around the issue but not necessarily making any sort of significant headway as to whatever might be the objectives in terms of identifying challenges and proposing solutions, et cetera. Over to you.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thanks, Michele. You know, people suggest things get volunteered to do them. So, thank you, Michele, for volunteering your good services and time to help us get this moving. We will add it to the list. So thank you for that idea, and let's move with that. I think let's take it onboard. Sold.
I think I saw was it Nigel first? Yes, Nigel would like to say a few words from the Deputy Secretary-General of the CTU.
>> NIGEL CASSIMIRE: Thank you, Tracy. I put up my hand basically -- well, I could change and say what she said, you know?
That We do have -- you yourself said events mobilize, you know. And we have two big ones next year. Right? So we could focus on the two big events and see what we can do to maximize our inputs to those events.
Genelle talked about what are the requirements. And Michele pointed out there is the developing GDC that we could look at what that could kind of focus attention. And I will also say at least for the Caribbean aspect of the SIDS, we do have the Caribbean Internet Governance policy framework which identifies priorities and recommendations and all of that could feed into giving people ideas as to what the requirements are. What are our needs and certainly at the global level we have the opportunity of the GDC to put some of our needs in there or to advocate for some of our needs to be addressed in there. And we have SIDS 4.
The thing about SIDS 4 is that its scope would be broader than just ICT. Right? But at least everyone recognises the important of ICT for all development these days. So that is another opportunity for us to focus the development priority recommendations into the SIDS 4 week as well.
I think out of that we could get some reasons for people to share information, right, as well as maybe a little energy to get some work done because we have the big things coming up. And hopefully after that we'll be able to keep it going with the ongoing events with the CIGF and the events of organizations in the SIDS world. Thanks.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you very much, Nigel. You want to say a few words?
>> RODNEY TAYLOR: Just off the back of Nigel's comments. I think the events provide an excellent way, an excellent opportunity, sorry, for us to mobilize around. And there are three areas that can be very practical.
One would be like collection of the documents, reports research along thematic areas in which case any basic site that allows us to do that will suffice.
Second will be around who is doing what where. A calendar of upcoming activities. And I think all of the organizations that are under this umbrella would be in a position to submit their thing without too much stress. You are organising an event, you want to promote it, and there is a place to put your the calendar entries and this could be it.
The third component, if you will, of this feature set would be the interactivity. And I think there are a number of very interesting new platforms for us to look at in that regard to, one, deal with the conversations amongst those who know. But also to engage those who may be unfamiliar with the space and are trying to get their feet wet. Again, that can be organized along some standardized thematic areas.
So if you Look at those three components, you can actually see how organizations such as the CTU, such as ARIN can take responsibility for the part that they are playing inside of it without too much strain. But still have this meet me point where you can see all of the submitted documents or refer to the links of the important references, see the calendar, and then have the opportunity to chat either by joining a mailing list or WhatsApp group or a Discord channel, for example, and have the conversation happen where persons are most comfortable.
The key for that, of course, would be someone to curate it to see what is going on over there and should we bring this to the central place. I think having those three distinct components would be a helpful way to organise our thought around what the platform can be and what it might look like.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you very much. Maureen? Thank you. Excellent. I think I'm just going to come back to that point as we get close to the end because we are looking for someone in the room to sort of get it going.
Maybe see -- not necessarily money, but maybe just start it. So I'm going to like look around pointedly at somebody, might be on my right, see what might happen along those lines. But before that, Maureen.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Well, I just wanted to sort of like support what everyone's just said because I think that -- I think it's the term I used is, you know, sort of a platform cooperativism. And I think that -- I mean it is like implies a very multifaceted kind of platform. It's something because, you know, I mean we have obviously identified that we need to have something that actually sort of like quite diverse.
And it needs to, you know, it might be partly website, partly mobile app, partly sort of like sections that actually cater for different types of community, you know, different types of groups, different topics. I mean it could be topic based. Could be whatever. Because the things that we actually cover within the SIDS communities is actually quite diverse and isn't just sort of like IT.
But as Nigel pointed out, it is very -- IT underpins so much that it, you know, it is going to be part of it anyway. But, you know, I think that this is, we need to get some kind of brain trust to give -- to sort of like devise something that could be sort of like quite innovative and something that really matches what we need in order to progress, say this is a goal for us. So yeah, let's -- you just keep looking around there.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: I'm looking. This is the last key one now because I'm going to ask colleagues in the room to really step up and see how we get us moving.
So the Rapporteurs in the report, what is the key takeaway from this? I'm going to ask around the room and see if anybody wants to volunteer. Who is going to get this moving and who might have some resources available to help us? Anyone wants to volunteer? Anyone? Wants to volunteer? Thank you.
>> RODNEY TAYLOR: Thank you. I'm not volunteering, but I know we are all very busy. We have been working with some of the young people that we -- that we have -- we met in the -- what was it, Generation Connect.
The initiative of the ITU. And I think there is potential there. I mean they are young bright people. They are not necessarily fully engaged or fully employed or not to their maximum potential, and I think they would be willing to sort of make a name for themselves by giving of some time and effort and some sweat into helping us move this forward. And you know, we -- of course, with our support and so on.
I think it is important that I think we could leverage some of these young people. Just keep the discussion going. Help us manage platforms. Draw stuff, you know, help to coordinate. So that is my suggestion that we can look not just from the Caribbean but, of course, across the network and give them something to be excited about. At the same time, it is part of our mentorship as well with them. And I -- so that is my suggestion.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thanks, Rodney. I will be the devil's advocate. We need someone to coordinate that or to get it moving. Do you have any suggestions or what could help?
>> RODNEY TAYLOR: Well, Nia is doing a lot of work with young people.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Nia has been suggested. Her surname is Nana, just for the Rapporteurs to catch that. Thank you. Maureen.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: I would just like to mention that we actually have Denise Harper in our audience and she is in charge of the Next Gen. And we were just talking today about, you know, like there should be, you know like what we should be doing is encouraging in order to retain these wonderful young people, is to give them a project. I think we found our group. Denise, they are all yours. What do you reckon?
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Maybe you can respond to get you on the record.
(Away from mic)
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Get you on the record, yes.
>> DENISE HARPER: Okay. We are talking about the possibility to develop a project created by the Next Gen. And I think it is a little complex because you have to get some permissions about the procedures and by ICANN. But individually, they can be connected, yes.
And also at the end the programme, the Next Gen programme, they have assurance that you build up some more consistency. The fellows magically left and apply for another term, they build up something more consistent and clear for the next moment. And for ICANN fellows. So are you talking about the GS very quickly and now put me in this spot. I was terrified. So it is why I think you can elaborate and then be very happy to listen from the guys your suggestion in the future.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you very much. We appreciate that and could be the part where ICANN who is not SIDSing will get SIDSing now. I know try and do something and work on that before. I think I'm seeing ARIN stepping up to the mic. So that sounds like good news.
>> AUDIENCE: I wanted to come up to be sure to distance myself from a call for volunteers. I have some observations or comments, okay.
I wanted to make sure that the group was aware there are grant opportunities from ARIN, LACNIC and APNIC Foundation. I don't know about the timing. You're talking about next year. This year is practically done so there aren't grant opportunities for this year.
But be sure to look at those opportunities next year on their websites. Could be something to help either with the determining the requirements for a platform or for perhaps even building one.
I also wanted to -- it just came to me that you might look at the ITUD regional office for the Americas to see if that could be a resource or some support for this activity. I have been to CTEL meetings and I have to admit I didn't pay as much attention as I should have, but there have been SIDS discussions at CTEL a number of times. And to reach out to the CTEL friends and see what they might have. One of the things they will for sure have is contributions and case studies about this activity. So thank you very much.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Thank you very much. Getting some very good ideas, and I think some good traction here. We got a ten minute windup call. One last call for any further comments. I don't know if UNESCO have any further observations having heard your guests. You heard what you have to say.
Any thoughts as to what can possibly happen given what you are doing? I know you have content. You have content, but is there any opportunity to sort of use what you are doing to sort of get into this and reach in the SIDS space a little deeper and help us see this further. Any thoughts on that?
>> AUDIENCE:
>> TATEVIC GRIGORYAN: Thank you. There was a mention of involving the government, for example. I mentioned that --
(Away from mic)
>> TATEVIC GRIGORYAN: So I'm facing the camera. But okay, okay. So there was a mention of involving the government.
Actually, so I'm leading the work of the Internet Governance there and if we narrow it down to that area, so bringing together all of the stakeholders could somewhat contribute to it. But I understand you are looking for a more broader solution. There was a mention of regional offices. UNESCO, for example, has national and regional offices. We have an office in the Caribbean. We have regional offices in Africa and we have a regional office in the Pacifics.
So this could be something to look into. And at the headquarters we actually have -- we have colleagues working with SIDS so I would be happy to connect. I can't guarantee at this stage, you know, but I would be happy to put you in contact with these colleagues.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Appreciate that. Thank you so much. I think we got some good work done today. Any final words? I'm going to ask Maureen to wrap up, giving you a heads up.
Any final words from the rest of the audience online or from the room? Any hands up? Anything in the chat? Okay.
So I think today we have gotten really good traction, got some names. We got actual things that can get moving. And we can mobilize around events next year. So 2024 sounds like the year we will not be coming back and say what are we going to do next? We're going to be seeing what we have done and here is the platform, here is the thing that we have built. And here is what we have shown here, and take it forward.
So let's make that happen. And I know we have our volunteers online as well. Genelle. Cherie. We're coming back to you. Michele, you volunteered ed as well. Don't forget Nia who is going to call all of you into a room along with the Generation Connect folks and let's brainstorm this and we will all get involved. We are all part of this. I think it is really useful to press it forward.
(Away from mic)
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: She was away from the mic, as I'm seeing here. But said, just repeating for the record, that meeting will happen this month because there is the Caribbean Youth Network meeting happening. Exactly. So, perfect.
But we are going to definitely add the SIDS component to that. So the Caribbean will get it going. But we are going to bring the SIDS and the folks on and they are going to work with us, right, Maureen?
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: Yes, of course.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Over to you.
>> MAUREEN HILYARD: I don't have much else to add. I want to thank everyone for sticking it out 'til the end. And thank you, Rodney and the team, for being here for us. And we'll be working hard together this year. And working on the ideas that have come forward. Thank you so much.
>> TRACY HACKSHAW: Meeting adjourned. Thank you.